What is Strategic Leadership?
Essential skills.
Strategic leadership sounds like a good skill for your resume. But what do you actually do as a strategic leader?
It has to do with two things:
Strategy/strategic thinking
Leadership
Combine them, and voila! Can anyone be a strategic leader? Probably. Some have a bit more natural talent than others.
Now imagine this. When you think about your job, do you go beyond your daily tasks and duties? Do you think your service and product could improve? Do you seek new opportunities and gaps? Do you care about your business strategy?
Yes to all questions? That is a path to strategic leadership.
Strategic leadership
Strategic leadership can be different for various companies, teams, and situations. Yet, there is one thing that is common for every strategic leader you know:
Their ability to adapt and be flexible.
Try this exercise:
You are at work. What is the big picture? What could it be in the future?
Visualize how you could best use the resources you have. What could you do with them better?Strategic leadership is about going beyond the obvious and present. When you have a vision, you can plan it, manage it, lead it, and execute it successfully.
Many leaders accept what they are told. They do not challenge the status quo. As a result, their teams focus on current projects but not the future ones. They do not innovate or care to build something meaningful. No wonder, there is a bit of purpose criris.
“Strategic leadership happens when a leader shares a vision and goal with their team and inspires them to work together to reach it. A strategic leader often acts as the motivating force for an organization, letting individuals know their role in achieving the vision. This leadership style helps others have direction at all times.” - COLIN BAKER
Being strategic does not mean you have to be high up. You can be strategic as a business owner, solopreneur, team leader, project manager, etc.
You always need a vision and a plan. Without it, working with others will not be as productive as it could be. You will underutilize your and others’ skills.
What is your vision? What do you want to achieve?Business example for inspiration
It may feel abstract to imagine what you should be doing to be more strategic. So, let’s use Jeff Bezos as an example.
Jeff, the founder of Amazon, has led his company to the dream.
His leadership qualities, according to Studysmarter are:
Visionary: He had a vision of the future of e-commerce.
Innovation: Amazon’s algorithm for buying suggestions.
Strategic thinking: Planning beyond one product or service. Business diversification to keep it competitive.
Adaptability: Follow market changes and deliver what customers want e.g., streaming media.
Communication: Jeff communicated updates regularly with his staff.
He is also known for using resources he had in his hands. For example, data-driven decisions. He also encouraged his teams to experiment and test new ideas.
What you can take out of this example?
Always think beyond your daily routine.
Get to know your coworkers and team. You may be surprised by what they can do.
Be open to discussions.
Be bold. No more ‘I can’t’ or ‘This will not work’ or ‘They won’t approve it.’
The essential skills
Based on research done in 2013 with more than 20,000 executives, six basic skills will help you think strategically and be adaptable. They are the abilities to anticipate, challenge, interpret, decide, align, and learn.
1. Anticipate
Are you one step ahead? Can you predict if an idea turn into a trend? Leaders who are deaf to the environment around them will miss opportunities.
What is happening in your field? Can you use it to your advantage? For instance:
Mass layoffs → Hire a new team for innovation
Digitalization → Hybrid work
AI → Automation
If you want to anticipate better, be in touch with your customers, competitors, suppliers, and news. Understand what they talk about. Participate in conferences. Focus on challenges and predictions. Use market research and data to help your decisions.
2. Challenge
Become aware of your own assumptions. They lead you away from challenging the status quo. But each problem should be discussed with different lenses. Watch out for these:
“This is not our market.”
“This is not what we do.”
“It is working. We do it like this for a long time.”
The best is to put together a diverse group of people and bounce ideas around. Think outside of the box. Healthy discussions gauge different questions and ideas. Conflict is what brings innovation. Open your mind and discussions.
3. Interpret
Leaders who challenge effectively elicit complex and contradictory facts. That is why the finest ones can also interpret data. Instead of seeing or hearing what you expect, you should synthesize all inputs. You'll need to spot patterns and seek fresh ideas.
Use qualitative and quantitative data to build the big picture. Look for answers to questions and test hypotheses. List possible explanations and let others give you theirs.
4. Decide
When you decide on a whim or the moment when you face the challenge, you are not the best strategic thinker. Strategic leaders don’t shoot from the hip but follow a disciplined process that balances rigor with speed, considers the trade-offs involved, and takes both short- and long-term goals into account.
Remember this: There are always options. You can make a soft decision before making the final one. Abrupt decisions can cost money or extra work.
5. Align
You never work alone. Always aim to establish the common ground and share purpose and goals diligently. Why? Because the more others understand, the more likely you get them on board.
Late communication = bad communication.
You must communicate generously, earn trust, and have a strong presence and listening skills. Good relationships with stakeholders will cover your back. Have conversations to discuss questions and tackle misunderstandings.
You need team alignment to achieve success.
6. Learn
Strategic leaders are learning all the time. From positive initiative and failures. They ask all the time: Why is this working? Why isn’t this working?
They encourage people to test ideas and fail. Lessons learned are used for other innovations and feedforward. Reward people who are bold enough to fail. Document milestones and communicate results or needs.
Strategic leaders admit their mistakes and learn from their poor communication. They move forward with their teams, not alone.
TL;DR
Ready to be more strategic?
Strategic leadership combines big-picture thinking, communication, and working with others and resources well. Think beyond your job. What do you think you could do better? Do you see some gaps? How about people in your team? Are their potential used well?
Anticipate
Challenge
Interpret
Decide
Align
Learn
Strategic leadership gives you room. Use it and plan for the future.
See you next week! Ivona