10 ways to be more strategic in your everyday work
Tags: Articles, Strategic Thinking
You don’t need a two-day offsite and big
ideas in order to be strategic. The best —
or at least most practical — way to be
strategic is within your day-to-day work.
These quick tactics and processes can
help you make strategic use of the
information you have (or can easily get)
so that you and your team can make
better decisions with better results.
Browse the list and pick one or two that
you think would work best for your
situation.
- Analyze your own intuitions so you can start applying them more —
or less.
What do you use to make predictions, like how a candidate will be as a new hire or the
likelihood that a sales deal will close or that a client will renew or the effort, time, and
resources needed for your team to complete a project? You may seek data or opinions
from others, but you also rely to some extent on your intuitions (i.e., your “gut”) —
beliefs and reactions formed from your own experiences.
Most people don’t give their intuitions much thought — they just act on them, for better
or worse. That’s too bad. Because if you’re able to identify and articulate your intuitions,
you’ll be able to compare them to past outcomes, gauge in which situations they are
leading you to make good or bad choices, and calibrate how you use them in the future.
To gain more from your intuitions:
Write down the gut feelings you typically rely on.It may be hard to just
think up a list. Instead, keep a running list as you notice you have gut reactions
about things. Some examples might be:
I’m comfortable ignoring the data forecast if I have a good feel for a client.
If I see a direct report really engaged with a task, I almost always give
them extra leeway and check in less often.
If a candidate doesn’t ask about company culture, I’m wary about his
fitting in.
Be sure to clarify any fuzzy aspects of your intuitions. For example, does “a good feel for
a client” mean that you have good personal rapport or that they’re looking good in the
two to three aspects that you believe foreshadow a closed deal?
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Check historical data to see how well your intuitions have worked for
you. Look back at the last several clients you had a good feel for or times you gave
a direct report more autonomy or hires you’ve made. You’ll also want to check
whether you may be basing your intuitions on biased stereotypes rather than your
past experiences. See 9 ways to counter the unconscious biases holding you back
for more.
Based on what you learn, apply your intuitions more — or less. If giving
your direct report more autonomy when he or she is engaged with a task has good
outcomes (fresh ideas, better results, and more energized direct reports), then try
this approach more often or with more direct reports. On the other hand, if more
autonomy has caused your direct report to flounder, maybe you add extra checkins to provide guidance without squashing their excitement. - In addition to your stated goal metrics, which are often “lag”
measures, identify and track a set of “lead” measures.
By the time you see your goal metric results — sales numbers, customer satisfaction
scores, reduction in errors or costs over a period of time — it’s too late to do anything
about them. Yet many managers remain laser focused on tracking only these “lag”
measures, as they’re called in FranklinCovey’s The 4 Disciplines of Execution.
As the authors explain, “lead” measures, which often are behavior-based and can be
tracked daily or weekly, can have an impact on changing those end results. For example,
for a sales team trying to meet a quarterly sales quota, lead measures could be the
volume of prospecting calls, number of prospects accepting a demo, or the frequency of
a salesperson proposing upsells. Tracking and improving these kinds of measures help a
team focus on the right behaviors needed to achieve its goal.
To develop a list of possible lead measures, try asking your team questions like:
“What’s one thing we could do to improve our chances of achieving our goal?”
“What’s a weakness that holds us back from reaching our goal? What could we
do more consistently?”
It may take trial and error to find lead measures that actually influence the lag measure.
And if you find it impossible to identify lead measures based on work output (they can
be especially difficult to identify for creative work), try developing ones based on team
morale — a dimension that may not seem directly connected to goal outcome, but often
influences how the next day or week will go.
Morale measures might be ones you keep to yourself, rather than develop with the
team: Am I seeing fewer laughs or an uptick in the number of issues team members
bring up? Am I getting hesitant or pessimistic responses during 1-on-1s when I ask,
“How are you feeling about the project?” If you see morale beginning to dip, you’ll be
able to respond before it sinks your team’s chances of meeting its goal. 2/7 - Do a brief what-if test to surface ways to improve your current plans.
