How to lead at the strategic level

It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep than a sheep at the head of an army of

lions. (Daniel Defoe)

Earlier in this book I mentioned that leadership takes place on three broad levels: team, operational and strategic. The essential nature of leadership as response to the three circles – task, team and individual – remains unchanged at all these levels.

What changes is complexity. As compared to the team leader’s role, the task of the strategic leader is both longer-term and more complex. The team that he or she has to harmonise and align on to the common purpose may be extremely large, subdivided into many units and geographically disperse.

The functions of a strategic leader

‘Strategic leadership’, a phrase that I coined in the 1970s for the work of the leader of an organisation,  is an expansion of strategy. In ancient Greek, strategy is composed of two words: stratos, a large body of people such as an army in camp, and edgy, leader (the English word hegemony, leadership among nations, derives from it). So strategy in our modern sense – as contrasted with tactics – is only one small segment of what the Greeks meant by the word. For them it encompassed the whole art of being a commander-in-chief, including principally what we call leadership.

You need to prepare yourself for strategic leadership as thoroughly as you can – this article may give you some clues as to the path you should take. Never let it be said of you what the Roman historian Tacitus once wrote of Emperor Galba: ‘No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.’

What fits a person to fulfil this role? It is clearly a demanding and challenging one, even though there are professional staff at hand – sometimes in cohorts – to help the strategic leader where the responsibilities are great.

You will need awareness, understanding and skill in the threecircle model. A thorough knowledge of your business is essential.

Personal qualities mentioned already, such as enthusiasm, integrity, fairness, toughness, calmness, humanity, resilience and a measure of humility, are also important. You also need to be able to think clearly and reason cogently.

The key functions of strategic leadership

Function	Area of Responsibility
Providing direction for the organisation as a whole	Purpose, vision
Getting strategy and policy right	Strategic thinking and planning
Making it happen (overall executive responsibility)	Operational/administration
Organising or reorganizing (balance of whole and parts)	Organisation fitness to situational requirement
Releasing the corporate spirit	Energy, morale, confidence, esprit de corps
Relating the organisation to other organisations and society other organisations and society	Allies, partners, stakeholders, political, society
Choosing today’s leaders and developing tomorrow’s leaders	Teaching and leading by example – a learning culture

The importance of practical wisdom

‘It is easy to find a thousand soldiers but very difficult to find a general,’ says the Chinese proverb. One reason is that the combination of the necessary intellect with proven inspirational ability as a leader is very rare. I don’t mean academic

The above Table: The key functions of strategic leadership

Function Area of Responsibility Providing direction for the Purpose, vision organisation as a whole

Getting strategy and policy Strategic thinking and planning right

Making it happen (overall Operational/administration executive responsibility)

Organising or reorganising Organisation fitness to (balance of whole and parts) situational requirement

Releasing the corporate spirit Energy, morale, confidence, Relating the organisation to Allies, partners, stakeholders, other organisations and society political, society as a whole Choosing today’s leaders and Teaching and leading by developing tomorrow’s example – a learning culture leaders scholarship or what is commonly called being clever. ‘Too much intellect is not necessary in war,’ Napoleon once wrote in a letter to his brother Joseph. ‘Probably the most desirable attribute of all is that a man’s judgement should be above the common level. Success in war is based on prudence, good conduct and experience.’ The Greeks, of course, had a word for it. The essential quality they looked for in a strategic leader – essential for leading one’s personal life too – was phronesis. Translated into Latin as prudentia and thus into English as prudence, it really means practical wisdom. You may like to reflect upon my suggestion that practical wisdom is composed of three principal ingredients: intelligence, experience and goodness. That is why we call Gandhi or Nelson Mandela wise, but not Hitler, Stalin or Saddam Hussein.

A key point to remember about strategic leadership is that in all but the smallest organisations the role is too big for one person to do it all him- or herself. You have to be able to delegate effectively, leaving yourself time to think and time for people.

You may even share the role (as a chairman and chief executive do). Be that as it may, you will certainly need to build a strategic leadership team around you – including the senior operational heads – to ensure that you meet the challenges of the three circles in these turbulent times of change.

Exercise

Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, believes that the essence of his job is leadership. ‘There is a simple recipe for leadership,’ he said, ‘which is to find out the truth of the situation, paint a picture of where you want to get to, make a plan and go and do it. It applies to businesses and cities but it also applies to your own personal situation. Always believe that there is a better place and then persuade people to go there with you.’ Of the seven functions of a strategic leader (see The above Table: The key functions of strategic leadership

), which are the ones that Terry Leahy highlights for us?

Leadership for desirable change

Change and leadership are closely linked. Change throws up the need for leaders; leaders bring about change. As the proverb says, ‘The bird carries the wings and the wings carry the bird.’ You can manage the effects of change maybe, but positive, desirable change always calls for leadership.

That principle, incidentally, not only applies to your organization as you navigate its path forward on the turbulent seas of change. It is true, too, of society at large. Democracy always calls for good leaders – and leaders for good. ‘Men and women make history’, President Harry S Truman said, ‘and not the other way round. In periods where there is no leadership society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.’ Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others can receive your orders without being humiliated.

Dag Hammarskjold