Be A Strategic Visionary

Many managers think only about the day-to-day issues, and face unexpected problems in a reactionary rather than proactive mode. To keep a project or an organization on task, you need to view things globally (the big picture), like a general (CEO, senior leaders) surveying the battlefield, observing the major movements and logistics, and developing a battle plan. And leaving the fighting in the trenches (the details) to the majors, captains, sergeants (the managers).

By being a strategic visionary, you can have a panoramic view of the way things are and a sense of how changes can affect your situation, as well as question the prevailing presumptions and identify patterns.

Use It or Lose It
Thinking strategically is like most skills: It improves with use; it declines with disuse. Try the following to develop this skill.

1. Think strategic questions. Get the big picture, then ask the broad, long-range questions. Use your curiosity and imagination asking questions like “What would our project look like in the next quarter?“ “What can our company change to increase productivity?” It requires playing the “What ifs” — What if cancer is cured? What if some aspect of our business becomes government regulated or outlawed? Nobody knows the answers, but good strategists know the questions.

2. Follow the Visionaries. See how strategic visionaries do their magic. What’s their methodologies in creating the big picture? What questions are raised? How are issues dealt with? What are the dynamics along group participants? How do they speak? Do you know the latest strategic buzzwords? Read these words that are in strategic gurus’ books, in Harvard Business Review, and Strategy and Leadership (a publication of the Strategic Leadership Forum). Every discipline has its lexicon. Sometimes you learn more from watching and listening.

3. Study the past. Find a company event that could have used strategic thinking and imagine 10 alternative possibilities that could have been used. Go over as much information as you can find to flesh out the 10.

4. Study the latest. Stay current with the latest research and findings. Go to conferences, read trade papers/magazines (e.g., Wall Street Journal, Fortune, HBR, The Economist), join workgroups. Track a single issue or trend to see as many sides of it as you can.

5. Test the future. Apply your strategic mind-set to future scenarios for your company. Ask: How is this similar to something you are doing? How could you use some of your insights?

Steering the Future
There are more people in organizations that are good at producing results in the short-term than there are visionary strategists. Said another way, these are the individuals that can take a hill rather than predict accurately which hill it would be best to take.

Team members and others in your work environment may not think strategically, so be a strategic visionary. Get those around you to follow your lead, and you can enhance their ability to think strategically. Your company’s future successes can be greatly influenced by you and like-minded employees.

Direct Reports: Your Staff
– Involve direct reports in situations requiring strategic thinking.
– Role model strategic-thinking behaviors.
– Show your value of strategic thinking by rewarding it.

Managing Across: Your Peers
– Share relevant research findings and articles. Read widely: e.g., Sloan Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Business Week. Join Strategic Leadership Forum and read their publication, Strategy and Leadership.
– Ask questions to challenge conventional thinking.

Managing Up: Your Boss and Senior Leaders
– Model the strategic thinking behaviors you have observed.
– Sell them on a decision you have made which involved making projections of several variables at once to see how they came together. Projections should be in the context of shifting markets, international affairs, monetary movements, government intervention.
– Ask “What If” questions to enhance the quality of decision making.