The ball dropped. The champagne popped. And you just signed up for that gym membership (again)—a decision you’ll (again) regret when you have to undergo the 12 trials of Hercules just to cancel.
The new year is traditionally considered a time to make lofty resolutions and dive into “doing things right.” But if you’re not careful, your strategy can become like that gym membership scenario. You can risk stumbling into mistakes or repeating past failures.
Don’t let strategic missteps fool you twice ... or even once. Here are three strategy mistakes to avoid in 2026.
Mistake #1: Kicking culture to the curb
“Culture” is one of those words people consider fluffy, with no measurable return on investment. But that assumption is dead wrong. You can measure culture. With turnover. With employee surveys. With projects completed.
A powerful culture is necessary to successful strategy—it comes first. Without it, no one on staff cares about what you are trying to accomplish. They are just collecting a paycheck and heading home.
And sometimes people are willing to participate in your strategy, but you shut them out. You limit a strategic plan to the boardroom and executive offices. Remember: there’s a place for your strategy in the breakroom too. Accomplishing your goals will take everyone rowing in the same boat and in the same direction.
Mistake #2: Making a grocery list
Strategic planning easily becomes a grocery list if you’re not careful. You’re going to do a core conversion, a merger, launch a new mobile app, invest more in training, do market research in that new county you added to your field of membership—oh, and pick up some milk and eggs on the way home.
Treating your strategy as a lengthy list is a recipe for disaster.
Your strategy doesn’t need length and complexity. It needs focus. Three or four impactful projects is better than eight you’ll never accomplish or 25 meaningless ones you will accomplish.
Your focus is a finite resource. Deploy it conservatively.
Mistake #3: Using sleep-aid strategy
No one chases a dull dream. You never hear famous, successful individuals recount how they pursued the subject that bored them the most their whole lives. Not a chance.
So, does your strategy invigorate? Or does it bore? Why in the world are you doing this?
Spell out a real reason that changes people’s lives. There’s a compelling story behind every project you undertake, and it needs to be explained. You need to remind the team about the interesting end goal when the tactical work becomes a quagmire.
And if you don’t have a strategy that motivates people, the problem probably began at the planning session. Doing the SWOT again, a few people dominating the room, a focus on the same three numbers year after year—it all drains the life from a plan before it gets off the ground.
I facilitate 30-to-40 planning sessions a year and have seen a few things that motivate people in a planning session:
- Radical honesty
- New and unique planning exercises
- Focusing on proactive strategies over numbers (a trailing indicator)
You start as you mean to go on. So will you create a passion plan or an exercise in strategic pain?
2026 just began, so you have plenty of time to correct any mistakes you see yourself making. Just make sure you don’t put it off forever. These days, you can’t afford to put strategy on the back burner.
