Strategy — A Path to Vision

xinxin wang
2 min readMay 24, 2020

Have you ever received the feedback to be more strategic and not sure what to do?

I have been, if not a million times. After grappling with it for a while, I have got a few takeaways to share. I hope it will be useful for folks — likely the “millions” of leaders out there with a similar story.

Photo by Pixababy

A strategy is a plan of action to achieve a goal. A goal is always associated with a picture that depicts how a better world is — a vision. To be strategic, one needs to form a vision first and believe in it.

Now with a vision, we have a few things to do as a strategic thinker.

  1. Relate each step to the vision. First, we need to form a vision. Being strategic then means a clear understanding of how each step leads to the end goal.
  2. Be flexible to adjust paths to the vision. When one path becomes blocked, be creative and ready to identify an alternative.
  3. Be patient with the journey. Things will take time. There are times full of momentum and time stagnating. The key is to keep believing and celebrating each forward progress.

To illustrate, my vision is to spend my retirement life traveling the world. The strategy is to maintain a balanced life so that by then I am healthy and have enough savings to live that life.

Given that strategy, I need to determine how each job choice relates to the vision. For example, my current role allows me to make a decent income but drains the health out of me. So I would prioritize work-life balance for my next job.

There are various ways to achieve work-life balance in a job. I could take on less responsibilities, find a part-time job or stay at home. I should be flexible to increase the candidate options. Say I couldn’t find a job at all due to the pandemic. Don’t despair. It is an opportunity. I should leverage that to restore my health. If one can’t control a situation, flexibility also means framing it in a way to maximize the leverage towards the vision.

Finally, be patient. The path to the goal will never be linear. Things will progress or stagnate. As long as we can ascertain one step relates to the vision and helps move it along the right direction, we should be at ease. Life is not a competition after all. Nobody needs to or should rush. It is the journey that matters more. We should be patient to enjoy the journey.

P.S. I love examples, especially for abstract concepts. Please comment here if you have better examples to share about how to be strategic.

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xinxin wang
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