Strategic Thinking in Leadership
Posted on August 06, 2025 by Terry Poling, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
In a recent USA Today article, I explain that Strategic Thinking develops through four progressive levels of leadership awareness.
USA Today, May 16, 2025 "Strategic Thinking in Leadership: Terry Poling on Redefining this Capacity
There are multiple tools, techniques, and training programs that aim to enhance leadership performance. Yet, many leaders still struggle with complexity, uncertainty, and the inability to align strategy with systemic impact. Terry L. Poling, an experienced strategist, coach, and organizational development expert, states that the issue isn’t always a lack of knowledge. He believes it’s a lack of strategic thinking.
Poling is the founder of The Poling Group, Inc., a firm known for its integrally informed approach to leadership development. He has over three decades of experience working with executives, leadership teams, and mission-driven organizations. With a rare combination of insight, rigor, and applied theory to the art and science of leadership, he has helped shape a new understanding of what it means to lead effectively in the 21st century.
Poling’s extensive experience enabled him to observe the leadership development landscape, noticing it’s still dominated by fragmented models. Many frameworks emphasize technical skill sets or behavioral competencies. Others focus on organizational systems without addressing the leader’s personal growth. The result is partial solutions that rarely hold under pressure.
The gap goes wider. Poling argues that leaders are trained to respond with quick fixes instead of cultivating awareness that would allow them to redefine the problem. “Strategic plans fail not because leaders lack intelligence. It’s because they lack range. They don’t think and act from multiple levels of awareness depending on the challenge’s complexity,” he remarks.
Poling developed a model to address this problem. His framework brings nine fundamental leadership capacities together. Each is composed of two related competencies, providing a total of eighteen leadership qualities that reflect both the inner and outer dimensions of leadership. This design gives leaders a roadmap that honors the structural and the psychological dimensions of growth.
Poling integrates his Evolution of Leadership Awareness framework into this model. In this framework, strategic thinking unfolds through four progressive levels of awareness, each with increased complexity: Linear, Breakthrough, Relational, and Holistic. Each is defined by how the leader views challenges, how they define success, and what capacities they must cultivate in order to progress.
At the Linear level, leaders see challenges as isolated events. They define success as maintaining stability and predictability. Leaders operating here use transactional conversations and rely on problem-solving and control. This level is useful for short-term fixes, but it can be limiting, especially in complex or adaptive scenarios.
The Breakthrough level emerges when linear tools prove inadequate. Challenges begin to feel chaotic or confusing, and leaders face the discomfort of ambiguity. Leaders must surrender their own sense of certainty to confront their fears and doubts. “This stage can be difficult, and many revert to linear thinking because it feels safer,” Poling states. “But those who persist begin to develop the courage to speak their truth, tolerate ambiguity, and search for possibilities.”
Relational thinking takes it further. Leaders begin to see trends and patterns instead of discrete pieces. They see beyond boundaries and recognise interdependencies and the importance of collaboration. Here, success isn’t about stability and predictability anymore. It becomes more about interactional communication and building shared understanding and meaningful relationships.
Finally, at the Holistic level, leaders perceive systems in their entirety, integrating opposites, transcending paradox, and innovating by embracing complexity. Transformational communication yields opportunities and possibilities. This is where strategic thinking becomes impactful, as leaders start operating collectively with others to redefine what is possible.
“Leaders can’t skip steps. They need to master each level to advance to the next,” Poling says. This defines Poling’s work, where effective strategic thinking is not a technique but a developmental journey. “You can’t apply holistic strategies from a linear mindset. The awareness must come first,” he adds.
The Poling Group integrates this framework into its consulting and coaching practice. It combines perception, performance, relationships, and systems into a single, cohesive model. This means that when leaders engage in strategy work with The Poling Group, they’re expanding their capacity to see those problems differently.
Ultimately, Terry L. Poling and The Poling Group offer a new way of thinking that leaders enact. Strategic thinking becomes consciousness developed, expanded, and integrated for real leadership impact.
