Becoming a strategic leader might be easier than you think
Anyone at any level of seniority can lead strategically. Senior leaders may have larger stakes, more resources, and bigger consequences, but entry-level managers also play a crucial role in a complex business environment. Here are some steps you can use to be a strategic leader anywhere in your organization.
Strategic leaders understand the vision.
Don’t make the mistake of entangling strategy with vision. Sometimes the same person sets both, but often that’s not the case. When we make that assumption, it makes strategy seem unattainable for lower-level leaders. In reality, a director gets the company vision from the C-Suite. That leader should then have the leeway to figure out how and where their team will win. Every team leader can use the big picture vision to draft their team’s mission and then put together a micro-strategy to make that mission happen. If you don’t understand the organizational vision, ask. Senior leadership owes this to the organization leaders at all levels!
Know the strategic landscape.
Myriad tools exist to help get a clear picture of the competition, from Blue Ocean Strategy to the 7 Powers framework. They are all good. Pick one or mix and match. Whatever you do, you have to understand where you have advantages and where your competition won’t want to compete because they can’t or because it costs too much for them to try.
Create a strategic approach to compete and win.
With a clear vision and an understanding of where to compete and how to win, strategic leaders create and communicate a plan. A good plan should include:
The crux – Outline the most important challenge or constraint that the team should focus on to enable success in every other area. For more, read The Crux.
Clear priorities – People on your team should not wonder what should be done first or what opportunity costs to accept. Your strategy should clearly prioritize how to spend limited time and resources.
Clear boundaries – Communicate what you have decided to cut out by committing to the strategy you chose. Maybe your focus is on customer service, so you will not consider low-cost options. Maybe you want to compete on novel content, so using AI to write articles is off limits. Clearly communicate these strategic boundaries so that your people can innovate within the guardrails.
Nested operations and tactics – Your strategy determines the focus of your effort, where you will compete, and what you will prioritize. Once the big picture is set, you will want to break down the operations and tactics. Operational leaders focus on executing the daily steps to success, and that is a separate talent. Clearly communicate daily tactics and monthly/quarterly KPIS and let your team execute. A great resource for better understanding the transition from vision to operations is the book Playing to Win.
Stay a few steps ahead.
Once your team is executing operational leadership, it is time for you to rise above the surface and start scanning for what’s next. Did your competitor react as you anticipated, or do you need to alter course? Has your boss shifted the vision? Why? Are other teams and departments reaping benefits from your team or receiving unintended consequences?
It is easy to get sucked into the daily rhythm, especially when your team faces setbacks or achieves small wins. A good strategic leader avoids that pull and stays ahead of the game. That allows your team to respond thoughtfully to changes instead of reacting in the dreaded firefighting mode.
How to know if you are leading strategically
Your team has a clear plan.
People appreciate a strategic leader because strategy leads to a plan. You can demonstrate this by sharing the plan, pointing out the issues you anticipate, and asking for feedback on the plan from people on your team. Having a plan increases team efficacy, which is a key driver of team effectiveness!
Your people feel like they are set up to win.
When you are not trying to figure out what to do in the moment, people will feel like you have given them the edge to succeed. We often work with clients who describe the stress of constantly ‘firefighting.’ When there is no clear strategy, everything becomes a priority, and your team has to react to every new piece of information like it matters as much as the last. When a team has a strategic leader, they can focus on the important things and respond to the rest when the time is right. You can use the Eisenhower Matrix to help drive this clarity.
Your people leverage strengths against your competitors.
Your people will be hyper clear on your strengths and how to leverage them against your competitors. This means your people will find ways to win even without your specific direction, and those small wins compound.
How to know if you are leading strategically
Strategic leaders do not have to be executives. Anyone can lead with a clear sense of vision and an effective approach to accomplish the mission. Anyone can consider the context and competitors and then plan for what others might do in response to their approach. Anyone can connect their actions to the rest of the organizational movements. Clear guidance on priorities benefits everyone in an organization.
Organizations with more people leading strategically at every level will grow faster, and perhaps those leaders will find themselves in executive ranks more quickly, too!
Strategy Resource LIst
What is Strategy? – Seminal HBR article by Michael Porter. Start here!
Blue Ocean Strategy – A great HBR article about the concept of blue ocean strategy. Read for ideas on how to create new value.
7 Powers Summary – Good article outlining ways you can make it difficult or unappealing to copy your strategy.
Build Strategy to Address Your Gnarliest Challenge – A different approach to defining strategy around the most difficult or important challenge you face.
Clausewitz on Strategy – An article from Columbia Business School linking military strategy to business strategy.
Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? – A useful HBR article to help you draft a succinct strategy for your entire organization to execute.
Strategic Thinking – AOM Podcast episode about how to think strategically.
The Art of Strategy – AOM Podcast about using game theory to execute strategy.
Grand Strategy – AOM Podcast with an alternate approach to strategy from historical examples.
Competitive Strategy – Book by Michael Porter on how to compete in business with a great strategy.
Understanding Michael Porter – Much more accessible book breaking down the ideas in Competitive Strategy.
7 Powers – Book by Hamilton Helmer about how to gain and keep a strategic advantage.
The Art of Strategy – Book by Dixit & Nalebuff about game theory.
On Grand Strategy – Book by John Lewis Gaddis about how strategic leaders think.
