Daily Strategic Leadership

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I would like to link my comments to what Matt Fankhauser discussed in his blog entry titled “The Strategic Business Travel” and using strategy on a daily basis. Over the years, I have read, studied, and learned a lot about strategic leadership and how great leader execute strategy for themselves, their team, and the organization. In fact, I think I have done a pretty decent job with strategic formulation and the strategic goals that I set for me or that my teams set. But when it came down to my daily tasks and responsibilities at work and at home, I caught myself saying very “un-strategic” things like: “I should have…” or “If I had thought about it I would have…” or “Why didn’t I think about…”

It primarily happened with the little things I would do. But one day it hit me—why couldn’t I think and act more strategically with day-to-day tasks too? I get great results with strategy at a higher level but why couldn’t I be strategic about everything every day? After trying it out, I discovered that if I step back and look at things with a more strategic mindset then I was less likely to wish I had thought about or done something else.

After some time and effort, it has become a habit and part of how I operate. Now I quickly envision scenarios for my operational actions and tasks and find myself better prepared for contingencies that pop up unexpectedly. An example: I was recently preparing handouts for a regular staff meeting. I was told that there would be 10 participants. As I thought about the upcoming meeting, I remembered that from time to time extra people would voluntarily show up for these sessions just to listen and observe because of the content and topics covered. In the past others who came in unexpectedly would have to share handouts. So in my attempt to improve my strategic leadership, I decided to include a few extra copies anticipating extra people who might show up. Sure enough, two extra people came and instead of wishing I brought more material, I was able to appear prepared and more credible. You might be thinking, “Isn’t this common sense? This blog entry is a joke and I can’t believe I’m reading it!” Well it may be, but if you are like me and you get so caught up in the whirlwind of tactical action it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture or patterns that have emerged.

This simple effort to apply strategy didn’t take a lot of work and it is not as if I changed the entire process of how I do things. It’s just now I look “up” and “out” to see what I might be missing that could open up opportunities and lead to enhanced operational success.