Okay business people, I am going to step away from the normal focus on work and talk a little bit about my previous experience as a college football athlete and the way I was introduced to strategic formulation.

When I played high school football, my team had a lackluster win-loss record, but I still have dreams about how we could have been a lot better had our coaches implemented more strategic formulation and planning to prepare us for our competition each week. I also think it would have been beneficial if they could have spent more time teaching us how to be more strategic about the mental part of the game, versus just the physical part of the game.

This is a 2 part series. Go here for part 1: Strategic Planning is For Small Businesses Too - Part 1

If you’re a small business working toward a strategic plan and you commit it all to paper in a short two to five page plan, so much the better! You just moved ahead of many of your competitors. Invite your strongest employees to respond to your strategic issues, concerns and get them involved so they feel some ownership in this simple process. Have a strategy adaptation meeting with all hands twice a year for a couple of hours to clarify the direction, make adjustments and respond to questions.

This is a 2 part series. Go here for part 2: Strategic Planning is For Small Businesses Too - Part 2

Too many people falsely believe that strategic thinking, formulation and implementation is only for the big outfits…you know, the Toyotas, Microsofts, Honeywells, Nokias, and the Exxon Mobils. Our experience, working closely with people from all walks of life and from all sizes of organization, suggest the opposite is true — smaller organizations need to be more devoted to strategic thought and action as much or more than the big players out there.

Have you seen the recent Arby’s restaurant advertisements where people are distracted from their activities because they are thinking about eating at Arby’s? I have always been entertained by these clever ads and recently got a good laugh out of the one featuring two boat drivers who run their water ski team into a ski ramp because they were thinking about food instead of being focused on driving the boat and watching the skiing team.

A strategic leader is good at developing and executing strategy, while a truly great strategic leader is able to inspire and guide their team members at thinking strategically about their own roles and responsibilities. Typically, we think of team members as the people who primarily execute tactical operations and complete pre-determined tasks and assignments. Yet, imagine what your team could accomplish if team members were not only fulfilling their operational responsibilities, but also be strategic within their own areas of contribution. I believe that some excellent strategic leaders may be operating under the notion that strategic thinking and planning is only for them to do. But, I believe that if everyone in the organization was thinking and acting strategically within their own roles and responsibilities—the results would be striking. Here are a few ideas that might help you lead and guide your team members into a mindset of strategic leadership: