How important is strategic behavior?
Strategic behavior — the ability to think and act with long-term intent — separates exceptional leaders from merely competent ones. It can be developed with deliberate focus.
Most leaders claim to be strategic, but few carve out deliberate time for long-range thinking—those who do consistently outperform, while the rest are trapped in the tyranny of urgent execution.
First: what is strategic behavior? Taking a long-range approach to problem-solving. Create value by thinking systematically and further into the future. Use objective data to reach decisions. Look at issues from different angles: employees, clients, suppliers, society. Differentiate between urgent and important. Think in scenarios.
Key takeaways
- You can sharpen your strategic behavior by deliberately setting aside four to ten days per year for long-range thinking, scenario planning, and objective analysis—don’t let daily execution crowd out this critical time.
- Leaders who systematically shift between strategic thinking and disciplined execution, while maintaining deep trust with their key people, consistently drive the most sustainable business results and avoid costly pitfalls.
- Strategic thinking is not an innate talent but a trainable skill; just like building muscle at the gym, you must push through initial discomfort and practice regularly to develop this essential leadership capability.
In my work with leadership teams, we often address the challenge between strategy and execution: how to strike the right balance between the two. Of course, having a great strategy has no value without great execution. But only focusing on execution is not advisable either. If you don’t know where you are going, you bite your own tail.
For the success of the organization, it’s critical to spend time on both. But not in equal parts! Sometimes we say in our workshops: spend four to ten days per year on strategy and divide the rest of your time between execution (the WHAT) and working with your people (the HOW). Of course, this is an oversimplification of reality. But it gives some guidance.
In my experience, business leaders that can change gears between a strategic approach and a laser sharp focus on disciplined execution, are most effective. If they combine this with a strong basis of trust with their key people, that’s when I see the magic happening for a business! I do. These leaders know what’s really going on with their people. This enables them to avoid certain negative things to happen.
So, three areas to focus on as business leader.
Strategy
Execution
People
Strategy Now, back to strategy. It's important to understand that strategic thinking is not a gift from mother nature. Of course, some people are better at it then others. But it’s mostly a behavior that can be learned. Compare it with going to the gym. The first four sessions your body resists. It feels uncomfortable. Your body says: NO! Strategic thinking is similar! Your brain must get used to it! The good news is: you can train it.
We know from research that strategic behavior is the biggest differentiator for high performing business leaders. Strategy is even more important than other important behaviors such as communication, execution or empathy.
Where to begin? Look in the mirror! You simply cannot allow yourself to be constantly overwhelmed by emails and back-to-back meetings. Next, learn to compartmentalize your time. Divide your time between Execution, People and Strategy. But remember, strategy does not have to be super time-consuming. However, it will not work if you’re constantly exhausted. So, 1: Start to carve out time for strategy. Then, 2: decide for yourself which actions you’re going to take to train your strategic muscles.
Sustainable results come from leaders who systematically shift between strategic foresight and disciplined execution; strategy isn’t innate, it’s built—one deliberate day, one scenario, one hard decision at a time.
Over to you.