Creating Strategic Impact - 6 Reasons Businesses Need Strategic Thinking from Employees

We talk all the time with business executives about the importance of more people in their organizations developing strategic thinking skills. Some understand right away why this is beneficial. Others wrestle with the idea that something sounding like strategy would get out of the hands of senior management. The typical objection is if people throughout the organization are thinking about strategy, they either

1. Won’t be working or
2. Will be trying to come up with their own strategy ideas for the work they ARE doing.

We make the case that any organization benefits from more people being able to understand its strategy and carry it out with some degree of strategic thinking.

Sure, senior management does the strategy setting - at least for the overall organization. But as we define it, strategic thinking involves, “Addressing what matters with insight and innovation.”

That means a strategic thinker should be better attuned to what matters (and why) for the organization, along with having developed the skills to identify when there are opportunities or challenges related to doing what matters.

6 Reasons Businesses Need Strategic Thinking from Employees

Here are six reasons that businesses need strategic thinking from employees – even on the front lines! Strategic thinkers can:

1. Better understand the importance of strong performance and how to personally do something to make it happen
2. Spot and support selling opportunities with customers to grow revenue
3. Call attention to mistakes and potential problems with the current strategy’s implementation before senior management will
4. Identify new opportunities to deliver value to customers that address customer needs while fitting with organizational strategy
5. Challenge potentially bad moves the organization is considering because they have different perspectives than senior management does
6. Become more promotable faster because they have stronger business skills

Rather than being afraid of employees being strategic thinkers, smart business executives realize they are a lot smarter when they are surrounded by smart people.

So if you’re a business executive who would like to be smarter, there’s your plan. – Mike Brown

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