The Strategic Leader

How can you make better strategic decisions when you're dealing with complexity, uncertainty and competing opinions?
Making clear, timely decisions is one of the most important skills in strategic leadership, but it's rarely straightforward. At senior and executive level, decisions often involve ambiguity, incomplete information and multiple stakeholders. So how do you avoid getting stuck in endless discussions or waiting for certainty that may never come?
We explore three practical approaches to improving your strategic decision making.
If you want to make decisions more confidently, reduce unnecessary delays and improve the effectiveness of your leadership team, these practical tools will help you navigate even the trickiest decisions.
Key points discussed
Understanding the type of decision you're making
Knowing when you have enough information
Clarifying decision making accountability
Moving beyond consensus decision making
Getting comfortable with imperfect decisions
Key takeaway
Effective strategic decision making isn't about always having the right answer. It's about understanding the type of decision you're facing, being clear about who owns it and knowing when you have enough information to act. Sometimes the most effective leadership decision is simply one that's good enough for now and safe enough to try.
Find out more
Read Gemma’s article here
Sign up to Gemma’s monthly newsletter for more Strategic Insights and top tips
 
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Thank you for tuning into this episode of The Strategic Leader podcast.
If you enjoyed the show, please give us 5 stars! It will help others find the show. Check out our previous episodes and remember to subscribe so you don’t miss our future episodes. If you have any questions or want to discuss anything, we’d love to hear from you:
www.gemmabullivant.co.uk (for Gemma)
www.wearegoodthinking.co.uk (for Fi)

How can you build resilience when leadership pressures mount?
Discover four practical ways to stay flexible, manage uncertainty and maintain your effectiveness through challenging times.
Resilience is an essential skill for strategic leaders, but it isn't about being tough, pushing through at all costs or simply bouncing back. It's about developing the flexibility to respond to challenges, adapt to change and potentially emerge stronger as a result.
We explore what resilience really means for leadership effectiveness, drawing on Dr Carol Pemberton's work and the distinction between psychological safety and certainty. We also consider the Yerkes-Dodson law, which helps explain why some pressure can improve performance, while too much can leave us overwhelmed. And we discuss why constantly waiting for things to settle down before taking action can undermine our resilience.
Most importantly, we share four practical ways to strengthen your personal resilience.
Whether you're navigating organisational change, managing competing demands or supporting your team through challenging circumstances, you'll discover how to build the resilience to stay effective, even when certainty isn't possible.
Key points discussed
Resilience is about flexibility, not toughness.
Psychological safety matters more than certainty.
The relationship between stress and performance.
Four practical components of resilience.
The importance of recovery.
Key takeaway
Building resilience isn't about becoming impervious to pressure or waiting until everything feels under control. It's about developing the flexibility, support and practical strategies to navigate uncertainty. Focus on what helps you stay upright, keep moving and find solutions so you can not only bounce back from challenges, but potentially bounce forward.
Find out more
Read Gemma’s blog Resilient Leaders Are Learning to Flex
Sign up to Gemma’s monthly newsletter for more Strategic Insights and top tips
Related episodes
You may also find these previous episodes useful:
2.09 How to Manage Stress to Stay More Strategic
1.08 Unlocking the Power of Strategic Self-Care
2.06 Managing Anxiety and Worry at Work

How can you benefit from AI without allowing it to do your critical thinking for you?
Critical thinking is an essential strategic leadership skill, helping you question information, understand problems properly and make well considered judgements rather than accepting polished answers at face value. We discuss why this matters even more as AI becomes part of everyday leadership work, particularly when plausible, professional looking outputs can tempt us to move too quickly towards an answer.
We look at the importance of framing the problem before trying to solve it, and why you need to understand what you are trying to achieve before you can critically evaluate an AI generated response. And how AI can strengthen rather than replace human thinking by acting as a thinking partner, asking challenging questions and helping you organise your own ideas.
And we explore the AI sandwich approach and a couple of insightful concepts - “bot sitting” and “bot shitting”
Key points
Why critical thinking starts with framing the problem rather than rushing to a solution.
How polished and plausible AI outputs can make it harder to recognise weak thinking or irrelevant answers.
How to use AI as a thinking partner that challenges and organises your ideas rather than outsourcing your thinking.
Why leaders need to verify, understand and confidently stand behind both their own AI assisted work and the work produced by their teams.
Key takeaway
Use AI to support your critical thinking, not replace it. Whatever the finished output looks like, you should understand it well enough to explain it, question it and confidently stand behind it.
Find out more
Read Gemma’s article Critical Thinking in Leadership: Don’t Let AI Do Your Thinking
The episode also refers to the “AI sandwich” approach shared by Kerry Harrison, and more on the concepts of “bot sitting” and “bot shitting” can be found in the Work AI Institute report here
Sign up to Gemma’s monthly newsletter for more Strategic Insights and top tips
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Related episodes
You may also find these previous episodes useful:
6.02 Strategic Clarity
1.02 Crafting a Simple Yet Effective Strategy (audio episode)
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Thank you for tuning into this episode of The Strategic Leader podcast.
If you enjoyed the show, please give us 5 stars! It will help others find the show. Check out our previous episodes and remember to subscribe so you don’t miss our future episodes. If you have any questions or want to discuss anything, we’d love to hear from you:
www.gemmabullivant.co.uk (for Gemma)
www.wearegoodthinking.co.uk (for Fi)

