3 Tactics For Stronger Strategic Thinking
Performance reviews are around the corner.
There's an 80% chance that you will either receive or deliver this growth opportunity: strategic thinking.
Strategic thinking is in the same category of executive presence. You know it when you see it, and it's rarely well defined or actioned against in development conversations.
Today I offer 3 tactics to strengthen strategic thinking.
Use these for your own development, or leverage these in the development of your people.
Preserve The Time
Ask Bigger Questions
Build Altitude Awareness
Let's dive in…
Preserve The Time
The largest barrier to being a strategic thinker is holding space for thinking.
I hear it regularly: “I don't have time to be strategic.”
Whenever I hear “I don't have time for…,” it's Robin Arzon of Peloton who immediately comes to mind.
She says: “Replace 'I don't have time' with 'I don't care' and see how it feels.”
So yes, there are 502 other things competing for your time and attention. What priority do you put on having time to think and gain clarity for what you want, where you want your department to go, and how you'll get there?
It doesn't have to be a ton of time.
I have one client who spends 10-15 min after every morning run jotting down the thoughts and ideas that came up during the run.
I have another client who has a calendar block on Tuesday and Thursday. For 30 min, it's her walk and think time. She dictates her thoughts to her phone on the walk.
Identify when you do your best thinking, then make a commitment to preserving some of that time for thinking and planning.
Ask Bigger Questions
You can shape how people perceive your strategic abilities by thoughtfully asking bigger questions.
The trap many can fall into is focusing on execution questions.
Execution questions keep you in the here and now.
Strategic questions showcase future thinking.
Consider leveraging some of these in your discussions:
In 6 months time, what's something we'll wish we'd had considered in our planning?
Pausing for a moment to zoom out…what are we really trying to solve here?
What are the tradeoffs we're not considering?
What will this mean for us a year from now?
What's the short term vs long term play?
Being a strategic thinker is about being a step (or 3) ahead. It's being able to anticipate possible outcomes, and having a sense for your tradeoffs and pivot points.
You only get there by asking bigger questions.
Build Altitude Awareness
In any given situation, evaluate the altitude you're operating.
Are you at ground level in the weeds? At 5,000'? 10,000' or 30,000'?
What do you see differently about a challenge at the 30,000 foot view vs ground level?
Building the muscle to consciously recognize where you are and then ascending or descending elevation based on what the situation calls for.
To demonstrate how thinking shifts, consider these:
High Altitude
What's the real problem we're trying to solve?
What's the broader vision for where X fits in?
Mid-Altitude
If we hadn't already invested time/resources, what else would we be considering?
If we don't do Y, what will happen?
If we do Z, are we comfortable with X trade off?
Low Altitude
What will it take to get from A to B?
What's the estimated level of effort?
Who is owning what?
To begin to build this muscle, perhaps you put a note on your monitor: “What's my altitude? What should it be?”
Or maybe you put it on the top of your meeting notes to build your reps and this muscle memory.
Better yet, maybe you share with your leader that you're working on building this muscle and you'd like for them to keep an eye on what altitude you're operating.
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That's it for today!
What's standing out as your ah-ha?
What action will you take?
Comment below and let me know!
