The future is coming fast. In this ever-changing, chaotic business environment, leaders must be prepared to think seriously about the future of their organizations.
Leaders must be able to activate and focus resources and energy on the priorities that will ensure future business success. Unfortunately, today leaders struggle to become more strategic because society is addicted to short-term thinking.
In fact, leaders are mostly worried about managing to-do lists, reaching short-term goals, and meeting today’s production schedule. They basically react short-term instead of seeing their situation from a strategic perspective. Oftentimes, they focus on making it through the current crisis, managing today’s demands at the expense of the future.
Thinking about the future and developing the necessary strategic capacities will allow leaders to write today what they want for their organizations tomorrow.
Before we start it is important to share the definition of strategic thinking.
Strategic thinking is a long term thought process that helps leaders prepare strategies and come up with ideas to cope with changing environments by considering the different challenges that lie ahead.
Basically, it is the ability to think outside the box, envisioning new solutions to age-old problems. It can also allow leaders to see opportunities that others miss. In a turbulent, competitive market, strategic thinking can give them an edge over the competition.
Here are five tips that you could use to improve strategic thinking skills as a leader.
First, Allocate time to focus on the long-term.
If you want to improve your strategic thinking skills, you must be responsible and make it a priority, allocate time to focus on longer-term goals and big picture thinking.
Strategic thinking requires focused time and attention. It cannot happen when you’re busy working on routine activities.
In general, routine activities that consume leaders’ time are important to keeping the business running smoothly. But, the key is that leaders must set firm boundaries and block out time to think strategically, too.
You could set aside 2-3 hours each week when you can step away from your busy routine, turn off your phone, eliminate distractions and ensure that you won’t be interrupted in order to focus on issues like vision alignment, strategic initiatives, innovation and more.
The time you invest in this practice will reap rewards well into the future.
Keep in mind, there will always be new problems and opportunities striving for your attention. So if you want to be a true strategic leader, you need to select and focus on those projects that will have the biggest impact on company success, such as ways to save time, make more money, and grow the organization. Otherwise, you’re simply keeping busy for the sake of being busy.
Second, Expand your perspective.
Strategic leaders are able to step out of the weeds and climb to the top of the nearest mountain in order to see the big picture. Basically they need to consider longer-term issues instead of short term tactical concerns.
By doing so they are able to understand what’s happening inside and outside the organization, and bring those two things together to constantly deploy resources to what is working and away from what is not. In fact, a wider perspective will help to optimize the investment of time, energy, and resources.
Thanks to this approach, leaders can better determine the true competitive advantages of the business. A strategic dashboard can be created to identify strong strategic targets.
In addition, strategic leaders question their own assumptions and look at challenges from a number of different perspectives before deciding on the best path forward.
They keep a wider perspective when dealing with problems or situations in order to obtain a deeper understanding which allows them to evaluate different solutions and the pros and cons of implementing each one of them.
Remember, you cannot take anything for granted when it comes to thinking strategically. In fact, companies whose leaders have a rigid way of responding to new situations will have trouble staying relevant. Whereas, to maximize the likelihood of you and your organization to stay relevant you need to see beyond the horizon and be willing to embrace change.
Third, Recognize new patterns and trends.
As we have said before, having a wider perspective is very important for leaders who need to think strategically. But it is also a powerful way to identify emerging patterns and trends.
Strategic leaders must identify reliable sources of data, be willing to explore what they learn and come to conclusions about patterns and trends they see in the market and with competitors.
This important activity allows leaders to make sense of what’s changing in the business world.
By doing so you might be able to identify changing consumer behaviors, plan for the impacts of emerging technologies, or recognize potential risks that need to be addressed or mitigated. After noting a trend or potential risk, the suggestion is to take time to evaluate and explore different scenarios and effects that might arise from each development, planning ways to manage it and procedures to use in each case if they become necessary.
For example, companies that had previously considered scenarios that might involve office closures or remote working were better prepared and able to respond more rapidly when the pandemic occurred.
Keep in mind, always understand how your role works, inside and outside your organization. For this reason, look for mentors and experts who can share their own experiences and advice with you.
Fourth, Test ideas and concepts.
Strategic thinking requires leaders to question everything they see or are told. This is different from being mistrustful, in fact they are collecting and weighing facts, not dismissing ideas or traditions. So, ask if an idea is rational, with a credible source and any proof to support its value. Take time to question something and understand why it is being proposed.
To develop strategic thinking skills and understand the whole picture, leaders develop an understanding and appreciation of opposing ideas, opinions, arguments or positions.
Once you’ve created a strategy that can help your company reach its goals, question your own assumptions, and put them through rigorous testing. By doing so, you can ensure you’re not failing to consider another possibility.
What leaders that think strategically often do is to welcome feedback and advice from others in order to be able to prepare for the future and make constant improvements. For example, starting from an idea they encourage debate by holding “safe zone” meetings where open dialogue and conflict are encouraged and welcomed. Or they collect input from people not directly affected by a decision who may have a good perspective on the consequences.
Remember, it is important to test ideas and concepts and ensure that criticisms are examined and taken into consideration where relevant. Provoking a debate allows you to promptly identify weaknesses in your case, and equip you to defend it when others ask questions. This process makes your plans and strategies as robust and reliable as possible.
Fifth, Make a plan for the future.
Strategic thinking is about being sure you have clear plans and structures that will support you in implementing your company’s strategy and achieving its main objectives.
Strategic leaders are able to set priorities and then develop specific targets and milestones that can be progressed and tracked along the way to the company’s goals and objectives. They think also of ways to counter the likely obstacles and roadblocks that might occur, so they can maximize their chances of success.
To create clear plans, these leaders start by dividing big decisions into pieces in order to understand component parts and better see unintended consequences. Then they adapt their decision criteria to long-term versus short-term projects. They also consider pilots or experiments instead of big endeavors, and make staged commitments. In addition, after careful consideration, they take risks on new ideas and innovative solutions, they are prepared for both success and failure, and are always willing to learn from their mistakes.
Keep in mind: thanks to strategic thinking you can look ahead, anticipate scenarios, and envision how events might unfold in the future. With this information, you can make a long-term plan for the future of your company.
Summary
So, these are the five tips that you could use to improve strategic thinking skills as a leader.
As a recap, we can say that strategic thinking skills help leaders accomplish business objectives, overcome obstacles, and address challenges.
Strategic leaders always keep an open mind, which allows for creative problem-solving. They also eliminate biases to obtain a clear view of what’s happening and make conscious decisions.
