A Leaders Guide to Developing and Sustaining High-Performing Strategic Teams - 15 Actions You Can Take Today

Leaders play a critical role in shaping the thinking and performance of their teams. Strategic thinking doesn’t just happen on its own—it must be nurtured. Yet, many leaders struggle to define what strategic thinking truly looks like, or how their team’s projects could be approached more strategically. It’s up to leaders to create the right conditions where better ideas can flourish, where innovative solutions are recognized, and where strategic thinkers are celebrated.

Here are 15 practical ways leaders can foster a culture that encourages deeper thinking and empowers teams to think and perform more strategically.

1.      Ground Your Team in the Company’s Strategy

Teaching Moment: Make sure your team KNOWS how your company plans to grow.  Ask a senior leader to present your company strategic plan to your team. Facilitate the team’s discussion and questions.  Probe for their curiosities about the plan and ask them to consider how they see their work supporting these goals or addressing a key issue of the strategy. 

Reinforcement: At team meetings, bring back the key goals and key points of the strategy, always prompting the team to consider new ways to contribute to the goal, or to identify any way the work should change to create better alignment for the goals.

2.      Assign Stakeholder Interviews

Teaching Moment: Ask your team to interview key stakeholders in the company and then summarize their key findings and what they think it means for your teams efforts and focus.  Highlight any aha moments they have and discuss how these insights findings and the interview process will positively impact the work they are doing.

Reinforcement: Make stakeholder interviews a consistent practice.

3.      Lead An Ideation Session Using Problem Solving Frameworks

Teaching Moment: Facilitate a team ideation session by identifying the top three obstacles that keeps your team from being more effective, more efficient, or more in line with supporting company goals.  Then use a problem solving methodology to uncover more about the obstacle (ex. mind mapping, SCAMPER, 5 Whys, 6 thinking hats, Fishbone Diagram, root cause analysis etc.). 

Reinforcement: Once you have found the insights, spend time discussing the value of the process you used and identify other areas where the process could be effective.

4.      Share The Power of AHA Moments

Teaching Moment: Share stories of famous “Aha!” moments that completely shifted how someone tackled a problem or challenge.  Ask your team to reflect on their current work or key initiatives and identify areas where they like to experience an aha moment. Encourage them to share how having an aha moment might be helpful or how it might add value.  Then share how the aha moment came about. 

Reinforcement: In moments of challenge, talk with your team about the actions they might take to spark an “Aha!” moment.

5.      Identify Assumptions, Biases and where Data and New Information Can Help

Teaching Moment: Identify a big challenge or obstacle your team faces in a key project. Start by having them pinpoint the questions they have about the obstacle. Encourage their curiosity. Then, prompt them to question any unvalidated assumptions or biases they might hold.

Reinforcement: Identify when clarity is low and urge your team to gather additional information to answer these questions to eliminate any assumptions or biases.

6.      Encourage Powerful Questions

Teaching Moment: During team meetings, one on ones or cross functional, broader meetings, ask questions to clarify the goal, validate priorities or get to the root of an issue. Help uncover potential areas of bias.  Be prepared to move the conversation in a new direction based on the question that was asked. Call attention to the impact of these questions on the quality of the discussion and the insights they generated.

Reinforcement: Encourage your team to “collect” and share new powerful questions.  Recognize and potentially reward when powerful questions are is asked.

7. Identify Thought Leaders for The Team To Follow

Teaching Moment: Have each team member pick a thought leader in your field or in business overall. Assign them the task of exploring what sets this leader’s ideas apart. They should look for examples of how this thought leader approaches things differently and pinpoint where these fresh ideas might be relevant and useful for your team’s work.

Reinforcement: Make this a regular practice, and when the team is stuck on a challenge or obstacle, ask them to consider what one of these thought leaders would do to overcome it.

8. Pay Attention to Industry Trends

Teaching Moment: Have your team identify three major trends affecting your function, industry, or company. In your team meetings or one-on-ones, have them present a new idea based on these trends. Then, discuss how these trends might shape the future of your team’s work and explore their potential implications together.

Reinforcement: Set up regular sessions for the team to review the identified trends, assess any updates, and adjust their strategies as needed.

9. Cultivate Curiosity

Teaching Moment: Have your team bring one to three topics they’re interested in learning about related to your business, function, or general business areas. In team meetings, allow each member to explain why they find their chosen topic intriguing, how it could impact their work or the team’s work, and their plan for further exploration.

Reinforcement: Encourage each team member to share their learning in team meetings and explain how this new knowledge is affecting them or their work.

10. Uncover Biases and Assumptions

Teaching Moment: Before kicking off a new project, have your team brainstorm everything they already know about the issue or situation. Then, as a group, identify where they have supporting evidence or where biases and assumptions might be influencing their perspective.

Reinforcement: Make it a regular practice to gently encourage team members to reflect on where assumptions may be operating that are hiding a different approach, a potential risk or a new opportunity.

11. Encourage Reflection and The Search For Connections

Teaching Moment: During cross-functional or external meetings, encourage your team to proactively seek connections between their own projects and how their work might impact various stakeholders.

Reinforcement: Before kicking off a new project or assigning a new initiative, encourage your team to consider the perspectives and needs of key stakeholders and make connections between the project and the broader goals of the company.

12. Uncover The Thinking Behind Key Accomplishments.

Teaching Moment: When a team member completes a challenging task or long-term project, don’t just celebrate the finish. Instead, ask them to discuss the toughest aspects they faced and share their approach and thought process for overcoming obstacles. Encourage them to reveal their questions and the problem-solving strategies that led to their success.

Reinforcement: Prior to kicking off their next project, invite the team to share their approach to the project and encourage the team to ask questions about the approach and recommend additional perspectives and approaches.

13. Hold Hindsight Review Discussions

Teaching Moment: At the end of each project, hold a Hindsight Review Discussion to pinpoint successes and challenges, and explore how the team might have approached the project differently with the knowledge they have now. Afterward, ask how these insights can be applied to their current work and what changes they might consider.

Reinforcement:  When starting a new project, ask the team to highlight where they've applied key lessons from previous projects. Encourage them to reflect on past experiences and suggest recommendations for the project's approach in advance.

14. Use data and reporting to identify insights and uncover aha moments

Teaching Moment: When presenting key reports and data in your discussions, rather than interpreting the data yourself or summarizing its implications for the team, have them analyze it either in real-time or before the meeting. Discuss whether the data suggests a new approach, indicates success or failure, and encourage the team to identify what they believe the data reveals.

Reinforcement: Regularly review data with the team, capturing their thoughts on a whiteboard. As a team, explore further to uncover insights and what the data suggests for the team's work and key projects.

15. Lead With a Strategic Mindset. 

Teaching Moment: consistently modeling strategic thinking, both openly and frequently. Actively demonstrate each of the above strategic thinking approaches and discuss the shifts in approach they generate and highlight where better and more strategic thinking delivered more powerful outcomes.

Reinforcement: Consistently prioritize and reward thinking over mere execution.  Give the team ample time to explore approaches, potential solutions, anticipate obstacles, and ask powerful questions.

Building and sustaining high-performing strategic teams takes deliberate effort and mindful leadership. It's important for leaders to not only model a strategic mindset but also to actively develop their team's thinking skills.

With thoughtful planning, leaders can create a culture where curiosity is encouraged, insights are valued, and innovation flourishes.

By consistently applying these strategies, leaders can help their teams achieve immediate goals, anticipate future challenges, and ensure long-term success. Remember, building a strategic team is an ongoing process—each step strengthens your team’s ability to handle complexities and seize new opportunities with confidence.