essay on strategic leadership

Strategic Leadership Expository Essay

Introduction, survival in today’s business environment requires strategic leadership.

Survival of today’s business environment requires strategic leadership. Therefore, in order to gain some competitiveness in the environment it is important that each business organization must have its unique form of strategic leadership.

For that matter, strategic leadership refers to the potential of the manager to utilize good strategic plans in the employees’ management so as to influence them to achieve organizational change. Besides, the main objective of strategic leadership is to attain strategic productivity. Moreover, in order to have strategic leadership that is functional, it is relatively important to promote inventiveness and creativity in the organization in order to realize its goals and objectives.

In relation to today’s business environment, it is imperative to acknowledge that it is characterized by stiff competition. Consequently, it is therefore important for business organizations to have proactive and reactive strategic plans that seek to combat the competition.

Nevertheless, it is important that for these strategic plans to be implemented properly there is need to have strategic leadership in the organization in order to provide the much needed leadership. Strategic leadership is relevant in terms of providing vision and to ensure that business’ objectives and mission is attained. Therefore, this paper discusses approaches to strategic leadership as a way of surviving in today’s business environment

Survival of business in the current times requires strategic leadership. However, in order to have strategic leadership, there is need to craft effective and efficient strategic plans to drive businesses in a stiff competitive environment. For that matter, it is necessary to adopt an appropriate approach to strategic leadership to assure this survival (Watson & Wooldridge, 2005).

Trends in strategic planning that are currently being witnessed can inform several possible scenarios for the future. As earlier discussed, competition in the operating environment demands approaches to planning that will be able to craft and design strategies for organizations that are capable of making them bullet proof in terms of impending competition in the environment.

Therefore, for businesses to continuously maintain their operating space and market in the environment, it is relatively important to come up with scenarios that can be used in crafting and designing strategic plans for the organizations in order to give them a competitive edge in the environment (Mintzberg & Lampel, 1999).

However, these scenarios need to be proactive and reactive in order to make the organization maintain its vivaciousness. For that matter, it is relatively important to carry out trend analysis in order to predict what is likely to happen in the future. Therefore, it is important to have knowledge of what is happening currently in the environment by considering trends in the sector, country and the entire globe. As a result, scanning of the environment using several tools becomes compulsory in the effort of getting to understand the trend.

For instance, PESTE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological and Environmental) analysis aid in identification of different forces in control in a given environment. This provides a benchmark for strategic planning in the organization. As a result, the strategies formulated provide strategic leadership that is capable of enabling business organizations to survive in the stiff competition in the environment.

Moreover, it is emerging that competition is becoming inevitable in any business environment. Therefore, for any organization to survival in today’s business environment, there is need to have strategic leadership that is capable of identifying threats and opportunities in order to integrate them in planning their strategies. However, in identification of opportunities, the leadership should not use one single visionary view but it should use multiple views that provide bridge of opportunities in a watertight competitive environment.

Furthermore, many businesses are usually in the financial quagmire due to impending competition from both international and regional players. The financial problems usually emanate from reduction of goods or service costs which the organizations are forced to undertake due stiff competition in the environment. As a result of these, business leadership should be able to apply systems thinking approach in designing strategic plans to be able to address these problems.

This type of planning supports entrepreneurial strategic plans which are key in revolutionizing the organization. For that matter, to have a strong strategic leadership, organizations must embrace information communication technologies (ICT) in all of their operational activities. Excellent adoption of ICT services by a business is likely to promote effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery. This is a panacea to business survival in the environment.

In addition, strategic leadership entails increasing revenue for business organizations. For that reason, the leadership must apply sound marketing strategies that should use modern ICT services to be able to target both corporate and individual clients in order to guarantee its revenue inflow. In respect to businesses that provide ancillary services to customers, plans should be in place to improve and increase their services. This guarantees organizations to be strategic leaders in business operations.

Moreover, in order to survive in the business environment, there is need to have effective strategic responses that are geared towards addressing human resources and related scenarios to avoid their negative impacts on the organization’s business performance. Therefore, strategic leadership must have strategies in place that manage talents in order to guarantee continuous improvement.

Nonetheless, it is acknowledged by Chaharbaghi (2007) that talent management needs to be based on identifying, selecting and nurturing these key performers.

In addition, there is also need for sourcing, development and allocation of replacements of the key personnel. As well, allocation of required resources to key talents based on their potential value to the organization also forms part of talent management strategies. The management must use this to strategically position organization in the business environment for better survival.

Furthermore, businesses should also appreciate and use diversification strategies in their corporate portfolio in order to survive in the environment. Strategic leadership should allow corporate units liberty to venture into new business entities provided their new ventures comply with the stipulated threshold given by the parent organization (Watson, 2001).

Nonetheless, this should be taken to ensure that shareholders interests are taken into account. This can be done by ensuring that the value of corporate share on the stock market is competitively maintained in order to guarantee shareholders value in terms of dividends.

On the other hand, it is considered that communication is the most crucial function in management of any organization. Accordingly, improved communication results into improved performance of the organization both internally and externally.

However, for this to be accomplished there is need to develop better communication structures that are able to address both internal and external needs of the company. For instance, good internal communication structure will help to prevent issues that could lead to conflict in the organization. As a result, proper communication strategies serve as a proper way of achieving business survival in the operating environment.

For that matter, it is imperative that a business that wants to survive in a competitive environment should prioritize communication system in its operational structures. It should value communication among its structure of management and enable its workforce to freely communicate irrespective of their level in the organization.

For this reason, strategic leadership should assume flat structure of management since traditional tall bureaucratic system of management is a recipe of communication breakdown (Vaiman, 2008). According to Robert (1998), flat system of management have few levels which implies that both upward and downward communication are simplified and as a result, there is always less distortion and inaccuracy in the message relayed. This is a recipe to business survival.

Besides, balanced score cards is another approach that strategic leadership can use in its business operations in order to maintain its survival in a competitive environment. These include; identification of new opportunities in the company processes, products and services.

However, for this to be achieved, several metrics have to be put in place. These metrics include clients’ satisfaction which can be established through evaluation of their feedbacks in relation to products and services (Bryson et.al, 2007). For that matter, continued satisfaction of clients’ needs guarantee continued improvement of the business which means continued survival in the business environment.

However, business strategic leadership must also apply operational process implementation of the balanced scorecards to bring forth the survival required. Just like its formulation, implementation process must follow defined approach to achieve the desired result.

Nonetheless, it is important to have collaboration, cooperation and coordination in the implementation process. According to Bryson (2011), implementation of strategies acts as a transition from their planning phase where they are incorporated in different sub systems of the company to bring the desired value.

With respect to business organization, collaboration, cooperation and coordination are crucial in the effort of achieving the desired outcomes as intended in the company’s strategic plans.

Therefore, there is need for the management and the entire stakeholders of any business to practice these values in order to realize effectiveness and efficiency. Nevertheless, it is postulated by Choe and Roehl (2007) that collaboration, cooperation and coordination in the implementation process of any organization help to achieve competitive survival in the operating environment.

Besides, in order to attain survival in the business environment, it is relatively important to apply management commitment in strategic leadership. The management of any organization has the sole responsibility to ensure quality improvement. They should do this by ensuring that the required resources are availed to relevant stakeholders involved in the business processes. In this respect, there are several initiatives that the management must ensure to achieve the desired continuous improvement.

This can achieved through formulation of improvement teams which involves senior managers of the organization. According to Elbanna and Younies (2008) there should be several improvement teams that should be in place to ensure the implementation process of strategic plans. These teams should comprise the senior managers in order to have their executive support.

Furthermore, for strategic leadership, it is imperative that business organizations adopt participative approach during implementation stage of their strategic plans. According to Choe and Roehl (2007), participative approach helps to attain continuous improvement of organization since all stakeholders are at liberty to give their personal views.

This can be accomplished through provision of a suggestion box where people would provide their suggestions to the implementation teams. The suggestion box provides a platform for all stakeholders in the organization to provide their voice in the implementation process towards attaining environmental competitiveness.

According to Holmberg and Cummings (2009) forming powerful guiding coalitions in the implementation process of the strategies is one of the best ways that strategic leadership can use in business for their survival. This step is important since it helps to convince several stakeholders in the organization the necessity of change. However, this can easily be accomplished through strong leadership that must be supported by all key members of the organization.

Therefore, organizations are required to identify good leaders who are supposed to serve as true crusaders of implementation of strategies. Additionally, it is relatively important for these leaders to win emotional commitment of strategic people in the organization. It is also important to concentrate on team building efforts so as to have a strong change coalition (Elbanna, 2008). By building strong coalition teams, it serves as one way of empowering other people to implement strategies.

Strategic management model for competitive survival of any organization must seek to establish competitive advantage in a sustained manner. However, for a continuous competitive advantage to be established, it is necessary that strategic leadership should create a value strategy that is not being implemented by potential competitors in the environment.

Nonetheless, it is also important that an organization strategic leadership must create value chain envy. This entails creating a value, capturing this value and later protecting it for the entry and integration into the market. According to David and David (2003), it is believed that when the value share that is captured is higher than value share that is created then envy of the value chain will be protected.

Choe and Roehl (2007) postulated that value chain theory is pivotal in creating a strong competitive advantage in a business environment. Therefore, it is relatively important to acknowledge that any organization that seeks to establish its strong competitive advantage needs to create value and then appropriating the value for a competitive purpose.

Moreover, it is well understood that organizations in the same industry usually compete when they have the same value system. For that reason, for organizations to strongly survive in the operating environment, they ought to create a totally different value system that should give them a completely different value system in the environment to ensure that they remain the market leader.

On the other hand, it relatively important to protect the value chain in order to prevent competitive imitation by the possible competitors. For that matter, strategic leadership can only ward off competition imitation by adopting models that appear repellant to potential competitors (Elbanna, 2008).

In conclusion, it can be opined that in the current times, competition in business environment is on the increase. This is so since the market has been liberalized and even those businesses that used to enjoy monopoly are also faced with stiff competition. Therefore, strategic plans of each business remain to be the only panacea for their survival.

