Interview - questions about 'being strategic'

[Cottagepieandpeas]

I've got an interview on Friday which I'm really nervous about. It's the most senior position I've applied for and would make such a positive difference to my life in many ways. But because of that, I'm feeling very nervous (and I'm always nervous anyway).

An area I always struggle with is showing that I have influenced / contributed to organisational strategy. I have had feedback in the past from interviewers to say that I was too operational.

My past experience is really around contributing to discussions around team / departmental strategy (which come out of the overall organisational strategy) but this potential role asks;

• ability to influence organisational strategy
• Identify, lead and enable a strategic approach to...[area of work]
• Provide strategic direction in the work of the Service

I mean theyv'e given me an interview so I must have said enough in my application form but I'm experiencing a blank at the moment about these points (partly I know due to panic).

Any help / tips / advice would be hugely appreciated.

It’s hard to help with out more info, but what I would do is, think about what bits of strategy are effective in your current gig. If you could plausibly claim some credit do - it’s an interview, everyone makes it up. Explain why you think it’s good, how you decided to introduce it across the company, and what you did to make sure it happened.

When you are thinking about 2 or 3 egs for above, think c what the new company wants, and tilt accordingly.

Then say what you think could be better with one of these policies. IE what you’d like to do next, ideally in a way that’s relevant to the new company.

They are going to ask you what your role specifically was, and why you think the changes worked or didn’t (an attempt at strategy change that didn’t work is a helpful example.). They’ll ask what the biggest challenges were.

Then they might ask about what you think the key strategic challenges for your sector are, and how you’d approach that if you were them.

It’s probably just a matter of moving your thought patterns. If you get the job, a coach may help. You will probably like it, and if you don’t, you can just head back to management.

Good luck!

I would be interested in knowing more about this too

I would say that operational is more fire fighting and reactive change or planning and implementing to improve on a day to day basis. And in comparison, strategy is more the longer term plan and proactive, including thinking about enablers. So where there's a strong strategic direction, that informs what needs to happen on the ground but also the day to day operational should ultimately be steps towards delivering the strategy as the strategy sets the parameters.

So in terms of your interview thinking of examples where you've done this, eg if the orgs workforce strategy is to grow their own talent and promote within then you would have helped deliver this by implementing talent management in your dept- this would be diff to if the workforce strategy was to get new fresh talent in which case you would have created new, attractive roles within your dept and talked about how this is aligned to the strategy. If you were coming from an operational perspective not a strategic one, you wouldn't have thought of which approach the org is taking but rather would have done whatever was needed to fill the roles which desperately needed filled if that makes sense.

Might be helpful to look up Mintzbergs 10 schools of strategy if you aren't familiar with it.

For ability to identify and lead a strategic approach, I would think about enablers eg cultural change, transformation initiatives, enabling strategies such as workforce, digital. And importantly data based approach- important to fully understand the problem before mapping the solution and data is key to this. If 90% of turnover has been because all the accountants have left then strategy would focus on reducing turnover in finance dept rather than an organisational Wide focus on retention.

Thank you is very helpful

When I'm making strategic plans they are based on company mid to long term objectives and industry direction.

For example if the company goals are to gain more accreditations and be seen as a more mature and developed player in the market then I'd be looking at what the big accreditations are that could support the company goals while also supporting the more operational objectives.

So Netzero is a big thing, Government clients want any suppliers/vendors to have a Netzero Policy and Plan. ISO14001 is an environmental sustainability Management System certification that would tie in nicely and give more weight due to the external audits, it also provides the company an established and tested framework which is well known and will support bids.

I also look at at the resources available and how these will need to change to meet those strategic goals, so will we need more staff, will cost of living/inflation/job market mean we are risk of losing people and if so what are appropriate measures, do you need to be budgeting for wage increases or actually with your particular group is it more about company culture, training opportunities, development.... do you need to make available new tools/training to stay ahead of industry expectations and remain relevant in your market, are there client requests coming in that are forming trends and suggest a new approach needs to be developed.

I agree with @HalfShrunkMoreToGo, good answer!

I also say that I ensure that whatever department plans are made, I line them up to the organisational strategy. Anything that doesn’t fit with that gets cut out. Thats both strategic and operational competency, because you’re removing the items that waste time / don’t contribute anything to the business.

I also talk about long term brand perception and reputation, and how we as a unit can contribute overall to the business’s goals.

Be specific - talk about how you've realised the strategy too. Ie, taking decision to board for approval / developing a new org structure or kpis / developing a comms strategy to communicate the new strategy etc etc
Otherwise I find these type of answers can be very vague and don't come across credibly.