Master Your Strategy: Transform Your Career, Relationships, and Daily Decisions

Everyone has their own skills right? We’re not all fantastic at all the same things. That is why making use of everyone’s abilities and natural talents is so very important. Me for example, details are not my top priority. I am much more interested in impacts to the long run. I want to know if the efforts being taken now align with where we want to be. This is so much so my approach that it applies to both my work and my home. I’m even strategic in minor things like timing the dishwasher to best align with when we’ll need certain dishes. I’m a stickler about the meal plan to fit quick meals into days that require them while also setting up the leftovers on specific days that I won’t be there to cook. So, when I hear about someone not having a strategy for the big things, it just confuses me, and worries me, on how it will all work out.

Dinner plans and dishes are one thing to leave to chance, but your relationships, career pathing, or marketing plan, those are other level. When you don’t have a strategy for big things you’re truly leaving to chance that your decisions will lead where you want to go. Heck, you don’t even know where it is that you want to go, how could you hope to get there. Let’s illustrate this in real life and tell me where you can implement some strategy into your life.

Why aren’t people using a strategy to begin with?

I think people often avoid a strategy because it’s overwhelming to try to look at the full picture. It seems like it will be too much to consider a greater plan so they focus on smaller decisions in the moment. To compound that overwhelm, there is often a lack of skill. They weren’t taught how to think strategically. Because they weren’t taught, they don’t practice it. Then when an opportunity arises to be strategic, they avoid it. Clearly it creates a pretty note worthy spiral.

Being strategic in your thinking however, acts as a guide for all of those smaller decisions making them easier and quicker in the moment. The overwhelm and decision fatigue that comes with the thousands of a decisions we make in a day can dissolve when we’re working within a greater strategy. It also makes those frustrating decisions easier to make, or carryout, because you can see the end game and the benefit these short term annoyances will bring down the line.

Annoyed Alan’s New System

Recently one of my clients got a new system at work. His company had invested a lot of money is a new state of the art system. The system would replace a previously very manual process and provide data on the back end that would be useful in running the business. It would provide high level decision makers data about the direction they should take and the trajectory of of the business. The system would provide customer insights and sales information. The users, like my client Alan, would also benefit from having one source of truth for customers available to them any time, any where, on their device instead of in a paper file in the office.

Alan was privy to none of this

I know all of that is true, because I know the power of the system they bought into. Based on talking to Alan, he has no idea why they have the system. From his perspective the system was announced and they were trained how to use it. Then, expectations were set that all customers and jobs were to be entered in. That was it. It was taking time from his day to fill it out that he didn’t have to give. Then it was taking more time to look it all up when he needed it. And remember, he had no idea why they were making this change. The company shared nothing about the strategy. So guess what, Alan didn’t use it. He didn’t know the strategy for the long game so when it came time to make a decision to add the info, he skipped it. This decision, made again and again over time, will cost the company all the benefits they could have realized.

Taking the strategy closer to home

I know it sounds a little crass to say I have a strategy in my relationships, but it’s true. With my kids and husband, I have clear visions on what I want my relationships with each to look like. Including what I want the other person to feel and experience. That means when I am in the moment I can make decisions that align with that strategy. If I fail in the moment to be the person I wanted to be, I can pretty quickly reflect on that and apologize or clarify my intent.

What does this look like for parenting?

One part of my job as a mom in my opinion, is teaching my kids maturity. I define maturity as knowing the time and place for different actions and activities. For example, dinner time when we need to get everything to the table, is not the time or place for a quick game of catch, singing, dancing, and silliness. A walk down the gravel road by our house, absolutely is. The living room right before bedtime isn’t the time or place for a wrestling match. A rainy Saturday afternoon in the basement though, might be the perfect opportunity.

How does a strategy around maturity play out?

I intentionally picked those examples because they make people cringe sometimes that I say yes to singing and goofiness on a walk or that I let my kids turn the basement rug into a wrestling mat. I cringe at them sometimes too. Having the strategy helps me say yes to more things. It helps to remind me that while a duck walk will slow us down and WrestleMania will create a mess, these align with my overall strategy for raising great kids and even better adults. It’s more important that they know when to play (and see me play too) than it is that my basement is spotless, and my active minute goals are achieved on the walk.

Keys to thinking strategically

Hopefully by now you understand why leading with a strategy is important. It can be a little overwhelming if you’re not practiced or you’re trying for the first time. If you’ve never done it before, I want to leave you with just a few ways to start thinking more strategically.

• Consider your values and the big decisions that support them. What would it mean for you to live out your values every day and what plan could you have in place that supports that?
• Think years ahead to develop a vision for your life. What would you need to do or prioritize now to support that vision? Start making choices and acting in a way that supports where you want to be years from now.

How can you practice strategy?

It’s all well and good to think about those big questions but, how do you practice it in the day to day? This is why we need to bring together our skills because as I said in the beginning, we all have different skills. Now, if I were personally in Alan’s shoes, I would have asked what they are trying to accomplish with this system. I might have even flat out asked, what is the strategy for this? But, as I said, my detail game is not as strong. I for sure would miss a field or two filling the thing in. If you’re not seeing the big picture, not the grand strategy, find someone who does. Align your skills with someone who can help you see the whole map while you look at the turn by turn.

Better yet, find someone who can help you learn to see it differently. Get yourself a coach who can help you take a new perspective and start aligning those daily choices. Stop the decision overwhelm and stress by making decisions that align with your own strategy. As we’ve seen here, a strong strategy supports everything. From marketing to relationships to dinner plans, (and next week we’ll get deeper into your career and leadership) let me help you envision it. Let me help you see what the vision could be for your life and how you can obtain it.