What Is Strategic Leadership? An Overview

Strategic Leadership is a style of leadership that empowers you to plan and execute strategies that enable your team to achieve a common goal. It involves focusing on the bigger picture rather than just small day-to-day tasks. 

As a strategic leader, it is essential to understand your team's strengths and how to use them effectively. You will also be expected to plan and guide your team through processes while understanding what motivates them. Additionally, you must make choices that are in the best interests of your team. 

If you think you have what it takes to be a great strategic leader, this blog is for you. Read on to gain insights into the skills and strategies needed to become an effective Strategic Leader.  

Table of Contents

1) What is Strategic Leadership? 

2) Essential skills and traits of a Strategic Leader 

3) Strategies for Strategic Leadership 

4) Types of Strategic Leadership 

5) Conclusion  

What is Strategic Leadership? 

Strategic Leadership involves creating an environment that enables your team to maximise productivity. As a Strategic Leader, it is important to consider your team's strengths when allocating responsibilities, allowing them to reach their potential.   

You must be open to new ideas and strategies to allocate resources and evolve with your team effectively. It is important to always keep the big picture in mind for your team as a whole rather than just immediate outcomes.   

As a good Strategic Leader, you should allow room for failure, as it is an important learning experience for your team. Allowing your team to learn from their mistakes is crucial in focusing on the big picture. 

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Essential skills and traits of a Strategic Leader  

To be a good Strategic Leader, you need to build a skillset that allows you to lead a team effectively. Here are some of the top skills and traits you must possess to be an excellent strategic leader:
 

Decision making 

As a strategic leader, you are responsible for making decisions for your team. The success of the team's performance may depend on the decisions you make as their leader. Making the right decisions is crucial to ensure your team performs at its best and maintains high morale. 

Predict potential problems  

As a strategic leader, being able to anticipate potential problems can greatly benefit you. By taking into account the team's weaknesses and past patterns, you can devise ways to prevent or prepare for any possible issues that may occur. 

Communication skills 

Good communication skills are crucial for better interactions with your team and upper management. It enables you to effectively convey your team's requirements to management when required. Additionally, strong communication skills help you keep your team engaged and interested, leading to smooth task delegation and completion. 

Open mindedness 

Every workplace is susceptible to inconsistencies and errors. As a good strategic leader, it is essential to allow flexibility to your team. Moreover, being open-minded to your team's suggestions and ideas is a crucial characteristic of an effective strategic leader. 

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Accountability 

A good strategic leader demonstrates accountability towards their team and supports them when needed. This behaviour shows the team that their leader is looking out for them, which helps in boosting team morale. Furthermore, it sets an excellent example for the team when their leader shows accountability, even when there are potential consequences. 

Resourcefulness 

As a strategic leader, you must provide your team with the necessary resources that allow them to perform at their best. Moreover, it is equally essential for you to manage these resources effectively in order to maximise your team's potential, even when resources are limited. 

Problem solving 

It is important to remember that some of the tasks you assign to your team may not go as planned. In such a situation, it is crucial to improvise and find solutions to any problems that arise. As a strategic leader, you should showcase your problem-solving abilities and inspire your team to do the same. 

Facilitate growth 

As mentioned previously, Strategic Leaders focus on the bigger picture, which involves promoting growth to empower the team. It is also crucial to establish an environment that fosters growth for the team and equips them with the necessary skills to perform better in the workplace. 

Strategies for Strategic Leadership 

To be a Strategic Leader, you must adopt a set of strategies that benefit your leadership style and, in turn, your team. Here are some strategies that you can adopt to make yourself a good Strategic Leader: 

Delegate 

Distributing responsibilities in a way that empowers employees to grow in their respective domains while effectively managing their responsibilities is highly recommended. Granting autonomy to your team members, expressing confidence in their abilities, and encouraging problem-solving skills can help achieve this. Delegating responsibilities to capable team members also creates an opportunity to complete more tasks efficiently. 

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Welcome openness 

Openness is a crucial aspect of Strategic Leadership. As the leader, creating a welcoming environment that encourages team members to share any problems they encounter is essential. You should also maintain open communication with your team regarding any workplace issues or attitudes, promoting transparency within the team. 

Promote channels of innovation and communication 

When the team members come forth with innovative ideas to tackle issues at hand, you should be able to facilitate them. It will help if you are flexible with your communicative methods and can establish efficient communication channels. 

Use failures as learning tools 

Encountering failures as a team can often be disheartening. As a strategic leader, it is up to you to build morale and get the team back on its feet. Using failures as a tool for learning can be an effective strategy for you to do so.   

Promote cooperation among departments 

As a Strategic Leader, facilitating harmony between departments is important. Promoting cooperation among departments allows your teams to work efficiently without miscommunication and hesitation. 

Provide opportunities for experiential learning 

As a leader, supporting your team to enhance their performance is important. Offering opportunities for the team to learn from their experiences is a great strategy. 

Management of resources  

Resources in a workplace may often be limited, so utilising them to your team's maximum potential is essential. As a Strategic Leader, it is up to you to allocate these resources mindfully to attain the best possible outcomes. 

Types of Strategic Leadership 

There are four distinct types of Strategic Leadership that can help you understand which one fits best for you and your team. These four types are: 

Transactional leader 

This refers to the relationship between managers and employees. It involves ensuring that employees understand their roles and responsibilities, measuring their performance, and encouraging them to improve. 

Transformational leadership 

This leadership style aims to lead by example and inspires employees to be better versions of themselves. In this style, you, as the leader, will need to model the attributes you wish to see in your team. 

Visionary leadership 

Like transformational leadership, this style involves a vision you must set for the team. The vision needs to be such that it motivates the team to work towards it. 

Collaborative leadership 

This style avoids the lead acting as a superior; instead, it involves you with the team as a member working with them. It's a cross functional collaborative style that establishes a relationship between the lead and the team.
 

Conclusion  

Strategic Leaders can lead a team towards a common goal by effectively managing their resources and workforce. They prioritise the overall objective rather than just the immediate tasks. As Leaders, they offer ample opportunities for their team members to develop their skills and excel in the job market. They use failures as a means of learning and set an example for their team by being accountable and transparent.