A 2015 PwC study of 6,000 senior executives, conducted employing a research methodology developed by David Rooke of Harthill Consulting and William Torbert of Boston University, reported just how ubiquitous this shortfall is: Only 8 percent of the respondents turned out to be strategic leaders or those effective at leading transformations.
Business leaders today are under immense pressure to deliver stronger results in an increasingly complex, globalized environment.
Strategic leadership deals with to a manager’s potential to convey a strategic vision for the organization, or a part of the organization, and to motivate and persuade others to bring in that vision.
What are the few characteristics we can demand from strategic leaders? if do not encounter, we can coach them to cultivate these skills.
Strategic leaders require to choose risks to pick up the direction which nobody has usually traveled there. Any new innovative product and service expansion is full of risk and leader should be capable to practice the same.
Strategic leaders are competent to motivate the team members easily to advance to the direction of the unknown. It is evident in ambiguous circumstances employee motivation could be down, leaders require to know the art of motivating employees.
Communication: Capability to convey the organization’s strategic goals and inspiring employees to perform towards the goals. This is the finest approach to reach the individuals so that they can provide 120% of their commitment. Strategic leaders influence the heart and minds of individuals.
Commitment: To successfully carry out the company’s goals while also tracking the personal advancement of employees is an art that is vital to the job role of a strategic leader.
Business knowledge: Generate a thirst for learning the external and internal business environment and keeping perspective on what genuinely matters. leaders need to know the companies core business, key consumers and how the money generates, which industry company is dominating, etc. A good strategic leaders study all these considerations and come out with the plan periodically.
Passionate and committed: Strategic leaders walk the talk, they go first; they demonstrate that they choose to impact the world. As the need for advancement grows, they have to be committed to showing the progress. It inspires others also to be committed. These leaders are contagious in the organization to think big and drive for fresh changes.
Innovative: Strategic leaders have to be innovative, as most of the time, leaders are investigating something for the first time. They require to come out with a unique way of working out something. They extended the same energy to other team members.
Social skills: Strategic leaders must be friendly and social. They require to interact with diverse types of team members around the world to establish an appropriate picture of the future.
Collaborative: Strategic leaders need support from other team members to accomplish their mission. They partner with others to figure out a universal problem. As a leader, they establish a shared goal among many team members for dealing with the universal problem.
Empathetic: Strategic leaders have to be emphatic, In the digital world, if we do not know what a customer is experiencing challenges, it will be problematic to develop a solution for the problem. Leaders use empathy and try to understand the team’s problems by walking in their shoes and seeing things from the team’s perspective.
Vigilant: Strategic leadership skills, in comparison, are constantly vigilant, developing their capabilities too by monitoring the areas of development and adjustment. The leader needs to talk to the clients, providers, and other partners to comprehend their difficulties. Conduct researching the marketplace and business simulations to comprehend competitors’ viewpoints, calculate their possible responses to new initiatives or items, and consider potential promotions. Look at a fast-growing competition and consider actions it has taken that can challenge the organization. List the client's organization are missing lately and try to understand why. Attend conventions and actions in other industries or features.
Welcome new challenges: All the strategic leaders are having a growth mindset, else they will not be able to sustain as strategic leaders, they need to recognize the new challenges hurled by the emergent market. They continually upgrade themselves and ready for upcoming challenges. Knowledge and skills are continually upgrading by them. They recognize they are not perfect, always so they choose the help of others and willing to accept other proposals.
They dream big: Strategic leaders can paint the picture, construct the picture quickly in their mind and build tomorrow’s organization with that picture. So they constantly visualize what is upcoming and they connect the dots from today towards tomorrow.
Global mindsets: Strategic leaders are global leaders, they connect and exercise talent from anywhere in the world. They set up the product in one corner of the world, assemble in one corner and sell to another corner of the world. To create such an extensive plan and associate and encourage all the team members globally.
Fail fast culture: Strategic leaders ensure individuals experiments and fail fast so that we can educate new learning into our main system. As a strategic initiative, the team is performing something for the first time. So there will be surprises. Leaders allow this to happen in an ambiguous environment.
System thinker: Strategic leaders are systems thinkers, they do not just focus on the parts only, they think big picture, how these parts in a system are interactive with each other and what is altered due to the interaction and feedback.
Note down some of the characteristics from the best strategic leaders with whom you have worked. Let us learn from all of them.
