We talk about strategy as a process, but strategic planning – and strategic execution – all require us to have a certain mindset.
Great leaders are invariably excellent at strategic thinking and able to see the bigger picture; weighing up different contexts, influences, and changing factors that constantly affect the business’s internal and external environment.
Although each leader will have his or her own style and approach to leadership, certain traits will also be consistently present. Can you recognize any of these attributes in your own leadership?
1. You are a reflective leader
Great strategic thinkers usually tend to listen more than they speak. They will have excellent critical thinking skills and apply hard metrics to decision-making processes, analyzing performance and benchmark data and other rich metrics to get to the crux of any given situation. They observe situations and aren’t rushed into making decisions – taking the time to weigh up courses of action and to ask the difficult questions which forge a path towards the best course of action.
2. You really prioritize leadership
Strategic leaders have a clear vision, communicate it expertly, completely understand the detail of it and spend time thinking about it. They also know how to plan for its delivery and expertly execute it. They are constantly looking for ways to achieve organizational excellence; assessing changes in the marketplace and working out how to better align the business’s people, processes, and systems to deliver better outcomes for customers. In effect, they are the brains behind each element of the business strategy. Strategic leaders are able to see the entire system in all of its complexity, and constantly keep it alive by joining the dots and making necessary adjustments over time.
3. You can develop other strategic leaders
Strategic leaders know that the best way that they can develop organizational value is to develop other people to become excellent strategic leaders too. This builds real business resilience, a tremendous knowledge and skills base (which can then be leveraged to build sustainable competitive advantage), and supports succession planning. Great leaders do this in a variety of ways – such as by asking searching, probing questions of internal people, that are designed to make them think hard, and by giving time to other people to help them build their capabilities as strategists, and as leaders.
Tips for becoming a better strategic thinker
Even the best strategists will know that they have room to develop. So it’s good to develop a learning mindset and continue to work on your own skills and abilities. Focus on:
Being organized in the way that you think
The more structured and systems-oriented you can become in your thinking, the more able you will be to see the full complexity and scope of the business. You will also find it easier to understand challenges and opportunities and to robustly analyze the changing landscape of the market. By adopting an organized and systems-driven way of thinking, you can gain the confidence that you need to really analyze issues and to probe down to the drivers behind each of them – using existing models and frameworks to help and guide you. Remember that great strategic thinkers don’t need to create new systems or models of strategy management, but they do need to understand and apply them successfully to their own business environment.
Measuring success!
Again, great business leaders are confident and natural at measuring the progress of their work and apply metrics and figures across their span of control to see what is really happening. This takes away subjectivity and ensures that data is driving decision-making. Use tools like Spider Impact to help with this process, and the process becomes far easier.
Taking a moment…
Managers often have to react quickly to local and everyday issues. As they progress and become leaders, they may continue to react and feel the need to show that they are ‘on it’ and ready to act at all costs. But great leaders pause and reflect. They have the confidence and experience to mull over issues, rather than to knee-jerk into making immediate decisions – and don’t feel compelled to be SEEN to act quickly. As a strategic leader, you must learn to step back, really see and understand the problem, ask lots of questions of others around you, and take your time in understanding the dimensions of each issue before you decide on your course of action.
Continuing to learn!
Truly strategic leaders recognize that there is always scope to grow and to learn new skills. So take the opportunity to upskill whenever you can, and challenge yourself to see things in new ways, to speak to different people, to embrace diversity, and to be open to new experiences and attitudes. There are some excellent guides to business strategy on the Intrafocus website which are available to readers!
The help that you need
Intrafocus works with organisations across all industries, and business leaders at all levels of their strategic journey! Our consultants are on hand to work flexibly according to your needs, and we usually begin with a strategy consultation to assess your current position. To find out more, please contact us today.
