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In any of your appraisals have you ever been told that you need to be more strategic or missed the top rating despite achieving all your goals, then this article is for you. If you are seen more as a doer than a thinker then this article is for you.
Are you a Mid-career manager aspiring to be a CXO? then this article is for you. Congratulations on reaching where you are in your journey. You are now poised to take that leap into senior management but as you may know, a corporate career is like a pyramid and it keeps getting narrower as you move up. Everyone at your level has an education, works hard and is aspiring to get to the next level. So what is going to separate you from the rest?
You need a “Sherpa” to guide you in your ascent to reach the pinnacle of your career. Someone who has climbed the corporate ladder himself and been a CXO himself. Someone who can help you with your blind spots and get you there quicker, so you avoid making mistakes. As a former CXO, a professionally certified (ICF-PCC) and John Mattone (coach to Steve jobs) certified executive coach I have helped thousands across the world and can help you too.
If you are a Mid-career manager who is interested in becoming a CXO, then click here know about my CXO 90 day challenge.
Click on https://cxohive.com/midcareer.
It’s great that you have been achieving your goals till now but to get the next level you will need to be STRATEGIC or at least be seen to be so.
The Oxford dictionary says “Strategic means relating to the identification of long-term or overall aims and interests and the means of achieving them”.
There was an interesting quote an article of the Harvard Business Review which said that “Strategic people create connections between ideas, plans and people that others fail to see”.
Strategy and tactics are both really important, but the strategy is the WHAT and the WHY, so it’s your ability to conceptualise to do the thinking, to take into account multiple perspectives. Tactics is about getting it done. It’s about the HOW and the WHEN of executing on that strategy, so executing is doing and taking a very focused perspective on just getting your tasks done.
Read on to get more clarity on some of the desired attributes required to be STRATEGIC.
1. FUTURE ORIENTED
You are able to plan for the future. You are able to put the organisation in a position to succeed going forward.
2. ALIGNED to the STRATEGY of the organisation
You are able to plan, suggest and execute ideas that are aligned with the strategic vision of the organisation.
3. INTENTIONAL AND DELIBERATE
It’s having ideas and taking actions that are intentional, deliberate and well thought through after financially evaluating all scenarios (not knee jerk reactions).
4. BE ABLE TO INSPIRE
It’s about being able to express these ideas in a compelling way that others want to follow and join.
5. STAYING THE COURSE
It’s easy to be swayed by every response of the competition or the fear of missing out (FOMO) to change your course of action. Your ability to stay the course is critical unless there is compelling data emerging which is contrary to what you are doing.
6. DON’T BOIL THE OCEAN
Being strategic, means being able to focus on your competitive advantage and what matters most. From a business perspective, segment the market, identify profitable niches where you can dominate, evaluate competitive advantage and build value propositions in line with customer needs. Don’t chase every opportunity and dissipate your resources.
There are at-least 50 ways to be seen as strategic and I teach them in my CXO 90 day Challenge. Click on https://cxohive.com/midcareer.
Being STRATEGIC is important for two reasons.
1. CAREER ADVANCEMENT
To be able to advance beyond a certain point you need to be able to think and conceptualise, making those tough decisions, anticipating the future, basically showing that you can steer the ship all right.
2. BIGGER IMPACT
Most of us want to have meaning in our work, so impact is really about that meaning and to make this difference through your work by delivering results you need to be strategic at a minimum in how you deploy resources. It’s in your in organisation’s best interests as well as for you to learn to be strategic.
If you are a Mid career executive who wants to become a CXO then click on https://cxohive.com/midcareer.
February, 12 2021
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