{"id":34921,"date":"2026-05-18T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=34921"},"modified":"2026-05-15T15:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:43:07","slug":"you-dont-arrive-strategic-how-leaders-grow-into-their-role","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/you-dont-arrive-strategic-how-leaders-grow-into-their-role\/","title":{"rendered":"You Don’t Arrive Strategic: How Leaders Grow Into their Role"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 18 May 2026 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

You Don’t Arrive Strategic: How Leaders Grow Into their Role<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In the first of a new miniseries, Basketball New Zealand GM Paul Downes explains how his organisation uses the Acumen-Allocation-Action model to ‘connect understanding to investment, and investment to execution’.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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Main Image: Basketball New Zealand<\/p>\n

By Paul Downes PhD<\/h6>\n
The idea that a new or transitioning leader can transform an organisation in the first 90 (or 100) days is unrealistic.<\/h6>\n

In practice, leaders need more time than that to learn the system they have inherited, build credibility, and make impactful decisions that endure.<\/p>\n

Evidence from McKinsey (1) supports this, with many new senior leaders reporting it takes at least six months before they are truly effective (62 percent of external hires and 25 percent of internal hires). This reality sits in stark contrast to the popular ‘first 90 days’ (2) narrative that often dominates thinking about leadership transitions.<\/p>\n

That gap between expectation and reality creates a specific problem for an incoming General Manager. When I joined Basketball New Zealand (BBNZ) in early 2023 to lead the High Performance (HP) team, I was aware of that there could be an expectation by some stakeholders to \u2018land\u2019 quickly. Origins of such expectations might include being the new leader who is perceived to have all the ‘answers’, declare priorities, and show early wins.<\/p>\n

Yet the work in front of me was not a simple strategy task. I was entering a living system already in motion, with history, relationships, power dynamics, competing performance horizons, and constraints that were not always visible from the outside. Acting too fast could have made me look decisive, but it also would have increased the risk of misdiagnosing the real issues, spending political capital on the wrong battles, and locking the organisation into choices that are hard to unwind.<\/p>\n

Having held leadership roles across various professional sports teams, I had confidence in my ability to lead, to make sense of complexity, and to learn quickly. However, confidence did not (and does not) remove the need for context. At BBNZ, that meant understanding the high-volume of HP environments spanning multiple national teams, both 5×5 and 3×3 programmes, and associated competition demands. The only credible way to do that was through listening carefully to stakeholders across the system before drawing conclusions about what needed to change, what needed to be protected, and where the organisation could become more aligned and effective.<\/p>\n

This article offers practical insight for leaders transitioning into complex, senior roles particularly those entering HP sport systems such as the General Manager of High Performance or High Performance Director (HPD) position within a National Sporting Organisation (NSO). It is grounded in the simple proposition that strategic capability is not something leaders simply arrive with; it is something we develop as we learn to interpret our environment accurately, make disciplined trade-offs, and translate intent into consistent behaviour over time.<\/p>\n

As a possible solution to the \u201890-day\u2019 illusion, I introduce the Acumen\u2013Allocation\u2013Action (A-A-A) model (3) as a practical way to connect understanding to investment, and investment to execution. While the primary focus is on A-A-A, I also reference Michael D Watkins\u2019 six disciplines of strategic thinking (4) to situate these ideas within broader leadership and strategy literature. Reflections draw directly from my experience in the HPD role at BBNZ.<\/p>\n

The Basketball New Zealand performance context<\/strong><\/p>\n

Basketball New Zealand operates across a wide and demanding performance landscape. The organisation has eight national teams spanning 5×5 and 3×3 formats, across male and female programmes, beginning at Under\u201115 FIBA competition and extending through to senior international campaigns. BBNZ pathways look like this:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Across a calendar year, the FIBA competition schedule frequently involves multiple national teams participating in overlapping tournaments and qualification events, interspersed with domestic programmes, assembly camps, and select team activity. For example, in 2026 BBNZ teams were involved in a combination of Oceania Cups, World Cups, Asia Cups, qualification windows, international tournaments such as the Albert Schweitzer Tournament, Nations League series in 3×3, and senior global events including World Cups and the Commonwealth Games. You can see a snapshot here:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This density of competition creates continual pressure on people, financial resources, and decision\u2011making capacity, while also amplifying the need for clarity of purpose across different performance horizons.<\/p>\n

The transitioning leader: what is inherited?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A useful starting point for leaders entering new roles is to recognise that they rarely inherit a blank slate or a simple ‘strategy problem’. More often, they step into systems that are already active, shaped by history, cultural norms, power dynamics, and existing narratives about success and failure.<\/p>\n

Research on leadership transition highlights that how leaders learn, listen, and position themselves early in their tenure can have disproportionate and lasting effects on credibility, expectations, and influence. Transitions are also periods of heightened vulnerability, where early actions, particularly premature action, can create consequences that are difficult to unwind.<\/p>\n

