In leadership we often talk about having the “30,000-foot view”, which is another way to say, “Keep your eye on the overall strategy”. The day-to-day nature of work makes this difficult. Flying in an airplane, climbing up to cruising altitude, the minute aspects of life on the ground fade away. All the individual elements, the people, the cars, the houses, get smaller and smaller until they are not even dots to the naked eye. What you are left with are huge geographical features—miles of fields, or ocean, or mountains.
How does this view affect you when you see it? The change in perspective gives you two opportunities. One is to see much farther than you can on the ground. The other is to see features, obstacles and paths that you just couldn’t on the ground. Elevation changes your point of view as you gain both distance and perspective. And it’s this change that for a leader can be crucial. Whether it’s a problem, or challenge, or vision ahead, or business decision—if you could just get high enough above it, then you could use that clarity to make a better choice. Maybe even the best choice.
When it comes to strategic thinking, however, a leader must understand that just because you can see more doesn’t mean that you have all the information you need to make a better decision. When you are looking out the airplane window, you can certainly observe more and see farther than with your own abilities. In fact it’s about as close as an astronaut’s view of the earth as most people will ever get. But that doesn’t mean that you know exactly what you are looking at, or how to interpret it. Of the 30,000 foot view, Askthemanager.com comments, “The phrase is most often uttered by pompous managers who believe they see and consider the whole shebang, while the rest of us are too small-minded or too focused on the minutia to understand much beyond our current five-foot-eleven-inch view.”[1] So how does can 30,000-foot view benefit our leadership realistically down on the ground?
Why Before what. When the rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked how to go to heaven (Mark 10:17-27), Jesus told Him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Jesus cut through the tactics. It was about who he was, his very purpose for being. The ruler couldn’t see his path wasn’t going to get him to his destination. When the ruler asked Jesus, “What shall I do so that I may inherit eternal life?”, Jesus put him on his heels by giving him a broader perspective. “Oh, you want eternal life? Well then, drop everything and follow Me.” It wasn’t about what the rich ruler had done or could do. The man came asking Jesus an action question—what must I do? But the answer was strategic. The ruler wasn’t expecting this.
Strategic thinking is difficult because most of us work on a tactical level. The tactical consists of the actual plans and actions to gain a specific end. In your business are you may be asking questions like:
How do we meet this sales goal?
Who is the ideal customer for this product?
Where is the best place to put our marketing dollars?
When should we make a change in this job role?
If so, then you are squarely in the tactical. The key strategic question you must ask first is “Why?” And the answer to this question for your work cannot be simply “to make more money” or “to grow our business”. Those are reasons to do something, but they are not reasons to be anything. A leader must determine the why clearly and succinctly. This is strategic thinking.
Insight before initiative. Insight is an accurate and intuitive understanding of something. You know it at a deep level, from all angles. Simply put, before you act on something, you need to have a good understanding of what you’re getting yourself into. Where the why guides your overall direction and shapes your goals, insight drives the actions that help you accomplish your objectives. Gaining insight happens through research and experience. To get the insight you need to make strategic decisions, consider:
Consulting with experts. The person who makes connections with others gains wisdom and knowledge they can use in their own decision-making. Isolated leaders seldom make good decisions in all areas because their relationships don’t extend to areas of expertise outside of their sphere of experience. The best leaders have a network of coworkers, industry confidants and mentors that expand their knowledge.
Observing. So much is learned by simply watching and taking notes. Many miss insight because they’re so busy planning and deciding, they skilled the steps of observing and recording. Be objective, observing without pre-conception and conclusions so that you can take in fresh information. Good observers are good note-takers. Writing down thoughts about what you are seeing helps you to recall those insights later.
Praying. Insight is a spiritual exercise. Don’t forget to ask God to open your mind to what He may want to teach you or bring to you as you build strategic knowledge. Remember God tells us in the Bible that if we ask for wisdom, He will give it. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
Testing. Beyond talking, writing and praying about an initiative, you can also test it. Consider the insight you may gain by trying an aspect of your plan. Break your initiative into phases and consider which critical elements may benefit from a proof of concept. God desires us to test all of our actions and decisions against His Word. The Bible reminds us in 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “But test everything; hold fast what is good.” If this is true for our lives individually, then might it also be true in the workplace?
The God we worship is strategic as the Bible contains His master plan for creation. Throughout Scripture God granted strategic foresight to His leaders. Consider: “Biblical leaders who were in tune with God were given clear strategies as to how they could achieve the goal that was set before them. Many of these required unconventional choices. Gideon was instructed by God to restrict his numerical forces severely and cause the enemy to panic and flee, undoubtedly reducing the death toll amongst his troops. Joshua was given precise instructions as to how he should take the city of Jericho. Paul chose to follow God in appealing to stand trial in Rome before Caesar when he could have been set free.”[2] In each of these situations, God provided the 30,000 foot view for His leaders. These are lessons on dependence.
Strategic thinking—attempting the 30,000 foot view—is difficult for many leaders because we are used to navigating on the ground. We become familiar with the terrain of our work and lives and we really rarely need to get outside this viewpoint to function. But we should always keep in our mind that we serve a God with a bigger, 30,000-foot plan. In each endeavor, when we take time to lead out by confirming the “why” of our action, and looking for insight into the decision, we rise to the strategic level in our thinking.
People in general and leaders in particular are proficient in making choices. Our culture is organized around constant choice-making. Choices are literally everywhere, all the time.