Points-to-Ponder: Strategic Thinking Leadership

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to

entertain a thought without accepting it.

Aristotle

A strategy is a theory of how best to organize and invest resources and ways of working together (including organizational culture) to achieve goals. To be able to think critically; analytically and systematically is critical to being a successful and an effective leader.

Notice that Aristotle (above) did not say an "educated person" but rather a trained or educated mind. Hence, a disciplined way of thinking.

Effective organizational leaders who succeed at the strategic thinking level have the individual capacity to cope with the complexity, fluidity, and uncertainty of situations. You do not have to have everything laid out for you. You seek clarity over certainty in every decision and you have the resiliency and ingenuity to adapt to new and different circumstances.

As a strategic leader your prime responsibility is to ensure that your organization is going in the right direction. What is the right strategic direction? How and where do you establish it? Why is implementation so difficult?

Some Points-to-Ponder:

• Thinking involves manipulation and transforming information in memory
• Reasoning is logical thinking that uses induction or deduction to research a conclusion
• Decision making involves thinking in which individuals evaluate alternatives and make choices between them
• Confirmation Bias is the tendency to search for information that supports our ideas rather than refutes them
• Belief Perseverance is the tendency to hold on to a belief in the face of contradictory evidence

Why is strategic and critical thinking so important to leadership?

Because strategic and critical thinking views individuals and organizations within the context of the possible. As such, people and an organization do not exist as an island unto themselves, but as part of a larger network web or matrix of systems that all function, or less independently, yet interdependently.

The net result.....better results, more profit and a better culture.

It is critical to your organization's future that you see the world with clarity and an understanding of how the rest of the world impacts your business.

To that end....

Danny







The source for this material is from MuRF Systems' Leadership and Strategic Thinking management/leadership training program.

To learn more about this training and how it can help your company achieve better results, contact Danny Smith at danny@RP2Development.com or 512-773-6528.