Strategic Management

Assignment
STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP RESEARCH

Submitted To

Dr.Amany Shahin

Prepared By:
Mahmoud Mohamed Mahmoud Ahmed

MBA – LEVEL 2 – GROUP 4

 LEADERSHIP IN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Leadership has significant impact on strategic management process. Especially it helps to

determine the vision and mission of the organization. Further, it facilitates the organization
to execute effective strategies to achieve that vision. The purpose of this paper is to find out
the role of leadership in strategy formulation and implementation by reviewing the existing
literature. The study reveals that leadership serves as a link between the soul and the body
of an organization. For the successful implementation of strategies, the challenge of
leadership is to be strong but not rude, be kind but not weak, be humble but not timid, be
proud but not arrogant, have humor but without folly. Leadership has to have the evaluation
process to ensure the effectiveness of the whole process, and this aspect will facilitate to
identify the drawbacks and to make fresh the strategies in line with the change as well.
Moreover, this evaluation process is able to help and sustain the constant growth of the
institution. Thus, it can be said that leadership is known as the nucleus of the organization,
and it should have the pivotal role like the role of blood and brain; as a result, the outcomes
of the success can be guaranteed and be shared.

What is Leadership?

The definition of strategic leadership denotes “the leader’s ability to anticipate, envision, and
maintain flexibility and to empower others to create strategic change as necessary” (Hitt,
Ireland, & Hoskisson 2008: 375). Strategic leadership has many facets, and it encompasses
managing via others, and works as a helper for organizations to adjust with the changing
world that appears as happening substantially as ever with the pace of time in today’s global
business matrix. Strategic leadership demands the capability to incorporate and include
both of the business environment of the organizations, which are internal and external. It is
also responsible for managing and encompassing critical information processes. There are
many recognizable actions which determine strategic leadership that can proffer positively
towards effective strategy enactment (see Figure 1), and they are in the following:

• Determining strategic direction

• Establishing balanced organizational controls

• Effectively managing the organization’s resource portfolio

• Sustaining an effective organizational culture

• Emphasizing ethical practices organizational controls

Leadership is a set of behavior that enforces the people to formulate the organizational
goals and then motivate them to jointly contribute in order to achieve organization’s goals.
Basically leader plays a vital role in the decision making to ensure efficacy (effectiveness)
and success of the organization. A leader should be supportive in order to guide
subordinates. He should treat everyone equally without any discrimination. He should
appreciate every one’s involvement. It is the responsibility of the leader to build strong
relationships within the whole organization in both vertically and horizontally. Leader should
involve everyone in the strategic management process because it is positively relating with
overall performance. It is the commitment of the leader that helps to achieve the strategic
vision. Most importantly leader’s objectives should be integrating with the organizations
strategic goals and objectives to be champion. And for this leader’s power should be use
accurately with honesty and loyalty. Leader should have a clear mental approach about the
need of change and organization’s capabilities.

Organization’s performance depends upon the strategies that use to achieve company’s
vision. Leadership assimilates the strategy with vision to enrich the capability of the firm to
perform well or according to the need. Today’s business environment is rapidly changing
and mostly leaders try to adopt flexible and process improvement strategies to ensure
responsiveness of the organization towards change. Leadership influenced the whole
decision making process and decision making is the core of the strategic management
process. It facilitates the whole process starting from conceptual framework for strategy
formulation and till the evaluation. Especially strategy implementation is fully depending
upon efficient decision making. Basically leadership influences three areas of organization
first, the vision, Secondly the strategies itself and finally the values. These three
components jointly create the culture of the organization. It is the responsibility of the leader
to introduce a clear understanding of the vision throughout the organization. Everyone
should know where we want to be in future. Vision should be simple so that everyone can
easily understand it. Vision is the hub of the organization and is the heart of strategic
management process.

Leadership is responsible for development of strategies to achieve the vision. Basically

strategy formulation means is to provide road map and this road map should be clear and
focused. It is the duty of leadership to relate the strategy process with the vision. It should
develop a culture of learning by providing a clear set of values for the organization. Values
demonstrate the behavior of the organization and lead the organization towards right. Both
vision and strategies should reflect these values. Once the leader understands the
importance of values the process of strategy formulation and implementation becomes
easy. The most important role of the leadership is to integrate the people with the strategic
management process. It should involve everyone to ensure responsiveness towards
change.

Strategic leaders make and execute business plans to get positive outcomes. We can say
that strategic leaders are critical for overall success of organization. In an organization
leaders perform various roles depends upon situation. As situation are dynamic as the
leader’s role. Basically leaders provide the vision and set the goals for long run and short
run. After determining the vision their intentions shift towards development of plans or
towards strategy formulation after that they try to involve every one for building a team to
execute the plans. Leaders should ensure their own commitment as well as their
subordinates. Then they provide resources and motivate their team to implement strategy.
Finally, they evaluate the whole process to find the gaps for improvement. Basically, there
are nine essential roles.

