One of the constants in over 20 years of executive coaching is the desire and need to build the muscle needed to develop and execute competitive and innovative strategies. Another customer came this month. Here's a brief outline of what I suggested to him, with a few modifications, on five ways to build strategic muscle.
with a long-term vision: Think in terms of years and decades, not quarters or years. What are your views on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for both your industry and your company? How does that analysis inform what your vision is for the future and what your organization needs to do to skate to where the puck is?
Take the time to learn from your key customers: A series of listening tour visits and conversations with key customers. What are their goals, concerns, opportunities, and threats? What can you do to help your business capitalize on its goals and opportunities and mitigate its concerns and threats? Look for threads and patterns in those conversations. How do they influence and inform your long-term vision?
Test and learn: As you develop your strategic perspective, test it with your team, colleagues, customers, industry peers, and smart peers outside your industry. Use these tests to refine your perspective and learn to communicate. Explore approaches to scale testing and small-scale, contained experiments that your team can run with key customers and other stakeholders. How do the results and lessons learned from these experiments support or challenge your long-term vision?
team participation: Please lead the team strategically. They will learn, grow and contribute at a higher level by partnering with you in developing and acting on strategic insights.
feed the beast: Strengthen your mind and strategy by reading broadly about topics and issues within and outside your industry. Watch, read, recommend, and talk to experts about what they're doing. Find and read the latest case studies on how relevant companies inside and outside your industry are capitalizing on opportunities and solving challenges close to yours. Listen to podcast interviews with CEOs, other senior executives, and thought leaders from inside and outside the industry.
What am I missing? What do you agree or disagree with? If you are reading this through LinkedIn, please leave a comment. If you're reading my newsletter, send me a note.
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