Five Ways to Think More Strategically

If you’re in the early years of people management, chances are that you’ll be in a 1:1 or performance review with your boss, and they’ll look at you and say something like:

 ‘Things are going well but it would be great if you could think more… strategically.’  

And you’ll pause for second, give their words a second to sink in, and then you’ll say something like:

‘Ok thank you for letting me know, do you have any suggestions for how I should go about that.’

And then it will get awkward.

Because whilst  ‘being more strategic’ sounds great, it’s really hard to define.  As Lesley Sim, co-founder of Newsletter Glue says:

‘There are many levels and definitions of strategy and everyone is answering the question from their own vantage point. Being strategic as a junior marketer in a year-old startup is a totally different ball game to being strategic as Chairman of a Fortune 500.’

Fortunately Sim didn’t stop there, and provides some ways she thinks we can actually be more strategic in our roles.  They are:

1. Think one level up the food chain: find out what your boss’s main concerns are day-to-day, then once you’ve done that, find out what your boss’s boss’s are.  You’ll gradually improve your strategic picture of your organisation.

2. Aim for deep understanding: doing part 1 will involve some combination of talking to people and asking for documentation around company goals.  The information you acquire will probably include some words, concepts and processes that you don’t fully understand the implications of.  You’ll have to ask further questions and probe until you have sufficient comprehension of individual and company aims, and how they’re going to be achieved.

3. Take a sideways step: strategic understanding doesn’t just run vertically but also horizontally.  Spend time with your peers in other departments to understand what they’re working on and how it contributes to the company’s mission.  Again, you’ll have to do some deep understanding and ask some questions which feel dumb to get there.

4. Don’t get ahead of yourself: a good strategy can look deceptively simple.  It’s easy to review some corporate goals, internalize them, and think you’ve got it covered, when you’ve barely scratched the surface.  Keep a curious mind, and seek to learn more, and stay humble about what you don’t know.  As Sim says, ‘assume you only understand 10-20% of what you think you do.’

5. Stay in the weeds: you know the one about not being able to see the forest for the trees? This is the opposite.  This is the person who spends so long talking about things at a ‘high level’ that they lose touch with what’s really going on in the company.  You need to be able to connect strategy with day-to-day execution.

As Sim acknowledges, some people will look at this list and say ‘that’s not strategy’.  But it will a) make you better at your job, and b) make you appear ‘strategic’ in the eyes of your boss.  So you won’t have to have that conversation again.