How can we think strategically?
Taking the long view emerged as a crucial strategy for a successful and sustainable career in my research. This blog explores the evidence around the long view and some practical tools to develop your long-term thinking —a 5-minute read.
I’ve researched the amazing women in my network to distil their collective wisdom into five strategies for success: purpose, authenticity, self-care, quality relationships and the long view. Over the past months, I have written about each one through my Strategies for Success blog series. In this final blog of the series, I’ll explore the long view.
The long view strategy brings us full circle, back to purpose. If we start with clarity about our why (purpose) and cultivate our vision for where we want to get to (the long view), we can make confident, well-informed decisions about our immediate challenges today. Here is the pragmatic advice I heard from the inspiring women I spoke to:
"Understand the battles you can lose to win the war."
"Start with the end in mind…Think realistically – both at what you want your career to be, AND what price you are willing to pay to achieve that career."
Strategies for Success.
What is the long view?
The long view is the discipline to resist the pressure for immediate results or chasing quarterly numbers in favour of a long term strategy. Short-term gains can be seductive; however, they are unlikely to produce sustainable results. Long-term thinking is as good for organisations' bottom lines as it is for individual careers.
When I worked at top law firm Osborne Clarke, they were reaping the benefits of simplifying their sector strategy. They went from operating in multiple sectors to a disciplined eight to develop deep expertise and establish a competitive advantage. This meant some difficult decisions in the short term – not marketing or pursuing clients in sectors they have previously operated in, favouring building a deeper network in their chosen sectors instead.
In his timeless classic 7 Habits, Stephen Covey’s second habit – Begin with the End in Mind: Principles of Personal Leadership (as referenced by one of the women in my research – see quote above) is a well-established example of long term thinking[1]. Whether you are embarking on a new project, reaching out to a connection on LinkedIn or considering your career more broadly, asking the question “what is the outcome or impact I am seeking to achieve?” is a powerful tool for self-reflection and self-management.
Why should we care about the long view?
If we want to make our unique contribution and reach our potential, we must be strategic with our day-to-day choices and decisions and cultivate a vision for our End in Mind. Osborne Clarke is continuing to outperform the market with their focused strategy.
It is worth recognising that long-term thinking is not easy – it requires sacrifice and discipline. However, the potential rewards are huge - it is the best way to gain meaning and lasting success. In the first blog of this series, purpose, I talked about the connection between meaning and the quality of our life and our performance at work, along with the tremendous benefits organisations experience when they have a clear purpose. We can use the long view strategy to help to clarify what we want from our lives and careers by stepping off the treadmill for a moment to think about what matters to us. The discipline of the long view becomes a mutually reinforcing process to explore and understand our purpose and what gives us meaning.
How can we cultivate long-term thinking?
Just as Osborne Clarke said no to operating in multiple sectors when working with clients, I often find challenging current thinking with the following question: "What do you need to say no to, so you can say yes to this?" can lead to new insights. Professor Dorie Clark is on point on this topic: “Saying yes to everything means being average at everything. Saying no, conversely, is what gives the rare opportunity to be great."[2].This deceptively simple approach is, in fact, nuanced and requires tact and diplomacy, but the payoff is worth it. Done in the right way, saying no can help you be authentic, practice self-care, build quality relationships, and develop a strategic eye.
Sometimes it is clear what our End in Mind is – we may want to move to a specific city, get a new job at our dream employer or deliver a successful piece of work for a client. However, in my experience in the coaching room, the End in Mind is often less clear and may need to be explored collaboratively. When it comes to thinking about their careers, I encourage my clients to hold their End in Mind lightly – consider it an experiment, a hypothesis to explore, test, validate, revise or evolve. It can be a dynamic and fun experience – broaden your network, gain experience in other areas, and figure out if you are passionate about the End in Mind you think you are, in all its imperfect brilliance.
As mentioned in my authenticity blog, there is compelling research to demonstrate that imagining a positive future self is good for individual well-being and performance and building organisational capacity for creative problem solving, performance under pressure and relationships with employees. A practical tool to facilitate this thinking is the Best Possible Selves (BPS) writing activity – imagining a positive future where you have worked hard and achieved all of your goals.[3]. When working with leaders, I often use Dr Karissa Thacker's adaption of the BPS writing activity, which stimulates thinking in the frame of a vision for yourself as a leader, including who you want to be as a leader and how you want to impact others.[4].
We've explored the wisdom of Beginning with the End in Mind, the benefits of a focused sector strategy and the rewards for individuals and organisations from taking the long view. We've reflected on the power of saying no so we can say yes to what matters, along with the power of taking time out to reflect on a positive future. I used the long view when considering how to build my coaching business by asking myself questions like “who is my ideal client?” (When I didn’t have any) and “what impact do I want to have on others?” (When my impact was limited). By using questions like these, I have been able to clarify my End in Mind: to empower women at work to make their unique contributions. This clarity has helped me successfully build my coaching business authentically and sustainably. What can you say no to, to say yes to what really matters to you?
In conclusion
This blog series has explored the collective wisdom of the brilliant women in my network through the five strategies for success. Each strategy is interdependent with the others, and it is the synergy of the strategies that creates optimum performance and well-being.
Taken as a whole, purpose and the long view neatly bookend and support all the strategies in between. Taking the long view can empower us to be authentic, which helps create a sustainable career and sustains us. Taking the long view on self-care can motivate us to make time for exercise, eat healthily, or prioritise time for ourselves. And taking the long view will enable us to build the quality relationships we need to sustain our entire careers. Which strategy do you need to dial up or dial down? How can you have some fun in the process?
Learn more about my research and approach to coaching here.
[1] The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Stephen Covey (1989, 2004).
[2] The Long Game: How to be a long-term thinker in a short-term world. Dorie Clarke (2021).
[3] The Best Possible Selves Intervention: A Review of the Literature to Evaluate Efficacy and Guide Future Research. Paula Loveday, Christian Martyn Jones, Geoff P Lovell (2018).
[4] The Art of Authenticity: Tools to Become an Authentic Leader and Your Best Self. Dr Karissa Thacker (2016).