First of all, leaders try to identify the key problem situations as soon as possible and work as
direction-finder. Secondly, they work as a strategist in whom it is the duty of leader to
analyze the situation and formulate the strategy, which is suitable for the goals. Thirdly
leader is an entrepreneur, fourthly leader serve as mobilize in the organization. It develops
and provides resources for proper execution of strategies. At fifth stage it works as talent
promoter and find out or develops the team of key players required for change
implementation. Then it serves the organization as captivator and develops a long term
commitment of every one towards goals. At seventh stage leaders perform the role of a
global thinker and make sure organization’s alignment with international and national
perspective. Then it performs the duty of a change driver. It creates the environment that is
appropriate for change. And finally leader works as organizations custodian and safe guards
the stakes of all stake holders. Leader works as a resource investigator and disturbance
handler. Whole organizations performance depends upon leadership.

Leadership is critical to formulate and implement strategy. Formulated strategies are nothing
if they could not be implemented efficiently. Leaders generally divide strategy formulation
and implementation into five steps. And leadership is an important element for whole
process. Firstly, leaders are responsible to create vision that must be attached with the
firm’s values and also vision must be supportive and understandable. Vision tells the
strategist about future and values tells about the past. An important task for leadership is to
make a distinction between vision and mission. Secondly leaders are responsible to set
organizational goals and objectives especially their work is to define long term measurable
objectives. Thirdly leaders formulate the strategies that are suitable for the achievement of
goals and objectives. Leaders define what would be most appropriate way to cope with
situation requirement. Fourthly leaders perform their primary function that is the
implementation of the strategy. According to Sophocles “what you cannot enforce, do not
command” because strategies are nothing if they can’t have implemented efficiently and
timely. Leaders construct the culture for change and develop the capabilities for proper
implementation of formulated strategy. Leaders should consider every strategy as
temporary because environment is dynamic. So leaders should focus at continuous
improvement of strategic management process.

Fortunately, companies can build the capacity for strategic leadership. It starts with
recognizing that your organization undoubtedly already has emerging strategic leaders
within it whose skills are being overlooked or even stifled. The problem can be traced back
to how organizations traditionally promote and develop their leaders. In many companies,
the individuals who make their way to the top of the hierarchy do so by demonstrating
superlative performance, persistent ambition, and the ability to solve the problems of the
moment. These are valuable traits, but they are not the skills of a strategic leader.

The following 10 principles can help unlock the potential strategic leadership in your
enterprise. These principles represent a combination of organizational systems and
individual capabilities — the hardware and software of transformation. You may have
already adopted some of these tenets, and think that’s enough. But only when you
implement all of them together, as a single system, will they enable you to attract, develop,
and retain the strategic leaders who’ve eluded you thus far.

Systems and Structures

The first three principles of strategic leadership involve nontraditional but highly effective
approaches to decision making, transparency, and innovation.

1- Distribute responsibility.

Strategic leaders gain their skill through practice, and practice requires a fair amount of
autonomy. Top leaders should push power downward, across the organization, empowering
people at all levels to make decisions. Distribution of responsibility gives potential strategic
leaders the opportunity to see what happens when they take risks. It also increases the
collective intelligence, adaptability, and resilience of the organization over time, by
harnessing the wisdom of those outside the traditional decision-making hierarchy.

In an oil refinery on the U.S. West Coast, a machine malfunction in a treatment plant was
going to cause a three-week shutdown. Ordinarily, no one would have questioned the
decision to close, but the company had recently instituted a policy of distributed
responsibility. One plant operator spoke up with a possible solution. She had known for
years that there was a better way to manage the refinery’s technology, but she hadn’t said
anything because she had felt no ownership. The engineers disputed her idea at first, but
the operator stood her ground. The foreman was convinced, and in the end, the refinery did
not lose a single hour of production.

When individuals like the plant operator are given responsibility and authority, they gain
more confidence and skill. And when opportunities to make a difference are common
throughout an organization, a “can-do” proficiency becomes part of its identity. At Buurtzorg,
a Dutch neighborhood nursing organization, most decisions are made by autonomous,
leaderless teams of up to a dozen nurses. A small central management team supports and
coaches the frontline nurses; there is no other middle management. The company achieves
the highest client satisfaction levels of all community nursing delivery in the Netherlands, at
only 70 percent of the usual cost. Patients stay in care half as long, heal faster, and become
more autonomous themselves. And the nurses gain skills not just for leading their part of the
enterprise, but in community leadership as well.

2- Be honest and open about information.

The management structure traditionally adopted by large organizations evolved from the
military, and was specifically designed to limit the flow of information. In this model,
information truly equals power. The trouble is, when information is released to specific
individuals only on a need-to-know basis, people have to make decisions in the dark. They
do not know what factors are significant to the strategy of the enterprise; they have to
guess. And it can be hard to guess right when you are not encouraged to understand the
bigger picture or to question information that comes your way. Moreover, when people lack
information, it undermines their confidence in challenging a leader or proposing an idea that
differs from that of their leader.