How easily can you move beyond your own viewpoint and see a leadership challenge through a completely different lens?
Perspective shifting is an important strategic leadership skill because the more senior you become, the more you need to understand competing priorities, different stakeholders and alternative ways of thinking. We discuss why mental agility helps you move beyond the tunnel vision of your own role, department or preferences, without losing your own point of view.
We look at practical ways to develop this skill, including Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats and the Disney Creative Method, which uses the perspectives of dreamer, realist and critic. We consider how deliberately adopting different thinking positions can improve decision making, creativity, conflict management and the quality of strategic conversations.
We also explore how perspective shifting can strengthen strategy development and stakeholder management. By asking what employees, customers, finance teams, communities or other stakeholders would think, you can anticipate questions and identify gaps in your thinking. Finally, we consider how the same technique can help you challenge your inner critic, access different viewpoints and become a more agile and effective leader.
Key points discussed
Why perspective shifting becomes increasingly important as you move into senior and strategic leadership roles.
How to distinguish intellectual perspective shifting from emotional empathy.
How Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats can help you deliberately adopt different thinking perspectives.
How the Disney Creative Method separates the dreamer, realist and critic perspectives to develop and stress test ideas.
Why clear rules of engagement can make structured perspective shifting more effective in meetings and workshops.
How stepping into the shoes of different stakeholders can strengthen strategy, proposals and leadership decisions.
How questions such as “What would future me say?” or “What advice would I give someone in my team?” can help you access a different perspective.
Why curiosity, self awareness and a willingness to challenge your preferred viewpoint are essential for developing greater mental agility.
Key takeaway
Perspective shifting is a leadership muscle you can deliberately develop. Practise moving between different thinking styles and stakeholder viewpoints, particularly when one perspective feels uncomfortable or unfamiliar. The aim is not to abandon your own view, but to broaden your thinking before deciding what to do.
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Find out more
See Gemma’s blog - Why Strategic Leaders Need to Shift Perspective
Sign up to Gemma’s monthly newsletter for more tips & insights
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Thank you for tuning into this episode of The Strategic Leader podcast.
If you enjoyed the show, please give us 5 stars! It will help others find the show. Check out our previous episodes and remember to subscribe so you don’t miss our future episodes. If you have any questions or want to discuss anything, we’d love to hear from you:
www.gemmabullivant.co.uk (for Gemma)
www.wearegoodthinking.co.uk (for Fi)

How well do you really understand the impact you have on other people, not just the impact you intend to have?

Self-awareness becomes increasingly important as you become more senior because leadership effectiveness depends on far more than your technical expertise. We discuss how your assumptions, preferences, habits, strengths and behaviours shape how you lead, and why understanding how others experience you is essential for strategic leadership.

We also consider the difference between intention and impact, and why feedback is valuable data rather than something you automatically need to accept as fact.

We introduce a five-part approach that moves from awareness to effectiveness. It helps you turn greater self-awareness into intentional choices about how you show up in different situations, rather than relying on your default behaviours.

We also share practical ways to build your self-awareness. You will discover how to gather useful feedback, identify patterns and blind spots, and adapt your leadership approach without feeling that you need to change who you are.

Key points discussed
Why self-awareness is fundamental to effective strategic leadership.
How the gap between your intention and your impact can affect how others experience your leadership.
Why treating feedback as data can make it easier to hear and use constructively.
Why senior leaders need to ask proactively for feedback rather than simply having an “open door”.
Practical feedback tools -  “What went well, even better if” and Ask 5 – and how they can make gathering useful feedback simpler and less threatening.

Key takeaway
Self-awareness is not simply knowing your strengths, weaknesses and preferences. Its value comes from understanding your impact on others and using that knowledge to make more intentional choices about how you lead. The goal is not to change who you are, but to adapt your approach when doing so will make you more effective.

Want more?
Read Gemma’s blog for more about this topic and the models/graphics we refer to in the episode.
 
Thank you for tuning into this episode of The Strategic Leader podcast.
If you enjoyed the show, please give us 5 stars! It will help others find the show. Check out our previous episodes and remember to subscribe so you don’t miss our future episodes. If you have any questions or want to discuss anything, we’d love to hear from you:
www.gemmabullivant.co.uk (for Gemma)
www.wearegoodthinking.co.uk (for Fi)