There is therefore substantial value in organisations approaching onboarding for senior leaders as a deliberate and extended process, rather than a brief initiation. For new leaders, this includes being supported to understand what questions to ask, who to listen to, and where critical knowledge sits within the system. Tools such as stakeholder maps can help leaders remain attentive to where influence, information, and informal authority reside. Importantly, these early stages reward leaders who resist the urge to act quickly in favour of those who prioritise listening, observing, and reflecting. Time spent collecting data, connecting perspectives, and building relational foundations creates conditions for more effective decision\u2011making later.<\/p>\n

The A-A-A framework<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I stepped into the HPD role at BBNZ, and particularly as someone coming from outside the sport, it was essential to first understand both current and historical operating contexts before attempting to drive change. Gaining clarity about the experiences our people carried, the pressures they perceived and faced, formal and informal power structures, cultural norms, and the strategic direction already in motion helped define what was possible. This emphasis on context shaped not only early decisions, but also how the leadership team approached longer\u2011term system development.<\/p>\n

To support this work, we deliberately adopted the Acumen\u2013Allocation\u2013Action (A\u2011A\u2011A) framework (3), developed and popularised by Rich Horwath, as a discipline for thinking and operating. The framework helped us slow down decision\u2011making where needed, prioritise deliberately, and execute in a way that was aligned with our resource constraints and competitive environment. Rather than treating strategy as a document to be written and implemented, the A\u2011A\u2011A model encouraged us to build a living system that connected insight to investment, and investment to behaviour and performance. I will explore each in turn.<\/p>\n

Acumen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Acumen can be understood as the capacity to gather insights, make sense of complexity, and identify what truly matters. Research on sensemaking (5) and strategic cognition suggests that effective action is closely linked to how leaders interpret cues, construct meaning, and reduce ambiguity. From this perspective, acumen sits at the bridge between uncertainty and purposeful action.<\/p>\n

For leaders in transition, value is initially created not through visible action but through disciplined sensemaking. This requires intentional collaboration with a range of individuals and groups to develop a grounded understanding of the operating environment before decisions are made. Acumen, in this sense, goes well beyond raw intelligence. It is a disciplined and patient process supported by humility, curiosity, and authenticity. Leaders who fail to invest sufficient time and attention at this stage risk developing incomplete or distorted views of their environment, which increases the likelihood of misdirected resources and weaker execution downstream.<\/p>\n

In practice, developing acumen involves gathering insights from multiple directions: inwardly from the HP team, outwardly from external stakeholders, upwardly from CEOs and boards, and downwardly from national team staff and programme leaders. Active listening, coupled with deliberate efforts to surface and test assumptions, enables evidence\u2011informed discussion about shared purpose, language, and expectations across the HP ecosystem. In complex, decentralised HP systems, this process is essential for aligning understanding across diverse programmes and contexts.<\/p>\n

At BBNZ, this meant engaging in honest introspection about our core competencies, our constraints, and where New Zealand could be genuinely competitive in both the short and long term. Rather than relying on a single generic performance model, we adopted a layered, evidence\u2011informed approach to defining What It Takes To Win (WITTW) at different levels of the pathway. Practically, this involved structured feedback processes, including small\u2011group and one\u2011to\u2011one conversations supported by scaling questions designed to surface confidence, alignment, and perceived gaps. Beyond generating data, these processes also supported relationship building, trust, and psychological safety \u2013 critical enablers in HP environments.<\/p>\n

Three of Watkins\u2019 six strategic disciplines (4) align particularly well with the Acumen phase: pattern recognition, systems perspective, and mental agility. Applied practically, these disciplines prompt leaders to ask whether they have identified emerging trends and risks, developed mental models that acknowledge interdependencies rather than linear causality, and maintained the ability to shift perspective across different levels of the system. At BBNZ, this translated into challenging conversations framed by questions such as: What are we genuinely good at? Where are we exposed? If resources doubled, or halved, what would change? Where does international comparison add value, and where does it distract? This discipline supported a more shared and objective understanding of our performance realities and laid the foundation for disciplined decision\u2011making.<\/p>\n

Allocation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Insight without trade\u2011offs has limited value. Allocation represents the shift from sensemaking to commitment. For leaders new to a system, allocation decisions are often the first moments where intent becomes visible through choices about time, money, people, and attention. Good strategy demands saying no as often as saying yes, and allocation decisions therefore require clarity about performance expectations, risk tolerance, and long\u2011term sustainability.<\/p>\n

Within the BBNZ HP team, we approached allocation with explicit discipline. Tools such as pre\u2011mortems were used to test assumptions before committing resources. For example, prior to appointing a HP Wellbeing Advisor, we imagined a scenario six months into the future where the role had not been filled and explored the likely consequences. This enabled us to surface risks, classify them, and evaluate decisions based on consequence rather than intention.<\/p>\n

