Strategic Alignment

At Level 2, you start actively connecting your work to strategic priorities. You make choices about your time and focus based on stated goals, use available data to inform those choices, ask how tradeoffs impact outcomes, and suggest adjustments when work seems misaligned. You're not just responding to direction—you're beginning to navigate with it in mind.

Key Behaviors

  • Prioritizes tasks that support team or org goals
  • Raises concerns when work doesn't align with stated direction
  • Asks how decisions connect to strategy or customer needs
  • Adjusts scope or approach to better serve goals
  • Encourages teammates to consider strategic impact

Common Struggles

  • May over-focus on alignment at the cost of execution
  • Can assume understanding without verifying intent
  • Might hesitate to speak up when direction feels unclear

Success Indicators

You know you're successful when you:

  • Make daily decisions that reflect broader priorities
  • Communicate the value of your work in terms of impact, not just output
  • Notice when work drifts from strategic direction and help refocus it
  • Bring context to others, not just questions

Mindset Shift

From:

"Am I doing the right task?"

To:

"Is the team solving the right problem?"

Questions to Ask Yourself

  • What assumptions are behind this goal?
  • Are we solving the right layer of the problem?
  • Could my context help improve how this decision gets made?

Build These Habits

  • 1
    Reframe progress updates in terms of goals, not tasks
  • 2
    Surface conflicts between priorities with curiosity, not critique
  • 3
    Share customer or system impact alongside technical detail

Seek Feedback

  • "Does this work meaningfully support our current strategy?"
  • "Where might I be missing a better-aligned opportunity?"
  • "How well am I helping others stay aligned through my work?"

Signals You're Ready to Level Up

  • You regularly bring strategic framing into technical or team discussions
  • Others look to you to connect the dots between work and purpose
  • You challenge ideas when alignment feels off—with respect and clarity

Focus Summary

  • Follow the thread
  • Connect work to purpose
  • Speak the language of goals

At Level 2, strategic alignment becomes a filter for decision-making. You start to think like a steward of outcomes, not just a doer of tasks.