Strategic Leadership and Management

Strategic Leadership and Management

The link between Strategic Direction and Leadership

Leadership can be described as "a process in which a number of people work together for a common task. It also covers accomplishment and eventually getting the task done."

Chemers M. (1997) has defined the strategic direction (henceforth referred to as strategic management) as the process whereby one can "identify the needs and wants of an organization and achieving that particular goal through joint efforts and collaboration. It might also include the decisions taken by the management and these are the ones which define the long-term strategic plan of an organization. It also includes devising such policies so that organization and its working environment are in line to achieve a common goal."

Lamb, Robert (1984) said that it is an advent fact that leadership and strategic direction both are inevitable in any organization. They help to achieve goals and make the organization outshine in terms of performance, growth and development. Leadership strategies and skills should match the plans and activities of the higher direction so that an organization can flourish in terms of competition and can gain considerable advantage in it.

Association of strategic direction and leadership

Management and leadership are considered to have the same meanings. It is a fact that both of them are strongly interrelated to each other, but both of the words have dissimilar meanings. Both are pivotal for the success of any organization. Leadership is an act of leading the organization towards a goal or achievement that has been defined already. The leader has a complete understanding of visions and is able to support the different units of the organization to achieve these. Efficient leadership plays an important role in executing successful business activity.

Strategic management defines the strategies and ensures that a company is being run optimally. It defines the plans that the management has to follow in order to achieve the maximum possible performance. Tactical decisions save the performance of the organization against any hazard and misadventure. This is a constant process that measures the economic and business ambiance of an organization. The targets and tactics are the topic of uninterrupted change and growth to deal with all the current and the coming challenges of the business.

As leadership and strategic management are interrelated, they cannot perform efficiently without each other. An efficient plan with no leadership to bring it into practice will never be able to achieve its goals and perform effectively. A leadership with no organization might be able to achieve short-term targets but is sure to meet failure. It is likely to be imperfect and can run only daily business operations and fails where the concept of management comes or it is broadened. As there is no long-term planning in place, tactical decisions cannot come to life.

Efficient administration when joined with effective guidance will pave a way for the resources in a way that is most suitable to gain success.

"Tactical leaders and higher management should guide the business in a way that leads the formation of tactical objective and mission. This guidance probably leads everyone in the business to perform at their maximum potential and give the best output (Griffin, 1999)."

Effects of administration and guidance on strategic decisions

The leader does not have the same attributes as their subordinates so they do not fulfill the tasks in an ordinary manner. The style of leading is greatly affected by the group of persons that come in the way of a leader.

Many administration hypotheses have evolved and several different administration styles have been defined. The most discussed styles are that of business leadership and covert leadership.

Business leadership

It is based on the person's need to get the task done and earn for a living. It is surrounded by the factors of power, position and dealing with people intelligently. It depends upon the personal interaction in order to smoothen the relationships. It comes up to the par when leaders choose to work efficiently utilizing the resources available. It makes a system stand that ensures that the purpose is fulfilled, ensures growth in terms of work and make sure that profit is earned in every short point of time.

Covert leadership

It is based on a person's need of sense and is surrounded with goals, morals, and ethical behavior. It focuses on long-term planning without negotiating human standards and ideology. It makes full use of human effectiveness and always remains in search of new aptitude. It transforms the jobs in such a way that they become more significant and tough to perform and puts the internal controls and systems in line with the values and goals of an organization (Covey, 1992).

Some of the styles that are mostly described are the following:

Domineering Leadership: This leadership style includes making decisions by a person who dominates the group in all aspects. Group colleagues or members have no right to raise their voice and present innovative ideas. This results in a highly negative environment that gives birth to high rate of non-attendance and decreased efficiency. This type of management works where the person leading has abilities which are not present in other members or in places where same tasks have to be carried out time and again. It also works where the organization has to meet a short deadline.

Autonomous leadership: It is a just opposite of domineering leadership. Here the leader takes the team with himself and makes them a part of important decisions. However the leader gives the final ruling on any decision. As a result of this type of leadership the employees are contented and with their job and their efficiency increases. The human resources are encouraged to maximize their potential by opting new skills and techniques. This is a long-term planning and process and is used where the goal is to achieve teamwork and excellence.

