Recently, a television commercial touting the ease and reliability of the internet service of a cable television company was aired to the public. The commercial describes an upbeat business manager arriving at his wholesale fish company. As soon as he enters the warehouse, a worker holding a large limp fish, meets him with, We got problems, were out of ice. A split second later, another worker tells him a shipment of tuna is held up in a port. The manager never says a word, just continues walking to his office, where his assistant informs him that the IRS will to do an audit on Tuesday. The final line: arent you glad that the [internet service] is always working. What makes this commercial effective is the premise that at some point every manager has felt an overload of pressures and problems that are too big and too important to postpone. Many complain that there just arent enough hours in the day to take care of the persistent business fires much less long term strategic needs. In short, too many managers have difficulty staying calm or cool under the avalanche of issues that they must resolve daily. Now, imagine the same commercial if this manager had a personal strategic plan or project in place. Obviously, this commercial wouldnt sell internet service, but the manager would have stayed focused and composed as he arrived at his office. He would hear about issues at his morning briefing with his management team. His foreman would have been prepared to report that the back up system is keeping the fish cold until the ice problem is resolved once and for all. The manager would also have an estimated completion time for the replacement of the equipment that would be innovative to put the company in a stronger competitive position. No one can predict the future perfectly. No one can predict exactly when a shipment will be lost, delayed, or destroyed. However, a strategic leader would know how to be ready for these eventualities and would have a back up strategy to get the shipment to the consumer. Being prepared for the future may sound impossible. In reality, strategic leaders have a variety of options at their disposal. These are only a few of the options a strategic leader has in his or her arsenal. By implementing a just few crucial skills and tools, anyone can open doors to greater productivity, fewer crises, better relationships, and increased opportunities for success. Best of all, you will experience more calm, direction, and satisfaction in your life and business. Your first and biggest challenge will be getting time and space to practice applied strategic thinking. Too often, the operational side of business takes over your day. You may think that you need to be in the middle of every emergency. Senior management will even praise you for the number of tactical problems you chip away each day. If truth be told, you might even be addicted to the adrenaline rush you get when putting out one fire and then another. But, fighting fires is time consuming, energy draining, creativity squashing, and usually results in short-term solutions. Within weeks or even days, you will face the same or a similar fire again. To start the strategic thinking process you will need to make an appointment with yourself and dive deep into your strategic needs. You could delegate routine priorities, shut your door, or leave your office and take a walk. Next, clear your mind and ask yourself a few strategic questions. For example, what would make a positive change in your work? What are the main obstacles to your job? What are some opportunities that would make your job better? What contributions would you make that would make a difference either to your work or the company? What do you really want? Some of these questions may seem obvious, but you must understand fully what exactly you really want to strategically accomplish. After you have a few strategic targets in mind, begin to tweak them until you have one or two clear and critical focus areas. Now, you need to do your research. Investigate factors that could affect your performance, your job, the current business, or future business. Who are the people who can help you? What are your personal strengths and weaknesses? This will enable you to make good decisions, be more creative, discover innovative processes to solve emerging problems and be able to take advantage of future opportunities. The next step is to develop a plan based on the innovative processes you have created. Ask yourself what action can you take right now that will get you ready for the future? Do you need specialized training, more reading, practice to fine tune skills, or do you need allies or advisors? As you move to launch your plan, you may feel that it is difficult to go against the current trends or thinking. However, you must act on your findings. Your research, planning, and preparation have given you facts to stand your ground, to face opposition, and to take calculated risks. Apprehension is normal, but as Sir Francis Bacon stated at the beginning of the 16th Century, Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. Strategic goals always have some resistance. But, that resistance can be used to strengthen and crystallize your strategic plan. Once you have determined a clear objective, developed plan of action to get to that objective, you will not be scurrying around trying to keep up with future challenges while dealing with the daily hot issues. You will function more effectively with a great deal of calm, after all you know where you are going. While you may have alter or even replace your old methods of working with new ideas or direction, you will reap great rewards. You will remain cool and calm and your organization will not be dependent on spur-of-the-moment decisions that may or may not work. Finally, to quote Mario Andretti, Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal (strategy) - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek. So, with just a little bit of Strategic Thinking, youll never be out of ice. |