Some competitive secrets (for example, about products under development) may need to
remain hidden, but employees need a broad base of information if they are to become
strategic leaders. That is one of the principles behind “open-book management,” the
systematic sharing of information about the nature of the enterprise. Among the companies
that use this practice are Southwest Airlines, Harley-Davidson, and Whole Foods Market,
which have all enjoyed sustained growth after adopting explicit practices of transparency.

Transparency fosters conversation about the meaning of information and the improvement
of everyday practices. If productivity figures suddenly go down, for example, that could be
an opportunity to implement change. Coming to a better understanding of the problem might
be a team effort; it requires people to talk openly and honestly about the data. If information
is concealed, temptation grows to manipulate the data to make it look better. The
opportunity for strategic leadership is lost. Worse still, people are implicitly told that there is
more value in expediency than in leading the enterprise to a higher level of performance.
Strategic leaders know that the real power in information comes not from hoarding it, but
from using it to find and create new opportunities for growth.

3- Create multiple paths for raising and testing ideas.

Developing and presenting ideas is a key skill for strategic leaders. Even more important is
the ability to connect their ideas to the way the enterprise creates value. By setting up ways
for people to bring their innovative thinking to the surface, you can help them learn to make
the most of their own creativity.

This approach clearly differs from that of traditional cultures, in which the common channel
for new ideas is limited to an individual’s direct manager. The manager may not appreciate
the value in the idea, may block it from going forward and stifle the innovator’s enthusiasm.
Of course, it can also be counterproductive to allow people to raise ideas indiscriminately
without paying much attention to their development. So many ideas, in so many repetitive
forms, might then come to the surface that it would be nearly impossible to sort through
them. The best opportunities could be lost in the clutter.

Instead, create a variety of channels for innovative thinking. Some might be cross-functional
forums, in which people can present ideas to a group of like-minded peers and test them
against one another’s reasoning. There could also be apprenticeships, in which promising
thinkers, early in their careers, sign on for mentorship with leaders who are well equipped to
help them build their skills. Some organizations might set up in-house courses or sponsor
attendance at university programs. Reverse mentoring — in which younger staff members
share their knowledge of new technology as part of a collaboration with a more established
staff member — can also be effective.

Google has made use of a number of channels to promote innovation. A few examples:
Employees can directly email any of the leaders across the organization; the company
established “Google cafés” to spark conversation by encouraging interaction among
employees and across teams; and executives hold weekly all-hands meetings (known as
TGIFs) to give employees at every level in-person access to senior leaders. People at
Google learn to make the most of these opportunities — they know the conversations will be
tough, but that genuinely worthwhile innovative thinking will be recognized and rewarded.
People, Policies, and Practices

The next four principles involve unconventional ways of thinking about assessment, hiring,
and training.

4- Make it safe to fail.

A company’s espoused statement of values may encourage employees to “fail fast” and
learn from their errors. That works well until there is an actual failure, leading to a genuine
loss. The most dreaded phone call in the corporate world soon follows; it’s the one that
begins: “Who authorized this decision?” Big failures are simply unacceptable within most
organizations. Those who fail often suffer in terms of promotion and reward, if not worse.

You must enshrine acceptance of failure — and willingness to admit failure early — in the
practices and processes of the company, including the appraisal and promotion processes.
For example, return-on-investment calculations need to assess results in a way that reflects
the agreed-upon objectives, which may have been deliberately designed to include risk.
Strategic leaders cannot learn only from efforts that succeed; they need to recognize the
types of failures that turn into successes. They also need to learn how to manage the
tensions associated with uncertainty, and how to recover from failure to try new ventures
again.

Honda is one enterprise that has taken this approach to heart. Like several other industrial
companies, the automaker has had a dramatic, visible failure in recent years. The
installation of faulty equipment from its favored airbag supplier, Takata, has led Honda to
recall about 8.5 million vehicles to date. Although the accountable executives were fired, the
company’s leaders also explicitly stated that the airbag failure, in itself, was not the problem
that led to dismissal. The problem was the lack of attention to the failure at an early stage,
when it could have been much more easily corrected. As one Honda executive told Jeffrey
Rothfeder, author of Driving Honda: Inside the World’s Most Innovative Car Company
(Portfolio, 2014) (and an s+b contributing editor), “We forgot that failure is never an
acceptable outcome; instead, it is the means to acceptable outcomes.”

Some organizations have begun to embrace failure as an important part of their employees’
development. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.K.-based innovation charity
Nesta have held “failure fests,” at which employees discuss decisions that went wrong and
derive lessons from them. In addition to establishing such forums, you can provide
managers with opportunities to oversee smaller change initiatives, some of which may not
work out, to develop the skills they’ll need to lead larger-scale transformations.
5- Provide access to other strategists.

