Your Guide to Strategic Leadership

ARE YOU TRAPPED IN THE BUSY WORK?

If you're responsible for leading a team, project or organisation, you'll know how hard it is to put your head above the parapet. We're all drowning in operational overwhelm, and it's making it hard to do the things we really love.

In this guide, learn the basics of strategic leadership - what it's about, why it matters, and how to improve your skills.

Read through, or jump to the section you most need on my website.

• What is strategic leadership?
• Why you should be a strategist
• Five skills of a strategic leader
• How to be more strategic

1. WHAT IS STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP?

First of all,?WTF is?leadership?

There's lots of definitions out there, ranging from the pithy to the benign, but we define it as follows:

A leader is someone who turns virtuous intentions into visible action.

Leadership is virtuous action

You don’t need to be a chief executive, run a large team, or head up a country to be a leader. You don’t need to have a large following or a senior position. You don't need to be a people manager. You need to care about doing worthwhile things, and do them. You need to make decisions about things that you care about, and take visible action on them.

You need to make decisions about things that you care about, and take visible action on them.

Whether you do that at home, at school, with your friends or at work is less important. What counts is taking action on your values and making it possible for others to do the same - through your example, your support or your empowerment.

Sometimes that means creating something new and different, while other times it means supporting the work of others. In all cases, it means doing the right thing, and helping others do that too - by watching you, working with you or benefiting from the conditions you've created.

The golden thread is?values . Leaders know what they stand for, and they act accordingly.

Leadership is not about people or power

If you're making decisions, taking action or leading others down a path that are not congruent with your values, that is not leadership.

Here are a few other things that are not leadership:

• Popularity -?You don't have to be a charismatic extrovert to be a leader
• Power -?You don't have to hold role, title or status to be a leader
• Manipulation -?You don't have to convince or persuade people of things to be a leader
• People management -?You don't have to manage people to be a leader
• Task management -?You don't have to manage tasks to be a leader.

Sometimes, leaders have or do those things. Sometimes, they don't. But those are not the defining characteristics of leadership. Those characteristics are intentional values and visible action. The two go hand in hand, and you're not a leader without both.

Most people have values or things they care about, but they don't make those visible to others or bring it into their work. Others have great ideas and good intentions - but no follow-through.

Lots of people are taking visible action too, but it isn't necessarily values-led. Which, by the way, is totally fine.

People are great and if they're not changing the world, it isn't because they're bad people. It's more likely they haven't set the intention or thought much about it, especially at work. They do what they need to, and focus their discretionary energy elsewhere. That's cool. It's totally fine.

...It's not leadership, though.

Defining strategic leadership

The difference between operational and strategic leaders is all about perspective and intention. While many leaders are quite happy fulfilling their job descriptions on a short-term basis, focusing on one project and task after another, strategic leaders are different.

They maintain a?long-game perspective ?to their work, and make intentional, considered choices about how they will focus their time, energy and attention to make the most meaningful progress.

A strategic leader makes intentional choices about how to achieve their goals.

While operational leaders are agents of the "what", strategic leaders are agents of how - they put their energy into working out the most effective ways to make progress, and mobilise the resources necessary to make that possible.?

2. WHY YOU SHOULD BE A STRATEGIST

Strategic skills are the most in-demand skills of the future, according to the World Economic Forum. As the world becomes more automated and knowledge work becomes more complex, your capacity to solve problems, make judgement calls and devise creative solutions will be the most valuable tools in your toolkit.

It's not just a future-proofing exercise, though. Strategic leaders consistently report more fulfilment at work and more meaningful progress on the things they care about. You get more respect, too.

According to?Forbes , strategic thinking is the leadership quality that correlated best with perceptions of “success” and “effectiveness” in the workplace —?far more so even than communication skills and innovation . People respect leaders who are ready for the future.?

Not only that, being strategic has powerful impacts on your life, work, career and organisation.

Strategic skills minimise burnout

Burnout is one of the most challenging health crises facing the modern workplace, after years of pandemic uncertainty and ambiguity.

Over three quarters of leaders report that work stress negatively impacts their lives and relationships. Almost 60% of leaders report feeling worn out at the end of each day. Not only that, but burnt-out leaders are more likely to plan a job change, driving up turnover.

Strategic leaders are better able to manage their time and energy, mitigating the risk of overwhelm and burnout.?

Strategic skills maximise potential

Most organisations are inefficient and burdened by siloes. Strategic skills unlock hidden potential and productivity, seeing opportunities to work better together. This leads to more creativity, more innovation and people who can make the best use of their skills and capabilities, in service of a bigger goal.

Strategic skills increase fulfilment

Purpose is the single-most important criteria for engaged staff and interested job seekers. When we can see why our work matters and how it helps others, we're significantly more likely to stay motivated and leave work each day with a sense of satisfaction.?Check out these results from a Wednesday Wonder survey.

Strategic skills increase earnings

Strategic professionals are our most valuable employees. For budding strategists, this is great news. Your ability to set direction and solve tricky problems makes you an incredible asset to any organisation. Companies with clear, aligned strategies consistently outperform those without, and their leaders share in that success.

?(PSST - Do you need to work on your strategic skills? That's what we do on?Not An MBA. ?Take a look.)

3. FIVE SKILLS OF A STRATEGIC LEADER

Being strategic is not an inherent skill, however - you can learn to look at problems differently and strengthen your strategy muscle with intention and practice.

There are five critical skills that every strategic leader needs to develop:

1. Flexibility
2. Decisions
3. Systems
4. Performance
5. Influence

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