Strategic Leadership – The Essential Skills: A Sample Essay For Inspiration & Mimicking

There are several skills that characterize a leader. However, there are six essential skills that a leader must master in order for him to be strategic in tasks on hand and be able to explore opportunities effectively. These skills are the following: anticipation skills, the ability to challenge and encourage different points of view, be able to interpret properly, be able to come up with informed decisions, be able to align and lastly be a source of learning opportunities for others and learn in the process at the same time. What kind of leader has all these skills and have mastered them? A leader who has the capacity to perform all these skills is someone who is able to react appropriately to changes in his environment and at the same time keep one’s composure in the face of challenges. He is very adaptive and looks at things strategically.
Like in any sport, when a player has mastered the skills of anticipation, that player is already one step ahead of all the other players and is most likely to win. In chess, it is very important to anticipate several steps ahead to ensure a win. Just like in leadership, the ability to anticipate situations, possible outcomes and plan your strategy to counter these outcomes, is a skill that can help make the best business decisions and reap maximum profits. Anticipating is getting one step ahead in the game. The strategic leader knows how to spot trends and look out for potential opportunities and changes in the environment. When you are able to anticipate a potential disaster or an opportunity, then you will be able to plan properly your strategy. There are several ways to develop this very useful skill. One would be to be involved in the daily operations of the business by talking to both external and internal customers. The next is to under your competitors and look into how they manage their business and lastly, participate in seminars and conferences related to one’s industry.
The next skill would be the ability to challenge. Good leaders do not just accept anything and everything laid out in front of them. Good leaders should know when and how to challenge decisions to be able to provide and receive different perspectives for the consideration of the team. Upon further consideration, the leader then makes his informed decision after looking at different angles of the situation. However, for one to be able to do this effectively, the leader must maintain an open mind at all times, focus on the why there was a problem in the first place, and be open to others giving their opinions on the matter.
Once all the opinions have been given, the leader will notice that some opinions will be in contrast with others. The leader must now filter these pool of opinions and be able to interpret which will lead him to the best option. He must be able to recognize the ideas that need to be shelved and the ideas that need to be explored more. To be able to interpret data properly, the leader must learn how to look at the details while keeping in mind the bigger picture. The leader must also be able to recognize information that is lacking and most importantly, keep an open mind.
The fourth skill is decision-making. In urgent situations, most often than not, decisions are made abruptly and usually misinformed. To be able to come up with sound decisions, several options must be considered pros and cons weighed against each other. To improve on one’s decision-making skills, a leader must always seek more options to choose from. Large scale decisions should further be broken down into its components to better understand the options. It is also very important for others to be kept abreast as to where you are in the decision process. Lastly, the team must be aware of who you choose to be involved more in the process so they may be able to prepare more to help you out in coming up with the soundest decision.
The article has been talking about the availability of options and its importance in making sound decisions. A good leader should be able to align each and every option to the final result he wishes to achieve. Success in the alignment process is dependent on how proactive the communication is between the leader and the team members, trust and interaction. Improve communication skills, elicit interaction among team members, be able to make the team understand underlying reasons behind the options and be open to resistance, to be able to improve on one’s ability to align.
Lastly, strategic leaders are people who encourage learnings among peers and at the same time, be open to any learning opportunity available at his disposal. For a strategic leader, every situation is a learning opportunity. A strategic leader paves the way for a two-way learning street for everyone on the team. To further improve one’s learning skills, make sure to have review sessions of actions taken by the team, be open to discussion regarding failures and do brainstorming activities on how to improve in the future. These activities encourage interaction and sharing of what each has learned in any given situation.
In conclusion, a strategic leader must be able to balance his development of all the mentioned skills. It will not be beneficial if he has mastery of some and insufficient in others. He must be able to maximize the execution of all six skill if he wants maximum efficiency.