FROM THE COACH: Eight essential skills for strategic leaders

Richard Tyson

In today’s uncertain and unpredictable world, leading a business, or even a department or function, is what I call “an extreme sport.” In my younger days, I participated in the extreme sport of canyoneering, often rappelling into dark abysses of tight crevasses and stinky ice water.

And I loved it!

The exhilaration of going where few other human beings had gone and testing myself both physically and mentally was intoxicating. It’s easy for me to lapse into sharing dozens of personal experiences from this extreme sport. While that’s fun for me, it fails to tell the most important parts of the story.

You see, in order to survive and thrive in an extreme sport, it is essential that you “think strategically.” To do that, you’ll need to obtain and continually hone the following skills:

1. Big Picture Vision. We never attempted an expedition down a slot canyon without getting as much clarity as possible regarding where we were starting, what our likely challenges would be and how we were going to get out. Similarly, you need to have a compelling vision of where you want your company to be in the context of your industry, your market and your competition. This vision includes what Harvard Business Review authors Shoemaker, Krupp and Howland call “scanning the business environment for signals of change” whereby you will enhance your ability to anticipate and respond to challenges.

2. Active Learning. The initial assumption with which we greeted every canyoneering experience was that we would face problems that we hadn’t anticipated. That said, we always sought out the best information available from others who had navigated the paths we were about to take. Similarly, strong strategic leaders are diligent in studying information that informs the strategic decisions that will face them. They promote a culture of continuous learning and improvement, “questioning the answers,” and finding lessons even in unsuccessful outcomes.

3. Creative Collaborative Problem Solving. Strategic thinking doesn’t end once you’ve begun your rappel into a canyon. Problems will assuredly arise. Creativity is a must — and it should draw on not only your own ideas, but those of your team as well. When faced with a problem or challenge in a slot canyon, we made it a requirement that every member of the team was not only given the opportunity to give their ideas; it was demanded. Great strategic thinkers are facilitators who draw the best solutions out of others.

4. Risk Management. Canyoneering is inherently risky; failure to rig your rappel properly can end up in death! So it is with business as well. Strong strategic thinkers are willing to take calculated risks, but they recognize that a key part of their job is to accurately assess those risks — and, where possible, mitigate or eliminate them.

5. Adaptability. When faced with an obstacle we had not anticipated, we couldn’t call for a helicopter to extract us. We had to adapt, to make the necessary changes that would allow us to proceed. Lean Startup author Eric Ries calls these “pivots.” They are the unforeseen changes that, sooner or later, you will need to make. Strong strategic leaders are adaptable.

6. Communication Skills. Sometimes the roar of a waterfall drowned out our verbal communication. When that happened, we had to adapt using hand signals. Fortunately, this is not likely necessary in your company. But the need for both verbal and written clarity is important as a strategic leader — and this applies to both transmitting and receiving information. You need to be a strong listener, speaker and writer.

7. Long-term Perspective. One of the great things about canyoneering is that it is a wonderful mixture of short- and long-term decisions. Some are quite tactical — like how to anchor your ropes, for instance. While this is essential, it is important that strategic leadership keeps the end in mind — how we will ultimately exit the canyon and by what time. Highly effective strategic thinkers always keep the long-term interests of their company in mind. They prioritize sustainable growth and are not swayed by short-term gains at the expense of long-term success.

8. Ethics and Integrity. You might be surprised how important this is in the sport of canyoneering. It is, in fact, perhaps the most important component. We always shared the values of caring for one another and the team more than the individual; that no one won, if any of us were lost. And we each shared a commitment to maintain the pristine beauty of the natural world we visited. The leader needed to exhibit this in his or her actions, giving the team a high-integrity model to follow.

So it should be with each of us as strategic business leaders. We must consider the ethical implications of our decisions and strive to act in the best interests of our stakeholders, employees, customers and society as a whole.

Richard Tyson is the founder, principal owner and president of CEObuilder, which provides forums for consulting and coaching to executives in small businesses.