Strategic Leadership: Summing Up
We have reached the end of this series on Strategic Leadership – twelve articles! So I thought it might be useful to sum it all up.
Richard L. Hughes and Katherine Colarelli Beatty (Centre for Creative Leadership) have found through their research that strategic leadership differs from operational leadership in that it is:
Strategic leadership involves discovering what it is that the organization needs to do well and more importantly can do well in order to grow into the future. Having made these discoveries it involves creating the conditions that enable collective effort around their implications. This can only happen if the organization understands strategy as a learning process. The primary role of strategic leadership is to enable organizations to become centres of learning, and to drive this process by continually developing and discovering strategy and holding it in an ongoing state of becoming – formulation, implementation, reassessment and revision.
There are five primary elements to making strategy a learning process:
While the CEO is ultimately responsible for deciding which path an organization should take, many people in all parts of the business play a part in its strategic leadership. Since strategy is a process of discovering, it has both top-down and bottom-up elements. Failure to enable this means that you may miss critical information and opportunities. Whoever makes decisions that have consequences for the rest of the organization is in a position to and should exercise strategic leadership – no matter how high or humble they may be. In addition, strategic leadership is a collaborative, team activity, enhanced by the work of strategic leadership teams whose collective work has strategic implications for a business unit, product line, service area, functional area, division or company.
It is the key skills of strategic thinking, strategic acting and strategic influencing that drive strategy as a learning process in organizations.
And these three elements interact in a dynamic way – strategic leaders need to draw upon the knowledge, experience and insight of diverse stakeholders in order to address a particular organisational challenge; they need to make sense together of what the future holds and how to deal with it; so thinking and influencing happen simultaneously. Similarly, strategic thinking and strategic acting might happen simultaneously given that we often don’t have the luxury of the time it takes for deep and prolonged strategic thinking before action is required.
Making the change towards a more strategic leadership culture begins with shifting organisational and individual mindsets to the deep realization that strategic leadership is a process rather than a position, demands the involvement of many, and calls for a commitment to learning. While the change might not be quick or easy, when individuals and teams enact strategic leadership, the result is sustainable competitive advantage for the organization. Hughes and Colarelli Beatty sum it up in the following diagram:
I hope you have found this series interesting and inspiring. Look out for our new series beginning soon.
Recommended Reading:
“Becoming a Strategic Leader” by Richard L. Hughes and Katherine Colarelli Beatty (ISBN 0-7879-6867-6)
“The New Strategic Thinking” by Michael Robert (ISBN 0-07-146224-4)
“Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done” by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan (ISBN 0609610570)
“Good Strategy, Bad Strategy” by Richard Rumelt (ISBN 978-1-84668-480-7)
HBR 10 Must Reads: On Change Management
HBR 10 Must Reads: On Strategy
- Broad in scope: viewing the organization as interdependent and interconnected, so that any decisions taken in one part of the organization are mindful of their impact in other parts of the organization;
- Future-focused: operating with a far-reaching timetable, integrating short-term results with long-range focus;
- Change-oriented: it drives organisational change, since the impact of strategic leadership ripples throughout the business.
Strategic leadership involves discovering what it is that the organization needs to do well and more importantly can do well in order to grow into the future. Having made these discoveries it involves creating the conditions that enable collective effort around their implications. This can only happen if the organization understands strategy as a learning process. The primary role of strategic leadership is to enable organizations to become centres of learning, and to drive this process by continually developing and discovering strategy and holding it in an ongoing state of becoming – formulation, implementation, reassessment and revision.
There are five primary elements to making strategy a learning process:
- You need to assess where you are – the competitive environment, as well as the organization’s internal reality;
- You need to understand who you are and where you want to go – what is the unspoken and spoken culture of the organization and it’s leadership; what is it’s mission, vision and values; where do we see it in the future (10 or 20 years); how far and in what direction do we need to travel in order to get there?
- You need to learn how to get there – this involves drawing on insight, information and vision to determine the priorities and craft the strategy. What are the key determinants of long-term success for your business within its specific industry; how will we address the human and organisational capabilities that are essential to the implementation of this strategy?
- You need to make the journey – translate the strategy into action; into tactics; and get movement in every part of the organization.
- You need to check progress – continually assess the organization’s effectiveness; look at current performance verses expected performance; are we making the right investments now to assure our sustainable competitive advantage into the future
While the CEO is ultimately responsible for deciding which path an organization should take, many people in all parts of the business play a part in its strategic leadership. Since strategy is a process of discovering, it has both top-down and bottom-up elements. Failure to enable this means that you may miss critical information and opportunities. Whoever makes decisions that have consequences for the rest of the organization is in a position to and should exercise strategic leadership – no matter how high or humble they may be. In addition, strategic leadership is a collaborative, team activity, enhanced by the work of strategic leadership teams whose collective work has strategic implications for a business unit, product line, service area, functional area, division or company.
It is the key skills of strategic thinking, strategic acting and strategic influencing that drive strategy as a learning process in organizations.
- Strategic thinking is about envisioning the future and offering new ways of understanding the challenges and opportunities ahead;
- Strategic action is about the coordinated effort required for the implementation of insights and understanding derived from strategic thinking;
- Strategic influencing is about creating clarity, commitment and synergy throughout the organization by influencing and energizing the right people.
And these three elements interact in a dynamic way – strategic leaders need to draw upon the knowledge, experience and insight of diverse stakeholders in order to address a particular organisational challenge; they need to make sense together of what the future holds and how to deal with it; so thinking and influencing happen simultaneously. Similarly, strategic thinking and strategic acting might happen simultaneously given that we often don’t have the luxury of the time it takes for deep and prolonged strategic thinking before action is required.
Making the change towards a more strategic leadership culture begins with shifting organisational and individual mindsets to the deep realization that strategic leadership is a process rather than a position, demands the involvement of many, and calls for a commitment to learning. While the change might not be quick or easy, when individuals and teams enact strategic leadership, the result is sustainable competitive advantage for the organization. Hughes and Colarelli Beatty sum it up in the following diagram:
I hope you have found this series interesting and inspiring. Look out for our new series beginning soon.
Recommended Reading:
“Becoming a Strategic Leader” by Richard L. Hughes and Katherine Colarelli Beatty (ISBN 0-7879-6867-6)
“The New Strategic Thinking” by Michael Robert (ISBN 0-07-146224-4)
“Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done” by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan (ISBN 0609610570)
“Good Strategy, Bad Strategy” by Richard Rumelt (ISBN 978-1-84668-480-7)
HBR 10 Must Reads: On Change Management
HBR 10 Must Reads: On Strategy