Give potential strategic leaders the opportunity to meet and work with their peers across the
organization. Otherwise, they remain hidden from one another, and may feel isolated or
alone. Once they know that there are others in the company with a similar predisposition,
they can be more open, and adept in raising the strategic value of what they do.

The first step is to find them. Strategic leaders may not be fully aware themselves that they
are distinctive. But others on their team, and their bosses, tend to recognize their unique
talents. They may use phrases like “she just gets it,” “he always knows the right question to
ask,” or “she never lets us get away with thinking and operating in silos” to describe them. A
good way to learn about candidates is to ask, “Who are the people who really seem to
understand what the organization needs — and how to help it get there?” These may be
people who aren’t traditionally popular; their predisposition to question, challenge, and
disrupt the status quo can unsettle people, particularly people at the same level.

Of course, you don’t want to create the impression that some people deserve special
treatment. Instead, cultivate the idea that many managers, perhaps even most, have the
potential to become strategic leaders. Then bring the first group together. Invite them to
learn from one another, and to explore ways of fostering a more strategic environment in the
rest of the enterprise.

6- Develop opportunities for experience-based learning.

The vast majority of professional leadership development is informative as opposed to

experiential. Classroom-based training is, after all, typically easier and less expensive to
implement; it’s evidence of short-term thinking, rather than long-term investment in the
leadership pipeline. Although traditional leadership training can develop good managerial
skills, strategists need experience to live up to their potential.

One vehicle for creating leadership experiences is the cross-functional “practice field,” as
organizational learning theorist Peter Senge calls it. Bring together a team of potential
strategic leaders with a collective assignment: to create a fully developed solution to a
problem or to design a new critical capability and the way to generate it. Give them a small
budget and a preliminary deadline. Have them draw plans and financial estimates of their
solutions. Then run the estimates through an in-depth analysis. This project might include a
simulation exercise, constructed with the kind of systems simulation software that has been
used to model and participate in wargames since the 1980s. You can also let reality be their
practice field. Have them create the new capability or initiative on a small scale, and put it
into effect. Then track the results assiduously. Assign mentors with experience to help them
make the most of their effort — without sidetracking it.

Whether you set up the project in reality or as a simulation, the next step should be the
same. Schedule a series of intensive discussions about the results. Explore why these
results appeared, what the team might have done differently, and how things could be
different in the future if the group changed some of the variables. The goal is to cultivate a
better understanding than would be possible without this type of reflection, and to use that
understanding as the basis for future efforts.

7- Hire for transformation.

Hiring decisions should be based on careful considerations of capabilities and experiences,

and should aim for diversity to overcome the natural tendency of managers to select people
much like themselves.

Test how applicants react to specific, real-life situations; do substantive research into how
they performed in previous organizations; and conduct interviews that delve deeper than
usual into their psyche and abilities, to test their empathy, their skill in reframing problems,
and their agility in considering big-picture questions as well as analytical data. In all these
cases, you’re looking for their ability to see the forest and the trees: their ability to manage
the minutiae of specific skills and practices, while also being visionary about strategic goals.
The better they are at keeping near and far points of view simultaneously available, the
better their potential to be strategic leaders.

For those hired, the on-boarding processes should send explicit signals that they can
experiment, take on more responsibility, and do more to help transform the organization
than they could in their previous career. They need to feel that the culture is open to change
and to diverse views.

Focus on the Self

The final three principles are aimed at the potential strategic leaders themselves. Following
these tactics can help them prepare for their personal evolution.

8- Bring your whole self to work.

Strategic leaders understand that to tackle the most demanding situations and problems,
they need to draw on everything they have learned in their lives. They want to tap into their
full set of capabilities, interests, experiences, and passions to come up with innovative
solutions. And they don’t want to waste their time in situations (or with organizations) that
don’t align with their values.
Significantly, they encourage the people who report to them to do the same. In so doing,
strategic leaders create a lower-stress environment, because no one is pretending to be
someone else; people take responsibility for who they truly are. This creates an honest and
authentic environment in which people can share their motivations and capabilities, as well
as the enablers and constraints in their life.

9- Find time to reflect.

Strategic leaders are skilled in what organizational theorists Chris Argyris and Donald Schön
call “double-loop learning.” Single-loop learning involves thinking in depth about a situation
and the problems inherent in it. Double-loop learning involves studying your own thinking
about the situation — the biases and assumptions you have, and the “undiscussables” that
are too difficult to raise.

Your goal in reflection is to raise your game in double-loop learning. Question the way in
which you question things. Solve the problems inherent in the way you problem-solve. Start
with single-loop learning, and then move to double-loop learning by taking the time to think:
Why did I make that decision? What are the implications? What would I do differently next
time? How am I going to apply this learning going forward?