The Laissez Faire Leadership Style: This style offers an opportunity to the resources to work and take decisions on their own. The leader does not interfere in team matters rather he only keeps an eye on the achievements. This style of leadership can be applied only to the environment where the employees are fully equipped with the necessary knowledge. The only demerit of such leadership is that the resources do not take the job seriously and go down when it comes to goal achievement.

Practical leadership: This type of leadership strongly believes and follows a set of rules, procedures and practices strict adherence according to the code of conduct of the company. The boss makes sure that every process is in line with the company's requirements and is being followed. This type of leadership is required where service excellence and protected work is required. A major demerit is that this type of leading style does not allow any creativity and cannot cope with the rapid changes in the business and industry.

Leadership styles modified to different scenarios - own experience

I work at an international company. Our company provides IT related services to our clients in a way that their IT department is overtaken by us and runs as a subcontract.

Whenever a business is overtaken we are ensured that the new one will provide world class services to our partners from the very first moment so the resources of the other firm do not feel any negativity about our services or the transforming ambiance. I have a chance to take part in a supposed service change process where a new group was made in our organization.

First of all we need to make sure that all the facilities provided to our collaborative company's employees are documented. Secondly we had to make sure that the takeover did not disturb the business of the other company and the effectiveness increases in the form of a long-term relation with the client.

There were certain points worth noting in this regard:

Devolve

Running services side by side

Taking over the department with the sole focus on excellence.

Service excellent and long-term relationship.

During first and second point the leading styles of domineering and practical control were helpful. We had to control the entire department of another company and where the resources were new they were needed to be accepted and needed to respond to the changing environment positively so that they did not find it difficult in performing their tasks.

During the third point the employees were full of zeal and enthusiasm as they needed to provide their services to a completely new organization. They started making different strategies related to the work and in order to gain the subsequent excellence in different fields. At this point the style of the management changed from domineering to autonomous.

Fourth point was to devise a strategy for long-term relationship with the client. The resources became more professional and they started to care about their company and contribute towards service excellence. This resulted in the emergence of a team that was built on the shoulders of highly skilled professionals who were ready to deliver timely results.

None of the leading style dominates the other ones. The best leader is the one who makes right decisions at the right time in order to make the resources more efficient and effective so that the organization takes the most out of them.

Supporting organizational focus through administration and leadership

Premature theories of the leading style state that the leaders are born and they cannot be made or equipped. There are certain qualities that a man should possess in order to become a leader. Several other hypotheses were also presented such as Behaviorist theory, Situational leadership, Contingency theory, Transactional Theory and Transformational theory. Today the most popular theory in this regard is situational. This modern theory states that there is no style of leading people that can be implemented all the time and there is no standard way to run an organization. The style of leading has to be changed as it depends upon certain factors that are based on the organization and are being practiced. The first teachers of this theory were Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey. The contingency theory evolved as a result of the work of Joan Woodward. Not all the companies tend to focus and practice the same processes. The behaviorist theory is also widely accepted. This is a kind of process that actually determines what leaders really do apart from applying their qualities. Different styles of human conduct are known and distinguished as leading styles.

A first-class example of the application of behaviorist theory is the company like Philips. Six leadership qualities define what is required to become a good leader and to achieve the business success. Same is used by BAE which has five most basic competencies defined which are linked with a set of human responses. These theories include achievement of superior performance, customer Centricity, grooming others and working in a harmonized environment.

Military organizations to date apply the disciplined approach towards leadership. The candidates are checked for certain norms and values and if they possess them they are then moved to higher ranks.

Leadership strategies to help the organization focus

Microsoft is one of the largest software manufacturers of the world and the world's most expensive company. As the CEO Steve Ballmer says, the main factor contributing towards the achievements of the company is that all the target markets and the end to end processes that lead to a final product are competitive. There is always a plan in place to cope with any unwanted situation and we never give up until we are out of that situation (Ballmer, 2007). It was this focus and aim that made MS office, Xbox and many other software of high quality.

Leaders play a very important role in the development of any company. It is therefore the need of the hour to have thinkers and innovators as leaders who don't always go by the organizational rules and learn from the wrong doings and never give up. They should be able to make ideas on their own and then implement them as a trial in order to assess the success and failure.

