Strategic Thinking – Do You Have It ? Or Should You Develop It ?
The motivation for this post is a fascinating conversation I have had with a current customer of mine, which was previously an executive director in a big organization, and is now returning to a senior position after a period of time being self-employed.
At a certain point, he felt that he wasn’t positioned and branded as a leading “talent” in the organization and the jobs offered to him did not match his personal strategy in career management. The result: he chose to be a self-employed.
Introducing himself to the world as a self-employed and not as an executive director in a big organization, constrained him into dealing with new and different problems. Seemingly everything is similar, but at a glance it’s the same thing in a bigger size. Even in a small business, just like in a big organization, a vision and a strategy are designed, a target audience is defined, a work plan is built, and goals and schedule are determined.
As part of the strategy, the small business creates, and designs adjusted products which provide real solutions for problems and contain added value with clear benefits for the targeted audience:
- Needs (basic & special needs)
- Pain points
- A desire for a change from point A to point B
X did all of these steps just right. All of the decisions seemed to be taken out of a decision-making book and according to the right models. And yet, he felt that it wasn’t working the way he expected.
That is when we started our joint work together (disclosure: we know each other from the past and we have already worked together when he was an executive at one of the big organizations I have previously worked with).
My first step was trying to understand what really bothers him. Seemingly, everything is functioning. The plan worked, the revenues grew linearly, the business is profitable, and he still felt worried. For him – something wasn’t right.
I challenged him to consider three aspects:
- Financial stability / survival.
- Recognition and appreciation – esteem, encouragement.
- Intellectual or professional challenge.
I asked him to draw a pie and divide it into three parts, giving each aspect its relative partition of the pie, with respect to its importance, according to his principals. The sum must be 100%, of course.
I recommend that you do the same practice as well.
All of the people I know give great weight to financial stability/survival, then to personal and professional recognition and appreciation – upon which the self-esteem is based, this is where the internal positive or negative motivation is reflected, and the place of the internal or external control core becomes understandable, the issue from which one could conclude regarding the positioning, branding and differentiation of the person to themselves and to their surroundings. And finally, the challenge – the intellectual and/or professional stimulation the person is looking for.
Every person may choose how to divide these three weights in their job or in every reality in their lives. These three weights play significant role in the personal lives as well.
Another practice I have recommended to him was:
- Pick 10 strengths (out of a list I made, including over 100 strengths).
- Give a 1 to 10 grade to each strength out of the 10 picked regarding yourself.
- Describe a situation demonstrating each strength graded 8-10, and explain how the strength is reflected in the personal or professional life.
During the following meeting, we mapped his strategic thinking map, and I realized he is an amazing, brilliant person who has unusual strengths. And despite all of his abilities and strengths, he made the wrong decision to quit, a decision taken out of a lot of emotions, and due to which he chose to become self-employed.
Analyzing the thinking map, and understanding the new reality formulating in his life, demonstrated that he is interested in returning to work as an executive in a big organization.
The next step was examining the variety of jobs he should look for, with the understanding of what he really looks for, what really matters to him, and how could it be achieved.
The new reality he created required preparation, adjustment to reality, and in his specific case – a compromise as well.
This case study had a happy ending. X got a new job in a big organization which constituted a challenge for him. The new job required a sort of compromise: he wasn’t promoted to a more significant position, but he was back in the “game”.
The choice of being self-employed or an executive employee is a personal decision of each person. This dilemma should be analyzed by aspects of what really matters to the person and in which significance.
The decision where to act and in which field is a strategic decision. Being intelligent and brilliant is not enough to make the right decision. You should understand that even if you made the wrong decision, you are always given the chance to fix or change it – if you are willing to admit you made a mistake.
People are usually assessed by the results they have reached. We treat people with respect to the choices they have made and if they lead them towards their goals.
Organizations treat their executives according to their decisions and agenda. Sometimes people or directors are a little frustrated because their decisions were successful, but their position and the degree of appreciation they receive don’t meet the results they have achieved.
In some of the cases, the reason is that they lack strategic thinking, leading to unclear decision making. In other cases, it is due to other reasons.
The strategic thinking of directors could be evident in precise strategy, team selection, flexible thinking, distinction between the important and the unimportant, time managing and agenda defining (priorities).
Intelligent directors make intelligent decisions and the decisions regarding them are sometimes mistaken as well.
Strategic thinking is a tool helping everyone to remain connected to their inner compass as a person, director or organization.
What is this strategic thinking, which I consider to be one of the most important tools in life?
Strategic thinking is the ability to understand and accept the situation we aspire to achieve, the deep understanding of what we will earn when we achieve it and enjoying the way there.
Setting goals, writing dreams, and defining aspirations are actions all of us do, and there is no reason for us not to achieve them.
Those of us that have strategic thinking build their business and career strategy while being aware of:
- Our strengths and core abilities (real, imaginary, relevant).
- Deep understanding of what our inner priorities are (economically, position-wise, in terms of recognition and appreciation, or of personal and professional challenges).
- Mapping the gaps and building a plan of action to reduce them or to recruit the required abilities/resources.
- Outlining the course with clear milestones enabling to identify the progress and the percentage of success at any point in time.
The strategy has to answer three basic questions:
- Where do I want to be at a certain point in time?
- What is the way I choose to achieve it?
- What are the core abilities that I have, and which ones do I have to obtain?
When we act while thinking strategically, each and every decision and step in our lives or in a specific field in our lives are directly connected to the strategy which we have built for ourselves in the field we are interested in.
Having strategic thinking doesn’t mean you don’t make wrong decisions.
Strategic thinking allows those who have it to get back on track at any point in time because their inner compass is clear.
For those who don’t have it, strategic thinking is acquirable. It requires practice and training if we received it as a “gift”.
To receive the list of strengths, please send me a private message.