MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Six Steps to Communicating Strategic Priorities Effectively

Leaders can signal their commitment to a strategy by clearly communicating their strategic priorities to external stakeholders.

To drive execution, leaders often translate strategy into a handful of strategic priorities designed to increase alignment throughout the organization. When it comes to communicating their objectives, most executives focus inward, on getting their message out to managers and employees through town hall meetings, emails, and other forms of corporate communication.

In many cases, however, it’s just as important for leaders to communicate their strategy externally, to key stakeholders, including investors, customers, suppliers, regulators, and the media. By committing to a handful of priorities that matter most over the next few years, an organization can signal its intended strategic direction. A clear strategy can attract potential investors, employees, or external partners who buy into that direction and are willing to bet on its success. When strategic priorities are linked to explicit metrics, furthermore, they have a framework for evaluating a company’s progress toward its desired destination, in a way that more abstract guidelines, like a vision or mission, cannot.

About the Author

Donald Sull, who tweets @simple_rules, is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Stefano Turconi is a teaching fellow at the London Business School. Charles Sull is a partner at Charles Thames Strategy Partners LLC.

Learn more about MIT SMR.