Nurture Employees Who Think Strategically
Employees need to be able to identify the impact of decisions on production, revenue, talent management and customers.
By encouraging strategic thinking throughout the organization, you can identify natural leaders in all departments and at all levels. The first step is empowering managers who can then instill strategic thinking in their teams. When this happens, you can effectively utilize the thoughts of your entire organization which will shed new light on all aspects of an operation.
Four easy steps to promote a culture of strategic thinking
Be transparent — When management shares current information regarding the market, industry, customers, competitors and goals, everyone is up-to-date. When all of the individuals at an entire organization stay informed, they can collectively work towards the organization’s goals.
Assign mentors to everyone — New employees should be assigned a mentor during at the onset of their job. Existing employees can easily be paired with colleagues. Every manager should have a mentor that’s at the executive level. Mentors should be able to help with training, accountability and, most importantly, growing within the position.
Promote solutions — Individuals frequently operate in reaction mode and find short-term solutions for issues. It’s important to encourage managers and team members not to just react, but to develop long-term solutions.
Promote future perspective — When proposing a solution, encourage everyone to ask two questions: How does this serve our goals and what impact will it have on those goals? The answers to these questions will help individuals spot the best solutions for your organization.
Developing and promoting a culture of strategic thinking helps with collective education and expertise. It’s also a great way to spot natural leaders that can be promoted to more senior positions as they’re needed.
In the last installment of our three-part series, we will look at ways to create a successful team.
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Nation's Executive Search Group is sought out by leaders in Enterprise Risk Management, Marketing Services and Decision Analytics for mission critical sales and marketing leadership talent.
For more information, email or call Rob at 410.827.0180, rmilner@nesgroup.net.