EFFECTIVE LEADERS MUST BE STRATEGIC THINKERS

Abstract

The author has multifaceted experience as CEO of several companies, Board Chairman, decorated combat veteran, former US Assistant Secretary of State, and an award-winning professor. He discusses the importance of strategic thinking by leaders, but notes that this can be a difficult practice to learn and put into place. He provides a number of examples inside and outside the corporate world. He identifies the essential traits of strategic thinking: “Looking at the big picture, not focusing on the issues just in front of the organization. Casting one's mind forward to the longer-term challenges, not just the immediate crises or opportunities. And seeing patterns and connections in the ecosystems of one's market that will shape the future.” He offers 16 different benefits of having a strategy, including, in his words, support the vision and mission, making both possible by identifying the right goals and activities to achieve them; help create a distinct set of operational and support activities—and link them together coherently; and help make priorities, identify trade-offs, recognize dependencies, sequence actions, and allocate resources. He writes that a strategically oriented leader can “make sense of things by synthesizing and connecting systems rather than just analyzing and dissecting information.”