Reflection helps you learn from your mistakes, but it also gives you time to figure out the
value of your aspirations, and whether you can raise them higher. It allows you the chance
to spot great ideas using what you are already doing or things that are going on in your life.
Managers are often caught up in the pressures of the moment. A mistake or a high-pressure
project can feel overwhelming. But if you take a minute to step back and reflect on these
problems, it can provide the space to see what you did right.

Some reflection is more productive than others. Psychologists warn about “rumination,” or
dwelling on deceptive messages about your own inadequacies or the intractability of
problems in a way that reinforces your feeling of being stuck. To avoid this pattern,
deliberately give yourself a constructive question to reflect on. For example, what are the
capabilities we need to build next? How can I best contribute? Human capital teams can
help by training individuals in these practices and ensuring that all managers support their
team members who take the time to reflect.

10- Recognize leadership development as an ongoing practice.

Strategists have the humility and intelligence to realize that their learning and development
is never done, however experienced they may be. They admit that they are vulnerable and
don’t have all the answers. This characteristic has the added benefit of allowing other
people to be the expert in some circumstances. In that way, strategic leaders make it easy
for others to share ideas by encouraging new ways of thinking and explicitly asking for
advice.

Their thirst for learning also gives potential strategists the space to be open to less obvious
career opportunities — new industries, different types of roles, lateral moves, stretch
assignments, secondments, or project roles — that may help them fulfill their potential.

At some point, you may advance to the point where you are not concerned solely with your
own role as a strategic leader, but also with cultivating opportunities for others. This will
require a clear-eyed, reflective view of the talent pool around you. It isn’t easy for any leader
to accept that others in the company may not have what it takes. Or, worse, to learn that the
people with the potential to demonstrate leadership feel constrained by current
organizational practices, and they are taking their talents elsewhere.

But if you can come to terms with reality, as uncomfortable as it may be, then you’re in a
position to help change it. By following the 10 principles we’ve outlined here, you will give
yourself the skill and influence to pave the way for others who follow. That’s fortunate,
because the ability to transform amid societal and business challenges and disruptions is
essential to your company’s success — and perhaps even to its survival.

Nine Roles of Strategic Leadership

The transition from the operational level to the strategic level is an important process that
every leader needs to overcome. It involves many challenges. Many leaders face difficulty to
pass this step and they fail to overcome it. Due to the rapid changes in the business
environment and the growing competition and changing attitudes of employees from one
generation to other generation, it is necessary for organizations to develop strategic leaders
who are able to formulate and implement strategies which deliver the desired results to
achieve sustainability. In contrast to operational leadership, whose role is limited to
managing only the day-to-day operations, leaders who transform from operational
leadership to strategic leadership need to play different types of roles to achieve long-term
strategic results. This will help their organizations to grow and gain competitive advantage. It
will also help them to implement the change management process easily and quickly. The
importance of each role depends on the status of the business that the leader is associated
with. The strategic leader generally plays nine roles in the organization while displaying his
leadership style.

These nine roles of the top strategic leadership are

1.Navigator—

In this role, the leader works quickly and clearly to deal with difficulties, solves problems and
takes advantage of various opportunities to influence existing work and people. The
Navigator role of the leader makes the leader to analyze a large amount of conflicting
information, understand the root cause of the problems and identify the feasible and optimal
solutions.

2. Strategist—

The strategist role of the leader enables the leader to develop a long-term strategy and set
targets to match the vision of an organization. The strategy is focused on creation of future
plans and required actions immediately. The strategist role enables the leader to provide a
direction to the organization to achieve the desired vision.

3. Entrepreneur¬—

In this role, the leader acts an entrepreneur. He/she identifies and takes advantage of
opportunities and expands business by creating innovative products, services or markets.
Thinking like an entrepreneur and owner of the organization, the leader generates new
ideas, takes advantage of opportunities or proposals and transforms them into a new path.
The leader develops the ability to solve problems easily through his acumen and
shrewdness and creates a new style of leadership.

4. Mobilizer—

Playing the role of mobilizer, the strategic leader mobilizes all kinds of resources and
develops teams and partners to work with them by leveraging the synergy of wide variety of
talent. Also, he / she builds a capacity that allows rapid implementation of work in order to
achieve complex objectives.

5. Talent advocate –

In this role, the strategic leader identifies talented and skillful employees, internally and
externally and stays in touch with them to tap their talent as and when required. He / she
creates a culture of talent development by encouraging innovative ideas, by providing
training, by empowering the talented employees to reach their highest possible abilities.

6. Captivator—

Playing the role of a captivator, the strategic leader continues to build confidence among
employees, and creates positive feelings and a culture of belongingness. In this role, the
leader converts the talent of employees into a useful outcome for the organization. Also, he
convinces employees to accept his leadership style, synchronizes it with the vision of the
organization and empowers them achieve the vision.

7. Global thinker—

The other important role played by the strategic leader is as a global thinker. The leader
understands and respects all types of diversity in the organization and designs the
strategies and action keeping the diversity factor in mind. He thinks from a very high macro
level perspective and keeps identifying global opportunities.

