At some point in your career there's a good chance someone will tell you that you need to be more strategic. Whether they can actually articulate what they mean is another matter

If you've been given that feedback but you're not sure where to start, this week's episode breaks down how to demonstrate to others that you have the ability to think strategically

Key points from this episode

• Defining 'being strategic' - the difference between strategic thinking and strategic planning
• Working out whether you need to develop your strategic thinking ability, demonstrate it better or a bit of both
• Practical strategies to better demonstrate the strategic thinking ability you already have

Related Episode

What to do when you're told to be more strategic

Useful Links

Connect with Pam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelalangancoaching/

Connect with Jacqui on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqui-jagger/

Follow the Catalyst Careers LinkedIn page for career tips and advice

Interested in working with us?

Get in touch about career or leadership development, outplacement workshops or recruitment support via the Catalyst Careers website

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Hello and welcome to this week's episode.

2

Today we are sharing five ways that

you can demonstrate strategic thinking.

3

And the reason we've decided to do

this is because we know that lots of

4

our clients and lots of our listeners

will be told that they need to be

5

more strategic or they need to think

more strategic within their roles.

6

So what we wanted to do is give you

five ways that you can demonstrate that.

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And if this is something that you

know, you need to work on, then this

8

is going to be brilliant for you.

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And if this is something that you're

thinking I already know how to do it.

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I just need to demonstrate it

a lot more in the workplace.

11

Then this is definitely for you too.

12

So Jackie.

13

get us started on this because we

know this comes up a lot, doesn't it?

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And we get a lot of messages

about this and we speak to

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lots of clients about this.

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So where do we start?

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Jacqui: So I think the first place

to start is this happens a lot.

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So first of all, don't worry if you are

told that you need to be more strategic.

19

It is feedback that pretty much

every senior leader will have had

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at some point in their career.

21

And it often comes up at the time

where you were making that step from

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manager level up to a leader level role.

23

And people are terrible at being able to

give you hints or tips or specifics around

24

what does be more strategic actually mean.

25

So we're going to define

what we mean by it.

26

And we're going to talk about

when you need to demonstrate it

27

versus when you need to develop it.

28

We'll share those tips on how to

demonstrate the ability you already

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have, because for most people,

once they hear the definitions and

30

distinctions, they recognize that they

probably have more of that capability

31

than they might be demonstrating.

32

Pam: Yeah.

33

And that's the thing, isn't it?

34

With strategic thinking or being

more strategic, when you get that

35

feedback often, you don't really

know what to do with that feedback.

36

Do you, it's the person delivering

that feedback obviously knows, but if

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you're not sure, and you've not been

able to ask them or unpack it with

38

them, then if they're giving you that

feedback, then it's good for you to start

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thinking, okay what do I need to do?

40

Okay, so some of the definitions

then relating to strategic thinking.

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Where was we start with the definitions?

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Jacqui: So I define these as strategic

thinking is the first part of the process.

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You've got strategic thinking

and strategic planning.

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And those are the things that happen

before you take action that guide and

45

direct what action you might take.

46

So strategic is about being able

to achieve the goals that you

47

want to achieve with the resources

that are available to you.

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And the thinking piece is

considering different options,

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ideas, potential solutions, and

being able to weigh those up.

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And then the plan is about taking that

thinking and almost building a bridge

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between that and the action taking.

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So it's putting that together cohesively

and the planning is not something

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that you do once and that's it.

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Strategic planning is

something that gets refined.

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So for me, strategic often means

longer range, it often means

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considering different perspectives,

the classic example is big picture

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thinking is strategic, but again,

that's not really specific enough

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to be able to do much with it.

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It's core.

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It's about being able to consider how

do I get the results that I need with

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the resources that are available to me?

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And how do I consider different

alternatives and different ways

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to go about it that I might

then want to put into my plan?

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Pam: Yeah, and I think that's a

great way to break it down there

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because there is that real kind

of fear around I feel around being

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strategic because what do I need to do?

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How much detail do I need to go into?

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And actually, is it about the detail or is

it more about the bigger picture thinking?

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But if you're not sure where to go with

it, you can get yourself tied up in so

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many knots around what it is and it isn't.

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So I think that is brilliant that

you've broken it down there and you

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can see the difference in the thinking

and the planning aspects around that.

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Okay then, so in terms of developing

strategic thinking or demonstrating

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strategic thinking, obviously there's a

difference there as well, isn't there?

