How many times have you heard your colleagues or leaders go on about how the world would be a better place if the people around them could just be more strategic?

You know… as in:

“Man, if I could just hire more strategic communicators we could actually get something done around here”

Or…

“That Mary – she tries hard – but she just doesn’t have a strategic bone in her body”

The question is – what does it really mean to be strategic, and how do we get there?

To me, strategic is defined as the art and science of directing a systematic plan of action to achieve a specifically intended result. Being strategic is not really a task onto itself – it’s really more about having a state of mind that focuses on outcomes, rather than being stuck in activities.