I wanna make an impact,
I wanna have a positive
difference.
If you've ever thought that to
yourself in terms of your
workplace,
then we are looking at
strategic leadership.
In the business environment
strategic leadership is
required on so many layers of
management,
whether or not you are leading
teams,
whether or not your teams are
being led remotely or
virtually,
whether or not you are
accountable to client
satisfaction or whether or not
you are wanting to make a
change in the organization
that you are working for.
All of these things require
strategic leadership and,
but when it comes to business
operations,
a lot of people that come to
me,
they come to me for coaching
and guidance on how do I move
from business operations,
operational management into
strategic leader leadership,
first of all is to
understanding what it,
what it means by business
operations.
Operations refers to a whole
variety of activities that
require the day-to-day
functioning of the company
that allows it to be
profitable and allows it to be
productive.
And that's what it means by
business operations.
Now,
operations for any specific
company could be very
different.
It depends,
and it's very unique to the
company.
So when it comes to how do you
move from operations,
the day-to-day functioning of
the business into more of a
strategic level?
What I'm gonna share with you
are five key focus areas that
if you focus on these five
areas,
that you will be moving into
strategic leadership.
Now,
I'm not saying that you must
all of a sudden focus on all
five areas at once.
You might notice that one or
two of them are easier to
focus on.
You might notice that one or
two of them are more difficult
for you.
But just start with one of
them and you add it to your
repertoire to expand your
knowledge base,
to expand your skill as well,
and to expand your mindset and
understanding of each of each
focus area.
So let's dive right in.
Five key focus areas.
Focus area number one is big
picture.
And what does that mean?
Big picture refers to how can
you see beyond the day-to-day
operations?
Because we all start out there
in operations,
day-to-day functioning,
ensuring that the company can
be up and running on
day-to-day basis.
Can we,
how can we ensure that
there's,
there's functionality and
productivity?
But to move to strategic
leadership,
it's important to see beyond
that.
And the most important part to
see beyond day-to-day
operations is what is the
overall strategic direction
and the overall objectives of
the whole company?
And seeing that through the
different time lenses.
So here's what I mean by the
time lenses,
depending on,
depending on your industry and
depending on your company,
the time lenses are different.
For example,
it could be that you work in
an industry where the
preparation of the strategic
direction goes 10 years in
advance.
In other words,
your company has 10 year
goals,
or maybe they had generational
goals and,
and this happens a lot in
sustainability industry,
where they plan generations
out,
what are our children's
children's future gonna look
like?
So that could be the furthest
out time lens.
And then as the organization
sets strategic objectives,
they draw closer and closer
time lenses.
So we go from a ten year out
or a generation farthest out,
and then they have annual
objectives.
From the annual objectives
they clo go closer in.
They have,
they have quarterly
objectives.
From the quarterly objectives,
they come closer in and
there's monthly goals.
And from monthly you have
weekly and so on.
So how can you understand the
overall strategy and the
objectives through all those
different time lenses?
And more importantly,
here's the bonus.
It's not just understanding
the big picture,
but understanding how your
work and your skills fit into
that big picture.
And when you're meditating on
how does my work,
how does what I do fit into
that big picture?
It's understanding how does
what I do right now,
how can it help to fulfill
that overall strategy and that
overall objective?
How does what I do fulfill it?
Or if it doesn't currently
fulfill it,
how does my work need to be
restructured in order for me
to be able to fulfill the
overall strategy and the
objectives?
And that is the first key area
of focus,
which is the big picture.
Focus area number two is
business acumen.
And this is focusing on
understanding the business
environment.
I mentioned at the start of
this training a business
environment.
So what does the business
environment entail?
There's a variety of things.
For example,
understanding market trends,
understanding customer
satisfaction,
understanding competitive
pressures,
understanding what the
business needs right now,
and understanding industry
trends as well.
Those are just some examples
of business acumen.
At the end of it,
the goal of de developing a
deeper business acumen is to
develop your business sense.
And once you have that honed
business sense,
this is where you can reach up
into strategy when you need
to,
to propose solutions or to
propose new directions or to
propose why new opportunities,
why we need to pursue new
opportunities and to step into
that consultative role.
And this is the most important
part.
Once you have that business
sense,
understanding the business
environment from business
acumen,
once you have that acumen,
it is easier for to reach you,
to reach up as a consultant
within your company in that
role and in order to reach up
into strategy.
So this is where you can ask
yourself,
what are some opportunities
for me right now to learn more
about these industry trends,
these market trends as well?
What are some opportunities
that I can take on to get the
behind the scenes look at
developing financial acumen as
well,
and understanding how
businesses make decisions.
And also understanding how to
diagnose issues that we're
having right now on
productivity.
All of these opportunities can
develop your business acumen.
And that is the second key
area of focus.
Key area of focus number three
is relationships.
Strategic leadership is not
accomplished alone.
As a strategic leader,
you're going to be working
closely with other leaders
from different teams and
different departments.
Most of the time,
these other people that you
develop relationships with,
you don't even directly
manage.
