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Strategic Leadership - Coggle Diagram
Strategic Leadership
The meaning of and the need for leadership
Strategy does not just happy by itself, it requires people and their brains and in anything other than the smallest groups of people, leadership is required
At one extreme of the classic leadership dynamic is an autocratic leader who will dictate and drive the strategic direction. At the other extreme, a participative leader will work with others for a combined decision on direction
Leadership
: The action of leading a group of people or an organisation or the ability to do this
Maccoby (2017)
describes a leader as someone with followers, if there are no followers, there is no one to lead
To be effective, leaders need to have the ability to change how people think as well as to influence what they do
Leaders will often need to develop a belief in the minds of the people who are following that an organisation can actually chage
A transformational leader will focus on the building of the strategic vision, the creation of identity and empowerment and the development of an appropriate culture
A transactional leader is generally more concerned with making sure that the operational flow is appropriate to enable the strategy to be achieved. The term transaction refers to the motivation of followers by the exchange of reward for performance
Principle centred leadership
Stephen Covey (1989
) suggested the basic task of leadership is to increase the standard of living and quality of life for all stakeholders
This can be seen to epitomise what is required from effective strategic leadership. It recognises the need for change, it recognises that what is required is an improvement on the today position and it recognises that there will be a range of stakeholders
There are four core dimensions that are required to be an effective leader
Security
A strategic leader will need to be secure in their own knowledge and their ability to lead others
As a principle, a strategic leader must maintain their own professional ability and integrity through relevant continual learning and have the ability to find a safe route through the conflicting views of others
Guidance
Other people will look to a strategic leader for guidance. The nature of being a leader is to have followers, and those followers will need to be helped in finding the right path forward
As a principle, a strategic leader must develop the ability to communicate with different parties who will be looking to them for guidance and have sufficient breadth of awareness to guide others in the optimal strategic direction
Power
Being seen by others as a guide will give the strategic leader significant power over the lives and paths of other people
As a principle, a strategic leader must learn how to use that power for the benefit of the individual, the team and the task as the strategic leader will be influencing all three
Wisdom
The real strength of this concept comes from the recognition that wisdom is a fundamental part of being an effective strategic leader. Followers will assume that the leader is making the right decisions for the right reason; if they do not believe this, they will cease o follow; the integrity will be lost
As a principle, a strategic leader must find the time to think before acting and therefore bring their wisdom into their strategic decision making.
The learning organisation
Senge (2006)
recognises that a learning organisation is only possible because an organisation is in itself just a number of people, each on their own personal strategic journey
The learning organisation is built from five cumulative stages and is best viewed as an increasing model
Personal mastery
The starting point for the development of a learning organisation is a recognition of the invdividuals who work within the organisation. Each individual should be neocurgaed to utilise and develop their own particular, unique skill set to the point where they develop a personal mastery of their specific areas of expertise
The strategic leader will need to encourage the development of each person to their own level of potentiality
Mental models
As each individual develops a personal mastery of their specific areas of focus and expertise, so they need to be encouraged to develop mental models. This requires the ability to visualise a combination of the 'today' and the 'future' with regard to each aspect. What does it look like now and what could it look like in the future?
These mental models can be very varied and the individual should be encouraged to explore and model in their mind anything that is remotely practical; and even perhaps what seems impractical. This approach will stretch the mind of the individual and stretch the potential of the organisation by encouraging individuals to build a holistic vision that can be explained to others
The strategic leader will delight in enabling others to begin to develop diverse mental models
Shared vision
An organisation will never make progress if all it consists of is a number of highly motivated individuals; even if these individuals have been encouraged to develop a personal mastery that has been enhanced by the visualisation of mental models
Each individual needs to be encouraged to develop their communication ability to share their vision and their mental models with others. This will not just happen by chance. This organisational learning needs capturing from the individuals and the sharing
The sharing process can be just between those individuals who are on this learning path but more usefully from an organisational development perspective it is good at this stage to involve a wider group of people. Firstly it will embed the mental models within a wider reality. Secondly it will encourage others to also begin to develop their own mastery and mental models
The strategic leader will facilitate the sharing process through workshops and other such events and ensuring the involvement of all appropriate stakeholders
Team learning
Having begun to share the vision or more correctly to share a range of very often quite disparate visions, a natural process of team learning will emerge. Individuals who have developed a personal mastery of a particular area or skill will quite often be challenged through the sharing and explanation of their vision and their initial lack of comprehension of others
This team learning stage, with regard to any subject can be exciting challenging and often emotional at the same time. If an individual becomes determined to succeed in their own personal mastery, imagine how much stronger this desire for success will be from a team of people with a shared vision
The strategic leader needs to establish boundaries and ensure that action follows
Systemic thinking
The final stage in the evolution of a learning organisation approach is the emergence of systems thinking. Senge calls this stage systemic thinking which implies a more constant interrogative approach ow being taken by the empowered group team.
Models of leadership and organisation
Essential skills
There are six key skills that are required for a successful strategic leader. Even though each of these skills is often considered in isolation, it is only when a strategic leader is sufficiently resolute and flexible to be able to apply all six skills at once that they have the ability to genuinely lead
Six skills
Anticipate
The need for constant vigilance, honing the ability to consider potential changes within the business and ambitious threats and opportunities on the periphery of the business
The ability to scan the environment for signals of change, in particular an alert awareness to the business and behaviour of customers and rivals
Challenge
A perpetual questioning of the status quo, challenging ones own and others views in a desire to understand and appreciate divergent opinions
The ability to identify and dispel where appropriate, assumptions that are made about the organisation and its environment
Interpret
The process of assimilating complex and conflicting information viewed in the context of previous strategic decisions
The ability to analyse, challenge and synthesis ambiguous data
Decide
The driving of strategic action after a robust and appropriate consideration process
The ability and confidence to identify the appropriate decisions or partial decisions, required to move from consideration into action
Align
The bringing together of differing stakeholder expectations
The ability to communicate through using the appropriate channels with internal and external stakeholders, identifying, understanding and addressing their concerns
Learn
The promotion of a culture of organisational enquiry to ensure that all participants in the strategy process understand why some strategies succeed and some fail
The ability to understand and help others to understand; this will hep to ensure that strategy is designed in full cognisance of the outcome of previous strategic decisions, realising that learning is a continuous process