Becoming a strategic leader

A strategic leader is someone who incorporates a strategic mindset and practice in everything they do. They have a clear ambition for their organization or team, understanding what they want them to become and the impact they want to have on various stakeholders such as customers, investors, communities, and society.

These leaders are not solely focused on profit, but also on purpose, and they know exactly what they want to deliver, to whom, and in what form (service, product, or experience). They are targeted and know how to stand out from the competition, understanding how to win in their respective industries. Furthermore, strategic leaders build high-performing, inclusive, and empowering teams, developing the necessary capabilities and organisational culture to align with their strategic vision.

Practice exercise:

• What impact do you want to have in your organisation and the world around you?

• How would you like to be described as a strategic leader?

• What are your strengths and development points as you work out how you become a strategic leader?

Use the handout to complete your answers to these questions.

There are a six key shifts you need to consider as you step into a more strategic leadership role:

1. Talk less and listen more: Pay full attention to others' ideas, challenges, and expressions, encouraging them to speak up (see resource below for a script), while also being attuned to what they might not be saying due to psychological safety concerns.

2. Greater empowerment: Trust and empower team members by providing a clear mandate, necessary skills, and the space to do their best work without micromanagement (see resource).

3. Focus on decision making: Shift from being immersed in details to making wise choices about where to invest time and effort, creating strategic space for growth opportunities.

4. Composure: Know when to slow down, reflect, and make wise decisions under high stakes and pressure while remaining dynamic and committed.

5. Future focus: Strike a balance between managing the present performance and considering future possibilities and opportunities for innovation and growth.

6. Thinking about others: Take a more significant interest in the welfare, wellbeing, and performance of team members, showing support and being available when needed.

Practice exercises:

1. Strategic shifts one-pager: work through the actions you can take for each of the six shifts, and identify three you want to take in your next project or meeting.

2. Use the script below to encourage people to say what they truly think.

The six essential skills that are crucial for becoming an extraordinary strategic leader are curiosity, creativity, clarity, courage, coherence, and care. They apply individually and collectively in a range of different situations – from a leadership team meeting to a presentation to a negotiation. And it’s critical that you master them all.

Practice exercises:

1. The 'Six essentials' one pager - setting out their meaning and the actions you can take.

2. The 'Strategic leader' self-assessment - setting out the six essentials in more detail and inviting you to assess how you self-assess to identify strengths and development points, giving your a characterisation of an 'Aspiring Strategic Leader', 'Leader in Transition', or 'Developing manager'.

3. Use the scripts - five for each of the six essentialks - to use in your conversations, negotiations, and meetings.

Curiosity as a strong desire to learn and know, not just externally about others and the world, but also introspectively, understanding oneself better. Strategic leaders practise curiosity every day to avoid complacency and stay ahead of competitors.

In this lesson you will learn about the power of:

• Curiosity about yourself, your team, and external stakeholders.

• Open, incisive questions.

• Attentive listening.

• Challenging assumptions and conventional wisdom.

Innovation sprints, hackathons, and away days can be enjoyable, bringing people together to address important business problems. They spark the curiosity of people involved. But they often fail to lead to sustainable and valuable outcomes; people go back to their day jobs.

How would you embed curiosity into your day to day work?

Creativity is all about trying new things, exploring novel ideas, and using one's imagination to come up with original solutions and approaches. Creativity can be applied to anything an organisation or team does to create more value.

In this lesson you will learn about the power of:

• Belief.

• Psychological safety.

• Identifying the problem to be addressed.

• Creating diverse and collaborative environments.

A new CXO feels they need to show a degree of creativity they’re not comfortable about. They’ve never felt particularly creative and they’re fearful to step out of their comfort zone.

What steps can you take to nurture and apply your creativity?

Clarity involves being clear about one's purpose, ambitions, and priorities to ensure understanding and avoid confusion. It also applies to how leaders communicate and express their thinking logically and with substance. Clarity also extends to big organizational building blocks, such as vision, strategy, priorities, plans, resources, and incentives.

In this lesson you will learn about the power of:

• anticipating the audience's questions and challenges.

• focusing on the main points.

• inviting different perspectives to challenge ideas.

• avoiding jargon and complicated words.

• clear and confident communication through volume, tone, and eye contact.

This speaker has delivered a compelling performance with energy and panache, receiving applause and polite questions from the board. However, well did they articulate their thinking? How well did the audience understand and engage with their content?

How do you communicate the clarity of your thinking?

Courage is about standing by your convictions, even in challenging situations. You may need it when you face bad behaviours at work, need to take bold action, or staying the course when you’re not seeing the results you want.

In this lesson you will learn about the power of:

• being clear on your values.

• trusting your intuition.

• anticipating reactions.

• conveying your message with conviction and composure.

This organisation has developed a successful strategy through open and inclusive discussions involving various stakeholders. The strategy has been effectively communicated and implemented throughout the organization, leading to positive results.

However, there is one team that is not fully aligned with the strategy and exhibits a toxic culture, including elements of bullying and lack of inclusivity, despite being highly profitable.

What would you do?

Coherence is about being logical and consistent, ensuring that actions align with words and that all elements of an organisation work harmoniously together. Lack of coherence can lead to leakage, waste, and a lack of trust within the organization.

In this lesson you will learn about the power of aligning:

• Strategic priorities with vision.

• Strategy and culture.

• Resources matching priorities.

This leader believes in eminence, inclusion, and empowerment, but faces a challenge in making her team or followers truly feel and see these values in her day-to-day actions and behaviours. In other words, she’s not coherent.

What would you do to close the gap?

Care is about nurturing the welfare, well-being, and performance of people. It applies to you, the teams you lead, and third parties like customers and suppliers.

In this lesson you will learn about the power of:

• paying attention to your physical health, sleep routine, diet, relationships, and work-life balance.

• proper attention to your others’ well-being, energy levels, and emotions, and ask kind and simple questions to show genuine concern and support without rushing to provide solutions.

A CEO is leading an executive team while striving to meet ambitious business goals but struggling to make the time given the pressures she’s under.

What does it take for her to recognise their needs? What can she do to show care for them?

What would do in this situation?

What steps will you take to become a more capable, confident, and credible strategic leader? Reflect on the material presented and consider what you can implement immediately.

Practice exercise: Use the document to capture your learnings and what you practise.