Strategic Leadership

Strategic planning is not just for corporations—lots of my one-on-one coaching work feels like strategy-building for individuals too. And that’s a space I’m curious about—as group activities that also apply to individuals, and vice versa.

So over the next few weeks, I’m going to write about what strategic planning is and isn’t, and I’d invite you to view it through both an individual and collective lens, as I suspect it will apply to both.

The word “strategic” is commonly used but poorly understood, so let’s start there. When I think of a strategic leader, they are someone who can look down a long road and connect that future orientation with what is happening day to day. They hold a high-altitude view (multi-year, whole organization, relevant to the Board, worthy of the CEO’s time) while being able to connect that vision with the operational reality of daily decisions. They can visualize and communicate the destination and a flexible road map to get there.

As you think about becoming more strategic in your leadership (of your team or of your life), do you need more or fewer details in your approach? Big picture thinkers can benefit from more vivid detail, so that the desired destination is more than just a vague sketch, but is a picture that has enough colours and shading that we can clearly see what we’re working towards. More tactical people can see the immediate steps in front of them but need to lift their gaze enough to remember the purpose of the work. They can easily lose the plot of the story as each individual chapter unfolds.

Where do you sit on that strategy continuum these days?

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