The business world is incredibly complex, and good leadership goes a long way toward ensuring success. However, good leadership is difficult to define, especially since every organization has unique needs. That’s why strategy plays an important role in the long-term success of any enterprise whether it’s large or small. Every leader needs to be able to think strategically, and once you understand the elements that comprise sound strategies, you’ll know how to separate sound leadership from poor business policies.
Strategic Leadership Defined
Sound strategies are flexible, but they never compromise on the stated goal. They enable short-term business growth while simultaneously ensuring the health of the business over a long period of time. They account for the pros and cons of every possible action, and they allow room for risk when the potential rewards greatly surpass the potential losses.
Strategic leadership entails looking at the whole picture at all times. It requires a very nuanced style of thinking, and it doesn’t allow for actions that don’t serve a clear purpose. It requires the ability to set goals and craft effective plans for meeting them. It requires metrics by which the people in charge can measure the company’s overall progress. It requires strong character and the ability to inspire the best in others. A strategic leader isn’t much different than a commander on a battlefield, and he fosters the same kind of respect in his workers that soldiers have for their general. He puts workers into positions where their talents can be fully utilized, and he’s willing to break from conventional wisdom if it could potentially improve the end result.
Strategic Leadership in Action
One of the defining traits of a good leader is preparedness. Whatever his job throws at him, he meets every challenge as if it was a task he was born to perform. He doesn’t hesitate or ruminate on self-doubt; he looks at every obstacle with a problem-solving mindset instead of allowing himself to become the victim of circumstance. If his company is about to go through a major transition, he looks at the potential cons and crafts a plan that he can put into action as soon as any problems rear their heads. If employee morale is low, he works tirelessly to restore his company’s productivity. If people lose trust in his company’s brand, he works with PR representatives as he fights to change his company’s policies to something that’s more tolerable to the public. Strategic leadership almost never requires reactionary action because each move is meticulously planned beforehand. That doesn’t mean that things never go wrong, but it does mean that a company is more likely to come out ahead when they do.
Can Your Company Benefit From Better Leadership?
There isn’t a single circumstance where strong vision matched with effective planning and action isn’t a boon for a business. It keeps employees happy, it ensures that a company remains profitable, and it enables growth that far exceeds what’s possible without a sound strategy. Companies without strategic thinkers at the head of key operations will always be at a disadvantage when faced with competitors that employ strategic leadership at every level within their organization.
– Kelly Smith is a full-time writer for higher ed blogs and journals nationwide with a focus on online education opportunities. Several schools offer degrees in strategic management, including New England College and Quinnipiac University.
