Everyday Strategic Leadership: Decoding “You Need to Be More Strategic”
As I mentioned last week, Everyday Strategic Leadership started when a client was told that he needed to be more strategic, and he asked me, “What does that even mean?”
Perhaps the first thing I learned in researching for the book was that my client wasn’t the only one confused—not just by the concept of being strategic but also what it should look like day-to-day. So, when I interviewed people about their perspectives on strategic leadership, I started there. When people in your organization say that someone needs to be more strategic, what are they thinking?
The first insight was that most people had to think about it for a while. The most frequent response to the question was, “Hmmm.” A close second was, “What do you mean by ‘strategic’?”
The second insight was that everyone had a different answer! The variation in their answers reflected the fact that “strategic” is a term of art, and different organizations have their own definitions of the concept.
Still, when people are told they need to be more strategic, it is usually a form of these directives:
Pay More Attention to Companywide Results: “While you’re still responsible for your team’s results, you should also consider the overall bottom line. You should align your team’s work directly with the organization’s strategy.”
Take a Longer Time Horizon: “At your current level of seniority, we expect that you will rely on the team to handle the day-to-day and week-to-week execution and instead spend your time on improvement and what is around the corner.”
Pay More Attention to the External Environment: “It is not clear how the strategies you propose relate to what’s happening outside our company–i.e., with customers, competitors, suppliers, and other stakeholders.”
Collaborate Cross-Functionally: “You should work across organizational boundaries to get things done.”
Use More Structured Thinking: “It is unclear what assumptions, frameworks, or data you use to make decisions, so they come across as haphazard or intuitive rather than logical and strategic.”
Communicate More Effectively: “When discussing your team’s work, it can be difficult to understand how it fits our overall strategy, making it seem unfocused.”
Because the underlying messages behind the feedback vary, the first advice I now give is that people should ask clarifying questions to understand the feedback giver’s intent and ask for specific behaviors that would constitute “strategic” in their organizational culture.
Beyond strategic leadership, that’s probably good advice for any feedback. A behavior that’s deemed ideal in a “move fast and break things” company culture might be seen as reckless in a “measure twice, cut once” culture. Spending time tinkering with moonshot ideas may be seen as smart in some cultures, and a waste of time in others.
There’s no universally defined “good” or “bad” when it comes to leadership. There’s only good and bad relative to the role, business context, and cultural expectations.