Effective Strategic Leadership

Since John Adair, one of the world's foremost experts in leadership training, introduced the term 'strategic leadership' in the 1980s, it has come into universal use. Strategic leaders are generally responsible for large organizations and may influence thousands of people. It is their role to respond to change and external events, establishing a strong organizational structure, allocating resources and communicating strategic vision. As a strategic leader, your decisions may appear more risky, your actions more visible and achieving results more complex than for organizational managers. In Effective Strategic Leadership John Adair teaches you everything you need to know to enable you to be clear about what you want to achieve and to lead with purpose in order to turn your strategy into reality. Among other things, he shows you how to: - Judge situations quickly and respond accordingly - Make decisions based on incomplete information - Pick the best second-tier leaders to achieve your objectives

Today’s organizations face difficult challenges in order to remain competitive—the quickening pace of change, increasing uncertainty, growing ambiguity, and complexity. To meet these challenges, organizations must broaden the scope of leadership responsibility for strategic leadership and engage more people in the process of leadership. In Becoming a Strategic Leader Rich Hughes and Kate Beatty from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) offer executives and managers a handbook for implementing a strategic leadership process that reaches leaders at all levels of organizations. Based on CCL’s successful Developing the Strategic Leader Program, this book outlines the framework of strategic leadership and contains practical suggestions on how to develop the individual, team, and organizational skills needed for institutions to become more adaptable, flexible, and resilient. The authors also show how individual managers can exercise effective strategic leadership through their distinctive and systemic approach—thinking, acting, and influencing.

Develop the qualities of strategic leadership and become an active contributor to the short- and long-term success of your organization Today's organizations face two daunting challenges: 1. How to create new sources of competitive advantage to sustain long-term growth, and 2. How to engage leaders at every level of the organization so that they are more proactive and forward-looking in their area of responsibility. The Art of Strategic Leadership uses a unique approach to examine what it means to be a strategic leader. Instead of focusing on the skills, behaviors, and tools found in typical books on strategic leadership, the authors shed light on the attributes and qualities necessary to lead strategic change and help transform a business. Strategic leadership is what modern leadership is all about. Organizations expect leaders to anticipate and be proactive more than ever before. In this book, the authors draw on their vast experience working directly with leaders at all levels and use an intriguing narrative to explain this inside-out approach to understanding strategic leadership. The narrative follows the journey of how one manager discovered these critically important qualities. You will experience first-hand how these values and attributes manifest in the lives of realistic leaders; how they orchestrate long-term strategic change needed for the organization to compete and survive and actively shape the future while delivering short-term results. The Art of Strategic Leadership provides the content that will help you informally assess and reflect on your own strategic leadership qualities—those that are strengths and those that indicate areas you need to develop. It will guide you as you incorporate these values and qualities into your own leadership style and become a more effective catalyst for change. This book will help you in the following ways: Develop a more proactive, forward-thinking approach to leadership Approach strategy from both short- and long-term perspectives Adopt the core values and principles of a strategic leader Model the qualities exhibited by powerful leaders Strategic leaders serve as powerful examples to others in the organization. Their qualities and traits spread rapidly to those around them, empowering people at every level to take a more active role in meeting the demands of the future. The Art of Strategic Leadership will help you deepen and broaden your understanding of the core qualities of strategic leadership, leaving you better equipped to lead yourself and your team to a better place and create greater value for customers, owners, and employees.

Be a more effective leader with strategic thinking Leading with Strategic Thinking reveals what effective leaders do differently. Eschewing the one-size-fits-all leadership model, this helpful guide outlines four general leadership types and demonstrates how each type achieves success – whether through personal vision, structured process, collaboration, or by empowering others. The authors identify the actions and skills that distinguish strategic leadership, drawn from interviews and focus groups with over three hundred leaders from around the world. Examples and case studies illustrate these concepts in action, and the provided reference materials steer readers toward more advanced information on this important topic. The disruptive forces of technology and globalization raise new challenges for leaders. This book is a manual that will help executives and aspiring leaders harness these forces and address the two central questions of strategic leadership: How do the best leaders develop their strategy? How do effective leaders drive strategic change? Becoming a strategic leader isn’t about mimicking an icon. The most effective leaders seize opportunity in a way that consciously integrates environmental requirements, stakeholder expectations, and personal ability. Leading with Strategic Thinking shows what these leaders do, and gives anyone the tools to be a more strategic leader.

A strategic leader is essentially the leader of any organization and someone who has to steer the company in times of change, whilst motivating and inspiring their team. Strategic Leadership from the renowned leadership expert John Adair encourages leaders to focus on tomorrow rather than yesterday. It explores the nature and origin of strategic leadership, transferable skills and the art of inspiring others. It then describes the role itself and broad functions of that role such as building and maintaining a team, achieving a common task and motivating and developing the individual. It moves on to assess the skills you need to be effective, and the seven generic functions that make up the role of strategic leader which include providing direction, strategic thinking and planning, building partnerships and developing tomorrow's leaders. Full of checklists, summaries and historical examples, Strategic Leadership will encourage you to ask the right questions whilst defining the role and skills of a strategic leader.

Strategic leadership is broadly defined as utilizing particular approaches in the management of employees. The main objective is productivity. It provides the vision and direction for the long term growth and success of an organization. It requires objectivity and potential to look at the broader picture. It is leaders’ responsibility to incorporate aspects of both the analytical and human dimensions to effectively drive the organizations forward. As an academic subject, it is taught in both education and business. Leaders and mangers have turned to strategic leadership to inspire and guide their visions, and to formulate the directions so essential for the long term growth and success of an organization or a country. Leaders need the skills and tools for strategy formulation and implementation in order to deal with change in our society. Managing change and ambiguity requires strategic leaders who not only provide a sense of direction, but who can also build ownership and alignment within their workgroups to implement change. The goal of strategic leadership is to drive innovation, and maximize team performance to enhance organizations’ long term growth and success in today’s complex world of fastpaced, dramatic change. Research on strategic leadership has been going on for decades. Textbooks on this subject are readily available. If we look deeper, we realize the vast majority of these books were written from a practitioner’s perspective. In other words, these books were not based on empirical research. Naturally, these existing books have failed to better serve the needs of today’s graduate students who should be equipped with empirical research on such an academic subject. This book will investigate emergent administrative techniques and business practices being used within educational establishments and corporate worlds. It will highlight empirical research and best practices within strategic leadership.

Effective Strategic Management: From Analysis to Implementation gives readers a firm foundation in the theories and concepts of strategic management, along with multiple analysis matrices. The book is organized into two main sections dealing with strategic analysis and strategic formulation and includes an introduction to Ansoffian Strategy and the OSPP computer model. Specific topics include internal and external environment analysis; functional, business-level, and corporate strategies; the BCG Growth Share Matrix, the GE/McKinsey Matrix, the QSPM and Grand Strategies Matrices; and organizational culture, change management, and leadership. The text concludes with case studies, giving readers the opportunity to see how target theories and concepts are applied in the real world. Students learn how to write and analyze case studies, conduct internal and external analysis, formulation, implementation, and evaluation and control. Each chapter includes questions that can be used for in-class discussion or writing assignments. Chapter summaries reinforce important ideas and aid retention. The book also includes all strategic analysis tools, with clear, concise explanations of their use and applicability. Effective Strategic Management can be used in undergraduate and graduate level strategic management capstone courses, and classes on leadership and organizational studies.