How To Get Better At Strategic Leadership

So many of us know that as leaders and business owners, we need to be more strategic with our days, weeks, months and years.
 
We know we need to spend more time on big picture thinking, thinking about where our market is going, thinking about how to solve our clients’ problems in a new and unique way, thinking about and forward planning for the pipeline of work coming in the door and making sure the team and the people around us are performing to the best of their ability.
 
So why do so many of us find it difficult or get uncomfortable when we think about or even go to take some time out of our weeks to stop and think creatively and strategically?
 
The answer lies in the conflict in your mind between the different parts of your personality.
 
Let me explain.
 
You see, you have different parts of your personality that want different things for you.
 
You have a driver / achiever part of your personality that only ever wants you to be actioning things, ticking things off your to-do list and to keep things moving. This part of your personality is only ever concerned about short-term goals, short-term gains and getting things done.
 
You then have a different part of your personality which is the strategic thinking part of your personality. This part of your personality likes to think big picture, likes to think creatively, likes to think outside of the box and likes to look for new and innovative ways to do things.
 
So you logically know, as a leader or business owner, that you need to spend more time in the strategic thinking part of your personality. But when you go to do this and go to take the time out of your day or your week to spend time away from your team or business to get strategic, you’ll always find a justification or a reason why not to.
 
That’s because this driving and achieving part of your personality doesn’t care about strategic thinking. It doesn’t care about big picture thinking. It doesn’t care about what’s happening in 6, 12 or 18 months’ time. It only ever cares about short-term actions, ticking things off the to-do list and getting stuff done.
 
So the real reason you haven’t been thinking strategically and taking the time out to think creatively about where you’re taking things, is because you’ve got conflicting parts of your personality pulling you in different directions.
 
So now that you are aware of this internal conflict between these different parts of your personality, you can start to become much more equipped to deal with this conflict when it arises.
 
You can become much more conscious about when you go to leave the office or to create the time and space to get away and think strategically or creatively or to go and sit on a hill somewhere with a coffee and just think - and you start to feel the conflict in your system from your achiever / driver wanting you to stay in the office and get stuff done - you can then choose to override this part of you.
 
You can then CHOOSE to step into creating the time and the space in your days and weeks to get away and think strategically in order to become WAY more effecting at growing your team and growing your business.
 
Josh 'Get Strategic' Stone

PS: If you’re interested, here are 4 ways I can help you right now:

1. Join the Leaders In Engineering community designed specifically for leaders and business owners

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2. Download our FREE PDF guide – “How To Build A High Performing & Highly Profitable Engineering Team”

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