Have been thinking of start writing and after long deliberation I make a start. Sharing my thoughts on Strategic thinking. Would love to hear your thoughts... Strategic Thinking - Simplified Managing the Partner Admission Process at one of the Big4 firm has its own perks. In my case, the perks came in the form of a prized position that allowed me ringside view of the way numerous leaders thought and acted. To say that all of them had too many things in common would be to generalize it to the degree which will make this post redundant. Therefore, I must resist that temptation. Having said that, I have thought, long and hard, about what has been the common denominator that successful leaders demonstrate. Here is what I observed: They all demonstrated high strategic thinking. Strategic Thinking is a much used (and abused) word these days. Therefore, through this article I will endeavor to highlight some key attributes of Strategic Thinking: • Be unsure of your future: “I may…. Or... I may not… I don’t know…” Believe you me these leaders were unsure about the distant future – and were okay with it!! The leaders prefer to have their options open and do not like to commit themselves to a too distant future. They do have a vision of the future that they imagine – just that they are prepared to take a turn, course correct as and when future unfolds. Leaders seem to think that the surer you are the lesser strategic you become. When I say this I don’t mean that it’s not good to be sure of things; what I mean is that this surety declines your ability to think beyond the available and thus leads to less strategic thinking. “Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things” – Miyamoto Musashi, legendry Japanese swordsman • Think holistically: “What if…” Strategic thinkers distinguish themselves by their ability to think thorough all, and not some, aspects of any given situation. They ask themselves that what are the other aspects of this situation and how it will impact will it create. Any business objective cannot be accomplished by thinking of revenues and profit only. You ought to think about your people, your customers, the government, the environment we operate in & various stakeholders. So if you wish to develop strategic thinking I suggest that you think hard about the other dimension of any situation. These dimensions may not be visible at first but with conscious efforts you will begin to see it naturally. • Contingency planning – “And here is my plan B, C & D…” Leaders with strategic thinking remains unfettered when things do not go their way. Their ability to be nimble footed comes handy in trying times. They know things does not go their way all of the time and therefore they always have a plan ‘B’ - and plan ‘C’ for that matter. “Lifes battles dont always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.” ― Vince Lombardi • Ability to connect dots: “What becomes of it when I do this….” Strategic thinkers can spot patterns in seemingly unrelated things. They have this uncanny ability to add odd number of triangles to make a square. And this ability emanates from not being master of one but Jack of many trades. One of my friends recently mentioned that how he has discovered that that the principle of Geography “Higher you go… Cooler it becomes” can be applied to business as well. Now, was that obvious? • Define measure of success: “I will be successful when achieve… “ We all want to be successful but not everyone knows how success looks like. Leaders know that what their measures of success are. They know what their stakes are, what the risk is and what their reward is. They exactly know when their objectives would be met and they will be successful. In other words they know what success looks like. Want to add to this list? Feel free to share your thoughts. -Sulbha Kaushal Rai Views expressed are personal.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 15:23:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015