Strategic Thinking for Coaches
ByRegular readers know that I have been studying and learning about social networking for coaches in the past month (read previous post here). The more I learn about the subject, the more it reminds me of the need for strategic thinking before plunging into a new marketing avenue. So today’s post is about strategic thinking – what it is, why it matters and how to do it.
Strategic thinking is all about mindset and how you approach the running of your coaching business. It is the idea that you have a vision as an entrepreneur and take the time to develop a plan on how you will get there. First, this means you focus on the long term and not just short term issues. This requires you to think about your business as a system. Each decision is impacting other decisions and so to be effective you must have a handle on the big picture. When you think strategically, you carefully assess resources, weaknesses and opportunities for your business and base your plan on this analysis. If your plan is developed strategically, it also includes the concept of leveraging – how to use what you have for maximum effectiveness.
This type of thinking utilizes the best of both sides of your brain. You must be able to be creative and intuitive in deciding where you want to go and how to get there. At the same time, it is important to be able to analyze the path, make regular reviews and take stock of true progress of your coaching business so you can make appropriate course corrections.
Strategic thinking is about finding the best possible answers for the actual conditions you find yourself in. It is vital to be able to bounce ideas off others, both trusted advisors and members of your target market, in order to succeed. Strategic thinking involves the careful application of your best hypotheses about success. You must be able to examine your assumptions, question your belief systems and be open minded to new and different ideas in order to do this. The growth of your business will be more rapid if you make input from informed others a large piece of the process.
Strategic thinking requires time and effort and so it is often a neglected area for the busy professional. It is easy to overlook planning or let it get put on the back burner because of urgent matters. Instead, put your strategic planning time into your calendar in pen – don’t allow anything else to get in the way. No matter who that successful person is that you admire in your field, I can guarantee you that they have achieved success because they had a goal and a game plan on how to achieve it. Success does not come from shots in the dark; success comes from having a blueprint and the wisdom to adjust it when needed.
