Strategic leadership is the process of providing the direction and inspiration n
ID: 436551 • Letter: S
Question
Strategic leadership is the process of providing the direction and inspiration necessary to create or sustain an organization. Another perspective on strategic leadership is that it is the type of leadership necessary to effectively carry out strategic management. Strategic management refers to the process of insuring a competitive fit between the organization and its environment. Strategic leadership is thus a complex of personal characteristics, thinking patterns, and effective management, all centering around the ability to think strategically. Many strategic leaders say that they want managers to think strategically. How strategic leader can facilitate a middle manager toExplanation / Answer
Developing the ability of strategic thinking
Strategic thinking can not be taught but it can be learnt through observation and practice. How do leaders develop this ability of thinking strategically? Leaders should develop clear insights on markets, customers and technology. They should constantly reflect on their experience and seek new information on emerging realities to develop a significant point of view of future. Leaders who are strategic thinkers transcend the boundaries – beyond current markets, customers and technologies. Those who are endowed with the faculty of strategic thinking - either naturally or adopted through observation and practice - exhibit some distinct traits quite emphatically. A study of these behaviours will definitely help us in focusing our observation to these traits in others and improve our own. The basis tenets that characterize strategic thinking are:
Flexibility
Cognition
Anticipation
Learning
Clarity
Flexibility
Flexibility
is an essential feature of leaders who think strategically. Flexibility is not about changing the goals, it is about abandoning fixed ideas, it is about thinking of array of possible solutions, never thought of before and all the while retaining constancy of purpose. Flexible leaders test the strength of their ideas with the insights of their peers in order to refine their point of view. This happens when leaders are willing to look at problems from all possible angles and question inherent assumptions. Flexibility allows leaders to redefine complex problems, which provides insights into more feasible solutions. Jack Welch encouraging his managers to challenge his ideas at Crotonville, while he was CEO at GE, is an example of a confident leader with a flexible attitude.
Cognition
is yet another feature of strategic thinkers. This means that a leader must develop business wisdom by acquiring knowledge through perception, reasoning and intuition. An example that can be cited here is that of Lou Gestner, the turnaround CEO of IBM. He quickly developed understanding of the business through planned interactions with customers, competitors and employees. Thus building upon his own perceptions of IBM as a supplier for his previous company.
Anticipation
Anticipation
gives strategic leaders to proactively manage change before they are forced to change. One such example that comes to the mind is that of leadership at Tata Steel in India which managed a successful change in technology portfolio backed up by a highly successful right sizing exercise to enhance its competitiveness to such an extent that during the downturn in steel industry during middle and late 1990s, Tata Steel was the only steel company in the world which was profitable.
Learning
Learnering is a characteristic feature of leaders who are strategic thinkers. They not only learn from their own experience, they also have the ability to draw analogy from others experience. A classic case often cited in this context is of Andrew Grove of Intel, who taking cue from steel industry, where established steel companies allowed mini mills in the low end segment of rebars, but with time mini mills made their way into high end segments as well, insisted that if Intel leaves the cheap PC market uncontested it may lose the high end subsequently. As a consequence, Intel promoted its Celeron processors more aggressively in the low end segment.
Clarity
Clarity in leader’s thinking leads to clear strategic plans. Actions that would follow the idea and plans is so clearly etched out in strategic thinkers' mind that he creates ownership of his ideas in key persons responsible for imlementation. The leader does so by guiding their thought processes, whereby he ensures that his ideas of implementation are mouthed by the very people who will be implementing them. This is very crucial for a leader to give life to his ideas.