Why Strategic Objectives Don't Get Done: It's a Behavior Problem, Not a Tactical One
There's an old Seinfeld bit where Jerry shows up to collect a rental car. The agent finds his reservation, then tells him they don't have a car. Jerry's point, roughly: anybody can write down a reservation. Holding the car is the part that matters. I think about that scene every time a leadership team walks me through their strategic objectives for the year.
The objectives are real. They're written down. Everyone in the room nodded. Then somebody asks how, and the room gets quiet.
"Coach Better" Is Not a Plan
"Next year we need our key leaders coaching their teams better." That's an actual objective an executive shared with me recently, and her reasoning was solid. If her leaders coached well, they'd be freed up for the work only they can do, and the operation would stop depending on a few people being in the building.
Coach better. Yeah…but how?
What does that mean on a Tuesday afternoon when a manager is behind on three things and somebody on his team is stuck in front of him?
Why Solving It Yourself Feels Efficient
Here's what happens on that Tuesday. The employee brings the problem. The manager thinks, I can solve this faster than I can explain it. He's right, so he does. The problem goes away, and then it comes back next week, because nobody got equipped to handle it without him.
He isn't being lazy. He's being efficient with a real workload, and that instinct is exactly what got him promoted.
But the fast path and the developing path run in opposite directions. Every objective you have about coaching, delegation, or succession quietly depends on him choosing the slower one, and nothing in his week is set up to make that choice for him.
Why Strategic Objectives Reappear Every Planning Cycle
So the objective shows up again the following year. A lot of them do. Not because they're so important they've earned a permanent spot on the list, but because they never got done. We rewrite them and quietly attach a note that says try harder this time.
Which is why I ask a question that usually makes the room uncomfortable.
If this is so important, why hasn't it been done already?
Not why is it hard. Not what got in the way. Why hasn't it happened, when everyone agreed it mattered?
Another executive put that question to herself out loud recently. We explain the why. We train on it. We hold the summit and walk everyone through the updates. So if we're explaining it clearly, why aren't they doing it?
Because understanding a change and making one are different acts, and almost all of our effort goes into the first.
Strategic Objectives Are Behavior Problems in Disguise
A strategic objective isn't a tactical problem for your leaders. It's a behavior problem wearing tactical clothing.
And that's genuinely hard, because most of your leaders were promoted for being excellent at the work. Nobody ever told them the job had changed. Asking them to slow down and examine how they function feels like failing at the thing they're known for, so they speed up instead, and the objective survives to see another planning cycle.
Your leaders already know what you want from them. They just haven't been helped to become people who do it.
What Actually Closes the Gap
More content won't close that gap. Neither will a better-worded objective. What closes it is deciding which specific behaviors your objectives depend on, then putting real and sustained pressure on those behaviors until the new way becomes the normal way.
That work takes a year, not a workshop. Which is why the time to start is while the plan is still being written.
Two Questions to Ask Before You Finalize Next Year's Objectives
So before you finalize next year's objectives, sit with two questions.
Which of these did we also write last year?
And the one that matters more: what would have to change in how our leaders operate for this one to finally get done?
Ready to Change How Your Leaders Operate?
If the second question is hard to answer, contact me and we'll find thirty minutes to talk it through. You're heading into planning season, and this is the window where a different answer is still possible.
Want more leadership insights like this?
Join other mission-driven leaders who get Steve's weekly newsletter with practical strategies, real client stories, and the frameworks that actually work, and never miss the latest thinking on leadership transformation.