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Depending on where you're

up to in your career.

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So what is the difference?

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Jacqui: This is a great question

for people to ask themselves because

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before you can demonstrate it, before

you can get other people to perceive

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you as being more strategic, you need

to know whether or not it's simply

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a case of showing the capability you

already have or whether it's actually

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something that you need to develop.

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So there are some questions that you

can ask yourself to think, is this

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an area that I need to develop in?

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So do you find it easy to link short

term actions to long term goals?

85

Do you tend to naturally see

longer range, bigger opportunities?

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Do you tend to foresee obstacles and have

contingency plans that are associated

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with those, or do you tend to be quite

in the here and now and the day to day

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and all of that operational firefighting?

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Do you naturally weigh up risks?

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Do you naturally see patterns in data?

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Do you naturally have that ability

to take a calculated risk and accept

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that things may not always work out,

or do you find that quite difficult?

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And if you're listening to that and

recognizing that you need to develop your

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strategic ability, that's totally fine.

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We've got another episode that we

can link to in the show notes that

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will have some hints with that.

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The thing that we're talking

about here is more where you're

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listening to those questions and

thinking yeah, I can do that.

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I know I can do that, but other

people are still telling me that

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I need to be more strategic.

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That's the time where you're looking

at how are people perceiving you

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and how do you shape that perception

by demonstrating more of that

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capability that you already have.

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Pam: Yeah, and I think

that's the key, isn't it?

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So I suppose if we look at the

five ways that we can demonstrate

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or our listeners can demonstrate

that the strategic thinkers.

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What would be number one for you?

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Jacqui: Number one is one that we

have talked about numerous times in

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different episodes on the podcast.

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This is block off strategic thinking time

and protect it, ruthlessly protect it.

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Because a big part of why you may not

come across as having the strategic

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capacity that you know you have is because

people see more of that operational,

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the day to day, they see you as a

troubleshooter, they see you as a fixer,

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you can handle whatever's thrown at

them, but they're not seeing you perhaps

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bring some of that bigger thinking

into the conversations that you have.

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So you cannot expect that you

will have these amazing strategic

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thoughts at the same time as

you are doing the firefighting.

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You've got to create that time

and that capacity for yourself.

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And this comes again, what we've talked

about before, to what environment do

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you do your best thinking is often

very different to the environment

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where you do your best doing.

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So you will often do better thinking

in a quieter environment, in a more

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creative environment away from the day

to day role than you will either in an

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office or working from home with 17 tabs

on your browser and a team's meeting

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that you've got to get to in 20 minutes.

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Pam: Yeah, and I think that is one

of the things that I found within

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my own career that really helped me

blocking off that strategy time, but

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also doing it at a time where I knew

I could really dedicate some thought

129

to that time as well, because Yeah.

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If I plan that in, for example, on

a Monday morning, when everything's

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go there's absolutely no chance that

I'm going to get any thinking done.

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People are going to be coming to my desk.

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People are going to be

knocking on the office door.

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Do you know, there's going to be

a whole range of things going on.

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So what I used to do is block off

the whole of Friday afternoon.

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And that was my strategic thinking

time, because I knew there

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Friday afternoons were quieter.

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I knew that I could then go for lunch

and then ease into that time so that

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I wasn't just kinds of going from

one task straight into that, because

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I knew that didn't work for me, that

wouldn't help me to think, or, to come

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up with ideas and things like that.

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So I would get everything else out

of the way on Friday morning, go for

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lunch, and then go into that strategic

thinking time, which was really helpful.

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really useful.

145

And I would get lots and lots

of stuff done during that time.

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Lots of thinking, loads of

ideas, get it all documented.

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And then I was able to then run with

it the following week or put it into

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whatever plan it needed to go into.

149

And I think that worked

really well for me.

150

And that's what I also advise my clients

to do, to pick the time that is going

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to work best for them rather than just

shoehorning it into your calendar.

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It's like really thinking about energy

levels and times when you know it

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will be quieter in the office or you

can take yourself off and you won't

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have loads of people looking for

you because it's a real busy time.

155

It's just thinking about that as

well, and almost being strategic

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around that strategic thinking time.

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Jacqui: It really is.

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I think another thing that really helped

me was to prepare for that time by

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almost creating myself a thinking agenda.

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I would put things that I needed to give

some deeper thought to, I would put that

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almost as an agenda for myself because

otherwise I think it can be quite weird.

