Is Strategic Leadership Necessary to Effectively Manage Global Strategy in Today's Turbulent Business Environment

The leadership approach employed in an organization affects the vision, growth, and possible success of an organization (Malewska & Sajdak, 2014; Yukl, 2013). When organizational leaders employ strategic leadership, they consider various elements including internal and external factors that can affect performance, the influence leaders have on people and processes, situations that may alter a leader’s ability to affect performance, cultures within the organization, disaster planning, succession planning, and the role of role of executive teams (Malewska & Sajdak, 2014; Yukl, 2013). Two organizations that provide insight into strategic leadership are Costco and Nissan.

Pasmore (2014) explains that most leaders are aware that a well-defined business strategy is a critical activity for growth and success of an organization. Many also know that without strong leadership that is collectively working together to achieve goals throughout the organization even the best and boldest strategies will fall short of their fullest potential (Pasmore, 2014). Leadership Strategy provides the roadmap for the development of leadership talent and culture. Having skilled leaders to carry out business strategy is crucial to success, but research has shown that we must also understand leadership culture as defined by the collective actions of formal and informal leaders acting together to influence organizational success. Simply having all of the leadership positions on the organization chart filled according to Pasmore (2014) will not produce the leadership that is required to implement strategies, adapt to change, support innovation or address other important organizational agendas. A leadership strategy makes explicit how many leaders are needed, what kind, where they are needed, with what skills, and behaving in what fashion individually and collectively to achieve the total success that is sought. It also identifies other issues the organization must consider, such as whether its current talent systems (e.g., onboarding, performance management) support the culture and leadership it wants to create (Pasmore, 2014).

“The key to strategic planning is competent strategic leadership.” Strategic leadership requires personal outlook of the church which will increase the involvement and ministry outreach of the congregants. Strategic leadership in the twenty-first century has increased as the rising Millennial generation places new aspects of leadership which require higher standards more relevance from the church; becoming transparent. Malphurs stresses the concern of the church, stating, “I have compared the typical church in North America to a ship without a compass, drifting aimlessly on the ocean. It doesn’t know where it is or where it is going. And if that is not bad enough, the winds of change and the current of postmodernism are relentlessly blowing and pulling the church even farther off course.” Postmodernism has become the venom the church has struggled to keep the church alive by biblically attacking the theory “there is no absolute truth,” which contradictory to the biblical context. Strategic leadership has increased amazingly in most areas of the church, but in the majority, the church has declined because of the lack thereof.

Leadership inspires others to take the appropriate action. Therefore, strategic leadership is a management model that trains and encourages employees to best prepare the company for the future. In other words, strategic leaders are always looking ahead and analyzing the present in terms of

Effective leadership entails exercising the appropriate leadership style and understanding an organization’s strategy, people, and the environment. In today’s competitive environment, leaders not only have to understand business and the organizational strategy, they should also know how to strategically manage people. Effective leaders are cognizant of their leadership strengths and weaknesses, and promote leader-team information exchange to better understand team members’ strengths and weaknesses. An assessment of the team’s capabilities, can have a direct impact on the organization’s overall performance (Kunnanatt, 2016). Nonetheless, it has become clear that there is no one size fit all leadership

In an discussion on Leadership and its styles, the main thing that must be focused on is being strategic. Effective leadership stems from an understanding of the various styles of leadership and a comprehension of how each style has an impact upon the organisation 's situation in the present day. It is critical, thus, to keep up with the times. This brings us to the topic of contemporary organisations.

Strategic leadership is defined as the ability to anticipate, envision, maintain the flexibility, think in strategic manner, and inspire change. It is essential to have a competent strategic leader as this will impact the performance of the firm directly due to being in the position to make crucial decisions on behalf of the firm (Ireland et al, 2005).

Strategic leadership is the capability to incorporate forward-thinking ideas and concepts into a business’s functions while simultaneously influencing employees to accept the new processes (Malewska & Sajdak, 2014). Consequently, leaders cannot announce a change or new strategy and expect the staff to understand the latest expectations; it takes a more in-depth, hands-on approach to make the system work. In a 1998 study, chief executive officers (CEOs) from American businesses ranked

❖ Situational – this approach argues that there is no universally appropriate style of leadership. But that a particular style will be effective in some circumstances.

George Eastman in Rochester, New York. With the slogan ‘you press the button, we do the rest,’

Leaders develop fresh approaches to long-standing problems and open issues to new options. A manager is a problem solver- “what problems have to be solved and what are the best ways to achieve results?”

The quality of leadership and strategy is generally viewed as instrumental in maintaining and improving upon competitive performance. This is a topic that has started to gain some attention, especially in this era of increasing globalization and market competition. In the 2014 article from the American Journal of Industrial and Business Management entitled “Business Strategy and Leadership Style: Impact on Organizational Performance in the Manufacturing Sector of Ghana” (Yanney, 2014) they found that strategy had a greater influence over leadership when it came to the performance of an organization.

Strategic management and good leadership play an important role in meeting the organization’s objective. The management is linked to processes and structures of the organization while the leadership is to the vision and values of the organization.

As an organization undergoes change, its leaders also need to have the willingness to do so.

For decade’s individuals, companies, and organizations have spent an unprecedented amount of money on researching, molding, modeling and working to define what a leader is and what characteristics make successful leaders. Despite all the research, there is not a quick answer or even full agreement as to what makes an individual an effective leader. The definition of a leader is “someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority.” (Robbins, Decenzo, Coulter, 2015. P.370)