How to be a strategic thinker

 
 
 

An impressive 97% of senior leaders think strategic thinking is the most important skill for a leader. Being strategic has been shown to be 10 times more important to the perception of effectiveness than any other key leadership behaviour.

If you're wondering how to be a strategic thinker, it starts with understanding what strategic thinking really means and making time for it at work. If you ‘think strategically’, does that automatically make you a strategic leader?

Strategic thinking is the creative analysis of many variables that can influence success and direction. A strategic thinker:

  • Has a longer-term view that takes in the wider system within which their role, team, organisation or industry exists.

  • Is able to zoom out from the detail and the immediate, to see patterns, trends, risks, issues and opportunities.

A strategic thinker will always be aware of market trends, emerging technologies, and competitive pressures, and be able to process how those elements influence business outcomes. Strategic thinkers love complexity and creativity and are able to operate well in uncertainty.

Strategic leaders

Yet thinking strategically is not enough to be an effective strategic leader. You also need to communicate your ideas, and influence others so that your thinking can have impact and drive change. This is your strategic vision - your call to action - from your analysis and creativity, that inspires and motivates people. A strategic leader can align people behind the vision and empowers them to work towards it.

A strategic plan

A strategic leader will also develop a business or team strategy, co-created with the team. This is the plan or approach to achieve a longer-term goal that creates value for the team, organisation, or shareholders.

Being a strategic leader is therefore multilayered and involves not just thinking strategically, but also acting strategically, developing a strategy, and crucially being able to influence and inspire others to support and implement strategic actions. Exceptional leaders are able to do all of these.

How can leaders make time to step away from operational tasks to do the thinking that will drive their career, team or organisation to the next level?

Practical tips for strategic thinking

Very simply, strategic thinking needs focused time. This can be planned time in your diary on your own to reflect, plan and consider.

  • Crucially, strategic thinking does not have to happen in isolation. In fact, strategic thinkers are experts in consulting others, collaborative discussion and creative team meetings. Strategic thinking can happen with teams, colleagues, stakeholders, a coach, a mentor or clients.

  • Exceptional strategic leaders make strategic thinking a habit that they can bring into any situation or conversation to generate insight and innovation. They are the ones to ask the crucial question or help the room see something in an entirely different way. Instead of asking, ‘What do we need to do?’, they first ask, ‘How do we need to think about this?’

  • When reflecting on a decision, action or plan, imagine you have a camera lens that you can zoom out in two ways. The first is context: consider the environment within which the action is happening, including the people involved and the competition. The second is time: think about future impact, emerging trends, potential changes and lessons from the past.

Agile and innovative

Strategic leaders are exceptional strategic thinkers and whilst they have a strategy, they are also mindful that strategies should guide and provide vision rather than restrict innovation or resilience. If the situation, environment or context changes, you must not become so attached to your original strategy that you cannot adapt. Strategic leaders perfect the balance between being planned and considered whilst remaining agile and innovative.

High-performing strategic leaders make time for thinking, they have a plan, and they bring others with them. If you're looking at how to be a strategic thinker, start by creating dedicated time to think beyond today's priorities, ask better questions, involve others in your thinking, and regularly step back to see the bigger picture. How can you make time for more strategic thinking in your role this week?

MARTIN BARNSLEY