"The Fish Rots From The Head"
Strategic Leadership: The process of using well considered tactics to communicate a vision for an organization or one of its parts. Strategic leadership typically manages, motivates and persuades staff to share that same vision, and can be an important tool for implementing change or creating organizational structure within a business.
Having a strategic approach to leadership is essential in building a thriving organization. Leadership will help to shape every part of the culture, and will help to determine success and failure.
Why Strategic Leadership?
Because driving blind is a morons approach to navigating through life. Attempting to lead with no plan of action is the same as approaching driving blind, you do not know where you are going, and yet to intend on directing others where?
Having a strategic approach to leadership will allow you to build a strong foundation for your organization and prepare you for the unexpected, and sets the premise for a strong team and work culture.
Understanding and Relentlessly Conveying the Vision
You should understand your own vision in order to convey it correctly. Truly understanding your vision means having an actionable plan. Having a great plan together will help you to articulate your plan effectively, your ability to do so will determine the response that you will receive.
How Wide is Your Perspective
Can you anticipate change?
To be a great strategic leader, your have to be able to notice small shifts, little changes that will sway the direction of things, and put a plan in action that will allow you to be at the forefront of this change.
Being able to turn a seemingly unbalanced environment is essential in the role of leadership, because they will come, and they will be unexpected and can derail a whole organization with lack of preparation. A great leader is able to use their skills to capitalize.
Approachability
One that can often be overlooked, as we focus on all of the other external forces, from mission, culture, and our teams, but approachability is important. From the top and from the bottom!
Those that are leading you should be able to reach you, mold you, and prepare you for the challenges ahead, while those that you are leading should feel as if you are open to feedback, and willing to support. It's impossible to teach others to work well together, if no one in your team feels as if you play well with others.
A great leader is approachable, compassionate, and has social skills.
Organizational Learning
How open are you, to learning from your failures?
In parenting, they say, if your child doesn't feel as it he/she can come to you when they have made a mistake, you are setting that child up and yourself for failure. As a leader, your team has to feel as if the culture allows them to learn from their mistakes, not in a demeaning way, but in an open and understanding environment.
Mistakes will happen, both from your end and from your teams end. The best way to approach these situations, is to create an open environment, where the team can learn from not only theirs, but your mistakes.
Make it a Team Effort
Also known as Strategic Teaming, a great leader builds an even greater team, one that is just as passionate about the success of the mission and organization. Refusing to acknowledge the importance of a cohesive team, can result in failed projects, and a disorganized work culture.
According to CMOE (Center For Management and Organization Effectiveness) the areas that are important to target when building an effective strategic team are:
- Enhancing team cohesion
- Improving team problem solving
- Unleashing team potential
- Infusing energy and excitement
- Develop strategic thinking individually and as a team