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I used to do it where I would

work from home just on a day a

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week, a day, a fortnight, a long

time before hybrid was a thing.

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And I used to find that if I.

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just work from home without having a

specific agenda or things, problems that I

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wanted to solve or things that I wanted to

give thought to, then I fell back into the

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habits of answering emails, taking phone

calls, doing all of those other things.

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But when I came through the week

and thought, Oh, I need to give

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some proper thought to that.

170

If I wrote those things into that

agenda for myself, then when I came

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to the day, I might have three, four,

five things that I wanted to be able

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to think about or ponder or research,

and that then gave me the structure

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for how to use the time when I had it.

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I think that's really important because

otherwise if you just work in a different

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environment and haven't prepared and

don't have those problems that you want

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to solve or projects that you want to

kick off or things that you want to do

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some thinking about, then the risk is that

you've just changed your environment, but

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you haven't changed your actual routine.

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Pam: Yeah, and I totally agree with

that and one of the things that I also

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did was had a section in my planner

where I would write down those things

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because sometimes they come in and

they can go straight back out your

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brain and you'll forget about them.

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And having that almost that list or

that agenda on what you're going to

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cover in that section of the week.

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And I used to.

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When things used to come to me, I

used to think, is this a Friday task?

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Is this my strategy time task?

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And then I would add it to the list.

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And then when that time comes

around, it is so much easier to

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have something to work through.

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And I actually still do that now.

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And it works really

well in my business too.

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What is number two then?

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What is the second thing

that people can think about?

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Jacqui: Number two is being

the person to zoom out.

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And what I mean by that is when you're

in a meeting, the number of times that

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a discussion can be very bogged down in

tactics, in what are we going to do This

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week or what comes next or pros and cons

that can become about personal opinion.

199

If you are the person to zoom

out, what that means is you remind

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people to connect the here and

now with the longer term vision.

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So it might be talking about what's this

in aid of what problem are we trying to

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solve so that I can give my perspective on

which I think how they weigh up, remind me

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what problem are we trying to solve here?

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If we zoom out and look at the

objectives that we've got as a

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function or as a department or as a

business, how does this fit into that?

206

So you become the person that

reminds other people not to get

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blinkers and short range vision.

208

And you become the person completely

reminds other people of the Of this longer

209

timeframe of the bigger picture of the

goals and objectives that these day to

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day resources are being directed towards.

211

Pam: Yeah, definitely.

212

And I think as you said zoom out,

I was thinking zone out, especially

213

depending on the meeting that you're in.

214

But that's a podcast for another

day, but in terms of zooming out,

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I do think that is something that

really makes you stand out as well.

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Within those meetings as somebody

who is strategic, somebody that's

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not going to get mixed up in all

of that lower level tactical stuff,

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because that's not what the focus is.

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And I think when you're in a

meeting with somebody that has the

220

ability to really zoom out and go

what are we actually focusing on?

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What is the purpose of what

we're trying to achieve?

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It really does stand out.

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And I think that also links in with

personal branding as well, because if you

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can be the person that can really zoom

out and show that you are that strategic

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thinker, then I think that ties in really

nicely with your personal brand and

226

how you're coming across as the senior

leader or as a leader who was trying

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to progress within that organization.

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Jacqui: It adds so much value.

229

It really does because it is so easy for

people to get caught up in the day to day.

230

If you're in marketing and people

are debating, should you be on

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Facebook or should you be on TikTok?

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The point is, Who knows, because what

goal is it we're trying to achieve?

233

What problem are we trying to solve?

234

What is this campaign in aid of?

235

You need that longer range.

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You need that bigger picture to know

the answer to some of these things.

237

So it can add value and it can

also ease frustration because your

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temptation, if you keep that strategic

thought inside your head, you

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might know, this is the reason why.

240

But you just get caught up in that

discussion or debate about pros and

241

cons of one approach versus another.

242

If you're that person that zooms out,

what you do is get other people directed

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back to the reason why you have the stance

that you do and why you're proposing

244

the solutions that you're proposing.

245

So it helps to add value to the business

and it helps to bring people back to

246

the understanding of why what you're

proposing makes sense in that context.

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Pam: Yeah, there's so much

behind that, isn't there?

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There's so much in almost developing that.

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As a skill yourself, it's something

that you do need to practice because

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it is easy to get sucked in, isn't it?