The covert leadership has all the qualities that an organization needs. In autonomous style of administration the employees can bring forth creativity and new ideas. The superiors encourage their employees to always bring some new idea. New ideas are given a helping hand and if they fail no one is blamed for the same instead the root causes analysis is done to find out the cause. They get rid of traditional ideas and techniques if they do not cope with the pace of the organizational progress. They act as a trend setters and are also respected and admired by the employees. They aim at gaining respect with their good conduct and not by the use of power.

As the organization has many rivals in the market and they are ready to react to any change in the market or the industry. It is therefore the need of the hour to adopt such a culture that supports these changes rather neglecting them (Ballmer, 2007).

What are the leadership requirements?

Recent years have seen a recession and therefore it is not easy to keep a business afloat. In good times the businesses used to flourish and they use to have a lot of chances.

In these hard times only top notch businesses are able to maintain high quality standards. It needs an identification on the ways and strategies that should be adopted in order to get the most out of the resources and ultimately from the business.

SWOT analysis is a widely recognized technique of measuring the position of a business in the market by measuring its different components. The strong points, weaknesses, chances and dangers of the business are analyzed using this tool and it in turn provides information that is very useful in planning the future goals and setting new standards for the company.

Individual assessment, the need of the hour

Assessment of oneself: Talk to a leader on what his goals perspectives are and what are his measurements of success and failure. Most importantly in which category of leadership do they fall in?

Team assessment: Team leaders can be rated by their teams. It is a multidimensional assessment involving everything that relates to a leader.

Leadership evaluation: It defines the kind of leadership one possesses. It also drafts a questionnaire that makes clear the personality of a leader.

It is worth mentioning that there are many other companies that provide an opportunity to attend the leadership and leadership training programs. It might be awkward to some persons as they are not willing to pay to learn leadership in this recessed economy but on a sure note this can pave a way for the basis of management and the ultimate grooming for the person attending them.

Plan for the development of future situations requiring leadership

As the title suggests, the world is progressing and there is a necessary need to find the appropriate leadership qualities to make the reputable position of the organization in the competitive and challenging business environments. These qualities must contain the basic business strategy and vision of the organization, which later becomes the key to the management success along with the criteria of planning, evaluating and assessing the employees. Framework can be easily identified by assessing these quality leadership results which then help in the modification of new and effective development and improvement programs. The development program should be developed in such a way that it covers all the levels and areas of the organization. Basically the development programs are developed to train the potential future leaders to be prepared for the new suitable positions and the existing leaders are trained for more challenging environments.

Reward and performance management programs are usually developed to motivate the employees to work more professionally. This program should be developed by keeping in view the original and basic leadership and development framework for high efficiency. These programs help the employees to find their own hidden talents that are helpful for the organization's high productivity and professionalism.

Poor management can end any development program within minutes. This is why it is very important to carefully maintain the reviewed core techniques, methods, programs and analysis. Well defined development programs and the categorized leadership techniques can be limited if there is a lack of skilled employees, insufficient research work and important development facilities. Most companies use the SWOT analysis which is a very limited and subjective analyzing technique that skips the additional important criteria.

Business management should develop the Succession management program to have the well coordinated and effectively managed development, assessments and framework. For example: The Corporate Succession Management model by Doris Smith which was presented in 2009. This is the most useful and popular model for the development in the corporate sector and all the above mentioned points and techniques are included in this model.

With the fast changing trends of this world, managers are also required to be equipped with the different set of skills and information to cope with such trends. Good leadership and management skills enable the management to work with professionalism and efficiency. The continuous review of each progressive phase allows the organizations to avoid further mistakes and helps in the timely updates of the outdated models.

As a result of this, the economy of the world markets flourishes, creating a positive impact on the world and also helps the organization in finding out the new ways for success. Leadership skills should be developed according to the fast changing environment and structure of the organization. These skills allow the organization to find the new talents for their success and high profitability. Well trained existing managers and leaders should have the high quality of experience to identify the best outcome for their organization.

