If you’re looking to change the way things are done in your organizations, your first step is to look in the mirror. How are you leading? What are you doing to reinforce the change? What are you doing to inadvertently reinforce the old ways of doing things? Strategic leadership is a skill.

I work with a CEO who wants his team to be more strategic but continually focuses on the numbers for this month. They’re so busy scrambling to meet the short term that it’s difficult to be thinking about the longer term. In the weekly meeting, the CEO spends 90% of the time focused on short-term results.

If you want things to change, you need to model the new way of doing things. It’s important that, once leaders are committed to the change effort, they lead by example, to model the change that they wish to see from their employees. If they don’t live the change, why should employees? If this CEO doesn’t demonstrate strategic leadership and be the role model for how to deliver a great experience, it won’t happen.

Change management doesn’t just happen You have an opportunity to change the conversation to help your teams become strategic leaders:

• Profile a new project/idea being implemented within the business.
• Count the number of questions he asks – and make sure there are an equal number of strategic and short term ones.
• Start each weekly meeting talking about a future trend and it’s implications for the business.
• Ask each team member to dedicate 15 minutes of strategic conversation in their weekly staff meetings.

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
-Thomas Edison