What Does it Mean When You’re Told You Need to Be More Strategic?

A common recommendation leaders hear from those above them is to work to become more strategic.

Thinking, acting, and engaging more strategically sounds like straightforward advice and feedback. But what does it actually mean?

In some cases, the idea of becoming more strategic is exactly what it sounds like. The feedback points to the need to craft better plans for achieving goals and objectives.

While those who are weak at composing quality plans of action will need real help to become better, leaders sometimes offer this feedback as a signal that they have been disappointed with those plans to date.

Leaders sometimes have other intentions behind the criticism. The feedback to become more strategic can point to other important choices and behaviors as well.

When evaluating, leaders will occasionally use the word strategic to infer that the team member doesn’t recognize what is most important. They want the team member to recognize what is really at issue and what needs to be addressed first.

Knowing what is most urgent and how to navigate competing priorities is also subsumed into this feedback.

However, the most common implication of being told to become more strategic is not about crafting game plans or recognizing what is most important.

For many leaders, strategic is all about anticipating events, issues, and problems before they occur or emerge. Being strategic for these leaders is all about becoming more proactive.

They want the team members they depend upon to preempt negative reactions, situations, and events before they become a problem. This requires experience but also the ability to read situations and people.

What do leaders want you to do differently to prove your strategy chops? Craft better game plans? Set better priorities? Anticipate potential issues before they occur?

Perhaps asking for clarity is itself a strategic move. And a good one.