What do mean? I'm strategic. Aren't I?

There are now significant levels of buzz about the need for leaders to be more strategic. Rightly so, in today’s lightning-speed world, your effectiveness as a leader may be determined by how strategic you are in your thinking. It is not enough to have good intentions for the people you are leading and want the best for the organization you are heading. 

You may need to put those intentions and motives into actionable templates that will lead to tangible results. Leadership comes with significant demands. You can wholly be distracted in day-to-day activities and execution, leaving little or no time to be strategic in your approach.

Becoming a strategic leader does not come on a platter of gold. You don’t stumble into strategic thinking and leadership. Instead, it is deliberately planned out and executed. The strategic leader is always on the lookout to find better ways of achieving results.

If you are strategic, then you wouldn’t want to stick to what every other person is doing, no matter how good it may look. You are always on the lookout for better ways to get things done. 

Being strategic means having foresight and making a calculated guess at the likely occurrences in the future. These predictions can be arrived at by checking previous trends. But it doesn’t end at that. A strategic leader looks for ways to maximize the dividends that could come out of those changes and find ways of walking around perceived challenges.

At this point, you may be wondering what it means to think strategically and if you are strategic. Rest easy because you are about to find out.

What is strategic thinking?

Strategic thinking is at the core of effective leadership. It is how an individual can develop creative ideas and opportunities that will positively affect lives. Creative thinkers try to come up with new and effective ways of doing things. With good strategic thinking, an organization can be assured that new opportunities will be uncovered and an enabling environment created increasing value.

Strategic thinking makes it possible for you to go beyond the norm. As a strategic thinker, you will not only be able to forecast potential changes before they take place, you will also be better equipped to approach those changes with a more significant measure of confidence.

What signals to others my level of strategic thinking?

It is easy for people to know how strategic you are in your thinking by the traits you constantly exhibit. Strategic thinking is not a location. Instead, it is a skill that keeps getting better as you deliberately put it into use. 

The characteristics associated with strategic thinkers become more pronounced and easily detectable as you cultivate strategic thinking skills. Some of the things that signal to others your level of strategic thinking include:

• Your willingness to be open to new possibilities: The more willing you are to embrace innovation, the obvious it becomes that you are strategic in your thinking. Strategic thinkers are eager to welcome disruptions and create value out of them. Are you always on the lookout for possible changes and not just sitting idly waiting to be caught unawares? Then you are strategic in your thinking. Your willingness to be forward in your thinking and act instead of reacting shows those around you that you are a strategic thinker.
• Willingness to take the risk: Your willingness to go out of your comfort zone and gain new knowledge signals that you are a strategic thinker. Instead of hanging on to established norms and general beliefs, strategic thinkers are willing to take a leap of faith at new opportunities. Strategic thinkers are not averse to failure but view it as a necessary part of the learning process. Your level of strategic thinking is also seen in your ability to keep an open mind and brace risks even when they are scary.
• Your level of creativity: One of the things that people look out for in strategic thinkers is creativity. What will set you apart from the crowd is your ability to think outside the box to bring solutions to problems. This trait is what keeps you ahead of the people that you lead. No one wants to follow a person who gives off-the-mill solutions to every situation.
• Rejection of status quo: Strategic thinkers are not comfortable wearing a particular hat just because every other person thinks it is good. What shows that you are strategic is your willingness to brace new ways of getting things done. One of the things that hinder leaders from hitting the mark is the desire to maintain the status quo, which strategic thinkers are unwilling to accept.
• A positive attitude to learning: Learning is a lifelong affair. Strategic thinking begins to die at the point where you lose the desire to learn. Think of that work in your department who seems to always know about everything happening around you. That is the next candidate for a leadership position. The curiosity to learn and the efforts made towards satisfying that curiosity portrays you as a strategic thinker to others.
• Willingness to adapt to changing circumstances: Rigidity is never a good strategy for personal or professional growth. A leader learns and grows every day with each experience and exposure. One of the attributes that show you are a strategic thinker is your ability to adapt to changing circumstances. As a strategic thinker, you will need to adjust your approach to accommodate new perspectives constantly.
• Your willingness to make the needed sacrifices: Sometimes, it may take a while before your efforts begin to yield tangible results. As a strategic thinker, you may have to delay gratification in the present to reap the fruits later. Strategic thinkers are willing to delegate to others and try as much as possible to avoid micromanaging individuals in their team. They are not afraid to put in the extra work to achieve a long-term goal.

What prevents me from being more strategic?

Now you have an understanding of how others evaluate your level of strategic thinking and time chart a path forward. The journey towards developing your strategic thinking abilities does not come without some hindrances. So consider two key hurdles?

#1. Insufficient time

Leaders are drawn on every side by the varied activities, so the average leader is very busy. So it can be challenging thinking strategically when one thousand and one things are calling for your attention. To bypass this obvious challenge, you will need to take complete control of your schedule. 

Consciously create time for thinking and strategizing. You may have to delegate some of the activities that can be done without your involvement. That way, you can make more time to channel towards strategic thinking.

#2. Lack of commitment from team members

Even the most strategic thinker will be discouraged if they have a team that lacks commitment. While thinking out good ideas is excellent, without a team committed to those ideas, they are as good as dead. To bypass this commitment challenge, you may have to invest more time training your team members to think the way you do. 

People are more likely to run with an idea if they feel they contributed to it. You may need to share your thoughts and opinions with your team and get their input while coming up with an execution plan that everyone participated in bringing up. Once you can build some measure of trust in your members, their commitment level will also increase.