How to Develop or Pivot Strategies

Are you wondering where you need to develop/pivot strategies? Whether you are looking for a job or just looking to uplevel in your current role/business, strategy can help. But all too often we don't know where to get started. I'm here to help??

Strategy has a reputation for generating dusty documents, taking a lot of time and money, and just filling up physical (or virtual) shelf space. We invest in expensive strategy and then... nothing. Everything goes back to the status quo.

It shouldn't be this way. Successful job hunts, successful business' and successful individual careers are built on a strategy. Not every strategy is fully articulated. And the best strategies are simple.

But where should you start? Here are my top tips for identifying where you need strategy. ? What do you want to change? This can be work or personal - both are valid! If you are thinking about you rather than your business this might be changing your job, increasing your income, getting a promotion. If it's your team or business (and note, just because you are not in charge of a team doesn't mean you can't develop a team strategy - take the initiative!).

? Figure out WHY you want to change. What is driving the change? Is it because you are unhappy in some way? Or is it that you need to pivot your team/business to accommodate a changing market?

? IGNORE THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD that immediately says 'I can't because...'. You'll address the challenges later. Right now is about identifying opportunities. So if you find yourself saying 'someone already tried that', 'no one is hiring people like me right now' or 'that's difficult/impossible because of technical issue y'... stop that thinking. The GREAT strategies come from breaking through these negative thoughts and finding solutions anyway. And by the way - YES plenty of business' are hiring. AND as we adapt to the new normal, MORE businesses are going to be hiring again as we all settle into this strange new socially distanced world. And you need to hit the ground running.

? With the 'why' in mind, get super specific on the what. Be precise such as 'I want to change to a job where I do more of XX' rather than 'I want a new job', or 'I want to fix this issue in our product' rather than 'improve the product'. A marketing change, for example, would need to take into account the current world situations and reflect that in an updated marketing strategy.

? Where does your current work fall flat? What is not currently working? What is everyone else ignoring or saying 'we can't do that'. <-- Those are the things where you will make the single biggest impact and stand out from the crowd.

Repeat the above until you have all the things you would like to tackle and develop one or more strategies for.

And there you have it - a list of places that need focus and attention! ????

The next step (coming soon!) will be to look through this list and figure out what to prioritise. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can do it all. You might be able to if all the ideas of synergistic, but that is unusual (and probably means you haven't done enough exploration). The mistake so many of us make is trying to tackle too many things at once.