However, it is also believed that strategic plans are not an end to themselves. For that matter, in order to successfully survive in the business environment, it is relatively important to have good strategic leadership in place in order to guarantee realization of business vision and mission thus facilitating survival (Elbanna & Younies, 2008).

Bryson, J., Ackermann, F. & Eden, C. (2007) Putting the resource-based view of strategy and distinctive competencies to work in public organizations. Public Administration Review , 67(4), pp 702-717.

Chaharbaghi, K. (2007)The problematic of strategy: a way of seeing is also a way of not seeing. Management Decision , 45(3), pp 327-339.

Choe, S. & Roehl, T. (2007) What to shed and what to keep: corporate transformation in Korean business groups. Long Range Planning , 40(4/5), pp 465-487.

David, F. & David, F. (2003) It’s time to redraft your mission statement. Journal of Business Strategy , 24(1), p. 11.

Elbanna, S. & Younies, H. (2008) The relationships between the characteristics of the strategy process: evidence from Egypt. Management Decision , 46(4), pp 626-639.

Elbanna, S. (2008) Planning and participation as determinants of strategic planning effectiveness: evidence from the Arabic context. Management Decision , 46(5), pp 779-796.

Holmberg, S. & Cummings, J. (2009) Building successful strategic alliances: strategic process and analytical tool for selecting partner industries and firms. Long Range Planning , 42(2), pp 164-193.

Mintzberg, H. & Lampel, J. (1999) Reflecting on the strategy process. Sloan Management Review , 40(3), pp 21-30.

Robert, M. (1998) Strategy Pure & Simple 2: How Winning Companies Dominate their Competitors . New York, McGraw-Hill.

Vaiman, V. (2008) Smart talent management: Building knowledge asset for competitive advantage. USA, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.

Watson, A. & Wooldridge, B. (2005) Business unit manager influence on corporate-level strategy formulation. Journal of Managerial Issues , 17(2), pp 147-161.

Watson, T. (2001) In Search of Management . revised ed. London, Thompson Publishers.

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By Colin Baker Leaders Staff

Colin Baker

Leadership and Business Writer

Colin Baker is a business writer for Leaders Media. He has a background in as a television journalism, working as...

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Jan 12, 2022

What is Strategic Leadership? And What Does It Looks Like?

What is strategic leadership, the qualities of a strategic leader, examples of strategic leadership, what strategic leadership is not, how to become a strategic leader.

Businesses often set ambitious goals but most frequently fail to achieve them. According to a  survey  from Clutch, 77 percent of small business leaders expressed confidence that they would reach all of their goals. 

So, how many small businesses actually reach their goals? 

Only 5 percent. 

That’s a significant gap between a company’s vision and what they achieve in reality. Looking at the numbers, it’s clear  there’s a disconnect between what business leaders think they can do and what they actually do . 

The same survey from Clutch pinpoints where business failure begins. According to respondents,  only 15 percent documented their entire strategy.  An even more stunning 27 percent didn’t record  any  part of their strategy.

Without strategic leadership, companies have a weak foundation. As the business grows, there is no strong structure rooted to the ground to prevent things from caving in. If your company isn’t practicing strategic leadership, you’re putting everyone in harm’s way. 

Strategic leadership is crucial for companies to succeed. With so few implementing it, the time has come to fix the problem.

This article will finally set the record straight on: 

• What strategic leadership is.
• What it is not.
• How you can start demonstrating it. 
• And real-world examples of what a strategic leader looks like.

Strategic leadership happens when a leader shares a vision and goal with their team and inspires them to work together to reach it.  A strategic leader often acts as the motivating force for an organization , letting individuals know their role in achieving the vision. This leadership style helps others have direction at all times.

1. Possesses a Clear Vision

Strategic leadership can’t happen without a vision.  The vision is what inspires and motivates people to action. It sets the tone for any plans and strategies. With this in mind, a leader must gain that vision before they can take the helm and lead others. Without a clear destination in mind, how could they lead anyone anywhere? 

But a strategic leader is more than a person with a vision. They need to cast that vision onto the people around them. The most effective strategic leaders can get others to share their vision and actively work toward making it a reality.

To gain that vision, you first have to visualize it. Spending anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes every day doing visualization practices will help expand your vision and see the destination in your mind. You can then reverse engineer your vision by looking at what steps you need to accomplish to reach it. These smaller goals are what you can measure to judge how much you’re progressing. They also help you make firm plans that you can communicate with others.

The best strategists are visualists. Once you see what you’re working toward, you can outline it, create correct goals, and motivate people to get involved. As Dwight Eisenhower put it, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” Sharing your enthusiasm for the vision will make others feel it too.

2. Cultivates Innovation

Strategic leaders should have the courage and the mindset to  challenge the status quo  through innovation. By doing so, they can also instill a spirit of innovation in their organizations. 

Innovation can happen in several ways. You may choose to make iterations on existing products or services. That’s what J. Patrick Doyle, president and CEO of Domino’s Pizza,  did  in 2013 when the company was struggling. Besides using improved ingredients, he implemented changes such as open kitchens so people could see workers preparing their food. He also launched Pizzavestments, where the company gave Domino’s gift cards worth 500 dollars to startup companies, knowing they would use them when participating in brainstorming sessions. These innovations and others helped Domino’s rebound in the ensuing years.

Innovation can also happen when exploring new ideas and markets as part of a blue ocean strategy. This  innovation strategy  creates an entirely new space where only the innovator resides. Think of companies like Uber, which took the idea of a taxi service and opened it to everyone with a vehicle and a smartphone. Strategic leadership results in this type of success as innovation reigns supreme.

3. Seeks Wisdom

Strategic leaders also spend their lives seeking and gaining wisdom. They have an  unquenchable desire for the truth  and follow strong principles wherever they lead. 

Wisdom is a combination of knowledge, application of knowledge, and truth. It constantly tests what works and what doesn’t. Leaders who have wisdom will also desire to share it with others at every opportunity so others may benefit from it.

4. Takes Decisive Action

Once a leader has wisdom, they can then make significant decisions with confidence. This can happen even if a leader doesn’t have all the information they want. Strategic leaders examine all the options, understand the pros and cons, and approach each possibility with an unbiased mindset.

When push comes to shove, leaders must take action.  They can do so with certainty if they act according to their principles and values. During  decision-making , a leader considers the impact their decisions will have in the short term and long term. They get others involved in the process since they want feedback and opinions from other people, too. 

When they make a decision, strategic leaders never feel like they need to settle for something unsatisfactory. They charge straight ahead, fully committed to what they decide.

5. Focuses on Culture

Another one of the  leadership qualities  that strategic leaders have is an unwavering focus on culture. They have a clear understanding of the value of a strong culture in an organization. That strong culture has a more beneficial effect on workers than micromanaging them. 

Strategic leaders invest in their culture because they know in the long run that the right culture will have a more positive impact on the bottom line than anything else. As LaKisha Greenwade of Lucki Fit  explains , “ Cultures that thrive have leadership support , champions throughout the organization, and people who believe in what is trying to be accomplished. Without the buy-in from those levels, it will flop.”

Southwest Airlines is well known as an example of a business with a strong workplace  culture . From the beginning, founder Herb Kelleher sought to instill core values in each employee. Those values include working safely, wowing customers, possessing a warrior spirit and servant’s heart, and demonstrating a great attitude. Company leadership reinforces these values at every turn, making Southwest Airlines a success. In fact,  85 percent of employees say they take pride in working for the company.

6. Drives Excellence

Strategic leaders never settle for less, including their own knowledge and skillset. Their leadership strategies depend on  constantly developing themselves during their lives.  They can do this in a variety of ways. They often meet with other leaders to draw on their experiences and expertise. 

Leaders also spend much of their time learning through reading to expand their knowledge.  Warren Buffet  says  he read as much as 600 to 1,000 pages every day when he started as an investor. Mark Cuban claims he reads three hours a day to grow his confidence and consume as much information as possible. Every strategic leader should make reading a vital component of a leadership strategy.

Leaders can also practice their leadership skills by becoming a  mentor . This gives them the opportunity to share with others all the knowledge and experience they have accumulated through their constant drive for excellence. 

7. Refine Strategies

When looking at progress,  strategic leaders believe that they and their teams can always do better.  They’re constantly searching for ways to refine the work that gets done. They can do this by analyzing current data, checking in with coworkers, and measuring how far they are from hitting goals.

Strategic leaders know that no method is perfect, and there’s always improvement people can make. Maybe a team member will perform better with more resources and support, or perhaps a different coworker prefers a more hands-off approach. Leaders look at current strategies and try to refine them as much as possible so no time or effort is wasted.

• Ray Dalio:  At a time when financial institutions were all about crunching the numbers, Ray Dalio took a different  approach . Dalio found that studying history can be a good indicator of future economic conditions. This historical qualitative research has allowed the financial analyst to predict economic booms and busts, including the downturn in 2008. Dalio’s unique strategy has allowed him and his firm, Bridgewater, to become incredibly successful for decades.
• Steve Jobs:  To call Steve Jobs a visionary would be putting it lightly. The ways in which his leadership strategy has innovated and changed the world are difficult to measure. From the introduction of the personal computer to the smartphone, Jobs and Apple have been on the cutting edge for generations. There’s perhaps no better example of Jobs’ innovative thinking than iTunes. Before iTunes came along, consumers had only two options: buying overpriced CDs for just a couple of songs they wanted or pirating them. At the time, the pirates were winning. Through iTunes, Jobs created something new and better, satisfying consumers and saving the music industry.
• Napoleon Bonaparte:  For good or ill, Napoleon Bonaparte put his leadership strategies to use as he conquered much of Europe. He was the first major world leader to introduce the concept of “total war” in the post-gunpowder era. Napoleon created his  strategies  from intense study of past military leaders like Alexander the Great, Caesar, and Hannibal. He was also a meticulous planner, having a firm knowledge of even minor details before launching a military campaign. Much of his strategy consisted of distractions leading to devastating flank attacks that divided his opponents. He found tremendous success on the battlefield until opposing nations started to use his own tactics against him.
• Bob Iger:  When Bob Iger became CEO of Disney, he examined what the company lacked and came up with a vision for what they could achieve. Iger boiled down his strategy into three  priorities . The first was to invest Disney’s capital in high-quality branded content. The second was to use technology to create better content and reach people in different ways. The last priority was to grow in different markets around the world. In the past decade, Disney has primarily succeeded on these points. With a streaming service like Disney+, the company has made strides and seen its influence grow even more than it had before.
• Sara Blakley:  Like many entrepreneurs,  Sara Blakley  started with almost nothing but grew her business to the point where she became a self-made billionaire. During her journey, she maintained a clear vision of transforming the women’s undergarments industry despite numerous challenges and missteps along the way. She believed in her innovative product and knew who her audience was. Blakley also holds true to an ambitious mission, which in her own words is to “help women feel great about themselves and their potential.”

