cf #77: you’re not strategic enough

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You are reading contentfolks—a fortnightly blend of sticky notes, big content ideas, and small practical examples. Thank you for being here! ~fio

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Hey there 👋

Have you ever been on the receiving end of a “you’re not strategic enough/you need to be more strategic” comment, especially during a performance review cycle?

I have, and it stings—first, because it’s not great to know you’re not meeting expectations; second, because this is a vague, subjective-ish piece of feedback that often leaves you pondering what it is (or isn’t) you should (or shouldn’t) do more (or less) of.

…ugh.

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Blah blah be more strategic blah

It is a truth (almost) universally acknowledged that at some point in your career ‘just’ delivering good work will stop being enough.

As a junior person, your growth is usually measured on the ability to:

• Be strong at your craft 

• Take direction

• Deliver work that is (nearly) turnkey 

• Self-manage

• Communicate well

The next step in your progression is doing more of the above, better, and faster. Once you’ve mastered that, too, the strategy thing will probably happen.

This is where a lot of communication breaks down, because ‘strategic’ is one of those marketing black-hole words that mean different things to different people, and eventually end up meaning nothing to everybody. 

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The way I see it, being strategic means understanding the business value of your work and behaving accordingly. It’s less about doing good work and more about doing the right work: the kind that aligns with what the business needs to grow and sustain itself.

1. Outcomes > Outputs

When talking about work, spend less time on outputs and more on intended or actual outcomes. Remember: unless you’re in a junior position, your job is not delivering content and hitting due dates. Your job is to influence decision-making in your audience through delivering content while hitting due dates.

Not strategic:

“I published X pieces this month.”

Strategic:

“As part of [business goal], I published X pieces that will influence [audience] to do [thing]. This content also supports [other team, eg Sales] with [goal]. I’ll keep you posted on the results and share the first update in [these many days]. ”

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2. Business goals > your preferences

Accept that great, even excellent work is largely pointless if it’s not aligned with larger business goals and needs.

Not strategic:

“I’m excited about [thing] because I’m very good at/care about it.”

Strategic:

“I’m excited about [thing] because it aligns with [company/client goal].
Also, I’m very good at/care about it.”

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3. Bigger picture > narrow view

When pitching ideas, show that you can see the larger picture: bring in relevant evidence, summarise the expected outcome(s), and give a reasonable estimate of time/money/resources needed.¹

Bonus points for thinking outside your function’s bubble and anticipating larger blockers, dependencies, and multipliers that will arise from collaborating with other teams.

Not strategic:

“It’d be cool to do [thing].”

Strategic:

“Based on [data], I think we should do [thing] that fits in with [goal] and would help us achieve [result]. Plus, it would be cool!
FYI, we’ll need to loop in [team], so I already checked in with [team manager] and they’d need ~5 days for their deliverables. I’m also going to clear it with Legal later.”

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4. One impactful task > many non-impactful ones

Somewhat related to the previous point: when you choose to do activity A, you’re at the same time choosing not to do activities B and C. The choice may be obvious to you, but people cannot generally read your mind. Show your thought process and the logic you followed.

Not strategic:

“Let’s do [thing], and also [thing], and then [thing].”

Strategic:

“Based on [evidence], I think we should stop doing [thing] for now and just focus on [other thing] instead; it’s the most likely to lead to [key result] in [timeframe].”

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 5. Team > individual

By this point, it should be clear that being ‘more strategic’ has a lot to do with seeing beyond what you’re responsible for—and sometimes, that simply means taking tasks off other people’s plates.

Observe what the folks sitting above you in the org chart are doing, or ask them directly about what’s top of mind; then, proactively align your work in their direction without being asked to.

Not strategic:

[Silence]

Strategic:

“Hey boss, let me drive [task] from [initiative] forward so you can stay focused on [larger task].”

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🔥 Bonus pro tip

If you pay close attention to the previous five examples, you may notice a pattern: clear, effective, and proactive communication goes a long way to make you come across as a strategic player.

Indeed, it’s entirely possible that ‘more strategic’ is not a state of being you reach but a perception you unlock—specifically, that of your clients or the folks one or two steps ahead of you in the company org chart. They spend most of their time trying to solve large problems, want to know they can rely on you, and are probably writing your performance review right about now. Act accordingly.²

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I hope this helps you never be on the receiving end of the “you need to be more strategic” comment again. But if you end up being there anyway—if it’s any consolation, it’s almost a rite of passage at this point.
You are in very good company.

Until next time,

1. A good companion read: How (not) to present an idea, from Benyamin Elias’ newsletter.

2. There is some additional (and very solid) advice in this piece by Lesley Sim, who calls it “think one level up the food chain.”