Somewhere in your organization, right now, a manager is telling a team member to “be more strategic.” That team member says “Okay,” walks out of the room, and has absolutely no idea what that actually means. It would have been helpful if the manager had actually given a specific example or two, but that assumes the manager could define it themselves. Because that manager has likely heard the same feedback from their own leader.
Leaders love the word “strategic.” But it plays out like a corporate game of telephone—and instead of a silly phrase getting scrambled, it’s someone’s performance review.
Why nobody asks what it means
You may think that if someone’s boss told them to “be more strategic” and they had no idea what that meant, they’d just ask. But they don’t typically ask. Here’s why.
Asking, “what does that mean?” feels like admitting they don’t already know. And that’s the last thing they want to feel—or convey—when they feel like they need to be smarter. So, instead, they go back to their desk, pull out their phone, and search “How to be more strategicstr at work.”
They stop bringing up problems in meetings, and start speaking in more corporate buzzwords. Because they think talking about “small” things feels junior, but “bringing it back to the bigger picture” feels strategic—even if they have no idea what the bigger picture actually is.
Because telling someone to be more strategic doesn’t make them so. It makes them more anxious and worse at their actual job, because now they’re performing instead of doing the work.
‘Strategic’ isn’t a trait. It’s a set of behaviors
The problem with the word itself is that it’s not one thing. When leaders say “be more strategic,” they usually mean one (or several) of these, but without specifying which:
- Prioritization: Either they’re spending time on things that have limited impact, or they’re saying yes to everything instead of picking the two or three things that matter most this quarter.
- Root cause thinking: They’re solving the same problem over and over instead of asking why it keeps happening and what to do about it.
- Second-order thinking: They’re solving today’s problem in a way that creates three more problems next month.
- Framing for decision-makers: They’re bringing leadership a monologue of detail instead of the two-sentence version: here’s the situation, here’s what I recommend, here’s why.
- Connecting their work to the overall business: They can explain what they did, but not why it matters to revenue, retention, or the things the organization actually cares about.
Notice that none of these is “think more strategically.” They’re each specific, teachable, observable behaviors. Which means they’re fixable—if someone actually tells them which one they’re missing.
How to actually give this feedback
If you’ve told your team “be more strategic,” you owe them more than one phrase. Here’s a way to do that.
Be specific about which behavior you mean. Instead of “be more strategic in the meeting,” try: “You gave me five options with no recommendation. Next time, bring me your top pick and your reasoning—I’ll explain if I disagree, but I need a starting point.” That’s not vague coaching. That’s a skill someone can start practicing right away.
Don’t just tell them—show them. Take an example from their actual work and walk through what “more strategic” would have looked like in that specific situation. Abstract feedback leads to abstract improvement (which is to say, none).
Ask them to explain it back. After you lay out what you mean, ask: “So what would that look like on the project you’re working on right now?” If they can’t answer, keep the conversation going so you transfer the actual idea—not just the buzzword.
The real cost of the guessing game
You might think, “Do I really have to explain everything?” But consider the cost of not doing this. When “strategic” has been passed down without a definition, it doesn’t create more strategic thinkers. It creates a team of people who spend time crowdsourcing what the internet thinks that means. They’re getting a definition, but not from the manager who actually needs them to get it right.
The fix isn’t complicated—it means doing more than just saying the word and walking away. Before you tell someone to “be more strategic,” get specific about what it means for their role, their current work, and their next steps. A simple phrase can be easier to say in the moment. But it’s a lot more expensive to clean up later—in performance conversations, in turnover, and in how much of your team’s time gets spent guessing instead of doing.
