At its fundamental core, leadership can be defined as making sure the organization is doing the right things, whereas management is making sure the organization is doing things right.

Strategic thinking can therefore be defined as the process for identifying what the right things are!

A key attribute of strategy is your vision. A great leader has the ability to:

• See the future
• Articulate that future
• Tie that future to what the company is doing now (and then describe how the organization, department or team will benefit)
• Motivate, focus and “rally the troops for the cause”
• Simplify so everyone gets it

A good example of this last point is when Bill Gates said “there will be a PC on every desk”. It was short, clear and got everyone excited to make it come true.

Vision is that future destination that when it is achieved, people will say “life is so much better here”. The vision sets up the roadmap to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Without a clear action plan and roadmap, the vision is just a dream. The difference between a dream and a vision is the action plan.