Many people can confuse what strategic leadership entails, leading to frustration and dissatisfaction throughout an organization. As such, it’s essential to understand what strategic leadership is not.

First, micromanaging is not something a strategic leader does.  While some managers may keep a list of tasks their workers need to do, it fails to account for vision and ambitious goals. Micromanagers insist that everyone does X, Y, and Z and may reprimand those who fail to meet this standard. On the other hand,  strategic leaders cast their vision to their coworkers . There’s no need (or time) for them to micromanage and ensure everyone stays on task because everyone believes in that vision and works hard to achieve it.

Additionally, strategic leaders are not reactionaries. They don’t spend their time putting out fires.  Strategic leadership anticipates problems and sees the bigger picture. Someone who only reacts can never innovate or lead.  Strategic leaders should avoid the reactionary model and focus more on being a revolutionary.

When asking “ What is leadership ?” every leader should look at creating a plan to become a strategic leader for their respective organizations. You can begin by modeling the leadership qualities listed above, but that might seem overwhelming, especially when you’re starting. To get going on the right path, narrow your focus and try the following tips.

• Take the time to visualize your destination and what you want to accomplish. 
• Practice  strengths-based leadership  to ensure everyone will excel where you place them. 
• Model  servant leadership  for your team and show them you have an innate desire for everyone to succeed. 
• Stay out of the weeds for a while by spending less time working and more time learning and thinking. It might seem counterintuitive at first, but this will help you outline a vision others can follow.

As you spend more time thinking, you eventually hit “the shift.”  This “shift” happens when a leader spends roughly 25 percent of their time  not  working directly on the business.  Instead, they use that time to think, strategize, learn, meet with other leaders, develop their communication skills, and constantly innovate. Many leaders have seen their businesses take off once they hit that 25 percent mark, but things truly hit another level when a leader can get to the point where they spend about half their time in this stage.

Think of strategic leaders like Steve Jobs or Warren Buffet. How much time do you think they spent away from the day-to-day operations of their businesses and just thinking about new destinations? That should be the goal for every strategic leader. It’s within your reach if you begin that journey today.

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Strategic Leadership: The Essential Skills

• Paul J. H. Schoemaker,
• Steve Krupp,
• Samantha Howland

The storied British banker and financier Nathan Rothschild noted that great fortunes are made when cannonballs fall in the harbor, not when violins play in the ballroom. Rothschild understood that the more unpredictable the environment, the greater the opportunity—if you have the leadership skills to capitalize on it. Through research at the Wharton School and […]

Reprint: R1301L

The more uncertain your environment, the greater the opportunity—if you have the leadership skills to capitalize on it. Research at the Wharton School and at the authors’ consulting firm, involving more than 20,000 executives to date, has identified six skills that, when mastered and used in concert, allow leaders to think strategically and navigate the unknown effectively. They are the abilities to anticipate, challenge, interpret, decide, align, and learn. This article describes the six skills in detail and includes a self-assessment that will enable you to identify the ones that most need your attention. The authors have found that strength in one skill cannot easily compensate for a deficit in another. An adaptive strategic leader has learned to apply all six at once.

The storied British banker and financier Nathan Rothschild noted that great fortunes are made when cannonballs fall in the harbor, not when violins play in the ballroom. Rothschild understood that the more unpredictable the environment, the greater the opportunity—if you have the leadership skills to capitalize on it. Through research at the Wharton School and at our consulting firm involving more than 20,000 executives to date, we have identified six skills that, when mastered and used in concert, allow leaders to think strategically and navigate the unknown effectively: the abilities to anticipate, challenge, interpret, decide, align, and learn. Each has received attention in the leadership literature, but usually in isolation and seldom in the special context of high stakes and deep uncertainty that can make or break both companies and careers. This article describes the six skills in detail. An adaptive strategic leader—someone who is both resolute and flexible, persistent in the face of setbacks but also able to react strategically to environmental shifts—has learned to apply all six at once.

• PS Paul J. H. Schoemaker is the former research director of the Wharton School’s Mack Institute and a coauthor of Peripheral Vision (Harvard Business Review Press, 2006). He served as an adviser to the Good Judgment Project.
• SK Steve Krupp is Senior Managing Partner at Decision Strategies International, Inc.
• SH Samantha Howland , a senior managing partner at DSI, leads its Executive and Leadership Development Practice.

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Strategic Leadership

Senior level managers must tackle complex problems using creative problem-solving and a portfolio of skills and styles. Here’s a look at how being a strategic leader can move an organization—and your career—forward.

Pamela Reynolds

On any given day in a large organization, managers make dozens if not hundreds of decisions, both large and small. How many units are getting out the door? How well are employees performing? Are there supply chain issues or problems recruiting new hires? Is distribution functioning smoothly?

While some leaders spend their days immersed in these day-to-day, short-term operational issues, strategic leaders focus on the big picture — where the organization is going and how to best utilize talent to get there.

In this blog, we’ll look at exactly what it means to be a strategic leader. We’ll examine the top skills and qualities associated with senior-level leadership, as well as how you can become a strategic leader in your own right. 

Defining Strategic Leadership

Strategic leadership is when managers use their creative problem-solving skills and strategic vision to help team members and an organization achieve long-term goals. 

More specifically, according to Margaret Andrews, instructor of Strategic Leadership , a Professional & Executive Development program in the Harvard Division of Continuing Education, strategic leadership is not so much a clear-cut leadership style as a mindset — “that you want to be strategic about your leadership.”

“ Strategic leadership is about understanding yourself and your goals,” she says. “It’s about understanding the situation, considering options, and deciding. It’s also about getting the best out of people, the best out of the situation, so that the organization does well. Leaders who lead strategically have done the inner work necessary to lead with integrity, vision, and purpose.” 

The concept of strategic leadership is not always straightforward . Leading strategically actually requires a manager to choose from among a variety of leadership styles depending on the situation and the people involved. Such leadership styles might include:

• Authoritarian leadership : when a leader imposes expectations and defines outcomes
• Participative leadership : when a leader involves team members in the decision-making process
• Delegative leadership : when a leader delegates tasks to other team members
• Transactional leadership : when a leader rewards or punishes team members in an effort to complete a task.
• Transformational leadership : when a leader uses a vision to inspire and motivate others
• Servant leadership : when a leader serves others by putting the needs of employees first, helping them develop to perform at higher levels

“It’s about using the leadership style that fits the situation at hand,” notes Andrews. 

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What Are the Top Skills and Qualities of Strategic Leaders?

Adept strategic leaders have cultivated a special skill set beyond the obvious ones—being trustworthy, developing a strategic plan, and delegating—often cited in business textbooks and blogs. 

Skills centered around emotional intelligence, the soft “people skills,” are the traits that allow strategic leaders to successfully adapt to an ever-changing economic and technological climate, remaining forward-looking and able to see industry trends and directions long before others in an organization do. 

Passion, purpose, and conviction are what make strategic leaders “visionary.”

Some of the most important characteristics of someone who leads strategically include: 

They Know Who They Are

“They really understand themselves, who they are and what matters,” says Andrews. “They know their values.”

They Are Interested in Others

Strategic leaders want to hear from team members, and they listen attentively as part of their leadership strategy. As a result, team members naturally feel more invested. Andrews references a famous quote of Theodore Roosevelt: “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” 

“There’s an element of truth in that,” she says. “People want direction. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to have their own ideas for how to achieve great things considered as well.”

They Are Good Communicators

It goes without saying that leaders who think strategically speak clearly in ways that others can easily understand. But there is an added dimension — good listening skills, the second trait in our list. Good communicators listen closely enough to hear the reservations of those wavering on the fence and are able to create buy-in by addressing those concerns. 

In addition, they are aware how their words, actions, and moods affect their teammates, and can calibrate their words and actions accordingly.

Because they’re good listeners, with a good dose of empathy and compassion included in the mix, they can be very effective at motivating team members. Engaged employees are more likely to do good work, persist through problems, innovate, and contribute to the overall strategy.

They Are Open-Minded 

Strategic leaders encourage and seek out diverse points of view.

“The easy problems are solved, and we’re left with the harder problems which need new ways of thinking, which often come from a diverse team,” says Andrews. “We need different points of view, which come from different vantage points, educational paths, and personal and professional experiences.”

Who Are Some Examples of Strategic Leaders?

Leaders who exemplify some of the qualities found in great strategic leadership abound. Below are four different types of leaders who demonstrate at least one of the traits of a strategic leader.

Oprah Winfrey @Oprah :The Great Communicator

Winfrey started off as the first black local news anchor at a Nashville television station, only to become one of the wealthiest businesswomen in the world as CEO of Harpo Inc. a multimedia production company. Although she has been hailed as the most powerful business woman in the world by Forbes thanks to her business acumen, she is best known in her more humble role as a day-time talk show host. In 25 seasons on the set of “Oprah,” she displayed a down-to-earth, relatable communication style that embodied attentive listening, empathy, compassion, and the ability to connect with people from radically different backgrounds. 

