Developing Effective Leadership Strategy To Drive Business Productivity

Querying a search on Google for the definition of strategic leadership, chances are you'll end up on a Wikipedia page with the following statement.?

"Strategic Leadership is the ability to influence others to voluntarily make decisions that enhance the prospects for the organisation's long-term success while maintaining short-term financial stability."

This definition summarily portrays a leadership strategy and the ultimate goals of a leadership strategy. Whether to guide transformational change or drive value and operations efficiency, an organisation's operations heavily depend on capable leadership.

Precisely what does it take to become a capable leader? How should you develop a leadership strategy that works for you? Let's explore the concept of leadership strategy and all there is to it.

What Exactly Is Leadership Strategy?

A leadership strategy is a road map that outlines and aligns the distribution and management of an organisation's human resources with its goals and aspirations most efficiently and straightforwardly.

As a leader, your leadership strategy will be unique, and it leverages your skills/experience to develop an optimal game plan tailored individually or collectively to achieve the desired outcome.

The leadership strategy can be universal in an organisation or compartmentalised depending on the organisational setup. The bottom line is that an organisation's leadership strategy elaborately explores the subtleties of proper leadership, from talent identification to cultural and social orientation.

The Role Of A Leader In A Leadership Strategy

A competent leader is a vital link in the operations cycle, whether an organisation-wide leadership strategy or a departmental/compartmentalised strategy.

A competent leader is a force of nature; it is a simple truth, as cliche as that sounds. The job description of a leader is very robust. They are conductors of change, amongst many other things.

Aside from ensuring that objectives are delivered efficiently and timely to optimise human resources, they are also responsible for driving growth and meeting institutional goals while managing a compact system of teams in a tight yet rewarding manner.

More often than not, organisations reiterate redundant strategies that are too generalised and don't account for their unique business strategy. However, the addition of senior management, up-and-coming talent, and competent leaders will fill the innovation vacuum that a company needs to develop a leadership strategy that works.

How to Develop A Leadership Strategy

Developing an effective leadership strategy is relatively straightforward. It's not rocket science as long as you understand the subtleties of the concept and draw a parallel between the available human resources and key deliverables for your organisation.

Identify Leadership Pressure Points

Like in contemporary studies, you need to surgically identify your organisational leadership pressure points to know where to apply pressure. These pressure points are the key leadership drivers that determine the sustainability of your organisation's competitive advantage in its parent industry.

A leadership strategy that does not factor in this step will be lackadaisical at best; it is undeniably a very crucial step in formulating your leadership strategy.

An intelligent way to determine your organisation's key unique leadership driver is to examine your business initiatives critically and as yourself:

• Is this a necessary organisational capability?
• Will succeeding in this area lead to more success later in the future?
• What is the most significant factor in achieving a competitive advantage and completing a mission?
• Is our company in a position to outperform the competition in this area?

Once you've satisfactorily answered these questions, use them as a template to develop your unique and effective leadership strategy that accounts for all of these factors.

Determine Leadership Strategy Effect

Now that you have a prototype leadership strategy, the next step is to determine the implications of your outlined strategy. For instance, say your crucial leadership driver is "to become more Innovative," the leadership can potentially be as follows:

• A need to increase engagement at the leadership-team members level to pool customer insights and translate these insights into actionable ideas to drive more profit through the addition of new products.
• A need to change organisational orientation to create a paradigm shift toward an innovative vision.

Often, the real-life effects of your leadership strategy will be much more streamlined, revealing the situational prospects and issues accompanying your key drivers.?

Ultimately an organisation's key drivers and their pegged leadership strategies will reflect its pressure points and show clear indications of what leaders should do and what decisions they must properly make to drive the organisation's success.

The Bottom Line

With a working strategy in place, you must execute it with finesse as this final step in your leadership strategy development cycle ultimately determines the strategy's success or failure. Directing your team members must be done professionally, and a smart way to achieve this is to ensure your execution:

• Definitively communicates your vision
• Encourages recognition
• Properly delegates duties and tasks where necessary
• Empower your teams
• Resonates your passion for success?

Leadership is another form of learning, a journey that never ends. Do well to stay committed to continued growth and development by building and refining your skills and experience through practical use of your skills and a passion for growth.