It’s a tale as old as time: the individual contributor gets promoted because he’s good at his job (accounting, engineering or marketing, for example). Now he’s managing a functional area.
The skills that got him here are not the same skills he now needs to succeed. Midyear reviews roll around, and he receives an unexpected message: you’re too bogged down in the day-to-day. We need you to be more strategic.
This “be more strategic” message may come in your early management experiences, or maybe as you jump from manager to director, or director to VP.
No matter when you first hear the message, you’re probably left wondering — what does it really mean to be more strategic?
The first (and often hardest) step is to make more time to think. But once you have the time, what do you do to begin to think strategically?
7 skills of people with a strategic mindset
The good news is that this strategic mindset is a skill that can be built rather than a fixed quality you missed out on. But growing your capacity to think and act strategically takes intention.
There are seven skill sets often associated with strategic thinking or capacity:
- Future-oriented perspective
- Systems thinking
- Prioritization & trade-offs
- Pattern recognition and insight
- Strategic communication
- Data-informed decision making
- Comfort with ambiguity
I define each of these skill sets below. More practically, questions are offered for each skill set, so you can broaden your thinking and contribute strategic insight.
#1: Future-oriented perspective
People with a future-oriented perspective anticipate trends, make forecasts and consider long-term implications. Grow your ability to scan the external environment for shifts (tech, policy, economic, social), connect current choices to longer-term goals and build contingency plans for multiple possible futures.
Questions to ask:
- What disruptions are on the horizon?
- What trends are impacting our work? What future trends can I anticipate?
- What potential risks do these trends or disruptions present to us?
- What visions of the future could excite our staff? Our customers? The market?
- What’s the wildest future I can imagine for our industry? (You may benefit from integrative questions as you consider this possibility.)
#2: Systems thinking
Systems thinkers see how parts connect to the whole and understand how changes in one area impact others. These leaders map out processes, dependencies and feedback loops; they identify unintended consequences, and they solve problems, addressing root causes, not just symptoms.
Questions to ask:
- What’s the relationship between X and Y? How will A change to Y impact X? What implications or unintended consequences exist?
- Consider the future state of technology — how will that impact our people or ways of working?
- How do we collect feedback that helps us understand systems and relationships?
- Where should a tighter relationship exist between X and Y, and how could we create it?
#3: Prioritization and trade-offs
Ruthless prioritization is a necessity for advancing leaders. Building that skill at the team, department or organizational level is a key aspect of strategic leadership. This requires saying no to ideas that don’t align with strategy so you can focus energy and resources where they’ll matter most.
Questions to ask:
- How does this align with our strategic objectives?
- How does this align with our values and purpose?
- Is this both urgent and important?
- When making a choice, what factors help us evaluate our priorities?
#4: Pattern recognition & insight
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” The message is this: smart leaders identify patterns and draw insight from the reoccurrences.
Pattern recognition as a strategic capacity involves spotting connections between seemingly unrelated ideas and thinking in themes rather than just tasks or projects. But recognizing the pattern and theme isn’t enough — you must change the data into insight. Using analogies, metaphors and models can be a good way to help others make meaning.
Questions to ask:
- What happens repeatedly?
- How could history or prior experience guide our present choices?
- How could technology help us identify patterns?
- How could I map this process? What is a metaphor or analogy for the experience?
- What dissimilar industries might have a similar experience, and how could we draw insight from their work?
#5. Strategic communication
Communication is one of the central responsibilities of leadership, and yet no one tells you that when you get your first promotion. Becoming increasingly strategic in your messaging is even more important as you rise through the ranks.
Great strategic communicators share the “why” behind decisions, enabling the rest of the team to understand reasoning and adapt their thinking accordingly. They help others see the big picture, which often requires connecting ideas to the mission, values and long-term vision. They motivate and inspire, and while also aligning messaging across departments or stakeholders.
Questions to ask:
- What is the “why”?
- What can, and cannot, be said?
- Who needs to know? Who wants to know?
- Who influences decisions and results?
- How should this message be framed to have the impact we need?
#6: Data-informed decision making
Making decisions using data involves questioning assumptions and balancing intuition with evidence. It’s to focus on the outcomes, not just the activity or inputs, and look for metrics that illuminate results. People who really understand the data can leverage this understanding to produce simple graphics or dashboards that make the insights clear to others as well.
Questions to ask:
- Do we trust the data?
- What assumptions exist?
- Are we making this decision by gut or by data?
- How could we test our thinking?
#7: Comfort with ambiguity
No one likes uncertainty, but it’s hard to avoid. Leaders who have strategic capacity know you’ll have to decide long before you have 100% certainty. They can move forward with the incomplete information they have.
Questions to ask:
- How much clarity do we need to move forward?
- How could we test small bets rather than waiting for complete certainty?
- What do others need from me to stay grounded during uncertain or changing conditions?
How to use these ideas
Asking these questions and building these skills will help if you’ve been asked to be more strategic, or if you’re sensing that your current role requires a longer horizon and a broader focus than the past.
Use these questions to your advantage:
- Revisit the list when you’re in the middle of a major project or strategic initiative. What questions are the right ones to ask now?
- Ask one of these questions while sitting in a meeting where you want to contribute but aren’t sure what you can offer. You’ll elevate the conversation.
- And, if you ever do get a few hours on a Friday afternoon to think about the future, reflect on these questions and then act on your observations.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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