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Courage - What's it got to do with being a strategic thinker?

Updated: Sep 19, 2022

What is the toughest decision you have had to make? And why was it tough? Now think about whether the decision you eventually made was a strategic one. Did you make the best decision for the long-term over the short term?

Did you make a decision that aligned with your values? Did you make a decision driven by wise use of your resources? Or acknowledgement of your constraints or limitations?


Strategic decisions can be tough decisions by their very nature. Why? Because they force us to decide what is MOST important. And that doesn't mean that the other things aren't very very important too.

Here are a few reasons that strategic thinking can present us with decisions that require courage:


1. Competing goals


It takes courage to even identify the presence of competing goals, let alone untangle and prioritise them. Often this process can require a good hard look at what is most important to you and what you are willing to sacrifice... ouch! Like all working parents, my husband and I have grappled with this. Often your kids are young and you're at the peak of your career and earning potential. The competing goals are real and all of them have significant implications.


3. You can't do or have everything


Related to the above - this is a really tough one! It's probably one of the most important realisations too. And when I say realise, I mean being really aware of what the trade-offs are rather than either consciously or unconsciously attempting to have your cake and eat it too.


2. There's no way to keep everyone happy


Sometimes, there's no way to keep anyone happy! That's when a good dose of leadership comes in - but it's much easier if you've done the thinking to be as confident as you can be that you've settled on the least bad option. I think we've seen plenty of this kind of decision-making in the past couple of years!


4. You have to put all your eggs in one basket


That's right, you have to choose a basket! And that can leave us feeling vulnerable because we are then accountable for which basket we picked. When we don't make a deliberate choice, however, we are still making a choice, it is just less conscious. That is, we still miss out on something. Take the example of businesses grappling with the trade-off between having staff back in the office and offering them flexibility to work from home. Both options - fully office-based, fully remote, and a mix, have their pro's and con's. Going with the flow still means we're gaining something and losing something, we just haven't made a conscious decision about which approach best supports business goals (and I don't just mean profitability).


5. You have to choose short term pain over long term gain


As humans we are wired for short-term survival so this is always going to be a tough one - and a very easy trap to fall into. Choosing short term pain, inconvenience, additional workload, lower performance, higher costs, more uncertainty - over longer term gains is totally unnatural to us. It takes a deliberate decision, and the clarity to know that it is the right decision. That takes courage, and as a leader, you also need to project that courage onto others if you're going to have any followers on the journey.


The list goes on. I love hearing the real life stories of tough decisions and the courage that people muster once they realise that's what is needed. Recognising courage as an attribute of strategic thinkers is often what helps people to see where they are avoiding a decision they know they need to make, or see the answer they didn't really want to see. In this way, courage brings the clarity that we need as strategic thinkers and leaders.


If you're on the fence...

If you've been checking out the Strategic Thinker Development Programme from afar and are sitting on the fence about whether it is right for you, let's talk. Not so I can convince you (I promise, hard sell is really not my style), but so I can fill any gaps, reassure any concerns, and help you know for sure if it definitely is, or is not, for you. I spoke with someone recently who, through the conversation and a series of emails, realised for himself that he doesn't feel confident that senior management is right for him. What he actually wanted, was to explore that first, before diving into a programme or course with others.


For you, it might be that there is a hurdle in your mind that you just need a little help to get over, or it might be that it is for you but it's not quite the right time. Either way, I'd love to talk it through with you and learn more about what you need in your development journey.



If you liked this, sign up for my articles straight to your inbox, check out my website, follow me on LinkedIn, or contact me on nina@ninafield.co.nz to discuss how I can help you with strategic thinking and strategic leadership development.


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