Strategic Thinking for Hardworking Women Who Want to Be Leaders

If your career aspirations include becoming a leader someday, learning to see the big picture and think strategically is an important quality you can begin developing now.

But you have to be intentional, because the day-to-day tasks and routines of many jobs easily lull us into autopilot as we check off items on our to-do lists. How often do we stop to consider whether what we’re doing is working, whether it’s necessary, how it affects other departments or people, or whether the way we’re doing it is efficient?

Technical skills grow as our careers progress. But career advancement is usually marked by broader views of an organization—thinking outside your siloed department and beyond today’s to-do list. Leaders need a broad awareness of the organization, an understanding of the various moving parts both internally and externally, and the ability to see opportunities and threats and make strategic decisions.

Susan Calantuono thinks women need a push in developing the key critical leadership competencies of business strategy and financial acumen. “Women represent 50 percent of middle management and professional positions. But the percentages of women at the top of organizations represent not even a third of that number,” says Colantuono in a TED.com talk. She attributes this gap to women not receiving this career advice, not preparing themselves for leadership and therefore not being seen as leadership material.

How can you develop your big-picture thinking?

• Seek.
• Listen.
• See.
• Think.

Learn about your company and your industry. Break free of your departmental silo. Keep your ear to the ground and notice what’s going on. Here are the areas to focus on:

• How does what you do each day affect your organization’s success?
• Get to know people in other departments and learn about what they do
• How does your company make money?
• How do the various departments of your business come together to make that happen?
• Who are your customers? Why do they buy from you instead of the competitor? Who are the top 10? What’s important to them?
• What’s happening in your industry? Are there new laws or trends that will have an eventual impact?
• Who are your competitors? How are they different than your company?

Seek information by setting a goal of learning something new or meeting someone new each week.

After a year of doing this,  you’ll know things about your company and industry that you didn’t know before (and that those around you may not have taken the time to learn.)

Listen to colleagues, leaders, clients and vendors.

Listen with the goal of learning more about both them and your industry. Then rather than talking about all you’ve learned, show managers what you know by asking informed questions and making suggestions for changes.

Notice what’s going on around you.

Why are certain customers placing bigger orders? What’s causing a vendor to increase his prices? How was your biggest competitor able to offer so many extras?

Thinking bigger happens naturally when you push yourself to learn more, meet new people and question what’s going on around you.

Hard work and strong technical expertise are in big demand these days. But when you broaden your knowledge and thinking, you increase your value to your organization. You also take one step closer to becoming a leader.