If you are tapped to participate in your firm’s strategic planning process, it’s important to approach this work as an opportunity to enhance your career, and not simply “more work” piled on top of your already overloaded schedule.
A solid performance in front of the senior leaders can be a career-maker for you.
7 Suggestions to Enhance Your Career During Your Firm’s Strategic Planning Process:
1. Embrace the Opportunity to Participate in the Strategy Process.
I’ve watched as too many professionals have approached these events with the attitude that they are giant time-wasters. There’s much wrong with many strategy processes and events (see my reference links below), however, know that the people responsible for choosing you to be successful are in the room and both looking for help and taking note of who’s contributing.
2. Do Your Homework.
You’ve been invited because someone thinks highly enough of what you do and know to make it worthwhile to give you a platform to contribute. Spend time ahead of the meeting refreshing in your area of expertise from the outside looking in through the windows of your firm.
Whether you are in marketing, engineering, sales or customer service, get current on competitors, tune into emerging market trends and customer perspectives and even (groan) the opinions of the industry pundits.
Your expertise wrapped in the context of the external environment is significantly more valuable than your technical opinion alone.
3. Do More Homework.
If you’ve not been involved in the work of strategy before, spend some time with: Good Strategy/Bad Strategy by George Rumelt. He distills down a complex, confusing process and term to some fundamentals that are simple to understand but by no means simplistic.
4. Leave Your Pet Projects at Home.
As tempting as it is to view this as an opportunity to push an agenda, your executive team members will smell this a mile away. Don’t bring ulterior motives to this environment. It’s a chance for everyone to rethink everything.
5. Speak Up When You Have Something Relevant to Say.
A room full of people with titles can create a bad case of “lockjaw” for those new to this environment. Remember, you’re present because someone viewed you as having something to contribute.
As challenging as it may seem, when you have what you deem as a relevant idea or observation, speak up and earn your space at the table. Share ideas, comment on the ideas from other participants, and importantly, when your area of expertise is the subject, make certain to be present and engaged.
Moderate your volume/frequency of participation to a level that shows you as an expert, but doesn’t position you as a loudmouth.
6. If You are a Technical Expert, Remember to Translate for the Mere Mortals.
My encouragement to show off your expertise comes with a qualifier: it’s not an opportunity to showcase how smart you are. Rather, it’s an opportunity to help everyone grow smarter.
Cut the technical jargon and engage at a level appropriate for the other participants. If necessary, grab the white-board and share diagrams to help people understand your ideas.
7. Grab Some of the Post-Session Work.
While many people resist the idea of taking on added work, your senior managers are seeking help for the research and initiative exploration so critical to assessing opportunities and making investment choices. Your assistance with the heavy lifting between sessions is a great way to get in and remain in the game as a valued participant.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
Always seek out and accept opportunities to extend your network, enhance your visibility and get involved with the process of value creation for your organization. These are rare and valuable opportunities and more than a few careers have been made on the basis of a good showing in these sessions. Remember, someone must choose you for that next opportunity, and all of the people who do the choosing are sitting at the table when it comes to strategy work.
Additional Posts on Strategy:
Ten Places Where Management Teams Misstep on Strategy
Why It’s Time to Ditch Your Plans for the Summer Strategy Offsite
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Art,
good wisdom. I remember a wise man (possibly you) once told me that “3 minutes in front of the right person is worth more than 3 years of great work at your desk.”
Another way to think about strategy meetings, is that they may not be as much about strategy as they are about identifying future high potential people. My hunch is that they are often more about identify people than they are about changing strategy.
Maybe that is the strategy?
Great points, I know myself that I have sat in the room intimidated by the others there and when I thought I had something of value to share but just sat there. Only to have someone else come up with the same idea later and all I could do was to shake my head and agree. Speaking up may be hard to overcome but once you do and you do see it had value it does become easier. Thanks for sharing.
My pleasure, Tina. I’ve been there as well. It’s well worth taking the leap. -Art
You laid this out perfectly. I shared it with some team members who have been struggling with new strategic planning processes in our organization. Thank you!
Scott, glad it helped! Art
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Thanks so much for this! I felt like you read my mind with #4. I’ve had coworkers try and sneak in a pet project or two and I’ll testify–it absolutely feels like a betrayal. If you’re a career-driven individual, outshining your fellow employees feels like the natural course, but as someone who’s been on the other end of the table, DON’T BETRAY YOUR TEAM MEMBERS. Again, great list, great tips. Thanks again!