Stop waiting for someone above you to set strategy or objectives, instead, invent your own!
I just got off the phone with a CTO who felt frozen: he had a long, disjointed list of product requests, but no coherent company strategy to fit them into, and couldn’t work out how to move ahead. As I often do with all kinds of executives, I told him to imagine that he’d just been given complete control of his organisation, and asked him what criteria he’d use then to sift through the demands. That immediately unlocked loads of ideas and he phoned the CEO straightaway to try them out. He’s sure to be off base with many of those strategic plans, but he can always course correct; what’s most important is that he’s now unstuck. Try it yourself; you may just find you have a gift for strategy!
This first appeared in my weekly Squirrel Squadron email, which goes out every Monday, and was originally posted on 22nd August 2022. To get my provocative thoughts and tips direct to your inbox first, sign up here: https://squirrelsquadron.com/