So You Want to Be a Strategic Leader: Here Are the Essentials to Get You Started

By Dr. Larry F. Ross Sr. and Dr. Larry F. Ross Sr.

Many people today are writing about and seeking to understand the concept and practices of leadership. There are a great many reasons for the popularity of the topic, including the fact that organizations are faced with challenges like never before. Some of these challenges might include the ability to align the organization to better support the mission or upgrading technology to enhance production. Nevertheless, the concept of leadership is relevant to any aspect of ensuring effectiveness in the marketplace for organizations and in managing change. This book represents my experience of 25-plus years of supervising, managing and leading folks in the public sector (military and Federal government), learning about strategic leadership in the military and more recently, my doctoral program. It centers on strategic leaders, the essentials that are needed for them to be effective and successful in organizations. It argues that the strategic leader must use the competencies of strategic leadership to influence the future environment, technology, processes, structure, strategy, and the workforce with the understanding that these are just some of the components that affect the successful operation of an organization.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 11, 2008
• ISBN: 9781465330628

Dr. Larry F. Ross Sr.

TO FOLLOW

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Copyright © 2008 by Dr. Larry F. Ross, Sr.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2008900623

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-4363-1810-5

   Softcover                 978-1-4363-1809-9

ISBN:   ebk   978-1-4653-3062-8

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Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

EPILOGUE

REFERENCES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, my heartfelt thanks to God who said that I must do this because of His will. I thank Him for my wife and children who kept pushing me to stay on target because they were proud of what I was pursuing. To the teachers at Regent University who guided my journey and a special thanks to my Chair, Dr. Osula Bramwell, as well as others for their support and guidance to finish strong and this is a testimony by the completion of the doctorate program and the publication of this book. To Cohort 2004 for the many prayers and the camaraderie we had together throughout the program. Thanks to all of you and God bless.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The only test of leadership is that somebody follows.

Robert K. Greenleaf

Many people today are writing about and seeking to understand the concept and practices of leadership. There are a great many reasons for the popularity of the topic, including the fact that organizations are faced with challenges like never before. Some of these challenges might include the ability to align the organization to better support the mission or upgrading technology to enhance production. Nevertheless, the concept of leadership is relevant to any aspect of ensuring effectiveness in the marketplace for organizations and in managing change. This book represents my experience of 25-plus years of supervising, managing and leading folks in the public sector (military and Federal government), learning about strategic leadership in the military and more recently, my doctoral program. It centers on strategic leaders, the essentials that are needed for them to be effective and successful in organizations. It argues that the strategic leader must use the competencies of strategic leadership to influence the future environment, technology, processes, structure, strategy, and the workforce with the understanding that these are just some of the components that affect the successful operation of an organization.

Leading is a very human activity and there are those who consider themselves to be experts on strategic leadership. Unfortunately, some even make strong assertions about strategic leadership without really understanding much about the concept. As strategic leaders face incredible pressures to deliver immediate results, to do more with less, and to manage an ever-increasingly personal workload, they need new approaches to meet these demands. As these new approaches are developed, it must always be remembered that it is the strategic leader who forges the vision and issues clear directives, accepting as part of their leadership role the responsibility for the overall performance of the organization (Hames, 2007).

