The Power of Strategic Leadership

There are volumes of truly valuable and compelling thought leadership about leadership out there. From the classic “The Leadership Challenge” to the leadership mindset, the five attributes of a leader, the challenges of leadership, leadership strengths, and on and on. This thought leadership provides valuable insights into the character, attitudes, personality, and emotional intelligence of leaders. And yet, something always seemed missing to me.

I realized that every entrepreneurial venture and business has one thing in common: no two companies follow identical growth journeys. That means that every company’s leader needs the appropriate mindset, emotional intelligence, strengths, and other positive personality characteristics, but they also need a changing set of skills, insights, experience, and actionable knowledge during the growth journey of the business.

At every stage of the journey of any business, every business and its leaders need to be able to continually assess what skills its leader needs to make the best decisions and implement the appropriate strategies to steer the venture through to the next stage. Every stage of a growth journey will require different strategic skills, expertise, actionable knowledge, and insights that often only come from experience, to ensure that the business maintains momentum and weathers any storm that comes along. Every business thus needs a specific type of strategic leader at every stage or phase.

I have defined five main “situations” where a certain type of leadership skill set is necessary and named this approach “strategic leadership” because the skills and actionable knowledge are strategic in nature. They apply to the various types of situations that a business goes through at each stage in its journey. I have developed five “Archetypes” that refer to the broad skill sets insights, experience, and actionable abilities required in each type of situation.

Some people may fit primarily into one of these strategic leadership archetypes or be predisposed to one of the archetypes. But most people will have a dominant archetype and characteristics of one or more of the others. Some people may only learn that they have a hidden superpower archetype when suddenly faced with a changed situation. Other people will be able to learn to become a different type of leader as a business grows. It is important to underline that strategic leadership assumes high emotional and cultural intelligence, integrity, a desire to learn, and honesty, and that a strategic leader is fully situationally aware of themselves.

The Five Archetypes in brief:

Launch Leadership: The skill sets to get a business up and running

Growth Leadership: The skill sets to organize and scale a business

Transformational Leadership: Leading change and transformation

Authoritative Leadership: Leadership in times of crisis

Evangelist or Advocate Leadership: Inspiring and aspirational leadership

Launch Leadership

Entering a new market and launching a new business can seem daunting, from one perspective, and look easy from another perspective. From both perspectives, however, having the right launch leadership is one of the most critical aspects to any startup. The most important questions to ask are, “What kind of skill set does a launch leader actually need?”

Visionary: Has a clear vision of the problem and how the new venture will solve it, and can communicate it effectively to the team and stakeholders.

Passion and Drive: Has a strong passion for solving the problem and creating something of value. Dedicated to “getting things done” and succeeding.

Adaptable and Decisive: Can quickly adjust strategies and make effective decisions to capitalize on opportunities and address challenges.

Resourceful: Efficiently utilizes available resources to maximize impact during the launch phase. Willing to “roll up their sleeves” and get involved in everything. Chief Everything Officer

Culturally Intelligent: Understands and respects cultural differences, especially important when entering new markets.

Growth Leadership

The very best launch leader may be perfect to take you to 10, 20 or 50 people. That person may be a great founder type. But it happens so very often that the launch or founding leader is not the same person to take the business to the next level. A growth leader will be experienced in pulling together the many moving parts of a new business and ramping up growth. A growth leader implements systems and organizes for maximum growth. There are multiple variations of a growth leader depending on the stage of “growth” but the underlying situation of steady growth is the common factor.

Experienced: Has a track record of successfully scaling businesses.

Strategic: Develops and implements strategies to drive growth and expansion into new markets

Relationship-Focused: Builds and maintains strong relationships with key stakeholders, including customers, partners, and employees.

Analytical: Uses data and analytics to make informed decisions and identify growth opportunities.

Team Builder: Assembles and leads a high-performing team to support the growth objectives.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership can be an extremely compelling solution in certain circumstances. When a business gets to a certain point and growth slows, or industry parameters change, sometimes it is difficult for an incumbent launch or growth leader to make changes that might seem dramatic. This is called organizational inertia. A transformational leader can see how and where to pivot to re-energize a business for new growth.

Change-Oriented: Embraces and drives change within the organization.

Culturally Intelligent: Understands the cultural dynamics of the organization and leverages them to facilitate change.

Decisive: Makes bold decisions to transform the organization.

Inspirational: Motivates and inspires employees to embrace change and work towards a common vision.

Innovative: Encourages creativity and innovation to drive transformation

Authoritative Leadership

Leadership in times of crisis: determined, clear communicating, steady, trustworthy, motivating. An authoritative leader is decisive and can communicate a clear vision about the way forward through difficult challenges. Emotional intelligence is an essential trait of authoritative leaders because they need to show resilience and perseverance while demonstrating humility with the teams. An authoritative leader knows how to empower others to create a cohesive team that will be able to steer the organization through dramatic change.

Decisive: Makes clear and firm decisions, especially during crises.

Emotionally Intelligent: Understands and manages their own emotions and those of others, particularly in stressful situations.

Ethical: Upholds strong ethical principles and integrity in decision-making.

Clear Communicator: Communicates a clear vision and direction to the team.

Trustworthy: Builds trust and confidence among team members and stakeholders.

Evangelist orAdvocate Leadership

The visionary who is infectious with enthusiasm and brilliant with positivism. An evangelist or advocate-type leader has charisma and passion and can captivate an audience with their superior storytelling and persuasion skills. Masters of using narrative and metaphors to convey complex in a relatable and vivid way. They can rally a group to their vision for the company’s future. Evangelists or advocate leaders above all show authenticity and transparency, they show they are human, that they can make mistakes, and that they understand the audience and its pain points.

Inspirational: Has the ability to inspire and energize others with their vision and passion.

Persuasive: Uses superior storytelling and persuasion skills to rally support for their vision.

Authentic: Demonstrates authenticity and transparency, showing they are

Intelligent: Reads and responds to the emotions of the audience effectively.

Visionary: Has a compelling vision for the future and can articulate it in a way that captivates and motivates others.

The need for strategic leadership has never been greater as businesses find themselves in increasingly complex and volatile business operating environments. Moreover, as a business grows or slows down, the type of strategic leadership may change, and companies may go through a “growth” phase, then a “transformational” phase on back to “growth” again. The key is constant monitoring of the skill set required. Every type of leadership is important and has its time and place in a business, and most businesses will go through cycles along with business cycles. Strategic leadership assumes that every business trajectory will be non-linear and full of challenges and successes. In a world full of volatility, uncertainty, volatility, and ambiguity, a nimble and strategic leader can steer the business through challenges to success.