Meet Rob
Rob climbed through the ranks working in a regional office. His region always outperformed the others so he’s had a bit of a ‘golden boy’ status among his frontline colleagues.
He has a huge heart and is passionate about helping frontline clients. And he’s also not afraid to share his opinion—loudly—especially when it comes to ‘corporate BS’.
Six months ago, he took on an executive director position in head office and is now leading all regions. His aim was to change things and make life easier for frontline staff—the ones doing the important work, in Rob’s view—but he’s finding that his ‘seek forgiveness, not approval’ approach is not well received in HQ. In fact, it seems to be slowing things down instead of creating the change he’s after.
Needless to say, he’s questioning whether taking this role was the right move.
We’ll come back to Rob later in the article. Let’s look at the three dimensions of strategic thinking first. Hopefully these will be helpful for you, whether this is new territory or a reminder.
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The three dimensions of strategic thinking
In the first article in this series, I explained that being strategic is just a fancy way of saying that you’re intentional. In this article, I break down what that looks like in practice.
Basically, it all comes down to three things at the individual employee level: being proactive, focusing on what matters and seeing the bigger picture. Think of these as different lenses, not different stages, because you‘ll often use all three simultaneously.
Let’s go over each briefly and then get to the fun part—unpacking them through a case study based on one of the characters from a novella I wrote recently.
In this short and (hopefully) funny story, I showcased four fictional leaders with different goals and challenges. It follows the journeys of Claire the Control Freak, Rob the Rebel, Quinn the Quiet Achiever and Gene the Chaotic Genius, who are all on their way to being more strategic (and less annoying to themselves and others).
The link to the novella is at the bottom of this article. It’s free, no download or email is required, and you can probably finish it in a couple of hours.
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Dimension 1: Be proactive
This is about thinking ahead and building momentum so it’s there when you need it, either when things get unexpectedly tough or when you’re flooded with opportunities.
Being proactive can take many forms. It can include advance thinking and prep, such as planning, which requires you to be clear about what you want to achieve, why and how. It may also be in the form of predicting and solving problems before they hit, whenever possible.
In any case, it helps to know your strengths and weaknesses so you can plan around them. It also helps to establish rhythms to better execute on those plans, as well as have ways to recognise when you’re off track.
But planning and building systems are not the only ways to be proactive, because you can’t anticipate all eventualities and knowing that helps. So, having 80% of your planned work under control gives you the headspace for the unexpected 20%. It also helps to build ways to stay on top of BAU so that you have the bandwidth for new exciting opportunities when they come along.
Being proactive is also about making sure you’re protecting your physical and mental health, by avoiding continuously working at 150% capacity and forever feeling like you’re chasing your tail. This means building buffers in your calendar so you’re more flexible—and less stressed—when things inevitably change.
Essentially, being proactive is about managing what you can predict so you can build the resilience to successfully respond to what you can’t.
Dimension 2: Focus on what matters
This requires recognising what your important work really is, which builds on Dimension 1. If you’re in tune with the purpose of your role and you know what you’re trying to achieve, it’s easier to tune out the things that are not in scope.
Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially when someone you respect asks you to add something to your plate or when you want to get involved in something exciting that you probably don’t have time for. And this is another overlap with Dimension 1. If you’ve created a buffer, you can take on this extra thing. If not, you’ll have to say no or trim elsewhere.
Other things to consider here are: the actual risk of not taking it on and whether someone else could do it instead. There could be an opportunity to develop someone else’s talents and that’s a win-win.
But sometimes focusing on what matters isn’t just about personal discipline. It also involves making room for the right people and perspectives, which overlaps with Dimension 3.
It’s worth asking yourself: Should we focus on the end-result or the journey, and which one is more relevant in our context? Are we considering the impact on the right stakeholders and involving the right people?
Sometimes a messier path, with more uncertainty and competing interests, is the better choice in the long run, whether we like it or not.
Dimension 3: See the bigger picture
This requires thinking beyond your immediate tasks and team. It’s about considering how your decisions affect colleagues, stakeholders and systems over time. It can also include looking for root causes and patterns, not just surface symptoms.
As with Dimension 2, these considerations may mean that choosing the slower or more difficult path will be more sustainable or yield a better result in the long run.
Seeing the bigger picture requires balancing ‘selfishness' (protecting your own capacity and boundaries) with ‘selflessness’ (genuine support for collective success).
In practice, this might mean developing your team, to build their skills while also building your own support base. It might mean streamlining processes so they’re easier for everyone, or planning with your team’s wellbeing in mind so that performance is sustainable.
Essentially, it’s about recognising that no one succeeds alone.
The novella includes funny scenes of Rob interacting with Claire (the corporate poster child), getting in trouble for bulldozing his way through a new initiative, and whinging about it all over a pint with Gene. For now, let’s focus on how Rob fares across the three dimensions.
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Rob and the three dimensions
In terms of being proactive and focusing on what matters, Rob is a pro at using the word ‘no’ and taking a ‘less is more’ approach, applying a frontline lens to everything he chooses to do.
He’s good at avoiding overcommitment and completing things he has committed to—as long as they’re things he values. He’s very intentional about committing almost all of his time to ‘the important work’ and delegating or avoiding everything else.
He’s keen on challenging the norm and streamlining things, so is a great addition to any project team. Except that he won’t attend any of the meetings…unless forced by his boss.
But his laser focus on the frontline and his lack of interest in ‘the corporate stuff’ isn’t serving him well in this new role. He’s part of an executive team that leads the entire organisation and that is meant to break down siloes instead of creating them. His behaviour is now much more visible, even to senior executives in partner organisations who are starting to ask questions.
If he were to widen his focus and see the bigger picture, he could do better across all three dimensions. Avoiding corporate processes doesn’t allow him to influence their improvement for the wider organisation. He has a unique voice that corporate folks need to hear—but he needs to use it more constructively and before ‘things’ hit the fan.
The key to Rob’s success here is building relationships with a small number of key players in back office. He enjoys collaborating with people he likes and trusts, so getting to know them—and realising that not all ‘bureaucrats’ are evil—would be a more effective and sustainable way of creating collective success.
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How does this apply to you?
If you’re a Rob type and struggle to connect to things you’re obliged to follow, educate yourself on why they’re there. If they still don’t make sense, be part of the change by giving constructive feedback or getting involved when you can.
If you’re a back office person who has a client like Rob, consider why he thinks that corporate teams only add extra layers and create more work for the frontline. Yes, he may just be an impatient and dismissive type, but maybe no one has ever taken the time to get him on board either. Building trust is a two-way street.
If you want to work well with a Rob type, focus on gaining his trust and respect, not by being a pushover, but by explaining things and connecting to what he cares about. And, yes, sometimes you’ll have to politely call him out on his ‘creative solutions’.
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Want to see how this plays out in practice?
Follow Rob’s full story—alongside Claire’s, Quinn’s and Gene’s—across the twelve chapters of the novella. Gene’s self-assessment against the three dimensions is also shown in the story.
On the novella page, you’ll find a couple of tools to help you figure out which of the four characters you’re most like and where you’re at with your strategic thinking. Don’t take these too seriously—and don’t take yourself too seriously either. Remember to have fun along the way.
I hope this is helpful.