Strategic Leadership - a Career Enhancer

I don't remember ever working with a supervisor, manager or leader who said that they didn't want to make a more strategic contribution. And in today's hyper-competitive business environment organizations tell us they desperately need Strategic Leaders vs. Traditional Managers.

Strategic Leaders have different perspectives, priorities, styles & scopes of work. Strategic Leaders make their significant contributions by:

• regularly identifying new opportunities, asking 'what if', imagining the extraordinary, being open to new ideas & creating alliances
• caring enough to seek & utilize customer input to continuously improve their team's performance

Since there is a desire for more strategic leadership on the part of both managers & organizations, it's surprising that we don't see more of it in the workplace? We believe it's largely because Traditional Managers become more strategic by utilizing proven processes & tools - not by hoping for a change in their approach.

Strategic Leadership can be learned & we've trained many managers in applying our proven, three step process:

#1  Understanding Where Your Team is Now

#2 Determining Where You Want Your Team to Go

#3 Getting There by Strategically Improving & Sustaining that Improvement

#1  Understanding Where Your Team is Now is the best starting point & involves:

• Establishing Your Team's Mission by - answering just five questions to allow you to document your primary customer & the key products, services & value you provide that customer  
• Applying a SWOT/Situational Analysis enabling you to strategically grow from your mission by - identifying your team's internal & current strengths & weaknesses and your external & future opportunities & threats

#2 Determining Where You Want Your Team to Go includes:

• Utilizing Input from Your Customers to Identify Your Improvement Priorities by - obtaining customer survey, focus group & advisory board feedback
• Completing an Importance/Performance Matrix by - utilizing that customer feedback to identify the respective areas where your team needs to excel, improve, place low priority & redirect resources 
• Establishing Your Team's Vision, a realistic future worth striving for & built off of your customers' feedback, by - identifying your team's primary customer, the priority products/services you provide them & what you want your team to be 'famous for' in the eyes of that customer

#3 Getting There by Strategically Improving & Sustaining That Improvement involves:

• Obtaining team member input & involvement which generates commitment to the new plan while overcoming resistance to varying from their current comfort zones

Traditional Managers tend to continue processing transactions. While Strategic Leaders deliver preferred outcomes by making customer-focused strategies their team's priorities. Strategic Leadership generates profit & growth for the organization while also providing team members a greater sense of contribution.

But a huge benefit to the Traditional Manager who is striving to become more strategic is that the farther we advance in our careers, the greater the need for us to exhibit strategic vs. technical skills. Strategic Leadership is career enhancing while Traditional Management is career detracting.