251

We've all been in those meetings and you

get sucked in and next minute, time's up

252

or the meetings gone over or people are

getting frustrated within that meeting.

253

And I think it's a real skill

that you can start to develop.

254

I don't think it's something

that just, can come naturally.

255

So maybe it can to some people, but I

do think it's something that you need

256

to really start thinking, I am going

to do this and start using it and start

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practicing it to make it feel more

natural as an approach for yourself.

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Jacqui: Yeah, definitely becomes

more natural the more you do it.

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Pam: Okay, so number three

then what is the third tip?

260

Jacqui: I love this one.

261

This hit hard for me when I first

heard it, and it's be fixed on your

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goals and flexible on your approach.

263

And so often we get this arse about

face and we get really tied into

264

doing the things in the order.

265

We've got a plan.

266

We're going to do this and do this

and people get fixed on the methods

267

and on the approach and lose sight.

268

So it really follows on from

what we were just talking about.

269

But the point with strategy

and with strategic planning.

270

Like I said earlier, it's

not that it's something that

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you do it once and that's it.

272

Things will change.

273

New information will come to light.

274

A plan can only be as good as it can

be at the point that you create it

275

with the information that's available

and known to you at that time.

276

And if you are someone who is continually

learning, continually developing,

277

continually taking on board feedback

and new data, of course, over time,

278

some of that will create the situation

where that plan needs to change.

279

So it's about that constant reminder that

the goal and the outcome is the bit that

280

is fixed, but you have to be adaptive.

281

You have to be willing to flex and to

shift and to adopt that willingness

282

to shift in the context of, based

on what we know now, this is the

283

best way to get from here to there.

284

Pam: Yeah, and I think

that's key, isn't it?

285

And I absolutely love that,

that you're fixed on the goal

286

but flexible on the approach.

287

Because we all get tied up,

don't we, in, in that detail.

288

And it's good to have that

as almost a motto, isn't it?

289

We're fixed on the goal but

we're flexible on the approach.

290

We need to achieve this specific

thing and, it doesn't matter how we

291

do it, but we're going to achieve it.

292

And I think once you take that pressure

off, it makes it so much easier to

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be able to move forward as a team,

as a department to achieve things.

294

So number four then, so number four

is getting into more of the, the

295

risks and the opportunities isn't it?

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So what is the fourth

thing that people can do?

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Jacqui: So this is really considering

and bringing into other people's view,

298

the risks and opportunities that are

associated with the external environment.

299

So you need to be aware of what might

happen if of different scenarios of

300

different things that could happen.

301

And some of those are more

predictable and some of them less so.

302

And when you are the person who is aware

of that and aware of more of the external

303

environment, then you can bring that into

your communication and your approach.

304

And you can talk about opportunities

that might come up because of external

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changes, because of legislation change

that might be coming up because of.

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Things like AI is a great example of this.

307

If you're the person that's aware of, the

progress of AI and then talking about how

308

can we as a business or how can we as a

function mitigate the risk associated with

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widespread adoption of AI and how can we

create opportunity for ourselves with it?

310

Then you're getting ahead as opposed to

scrambling to react once that situation

311

has shown itself so much in your

face that you can't avoid it anymore.

312

So again, it's bringing your awareness of

what's going on and bringing that to other

313

people's attention and posing some of that

thought around risks and opportunities

314

that really highlights bigger picture over

here, something's going to be changing.

315

Does that give us opportunity to do

more with the resources we've got?

316

Does it give us an opportunity to

achieve a better result or achieve a

317

result more quickly or more easily?

318

Or does it present a risk or an obstacle

that we need a contingency plan for?

319

Pam: Yeah.

320

And I think that's also a really key

part is in it of being strategic and

321

developing that strategic ability.

322

Okay then, so Number five, this is

going to be the key one, isn't it?

323

We've looked at all of the things

that you can do, but number five

324

what is the final thing that

people can do to be more strategic?

325

Jacqui: It's the final one for our list.

326

Cause as ever, our lists are picked

from many things we could have

327

included, but For two coaches, it's

not surprising that number five

328

is ask more powerful questions.

329

And the reason that we've included

this is that it really ties together

330

a lot of those earlier ones.

331

So it really think about the questions

you ask of yourself and the way

332

that you ask questions of yourself.

333

Think about the questions that you pose

within meetings, within interactions

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with others, and you don't need to

be the talker to be demonstrating

335

your strategic thinking ability.

