Strategic thinking is a critical part of a leader’s role, but here’s the thing; CEOs just don’t have the time for it now.
Talking to leaders today, you hear a familiar story of a squeeze on quality strategic thinking time, or ‘STT’. Various surveys stand this up, with one piece of research revealing that as many as 96% of leaders questioned said they lacked strategic thinking time. When I conducted a small LinkedIn poll of my own recently, more than half of those who took part said they either had no time, or could only find it occasionally.
Does this matter? Yes, it really does. Strategic thinking is how a leadership team shapes a clear direction for their organization. STT enables a leader to take stock of where their business is now, where it wants to be and what it needs to do to get there. And in a fast-moving world, you cannot limit this to the three or five-year cycle of your long-term plan.
During those time frames, challenges and opportunities fly at you thick and fast and the environment in which you’re operating can change quickly. New technologies and work patterns take hold and global events such as pandemics have us throwing out well-laid plans. The agile leader doesn’t stop thinking strategically, and to manage this they must find the time and space regularly and protect it.
Five things to consider for STT
So, how does the leader achieve ‘STT’? Here are five things to consider:
- Empower your team – CEOs are now building company architectures, often flatter structures, that foster an even greater level of autonomy and collaboration. By creating conditions for work that make it possible for your talent to shine, you give yourself breathing space to think about the bigger picture
- Carve out those slots in your diary you can most realistically protect – it could be working from home, early on a Friday morning, for example. Make it easier for yourself to make your STT non-negotiable
- Talk to those with different backgrounds and perspectives – creating the space to talk to people from other worlds can give you opportunities to think differently. Strategic thinking does not always involve being on your own
- Be strategic about being strategic – what’s your journey of strategic thinking going to look like? Don’t be the writer who sits staring at a blank page. Have a plan for your planning
- Get yourself a strategic journal – this could be a blank journal with ‘strategic’ written on the cover. For something a little less ‘boomer’, use a tool like otter.ai to dictate your thoughts. Whatever tool you use, capture your contemplations and then choose an effective way to share them
Being strategic is about identifying the right approaches and sometimes tried and tested formulae won’t cut it. It can mean doing things differently and creatively, but this takes a clear mind with time to think through. For the leader, it is valuable time very well spent.
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