STRATEGIC THINKING

Strategic thinking boils down to one simple question:

What is the desired outcome?

The answer to that question helps an executive drive organizational strategy through various ways to:

• Maximize results in minimal time.

• Maintain a bird’s-eye view of the big picture.

• Ensure the team aligns its goals with those of the organization.

As a leader, you have to regularly set aside time for strategic thinking, so you can take your team from start to finish with the least interference along the way. My clients tell me, “We want our employees to be strategic enablers of business.” I tell them, “Well, then you have to give them time to be strategic.” As an executive, you must create the time to think strategically—it won’t magically materialize.

This makes sense and it’s easy to say, but it begs this question: what exactly is strategic thinking in the first place?

THE COMPONENTS OF STRATEGIC THINKING

Although strategic thinking varies from one team or organization to another, it generally includes these characteristics:

• It focuses on group needs.

• It leverages existing organizational structure and seeks to improve upon it.

• It’s cross-functional, presuming and requiring cooperation between groups.

• It has long-term, far-reaching effects.

• It considers what tactics can best be used to accomplish the desired outcome.

APPLYING STRATEGIC THINKING

Strategic thinking can be difficult to apply when circumstances—and sometimes people—seem determined to crush it. In addition to dealing with market forces and good old-fashioned competition, you may have to adroitly cope with crises over which you have no control.

Your goals tie together all the disparate members of a team, as well as the strategies that apply both individually and collectively. Goals set a course—a benchmark for the team to shoot for. In a sense, goals are promises to our teams and ourselves, dreams with deadlines that tweak our performance upward. The great thing about goals is that it’s as easy to think big as it is to think small. Thinking big not only tests our reach and abilities; it also stretches our mental boundaries.

By its very nature, strategic thinking requires you to learn to make the best decisions you can as quickly as possible, boosting innovation and flexibility, helping your team adapt to circumstances as they change.

Just as importantly, you have to be able to communicate those adaptations to all involved: to communicate the new mission, to promote your vision, and to sell teamwork in a way that gets people to take notice.

Like the captain of a ship, you should always consult with your officers before making a decision, taking their viewpoints and suggestions into account. But the decisions are ultimately yours, and you must make them. If you don’t, circumstances will make your decisions for you.

Once you’ve made a decision, you and your team have to execute immediately—on the spot if necessary.