Many tactical projects fail before they start because leaders green-light the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Before you say “yes,” to a project, you and your team should answer three questions:
- Cultural: Does this fit who we are?
- Strategic: Does it advance one of our strategic priorities?
- Operational: It is set up for success?
This is where nested leadership comes in. Cultural leaders set values. Strategic leaders translate those into a few big priorities. Operational and tactical leaders only have a chance of winning if the programs and projects they tackle sit squarely in those lanes.
1. Cultural: Does this fit who we are?
Cultural leadership is about values – what matters and why – and it’s the remit of those setting the tone for the whole enterprise. Culture is your only enduring competitive advantage, and every project either reinforces that culture or erodes it.
Ask:
- Does this project align with our stated purpose, values, and “the way we do things around here”?
- Would we proudly tell a frontline employee or customer, “We’re doing this because it’s who we are”?
- If it succeeds, will the story you tell about it strengthen or confuse your culture?
St. Joseph’s Hospital, for example, puts “patients first” at the center of everything. Projects that improve patient experience get support; those that only improve internal metrics without helping patients do not. That discipline gives people confidence that when leadership says “yes,” it means “yes to more of who we are” – not “yes to the latest shiny object.”
If you can’t make a straight-line connection between the project and who you are culturally, stop. No amount of strategic or operational brilliance will compensate for a cultural misfit.
2. Strategic: Does it advance one of our strategic priorities?
Strategic leadership is about attitude – how you choose to win over time – and which priorities will get scarce resources. Not every good idea is a good idea for you. Strategic leaders decide where to play, where not to play, and how to allocate capital, time, and attention.
Here the question is not “Is this attractive?” but “Does this fit one of our declared strategic priorities to deliver our objectives?” If you can’t point to the specific strategic pillar this project supports, you’re about to undercut your own strategy.
Harry Kangis once observed that the hardest decision is often walking away from a good idea – for someone else. Coca‑Cola’s bottler in the UK chose to size permanent capacity for winter demand and use contract manufacturers for summer peaks. That meant passing on the “good idea” of building enough steel to cover the summer spike themselves – and instead doubling down on a capacity strategy that fit their profit and capital priorities.
Treat your strategic priorities as a filter, not a menu.
- If a project does not advance a strategic priority, decline or defer it.
- If it does, insist leaders make the tradeoffs explicit: what will we not do so we can do this?
3. Operational: Is it set up for success?
Operational leadership is about relationships – how work gets coordinated, resourced, and executed day to day. Tactical leadership – the remit of project leaders – is about behaviors and results in the moment. Too many organizations hold tactical leaders accountable for outcomes without first asking if the project is set up to succeed operationally.
This is where the DRAFT mission brief becomes your friend: Direction, Resources, Accountability, Follow-Through. Before green‑lighting a project, you should be able to answer:
- Direction: Do we have a clear, simple statement of context, intent, and objectives? Can the project leader restate “Given that… In order to… we need to…” in plain language?
- Resources: Have we specified the financial, information, technical, operational, people, and time resources that will be available – and what’s out of bounds?
- Accountability: Is it clear who is the single person owning results – driving decisions and ensuring implementation – and what decisions they should make themselves and escalate?
- Follow-Through: What cadence of check‑ins, learning loops, and adjustments will we use?
An operational leader at Procter & Gamble once pulled a cross‑functional team into a rented house in a test market, co‑locating marketing, R&D, supply chain, and external partners. With clear direction, agreed resources, explicit accountability, and frequent reviews, they launched 12 new products in under six months – something the organization had previously thought impossible. That was not heroics; it was an operational setup that made tactical success possible.
If you cannot answer the DRAFT questions before kickoff, you are not delegating; you are abdication by calendar invite.
Nested Roles: Setting tactical leaders up to win
Nested leadership only works when each level owns its remit – and respects the others.
- Cultural leadership (values) answers: Does this fit who we are?
- Strategic leadership (attitude/priorities) answers: Does this advance one of our priorities to deliver our objectives?
- Operational leadership (relationships/systems) answers: Have we designed the work so it can succeed?
- Tactical leadership (behaviors/results) answers: Will we do what we said we would do, in this context, with these resources?
Too often, we reverse this. We start with a tactical idea, scramble to bolt on resources, reverse‑engineer a strategic rationale, and then try to rationalize it against our culture. That is how you end up with over‑stretched teams, confused customers, and cynicism about the latest “strategic initiative.”
Instead, use the three questions as a staircase from top to bottom:
- If it does not fit who we are, don’t do it ever.
- If it does not advance a strategic priority, don’t do it now.
- If it is not set up to succeed operationally – in DRAFT terms – don’t do it yet.
Only when you can answer yes to all three should you green‑light a project and hand it to a tactical leader with a straight face. Then, and only then, are you truly setting them up for success rather than for a post‑mortem.
