6 Steps to Develop Your Strategic Thinking Skills

 

There is a general perception that strategic thinking skills are hard to obtain and that only senior executives or policymakers need to have a strategic mindset. The truth is that anyone can acquire strategic thinking skills.

I used to be an operations person, and I liked moving things forward and focusing on tactics. I was able to develop the capability of thinking strategically through writing global go-to-market plans. This approach was necessary to enable different marketing functions to work together and numerous country marketing managers to plan and execute their local campaigns.

I learned by asking questions and by fielding others’ questions. I learned to listen and discuss different scenarios with many teams, from sales and product teams to country marketing managers. Also,

I learned to openly discuss worst-case scenarios, such as budget cuts or headcount reductions.

Here are some simple steps that you can follow to develop your strategic thinking skills.

Strategic Thinking

• Definition
• Benefits of Being a Strategic Thinker

Steps to Cultivate Your Strategic Thinking

• Articulate your goals clearly
• Research and identify options to reach those goals
• Analyze the possibilities and risks objectively
• Decide on a course of action based on your research and analysis
• Create an implementation plan
• Adapt and adjust along the way

Definition of Strategic Thinking

When you do a Google search, millions of definitions are out there. Many definitions are abstract, and it isn’t easy to understand how to apply them to our lives and work.

Here are some definition examples I got from the Internet:


1. Strategic thinking means asking, “are we doing the right things?” and evaluating specific requirements…

2. Strategic thinking is to:

• Analyze opportunities and problems
• Take a broad perspective
• Anticipate the potential impact of your actions on others

3. Strategic thinking is the skill of analyzing and conceiving important ideas, decisions, strategies, and plans

For example: how do you define what is the “right” thing? The right thing for one business group in a company may not be a priority for others. What does it mean to take a broad perspective? The 3rd example is to analyze and conceive important ideas. What does it mean to conceive important ideas?

None of the definitions is concrete enough to help us understand strategic thinking. If we can’t clearly articulate it, it’s hard to explain what to do to acquire that skill.

For this article, I define strategic thinking as:

“A thinking process applied by an individual in the context of achieving a goal.”

Note: I am not taking credit for this definition. It comes straight out of Wikipedia. 🙂

Benefits of Being a Strategic Thinker

The definition is concrete and clear. You can apply the ability to think strategically as long as you try to accomplish something or solve a specific problem. If this is the approach we take, we can regularly practice strategic thinking because we face decision-making and problem-solving.

By thoroughly thinking through your options and evaluating them with sound analysis, you can clearly articulate why you make certain decisions to management or your family. As a result, you can influence naysayers’ points of view or persuade management to approve your decisions.

As a business professional, the ultimate benefit of thinking strategically is to demonstrate the ability to articulate a vision. Then, leverage the vision to lead.

Here are the additional benefits of being able to think strategically:

• Help you identify various options to achieve the same goals
• Simplify complex problems by breaking them down into digestible chunks
• Understand the worst-case scenarios to prepare for adverse outcomes
• Quantify risks to prioritize options
• Reduce the margin of errors or chaos
• Embrace and confront unknowns when they happen.

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