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Edited by Dreamboy, Genius_knight, BR

Strategy may be defined as a plan for reaching a goal, and is focused on transformation, as opposed to maintenance. Strategic work surpasses routine upkeep, or tactical work, in order to conceive and execute methods for progression and betterment. In order to work on a strategic level, you must move beyond daily responsibilities and incorporate advancement into your priorities. Follow these guidelines for how to work strategically.

Edit Steps

  1. 1
    Think about what you want to accomplish. Look beyond the immediate and into the future in order to get a clear vision of where you see yourself in the future.
  2. 2
    Set clear goals. These goals should be specific to your future vision. For example, if you envision enlarging your small, local delivery business, then you may work strategically toward the goals of expanding your delivery area into 3 more counties, owning a large fleet of delivery trucks, having 200 employees and running a shipping/packing warehouse.
  3. 3
    Research your goals. Gather all of the data you need to determine what it will take, materially and time-wise, to accomplish your goals.
  4. 4
    Create a plan. Following a carefully constructed order of operations is necessary to working strategically. For each of your goals, you need to define a series of steps that will lead to achieving that goal, taking all of the information you gathered into account. Create a plan in the following way:
    • Organize your goals. Write each goal out, including the method(s) you will use toward accomplishment, costs, resource requirements, delegation and the time it will take to achieve the goal.
    • Prioritize your goals. Consider immediacy, importance and ease of execution. Some goals may be very important to your future vision, but may not be immediate, as they will take the most time and money to execute, while other goals may be less vital, but immediately and easily executable.
    • Put your plan on paper. Once you identify, organize and prioritize your goals, outline the strategic work steps you will take towards those goals in chronological format. You may do this by hand, or you may implement any of a number of computer-based planning/time-management applications.
  5. 5
    Implement your plan. Keeping your goals in mind and being conscientious of time constraints, follow the steps you outlined in your plan.
  6. 6
    Reevaluate your plan as necessary. As you work strategically toward your goals, regularly assess the following:
    • Determine if your goals are realistic to the time frame you have outlined. You may find that your plan is not resulting in timely results, or that you are accomplishing steps faster than you had expected. Either way, you should reframe your goals and/or plan so they are in line with reality.
    • Redefine your priorities as necessary. Strategic work involves setting priorities so as to most efficiently accomplish tasks. Those priorities may shift regularly, due to a number of outside circumstances, and you need to be able to identify the shift so as to reallocate your resources accordingly. For example, if you unexpectedly find a fleet of trucks at a record-low clearance price, then it may be a good idea to make that purchase before investing in the previously high-priority piece of business property that will most likely stay on the market.

Edit Tips

  • Delegate tasks in order to increase your productivity. In order to delegate a task, define the task, outline each of the steps it will take to accomplish the task (called an "action plan"), give the plan to the person you are delegating the task to and, using input from the delegate, revise the plan as necessary.

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Article Info

Categories: Work World

Recent edits by: Genius_knight, Dreamboy

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