336

You don't need to have the answers.

337

I think sometimes people feel

that demonstrating their strategic

338

thought means they have to have

come up with this strategic plan.

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And here you go, aren't I brilliant.

340

Now I've demonstrated it, but actually

in asking some simple, but powerful

341

questions, you provoke discussion, you

provoke debate, you encourage other

342

people to stay fixed on the goals

and stay flexible on the approach.

343

So it's a different way.

344

And again, eases pressure on you to be

the one with all the answers, because

345

just by asking some of those questions,

you're automatically showing that

346

you're considering things or wondering

what might happen if in a way that

347

someone that doesn't have that strategic

thinking ability doesn't necessarily do.

348

Pam: Yeah, and I think that again,

it's another key part of it isn't it

349

because you will be noticed as somebody

who is more strategic, just by the

350

questions that you ask and how you

conduct yourself in those meetings.

351

And I think it's something that people

do worry about as well because when

352

you're in those meetings and when

you're the senior leader or you are a

353

leader generally, or I think even in

some cases where you are trying to be

354

promoted to those leadership roles.

355

You want to be seen as somebody

who is knowledgeable, somebody

356

that does have all the answers.

357

And I think, when I look at my

own leadership approach and other

358

people that I've worked for, who

I've thought are great leaders, it's

359

more about being open, isn't it?

360

And it's more about asking those

questions, the right questions

361

to get the right answers.

362

And you don't need to have all of the

answers yourself, but you need to be

363

able to ask the questions that get those

thoughts moving in the right direction

364

that bring the ideas to the table.

365

And I think if you can do that and you

can get into the habit of doing that,

366

and not feeling bad if you don't have all

the answers, but just staying curious.

367

I think the key, one of the keys

to being a great leader is to be

368

curious, is to ask those questions.

369

And I think that links in, really

nicely with being a great leader

370

who also can think strategically.

371

Jacqui: It really does.

372

It's not about being the

brightest in the room.

373

It's about facilitating

other people's brilliance.

374

That's the point.

375

And you don't have to

have all the answers.

376

I learned loads about strategic

thinking from a boss of mine who was

377

an entrepreneur who had started her own

business, growing it really successfully.

378

And some of the questions that she used

to ask, I still ask now of myself, of

379

clients, because they were really helpful

for unlocking a different way of thinking.

380

And one of the things that she always

did was she had this innate assumption.

381

There must be a way to solve a problem

that always is there must be a way.

382

So what is it?

383

That for me was incredibly powerful.

384

And I remember once with a particular

problem, her saying, okay, if you don't

385

know what the answer is, what would

need to happen to make this possible?

386

So when people felt that it wasn't

possible, she just shifted that

387

question to say what would need

to change to make it possible.

388

And straight away, it was Oh if

there was this, if there was more

389

budget, if there was this, so all

of a sudden it wasn't impossible.

390

It's just that you realize what

limitations you'd put on your own thinking

391

when you just seemed that it wasn't.

392

Yeah, it really is incredibly powerful to

ask yourself some of those questions and

393

to shift in the way that you're thinking.

394

But the biggest shift is not having

to be the one with all the answers.

395

Pam: I think for people listening,

that thought of, I don't need to have

396

all the answers for some will be like,

this is exactly what I needed to hear.

397

And for others, there might be that

fear factor where they're thinking

398

I do need to know all the answers.

399

I do need to be seen as somebody who

is knowledgeable and that's fine.

400

You also can start to think about

being more strategic and bringing other

401

people almost into the conversation,

bringing other people into the room and

402

like you say, using their brilliance

to really drive the business forward.

403

I think that is, that's probably the

key thing is an out of all of this.

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It's not just creating a

bottleneck with yourself.

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It's about looking at what everyone

else can bring to the table.

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It's probably a good point to mention as

well, that if your leaders need support

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with developing or demonstrating strategic

thinking or ability, then get in touch

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with us because this is definitely

something that we can help with.

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We run workshops on this topic.

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And we also work with individuals as well.

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So we can work with your teams or we

can work with your individual leaders.

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So if this is something that you think

this could really help my team or somebody

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in my team, then drop us a message.

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And then we can give you all of the

information around how we can help.

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And as usual if you've enjoyed this

episode, please do share it with

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anyone else that you think might

also find it useful or enjoyable.

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And don't forget to rate and review

us on your favorite podcast platforms.

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And we'll be back next

week with another episode.