Rule 3: Have a Long Term Strategy
Monday, January 14, 2008 at 10:42AM Always have a long term strategy that you can discuss with superiors and other managers. Put it in a nice PowerPoint slide presentation and make it impressive. Not the actual strategy, but the presentation. You know, with block arrows, clip art, maybe even a photo of you. The strategy itself can be basic. Like, In three years we'll be 100% (choose one):
- Digital or Paperless (depending if it's a Technology or Business strategy)
- Automated
- Consolidated onto a single massive global system that will ultimately take over the world and enslave the entire human race
Regardless, you'll never have to implement it. Why? Everything changes long before anyone can even consider implementation. A good long term strategy yesterday makes absolutely no sense today. All you have to do is talk strategy, not implement strategy.
If you don't talk strategy, it means you have no vision. If you have no vision, you're not thinking about the future of the company. And if that's the case, why should anyone think about your future with the company? A long term strategy means you have a vested interest in the company's future and the company should therefore have a vested interest in your future.
Having a vision is like having a sexual fantasy. You have all kinds of crazy shit in your head that you want to do, like having a threesome with your wife and her sister. Is it going to happen? Not in this lifetime buddy. But it's the thought that counts.
The company values strategic thinkers more than it values tactical implementers. In management, you pay people to do the work for you. Your job is to think of things for them to do. These are the peons; the simple worker bees. You are the benevolent dictator. Never be mistaken for one of them by being caught doing something. You should not do anything except think of things for other people to do. And when you have a vision, that means you've already thought of things for people to do after they've done whatever you asked them to do today. You've got their day planned out for them for the next three years. Now that's impressive.
Having a long term strategy also protects you from doing things you don't want to do. For example, it's not acceptable to refuse work because you don't want to do it. It is, however, acceptable to refuse work because it doesn't align with your long term strategy. People respect long term strategies even though they're meaningless. Mainly because they have their own long term meaningless strategy and they want the same respect. But also because it classifies you as a player. Even if you're on opposite teams, you're playing the same game. And people will respect you for it.
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Reader Comments (2)
Well said Jason! (But again with the Powerpoints???? Why???)
Politics baby, politics.