Be more Strategic PLEASE!

Do you ever wish your direct reports were better at anticipating problems and thinking ahead? Have you ever seen your team become so absorbed in their day-to-day work that they lose sight of key objectives and what is most important? You're not alone.

Among the most critical and neglected skills required by professionals today is the ability to think and behave strategically. Managers and leaders are challenged with how to help their teams think and act more strategically in an ever-increasingly complex and volatile world.

You can help your colleagues gain new insights and look at problems from different perspectives in order to anticipate problems, align priorities, and stay focused on what is most important by coaching your team.

What is 'being more strategic'?

Whether you heard it from a colleague or said it yourself, everyone knows that "we need to be more strategic" - but does everyone really understand what it means?

Since 'be more strategic' may be interpreted in many ways, it's hard to expect a change in behaviour just by barking it! Some folks think this means they should participate in strategic planning processes so they can receive formal experience in setting goals and strategies. Others may understand the idea more generally and believe they just need to be more proactive. As a leader you need to be clear about what behaviours you want to see - So you need to define what you mean, be specific and spell out the behaviours you want to see.?

Being more strategic means leading yourself, your team and your organisation so that company's most critical long-term missions and goals are achieved, faster and more successfully than your competitors.

What are the key tenets of strategic thinking and behaviour?

To think strategically, start with thinking from the outside in : Outside-in thinking means starting with our customers' needs and desires, what they most value, what our competitors are doing, what the market and industry are doing, where technology is heading and what trends might affect our ultimate success. The outside-in mentality, is the ability to see the early signs of opportunities and threats, to connect the dots make strategic decisions.

Only through great questions can we find great answers: The right questions will challenge our underlying assumptions. They unfreeze us and allow us to see new possibilities. Good questions take us to the core of the problem. They will enable us to see things in a new way. So focus on asking the most probing questions.?

Strategy is the ‘what you need to do’ so you create better value than the competition: In other words, a clear strategy articulates how your organisation will create greater value for its customers and investors than its competitors. A company cannot claim to have a strategy unless it clearly states how it will accomplish this. The company or product’s mission, vision and value proposition and positioning statement are at the heart of all this.?

It's everyone's job to think and behave strategically: Senior leaders, naturally, play a crucial role. They must define the organisation's direction and strategic goals. But that's not all there is to it. Everyone at every level is responsible for delivering the? organisation's overarching goals and then applying them in all of their responsibilities.

A simple yet compelling message that wins the hearts and minds of your people is the key to success: Translating your strategy into a simple, persuasive leadership message will win people's support for anything you need to accomplish.

Are you being strategic?

Where are you and your team spending your time, and where should you spend it? To help with this, here is a simple strategic behaviours matrix.?Assess your position today.

You know how it goes - stuff happens all the time - so most of our focus keeps getting dragged into the bottom left quadrant - the day-to-day operational tasks, the business as usual, the latest incident, and then there is no time to be where you really need to focus your effort - the top right. That’s not to say we don’t need operations, we certainly do, but if you’re spending most of your time reacting to the everyday, when will you have the time to go deep into where your organisation needs to go and why.?

Some tools for creating strategy

There are many frameworks, posts, courses and even more books on the topic than you could shake a stick at. However at the high level you can break down these tools into two main categories strategy as analysis, and strategy as innovation.?

Strategy As Analysis is largely based on analytical, logical and linear thinking, it is best suited for the more rational actors and to help preserve and tune the existing busines model. Three frameworks which leverage this include : SWOT, PESTEL and Porter’s Five Forces?

Strategy As Innovation is more creative or disruptive, it’s better suited to passion and where the development and testing of new business models in an unstable and very different future would be more suited. Three frameworks leveraging this include : Innovation Canvas and Innovation Pyramid.?

To get you started here are some useful links (which I’m not affiliated with) in each type.?

Strategy As Analysis Tools

SWOT : Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and so a SWOT analysis is a technique for assessing these four aspects of your business. SWOT Analysis is a tool that can help you to analyze what your company does best now, and to devise a successful strategy for the future.

PESTEL : Used to evaluate the business environment in which a firm operates. Acronym for Political, Economic, Social, and Technological, Environmental and Legal.

Porter’s Five Forces: Porter’s five forces help you understand the intensity of competition in your industry, its attractiveness, and its profitability level. Use it to help you assess the market's viability and the strengths and weaknesses of your position.?

Strategy As Innovation Tools

Innovation Canvas : Helps in identifying the most important challenges in developing an innovative product, service or process. Use it to prioritise next actions and seek other views or advice.?

Innovation Pyramid : The Innovation Pyramid breaks innovation down into 9 levels, from easiest to trickiest: Design & marketing innovation. Product innovation. Service innovation. Markets, customers & channel innovation.

Now go be more strategic! PLEASE!?