8. Change driver—

Organizations need to adapt to the dynamic business environment by making changes on a

continuous basis. The strategic leader plays an important role as a change driver. The
leader creates and develops change management strategies and evolves techniques to
make the employees accept the changes from time to time. The leader convinces the
employees by projecting the fruitful outcomes of the changes.

9. Enterprise guardian—

In this role, the strategic leader acts as an enterprise guardian. He / She keeps a constant
check on the status of the organization by keenly observing the business environment and
guards the enterprise from any disturbances. The leader refuses to negotiate over long-term
gains. He / She takes bold and wise decisions with courage and risk taking attitude for a
long-term benefit to the organization. The leader takes the onus of failure and shares the
success with all the employees. Keeps away from emotions and personal relationships
when it comes to the achievement of results. He / She becomes popular in the organization
and outside by taking bold, useful but unpopular decisions. It is essential to develop the
leaders with the above abilities in every organization. Management institutions like Skyline
University, an accredited university in UAE offering MBA courses, BBA courses and diploma
courses in Sharjah have a key role in inculcating such leadership traits right from the college
days among the management students to enable them to grow and become strategic
leaders in future.

What is the Relationship between Strategic Management and Leadership?

It often seems as if the business world is full of jargons and phrases. These can be used
interchangeably so often that it is easy to think the two terms are the same. That is not
always true because each they have distinct responsibilities and ways of doing things.
Strategic management and leadership are unique in their own ways, but they do come
together in helping organisation achieve objectives and fulfill the stated mission.

The Definitions

Strategic managements has a building block description to it. This is where the resources
available to an organiation are brought together. Financial, marketing, manpower, and other
organisational functions and capital are analysed to best determine how they can be used to
reach and goals. The result are policies and processes to guide activity. It can very easily be
said that strategic management develops a roadmap that can be followed.

Leadership does play a role in strategic management. A leader brings together all of the
various groups within an organisation to develop the action design. By the powers of
communication and persuasion inherent in leadership, that person is going to convince
everyone they are stakeholders in the final results. He or she is the guide along the path
that has been outlined by strategic management planning.

Taking a Look at the Interconnection

Leaders are important to the strategic management work because of the ability to bring
people together. This does not mean that leaders act independent of the strategic plan. In
fact, leaders rely quite a bit on what has been determined and also those people assigned
the various tasks. The primary reason is that a strategic plan gives a sense of direction.
Leaders can be visionaries, but without something concrete those visions are not much
more than misty air. Leaders may be very influential in deciding what the ultimate goal is,
but trying to reach it without a strategy would be like walking through a dark forest without a
compass. Developed strategies also will provide useful tools for any leader. The
benchmarks and timetables provide a justification for any motivational efforts. Leaders try to
be problem solvers. Those very same performance indices will alert a leader to problems
that need to be fine too. Incidentally, strategic management is a living operation. It is not
something that is carved in solid stone.

Flexibility Matters
The business world was never fully static and in the modern economy the activity can be
almost frantic. Circumstances and situations change with practically every business day. It
means that the plan may have to be reevaluated, and the best strategies always have
evaluation benchmarks. Leaders can help make the needed changes through their ability to
communicate and problem solve. The best leaders are also flexible enough to change
course when a new direction is in order. They are indispensable in getting other people to
accept any alterations.

Achieving the Intended Result.

Strategic management and leadership can be thought of as planning and execution,

respectively. A company cannot spend all of its time in the planning stage as it can lead to
paralysis by analysis. Simply doing things without any sense of direction can be just as bad,
and very often will lead an organisation going down the wrong road. Leaders give an idea of
where the final destination ought to be, and strategic management provides the resources
and direction. Leaders derive from all the planning a pathway of process and policy which
will allow the ultimate goal to be reached. It is a relationship between two functions that
need each other and at the same time, produce desired results for the organisation.

They are not totally separate but strategic management and leadership at their own
respective assignments. Coming together, they put an organisation on the correct path
towards ultimate success. There should be no friction between the two, nor should there be
any confusion as to the contributions each make to reach a goal and fulfilling the
organisation’s mission.

How Leadership Works in Strategy Management

Leadership has a significant role play in the formation and carrying out of strategies. It is
termed as a linkage which connects the strategic management process with the aim and
vision of the organization. It begins the strategic thought by offering vision. After that, it
works as a foundation to cushion culture where everybody realizes what are the ways to do,
and what are the prevalent values regarding the firm. Fundamentally, values offer the
direction.

The responsibility lies on the leadership to familiarize the values or a culture pertinent to
corporate. The vision of the leader itself proffers base line strategy formation and the pledge
of the leadership makes sure the enactment of strategy.