What obstacles or challenges might be waiting to derail your plan? Or could there be a
way to make your plan more efficient — if only you were open to seeing it? By
thoughtfully running through relevant hypothetical scenarios, you may uncover factors
that allow you to improve your strategy ahead of time.
For example, ask yourself (and your team) questions like:
What if we had only one month to do this, instead of two? In forcing your
plan to be more efficient, you may discover ways to streamline your current plan
even though you have a longer time frame.
What if we had an unlimited budget to do it? You might identify an area
important enough to invest more in, even if it means having less to spend in
another area of your plan.
What if we knew that a competitor was launching something similar a
month ahead of us? This exercise might cause you to change how you
prioritize features. If so, consider whether you should make those changes to your
plan proactively.
Another good way to surface holes in your plan ahead of time: Hold a premortem with
project stakeholders. Imagine that your plan has failed and explore why. - Seek, process, and communicate information to help your team
members do their jobs better.
Most managers understand that they’re a vital conduit of information for their teams.
But too few consider how to convey information strategically. “You can’t just be a
recorder” and repeat whatever you hear, says experienced manager Jim Wagoner. “You
need to be able to translate that information in a way that’s meaningful for your team.”
Doing so can empower and motivate team members and give them the context and
details they need to do their best work. To do this:
Seek information with your team in mind. In order to give your team
adequate big-picture context, you’ll need to stay on top of industry trends and be
engaged with executives and peers within your organization. Whether you’re
reading an article or attending high-level meetings in your company, ask
questions and take notes from the perspective of how what you’re learning might
impact your team.
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Process what’s relevant for them. If you blast your team with every detail
you learn, you’ll end up overloading them with information and slowing them
down. Instead, managers need to be a “heat shield,” as Wagoner explains,
“protecting the team from the noise of irrelevant information that just becomes
distracting.” At the same time, he cautions not to undershare and leave your team
missing important context. When in doubt, ask yourself: Could this information
help my direct reports do their jobs better? If the answer is yes, share it. For more,
see Communication checklist: Are you undersharing with your team?.
Communicate information in a way that helps them connect the dots.
Great managers help tie the threads together. For example, when discussing a
customer’s recent behavior, you mention an industry trend you recently read
about that might help explain it. Or when you hear about a shift in company
strategy, you explain not just what it is, but why it matters for the team’s work. - Consider how you can increase the percentage of proactive versus
reactive work you do.
Managers often report being swamped by “the tyranny of the urgent” — as one manager
described it — the daily obligations and requests that monopolize their attention and
prevent them from doing more forward-thinking work.
Chances are you’re overfocused on reactive work, at least a little bit, out of inertia or
because it feels good to prioritize other people’s issues, like a client request or a peer
asking for help. To gauge, look at your to-do list or calendar for the past week: What
percentage of time did you spend on tasks that maintain the status quo for you and your
team (like compiling updates or fixing problems) versus work that leads to growth and
innovation (like devising a new process, plan, or feature)?
To make more time for proactive work, could you delegate a reactive task off your to-do
list to your direct reports? Or devise a plan to say no to nonessential requests and
protect time for more proactive work? Consider how you can involve your team to get
more proactive work done, for example, by improving a team process (see point No. 6)
or asking them to dedicate three hours per week to dreaming up new initiatives that
could impact your business. - Periodically ask your team, “What could we be doing better?” and
lead your team to act on one idea.
This simple, open-ended question lets you leverage every brain on your team for
process-improvement ideas that can lead to better efficiency and results.
There’s a potential morale boost in it, too. Individual contributors who are closest to the
work may have good ideas for process improvement that they don’t share, perhaps
because they don’t believe the ideas will be welcome or lead to change because “that’s
just how we do things here.” Strategic managers solicit their team’s ideas and get them
excited about contributing to team improvement. 4/7
To surface ideas for what to improve: In advance of your next team
meeting, pose specific questions to help your team generate ideas. For example,
you might ask for a number of ideas (“What are three things, big or small, that
we could be doing better?”); for ideas in a particular area of work (“What could
we be doing better when it comes to communicating with other teams?”); or for
ideas of what not to do (“Are there things we do that we should consider
stopping?”). See this article for more questions to ask.
