By Charlie Curson
Strategy is a mindset and skillset anyone can learn. Here, Charlie Curson, author of Be More Strategic, explores what strategy really is, helping individuals at every level think clearly, act intentionally, and focus on what truly matters. By thinking and acting strategically, anyone can lead, influence, and create lasting impact.
For many people, the word strategy still feels remote: the preserve of CEOs, consultants, and corporate boardrooms filled with slide decks and jargon. But in reality, done well, strategy isn’t an ivory-tower exercise. It’s a way of thinking and acting that can help anyone, in any role, at any level, to create greater clarity, confidence and impact in their career – and also in their broader lives.
What Strategy Actually Is
The problem starts with the word itself. Strategy is one of the most overused and misunderstood terms in business. We tend to confuse it with planning, and though complementary, the two couldn’t be more different.
Planning is about what happens next: a sequence of tasks and actions that often reduce anxiety (in the planner) and provide clarity and structure. Strategy, on the other hand, is about what matters most. It’s about making deliberate choices, defining direction, ruling things out, and connecting intentions to outcomes.
As I write in Be More Strategic, a strategy recognises your most critical challenges, leverages your strengths, and focuses your efforts and resources coherently. It’s about deciding where to play and how to win, not in the combative sense of defeating your competition, but in the human sense of aligning your decisions, time and energy around what really counts.
Once you see strategy through this lens, it stops being the domain of the few and becomes a vital skill for everyone in their careers, and also in daily life.
A Learnable Set of Skills, Mindsets and Behaviours
Being strategic isn’t an innate talent; it’s a learnable craft. Over two decades as a strategy consultant, facilitator and leadership coach, I’ve identified twelve key practices that define what I call “strategic mastery” – skills, mindsets and behaviours that anyone can hone and develop.
Strategic people think broadly, not narrowly. They:
- Remain curious, listen deeply, and challenge their own assumptions and preconceptions.
- Are comfortable with uncertainty, make decisions with incomplete information, and can hold multiple perspectives and paradoxes without becoming paralysed by them.
- Act decisively but reflect thoughtfully, aware that they need to commit to their decision, yet have the humility to accept their mistakes.
- Collaborate inclusively (which is far rarer than you might imagine), communicate persuasively, and influence effectively.
None of these traits require a title or corner office with all the perks. They require self-awareness, discipline, and the courage to slow down and think before reacting. As one of my clients said recently, “I realised I didn’t need a promotion to be more strategic, I just needed to change how I showed up, and do so consistently.”
A Day in the Life of a Strategist (at any level)
To bring this to life, allow me to introduce you to Billie. Billie isn’t a CEO; she’s a team lead in a busy organisation. But she thinks and acts – and leads – like a strategist every day.
Billie starts by paying attention – to her environment, to her people and their behaviours, to her own thoughts and feelings. She listens more than she talks. She asks questions. She deliberately invests time connecting the dots between what’s happening in her team with what’s happening across the wider organisation – and further afield. When challenges arise, she frames the issue clearly before seeking potential solutions. She invites diverse viewpoints, from less obvious sources, knowing that the best strategies are rarely born in isolation.
Billie doesn’t wait for senior leaders to set the direction. She creates clarity for her team and helps them align around shared goals, aided by her courage and competence to ‘challenge upwards’. Her influence grows naturally, not because of her job title, but because of how proactive she is in how she thinks and acts.
We all know a “Billie” and have the potential to become one ourselves. The essence of being strategic is not where you sit on the (dreaded) ‘org chart’, but how you engage with the world around you.
Strategy Is a Team Sport
The myth of the lone strategist – the brilliant Founder or CEO having a eureka moment – has done us all a disservice. In truth, great strategy is rarely a solo sport. It’s the product of diverse perspectives, open-minded discussion, and the courage to challenge assumptions together and recognise our blindspots and biases.
And, when people across an organisation learn to think and act strategically, the quality of conversation changes. The conversations that should happen, do happen. Meetings shift from defending positions to exploring possibilities. And teams stop firefighting and start focusing on what truly moves the needle.
Through this work, strategy becomes cultural – not a standalone, hard-to-understand-let-alone-apply document.
Bringing Strategy into Your Career and Life
So how do you start applying the strategic mastery practices in your own world?
Clarify your ambition. Ask yourself: Where do I want to play, and how do I want to win? Define success on your own terms.
Diagnose your challenges. Identify the biggest obstacles or patterns that hold you back or stand in your way.
Focus your energy. Strategy is as much about what you say no to as what you say yes to.
Stay curious. Listen, learn, and seek out different perspectives, especially the uncomfortable ones.
Reflect and adjust. Strategy is never fixed. It evolves as you do.
These steps work whether you’re leading a team, managing your career, or designing the life you want to live.
The Call to Action
Being strategic isn’t about hierarchy; it’s about humanity. It’s about thinking clearly in complexity, acting with intention, and learning continuously.
If you’ve ever been told to “be more strategic,” take it as an invitation, not a reprimand. The skills are available to everyone, not just the CEO and other senior leaders. In fact, when more people across an organisation, or within a community, begin to think and act strategically, that’s when real transformation happens.
Start with awareness. Practise curiosity. Make deliberate choices. Take action. In doing so, you’ll not only advance your career, but also build a more purposeful, fulfilling life, one decision at a time.
Charlie Curson