Formulated strategies can’t be implemented without the involvement of every one. Everyone
should understand the need of change and should contribute their effort to efficiently
implement the strategies. And only leadership can inspire and motivate the people to bring
change because people always resist change. Leadership works to find out the gaps by
carefully scan the environment both internal and external. And develop plans to fill these
gaps by implementation of plans.

Establishing Vision of the Organization

To put aim and vision into order might be considered as leaders’ the most significant liability.
The vision makes strategic leaders able to determine the norms that offer the direction and
larger extents for the enterprise. It offers the basis which enables the authorization of
persons to align with independence, judgment, and initiative. Vision must be both broad and
specific – broad enough to capture the hopes, dreams, and desires of a knowledge-based
work force, and specific enough so that individuals can define the scope of their own work in
the fulfillment of the vision.

I. Leader As An Innovator

To bring novelty within the whole institution is considered as the main job of leadership. The
responsibility lies on the leadership is to take innovative strategic process, and that starts
from thought to evaluating performance to make sure competitive advantage. To look after
the whole organization. Leader should care about every aspect that can ensure the
effectiveness in the organization. It should carefully develop and execute strategies because
strategies are the stairway towards the vision and mission.

II. Leader As An Analyst

In the strategic management process, it is the responsibility of leader to analyze the

situation to find the gap between current and desired state. Further it is the duty of leader to
formulate the plans to overcome the gaps according to the requirement of situation.
Strategies based at the analysis of leaders so we can say that an important task of
leadership is to scan the organization’s environment carefully. It is the basic function of
leadership to organize or streamline the whole organization’s working especially the
planning and executing of strategies. Because once they organize the system the change
management is no more difficult. Leaders cannot lead efficiently till they cannot organize.

III. Leader As A Decision Maker

Leaders make decisions that help to achieve vision so the most important role of leadership
is to make decisions. Leaders are responsible for proper functioning of the organization. So
they have to decide what to do, how to do and by whom. Whole strategic management
process depends upon the decision making of leader. Leaders decide how to achieve goals.
What type of strategies should be and how they should implement? Leader as a
collaborator: leadership provides the basis for strategy formulation. And to implement the
strategies efficiently there is a need of resource collaboration. It is the responsibility of
leader is to provide all the required resources. To fulfil the demand of organization leaders,
have to collaborate with other. They make alliances with other organizations. The key task
they perform is to create networks that align the organization with environment both internal
and external, also locally and globally.
Strategy Formulation vs Strategy Implementation

Before strategy formulation leaders have to identify the need for change by proper care full
scanning of environment in which organization exist (Jon, 2008). Environment scanning or
situational analysis is the starting point of whole strategic process. In the strategy
formulation after changing the understanding of people about change leaders try to find
different suitable ways to translate organizations vision into realistic purpose (goals and
objectives). In the strategy formulation process leaders sets the objectives then analyze the
environment both internal and external. Then fix the targets to be achieved, sets the
measures for performance evaluation and finally select or formulate the proper strategy.
Strategy formulation is all about planning for future (Chatman, 2010). On the other hand
strategy implementation is a process of conversion in which planned strategies are
converted into real actions. So that goals and objectives can be achieved (Fouire, 2009 &
Norton, 2001).

Role of Leadership in Strategy Formulation and Implementation

Leadership plays a vital role in the formulation and implementation of strategies. It is

considered as a link that relates the strategic management process with the organization’s
vision. It starts up the strategic thinking by providing vision then it establishes a culture in
which everyone knows what to do, what are the values of the firm. Basically values provide
the direction (Mosia, 2004). It is the duty of leadership to introduce the values or a corporate
culture. It is the vision of leader that provides base line for strategy formulation and its
commitment ensure the implementation of strategy (Fairholm, 2004). Formulated strategies
can’t be implemented without the involvement of every one. Everyone should understand
the need of change and should contribute their effort to efficiently implement the strategies.
And only leadership can inspire and motivate the people to bring change because people
always resist change. Leadership works to find out the gaps by carefully scan the
environment both internal and external. And develop plans to fill these gaps by
implementation of plans (Ascot, 2008). Various roles of leadership are as: Leader as an
innovator: ensure innovation within whole organization is the key task of leadership. It is the
duty of leadership to bring innovation in the strategic management process, from strategic
thinking to performance evaluation to ensure competitive edge.