Howard Schultz @HowardSchultz : Knowing His Purpose

Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, made the radical decision to offer benefits for workers at the end of his first year as CEO of the coffee chain. At the time, it was virtually unheard of in the fast-food industry. Schultz, however, had grown up with a truck driving father who had no health insurance after breaking an ankle. Schultz was able to use his passion and sense of mission to persuade the Starbucks board to offer health insurance to baristas, even those working part-time. 

Jacinda Ardern @jacindaardern : Interested in Others

Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, has been applauded around the world for her substantial leadership skills and steady hand during a crisis. She is often praised for her handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, in which she was able to keep levels of infection in the country relatively low. According to industry professionals, she “focuses on ‘we’ not ‘I,’” listens to expert advice and acts on what she hears, and acknowledges both her strengths and weaknesses, engendering trust.

Jeff Bezos @jeffbezos : Open to Big Ideas

Chairman and former CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos was able to transform his online bookstore into the world’s largest internet company by revenue, and the largest provider of virtual assistants and cloud infrastructure services. His vision was indeed of Amazonian proportions and has consequently changed the world. His innovation mindset and willingness to embrace bold new ideas means that his empire continues to grow, from moving Amazon into providing streaming movies to taking on sub-orbital spaceflight with his company Blue Origin. 

How to Become a Strategic Leader

By now, it should be obvious that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to strategic leadership . 

People who lead strategically come in all shapes and sizes and can be found in every arena, from politics, to entertainment, to business, and beyond. 

But despite their variety of backgrounds, interests, and styles, there is one basic thing strategic leaders seem to know: “Leadership is the human side of business,” says Andrews. “That’s how we get things done, through other people, and that’s what leadership is about, since no two situations are alike.” 

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Everything you need to know about strategic leadership

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Definition of the strategic leadership style

Key skills a strategic leader must have, relevant figures with strategic leadership characteristics.

Pros and cons of strategic leadership

Examples of strategic leadership situations

How to become a strategic leader.

Strategic leadership vs. other leadership styles

Organizations around the globe are looking to improve their leadership style, but it can be challenging to find the right one.

Choosing the right leadership style for your team is the best way to challenge old practices, mitigate risks, scale your organization, and communicate effectively.

 That’s where strategic leadership comes in. 

In this article, I’ll explain how strategic leadership works, how it compares to other leadership styles, and why it’s my favorite style so far.

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Strategic leadership is a leader’s ability to visualize, plan, lead, and make the best out of the resources they have to execute strategies efficiently and successfully. 

Strategic leaders marry their strategic plan to their strategic management . Their organization respects their leadership role and overall vision while working to bring that vision to life. 

Productivity and management mindset play major roles — how leaders think equals how they lead. A strategic mindset reflects something I call strategic agility: the ability to see how the big picture relates to the here and now.

1. Strategic thinking

A strategic leader must first be a visionary and a strategic thinker. They think with the end in mind, and they only focus on necessary tasks. 

2. Communication skills

Being able to communicate the vision of where the organization should be heading is vital. Strategic leaders must have the social skills necessary to communicate their vision with the team accurately.

3. Strategic planning 

Since organizations rely on systems to save time, money, and resources, understanding how to create systems for planned initiatives is crucial.

4. Measuring objectives and key results (OKRs) 

Strategic leaders must be able to create a goal-setting framework that defines and tracks their objectives and outcomes. 

5. Strategic agility

Being able to turn the organization’s long-term vision into daily objectives is an integral part of strategic leadership. Strategic leaders must have a wide perspective to be able to apply an overall vision to the here and now.

6. Awareness

Strategic leaders understand how their actions and moods impact their teams. They think before acting, have emotional intelligence, and can control distracting or negative moods. 

7. Trust and reliability 

You can count on strategic leaders. They go after their goals with passion and determination, and they stop at nothing until their vision turns into reality. 

8. Execution

Strategic leaders are masters at strategy implementation. They understand how to turn goals into action and action into results. They make the most out of their systems and resources. 

9. Integrity

Being grounded in integrity and compassion is an essential part of strategic leadership. Strategic leaders must be able to consider their team’s ideas, feelings, and perspectives before making decisions. 

10. Management 

Strategic leaders understand how to lead a team. They know how to allocate resources, delegate responsibilities , and empower their subordinates to make decisions on their behalf.

Prominent leaders have shown us what success looks like when vision becomes an executed reality. 

Here are three popular figures who have wowed us with their strategic leadership styles.

Katrín Jakobsdóttir

In November 2017, 41-year-old Katrín Jakobsdóttir was the second woman in the history of Iceland to be elected prime minister. 

Jakobsdóttir is known for several strategic initiatives, but one of her most successful was taking preventative measures against COVID-19. As a result, Iceland faced the pandemic with very few casualties and are on their way to eliminating the virus completely. 

Jakobsdóttir is also the chairperson of the Left-Green Movement in Iceland and holds a strategic position as Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders.

Her strategic vision for the future is fulfilling the Paris Agreement targets for 2030, which will put them on track to be carbon neutral by 2040. 

Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Ardern secured a historic election victory for prime minister in New Zealand when her party won the highest percentage of votes in more than five decades. 

Just like Jakobsdóttir, Ardern acted swiftly to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. As a result, she was able to keep casualties to a minimum. Ardern is the first head of government to give birth in office since Pakistan’s former prime minister. She is also the first world leader to go on maternity leave in office. 

She’s known for remaining consistent and direct about her leadership strategy. Within 36 hours of a terrorist attack that killed 50 people in Christchurch in 2019, Ardern reached out to politicians to tighten up gun laws. 

A few days later, she announced immediate changes to ban assault rifles and military-style semi-automatics. She also offered emotional and financial support to families who lost loved ones, and did so in their native languages. 

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, has brought his company’s stock up 225,233% and the company’s market cap up to $1.7 trillion. 

What’s Bezos’s business strategy? Thinking long-term. 

Nearly two decades ago, in his 1997 letter to shareholders, Bezos said, “we believe that a fundamental measure of our success will be the shareholder value we create over the long term.” 

Bezos’s strategy is focusing on things that don’t change and refusing to focus on short-term gains. 

Bezos also emphasizes the importance of intuition, research, and deep knowledge of the market — especially the trends that drive it.

Strategic leadership pros

• Vision: When organizations have a vision they’re aiming toward, they’re able to set short-term goals that help them reach long-term goals. 
• Planning: Organizations are better equipped to achieve goals and handle strategic decisions when they have a well-thought-out plan. 
• Strategic systems: Organizations can save time, money, and resources when they create frameworks and systems to support strategic change.
• Encourages unity: Effective leadership encourages unity and interdepartmental collaboration. Strategic leaders value team members’ opinions and input. 
• Clarity: When strategic leaders clearly communicate how tasks relate to overall goals, it’s easier for team members to understand why their work is meaningful.

Strategic leadership cons

• Lack of flexibility: When strategic plans are implemented company-wide, it can be difficult for strategic leaders to change their framework if something needs to be altered. 
• Difficulty predicting the future: Predicting the future plays a major role in how strategic leaders operate, but it’s not always possible to predict the future accurately. 
• Can be expensive: Successful strategic plans can increase profits and overall business success. But if a plan doesn’t work, it could result in losing departments, layoffs, or canceled projects. 
• Stalled growth: If strategic leaders are too conservative or too liberal about taking risks, it can stunt the organization’s growth or prevent the organization from seeing problems that were on the rise.
• Lack of presence: If strategic leaders struggle with finding the balance between looking toward the future and addressing the here and now, it can keep them from addressing current problems in the organization.

Note: it’s important to keep in mind that not every pro and con will apply to every organization. Every strategic leader is different, and some are more effective than others.

Here are two real-life situations that demonstrate strategic leadership:

Knowing that the US car industry was more advanced and efficient than their Japanese one, Toyota’s strategy involved studying its competitors to copy their best practices. 

After years of studying American car makers’ production lines (like Ford), Toyota blended American processes with their own to create something even better.

Toyota’s strategy includes knowing its weaknesses, focusing on efficiency, and cultivating high-quality design and innovation. 

Instead of just becoming another bank, PayPal used unconventional strategies to grow its empire. 

PayPal adopted strategies like holding undisbursed funds in commercial interest-bearing checking accounts instead of engaging in fractional-reserve banking, and spending less money on technology (even though its technology platform is better than banks’).

Paypal also refuses to partner directly with banks. Instead, it focuses on building partnerships with merchants, being quicker to market than other payment innovation companies, and building trust with consumers.

1. Balance the present with the future

To become a strategic leader, it’s vital to balance the day-to-day with future plans. 

Host weekly meetings with team members and departments, and/or ask employees to record daily or weekly issues in a shared system so you can stay up-to-date with any issues related to the strategic plan. 

2. Challenge the status-quo

Instead of conducting business as usual, challenge old practices, create better processes and solutions, and motivate your team to do the same.

3. Have a risk management plan

With strategic plans come possible risks. That’s why it’s vital to always create a risk management plan. It’s also important to establish boundaries (like initiating a fixed budget) to help you prevent negative outcomes before they start. 

4. Communicate effectively

Strategic plans work best when everyone’s on board. It’s crucial to be clear and get everyone on the same page. Effective communication creates powerful teams that not only support strategic initiatives but also propel initiatives forward faster. 

5. Establish a planning committee

Nobody understands the inner workings of an organization like frontline staff, mid-level managers, and senior leaders. Creating a planning team can help strategic leaders better understand company culture, stakeholders, and challenges.

Let’s examine how strategic leadership compares to other leadership styles: 

Democratic leadership style

Democratic leaders make decisions based on each team member’s input. Although the leader makes the final call, decisions are often made collectively. 

For example, the democratic leader may open a discussion about a few decision-related options. After discussing the options, the leader may open the decision to a vote or consider their team’s feedback before formulating the final decision. 

How does strategic leadership compare?

