Questions of strategy & identity

Who do you think you are to be deploying a clever strategy? What's gotten into you to think you can succeed by planning ahead, assessing your risks and improving your chances? How can you be yourself and also deploy strategic thinking when you're faced with opportunities or obstacles?

These are questions in the intersection of strategy and identity. When we formulate strategies while disregarding our identities, we usually set ourselves up for failure. The incongruence between our way to succeed and who we are results in our sabotaging the planning and/or execution. We try to get where we want to go, but end up nowhere or somewhere else.

When strategic thinking seems like a big struggle, it seems that we already have to much on our plate to consider "identity issues". We get overwhelmed by considering all those questions to come up with a winning strategy. It may even appear to our agitated outlook that addressing our identity will weaken our position, make us vulnerable to setbacks and fall short of competitive advantages. In other words, identity issues usually appear self-indulgent and excessively introspective. However, when we can get around that obstacle in our thinking, we become free to explore those questions in the intersection of strategy and identity.

When we're deploying a clever strategy, we've identified ourselves as winners. We validate our ambitions as worthy of success and support. We see the impact of our succeeding as good for ourselves and others. We see the value in winning to our self-confidence. We expect to be more courageous, resourceful and spontaneous as a result.

When we're strategically assessing opportunities, risks and rewards, we've identified what we've got working in our favor. We think we can overcome our hesitation, past history and other hang-ups by becoming more strategic. We own our capabilities to think strategically as if it's "what we do" and "who we are".

When we get what differences it makes to combine these questions of strategy and identity, we're being ourselves to go into that intersection. There's no role conflict or opposing urges to protect us from selling out, being enslaved or getting stepped on by others. We can be ourselves while being strategic - no problem!