Unlocking the Power of Strategic Thinking: A Guide for Aspiring Leaders
One crucial skill every leader should develop is strategic thinking.
It's a skill that can help you plan for the future, anticipate problems, and make better decisions. Here we’ll explore why strategic thinking skills are essential for leaders at all levels, provide a few examples of strategic thinking in action, and finally, share some tips to help you develop your strategic thinking skills.
Why are Strategic Thinking Skills Important?
As you move up the ladder, it’s natural that your perspective changes. You have more visibility and your teams depend on you to interpret what you see and warn them of upcoming obstacles and shifts in alignment. This also provides space for teams to do what they do best while staying in the directional flow of the organization.
Strategic Thinking in Action
As a leader, strategic thinking involves taking action with your team toward an idea or change. While you are responsible for deciding the direction of the strategy, it's crucial to allow your team to create the process for delivering or creating the outcomes. Essentially, you oversee your team's focus rather than the details of how they achieve it. It's about experimenting with new rules or providing a supportive environment for them to come up with solutions to a problem or innovate. It's about finding an "AND" in the typical approach to innovation, change, and design thinking with a more holistic outcome. For example, measuring a project milestone's budget, time completion, and a team's stress level can prevent burnout after project completion.
Three Tips to Develop Your Strategic Thinking Skills
Think of strategic thinking as putting a puzzle together with your team. Here are some tips to help you develop your strategic thinking skills:
1. Describe the Picture
Your team faces a pile of unsorted puzzle pieces and can't see the picture on the box. Make sure to spend ample time describing the image, answering any questions your team may have, and ensuring that everyone interprets the imagery the same way. Everyone must align with the vision.
2. Build the Outside Edges
As a leader, you can create the framework for your team to work within. By building the outside edges of the puzzle, you are articulating and developing the necessary constraints such as budget, resources, and timelines. A robust framework will create a space where your team can work toward the intended outcome.
3. Be in Charge
Effective leadership is understanding the difference between being in charge and being in control. Being in control means taking account of the process and dictating the solutions to your team – essentially building the puzzle from the inside out. However, your team doesn't need you to be in control. Instead, they need you to be in charge.
Being in charge involves protecting the project's boundaries, preventing any external factors from hindering your team’s progress while allowing them to work their magic within those boundaries. Remember, being in charge means
creating a safe space for your team to thrive and succeed.
As you hone your strategic thinking skills, you’ll not only enhance your capabilities but also inspire and elevate your team, fostering a culture of collaboration and creativity. Following the tips listed above can enhance your strategic thinking skills and lead your team toward success. Remember, strategic thinking is a skill that can be learned and improved over time with intentional practice and patience.
About the Author
Agile Leadership Journey Guide Christina Carlson shares how you can become Unstuck through collaboration, creativity, and how to apply inspired agility research. She finds personal success and purpose through creative and collaborative projects that help people see what they are trying to say, and action their vision. Her ability to actively connect peoples’ complex ideas to their values in order to broaden their perspectives makes her a sought after commodity for billion dollar companies and independent entrepreneurs. By applying research and scientific practice through a creative mindset, she is able to unstick people from their current perspective and help them move to the next evolution of their leadership growth.
Read more from Christina: What is Holding Women Back in Leadership? Impressions From "How Women Rise"
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