Strategic Leadership — Do You Have What it Takes?

Strategic leadership is the ability to influence people to independently make the right decisions concerning an organization. Strategic leadership must also be able to maintain an organization’s financial good standing in the short term while creating a creative long-term vision that pays rewards in dividends and market share for the future.

One cannot be an effective leader without galvanizing the workforce, so they must not only be able to create plays and have a vision, but they must also be equipped to efficiently sell this vision to the stakeholders above and below.

Five agreed-upon characteristics of a strategic leader are: determining a strategic direction, effectively managing the firm’s resource portfolio, sustaining an effective organizational culture, emphasizing ethical practices, and establishing balanced organizational controls. All sound good and read straightly, yet there are multi-components of each that are needed to correctly executive each of the five.

There is a difference between strategy formulation and implementation and a good strategic leader can do both. Being able to learn and adapt with agility is a requisite of strategic leadership, as is the ability to respond swiftly and comprehensively to change and fluctuation. The only constant in life and in business changes, so how…