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Many of my senior leaders and founders clients want to be strategic thinkers but find it difficult to find time amidst their busy schedules and balance it with day-to-day operations.
According to research, senior leaders should allocate approximately 50-60% of their time to strategic thinking and visioning, which involves understanding trends, setting a clear organisational direction, and aligning goals with this vision. The remaining 40-50% should be dedicated to operational tasks, ensuring a balance between long-term planning and day-to-day management (Switzer Associates, The Systems Thinker).
Stepping off the hamster wheel to achieve this balance is paramount for successful leadership. Only then can you set clear directions, anticipate challenges, and sustain growth and drive long-term success. In this blog, I will explore three tips that, once mastered, can help you find the time and excel in visioning and strategic thinking: setting clear priorities, delegating effectively, and scheduling dedicated strategic thinking time. As you will see, these tips are interconnected and interdependent.
Tip Number One: Setting Clear Priorities
Setting clear priorities helps focus on high-impact activities that align with your strategic goals. They ensure that time and resources are directed towards what truly matters for your personal and organisation’s growth and are at the core of effective delegation.
Most leaders understand the importance of prioritising but still find it difficult due to competing urgent tasks, unclear strategic goals, limited resources or ingrained habits and mindsets.
Overcoming Prioritisation Challenges
Understanding your personal challenge with prioritising is the first important step. From here, I have found it helpful to:
Take a Step Back to See the Big Picture: Sometimes, being too close to your tasks can cloud your judgment. Taking a step back allows you to reassess and view your priorities from a broader perspective, helping you make more informed decisions.
Take Time to Define Your Goals: By clearly outlining your long-term and short-term goals, you create a roadmap, reducing confusion and ensuring everyone is on the same page. This is the foundation piece of effective delegation.
Assess Impact: Evaluate tasks based on their impact on your strategic objectives. This helps distinguish between what's truly important and what's merely urgent, counteracting the issue of competing demands.
Be Flexible: Regularly review and adjust priorities as necessary to adapt to changing circumstances. Flexibility allows you to reallocate resources effectively, addressing resource constraints without losing sight of your goals.
Involve your Team: By involving them in the goal-setting process, you foster open communication to keep everyone aligned and committed. It creates a sense of ownership and clarity, making it easier to manage limited resources and balance multiple demands.
Tip Number Two: Delegation
Delegation is essential because it empowers your team, boosts productivity, and frees up time for strategic thinking. It allows you to focus on big-picture goals while ensuring that operational tasks are managed efficiently. Despite knowing the importance of delegation, many leaders struggle with it. Common issues include the fear of losing control, lack of clarity, and perfectionism.
Overcoming Delegation Challenges
Again, start by being honest with yourself and understand your personal challenge with delegation. This awareness allows you to address it effectively:
Build Trust: Start by delegating smaller tasks and gradually increase responsibilities as trust builds. This incremental approach helps establish confidence in your team's abilities and builds your own “delegation muscle”.
Create Time for Clarity: Set aside regular time to zoom out and clarify priorities (see tip one). Only when you know what is important can you delegate effectively.
Set Clear Expectations: Clearly define the task, desired outcomes, deadlines, and check-in points. This clarity ensures that everyone is on the same page and knows what is expected of them.
Provide Support: Offer guidance and be available for questions but avoid micromanaging. Agree on how often check-ins are needed and the level of support required.
Embrace Imperfection: Accept that mistakes are part of the learning process. Use them as opportunities for growth and improvement rather than as a reflection of failure.
Leverage the Wisdom of the Team: Involve your team in decision-making processes and encourage them to share their insights. The team often brings valuable perspectives and knows their capacity, helping you to delegate more effectively.
Tip Number Three: Scheduling Strategic Thinking Time
This may sound obvious; however, even though we manage to prioritise and delegate, many of us still struggle because we allow constant interruptions, struggle with time management, lack discipline, and haven't defined the importance of strategic thinking time.
Overcoming Strategic Time Challenges
Clarify to Stay Committed: Clarify the importance of strategic time so that you develop the discipline to adhere to it, even when daily tasks seem pressing.
Step off the Hamster Wheel: Start small with just 15 minutes a week dedicated to strategic thinking. This modest beginning can pave the way for longer reflection periods.
Gradually Expand Your Horizon: Once you’ve established a routine, gradually increase it to 15 minutes a day, an hour a week, and eventually longer periods for monthly planning. This approach is manageable and sustainable.
Block Time in Advance: Get into the habit of schedule regular strategic sessions in your calendar and treat them as non-negotiable. Do this well in advance.
Minimise Interruptions: Create a distraction-free environment or remove yourself completely. Communicate the importance of this time to your team.
Learn to say "No": To make smarter decisions, we need to create mental space. Ask yourself if you need to attend that meeting or say yes to that request. Be selective and discerning about your time.
Be a Role Model: Prioritising strategic planning and deep-thinking time sets an example for your organisation.
Final Thought
Balancing long-term vision and strategic thinking with daily operations can be challenging but rewarding. It requires you to step off the hamster wheel and make a conscious effort to allocate time and mental space for strategic planning. I personally prefer to use "harmonising" instead of "balancing" because it better captures the dynamic and fluid nature of aligning strategic vision with daily operations.
Remember, achieving this harmony is an ongoing journey that requires continuous adjustment and commitment. Embrace the process, and you'll find that aligning your strategic vision with daily operations not only enhances productivity but also fosters innovation, ensures sustainability, and aligns the team with the organisation's goals.
How do you ensure you have enough time dedicated to strategic planning? We would love to hear your thoughts and comments.
Please get in touch to explore how we can help you improve your strategic leadership.
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