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There's a fundamental truth in business that many leaders overlook: Your business survives when you work in it, but it truly grows when you work on it. The difference lies in understanding strategic versus tactical work.
"Sometimes we get stuck in this survival mode... that we don't actually look above and ahead and say, what am I doing all this for? What do I actually want to be true?" — Kyle Guemmer
While tactical work—making sales, writing copy, conducting meetings—keeps the lights on, strategic work transforms organizations. It's about lifting your eyes from daily operations to envision and create something new. But how do we make this shift? Through conversations with business leaders and coaches, I've identified seven essential actions that can transform your strategic thinking.
1. Get Clear on Desired Outcomes
Many businesses operate in perpetual survival mode, with leaders caught in the daily grind without lifting their eyes to a larger purpose. The challenge isn't hitting numbers—it's defining what you're truly trying to achieve beyond survival.
This isn't about creating wish lists. It's about documenting specific, achievable goals and sharing them with stakeholders. Hold these goals with conviction while remaining flexible on strategy. Remember: these are preferences, not necessities for wellbeing.
2. Understand Your Available Resources
Think of your business as a rowboat, not a cruise ship—every team member and resource matters significantly. Often, we have more resources than we realize, but we need to be scrappy and creative in leveraging them.
As Kyle notes, it's about "scrappiness and leverage. It's like what do I have at my disposal and how can I be scrappy to leverage those things to get the most out of them... understanding what we have there and maximizing the opportunity that we have in this season."
3. Identify and Solve Root Causes
We're often excellent at fighting fires but poor at preventing them. Taking five minutes now to address a problem's cause beats endless firefighting later.
"We're really good at fighting fires... But actually we've got to make sure we're solving the root problem because if you get to the root, you kill the whole thing before it even happens." — Kyle Guemmer
This requires courage—the willingness to "stop the line" when issues arise. While this may seem costly in the moment, it prevents countless future problems. Get upstream from issues instead of constantly managing their downstream effects.
4. Expand Your Strategic Repertoire
Great strategists aren't necessarily prophets who can see ten moves ahead. Instead, they see more possible moves in the present moment. Your strategic repertoire builds from every experience and leadership lesson.
Kyle shares a powerful principle: "Ordinary moments create your position. Your position determines your options, and your options determine your future." Make those deposits today to expand your moves tomorrow.
5. Listen to Different Perspectives
Your perspective is exactly that—yours alone. Even when you disagree with someone's viewpoint, it likely represents a percentage of your team, customers, or market.
"The leaders who win are the ones who are open to others' perspectives. And the leaders that lose are the ones who have a closed-minded perspective... when they become curious, when they assume they don't know and try to understand and seek other people's perspective or advice or just vantage point, then those are the people that I really see create a healthier culture." — Kyle Guemmer
6. Question Your Initial Impulse
Leaders face constant pressure to make quick decisions and take immediate action. However, reactive leadership often produces short-term solutions to long-term problems. Sometimes, the most valuable action is pausing to examine our initial response.
Create space between stimulus and response. Test your first impressions and consider alternative approaches before committing to action.
7. Treat Assumptions as Assumptions
Approach planning with humility, recognizing that we can't predict the future with certainty. This isn't about lacking conviction—it's about maintaining wisdom to adapt when reality differs from expectations.
As Kyle explains, "We have biases, assumptions, beliefs, bends towards so many different things in our life. That's not good or bad. It's just reality. When we treat those things as gospel, we're very narrow-minded and make poor decisions. When we understand those things, it allows us to name them, challenge them, understand them."
Taking Action
Start small. Pick one area of your business that demands attention—perhaps a decision you need to make or a priority for the next quarter.
"Start small in this. Pick one area of your business that you're thinking about a lot, a decision that you need to make... run through these actions in that area, get hyper-specific and strategic in that area and then just test how it goes." — Kyle Guemmer
Remember: Strategic thinking is a muscle that strengthens with use. The goal isn't perfection but progress. Each day brings new opportunities to shift from tactical firefighting to strategic leadership.
What area of your business will you apply these principles to first?
