Tear yourself away to think strategically
Many leaders want to make more time for strategic thinking and understand that being strategic is essential to their organization’s success. Yet, many leaders say they lack the time for strategic thinking.
One issue is the cultural pressure to put in long hours. Tethering yourself to your desk may help you plow through more emails, but it’s not a recipe for innovative strategic thinking. Rather, research reveals that productivity decreases for those who work more than 50 hours/week.
Tear yourself from your desk and power creative thinking with activities such as taking a short walk outside. Strategic thinking and good ideas don’t require large amounts of time; you need space. It takes little time to have an innovative idea or to make a decision as long as we avoid distractions, but if you don’t have the physical and mental space, it's tough.