When it comes to strategy, things aren’t that complicated. I shouldn’t even really have a job. But thanks to a litany of fancy MBA programmes and boring textbooks written by old white American dudes, strategy has become some kind of mystic art. It’s largely dominated by the Big 4, swimming in a sea of complicated jargon and making us all the victim of long, expensive and mostly unreadable documents.

It doesn’t need to be like this. You heard it here first, kids: Strategy is simple.

If you’d like a strategy MBA in 4 minutes, here you go:

Strategy needs a strategist

While strategy might be simple, if we want our ideas to actually happen, then we need people who understand how strategy works, and who lead and work in a way that supports its execution. For that reason, the number one leadership training request I get is to teach people "how to be more strategic."

Now, in some ways, this is a misnomer. At heart, everyone is strategic. Our ability to strategise - join the dots, think long term and plan for the future - is the defining characteristic of being a human.

But… some of us embrace that side of our nature more than others.

If you’re wondering whether you might be a strategist, check out this list for the top 15 telltale signs.

15 signs of a strategist

1. You ask annoying questions
2. You're always thinking about the next step
3. You see angles everywhere
4. Your mind never stops
5. You exhaust people
6. You're always running simulations
7. You're insatiably curious
8. You love change
9. You know yourself
10. You love a framework
11. Nothing's ever finished
12. You can be disconcertingly decisive
13. You underestimate your own effort
14. You're incredibly resilient
15. You're still reading this article

1. You ask annoying questions

When everyone else is keen to accept what’s in front of them and crack on, you’re the one holding up the process. You’re probably asking questions like…

• “Are we sure this is a problem?”

• “Do we need to do it like this?”

• “Is there a better way to tackle this?”

My top three annoying questions, inspired by my three children are:

1. Why? - Courtesy of my 5-year-old, this one is best when asked 3-5 times. There is no easier way to dig below the surface and find the root causes of our problems than repeatedly asking why something is happening. If you were hoping for a crash course on systems thinking, this is it.

2. So what? Courtesy of my 10-year-old, this is best served with a touch of belligerence. Asking ‘so what’ is all about getting real about impacts and consequences. That way, we make sure we don’t waste our effort on minor things. This one can rub people (and mothers) the wrong way, but it’s important—not all problems need to be solved, and lots of things don’t really matter.

3. Is it, though…? - Courtesy of my 15-year-old, this is best asked with a dubious, authority-questioning inflection. Strategists know that we tend to make decisions that rest on untested assumptions and that if we don’t check whether things are true now and again, we get into trouble.

Pro tip: To keep your friends and colleagues on your side, learn when people just want you to listen and distinguish when urgency matters more than accuracy. Your questions can be unhelpful in those times.

2. You're always thinking about the next step

Before reaching the goal you’ve spent months striving for, you’ve moved the goalposts.

The weekend before your half marathon, you’ve booked into a full marathon and Googled “World’s most scenic 100 milers.” You hardly notice you’ve run the half.

Pro tip: Start to meditate. Presence makes things more enjoyable. Honestly.

3. You see angles everywhere

Everything becomes part of a potential narrative for you. If you’re in business, you’re considering the USP or commercial spin to outdo your competitors.

If you’re a writer, you always think of new headlines or story arcs. Sometimes, you only need one or two facts to string together something exciting and compelling.

Pro tip: Do not shut yourself off to non-conforming ideas too early. Once you’re locked into your own spin, you’re vulnerable to blind spots.

4. Your mind never stops

It just goes and goes. People often ask if you ever ‘switch off.’ And then, when you do try to chill out, the extra headspace seems to unleash little havoc bubbles of new creativity you didn’t see coming.

You’ll try to read or relax, but you keep having little ‘aha!’s that get in the way.

Pro tip: Run. It’s tiring. If that doesn’t work, write everything down.

5. You exhaust people

Not everyone has, or wants, a master plan. When you see the potential in everything, this can be very frustrating for your friends and family who just want to be happy with their achievable goals.

Pro tip: Learn to accept where people are at on their journey, and be ready when they are.

6. You're always running simulations

Budgets. Plans. Ideas. The scribbles are many. The ideas are plentiful.

It’s not enough for you to wonder ‘what if’, either. You immediately go looking for how it would work and what the steps would be to get there. This is a great advantage because you can turn dreams into reality. But the danger, of course, is missing the value of what’s right in front of you and failing to appreciate what you already have.

Pro tip: Cultivate a gratitude practice. Journal each day.

7. You're insatiably curious

You enthusiastically respond to new ideas, often citing something you’ve read or listened to recently. (‘Oh yes! I just heard a podcast about that…’)

Your curiosity and boundless appetite for knowledge are beautiful, but it does risk eye rolls from people who’d prefer small talk (or you becoming the human Google of your family or friend group).

Pro tip: Know when to put your things away.

…or just don’t talk to boring people. That’s my preference.

8. You love change

It could even be said you’re a change junkie. When the shit hits the fan, and other people look panicked, you’re trying to keep the glee off your face for the sake of politeness. Change means challenge and innovation to you, two of your favourite things.

If you don’t have some change land in your lap regularly enough... you create some.

Warning: this kind of preference can be needlessly disruptive to you and the people in your life. It’s also a fast path to stress addiction, which, y’know, will slowly kill you. As my favourite strategy author and buddy Max McKeown famously said: “Change is inevitable. Progress is not.”

Pro tip: Make sure you’ve closed out your last batch of stress before you kick off another. Try not to f**k with things for the sake of it.

9. You know yourself

Strategists have a strong sense of who they are and what they’re about.

You have a clear vision and strong values, and you know what you’re willing to tolerate… and what you’re not. You play a long game, and you have rock-solid boundaries to make that happen.

Of course, this can also make you insufferable, less fun at parties, and more inflexible than you’d like.

Pro tip: Be open to emerging versions of your vision and yourself.

10. You love a framework

This leads on from the simulation one, and for the most part, it’s great.

Because you know that every impossible-looking goal is just a series of steps you can follow (writing-a-book steps, running-a-marathon steps, starting-a-business steps), you’re a sucker for new approaches and theories.

5AM club? Sign you up! Cold showers? Totally! Lean? Agile? Servant leadership? Sure thing, you’ll have a crack!

This experimentation is cool until you become a fickle human guinea pig. It can be a pain for your family and team to accommodate your latest thing… only for it to go in the bin a few weeks later.

Pro tip: Learn to sample principles and small steps at a time instead of adopting a new system every three months.

11. Nothing’s ever finished

And why should it be? You get your best go, and then you get your next go!

You’re always optimising, tweaking your website, changing your setup and researching new tools. There’s always a smarter, faster, more innovative way to tackle something - and you love working out what those are. Which is cool… until you start wasting time that could be better spent elsewhere.