Many leaders struggle with the difference between being tactical and being strategic. They spend their days firefighting and reacting to whatever comes up, leaving little time to think about the bigger picture.
But strategic thinking isn’t just for annual planning sessions—it’s a skill that can and should be practiced regularly.
Gayle Lantz speaks with Rich Horwath, founder and CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute. Rich is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of eight books on strategic thinking, including his newest book, Strategic: The Skill to Set Direction, Create Advantage, and Achieve Executive Excellence.
Rich facilitates strategy workshops to help executive leadership teams think, plan, and act strategically. He created the Strategic Quotient (SQ) assessment to help leaders baseline and improve their strategic capabilities.
Rich shares practical insights on how to move from tactical to strategic and why most strategic plans fail.
He and Gayle discuss how to make strategy an energizing part of your leadership practice rather than a dreaded annual exercise.
This episode covers:
- The critical distinction between strategy and tactics and why leaders confuse them
- How to carve out time for strategic thinking in the midst of daily firefighting
- Why doing SWOT analysis with precision matters and common mistakes leaders make
- The importance of visual tools like the contextual radar for strategic planning
- What a good strategic plan actually looks like (hint: it should answer two key questions)
- How often leadership teams should revisit their strategic plans
- Why strategic planning should be educational and energizing, not just a process
- The funnel approach: strategic thinking leads to strategic planning leads to action
- Tips for making values meaningful rather than generic words on a website
- How strategic competency builds confidence and increases team commitment by 40%
LINKS:
https://www.strategyskills.com
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