To surface ideas for how to improve: Hone in on one important area of
improvement the team mentioned (it’s better to focus on one thing than create
chaos by trying to improve in every area on your list), and start by asking your
team for ideas. Also, solicit input from managers of teams you see doing well in
that area. For example, if your team surfaces that team meetings take too long, try
seeking advice from a peer you know is a great meeting facilitator. See this article
for more on seeking and implementing peer advice. - When you scrap a meeting or task, suggest how your team use the
saved time, even if it’s for a mental break.
Wonderful! You cancelled an unnecessary meeting or determined a task your team
should stop doing. So, where will that extra team time go? If it simply disappears into
the workday, then you haven’t exactly improved team efficiency.
That’s not to say that you should meticulously designate every saved minute of your
team’s time, but general suggestions can be helpful. Your direct reports likely don’t have
a list of “things to do in the event I no longer need to spend 45 minutes in that quality
assurance meeting.”
So maybe it’s a simple reminder that the time should go toward your team’s top-priority
project, for example, “I’ve cancelled the quality assurance meeting this week, so now
we all have a little more time to work on the upcoming launch.” Or maybe each direct
report could use the time differently, so you make suggestions individually.
Depending on your situation, you may even propose that people take the time for
personal use: “We’ve all been pushing hard lately, so see if you can use that saved time
to leave a little early today.” A message like this reinforces the importance of self-care
and saves them from feeling guilty for not making “productive” use of the saved time. - Experiment with task rotations on your team.
When your direct reports do the same task over and over, not only are they likely to
grow bored, they’re also likely to fall into a routine and possibly miss better ways of
doing things over time. A set of fresh eyes can help uncover potential process
improvements.
And there are additional strategic benefits: When you change ownership of a regular
task, you free up a high performer to take on something new and more challenging. At
the same time, you’re providing an opportunity for another team member to learn and
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develop new skills. And when team members work together on task transition, they can
develop a better understanding and empathy for each other’s work, which can lead to
stronger teamwork.
So, who on your team should shift to what tasks? Factor in people’s expertise, interests,
and professional growth goals (use this guide for help). For more on making these
reassignments and working out a transition plan, see Consider reassigning a high
performer’s ongoing task to another team member. - At a regular interval, add one new, quality contact or resource to your
network.
It’s all too easy to read the same industry blogs and talk to your same comfortable group
of peers and mentors. The result? You wind up in an echo chamber of the same ideas
and observations, almost certainly missing the kinds of fresh perspectives that will help
you make better decisions.
Broadening your horizon need not be difficult or time consuming, but it does take
discipline. On a time interval that makes sense for you — maybe monthly or quarterly —
ask yourself:
Where could I use fresh input? Maybe you determine you need to dig in to an
emerging technical aspect of what you do, or seek advice on an aspect of people
management, like how to improve at coaching your direct reports. Or maybe you
could use some advice on navigating office politics in your organization.
What’s the single best source for this input? Remember, you’re going for
quality over quantity — if you just join a bunch of trade newsletters and LinkedIn
groups, you’ll do little more than clutter your inbox. What’s the one best source?
Keep in mind that, depending on your situation, “best” could mean the easiest way
to get quick input on a regular basis or an expert who might yield a good insight
once a year or something else entirely. In any case, strive for one that will have
staying power, with potential to become more informative over time as you
develop knowledge or rapport with the source.
Then, of course, reach out to make the connection. For more on how to do that, see
Lousy at networking, Can’t find or engage a mentor, and 4 ways to strengthen and
benefit from peer relationships. - Revisit your strategies regularly.
You can’t just set a plan or process in motion, let it play out forever, and call yourself
strategic. On whatever time frame works for you (monthly or quarterly), set aside 30
minutes to reflect on whatever strategies you’ve implemented or should be
implementing.
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Are you slipping back into doing too much reactive work? Is a direct report now bored
with a task you reassigned? Have conditions changed so the intuition you’ve been
relying on is no longer as effective? Great managers understand that being strategic is a
process that never ends.
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