Thinking Strategically - Part 1

Could be coincidence, but four clients last month mentioned the same concern: their bosses have told them they are weak in “strategic thinking.” OK, so all of these individuals are from the same company and maybe that’s the theme du jour, but nevertheless, we should explore this perceived deficiency!

First, what is strategic thinking? It’s your ability to understand the fundamental drivers of your company (and industry) and then, through challenging conventional thought, consider new opportunities that build enterprise value. This means you need to combine critical thought with creativity, understand the past, present and potential future environment in which you operate, engage those other colleagues possessing a broad and deep perspective, and ultimately become an effective agent for change and corporate evolution. Easy, right?

So what can you do to be perceived as being more strategic? Let’s take a few points today, and more in a future blog:

Make Time: With the demands of the regular work day, most professionals don’t feel like they can afford the time and effort to think about the future. But you must carve out time to both learn about strategic thinking and research and contemplate your own company’s situation. Delegate as much of the tactical as you can so you can free up the time to build awareness of strategic issues. Even one hour a week would allow you to search the web, follow the latest from strategy gurus, and scan the strategic case studies in Business Week and Harvard Business Review. Become aware of the difference between strategic thinking and strategic planning, and how to be good at both.

Broaden your corporate knowledge. Feel siloed in your position? Strategic thinking requires an understanding beyond your department or division, so develop and use your personal contacts to gain more corporate intelligence (as if you need another image reason to network with colleagues.) You will still be the content expert that you are, but when you add the broad perspective that being strategic requires, that’s a winning combination for upward mobility.

Start asking strategy questions. Of yourself and others. An easy framework for thinking about strategy is the old tried and true SWOT analysis. What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing my organization and how to exploit and manage them? Check out this MindTools explanation for a refresher on the power of using SWOT to think through business issues.

Next blog – more ways to be strategic! Please add your blog comments – we’ve change the settings to make it easy to add your thoughts.