Like democratic leaders, strategic leaders recognize that everyone has to buy in to ensure the strategic plan’s success. Under strategic leadership, the leader communicates the organization’s strategic vision and influences others to adopt the vision. 

Autocratic leadership style

Autocratic leaders are the exact opposite of democratic leaders. The leader makes all of the decisions without input from anyone who reports to them. 

The leader doesn’t consider team members’ opinions before giving direction. Team members are expected to obey decisions at a time and pace specified by the leader. This leadership style is rarely effective or sustainable long-term but it can be good for dealing with crisis situations. 

Strategic leaders typically adhere to a strict vision for the company, but team member input is still valued — as long as team members are open to new ideas and challenging the status quo.

Servant leadership style

Servant leaders , also called laissez-faire leaders, give nearly all authority to their team members. 

This could mean having no major company policies around deadlines and processes , or it could mean putting their full trust into team members as they focus on big-picture items (like running the company). 

Strategic leaders trust their team and value objective thinking, but not if it risks company growth or the strategic vision.

Why strategic leadership might be better

The best leadership style ultimately depends on the organization, but strategic leadership might be better because strategic leaders:

• Are open to new ideas as long they support the overall vision
• Make calculated decisions 
• Know how to prevent and mitigate risks
• Are constantly looking for ways to improve
• Encourage objective thinking that supports the overall vision
• Support unity
• Build commitment 
• Ensure clarity around tasks and objectives 

In other words, strategic leaders have the best balance and combination of the other three leadership styles, plus a few other tricks up their sleeve.

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I hope this guide on strategic leadership will give your organization clarity on how to use this and other styles of leadership to improve.

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Maggie Wooll, MBA

Maggie Wooll is a researcher, author, and speaker focused on the evolving future of work. Formerly the lead researcher at the Deloitte Center for the Edge, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from Princeton University and an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Maggie is passionate about creating better work and greater opportunities for all.

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Leadership Essay

27 August, 2020

12 minutes read

Author:  Richard Pircher

As a college student, you must write essays on a regular basis since the latter is one of the most common types of home assignments. All this means is that in order to get good grades and be successful with writing the papers, you need to have a sound understanding of the structure. Additionally, what you should never neglect is the variety of essay types. Indeed, your essay will significantly differ from one type to another: description essay will most likely have a structure that is slightly different from an argumentative one.

What you may have already encountered in your academic life is the work on a leadership essay. Although it sounds pretty complicated and vague, it is mostly possible to master an essay on leadership. Below is a guide for you to get an insight into this particular essay type.

What is a good leadership essay?

A good leadership essay is the one in which the essay writer has fully covered the topic of leadership and understood its core ideas. More specifically, to end up with a flawless leadership essay, you will need to indicate what makes a person a good leader. For achieving the latter, you will most likely need to conduct research and trace how a particular person reaches his or her goals. In other words, the task is to discover which actions the person undertakes, what their followers say about him or her, and how the person organizes the work. So, a leadership essay implies providing real-life success examples and further revealing them.

Above all, a good leadership essay is the one that follows a precise, clear, comprehensive structure. Structuring your essay about leadership in the most coherent way leads to a win-win situation: you have fewer troubles and barriers to writing a brilliant essay, and your teacher is able to comprehend the essay easily. This guide is what you will need to refer to to get an insight into how the flawless structure for a leadership essay looks like and how it will let you take a benefit.

How to write a Leadership essay?

To write a leadership essay that stands out, you first need to brainstorm all the ideas that you have and come up with a topic for your essay. If you are struggling with this step, you may think of some of the most influential people, read about them, and find out what makes them unique. Or, you can pick any topic which is mentioned at the end of this article. After you have chosen an issue, it is time to structure your essay appropriately.

As you already know, an essay constitutes three essential sections: introduction, main body, and conclusion. Below is the more detailed description of each of the parts.

Introduction

Of course, your leadership essay introduction will always vary depending on the topic of the essay. However, you can always begin by stating your vision of leadership regardless of the topic. Additionally, to motivate the reader and instantly catch his or her attention, you may use a quote of a famous leader, or simply a quote which you find relevant to the topic. Be aware that you should avoid outlining the essence and the role of the leadership in your introduction; leave it for the body paragraphs.

What you may also do in your leadership essay is ask a question, which will most likely intrigue the leader. Or it will at least give your reader an overview of what you will dwell on  in your essay.

Body Paragraphs

You will need to divide the main body into 3-5 paragraphs to make the structure more comprehensive. What you have to do at this point  is  give your reader a sound understanding of your ideas. Therefore, try to fit each idea in a single body paragraph so that you do not confuse your reader. Do not hesitate to indicate your examples to strengthen your arguments. For instance, you may explain a fact that makes a particular person you are writing about a real leader.

Also, always stick to your thesis statement and don’t forget that the body paragraphs should reveal the parts of your thesis statement.

As you may already know, you need to restate your opinion and briefly summarize all the points from the main body in conclusion. For instance, if you wrote your essay on qualities of an effective leader, state the most fundamental qualities and indicate why they matter the most. Besides, try not to copy what you have already written in the body – it is better to restate your opinion using different words. And, of course, beware adding any new and extra information; indicate only those points that you have already outlined in the text. Finally, keep in mind that it is always favorable to keep your concluding remarks short.

Leadership Essay Examples

Writing a leadership essay requires some research and time. In case you feel the necessity to go through an essay example, below is a leadership essay sample you can refer to.

Is leadership an inborn or an acquired feature?

Is everyone capable of becoming a leader, or is this ability innate? A lot of researchers have been struggling to answer this question. One assumption about leadership implies that the leader is the person who possesses particular characteristics. Another assumption claims that leaders are capable of acquiring specific features over their life span. As the evidence shows, leaders own many features that distinguish them among others and make more and more people become their followers. These might be cognitive abilities, psychological traits, professional qualities, and a lot more, and all of them will be either acquired or innate. Based on the importance of leadership qualities, such as commitment, stress resistance, and the ability to make quality decisions, it is reasonable to claim that leaders are made, not born. 

One can deem commitment as one of the top fundamental qualities of the leader. In essence, such a feature indicates that a person is passionate about the common goal, strives to be a team player, and makes every effort to reach a shared goal. As the history shows, none of the successful companies was uncoordinated by an influential, committed leader: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft – all of these companies are examples of dominant teams led by a dedicated leader. A committed leader also inspires his or her team to achieve common goals and put more effort into the shared activity. Besides, commitment is unlikely to be an innate feature; it instead comes with experience. This is so, since commitment implies dedicating oneself to the shared task, and one can reach it only via learning and continuous self-improvement.

Stress resistance is another incredibly important feature that every good leader should possess. This is because only a stress-resistant leader has sufficient capabilities to overcome any complexity and not let the anxiety and stress prevent him or her from making proper decisions. Besides, such a leader will most likely have a positive influence on the team, as long as leading by example will motivate the team members to attain the same emotional stability. What is so far familiar about stress resistance as an effective leader’s feature is that it can be either innate or attained. However, although some researchers admit that emotional stability is something one is born with, it is not entirely true; many people still put a great effort into self-improvement, changing the attitude to unfortunate situations, and so on. Therefore, being resistant to stress can be mostly attributed to a personality.

An ability to make high-quality decisions most likely determines the chances for an enterprise’s success. In particular, such quality is incredibly fundamental for a company of any size and professional orientation. Additionally, it is one of the top tasks of a good leader to make final decisions. What he or she should do implies brainstorming, discussing various opinions in the group, making forecasts, analyzing all the pros and cons. However, the leader is the one to make a final decision. Thereby, he is in charge of researching the market, discovering all the hidden truths, and analyzing the organization’s potential and capabilities to result in the most effective decision. As it flows logically from the latter, an ability to make sound quality decisions is purely a professional quality. This leads to the conclusion that one has to work hard to become a genuine leader and master the skill of making effective decisions. 

Overall, the leader may possess a multitude of different skills and master them perfectly. However, what has so far become transparent is that any leader, regardless of which team he leads, must possess three essential qualities. These qualities are commitment to the common goal, ability to handle and resist stress, and, finally, an ability to make effective decisions. All of the three qualities are most likely to be acquired over a lifetime. The statement below leads to the conclusion that even though some qualities can be innate, most are not the ones that leaders are born with. Hence, this answers an essential question: leadership feature is acquired, and not necessarily inborn.  

20 leadership essay topics

When coming up with your next leadership essay topic, it is imperative to brainstorm ideas and think of what leadership might be related to. If you are struggling with a topic of the importance of leadership essay or any relevant type of essay, you may quickly take a look at some of the possible topics we prepared for you:

• What are the main qualities of the leader?
• Successful Time Management as a feature of an effective leader
• The role that rhetoric plays in leadership
• The most exceptional leader in the history of the 20-th century
• The role of female leadership
• What are the challenges of the leader of the 21-st century?
• How college helps students develop leadership skills?
• Qualities of the leader that motivate people to follow them 
• Top things to avoid doing to become a team leader
• Examples of effective and ineffective leadership in the history
• Top techniques for developing leadership skills
• The interconnection of creativity and leadership 
• Is a university’s role fundamental in developing leadership skills?
• Dictatorship as an anti-example of leadership
• Liberal vs Authoritative leadership: which one works better?
• The influence of the leader’s role model on the followers’ mindset
• Main difficulties that the new leader may face in a new team
• Leadership of today vs leadership of the past: what has changed?
• Reasons why I want to become a member if the leadership program
• The role of cognitive abilities for the leader 

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• How to Structure a Leadership Essay (Samples to Consider)

Leadership is a complex concept, but it’s essential for boosting your career. That’s why a leadership essay focuses on applying the theoretical models and concepts of successful management to real-life situations. 

If you don’t know where to start writing such a paper, please read on for professional tips!

What Is Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay is a paper that analyzes leadership concepts and their application to real-life situations that may involve everyday business management, crisis situations, and other scenarios. 

Every essay on leadership is about defining a concept. Then, it’s either comparing it to similar management tools or proving that it’s useful (or not).

