29% of our masterclass participants admitted they didnt have or werent sure they had a _vivid, compelling, and well-communicated vision and strategy for growth._ So, if you take one action to improve strategy in your company, make it this.

With this information you can begin to shape your strategy: Where to place the bulk of your focus, discipline, and action.

19% of our masterclass participants admitted they didnt do, or werent sure they did, an _excellent job of listening to our customers._ Only 16% strongly felt they did do an excellent job.

[ **_Free Download_**_: 10 Leadership Qualities That Will Help Solve Challenges in 2022_](https://thegrowthfaculty.ac-page.com/monograph-leadership2022)

Ask your most engaged customers: Why specifically do you do business with us? What are the top 3 to 4 reasons?

Strategy is largely about valued differentiation says John Spence, leading Growth Facultys masterclass on _How To Be A More Strategic Thinker._ Your customers decision-making process is a bit like Hogwarts sorting hat in that its sorting products and services based on how unique and compelling they are, how highly they value them, and how well you deliver them.

Your job is to find out what your customer values highly, and consistently execute it with excellence, says John.

This calls for Johns frameworks for better strategic thinking.

How to be a more strategic thinker

5 levels (or pillars) of strategic thinking

Being business savvy is a key skill for strategic thinking. Yet the average businessperson reads a half a self-learning type of book a year, claims John. If you were to read one book every other month \(6 books a year\) you'd be in the top 1% of the country, you live in. If you read one book a month, you'd be in the top 1% in the world for self-learning. If you got your team to read books \(or take masterclasses or equivalent\) youd see a huge impact on levels of business acumen.

1.Business Acumen

What you bring to the table  all your experience and knowledge  is added to the information youve read \(or watched/listened to\), the [active learning](https://www.thegrowthfaculty.com/blog/activelearning) you've done, and any data you can gather.

2.Personal Experience

As you build up your learning and experience you begin to recognise patterns. This feeds into your AQ or adaptability quotient \(sometimes known as agility quotient\). Strategic thinking goes hand in hand with organisational adaptability, which calls for PASSION, PERSISTANCE, PRACTICE, and PATTERN RECOGNITION, according to _The_ _Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance._

_Note:_**__**_Andrea Clarke, author of Future Fit and Founder of FutureFitCo, will hold a new Growth Faculty masterclass on AQ and adaptability -_[ _"Future Fit - Adapting and Responding to Change."_](https://www.thegrowthfaculty.com/event.php?eventId=a1J9g0000004SyPEAU). _For all 40 Growth Faculty masterclasses and events why not buy a Leadership Pass? Click on tile below._

3.Pattern Recognition

Strategy is an allocation of 3 scarce resources: time, money, and people. Of the three, time is the most precious so a strong strategic thinker is always asking What we will spend time on? and What do I need to say no to? Another question is to tap into the[ power of 'unlearning'](https://www.thegrowthfaculty.com/blog/unlearning) by asking is "What do I need to unlearn?" John shared that he needed to 'unlearn' not to trust his intuition.

4.Strategic Insight

Johns formula for business excellence looks like this:

_Talent + Culture + Extreme Customer Focus x Disciplined Execution = Business Excellence_.

He suggests companies home in on 3-4 things they must do flawlessly, and calls these the Moments of Truth. For example, a restaurant MUST have great service, great food, fair value pricing, and cleanliness.

5.Disciplined execution

_Ignorance, inconsistency, indifference_ , and _inflexibility_ are signs of poor leadership and should signal alarm bells to company executives. But, _insistence_ on accountability is a sign of excellent leadership so use this framework in your strategic thinking to ensure your people are executing on tasks and goals.

1. 100% clarity and appropriate authority and resources.

2. 100% agreement \(I accept this is a reasonable goal, and agree on taking accountability for this.\)

3. Track and post \(use the traffic light system  green to red\)

4. Coach, mentor, train, and support. Step in if someone is slipping from green to yellow.

5. Celebrate success  refuse to tolerate mediocrity.

Johns 5 Keys to Accountability

You need value differentiation and disciplined execution to build a successful strategy. So, again, what does valued differentiation look like?

_-_ ___Unique and compelling_

_-_ ___Your target customer values it highly_

_-_ ___Difficult if not impossible to copy_

_-_ ___You can consistently execute it with excellence._

But that doesnt mean you have to be better on everything.

If you have parity of 80% to 90% with your competition, add a few things where you have a superior offering, he says.

Do Something Great

To do something great try competing on these hard-to-copy differentiators:

- ******Top talent  very tough to copy great people.**

Hard To Copy Diffentiators

Winning culture  hard for the competition to steal your people.

Customer relationship  know the wants, needs, and desires of your best customers.

Brand  hard to steal away. Tip: A brand-hijack tacks a lesser-known brand to a known one.

Data  this is a goldmine and is a defendable differentiator.

Finally, what's a visual way of representing key strategic areas for business?

John Spence decided to find out. Over 3 years he fed 200,000 pages from respected business books into Wordle \(software that searches through documents looking for patterns\) and discovered the major themes in them.

Below is the word cloud that was created.

Word Cloud For Focus

What do we do that meets the four criteria of an effective strategy?

* Unique and compelling
    * Highly valuable to our target customers
    * Difficult if not impossible to copy
    * We can consistently execute it with excellence
  * What are our moments of truth? \(3-4 things we must do flawlessly\)
  * What sort of training and processes should we have in place for each moment of truth?
  * What do we need to do to increase the level of accountability in our organization?
  * What would an "ideal team member" look like for our organization? The answer to this question should be used for hiring, training, promotion, and termination.
  * What do you think your customers will answer when you ask them why, specifically, they do business with you?
  * What would you like your customers to say about your business? Write this out exactly as you would like them to respond. Are you doing the things necessary to get them to say that?

_At Growth Faculty, we are passionate about helping you become a better leader. With a Growth Faculty Pass you get access to the worlds most successful leaders and their tools, frameworks, and personal stories to help you grow. Our_[ _Growth Faculty pass_](https://join.thegrowthfaculty.com/?utm_source=Blog#plans) _means you have unlimited access to our inspiring global events, masterclasses, book club events and leadership library - so you can learn the qualities of successful leaders._

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