CEOs and leadership all strive to be the best — to have a “winning” organization. At the same time, they carry the burden of making things work — the ups and downs and building a strong brand and a strong, supporting culture. And sometimes, they don’t get the desired performance and results.

Most organizations get stuck because they get in their own way. They do the same thing year after year, expecting different results. Dysfunction creeps in and becomes the norm. Strategy gets blurred with business planning and business execution and takes a back seat to the priorities of the day. It gets relegated to an annual event and big production.

As an executive coach, CEOs tell me they get lost in the day-to-day — in the urgent things that pop up every day. They are required to give their attention to industry issues, community issues, customer issues, investor and board issues, and people issues. The urgency of the day-to-day wins most of the time.

Leaders want to think more strategically, but in some ways, they have lost their way with the stress and busyness.

So how do you get your team to think more strategically? Give careful attention to these three things.

Crystalize your definition of strategy.

When was the last time your team defined or redefined the definition of strategy? This step is not about defining your strategy but getting clarity and alignment on what it means.