Are You Strategic, Tactical…or Stractical?

Lonnie Pacelli is an Accenture/Microsoft veteran with four decades of learnings under his belt. He frequently writes and speaks on leadership, project management, work/life balance, and disability inclusion. Reach him at [email protected] and see more at ProjectManagementAdvisor.com.

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Topics: Career Development, Strategy

Annette, a project manager, sat at her desk and put her head in her hands. “Unbelievable!” she said within earshot of her cube-mate Julio.

“What’s wrong?” Julio asked as he turned toward her.

“Freda just gave me my performance appraisal. She dinged me because she said I’m not strategic.”

“What does that mean?” Julio asked.

“I don’t know. I asked Freda what she meant, and she just said I need to think bigger. I’ve got no clue on what ‘think bigger’ means.”

“Did she give you any examples?”

“Nope.”

“Huh,” Julio said as he sipped his coffee. “Did she point out things you did well?”

“She gave me props on Atlas. I loved that project. Delivered on time, on budget, and within scope. That was fine; but this whole strategic thing really bugs me. I just wanna be a great tactical PM, not a CEO or some exec. What’s wrong with that?”

Julio shrugged his shoulders. “Wish I knew,” he said as he turned back to his screen.

*** *** ***

I’ve seen this movie many times in my career. Someone who is very good at tactical execution is told they need to “be more strategic,” as if in the hierarchy of skills being strategic was more important than being tactical. To help ground this …

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