Leadership Stratergies

Leadership Strategies

Throughout history and at every corner of the world, there are great men and women who have heeded the call to power, influence and even fame and glory. These personalities changed history through the exalted deeds they performed and even the notorious acts committed. People followed them and to those true believers, they have given their lives to these influential people who are regarded by many names but foremost amongst them, they are known as leaders. Leaders are those that influence people's behaviors and make them believe and follow the leader's will in order to achieve the goal set for by the one leading. There are various styles of leaders from the charismatic, autocratic, democratic, to the delegative. Some leaders use one style while others combine two or more especially when situations warrant differing approaches. There is an adage that goes, "leaders are made not born" and despite some truth to the statement, there are those who became leaders by virtue of their blood lineage or the choice of the outgoing leader. No matter how one becomes a leader, tremendous efforts are required for the leader to ensure that followers obey and adhere to the command of the leader. Thus, the leadership style is not the only consideration but the strategy the leader adopts to guarantee maintenance and continuity of the leadership role.

Leadership strategies, in the same manner as leadership styles, vary from one leader to another and also are dependent on the situations being faced by the leader. It is important to note though that leadership styles are different from leadership strategies. However, they are very much complementary and when properly synergized makes for an efficient and effective leader. "A leadership strategy makes explicit how many leaders are needed, of what kind, where, with what skills, and behaving in what fashion individually and collectively to achieve the total success of what is being sought. Like business strategies, leadership strategies are based on a thorough analysis of the current situation and an informed view of the future. (Center for Creative Leadership, 2009)" Leadership strategies become even more critical when achievement of goals mean the difference between the continued existence of the organization or the demise thereof. Therefore, the right leader and apropos leadership style are necessary to meet organizational goals and operational continuity. Further, leadership strategies are formulated in order to elicit changes in the organization and these changes vary depending on what the organization aims at achieving.

In implementing leadership strategies, "one of the most difficult tasks to undertake is causing change because the beliefs, habits, processes, and environment in the organization have been solidified over a long period (Palmer, 2008, p. 6)." What makes it more challenging is when the change becomes disruptive and those being affected by the change refuse to budge. The leadership strategy then will have to be one that will mitigate the disruption and enjoin those who refuse the changes to be part thereof. These are times when real leadership consists of leading followers through the process of self-discovery -- asking them to help identify the problems, and with guidance, having them develop strategies for fixing them (Herold & Fedor, 2008, p. 62). Although the leadership style being demonstrated here is the participative or democratic style of leadership, the approach or strategy provides for a decentralization of the decision making process to the followers in order for them to feel or realize that they have a stake in the organizational change. The result of their participation will mean success and they become key stakeholders in the change initiatives.

Aside from leadership strategy being formulated and implemented in organizational change situations and initiatives, a leadership strategy is also done to determine the current and future situations in the company. Although this is also related to change, the difference being is that there is a more concrete understanding of the what-is and the what-will-be. Consequently, "the strategy then provides a series of recommendations to close the gap between the current situation and desired future. Once the leadership strategy is known, a leadership development strategy can be formulated to produce the desired future state, and implications for talent management processes can be identified (Center for Creative Leadership, 2009)." For instance, an organization who found itself losing managers who have led the company through years of success as a result of hiring by competitors can either hire new managers or develop the leadership within. If the latter solution is the one being considered, there has to be a thorough evaluation of personnel who are being eyed for the leadership / management. In this case, the organization will need to ascertain the level of knowledge and experience of each person as well as the capability to be promoted to the important roles of managers / leaders. A skills and experience gap analysis on what these people have and how the organization wants to build them up to fit the responsibilities to be given them. There will have to be a leadership development strategy that "will then follow with specific recommendations regarding approaches to be taken to develop current and future leaders, as well as the collective capabilities of the organization's leadership, in line with the leadership strategy (Center for Creative Leadership, 2009)."

The above may be a difficult undertaking especially if the organization suffered mass departures of managers / leaders and a management / leadership vacuum occurs that is growing into a crisis. Those left at the helm of the organization should have a leadership strategy themselves and the leadership strategy "becomes much more focused, and much more hands-on. The leader directly takes command of the ship, and there is not as much delegation as might occur in running of the business on a normal basis. (Palmer, 2008, p. 64)" In engaging in this particular leadership strategy, the leader must make sure that those being trained into management / leadership roles at a time when the personnel departure crisis occurred are cognizant of the fact that they are facing the "baptism of fire" since the sense of organizational normality is gone. Only when the manager / leader proteges realize that they are in an extraordinary situation can they rise to the occasion and be successful in their training development as future managers / leaders.