Or maybe they are steps above
you in the org chart.
So when it comes to developing
relationships with these
individuals,
the most important ones are
relationships with business
leaders and strong advisors as
well.
Set up see how you can set up
regular meetings with them in
person,
preferably so that you can
have conversations around
strategy and overarching
objectives as well.
And when you had these
conversations,
the key's to understand where
can I step into my
consultative approach?
How can I develop my deeper
business acumen,
financial acumen,
and so on?
And when you develop these
relationships,
it's not just about building
alliances,
you're building alliances with
them,
yes,
but it's more importantly
around governance of your own
emotions and to be able to
manage emotions of other
people.
And when you're building these
relationships with senior
business leaders and advisors,
it's not just about building
alliances,
it is more about how do I
manage my own emotions and my
judgments?
Because when it comes to
overarching strategies and
objectives,
people will have opinions and
strong opinions and their own
reasons why they're suggesting
this certain direction or that
certain direction.
So how can you come into these
conversations being open to
learn,
being open to understand other
people's perspectives and
being open to having criticism
and being open to having
feedback about your
suggestions as well.
So it is more important to be
able to manage your own
judgments and your
perspectives about things as
you're having these
conversations.
And that's part and parcel of
building alliances with these
relationships as well.
So if you're listening to this
so far,
the first three key areas of
focus is when it comes to
having a strong business
acumen,
when it comes to having
building relationships,
when it comes to understanding
the big picture of things with
these first three key,
key areas of focus.
If you're nodding and you're
understanding that these are
important and you're
wondering,
well now I,
I do sort of know these
things,
but how do I get at it?
How do I make it more
actionable?
How do I now develop these
skills sets?
And how do I foc begin
focusing on these areas?
Then I invite you to work with
me every single week I train
on areas of business acumen,
on areas of how to build
strong alliances and also on
areas on how do you develop
strategic level big picture
thinking.
And every week I do trainings,
high level trainings like
this.
So if you're serious about
developing this acumen and
this vernacular for yourself,
then I invite you to click the
link in the description below.
And that's a link for for you
to talk to someone on my team,
a a trained career specialist
to help you decide whether or
not working with me is the
right decision for you and for
me as well.
And if you decide to be a part
of it,
then every week you're gonna
be a part of a community of
professionals that is working
towards moving from
operational into strategic
leadership.
I look forward to seeing you
on the inside.
Focus area number four is
creativity.
Creativity means creative
thinking.
How do you think creatively?
And the best way to think
creatively is be to be able to
challenge assumptions,
even your own assumptions.
So when it comes to
contributing to the
organization at a strategic
leadership level,
think about how can you create
solutions?
How can you create visions of
the future in which you wanna
create?
And how do you do that by
drawing from your big picture
and also drawing from your
business acumen?
Key focus area number five is
communication.
When it comes to
communication,
there's three areas of
communication.
The first area is to be able
to communicate your vision in
alignment with the company's
vision.
The second area of
communication is to be able to
communicate your strategy.
And the third area is to be
able to communicate both of
those things persuasively.
So this is what you're gonna
notice moving from operational
to strategic leadership.
It's gonna be less and less
about your technical
knowledge.
In operations your technical
know-how the crafts and your
skillset,
your technical skill sets is
gonna be important because
you've gotta be good at what
you do and you have to do your
work consistently and to have
that top level of performance
in operations,
cuz that's the day-to-day
functions of the business.
But as you move up into
strategy,
the technical knowhow,
that craftsmanship that
matters less and less and it
becomes more and more about
how do you communicate and
more and more about how do you
communicate diplomatically.
So when it comes to
communication,
how do you focus on developing
that skillset and being to be
able to understand public
speaking and articulating your
thoughts,
no matter how complex your
vision is,
how do you communicate it in
ways that other people can
understand and interpret it
the way you intend it to be
interpreted and most
importantly,
so that they can buy into that
vision?
Bonus focus area number six is
to take risks when it comes to
strategic leadership how can
you take calculated risks to
achieve a strategically
defined goal?
When it comes to taking risks,
we're not taking them blindly.
We are taking data driven and
calculated risks.
But at the same time,
you're able to understand what
the risks are and to be able
to create a clarity around the
context of the situation,
create clarity around the data
so that different levels of
management understand the data
and what that,
how that informs us on what
risks to take and what risks
not to take.
And how can you also create a
shared language among
departments as well as you are
taking risks.
And these are the steps about
taking risk.
And it's not about having the
answers to things.
When you're taking risks to
achieve goals.
It's not about having the
right answers,
it is about asking the right
questions.
When you ask the right
questions,
when you ask good questions,
this is how you can clarify
the context.
This is how you can
communicate data to take those
risk and make risk driven
decisions.
And more importantly,
that is how you can create a
shared language.
So if you're wondering to
yourself,
well,
how do you ask good questions?
I have created a video step by
step outlining how do you ask
good questions?
What does it take?
What are some,
what are the thought processes
to ask in great questions like
this?
That video is coming right up
next.
I'll see you there.