Senior leaders don’t just work in their organization; they think as their organization. This means scanning the external environment, making strategic decisions with incomplete information, and managing risk like the enterprise depends on it.
Because it does.
Track External Forces That Drive Internal Priorities
OLD MINDSET: “Let’s focus on our quarterly goals and deliverables.”
NEW MINDSET: “Which external forces could accelerate or derail our strategy? How do we align our priorities accordingly?”
Master Environmental Scanning by looking for:
- Regulatory changes that could reshape your industry
- Technology disruptions threatening your business model
- Economic shifts affecting customer behavior
- Competitive moves that demand response
- Social trends that open new opportunities
Strategic leaders connect outside-in thinking to inside-out execution.
Master Strategic Cadence: Review, Decide, Learn
OLD MINDSET: “We’ll check our metrics monthly and adjust as needed”
NEW MINDSET: “We have disciplined rhythms for reviewing data, making decisions, and incorporating learning into our next cycle”
Build Your Strategic Rhythm:
- REVIEW: What do our leading and lagging indicators tell us?
- DECIDE: What must we start, stop, or change based on data?
- DEBRIEF: What did we learn? What will we do differently?
- REPEAT: How do we systematically improve our decision-making?
Great strategy execution is less about perfect plans and more about productive learning cycles.
Adopt a Risk Posture That Matches Organizational Reality
OLD MINDSET: “Let’s be aggressive and take big swings” OR “We don’t want to lose what we have”
NEW MINDSET: “What’s our organization’s risk tolerance? How do we articulate threats, opportunities, and our mitigation strategies?”
Strategic Risk Management in Five Steps:
- Assess tolerance: What level of risk can we absorb?
- Identify threats: What could derail our objectives?
- Spot opportunities: What asymmetric bets make sense?
- Plan mitigations: How do we minimize downside?
- Set triggers: When do we pivot or double down?
Senior leaders don’t leap before they look, nor do they avoid risk altogether; they manage it strategically.
Now What?
Perspective Shifting Is a Leadership Discipline. Seeing yourself, your organization, and the world differently isn’t a one-time transformation.
These perspective shifts comprise an ongoing discipline.
- Gathering new insights about changing conditions
- Building relationships that expand your understanding
- Developing skills that match increasing complexity
Thriving leaders never stop shifting their perspective to match the challenges ahead.
Your technical expertise opened the door. Your perspective shifts will determine how far you go. What have you seen differently recently?