Peter Winick explains why most leaders confuse tasks, tactics, and projects with actual strategy. Without pausing to define your strategy first, you end up busy but misaligned with what matters.
Hey there, it's Peter Winick, the founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage. And today I wanted to share with you some thoughts that I've had and get your response and reaction. So in the normal course of my days and weeks, I'm talking to lots and lots of authors, speakers, thought leaders, consultants, academics, CEOs, etc. And inevitably, during my conversations with them, I'll ask them, you know, so what are you working on? What are you doing? What are you working on? What's important to you? And typically, Where that conversation goes is, well, here's a list of tasks I have to do. I've got to get this done and I've got to review this draft and I've got to edit a video and I'm working on a PowerPoint. And I'm like, okay, well, those are tasks. And they're like, yeah, those, those tasks support tactics. Okay, great. So what is the tactic? Well, I'm working on a draft of a report that I'm writing, or I'm working on a PowerPoint for something I've been thinking about. Great tactic. The tactics ultimately then support a project, right? So the project might be a book or a client engagement or whatever the case may be. And at that point, I'll typically pause and say, okay, well, explain to me, because I think I'm missing something here, the strategy, the underlying connective tissue that aligns your tasks to your tactics to your projects in a way that makes it clear that you're trying to achieve something beyond this specific project? How do these things connect together? What is that connective tissue? How does that drive your business moving forward? And oftentimes that's where folks get a bit confused, get a bit perplexed, because I think we've, many of us, particularly Type A's that are passionate about what we do, which is most of us here, confuse this abundance of activity with productivity. And my strong belief is that it is a necessity to take a pause and focus on strategy because oftentimes we're doing the wrong tactics, supporting the wrong tasks against projects that aren't of highest value and relevance based on the goals and objectives that we're trying to achieve. So anyway, take a break from busyness, take a deep breath, and think about the strategy that connects all those things together. Thank you so much.
