Are you a Strategic Leader?
Strategic. Planning. Planning – putting thought into the next step, next day, next year, next expansion. Strategic – is most often associated with the military. Generals plot and study maps, cultures, people, plans of attack, and every other detail available to find the best strategy to surprise, and therefore, overthrow their enemies. Leadership should be strategic as well. As a leader, you play an important role to those under you as you guide someone else’s future – guiding and directing individual lives, as well as the company as a whole, which then leads to the community, city and state, and potentially, the world. How you choose your next move has massive impact.
I remember a board game that I played a couple of times as a child…Risk. I was not very good at it. Not only had I not mastered any of the required skills to “conquer the world,” but I doubt I even knew they existed…I was having fun! The back of the box says, “Plan carefully, make decisions quickly and move boldly.” Today, I’d like to think I have improved on the necessary skills for not only the game of Risk, but as I have learned, for life and leadership. I am up for another round of the game with the unsuspecting child of one of my friends.
Let’s take a moment to look closely at those familiar words on the back of the Risk box…“Plan carefully, make decisions quickly and move boldly.” As I write this, these three simple steps seem apropos, as I have been challenged with them in a current project. I recently realized that I have become very comfortable in my “business owner” role. Researching, planning carefully, making the decision quickly [that’s the interesting word] and moving boldly. I have become accustomed to this process; and, therefore, my personal and professional live games of Risk move along at a fairly quick pace.
Each of these three steps is required and required to be executed in this exact order. You see, if you make decisions without planning, you may get trapped in an ambush. If you move boldly without the planning, you may jump unexpectedly into enemy territory. Making decisions quickly has been a challenge for me at times, because I spend too much time in the “plan carefully” step, and opportunity is lost. Of course, without the careful planning, you may not see the full picture or end result and wind up conquering the wrong country – YIKES, I don’t speak this language!
As a leader, it is just as important for you to be strategic in your leading, and to put adequate thought into each of these three steps. I am reminded once again of a saying, “As goes the leader, so goes the company/country.” Strategic leadership is vital in today’s fast-paced Global world. I challenge you to evaluate every decision, every move, and every choice with these words from Risk: “Plan carefully, make decisions quickly and move boldly.”
Last month, we looked at discovering your passion. I challenged you to read Bruce Wilkinson’s book “The Dream Giver” and to begin to search for yours and your employees’ passion. Send me an e-mail and let me know what you discovered about your passion!
This month, I challenge you again:
- Lead strategically. Play the game of Risk with your child, spouse, or co-worker. How strategic IS your thinking?
- For the next 30 days, evaluate one decision each day based on these three criteria: “Plan carefully, make decisions quickly and move boldly.”
