Thinking Strategically - Part 2

At higher levels in an organization, your personal brand must include “strategic thinker.” The last blog post introduced the concept, now let’s go a little deeper. Most people start their career dealing with the tactical in their job – solving an immediate problem, reacting to circumstances, and putting out fires when they arise. As you climb to higher positions, your view of issues must likewise reach a higher perspective, allowing you to see beyond tactical responses to the strategic issues at play.

If you’ve heard the phrase "Fire, Ready, Aim" you know what it’s like to work in a tactics-based environment. Compare it to the following: you’ve been feeling sick for several weeks. You go to the store and troll the aisles for the right medications to make you feel better – something to control your cough, dry up your nose, and relieve your headache. All tactical moves – you are only treating the symptoms of your sickness. You get temporary relief and can go on with your day. But your sickness persists. So you start to think strategically – Why are you sick? What are the causes? You eat junk, you’re overly stressed, and you don’t get any exercise. So you start modifying your behavior to take better care of yourself. Things improve, but not completely because your cough persists. More strategic thinking – could there be something about your environment that’s making you sick? You have your house checked and discover mold growing in the ductwork because of a small roof leak. Now, you can take action to fix the problem and you are healthy again. A tactical response to symptoms could never have made you well – strategic thinking did it.

So what about at work? Tactical responses can be relatively simple and quick. Have a problem? Fix it. Take a pill. Git’er done. Strategic thinking is more complex – it takes time, it takes examination, it takes tolerance of uncertainty. It means considering how variables link together in different scenarios and making risk assumptions. Not everyone is naturally good at this, but you can take some steps to get there. Here are some more ideas to add to the previous blog:

Don’t be put off by the lingo. OK, I’ll be the first to tell you that an excessive use of business buzz words comes across as arrogant and obnoxious. However, it doesn’t hurt to have an awareness of strategy lingo and toss it into your speech when appropriate. Words like co-evolution, value migration, and synergy manager might have perfectly simple English translations, but if their usage is in vogue, we’d better learn the lexicon lest we not sound “strategic.”

Test your strategy muscle. An effective way to develop strategic competence is to participate in or volunteer for a special strategic project within your own area that’s just outside of your current role and responsibility. Look for opportunities that require a fresh approach and involve people from various functions and disciplines.

Vounteer. Civic groups, non-profits, community boards and advisory panels always need professionals to help with long-range planning, mission or vision creation. This is a great opportunity to test your leadership without the risks of an on-the-job assignment.

Remember what Thomas Edison said, “There’s a way to do it better – find it“ In business, strategic thinking will help you find it!

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.