World is facing economic pressure and the organizations of the world could face more pressure in case of any further recession. That is why a complete different strategy is needed in the hiring of new staff and in the growth of the organization to sustain and survive in the markets. By keeping in view the current situation in such hard times, there is an excessive need to build the trust between the manager and the organization. It has now become the responsibility of the new employees to work harder for the success and development than the existing employees. They should know about the perfect timings to input their best efforts to become a successful and trusted member of the organization. Organization should be aware of the point that loosing the new talent for a short-term profit can become the long-term loss in the form of competitive edge if such talent is hired by the rivals and competitors in the markets.

To acquire the high productivity and profitability, organizations should not go for the short-term benefits such as seeking a short-term and easy alternative to get out of the crisis and cost cutting etc. Such short-term techniques results in the downsizing of the organization and cost cutting from the development programs such as internal development, talent management, reward and incentives can result in the serious poor performance, de-motivation of the staff and low productivity. These actions by any organization could rectify all the possibilities to immerge as a successful business in the world and there will be no way to start the same business again.

To avoid all such mistakes management should relay on positive communicational skills and should be motivated to regain the confidence in the markets. To get the best possible effective solutions from the scarce resources, there is a need to develop creativity. In this scenario, to be successful the leaders and management in the company should look for the possibilities internally and the existing talent should be developed with more training programs.

The management should focus on the clear directions to have a progressive and productive business.

Planning and development of the leadership skills

Planning and development of the leadership skills for a specific requirement

Leadership requirements are needed by the organization in various different times and stages of the development. The leadership skills and qualities described in the above section have become very important in this age of recession.

In these times of economic pressure, many CEOs would force their staff to work more without any break. They would save money and recourses to combat this economic menace without focusing on the real issues and problems of the organization. This will make the situation even worse if these kinds of actions are taken by the CEOs and will create lot of problems in availing the opportunities in future.

To be successful in the businesses, CEO's should possess the following set of skills:

• Positive communication

The management should focus on the clear directions to have a progressive and productive business.

• Motivation

In these challenging circumstances all the management and employees should maintain their focus on the organizational progress. With the availability of scarce recourses, they are required to do more. Fear of insatiability strikes the people when they are in hard times, it is very important to be motivated and feel secure in such times.

• Being creative, flexible and open to all opportunities

A CEO should openly listen to all the suggestions, opinions and should be able to develop the strategy to be effective with the scarce resources. To gain high profits and productivity, CEO must be flexible about the approaching markets and should search for the best available alternatives.

Organization's important key competencies, strategy, vision, assessments should be identified by assessing the research made on the external markets and internal reports. These researched reports will be helpful to develop future planning, development programs, assessments and the corporate succession management program.

CEOs cannot maintain their progressive reputation in the markets of the world if they only focus on the important tasks by cutting the costs from the other projects required by the other different areas and departments of the organization. Some CEOs make such mistakes and incur losses.

While other CEOs consider the downturn as the opportunity for the growth of their organization in the open world markets and some profitable and progressive organizations also search for the possibilities to buy the other organization.

These necessary decisions made by the top management of the organizations determine the leadership skill requirements for the future plans and strategies as well.

A competency of a business is praimrily a set of behaviors which make up its the identity, assessment and growth internally and externally. Some of the key competencies may include:

• Professionalism

• Teamwork

• Communication

• Creative problem solving techniques

• Focus on the outcomes

• Management of client relationships

• Management and development of the staff

• Management of the relationships within the organization

• Create and lead teams

• Interpersonal skills

A CEO must have the perfect skills to identify the competency requirements of the organization.

The leadership program can only be established if the competencies are defined properly because this program is directly connected with the other organizational processes.

Well coordinated and developed Leadership skills should reflect the identified core competencies, strategies of the organization and other important factors related to the organization.

As suggested by the succession management model regular coaching, regular 'on the job' trainings and performance reviews should be developed. Training programs should be assigned to the team of participants in the training program. An internally established organizational structure can be very effective to give the directions to the junior level employees by enabling more of them to step up as a junior in the organization and then gradually and professionally reach more mature leadership levels.

As mentioned earlier, external companies offer various different development programs for their employees and many different approaches and opportunities awaits at many different levels of the organization. There are many ways to train the staff like in house training, out of the house trainings and online training sessions. Through these training sessions the employees also learn to validate their qualifications according to the organizational needs and policies. The employers and the company gain a lot of knowledge which can be assessed on both international and national levels. The management should develop these programs according to the requirements of the organization.