Leaders are good strategists and planners. Again, what I’ve found in working with successful men and women in business is that they’re very, very good planners. They have taken the time to learn or been taught how to do strategic thinking.
Strategic thinking means taking the long view. It means engaging in what is called “big-picture thinking.” Leaders look at everything they are doing and at all the different things that can have an impact on them. They look upon themselves as part of a bigger world. They think in terms of “If I do this, what is likely to happen? How will my competition respond; how will friends and enemies respond; what will the market do?”