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How to demonstrate strategic thinking?

13 replies

Purpleisnotmycolour · 17/03/2025 15:42

I've had three unsuccessful interviews over a few months and it boils down to lack of ability to demonstrate strategic thinking. These are for jobs like education or training manager in a sports organisation or charity. I have heaps of knowledge, skills and experience, hence getting the interview but then can't say the right things they want to hear. It's so frustrating as I absolutely know I can do the job. In at least one case the person who beat me was massively less qualified and experienced and definitely exaggerated in the interview. How to I improve my skills in this area? Both in reality and in interviews? I'd happily do courses or read things etc but I've done loads of training and it never really helps. Or it is massive overkill and for people running huge companies

OP posts:
NoctuaAthene · 17/03/2025 17:11

Hi, this is feedback I get a lot too so don't know how much help I will be buuuttt...

I think basically the 'lack of strategic thinking' feedback/impression that people get of you is quite common where you reach a point in your career where you have a lot (maybe too much sometimes!) of practical, technical, operational experience but haven't yet been in a senior post and/or demonstrated leadership. You have to remember at interview stage they aren't just assessing whether you can do the job (they obviously think you can, but so can all the other candidates), but also would they like working with you, so I do think that feedback can be basically a bit about your personality and how you are coming across. Certainly for me I know I can give the impression I am a super-detail focused person who loves to get a process completely right and efficient from start to finish - you'd think how great, who wouldn't want that in their team, but it can really irk certain people. I think it makes them worried I'd be pedantic/anxious about ensuring everything is technically correct and unable to see the bigger picture and I'm guessing they also think (and probably correctly TBH!) that I'd be a pain in their backside about always wanting to make improvements, pointing out problems and (and this part is incorrect) perhaps not keen on change or unable to be pragmatic and problem-solve/work around where needed. I also think maybe I can come across as lacking in ambition (for the job role, not in my career) compared to other candidates because I focus too much on practical realities (it does then really quite irk me when I have an experience of someone who talks all the talk but has no idea how to practically achieve any of it gets promoted ahead of me AND then fails to get their comeupannce but hey ho, life isn't fair) .

What is the solution, many won't agree but I tend to do a bit of 'if you can't beat them join them' - simple things like: using all the current favoured buzzwords and corporate bullsh*t, much as it makes me feel like vom-ing using that instead of simple, practical english, showing you understand their company's ambition and share that goal (with tangibles on how to contribute to that even if you are applying for a low level role), having really good examples of work at a higher level that is more proactive, rather than every example being how you've managed a problem that's come up or completed a task you were asked to do, really sell these as how you're 'driven transformational change' (puke) aka implemented some process improvements or a new service/product or something and 'facilitated innovation' (urgh) aka had a creative or new idea or taken someone else's idea and followed it through.

Basically what business people tend to term 'strategy' or strategic leadership really just means choosing an end goal or end state, whether that's to make more money or bring in more clients or improve the quality of your service or whatever, identified the correct steps in order to achieve that goal (which may involve an element of creativity or 'outside the box thinking', as above be careful not to get yourself pegged as someone that just always does things 'correctly' because that's how they've always been done), then made a realistic/achievable plan to do those steps, a awful lot of guff gets talked but it's fundamentally that simple and logical at the end of the day. So I do find it helps to structure answers in that way even of quite small examples of things I think I have done to genuinely make a difference.

Hope that ramble makes some kind of sense!

StamppotAndGravy · 17/03/2025 17:17

Do you go in with a 5 year plan of how you want to develop the role, yourself and how it will help the organisation?

MinistryofMom · 17/03/2025 17:19

Yeah, I'd say it's 'big picture' stuff - where you'll be in 3/5y and the big milestones. Not the practical detail things.

I'm the opposite, I know where we need to get to, what it looks like, how to get there & prob most importantly WHO do you need to drag with you & what do you need them to deliver and how will you do that. It's sales really, just ideas not things.

I always try to keep that 'vision' (vom) at the forefront of my work to stop any distractions... but I'm total crap at the details of those milestones & need a detailed person to keep me in line.

Linked in is worth looking at to see if there's any free bitesize training on stuff like this.

Newyorklady · 17/03/2025 21:49

Strategic thinking is being able to demonstrate having a vision for change or improvements. In Leadership it’s always looking ahead.
For instance - What areas do we need to improve upon, what or how can we improve performance, are their any tasks we can automate or streamline ? Any savings we can make. Any processes we can look at and improve.
It can be something as simple as how a team is set up and if that can be changed.

MsMajeika · 17/03/2025 22:07

Familiarize yourself with:

GAP Analysis
Force Field Analysis
PESTLE framework

They will really help with strategic planning in education and will help you focus your interview answers.

RechargeableGnu · 18/03/2025 00:41

Corporate strategy is 'where' organisation should aim to be ie industry / competition / diversification / geographical plans etc. Bigger picture / macro view.

Business strategy is 'how' - ie what resources and capabilities does the organisation have that it can utilise.

Managers make strategic decisions. That's you (in the interview).

FrangipaniBlue · 18/03/2025 03:39

choose your words wisely.

i had a leadership coach for a while and one of the things they taught me was that women are often accused of not being strategic when the reality is we just use simpler language.

Literally drop in the word strategy instead of plan. Use wanky language like “going forward….. “

you’ll feel like the caller in a game of buzzword bingo but bizarrely it does work!

next time you’re in a meeting just watch and observe the different language men use vs women.

Purpleisnotmycolour · 18/03/2025 07:30

Thanks to everyone who has taken time to comment so far. Definitely some things to think about. I was told I was obviously very experienced at the operational level ( too experienced? Been doing too long rather than leading?) I need to make my language more firmly strategic.
I was at a training session that included CEOs and was trying to observe language and behaviour but they really didn't say anything impressive or useful. Probably because it was fairly informal and they weren't trying to impress anyone.
I'm not a fan of LinkedIn but will drag myself up to date on it and explore.
How do you get a leadership coach? I have a friend who is a CEO and she's really helpful but I don't like bothering her all the time with my ( lack of) career woes. I'm going to try to get on a leadership programme at work. Do you tell your line manager if you are trying to progress or does that show them you are not committed to current job?

OP posts:
Downthemarshes · 18/03/2025 07:44

It's showing you know how your role fits/would fit into the bigger picture - so in every answer making sure the results/ impact of what you have achieved is clear- try and ideally connecting these results to organisational impact and the need for this.

Use the SMART method to plans 3 or 4 practise answers and see how this works for you - really focusing on wider impact in your R and also in the S scene setting if needed.

Shetlands · 18/03/2025 07:54

What were the education jobs? I may be able to help with examples of how to demonstrate strategic thinking there.

Purpleisnotmycolour · 18/03/2025 09:39

Thanks, the jobs were education and training manager for sports organisations so planning the coach and volunteer training and education courses and cpd etc.

OP posts:
Shetlands · 18/03/2025 10:10

Purpleisnotmycolour · 18/03/2025 09:39

Thanks, the jobs were education and training manager for sports organisations so planning the coach and volunteer training and education courses and cpd etc.

Can you give us examples of the questions you were asked and how you replied?

AlisonDonut · 18/03/2025 10:12

If you were talking about the training and the courses rather than the direction of the organisation and new business opportunities then that might be it.

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