Leadership has a significant impact on the strategic management process. It helps to determine the vision and mission of the organization. To successfully navigate your way through your leadership drive, one has to be intentional and, most importantly, strategic about it.
This is a position that challenges you to rise above the ordinary in your endeavors.
The significance of strategic leadership, as mentioned above, is what gave birth to the role of leadership in strategy formulation and implementation by reviewing existing literature. One can ordinarily lead an organization and produce ordinary results. It is also entirely possible to lead an organization and produce extraordinary or near-perfect results. This is what creates the distinguishing factor between a strategic leader in an organization and a regular leader.
According to Management Study Guide, Strategic leadership refers to the ability of a manager to express a strategic vision for the organization or part of an organization and also to motivate their entire workforce to buy into that vision.
Wikipedia also defines it as the ability to influence others to voluntarily make decisions that alter an organization’s long-term goals and visions while maintaining short-term financial stability. With this definition in mind, it’s clear that being a strategic leader in an organization is a hydra-headed role that requires a sense of purpose, direction, and vision to attain set goals. In delving deep into this subject matter, it would be necessary to explore various sub-themes such as the following:
- Psychological Make up of a strategic leader
- Role of a Strategic leader in an organization
Examples of Strategic leaders
1. PSYCHOLOGICAL MAKE-UP OF A STRATEGIC LEADER
As discussed in an earlier paragraph, being a strategic leader requires one to be equipped with the attitude and aptitude that goes with it. The challenge of strategic leadership is to be able to link the soul and body of an organization together. Therefore, this goes with careful balancing of temperament, such as being strong but not rude, kind but not weak, humble but not timid, proud but not arrogant, and humorous but not without folly.
It also requires a personality with a fortified mentality, who can read in between the lines at any given time and respond with appropriate measures for the company’s forward movement. Being tough mentally may not be all there is to strategic leadership. Still, the ability to psyche the entire workforce and carry them along your vision for the organization is one attribute that puts such leaders streets ahead of their peers.
Aptitudinal skills are one that also distinguishes strategic leaders from the pack; this requires emotional intelligence that equips you with the mental fortitude to think on your feet to respond to emergencies, which is a feat that is rarely seen in many leaders. A lot of world leaders had their strategic leadership skills called into question following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The ones endowed with aptitudinal instincts were able to rise to the occasion in shepherding their subjects safely through the torrid times. However, this was not the case for many leaders who were bereft of such attributes who found themselves overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenge on hand. It is often said that irregular measures for irregular times, but being a strategic leader would prepare you for every irregularity that may spring. One of these unforeseen irregularities is the Novel Corona Virus, the pandemic that kept the world on the lock for months. The virus crippled economies and shattered plans.
2. ROLE OF STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP IN THE ORGANISATION MANAGEMENT
The leader’s essential role in every organization is to fashion out its strategic vision and goals. Once the leadership gets it right with this concept, strategy formulation and implementation becomes easy. However, the next logical task would be to devise a means of integrating people with the organization’s strategic management processes. This brings into sharp focus the need for a strategic team task force which would be tasked with oversight responsibilities for both the organization’s short-term and long-term visions. The implementation becomes seamless as though you are executing it when you delineate various roles through line managers.
As the saying goes, “a man cannot enter a room and come out incognito.” It presupposes that to have the organization’s vision and mission resonate with the organization’s rank and file, and one has to have a revolutionary and transformational outlook on the organization. Strategic leaders’ revolutionary instinct always challenges the status quo and comes out with unorthodox, independent, and thought-provoking ideas for the forward movement of the organization. Such leaders who join an organization would typically develop a five-ten-year development strategy, which more often than not outlives their stay in the organization. In comparison with other lay leaders, transformational leadership tries their Possible best to carry every member of the organization along in its development drive. Because leaders are often seen through the lens of their subjects, it is important.
We invest frantic effort in mentoring and building the capacity of subordinates who can fit into the leader’s shoes to carry the mandate of running the organization. A Transformational leader can identify the weak link in his team and then invest time and effort in bringing them on level pegging with the rest of the team. Strategic transformational leadership dates back to the Biblical era, where Jesus tells a story of a shepherd who abandons the rest of his flock to look for the only one flock that went missing. Once he located the missing flock, he felt fulfilled. Football coaches are also one example of transformational leadership; there have been many coaches who transformed moribund teams into winning ways. In some instances, it can be a particular player who’s been sloppy in Performance. Still, with a transformational strategic leader who believes in teamwork, an ample amount of time would be devoted in bringing him at par with the rest of the team. Therefore, transformational leadership is borne of the belief that one cannot Profess greatness when it does not resonate with his subjects.
Examples Of Strategic Leadership
This is the moment of truth in ascertaining who a strategic leader is. However, many world leaders have applied strategic leadership models in navigating their success path, a few outstanding examples deserve some mention.
- TONY BLAIR
The former Prime minister of Britain is one outstanding strategic leader who is infectious with his leadership drive. One of his’ Principal skills’ is his ability to absorb enormously complicated materials. The Labor Party leader changed how Party leaders were elected, fought for lower taxes, and also reduced the crime rate, a feat that many of his forbears failed to achieve. - BARRACK OBAMA
Making history as the 44th President of the United States was not as daunting as weaving his way into the heart of Americans to shed their racial bigotry to elect a black man for the first time as their leader. With his infectious catchphrase, ‘Yes we can’ he was able to rally the whole of America to buy into his vision of making America great again. That’s simply the mark of a strategic leader. - BILL GATE
The chief executive of the global tech giant couldn’t have attained this feat by a sudden flight. He had to work his way through the mill to position his brand in the minds of customers worldwide. He, together with his business partner Paul Allen made an appointment with the first Personal computers makers, Promising a code that could run the computer. They hadn’t even developed the code when the appointment was set. This is a testament to his influence and leadership, which has since engulf the whole world and continues to wow his Patrons.
Author:
Phidelia Johnson is a global Human Resources Practitioner with eighteen years of leadership success. With a focus on streamlining Human Resources administration, she’s well-equipped to find the right solution to a myriad of concerns. Her experience as a commercial business leader gives her a unique ability to advocate for both the employer and the employee.
In her down time, Phidelia is a master of her kitchen, creating wonderful dishes filled with passion and flavor. If she’s not cooking delicious food, she’s stretched out with a good book. She hopes to use her experience to help others, guide company leaders to best practices, and help build better professionals and stronger organizations.