Becoming more strategic

[Ilkleymoor]

How can I do this? Looking for work at the moment and struggling to demonstrate being strategic. Some of it is experience and some.of it is not knowing how to express it/show it in a presentation.

Any training or useful things to read to help me shape my current experience?

Strategy is easy but boring - my opinion, delivering strategy is much more interesting but needs technical knowledge and doesn’t pay as well.

What I did was be aware of the strategic objectives at the highest level and how they cascade down to me. When I suggest something I drop in a line, bullet point, sentence, paragraph e.g I am proposing xyz because it meets/supports strategic objective abc. Bonus points if you also link to another team/directorates strategic objectives.

Read the business plans - organisations, directorates, teams etc. see how it filters down (and up). You want to filter up by cross referencing.

Look at Chartered Management Institute at higher levels they have strategy training/qualifications https://www.managers.org.uk/education-and-learning/qualifications/

Being strategic isn't always about knowing the business plan and long term aims and how a department fits into things, but about knowing who moves, who shakes, and who will be behind you when you need them. On paper things might be the complete opposite to reality and knowing who is actually doing what is crucial to being strategic.

It's as much about people as it is about what needs doing.

Can you tell us the line of work? As thinking and behaving strategically very much depends on the role.

It's a bit difficult to offer advice without the context of industry and role but an example would be something like this.

If your role is marketing/social media then strategic thinking would be:

• what are the trends in social media, are there platforms that are phasing out, have you seen evidence or research showing new emerging platforms building
• how do you continue to use the existing but waning platforms while building a plan to build a following on the new platform
• what does the branding look like, would changes be needed to suit the new platform and grab people's attention
• could this activity build into any other projects/goals that the company is working towards ie a big flagship new client onboarding in xx months or a change of brand image or a new product launch

OKRs are the big strategic buzzword I keep hearing. Plan for your objectives and key results. They're different to KPIs and can be applied at department or directorate level a bit easier.

Thanks for responses!

I work in community investment in social housing and trying to move into social mobility/social value.

Big thing is showing that I don't just do tasks or individual programmes, that I have a plan. Can see where I went wrong in the interview and Comms example above is v helpful.

Absolutely shot myself in the foot - but seems fixable for next time.