Leader as a care taker: leader should be able to look after the whole organization. Leader
should care about every aspect that can ensure the effectiveness in the organization. It
should carefully develop and execute strategies because strategies are the stairway
towards the vision and mission. Leader as an analyst: in the strategic management process
it is the responsibility of leader to analyze the situation to find the gap between current and
desired state. Further it is the duty of leader to formulate the plans to overcome the gaps
according to the requirement of situation. Strategies based at the analysis of leaders so we
can say that an important task of leadership is to scan the organization’s environment
carefully. Leader as an organizer: it is the basic function of leadership to organize or
streamline the whole organization’s working especially the planning and executing of
strategies. Because once they organize the system the change management is no more
difficult. Leaders cannot lead efficiently till they can’t organize. Leader should work as a
controller. Leader as a guide: leaders are responsible to provide strategic direction to the
organization. They show the way to followers and tells them what to do and how to do. It
provides the guide lines to achieve the strategic vision, and work as a role model for others.
It finds the way for others to move towards strategic mgt. Leader as strategist: it is the vision
of the leader that provides the purpose of existence to organization. It is the leadership that
enables the organization to achieve its goals by formulating and implementing the effective
strategies. Leader as a motivator: strategies are nothing if they can’t get implemented
efficiently. And it is the responsibility of leadership to motivate the subordinates to
understand the need of strategic change and make it possible to achieve the desired state,
because without motivation people’s involvement is less effective. Leader as a developer:
leaders play an important role to develop the structure or culture of the organization. It is the
key role of leader to develop a culture in the organization that matches with the
organizations objectives. As we know human resource is the most important asset of
organization so leadership is responsible to make a team of key players that helps to
implement the strategies. Further it is the responsibility of leadership to provide the required
resources to be capable as per need. Competitive strategies are purely based at capabilities
of leadership.

Leader as a change enabler/ change driver: the basic role of leadership is to facilitate the
strategic change process in the organization (Steven, 1998). It is only the leadership that
can stimulate the organization to achieve the goals by following formulated plans. Mostly
people hates the change and do not like to move from status quo. In this situation
leadership help to create the environment that is feasible to change. It is the duty of
leadership to identify the need of change then establish the culture and formulate strategies
for change management. So we can say that whole process of change management is
worthless without the involvement of leadership because leaders are considered as change
agents. The leaders who successfully implement the change are called the strategic change
champions. Leader as a decision maker: Leaders make decisions that help to achieve vision
so the most important role of leadership is to make decisions. Leaders are responsible for
proper functioning of the organization. So they have to decide what to do, how to do and by
whom. Whole strategic management process depends upon the decision making of leader.
Leaders decide how to achieve goals. What type of strategies should be and how they
should implement. Leader as a collaborator/ ally/ aligner: leadership provides the basis for
strategy formulation. And to implement the strategies efficiently there is a need of resource
collaboration. It is the responsibility of leader is to provide all the required resources. To
fulfill the demand of organization leaders have to collaborate with other. They make
alliances with other organizations. The key task they perform is to create networks that align
the organization with environment both internal and external, also locally and globally.
Leader as a debtor: in an organization it is the responsibility of leader to ensure
effectiveness of strategies by proper implementation. So leaders are considered as debtors
in the process of strategic management. If they don’t consider responsibility of strategy
formulation and implementation as debt they can’t be successful. Leader as a risk analyst:
leaders scan the environment to identify the key opportunities so it knows what are the risks
and returns of a particular change. And as a decision maker it formulates the strategies by
evaluating the risks. Leader knows what would be favorable strategy according to this
analysis. And what should be the best measure to manage the risk. Leader performs the
role of a disturbance handler by analyzing the risks involved in the strategy implementation.

Leader as an evaluator: performance evaluation is the most important task of strategic

management process, and to execute this task leader performs the role of an evaluator.
Generally evaluation describes that how well the strategies are formulated and executed
and what are the remaining gaps that need the concentration of leader to be fulfill. Basically
evaluation provides the basis for continues improvement in the strategic mgt. it facilitates to
revise strategies according to need of situation. It not only evaluates the organization’s
strategic process but also the performance of people to ensure effectiveness of rewards and
punishment systems.

Concolusion

Leadership means taking up responsibilities. Leaders who are responsible make sure the
efficacy of the process related to management. It offers the basis for strategy thought-out
plan and by the offer of vision, it guides the organization curving into strategy formation.
When it makes an attempt to formulate strategy process, it gives a try to bring into line the
organization along with the necessary variation of the matrix. Then it gives attention to the
enactment of the strategy where the main emphasis of the leadership goes to attain the
vision by accomplishing the thought-out strategies. The topmost significant activity of
leadership relates the alignment of its vision with the goals and objectives of the
organization that result in having an organization’s competitive nature with the effective
vibrant milieu; on the other hand, it can train and encourage the workers of the organization
to attain the goal and vision. Finally, leadership has to have the evaluation process to
ensure the effectiveness of the whole process, and this aspect will facilitate to identify the
drawbacks and to make fresh the strategies in line with the change as well. Moreover, this
evaluation process is able to help and sustain the constant growth of the institution. Thus, it
can be said that leadership is known as the nucleus of the organization, and it should have
the pivotal role like the role of blood and brain; as a result, the outcomes of the success can
be guaranteed and be shared. The emotion which has the high value becomes winner in the
end. The leaders who provide blood, works very hard always become the recipient of lion
shares from their followers, and those who provide security and good times when it comes
to the pinch, human beings are more known as heroic (George Orwell).

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