Align Your Strategy to Your Situation for Faster Impact
When Rodrigo stepped into his regional director role, he inherited projects in every phase: a struggling outpost hemorrhaging cash, a new market that needed a complete launch plan, a rapidly growing pilot program, and a flagship operation humming along. He could have leapt into firefighting mode everywhere at once—and quickly burned out. Instead, he mapped each initiative to the STARS model. Four-week sales projects fit start-up; an ailing unit was a turnaround; a fast-scaling digital channel was accelerated growth; legacy accounts were sustaining success.
With that clear portfolio, Rodrigo allocated 60% of his focus to the failing unit and the digital channel, where urgency demanded heroic decisions and rapid execution. He devoted 20% to the new market launch, using start-up tactics of rapid prototyping, and 20% to coaching his sustaining-success team to safeguard performance. He ran weekly huddles for urgent tasks and monthly forums to celebrate wins in sustaining units.
By matching strategy to situation, he minimized wasted effort, sharpened communication, and delivered a 25% performance gain in six weeks. His team felt confident in his priorities, rallying behind the right projects at the right times. The STARS framework guided both his time allocation and leadership style, accelerating impact and cutting through chaos.
You’ll start by listing everything on your plate and attaching a STARS label—are these projects new launches, emergency turnarounds, rapid expansions, revivals, or steady-state operations? Then you’ll assign the lion’s share of your energy to the categories that demand it most, with a clear playbook for each. Finish by mapping which leadership style—decisive, consensual, or coaching—you’ll apply to each group. Give it a try when you plan your next week.
What You'll Achieve
You’ll eliminate wasted effort and confusion by aligning your leadership style and priorities to each situation type, boosting team confidence and delivering measurable performance improvements faster.
Map Your STARS Portfolio Today
Identify your STARS mix
List the elements of your new role—projects, teams, processes—and categorize each as start-up, turnaround, accelerated growth, realignment, or sustaining success based on urgency and health.
Prioritize your efforts
Assign 70-80% of your time to the most critical categories—for example, urgent turnarounds or start-ups—and the rest to sustaining and realignment tasks.
Tailor your approach
For each category, pick a matching leadership style: heroic decisiveness for turnarounds, consensus-building for realignments, steady coaching for sustaining success. Note these tactics in your 90-day plan.
Reflection Questions
- Which STARS category dominates my current workload, and what does that imply for my approach?
- Am I allocating my time to the most critical, high-leverage tasks?
- How can I adjust my leadership style to fit each category’s needs?
Personalization Tips
- A nonprofit director launching a new program (start-up) while maintaining legacy services (sustaining success) would split time accordingly.
- An R&D manager revamping a failing product line (turnaround) and speeding up an emerging line (accelerated growth) would shift style between urgent cuts and rapid scale.
- A school principal addressing plunging test scores (realignment) and supporting a successful extracurricular program (sustaining success) would educate staff on the crisis and nurture the prized program.
The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
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