We also made use of impact\u2011versus\u2011effort matrices to test proposed initiatives, categorising activities as quick wins, major projects, fill\u2011ins, or low\u2011value work. These assessments were repeatedly challenged through diverse perspectives to reduce bias and over\u2011optimism. In this phase, two further strategic disciplines described by Watkins become particularly relevant: structured problem\u2011solving and visioning (4). Structured problem\u2011solving helps ensure assumptions are tested and options assessed rigorously, while visioning keeps allocation decisions anchored in longer\u2011term direction rather than short\u2011term optimisation.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, allocation is where strategy becomes tangible. Across sectors, performance outcomes are strongly shaped by how leaders allocate scarce resources (6, 7). Misalignment between stated priorities and budgets, cultural inertia, and political capture of resources can all result in systemic underperformance. Research beyond sport has consistently shown that what leaders allocate attention to is what ultimately gets resourced. In this sense, acumen and allocation are inseparable.<\/p>\n

Action<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deliberate investment in acumen and allocation reduces the risk of misdiagnosis, a common challenge for HP leaders entering complex systems. At BBNZ, action within the HP strategy (HP Plan 2028+) has been treated as intentional experimentation rather than blind execution. Clear communication and expectation\u2011setting have been central, acknowledging that while not all initiatives will generate immediate performance outcomes, every action must produce learning.<\/p>\n

Projects have been designed to be scalable, testable, and directly linked back to insights generated through Acumen and priorities set during Allocation. Campaign planning, assembly camps, and tournament objectives are structured around multiple performance horizons, with review processes embedded as part of normal operations. Importantly, action is never separated from reflection. Learning loops ensure that outcomes from each campaign inform future decisions, shifts in resource allocation, and capability development.<\/p>\n

Bringing existing stakeholders into feedback and review processes has required a deliberate shift from compliance to contribution. This aligns closely with the strategic discipline of political savvy (4). In practice, this has meant investing time in building coalitions, navigating pathways of influence, and generating commitment rather than relying on authority alone. Feedback is framed as a developmental tool linked explicitly to shared understanding of WITTW, not as a judgement mechanism.<\/p>\n

At BBNZ, we often describe feedback using the metaphor of a bank account: consistent positive deposits are required before more challenging withdrawals can be made. Leaders are expected to model humility, curiosity, and self\u2011awareness, naming what they observe and asking better questions before rushing to solutions. By prioritising transparency, fairness, and accuracy, we have worked to create conditions where feedback is experienced as enabling both performance and wellbeing rather than provoking defensiveness.<\/p>\n

Reflection: how strategic thinking is developed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strategic thinking within the BBNZ HP team has evolved through repeated cycles of listening, testing, and recalibrating. Over time, a developmental arc has emerged: reducing contextual blindness through acumen, building shared understanding around trade\u2011offs through allocation, and arriving at aligned, disciplined action. Seen through this lens, the first 90 -100 days (1, 2) of a new leadership role are most valuable not as a period for decisive intervention, but as a critical window for sensemaking, relationship building, and establishing credibility.<\/p>\n

Strategy does not emerge at a milestone. It develops through repeated iterations of Acumen, Allocation, and Action over extended timeframes. Leaders do not arrive fully formed as strategic thinkers; they become strategic through sustained effort to interpret their systems accurately, make disciplined trade\u2011offs, and translate intent into consistent behaviour.<\/p>\n

The A\u2011A\u2011A model now operates as a repeating loop in the BBNZ HP team. Attention is directed to what matters most, shaping how resources are allocated, which in turn determines what actually happens. Reflection on those actions then reshapes understanding of the system and informs the next cycle. Through this approach, we are continuing to develop a coherent, adaptive HP system capable of sustained improvement across performance pathways.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. De la Bouteti\u00e8re, H., Dewar, C., & Keller, S. (2017). It really isn\u2019t about 100 days<\/em>. McKinsey & Company<\/li>\n
  2. Watkins, M. D. (2013).\u00a0The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter<\/em>. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press. ISBN: 978- 1422188613<\/li>\n
  3. Horwath, R. (2023). Develop Your Strategic\u2011Thinking Muscle.<\/em> Harvard Business Review<\/li>\n
  4. Watkins, M.D. The Six Disciplines of Strategic Thinking: Leading Your Organization into the Future. 2024.<\/li>\n
  5. Weick, Karl & Sutcliffe, Kathleen & Obstfeld, David. (2005). Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking. ORGANIZATION SCIENCE. 16. 409-421. 10.1287\/orsc.1050.0133.<\/li>\n
  6. Seixas et al (2021). Ocasio, William & Laamanen, Tomi & Vaara, Eero. (2018). Communication and Attention Dynamics: An Attention-Based View of Strategic Change. Strategic Management Journal. 2018. 155-167. 10.1002\/smj.2702<\/li>\n
  7. Ocasio, William & Laamanen, Tomi & Vaara, Eero. (2018). Communication and Attention Dynamics: An Attention-Based View of Strategic Change. Strategic Management Journal. 2018. 155-167. 10.1002\/smj.2702<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n
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