Here’s What It Means to Be Strategic

Dec 1, 2015

This article is part of a series called Editor's Pick.

I often talk about my leadership workshops as helping leaders think and work more strategically.

I was recently talking to a group of middle managers who were eager for development and one brave soul asked me, “Can you define what you mean by ‘strategic’.”

I created this table below to describe and summarize the difference between strategic and non strategic behaviors. Let me know what you think.

Working more strategically

In a nutshell, people who are leading strategically are always recognizing ways to improve, and leading the change to get there.

They realize that not only do they have permission to do this, but that they need to do this.

People who are not working strategically tend to work very hard and wait for others to make new business plans and conceive of better ways to do things.

If you want work more strategically, take more ownership for thinking about what has the most value, and personally lead the change. Don’t wait to be asked.

This article is part of a series called Editor's Pick.

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