In chapter 2, I review strategic leadership and explain how strategic leaders are able to accomplish change within their organization utilizing certain skills. Using multiple styles of leadership, they take steps to obtain various pieces of information to help make vital decisions for their organization. Chapter 3 details the importance of having God’s involvement from the start; by letting Him be the strategic leader’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). It goes on to assert that changing your heart and placing a high value on character and one’s relationship with God leads to success; not only in an organization, but in life in general. Chapter 4 addresses the future environment and the strategic leader’s responsibility to not only understand it, but use it to see the world as never before in order to facilitate the organization maintaining the competitive advantage. It argues that knowledge workers are critical to the future environment of an organization and he or she must use them to build continuous evolving cultures in the organization. There is also something to be said about a strategic leader having political savvy. Chapter 5 is about using the power of technology to transform the future work environment. Strategic leaders who are classified as being technologically savvy are better able to position their organization to be more efficient and competitive. Chapter 6 deals with the processes of an organization, centering on strategic analysis and the various tools used to bring about change in the most efficient and effective manner. It leads into a growing concept in organizations called analytics, which is the extensive use of data to drive decisions and action, by the strategic leader. Chapter 7 addresses the structure of an organization, recommending the strategic leader take a fresh new look at the matrix organization with the use of cross-functional teams and a new matrix management system. It provides a comparison of the old matrix to the new matrix, which places emphasis on collaboration across the entire organization. Chapter 8 talks about the strategy of an organization and how the strategic leader must align the organization or face the prospect of failing. It promotes the idea or notion that during the life of an organization, there will be many times for strategic change, but it is those who are resistant to change that a strategic leader must be concerned with as they lead their organization. Chapter 9 reviews the workforce attributes, diversity, culture, workforce succession planning and management, and the importance of leadership development for the future leader who may aspire to become leaders within the organization. Finally, chapter 10 addresses the heart of an organization and challenges strategic leaders to be authentic in everything they do. They are encouraged to be reliant on God as they champion values, morals, and ethics within their organization. The many components of the strategic leadership environment challenge even the best strategic leaders. The monumental consequences of strategic decisions call for individuals with unique performance abilities who can navigate the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity inherent in the nature of those decisions (Freedman & with Tregoe, 2003). Aspiring leaders, those that desire to become strategic leaders, can rise to this challenge by understanding these components. Accepting the demands of strategic leadership involves a transition from the art of the familiar to the art of the possibility (2003). This is the realm of strategic leadership and the strategic environment in which the strategic leader must do well in, to be successful. As Parks (2005) has so graciously reminded us that leadership can be taught and seeking methods and approaches to leadership is what it is all about. The question I have for those who aspire to become a strategic leader is this: Are you willing to learn? Finally, strategic leaders must come to know God and they can do this through diligently studying and meditating on His Word. Knowing God gives the strategic leader hope and stability in life and when we are able to grasp the true knowledge of God through the Bible, He will move in our lives with such power that we will be successful in all our endeavors.

CHAPTER 2

STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP

The first step to leadership is servanthood.

John Maxwell

Over the years, organizations have been subjected to change and as this change has occurred, leadership was there right at the top directing what changes should be made in order for the company to be effective and efficient. With increasing amounts of change in organizations brought on by the era of globalization, leaders have been led to become more flexible, and capable of adapting to new conditions and even more open and susceptible to novel alternatives, and willing to take greater risks. Increasingly, leaders have had to address technical dimensions of change within their organizations, but failed to consider what it would take at each stage to carry out that change. For example, Tichy (1983) posit that these technical dimensions of change may include:

• Deciding to change from a functional structure to a matrix structure;

• Deciding whether to launch an organizational-wide quality of work program or not;

• Deciding if the organization should individualize or collectivize an incentive system; or

• Deciding if the organization must attempt to do a better job of relating business strategy to organization design.

These are key decisions for a leader to make and they will ultimately change the way the organization operates. However, leaders who are charged to accomplish these technical dimensions of change were referred to as strategic leaders.

Strategic leaders recognize that most work now involves integration rather than fractionation of diverse interests and skills. According to Freedman and with Tregoe (2003), they think and act before they have to, before they are forced to take up a defensive or reactive position. Edersheim (2007) posits that through such courageous challenges and visioning, the strategic leader lays the foundation and boundaries for what needs to be done by asking essential questions (and not just assuming the answers are obvious): What is our business? What should it be? What should it not be? She goes on to say that the answers to these questions establishes the boundaries of an organization and forms the foundation for the work to be performed by the strategic leader. A strategic leader displays multiple styles of leadership that are needed to effectively implement most forms of organizational change. Strategic leaders accept that they do not have all the answers; however, they take steps to obtain information that effectively guides their choices. These leaders rely heavily on communication and persuasion with employees to advance their enlightened strategies. When I compared popular models of leaders of the past, I found that strategic leaders were far more inclined to be information seekers than information distributors. Their whole persona is about receiving enough information to help them make knowledgeable decisions. According to Burgelman (2002), the deliberate actions taken by these strategic leaders help to develop new competencies and also help to create a new strategic position that may open up new business opportunities for the organization. He goes on to say that these deliberate actions by strategic leaders have their roots in deliberate actions made or recommended by leaders at the lower levels of the organization. Figure 1 depicts the models of leadership from the early 1900s to today.

In the 1900s, leadership was equated with those individuals who did great things (Bass, 1990; Northouse, 2007; Reardon, Reardon, & Rowe, 1998). These leaders had a can do attitude based on experience and determination and they used their authority to command in some cases, dictate to others in the organization. By the 1950s, attention shifted to determining leader traits and how these fit the situations in which they functioned (Bass, 1990; Northouse, 2007; Reardon, Reardon, & Rowe, 1998). In the early 1980s, another change took place and this time the emphasis was on the visionary leader (Bass, 1990; Nanus, 1992; Northouse, 2007; Reardon, Reardon, & Rowe, 1998). These leaders inspired others with insights and shared authority in their attempt to motivate the things that their followers

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