While some students enjoy writing such papers, other learners hate them. The below samples will come in handy, no matter which group is yours.

What Does Leadership Mean to You? (Essay Sample)

It is one of the most popular topics for a leadership essay. If you need to write a paper like that, ask yourself:

• Who is a good leader?  
• What style do they use?  
• What are the situations when they might switch styles?

You may take a more personal approach to such an essay if your professor allows you to. In the example below, you will see the academic approach to this topic. It analyzes three leadership styles to discover which one corresponds to the meaning of leadership if one thinks of it as guidance and support.

Why I Want to Participate in a Leadership Program (Essay Sample)

It’s another example of a popular topic. Such papers often have a meaning beyond the classroom since they may decide whether you plan to participate in a specific program. It’s critical to make them as effective and compelling as possible.

A personalized approach is the best when it comes to essays like this. In the example below, you will see the paper that relies on individual beliefs and a personal life story to explain why it’s so important for the specific student to participate in the chosen program.

How to Write a Leadership Essay

Like every other essay, this paper has an introduction, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion summarizing your thoughts. (1) The most important part of the introduction is the final sentence,  aka  a thesis statement. That’s where you state your claim to prove or develop in your leadership essay.

Each body paragraph should correspond to the purpose of your essay. To ensure you don’t stray from the aim you’ve established in the thesis statement, write the topic sentences for all your paragraphs in the outline . In simple words, write the first sentence of every paragraph to define its development in advance and see if you cover everything you need.

And now, to the conclusion:

Its most essential element is thesis restatement or the first sentence of that paragraph. It’s not just paraphrasing your thesis; it’s also considering the new information you’ve discovered while writing the essay.

Structure :

• Introduction (End it with a thesis statement.)
• Body paragraphs (Each one starts with a topic sentence.)
• Conclusion (Start it with a thesis restatement.)

Understand the purpose of a leadership essay

When starting to write, think about why you’re creating this paper. Before you sit down and type the words, think about the ideas you want to convey and their meaning in your life:

Can this essay teach you to take responsibility? Or maybe will it help you understand how to be a leader in crisis situations? When you’ve answered the “why” question, begin outlining.

Build a strong thesis

Always start with your thesis statement. It will help incorporate your answer to that notorious “why” question into your essay. Once done, you can plan out the rest of the paper and start working on the body paragraphs as soon as you finish the introduction.

There’s another important tip —don’t rush into writing the conclusion before you finish everything else!

It might seem like a good idea to create a thesis statement and thesis restatement right off the bat. However, you’ll find yourself with more refreshing ideas after completing all the research and thinking necessary for the introduction and each body paragraph.

Decide on a structure; format accordingly

Even if your essay about leadership seems not so formal, and you can use personal pronouns, you still need a clear structure.

The best way to write any academic paper is to keep your introduction and conclusion as short as possible. (But no shorter than three sentences and four lines of text). 

Another important tip is to try making all your body paragraphs equal in length. That way, you’ll give the same attention to all the vital points of your essay.

Ready to Write Your Essay on Leadership Now?

Hopefully, this article has helped you understand the most critical elements of a leadership essay. 

Remember the structure, grammar, and appropriate academic style to create a top-level paper. Please don’t forget to answer the “why” question and remember  why  you’re writing. Then you’ll impress everyone with your results!

References:

• https://lsa.umich.edu/onsf/news-events/all-news/directors-blog/writing-leadership-essays.html
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Strategic Leadership

• First Online: 07 October 2022

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• Khalid Arar   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4094-966X 11 &
• Izhar Oplatka   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2759-2515 12  

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Arar, K., Oplatka, I. (2022). Strategic Leadership. In: Advanced Theories of Educational Leadership. Policy Implications of Research in Education, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14510-0_2

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What is leadership?

All leaders, to a certain degree, do the same thing. Whether you’re talking about an executive, manager, sports coach, or schoolteacher, leadership is about guiding and impacting outcomes, enabling groups of people to work together to accomplish what they couldn’t do working individually. In this sense, leadership is something you do, not something you are. Some people in formal leadership positions are poor leaders, and many people exercising leadership have no formal authority. It is their actions, not their words, that inspire trust and energy.

Get to know and directly engage with senior McKinsey experts on leadership

Aaron De Smet is a senior partner in McKinsey’s New Jersey office, Carolyn Dewar is a senior partner in the Bay Area office, Scott Keller is a senior partner in the Southern California office, and Vik Malhotra and Ramesh Srinivasan are senior partners in the New York office.

What’s more, leadership is not something people are born with—it is a skill you can learn. At the core are mindsets, which are expressed through observable behaviors , which then lead to measurable outcomes. Is a leader communicating effectively or engaging others by being a good listener? Focusing on behaviors lets us be more objective when assessing leadership effectiveness. The key to unlocking shifts in behavior is focusing on mindsets, becoming more conscious about our thoughts and beliefs, and showing up with integrity as our full authentic selves.

There are many contexts and ways in which leadership is exercised. But, according to McKinsey analysis of academic literature as well as a survey of nearly 200,000 people in 81 organizations all over the world, there are four types of behavior that account for 89 percent of leadership effectiveness :

• being supportive
• operating with a strong results orientation
• seeking different perspectives
• solving problems effectively

Effective leaders know that what works in one situation will not necessarily work every time. Leadership strategies must reflect each organization’s context and stage of evolution. One important lens is organizational health, a holistic set of factors that enable organizations to grow and succeed over time. A situational approach  enables leaders to focus on the behaviors that are most relevant as an organization becomes healthier.

Senior leaders must develop a broad range of skills to guide organizations. Ten timeless topics are important for leading nearly any organization, from attracting and retaining talent  to making culture a competitive advantage. A 2017 McKinsey book, Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths (Bloomsbury, 2017), goes deep on each aspect.

How is leadership evolving?

In the past, leadership was called “management,” with an emphasis on providing technical expertise and direction. The context was the traditional industrial economy command-and-control organization, where leaders focused exclusively on maximizing value for shareholders. In these organizations, leaders had three roles: planners (who develop strategy, then translate that strategy into concrete steps), directors (who assign responsibilities), or controllers (who ensure people do what they’ve been assigned and plans are adhered to).

What are the limits of traditional management styles?

Traditional management was revolutionary in its day and enormously effective in building large-scale global enterprises that have materially improved lives over the past 200 years. However, with the advent of the 21st century, this approach is reaching its limits.

For one thing, this approach doesn’t guarantee happy or loyal managers or workers. Indeed, a large portion of American workers—56 percent— claim their boss is mildly or highly toxic , while 75 percent say dealing with their manager is the most stressful part of their workday.

For 21st-century organizations operating in today’s complex business environment, a fundamentally new and more effective approach to leadership is emerging. Leaders today are beginning to focus on building agile, human-centered, and digitally enabled organizations able to thrive in today’s unprecedented environment and meet the needs of a broader range of stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, and communities, in addition to investors).

What is the emerging new approach to leadership?

This new approach to leadership is sometimes described as “ servant leadership .” While there has been some criticism of the nomenclature, the idea itself is simple: rather than being a manager directing and controlling people, a more effective approach is for leaders to be in service of the people they lead. The focus is on how leaders can make the lives of their team members easier—physically, cognitively, and emotionally. Research suggests this mentality can enhance both team performance and satisfaction.

In this new approach, leaders practice empathy, compassion, vulnerability, gratitude, self-awareness, and self-care. They provide appreciation and support, creating psychological safety so their employees are able to collaborate, innovate, and raise issues as appropriate. This includes celebrating achieving the small steps on the way to reaching big goals and enhancing people’s well-being through better human connections. These conditions have been shown to allow for a team’s best performance.

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• beyond executive to visionary, shaping a clear purpose that resonates with and generates holistic impact for all stakeholders
• beyond planner to architect, reimagining industries and innovating business systems that are able to create new levels of value
• beyond director to catalyst, engaging people to collaborate in open, empowered networks
• beyond controller to coach, enabling the organization to constantly evolve through rapid learning, and enabling colleagues to build new mindsets, knowledge, and skills
• beyond boss to human, showing up as one’s whole, authentic self

Together, these shifts can help a leader expand their repertoire and create a new level of value for an organization’s stakeholders. The last shift is the most important, as it is based on developing a new level of consciousness and awareness of our inner state. Leaders who look inward  and take a journey of genuine self-discovery make profound shifts in themselves and their lives; this means they are better able to benefit their organization. That involves developing “profile awareness” (a combination of a person’s habits of thought, emotions, hopes, and behavior in different circumstances) and “state awareness” (the recognition of what’s driving a person to take action). Combining individual, inward-looking work with outward-facing actions can help create lasting change.

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An example from the COVID-19 era offers a useful illustration of this new approach to leadership. In pursuit of a vaccine breakthrough, at the start of the pandemic Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel increased the frequency of executive meetings  from once a month to twice a week. The company implemented a decentralized model enabling teams to work independently and deliver on the bold goal of providing 100 million doses of vaccines in 12 months. “The pace was unprecedented,” Bancel said.

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This new approach to leadership is far more effective. While the dynamics are complex, countless studies show empirical links among effective leadership, employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profitability.

How can leaders empower employees?

Empowering employees , surprisingly enough, might mean taking a more hands-on leadership approach. Organizations whose leaders successfully empower others through coaching are nearly four times more likely to make swift, good decisions and outperform other companies . But this type of coaching isn’t always natural for those with a more controlling or autocratic style.

Here are five tips to get started  if you’re a leader looking to empower others:

• Provide clear rules, for example, by providing guardrails for what success looks like and communicating who makes which decisions. Clarity and boundary structures like role remits and responsibilities help to contain any anxiety associated with work and help teams stay focused on their primary tasks.
• Establish clear roles, say, by assigning one person the authority to make certain decisions.
• Avoid being a complicit manager—for instance, if you’ve delegated a decision to a team, don’t step in and solve the problem for them.
• Address culture and skills, for instance, by helping employees learn how to have difficult conversations.
• Begin soliciting personal feedback from others, at all levels of your organization, on how you are experienced as a leader.

