You must have seen a lot of companies putting down ‘leadership skills’ as a desired qualification when recruiting new workers. But what does having ‘leadership skills’ actually mean? Is it having the public speaking skills to represent an organisation? Or initiating programs to be executed by other members? Leadership encompasses a wide variety of skills, including Strategic Leadership. What does strategic leadership mean? How do we become a strategic leader? Let’s find out more!
Strategic Leadership refers to the ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, think strategically, and collaborate to bring changes that will create a viable future for the organisation.[1] It can also be understood as using strategy to manage employees. This has the potential to influence organisation members and bring about changes in the organisation.
Strategic leaders are able to work in uncertain environments and overcome difficult situations through creative means that promote vision and focus on long-term success, while providing clear directives to the team to collaborate in achieving the common goal.[2] The key objective of a strategic leadership system is to cultivate strategic productivity. Furthermore, it also may foster a working environment that allows workers to independently assess organisation’s needs in the scope of their own work. Thus, strategic leadership will motivate workers in an organisation to follow their own ideas to achieve targets by offering a wider perspective for them.[3] At the end of the day, this system is one of the methods for human resources management that maximise capacity to achieve common goals efficiently and proportionately.
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In a strategic leadership, assessment/evaluation is also utilised to drive individuals to work productively to generate better performance for their organisation. Functionally, strategic leadership is about discovery, perception, and planning, to help individuals achieve their objectives and goals.[4]This can be inferred from the organisational structure in which the higher ups act as leaders who really embrace and build relationship with their team and help analyse problems and find solutions, instead of someone who just act as a ‘boss’ and barking orders without any will to solve the problems they are facing. The workers would definitely appreciate and feel more comfortable with a leader who leads than one who bosses around. This way, trust between a leader and the workers is built. Workers will become more committed as they build better relations with the duties and functions they fulfil within the organisation.
Other potential benefit is that workers will understand the impact of changes within their environment to the organisation and reflect the possible response from organisation with the help of strategic management.[5]As a result, workers can assess impacts of such changes to their work and effectively address them. Both management and workers must be able to carry out the appropriate measures effectively and efficiently to face organisational challenges.
Now, we can conclude that the necessary qualities of a strategic leader include communication and active listening skills, dedication, innovation, optimistic outlook, transparency, reflective mindset, and a drive towards continuous development. If you feel like you don’t have these qualities yet, do not be discouraged! Using various methods and approaches, any individuals can acquire and be trained on these skills from time to time. You can get this training in the Strategic Leadership Program, which allows participants to have the mindset and characteristics of a responsible leader.
In the end, a strategic leader must not only be smart, but also wise in carrying out their duties. So, do you have the soul of a strategic leader? Come join the Strategic Leadership Program with Kacapikir!