Make Strategic Thinking Part of Your Job

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Invite Dissent To Build Others’ Commitment

An executive needs those he/she leads to translate strategic insights into choices that drive results. For people to commit to carrying out an executive’s strategic thinking, they have to both understand and believe in it.
But repeated explanations don’t necessarily increase people’s understanding and ownership of strategy. Making them discuss the pros and cons of it make it so the problem is better understood and flaws are identified and fixed increasing ownership for success.

“Most executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, and advantage of their business in a simple statement. If they can’t, neither can anyone else.”

DAVID COLLIS - HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR

Uncover Patterns To Focus Resource Investments

Once a strategic plan is set, resources must be aligned to focus on that contribution. Great strategic executives know how to use data to generate new insights about how they and their industries make money.
Examining patterns of performance over time — financial, operational, customer, and competitive data — will reveal critical foresight about future opportunities and risks and allow proper resource management.

Identify The Strategic Requirements Of The Job

When someone is promoted into a function that requires strategic leadership it’s easy to spend time fixing what was wrong in their previous function but that often isn’t what the strategic leadership position requires. So, identify the strategic requirements of your job and focus on them.