How can leaders communicate effectively?

Good, clear communication is a leadership hallmark. Fundamental tools of effective communication  include:

• defining and pointing to long-term goals
• listening to and understanding stakeholders
• creating openings for dialogue
• communicating proactively

And in times of uncertainty, these things are important for crisis communicators :

• give people what they need, when they need it
• communicate clearly, simply, and frequently
• choose candor over charisma
• revitalize a spirit of resilience
• distill meaning from chaos
• support people, teams, and organizations to build the capability for self-sufficiency

Learn more about our People & Organizational Performance Practice .

Is leadership different in a hybrid workplace?

A leader’s role may look slightly different in remote or hybrid workplace settings . Rather than walking around a physical site, these leaders might instead model what hybrid looks like, or orchestrate work based on tasks, interactions, or purpose. Being communicative and radiating positivity  can go a long way. Leaders need to find other ways to be present and accessible, for example, via virtual drop-in sessions, regular company podcasts, or virtual townhalls. Leaders in these settings may also need to find new ways to get authentic feedback. These tactics can include pulse surveys or learning to ask thoughtful follow-up questions that reveal useful management insights.

Additional considerations, such as making sure that in-person work and togetherness has a purpose, are important. Keeping an eye on inclusivity in hybrid work  is also crucial. Listening to what employees want, with an eye to their lived experience, will be vital to leaders in these settings. And a focus on output, outcomes, results, and impact—rather than arbitrary norms about time spent in offices— may be a necessary adaptation in the hybrid era .

How should CEOs lead in this new world?

Just as for leadership more broadly, today’s environment requires CEOs to lead very differently. Recent research indicates that one-third to one-half of new CEOs fail within 18 months.

What helps top performers thrive today? To find out, McKinsey led a research effort to identify the CEOs who achieved breakaway success. We examined 20 years’ worth of data on 7,800 CEOs—from 3,500 public companies across 70 countries and 24 industries. The result is the McKinsey book CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest (Scribner, March 2022). Watch an interview with the authors for more on what separates the best CEOs from the rest .

Getting perspective on leadership from CEOs themselves is enlightening—and illustrates the nuanced ways in which the new approach to leadership described above can be implemented in practice. Here are a few quotes drawn from McKinsey’s interviews with these top-level leaders :

• “I think the fundamental role of a leader is to look for ways to shape the decades ahead, not just react to the present, and to help others accept the discomfort of disruptions to the status quo.” — Indra Nooyi , former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
• “The single most important thing I have to do as CEO is ensure that our brand continues to be relevant.” — Chris Kempczinski , CEO of McDonald’s
• “Leaders of other enterprises often define themselves as captains of the ship, but I think I’m more the ship’s architect or designer. That’s different from a captain’s role, in which the route is often fixed and the destination defined.” — Zhang Ruimin , CEO of Haier
• “I think my leadership style [can be called] ‘collaborative command.’ You bring different opinions into the room, you allow for a really great debate, but you understand that, at the end of the day, a decision has to be made quickly.” — Adena Friedman , CEO of Nasdaq
• “We need an urgent refoundation of business and capitalism around purpose and humanity. To find new ways for all of us to lead so that we can create a better future, a more sustainable future.” — Hubert Joly , former chairman and CEO of Best Buy

What is leadership development?

Leaders aren’t born; they learn to lead over time. Neuroplasticity refers to the power of the brain to form new pathways and connections through exposure to novel, unfamiliar experiences. This allows adults to adapt, grow, and learn new practices throughout our lifetimes.

When it comes to leadership within organizations, this is often referred to as leadership development. Programs, books, and courses on leadership development abound, but results vary.

Leadership development efforts fail for a variety of reasons. Some overlook context; in those cases, asking a simple question (something like “What, precisely, is this program for?”) can help. Others separate reflections on leadership from real work, or they shortchange the role of adjusting leaders’ mindsets, feelings, assumptions, and beliefs, or they fail to measure results.

So what’s needed for successful leadership development? Generally, developing leaders is about creating contexts where there is sufficient psychological safety in combination with enough novelty and unfamiliarity to cultivate new leadership practices in response to stimuli. Leadership programs that successfully cultivate leaders are also built around “placescapes”—these are novel experiences, like exploring wilderness trails, practicing performing arts, or writing poetry.

When crafting a leadership development program, there are six ingredients to incorporate  that lead to true organizational impact:

• Set up for success:
• Focus your leadership transformation on driving strategic objectives and initiatives.
• Commit the people and resources needed.
• Be clear about focus:
• Engage a critical mass of leaders to reach a tipping point for sustained impact.
• Zero in on the leadership shifts that drive the greatest value.
• Execute well:
• Architect experiential journeys to maximize shifts in mindsets, capabilities, and practices.
• Measure for holistic impact.

A well-designed and executed leadership development program can help organizations build leaders’ capabilities broadly, at scale. And these programs can be built around coaching, mentoring, and having people try to solve challenging problems—learning skills by applying them in real time to real work.

What are mentorship, sponsorship, and apprenticeship?

Mentorship, sponsorship, and apprenticeship can also be part of leadership development efforts. What are they? Mentorship refers to trusted counselors offering guidance and support on various professional issues, such as career progression. Sponsorship is used to describe senior leaders who create opportunities to help junior colleagues succeed. These roles are typically held by more senior colleagues, whereas apprenticeship could be more distributed. Apprenticeship  describes the way any colleague with domain expertise might teach others, model behaviors, or transfer skills. These approaches can be useful not only for developing leaders but also for helping your company upskill or reskill employees quickly and at scale.

For more in-depth exploration of these topics, see McKinsey’s insights on People & Organizational Performance . Learn more about McKinsey’s Leadership & Management  work—and check out job opportunities if you’re interested in working at McKinsey.

Articles referenced include:

• “ Author Talks: What separates the best CEOs from the rest? ,” December 15, 2021, Carolyn Dewar , Scott Keller , and Vik Malhotra
• “ From the great attrition to the great adaptation ,” November 3, 2021, Aaron De Smet  and Bill Schaninger
• “ The boss factor: Making the world a better place through workplace relationships ,” September 22, 2020, Tera Allas  and Bill Schaninger
• " Leading agile transformation: The new capabilities leaders need to build 21st century organizations ," October 1, 2018, Aaron De Smet , Michael Lurie , and Andrew St. George
• " Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths ," 2017, Scott Keller  and Mary Meaney
• “ Leadership in context ,” January 1, 2016, Michael Bazigos, Chris Gagnon, and Bill Schaninger
• “ Decoding leadership: What really matters ,” January 1, 2015, Claudio Feser, Fernanda Mayol, and Ramesh Srinivasan

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Essays on Leadership for Students | 200 - 500 Word Essays

Are you writing an essay about leadership? Check out these examples!

Leadership is often defined as "the action of inspiring others to act in concert to achieve a particular goal." It signifies the harmony in actions that lead to a common objective. A genuine leader not only exudes confidence but also paves the way for their followers towards triumph. Over the years, various leadership styles have been identified and discussed by psychologists.

 Qualities such as intelligence, adaptability, extroversion, innate self-awareness, and social competence often emerge as the hallmarks of impactful leaders. There's a consensus that these traits mold an individual into an effective leader. Interestingly, some theories suggest that extraordinary situations can thrust an ordinary individual into the spotlight, bestowing upon them the mantle of leadership. It's also believed that leadership isn't a static trait but an evolving journey. It underscores the belief that with dedication and the right resources, anyone can hone their leadership abilities.

 True leadership goes beyond merely advocating for a cause. It involves taking responsibility, igniting motivation in others, and differentiating oneself from just being a 'boss'. A leader's essence lies in their ability to inspire and propel people towards grand visions, whereas a manager typically focuses on oversight and operational aspects.

What Is a Leadership Essay?

A leadership essay falls under the category of student application essays and serves to provide student admissions officers with insight into your past leadership experiences. Despite appearing to be very specific, this type of essay acknowledges that the nature and perception of leadership can vary significantly depending on the individual and the context.

 If you find yourself in need of further insights or a unique angle for your leadership essay, consider exploring an expert essay-writing tool designed to assist students in crafting compelling narratives by analyzing vast data and generating fresh ideas within minutes. In this article, we'll also delve into various leadership essay examples to offer a clearer understanding of the genre and inspire your writing journey.

4 Examples of Leadership Essays

Qualities of a good leader, introduction.

Confidence is the most important attribute first of all. One of the most important qualities in a leader is confidence in one's own abilities. A lack of self-assurance is fatal to a person's leadership potential. If you want others to follow you, you need to exude self-assurance. It's imperative for a leader to have faith in his own judgment and actions. How can people want to follow him if he doesn't even know what he's doing?

Every effective leader knows that they need to be an inspiration to their followers. A leader needs to set an example for his team. In addition, he ought to inspire them whenever feasible. A leader must also maintain optimism in trying times.

What qualities a good leader must have?

Leadership is the ability to influence and guide individuals or groups toward a common goal. A leader must possess several qualities to be effective, including:

Communication skills: A leader must be able to communicate their vision and goals clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing. This requires excellent listening skills, empathy, and the ability to adapt to different communication styles.

Emotional intelligence: A leader must be able to understand and manage their own emotions, as well as those of their team members. This includes being able to understand and respond to the emotions of others, and handling conflicts in a constructive manner.

Visionary: A leader must have a clear and inspiring vision of the future, and be able to articulate this vision in a way that motivates others to work towards it.

Strategic thinking: A leader must be able to think critically and creatively to identify and solve problems, make decisions, and develop plans and strategies to achieve their goals.

Flexibility: A leader must be able to adapt to changing circumstances and be open to new ideas and perspectives. This requires the ability to embrace change, be innovative, and continuously learn and grow.

Integrity: A leader must have strong ethics and values, and be willing to make difficult decisions that are consistent with their beliefs. This requires honesty, transparency, and accountability.

