Strategy is about more than having a good plan, having outcomes based goals, or even tying outcomes to a feedback loop…all of which are ideas that we have thrown around here recently.
One of the biggest and likely the most meaningful aspects of a strategic effort or revolution in your organization is the role that leadership plays in the success or failure of your strategic effort.
In general, it seems like the role of leadership in our current global business environment is a little wanting, but that doesn’t mean because there is a void of leadership that you should take the same tact in your business.
In fact, it makes the need for leadership and for a leadership mindset that much more important.
So what exactly does it take for you to be the leadership that your organization needs in the face of strategic problems and a market that seems to be neurotic?
Here are a few ideas that I think will stand the test of time.
1. Understand that leadership isn’t defined by a particular title or project, but they do help:
Leadership has to start somewhere and in some industries you can’t get around the fact that your title carries a lot of weight.
At the same time, we have products, projects, and issues that aren’t going to go away just because of a lack of leadership.
Which means that leadership needs advocates in authority, but it begins with action.
2. Leadership is going to evolve:
If we were having this discussion years ago, the ideal of leadership would be different.
I know this because I have seen the way that I act as a leader change tremendously over the years.
This isn’t going to change.
Leadership will evolve.
To be a truly transformational leader, you are going to absolutely learn and grow as a leader. And this is going to be true within projects and within companies.
The only truth in life is change.
3. One of the big aspects of strategic leadership is that you have to embrace ideas:
Strategy has to grow and evolve, just like leadership.
The growth of the strategic leader is going to require an embrace of ideas.
It feels rote to say this here, but ideas are the currency of change and value.
As a leader, you can’t have all of the ideas…it is impossible.
What you can do as a leader is make sure that your team has a place where they can test their ideas and share them in an environment where they can be vetted, tested, and used in a way that understands that not all ideas are great and that not all ideas are going to be successful.
But that knowing if you don’t have a constant stream of ideas, you have nothing.