Leading Effectively e-Newsletter - November 2008 Issue

Becoming a Strategic Leader

Choosing and implementing a business strategy is an organization-wide effort - but becoming an effective strategic leader is a personal process, too.

"As you take on strategic roles, your challenge is to hone your ability to think, act and influence in ways that foster long-term, sustainable success for the organization," says CCL's Kate Beatty. "This is a learning process, like any other leadership development effort."

Beatty, co-author of Becoming a Strategic Leader: Your Role in Your Organization's Enduring Success, offers these tips for gaining the experience and skills you need.

Conduct a personal SWOT analysis. You've probably looked at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats from an organizational perspective, but what about from a personal level? What strategic skills are your greatest strengths? In what areas are you less effective? What situations at work could help you improve your effectiveness as a strategic leader? What present or potential situations at work pose a danger to your success as a strategic leader?

Identify developmental strategic drivers and key objectives. What are the three or four things that are most critical to your success as a strategic leader? These are the drivers for your development plan. For example, a developmental driver may be "to develop agility to respond in a more timely and strategic way to rapidly changing situations." Another may be "to better balance long-term and short-term pressures."

Each developmental driver is likely to lead to several objectives. For example, if you need to develop your agility, you could decide that you need to become more competent in creating alternate possible scenarios. Or you might delegate aspects of strategic work to others.

Find ways to leverage developmental drivers. What experiences will give you opportunities to learn what you need to learn? What do you need to do in the near future in order to meet your longer-term goals? Seek out and be open to a range of opportunities. For example you could get involved in:

• Strategic planning efforts - translating strategy and goals into operational plans and tactics.
• Projects to review corporate values, culture or climate.
• Opportunities to better understand the competitive environment - following market trends, market research and so forth.
• Assignments that span corporate boundaries.
• A team tasked to come up with a new solution to a vexing problem.
• Work to identify critical organizational capabilities for future success.

Finally, be sure to seek out support. "Taking on a strategic role can feel risky and unfamiliar," says Beatty. "Support this stretch assignment by finding colleagues, friends and experts to help guide you and give you encouragement."

To help you identify and assess your strategic thinking, acting and influencing skills, take this quiz.

This article is adapted from Becoming a Strategic Leader: Your Role in Your Organization's Enduring Success by Richard L. Hughes and Katherine Colarelli Beatty