Leaders, Leadership & Visionary Strategists – Part 1

Recently, BIZCATALYST 360° has published quite a number of articles on Leadership. This article is excerpted from Strategy with Passion: A Leader’s Guide to Exploiting the Future by MacNulty & Woodall.

In the broadest sense of the word, “leadership” is the ability to bring people together and guide them toward a common goal. Throughout history, much has been written about what it means to be a leader. Chinese military general and Art of War author Sun Tzu described a leader as one who “cultivates the moral law, and strictly adheres to proper methods and discipline.” Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric Co., said, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion.”

For strategic planning purposes, leadership can be defined as a leader and leadership team arriving at a truly shared, inspiring vision and strategic plan that they are passionate about, can articulate to all stakeholders, and are willing to pursue undeterred by problems or setbacks.

The Leader Must Lead!

Good leadership is critical for the success of any organization. Whether they do it consciously or not, a leader establishes the vision for the organization, and the ethos and character of it. Thus, the more visionary and strategic the leader is, the better. This article describes the importance of leadership in general and especially its role in the process of developing a strategic plan. Many people confuse leadership with management and delegate the strategic planning process to a group of middle managers and analysts. Yet, if we believe the statement above about the leader and leadership team arriving at a truly shared and inspiring vision and strategic plan, then the leader must take the lead. That’s the only way for the plan to reflect their vision and for them be completely committed to it.

Characteristics of Good Leaders

Since our book is on strategic planning and we are passionate about both strategy and passion we will say, unequivocally, that good leaders must have an excellent intellectual understanding of their organization and its business, and they must also have good hearts. They must appreciate and understand their people as human beings, and they must provide and expect loyalty down the chain of command, not just up.

Leaders can have very different values and characteristics, just as their employees do, and those values will provide the backdrop to everything they do and say. While we have identified some characteristics that appear to be common among the leaders with whom we have worked, several recent articles have had similar lists, and so I will not repeat those here.   However, in The Art of War, Sun Tzu says, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” In the armed forces today, this is generally interpreted as meaning that a commanding officer should know what weapons the enemy has, where the enemy is located, and what he’s likely to do. In today’s boardroom, this generally means to know your competitor (enemy) and your customer. In neither case, is much attention given to “know yourself,” yet this is critical for success.

Knowing yourself is an important part of personal, psychological growth, and it is beneficial for you, as a leader, to be aware of your propensities so that you can tell your colleagues and subordinates your preferences, and to ensure you have colleagues on the leadership team who can complement your capabilities. To aid in the process, it helps to ask yourself a few key questions (and perhaps even ask colleagues to help with the answers):

[message type=”custom” width=”100%” start_color=”#FFFFFF” end_color=”#FFFFFF” border=”#fb7200″ color=”# fb7200″]

• Am I an optimist or a pessimist?

• When faced with a decision, do I generally think of the positive aspects of taking it, or do I generally think of the worst case scenario? How does this propensity affect my attitude towards risk?

  • Am I an observer, reader, or listener?

• If I am gathering information in order to make some decision, do I prefer to bring people together to discuss the pros and cons, while I watch and listen to them?   Do I like to read the facts and figures and mull over them in my own time?   Do I prefer to close my eyes, sit back in my chair and listen to someone telling me the information. What is the most effective approach for me?

  • Am I predominantly a thinker, doer, or feeler?

• Do I understand things or learn things by thinking about them and analyzing them?   By rolling up my sleeves and learning by doing?   Or by using my intuition/gut feelings? What does this do for my colleagues/subordinates?

  • Am I extravert or introvert?

• Do I prefer to be around people, gaining ideas and energy from them, or do I prefer to be quiet and on my own? What is the most effective for my work?

  • Am I focused on past, present, or future?

• Do I spend my time thinking about the way my organization has operated in the past – what made it successful, and how can we replicate those successes?   Do I focus on the present and what is going well – doing more of what is making it successful and minimizing failures?   Or do I focus on the vision and all the possibilities that we can work towards? What would be best for the organization?

  • Is my time horizon short- or long-term?

• Is my focus on short-term results (monthly sales, for instance) or longer-term ones (the growth of the organization over the next 5 years?)

  • Am I concerned about the big picture, or details?

• Do I focus on developing the vision and strategies, or am I more concerned about the details of day-to-day operation? How might I compensate and make sure I can do both?

  • Am I concerned about punctuality?

• If I am, then I expect the rest of the organization to be that way.   If I am not, then I cannot expect the rest to be punctual.

  • Am I concerned about meeting deadlines?

• If I am, then I expect the rest of the organization to be that way.   If I am not, then I cannot expect the rest to meet deadlines.

• Am I a good communicator?   Leaders need to be!

  • Am I passionate or restrained?

• Can I inspire people with my passion, or do I subdue them by being restrained? What and how might I do more to inspire?[/message] [su_spacer]

It is also very useful to write your own “leadership philosophy,” which can be given to all your subordinates, or posted on your organization’s website or blog. It should be no more than two pages long. In it, you describe your personal vision as the leader of the organization. You discuss your values and why they are important to you, and you describe the examples you intend to set. For instance, you might say, “I intend to set examples for you by practicing what I am asking of you—in terms of values, actions, and words. I intend to get the best out of you, preferably by encouragement and inspiration rather than punishment. I like to have fun and laughter in my organization.” Discuss how you intend to operate—via a leader’s intent, or tighter control—and stick to it! Operating by a leader’s (or commander’s) intent is where the leader tells people what is to be achieved, why it’s to be achieved, but not how to do it. Some leaders want to micromanage with details of how, and this can kill creativity and improvisation. But tell people what you expect of them so they don’t do things that irk you. For example, you might say you want punctuality, you want them to meet deadlines, and you want to know ahead of time if they are going to be late. That way they – and you – can avoid creating a contentious situation! This has happened in my own, personal experience as a leader. Punctuality matters a lot to me, as I see it as a sign of respect for others, and people who are always late do “get my goat.”

In Part 2, I will discuss the nature of Leadership.