When was the last time you thought about your business strategy? Do you depend on your organization to hand down strategic objectives?
Even if developing strategy is not a regular part of your job, strategic thinking is a key skill that companies look for when identifying and promoting leaders, so it’s worth investing some time making sure you remain sharp. And, if you own your own business, it’s probably a good idea to spend a few hours every month revisiting your strategy with how rapidly technology and marketplaces change these days.
In honor of our learning cycle topic, “Sharpening your Strategic Thinking”, I spent several hours reviewing various YouTube videos on strategy to see how different people think about the subject. Of everything I watched, the video below is my favorite refresher on what strategy actually is. It’s less than 9 minutes, and watching it really inspired me to clarify my own business strategy.
You could refresh your strategic thinking in about 15 minutes by watching the video and answering the seven reflection questions that follow. Have fun with this exercise, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to discuss your strategy in more depth, or just learn more about how to apply these lessons in your current position. Enjoy!
Some key questions to think about:
1. What is your “field of play”?
2. Who are the players in your field, and what are their goals, strengths and weaknesses?
3. What factors in the world or in peripheral industries are changing your field of play?
4. What are three different ways you could position yourself to “win” and how would you need to re-allocate your resources in order to do so?
5. What secrets could you learn about how your field of play is changing or about the other players that might provide an opportunity for you to get a leg up?
6. How could you keep getting new insights so that you could predict how customers might behave in the future?
7. How do your insights from these questions change your current work priorities?
If you’d like to think through your strategy with a coach, don’t hesitate to reach out to schedule a consultation using our contact form.
