Strengths And Weaknesses Of Strategic Leadership

The London Academy for Higher Education: Extended Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership Course Manual 2011 / 2012

Leadership represents an essential element for the success of an organization, it has a profound impact on the achievement of the goals. The leadership unites an organization efforts and directs toward the behavior of individuals in line with the achievement of objectives and deliverables. Organizations composed of members from different cultures, mentalities, and personalities representing groups of people work together in a specific regulatory framework and in accordance with certain operating procedures. These groups or work teams need to coordinate among them in order to reach the specific objectives. In this context, it always highlights the role of leadership in influencing an organization. The Strategic Leadership Instructor is doing his best to develop our leadership, and exploiting his innate cleverness and natural sensation to support his fellows to succeed. He helps us in enabling of taking advantage of the actual innate sixth sense that God gave it, and exploiting the energy and the ability to distinguish. I learned a lot from readings and during the sessions, I learned from my colleagues some of the basic functions of leadership through their experiences. I learned how to develop my skills that will support my style of leadership. During the discussions I have changed some of principles and ideas that already I have, and the others make me to work on developing them. It became clear to me, when I read the

Leadership theories in and of themselves carry negative and positives characteristics. Within the various theories lie strengths and weaknesses that when applied to complex problems can highlight each one respectively. As I examine a few theories, I will look at the strengths and weaknesses of each and determine when and with which situation would these theories best be utilized. Collective leadership or distributive leadership, and leader-member exchange are both theories that incorporate specific team or group mentalities.

Therefore the strategy plan should process with a strong leadership. The organisation should be having a clear direction and good leadership to guide the organisation towards this direction. If everyone is waiting for someone else to make it happen, then it only causes to failure. Leadership set the clear direction for achieves goals. Leaders are ensure that communicating with stakeholders their vision and ideas. There for basically, leaders should have clear understand about vision and mission of organisation (Rainey, D, L 2010).

Often times, leadership and management can easily be confused although they are very different on a fundamental level. More so, leadership is a process focused on making organizational changes. Leadership directs its focus towards, “tomorrow”. Additionally, leadership is transformational, consultative, and participative. It is geared toward leading people, having followers, and is often times regarded as people-oriented. Management on the other hand is about controls and results, it focuses towards, “today”. Management is authoritative, autocratic, consultative, and democratic. Management focuses on administering work that is to be completed. Also, managers have subordinates and is task-oriented. In relation to strategic planning both leadership and management have very different jobs. Effectiveness in an organization is directly dependent on the leaders. Strategic planning is crucial when clarifying where your organization is going and what measures you may be taking to reach your goal. Leaders are the ones who assemble the strategic plans to reach the goal. Through implementing the strategic plan, leaders influence people so that they are able to do their job willingly and enthusiastically. The leaders central focus is on the principles and guidelines. They work to ensure the strategic plan encourages any change that is needed. On the other hand, management organizes and coordinates the necessary steps of the strategic plan. They bring stability to plan and help regulate any policies and procedures that may be necessary in the strategic plan process. Managements attempts to have a firm basis on the control of what might be essential for the strategic plan. A few questions I might have for the management team at Oakwood Health Services are: “What criteria will we use to

In the Four Framework Approach, Bolman and Deal (1991) explain that the characteristics of a leader are understood through recognition of certain behaviors that comprise four leadership frameworks: Structural, Human Resource, Political, or Symbolic. These four frameworks are understood by good leaders. However, according to the authors, each framework of leadership should be employed based upon the circumstances the leader finds himself in. Depending on the leadership situation, the leader will apply the principles of one of the four frameworks to maximize his leadership strategy.

Dr. Copeland says, I do not know exact wording for strategic leadership, but according to my opinion the strategic leader is who, works as separate individual along with group of people and create the road map, alliance, and assurance needed to accomplish the standards along with the goals for the organization.

The many factors of strategic management are implemented in every form. That is the separation between a business/organization and just an idea. The strategy of developing methods based on data, implementing the methods and then reconstructing the strategy as you see the uncover opportunities for improvement. Strategic management is a relevant to every organization or company that has a goal to be effective and progressive in their

According to the author “individuals and teams enact strategy leadership when they create the direction, alignment, and commitment needed to achieve the enduring performance potential of the organization.” Pg.11. Strategic leadership tends to make significant changes within the organization for long periods of time, and includes “It also exist in individuals and teams throughout the organization who are close to the customer, consumer, and client and have access to data and information that are that are important for the lonterm success of the organization…In this way, the best CEO’s rely on and nurture input and insights throughout the organization to set the strategy, and help in understanding how well the strategy is working.” Pg.

3. Strategy must be directed towards a vision. There must steps decided along the way, with specific responsibilities and goals. True strategy always has a review process built into the procedure, as well. Strategic thinking is true leadership, because it involves comprehensive communication and motivational aspects. There can be no strategic leadership without full planning, goals, recognition of need, commitment, and inner strength.

While strategic leaders are certainly invested in the present, they have their sights set squarely on the future. They research trends, things that are important to customers, and what's happening in the world to create a vision that offers a strong platform for planning and leading their team to desired outcomes.

Leadership strategies are said to be the critical ingredient for organization success. (Pasmore, 2014) It is defined as the company’s leadership concerns such as the number of leaders and what level these leaders should be, skills they should have, behavior they should possess and their abilities to move the company to the next level. The leadership strategy in another hand, targets the arrangement to an organization’s business goals, leadership vision, global considerations, integration of leadership development alongside other talent processes, and the plan for the maintenance and sustainment of the strategy.

The ability to influence others to commit to accomplishing organizational goals and objectives is the fundamental basis of strategic leadership. The objective of strategic leadership is to develop long-term success for a going concern. This cannot be accomplished without developing a financially stable organization. Executives are required to formulate, implement and evaluate strategic initiatives in order to build sustainability into the fiber of the organization. Strategic leadership requires the leader to think in the abstract and make unprogrammed decisions in planning the future of the organization.

A leader must be decisive and smart in order to make the decision of when to take an action and when to stay still. A leader should know the internal strengths and weakness of his own organization and the environment surrounding him/her. The importance of vision comes up in the book where Sun Tzu highlights that the army should have the same animated spirit regardless of which rank you hold. This applies to strategic planning in such that an organization without a vision and mission is basically like a stray dog looking for a home. If you do not know what you stand for then your customers will be confused as

Before coming to USAWC I think that my experience and knowledge gained during the twenty-five years of service is an important quality to possess. At one point I thought: “A few years until retirement, and probably no special secrets for me to discover during academic year. I can only confirm what I know, gained some new knowledge and meet a bunch of interesting people before returning home". Much to my surprise, already after the first reading and discussion at the seminar, made me realize that this will be more interesting than I had hoped.