Verified Document

Strategic Leadership Research Paper

Leadership There are a number of different approaches to leadership development. At different leadership levels, the skills and tasks required to excel can be quite different, but an organization should have a pathway that recognizes these differences while allowing for skills development and personal growth to move leaders from one level to another. A first-line supervisor is learning the basics of organization and motivation, and typically does so within a tight framework. There is only limited opportunity for creativity -- at this level the leader is building the basic skills of dealing with people and implementing systems. Turnover at this level can be high, and it might be too early to identify potential top performers. The company should have the ability to find people at this level who are capable of moving on, however, and begin to get them into a position where they are managing managers. Skills development here can be encouraged by rotating these managers through different jobs, in particular finding ways to challenge them so that the company can identify the managers who are most adaptable and capable of handling adverse circumstances (WSJ, 2014).

The next level of leadership is that middle manager. This is a level where many peak, and as such it is also the most important level for a company. The company needs to find middle managers who are capable of the creativity and the higher level thinking skills that they will need to move beyond this middle management level. By this point the company should continue rotating the managers through different areas of the company, especially ones with the creativity and leadership that make them good candidates to move onward into senior management. By this point, any strong candidates should have mentors.

Senior management development is something where by that point candidates need to be identified and put into the succession plan. The top senior managers...

At this point in the leader's development pathway, the fundamental skills should have been fully developed prior to leaving middle management. Leadership at the senior management level is much more about relationships, creativity, vision and communication than about functional-level organizing and individual personnel management.
In the C-suite, the company does not really need to take an active role in leadership development -- nobody should ever end up in one of those positions who is not a strong leader with an established track record. That said, there is a need for the company to have a success plan so that when the CEO leaves, the company has strong candidates within the executive team that can take over. At this stage of leadership development, the process is entirely about grooming the best people, and teaching them to think the company at the highest level, in particular working closely with both the existing CEO and the members of the Board who have high-level experience.

2.

Strategic leadership is quite different from operational leadership. Operational leadership refers to the lower levels of the organization, where day-to-day operating decisions are made. This type of leadership is pragmatic in nature. This type of leader creates the systems that allow the organization to implement its plans on a daily basis -- envisioning the infrastructure and framework, structures and incentives that will deploy the resources of the organization towards its objectives (Martin, 2011). This type of leadership is visionary at the small scale level, but requires a high level of attention to detail and the ability to directly motivate the other employees within the organization.

By…

Sources used in this document:
References

CCL. (2014). Strategic leadership: An organizational imperative. Center for Creative Leadership. Retrieved June 13, 2014 from http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/general/CCLStrategicWhitePaper.pdf

Graen, G. & Bien, M. (1995). Relationship-based approach to leadership. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Retrieved June 13, 2014 from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1059

Martin, R. (2011). The three levels of leadership. ALN. Retrieved June 13, 2014 from http://www.alnmag.com/articles/2011/06/three-levels-leadership

WSJ. (2014). How to develop future leaders. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 13, 2014 from http://guides.wsj.com/management/managing-your-people/how-to-develop-future-leaders/
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Strategic Leadership Influence Culture Organization Eventually Organization...
Words: 5752 Length: 19 Document Type: Essay

Strategic leadership influence culture organization eventually organization succeed fail. Show examples Air Asia, Apple Enron (Failure). I limit references subject matter Edgar Schein's theories culture organization business management authors. The influence of strategic leadership on organizational culture and the ultimate success or failure of the organization The focus on strategic leadership and organizational culture has been increasing exponentially throughout the past recent years, in both the academic community, as well as among

Strategic Leadership As We Reflect
Words: 660 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

Therefore, the leaders job become to endorse new strategy and provide resources for the implementation (Boal, 2000). Second, most business strategies fail not because the strategy is inherently flawed, but because the strategy is not properly aligned with the organization's leadership or culture. Therefore, the key tasks of leaders are to create a sense of urgency and ensure that corporate strategy is aligned with the culture of the organization. In this

Strategic Leadership and Management
Words: 5261 Length: 17 Document Type: Essay

Strategic Leadership and Management The link between Strategic Direction and Leadership Leadership can be described as "a process in which a number of people work together for a common task. It also covers accomplishment and eventually getting the task done." Chemers M. (1997) has defined the strategic direction (henceforth referred to as strategic management) as the process whereby one can "identify the needs and wants of an organization and achieving that particular goal

Strategic Leadership Mckinsey 7s Model to Assess
Words: 1200 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Strategic Leadership McKinsey 7s Model to Assess an Organisation (Telenor). I did just the first 3's for Telenor assessment. These had been strategy, structure along with system. "Telenor Business group is the incumbent telecoms business in Norway, with head office found at Fornebu, near Oslo. Telenor Business group is mainly a worldwide cordless carrier with operational functions in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe as well as Asia, working mostly under the Telenor brand name.

Strategic Leadership Outline a Specific Area Where
Words: 743 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Strategic Leadership Outline a specific area where a change would significantly improve productivity in your organization In the UAE, health care services are provided by government with the rapid expansion of hospitals and treatment options. This is a part of an effort to modernize the health care system and improve quality. However, the prices associated with receiving a variety of services have increased dramatically. Evidence of this can be seen in a

Strategic Leadership at Coca-Cola the
Words: 1114 Length: 4 Document Type: Case Study

They assumed fewer risks and focused more on consolidating the strategies which had already been implemented, and which proved successful. In other words then, Robert Goizueta is understood as a visionary leader, who had the courage to assume risks and to implement his vision of the Coca Cola Company. The managers that followed were more of strategic leaders, who focused on the implementation of the vision through strategic efforts

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now