Strategy isn’t about being sneaky. It’s about not being surprised.

The word carries a whiff of trickery, which keeps decent people away from it. What it actually describes is unglamorous: thinking a few steps out so that the likely outcomes are ones you have already met. A person with a plan is not manipulating anybody, only making themselves harder to startle.

Take something coming up this week and list the three ways it could go. Decide now what you would do in each. You will probably be wrong about which one happens, and you will still be steadier for having asked.