The old owl was a clever bird. At least everyone thought so because it spoke long and complicated words the other animals never understood and it was always burning the midnight oil. One day there was a great catastrophe in the forest, one that had to be sorted out fast – a fire was raging and it had to be quenched. All the animals gathered to listen to the advice of the wise one, which went on and on and on about environment sensitivity and how careless human beings are. The animals were all wrapped up in the speech even as the forest was slowly being engulfed by the flames. None of them noticed the little sparrow flying high into the skies, none of them heard it whispering to the rain clouds but they all rejoiced as the rain poured down to put out the fire. The owl was no longer the wise one; neither was the sparrow, as it had bartered its own life for the rain. Each animal realised that for its survival it had to think for itself and act on its thoughts too …

Some people define strategy as the art of implementing a chosen option and this is not false. There is no point in having a great strategy if it remains in the mind or on paper, it then becomes a dream and a figment of fiction. If strategy was to have a synonym, I would say it would be actionising the strategy.

Many things are needed to implement the strategy successfully and implementation becomes more important if the strategy is radically different or hurts the comfort of many people. Looking at leaders today and in the past, some common behaviours, attitudes and skill seem to be very essential.

Seeing the strategy through requires a lot of persistence, as there will be many stakeholders who need to be convinced and more often than not, most of them will not, or possibly even cannot, see the future the way you do. Some may need data to convince them and others may need an emotional appeal. Speaking to them several times, unearthing and addressing their misgivings are all time- and energy-consuming. This requires persistence and a clear step-by-step approach to what needs to be done when and how.

While milestones and success criteria need to be clearly set and regularly monitored, strategy is about getting a lot of people to do a lot of things, so in implementation there are bound to be course corrections and differing points of view. How and when will these be addressed so that the end state is achieved with maximum support is important. Successful strategy executioners have a very, very clear idea of what, in their strategy, is as central as air is to us and what is like food that we can compromise on a bit and what is like accessories which we can very often do without. When they hear the voice of objections and suggestions they are able to distinguish the noise from what makes sense and amend strategy appropriately.

Closely allied to this is their ability to deal with resistance to change. They realise that people have a natural inclination to not accept change from status quo and they are adept at using multiple messaging channels to create a sense of urgency for the need to change and set the right expectations and clear misconceptions preventing people from embracing change. They create and popularise role models who have embraced the change, keep sharing the benefits accrued, swiftly solve roadblocks and incorrect implementation and use multiple media and communication channels to affirm their faith and those of others in the strategy.

Despite all of this, strategy implementation can still be problematic and be the greatest undoing even for a good strategy. It, therefore, is an excellent idea to have an unbiased coach or consultant who is courageous enough to play devil's advocate but also be passionate enough to see the future the same way as the strategist.

Pradeep Chakravarthy works with the Infosys Leadership Institute. The views represented here are not necessarily those of his employer. >pradeep_chakravarthy@infosys.com

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