“You need to be more strategic”

It’s feedback a lot of people receive as they try to move from middle management to the executive level. Yet, few can define what it actually means or entails.

Is it an innate talent, or some magic “X”-factor?

No. Being strategic can be taught and learned. It requires learning new ways of approaching problems, changing your mindset, and a bit of unlearning of the things that got us to where we are now. It requires picking up a few hard-skills and learning some very hard soft-skills.

Whether it’s analyzing problems, speaking the language of the business, or improving your bearing – the skills of being strategic can be taught.

This is my series on being strategic, where I share my advice and thinking behind strategy – perfect for senior managers and directors who are attempting to move beyond operations and into strategy.

• What’s Not Strategic? – address common misconceptions and understand what strategy isn’t

• How to Analyze Problems – learn how to deepen diagnostic depth and through intentional problem analysis

• Improving Executive Presence – manage perception by unlearning some successful management behaviors that otherwise harm executive perception

Read more about leadership and strategy at my blog.