Strategy often gets tossed around as a buzzword, but few people take a moment to ask: Why do so many professionals struggle with it? The truth is that it’s rarely about intelligence or skill. Instead, it has a lot to do with the way businesses structure roles, measure performance, and develop leadership talent.

For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this reality can be especially tough. With lean teams and tighter budgets, there’s less margin for error—and less time to figure out what’s not working. That’s where Shareable comes in. We’re a Fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) agency, partnering with SMEs to provide senior-level marketing expertise without the cost of hiring a full-time executive. By stepping into the gaps in your marketing leadership, we help you make better decisions about which initiatives to pursue and how to execute them.

Why People Struggle with Strategy

In many organizations, early-career employees are almost entirely judged on execution: Did they meet deadlines? Did they hit their targets? Did they deliver consistent quality? These factors do matter—good execution keeps the business running. The problem is that there’s a second, often overlooked skill: deciding what to do in the first place.

If you’ve never been asked to decide which projects or tasks are truly a priority, you won’t magically be good at it when you’re promoted to a leadership role. This leads to a common scenario: someone rises through the ranks based on their execution skills, then suddenly they’re expected to think strategically. With little practice or mentoring, they may end up focusing on the wrong goals or micromanaging the tasks they feel comfortable with—because that’s the skill set that got them there.

The High Stakes for SMEs

Larger corporations can absorb some strategic missteps because they often have entire departments dedicated to planning or market analysis. SMEs don’t have that luxury. If your resources are limited, every decision becomes amplified, whether it’s allocating budget for a marketing campaign or deciding which new product feature to build.

When people don’t have experience in prioritizing initiatives, it’s easy to get stuck doing a lot of work that doesn’t actually move the needle. You might crank out social media posts, launch AdWords campaigns, or invest in email marketing—but if you’re unsure who your ideal customer is or what truly sets you apart, these efforts won’t gain much traction. That’s why a clear, coherent strategy is essential for growth-stage companies.

Building Strategic Muscle in Your Team

One of the best ways to cultivate strategic thinking is to start early. Instead of handing entry-level employees or new managers a list of tasks, give them a target outcome—like increasing web traffic by a certain percentage—and let them figure out how to get there. They’ll make mistakes, but that’s how they learn to spot opportunities and evaluate alternatives.

Over time, this approach builds a team that’s not just great at execution, but also at understanding which projects are most valuable. They learn to tie every initiative back to larger business goals. This shift doesn’t happen overnight, though. Changing a culture of task-based performance to one that rewards autonomy and strategic thinking can take years.

Why a Fractional CMO Approach Makes Sense

That’s where Shareable fits in. Our Fractional CMO service is designed for SMEs that need marketing leadership and direction right now, without the overhead of hiring a full-time CMO. We plug into your organization to provide immediate strategic clarity. Because we’re not part of the daily grind, we can quickly spot gaps, overlaps, and missed opportunities.

More than just providing a plan, we work alongside your existing team to build out the marketing function. This includes identifying the right channels, shaping your positioning, and ensuring your messaging resonates with the customers you want to reach. By combining hands-on support with executive-level guidance, we help you deliver results and develop your internal talent at the same time.

Closing the Strategy Gap for Sustainable Growth

When you step back and look at why so many people struggle with strategy, it’s clear that traditional promotion paths don’t often encourage this skill. You get rewarded for completing tasks, then suddenly you’re tasked with deciding which tasks matter most.

For SMEs, that gap can stall growth. You need every initiative to count, and you need your team to look at problems with a critical, strategic lens. The simplest way to start bridging that gap is by giving people more autonomy, mentoring them on higher-level thinking, and evaluating success by value delivered rather than tasks checked off a list.

Still, you might not be able to wait for that cultural shift. That’s why bringing in a Fractional CMO can be a game-changer. We offer the strategic leadership you need right away, and we support your existing team so they can learn from the process. The end result isn’t just a one-off boost; it’s a lasting upgrade to how your business thinks about marketing, growth, and decision-making as a whole.

Getting Started with Shareable

If your marketing results have plateaued or your team isn’t sure which direction to go next, it might be time to get outside perspective. At Shareable, we begin by getting to know your business from the inside out. We’ll help you pinpoint the real goals you should be focusing on, develop a plan to achieve them, and take action in a way that elevates your brand in the market.

Along the way, we share our decision-making processes and insights, helping your employees hone their strategic thinking skills. Over time, you’ll see a shift: your team becomes more confident about making decisions, more cohesive in how they execute marketing plans, and more aligned with your overall vision.

Final Thoughts

Strategy isn’t a gift that suddenly appears when someone lands a manager’s title. It’s a skill—one that takes practice, feedback, and the right environment to develop. If you’re an SME leader, consider how your organization can nurture that skill at every level. Maybe that means delegating outcomes instead of tasks, or rethinking how you judge performance.

If you need immediate results and guidance, a Fractional CMO arrangement can be the perfect fit. At Shareable, we’ll work with you to quickly strengthen your strategic approach, from high-level marketing plans down to the nuts and bolts of executing those plans effectively. Whether you’re pivoting into new markets or trying to engage more deeply with your existing customer base, we’ll make sure you’re doing the right things, and doing them well.

Ready to explore how a Fractional CMO could transform your marketing efforts? Reach out to us at Shareable. We’d love to help you turn strategic thinking into your biggest competitive advantage.