Decisiveness: A leader must be able to make tough decisions quickly, without undue hesitation or procrastination. This requires courage and the ability to take calculated risks.

Empowerment: A leader must be able to delegate responsibilities, give team members the resources they need to succeed, and foster a sense of ownership and accountability among their team.

Conclusion 

These qualities are essential for effective leadership, and when combined with hard work, determination, and a commitment to excellence, can help leaders to achieve great things.

How one can be a Great Leader?

Leadership is the act of performing the duties of a leader. In the business world, for instance, it is essential to have someone in charge of a team to ensure everything runs well. Effective leadership is essential for any group that wants to maximize its prospects of success.

Leadership Comes from Experience

As we've shown, leadership can be innate in some cases but is more often learned through practice and exposure. Sometimes the best traits of a leader must be learned over a lengthy period of time, so that one can become a notable one, proving that leadership is not always about a person's innate qualities. Leaders should continuously be on the lookout for opportunities to grow their leadership skills.

Nobody can disagree that experience is a key component of leadership. Numerous examples exist to back up this claim, such as:

Instance 1:

Our school's head boy or girl has traditionally been an older student who has been around for a while and thus has a better grasp of the ins and outs of school politics.

Instance 2:

When there is a vacancy for a team leader, it is common practice for the employee who has consistently put in the most effort and attention to the office job to receive a higher number of votes than their coworkers. 

“The best teacher for a leader is evaluated experience.” - John C. Maxwell

How one can be a Great Leader/Skills to be a Great Leader?

Effective leadership is a skill that develops through time. Developing into a leader with all the qualities that are needed takes a lot of hard work and potential. Being a prominent leader calls for a wide variety of traits. Some of these characteristics are addressed in further detail below:

One should be a Good Communicator

To be an effective leader, one must be able to convey his thoughts clearly to his/her/its subordinates.

Should have Confidence

The individual should have faith in what he says and does.

Give Credit to other Team Members too

A leader not only needs to impose his viewpoints and opinions instead he must also hear to the suggestions of other members of the team and offer them credit if their concept is appropriate.

Good Bond with the Team

A leader's ability to command respect from his team members depends on his ability to develop and maintain positive relationships with them.

Leads with Responsibility

A leader needs to be completely committed to his position. It's important that he takes on responsibility so that he can effectively deal with the various challenges he will inevitably face.

Any group or organization needs a leader above all else. Leadership development takes time and effort. One needs to have lived through a lot to be an effective leader. It's not enough to simply have years of experience in the field; one must also have the traits that make one an effective leader. You can't be a great leader unless you possess certain traits.

What makes a Good Leader?

Trying one's hand as a leader appears easy when viewed through this lens. Is that so tough? Of course not; leading is difficult, and not everyone aspires to be a leader. The vast majority of us have settled into well-established careers where we report to superiors and make a living. Still, not everyone is content to go along with the crowd. They become leaders in whatever field they pursue. A leader is an example to followers and will prioritize the needs of those around them.

Some Unique Qualities of a Leader

Many individuals resort to their leaders to vent their frustrations, therefore it's important for them to be good listeners.

A leader ought to be completely forthright; they can't play favorites or give anyone preferential treatment. One of the most essential qualities of a strong leader is the ability to make decisions with integrity.

They need to be aware of the bigger picture and understand what makes an individual stand out or become a leader. It's their expertise in addition to other distinguishing traits. Their awareness of current events and the results of recent studies is essential. In many ways, this is helpful, and it's the leader's responsibility to stay current.

Since some might not understand them, they should utilize straightforward, easily comprehended language. Leaders need to be able to communicate effectively at all times. In reality, what sets them apart is their exceptional communication skills. Adolf Hitler was such a gifted orator that his followers believed every word he said.

No matter how you're feeling or what's going on in the world, if you listen to a leader, they may make you feel energized. Since leaders are in charge of inspiring confidence in their followers, they can't afford to be wary or unsure of themselves. People tend to blindly follow their leaders.

Whether you're a leader or a doctor, you should devote yourself completely to your chosen field. Everything we do is for the benefit of others; engineers, for example, spend much of their time designing and constructing buildings for other people. So, take pride in what you do, and if you possess the aforementioned traits, you are also a leader who doesn't have to rely on others to succeed. No matter what you do, aspiring to leadership positions will always benefit others.

What is Leadership in Management and what are the weaknesses and strengths of a Leader?

Simply said, leadership is acting as a supervisor or manager of a group. Different mental pictures pop up when we hear the word "leadership" used in conversation. One might think of a political leader, team leader, corporate leader, school leader, etc. Leaders facilitate order and efficiency in the workplace. Teamwork and success are fundamental to effective leadership. Leaders utilize their managerial abilities to establish courses and guide their teams to success.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Leadership

Able to express oneself more clearly

Growth of character.

Self-awareness.

Possession of teamwork skills.

Gain assurance in yourself.

Weaknesses:

Acting favorably toward one's teammates.

Having no faith in the leader.

Thinks they're better than everyone else, but act hypocritically.

Not living up to the promised standard.

Insufficient morals.

Leadership and Management

Management and leadership are inextricably linked to one another. Leadership and management are both vital to the efficient operation of an organization; but, they accomplish very different things in the process. Leadership is a necessary skill for anyone aspiring to be an effective manager. The terms management and leadership are synonymous with one another. In this manner, we are able to draw the conclusion that a manager who demonstrates the traits of a successful leader is, in fact, a manager who is effective.

Leadership in School

Leadership is essential in nearly every group, as we've seen above. That group includes one's educational institution. Every school needs an outstanding figure to serve as its head of school. Class monitor, assembly captain, cultural leader, etc. are all examples of leadership roles that can be taken on at school, but this raises the question of what makes a person a successful school leader.

Any student hoping to be chosen as a student body leader will need to demonstrate a wide range of competencies. He or she needs to be a consistent student who pays attention in class and does well in extracurricular activities. For the simple reason that no intelligent and hardworking kid would ever be considered for leadership. Student leaders are most often selected from among those who participate fully in all activities.

Leadership in Organization

Leadership in an organization, also known as organizational leadership, is the process of establishing long-term objectives that further the company's mission and help it reach its ultimate destination. This is a classic illustration of how Bill Gates often works with his team: they agree on a strategy, and Gates implements it. To the same extent, it is the responsibility of the leader in each given organization to determine what it is that the group is trying to accomplish.

Leadership in Politics

Leadership in politics, also known as political leadership, is the process of becoming actively involved in a political party in the role of a party leader. Knowledge of political processes, their outcomes, and the political agenda is central to the idea of political leadership.

An effective leader can be developed in anyone who has the determination and drives to do so. Both the strengths and the areas for improvement should be nurtured. Whether in the classroom, the workplace, or the political arena, leadership is always necessary. Therefore, one can exercise leadership anywhere they like inside their own organization.

What are the types of Leadership?

The ability to lead is a rare trait that not everyone possesses. The ability to do so is a gift, so count your blessings if you possess it. It's recommended that you hone it even more so that you can propel your career forward and serve as an example to people around you. However, it is crucial to grasp the various leadership styles before you go ahead and polish your skills.

Types of Leadership Styles

Democratic Leadership

In this style of management, subordinates are given a voice in decision-making. Although the subordinates' efforts are highlighted, the leader is ultimately held responsible for the group's actions. Many people find this type of leadership to be effective.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leaders motivate and inspire others to adopt new behaviors and ways of thinking in order to improve their own performance and that of their teams and organizations. A transformational leader is someone who encourages their team to strive for greater things and works to boost morale and output.

Team Leadership

A good leader fully incorporates his team into the task at hand. Members of the team are motivated to reach their goals and advance in their careers thanks to the leadership of the group.

Strategic Leadership

It requires a chief executive who doesn't restrict himself to brainstorming sessions with his superiors. He contributes on every level of the team. He is well-liked for his ability to unite the need for fresh ideas with the necessity of grounding them in reality.

Autocratic Leadership

The leader in a command and control structure is the center of attention. The chief executive has absolute power in this setting. He decides things on his own, without polling his staff. He relays this information to his staff and stresses the importance of swift action. The buck stops with him, and he alone must answer for his actions. Not much room for negotiation exists. It's no secret that this method of leading has its detractors.

Visionary Leadership

This kind of leader appreciates the abilities and requirements of his team members. He describes his ideal outcome and the teamwork that will be necessary to attain it.

Coaching Leadership

Leaders who coach their teams do so regularly in an effort to raise output. He inspires his employees to do better and works to keep them motivated. This approach to leadership has been much praised.

Facilitative Leadership

With occasional guidance, a facilitative leader ensures that the process runs smoothly for his team. As a precaution in case his team is ineffective. If the team is highly effective, the leader will take a hands-off approach.

Cross-Cultural Leadership

The leadership of this type is necessary when interacting with people from various cultural backgrounds. Because of the wide variety of cultures represented in the workforce across the United States, many managers and executives hold cross-cultural positions.

Laissez-Faire Leadership

The members of the team are given responsibility in this style of management. They are free to choose how they spend their time at work, with minimal oversight from the boss. It's not a good way to lead, according to experts.

Transactional Leadership

An interactive approach is integral to this kind of leadership. When team members successfully implement their leader's ideas and choices, they are rewarded with immediate, material benefits.

Charismatic Leadership

In order to bring out the best in his followers, this kind of leader makes the effort to change their attitudes, values, and actions.

This article should dispel the notion that leadership qualities can't be further subdivided. It should also assist you in pinpointing your own personal brand of leadership so you can perfect it over time.

Final Words

In conclusion, leadership is a complex and multifaceted concept that involves various qualities and skills. Effective leaders possess traits such as integrity, vision, empathy, decisiveness, and the ability to inspire and motivate others. They are able to navigate challenges, make difficult decisions, and lead their team toward success. Leadership also involves continuous learning and self-improvement, as leaders must adapt to changing circumstances and remain relevant. Effective leadership can have a positive impact on both individuals and organizations, fostering growth and creating a culture of success.

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