The challenge of leadership has never been greater. Changes in technology, telecommunications, processes and market demands are taking place faster than most organizations can respond. Stakeholders have new expectations, often conflicting with each other, what was good yesterday isn t today what works today, won t tomorrow. Good decisions have a short shelf life while products, strategies, and organizational structures become obsolete faster The definition of effective leadership is simple. It must turn aspirations into actions. Aspirations come in many forms: strategies, goals, missions, visions, foresight, and plans.
Regardless of the term, leaders create aspirations. Successful aspirations have certain defining characteristics: + They focus on the future by visualizing what can be. + They connect and integrate the entire value chain of a firm (suppliers, customers, and employees) rather than what goes on inside the firm. + They create energy and enthusiasm about what can be, + They engage employees hearts (emotion), minds (cognition, and feet ( action)* --- These aspirations are at the heart of Strategic Management as they represent strategic awareness. Strategic Management is the process by which an organization establishes its objectives, formulates actions designed to achieve these objectives in the desired timescale, implements the actions and assess progress and results.
Strategic awareness deals with the understanding to the organization s strengths and weaknesses and the threats and opportunities and being able to gauge where the organization is heading. Some CEOs fail to use strategic management in their decision making process, because they focus more on planning than on management. They are steeped in yesterday's conventional wisdom and fail to involve the employees and stakeholders in a meaningful way. It is management by directive rather than management by involvement. Emerging threats are not spotted early enough and efforts are concentrated on a day to day reactive management and a complacency exists with regard to past success, with strategic and environmental aspects of the organizations future largely ignored. At times strong powerful strategic leaders use their own power and control to look after their own interests at the expense of the interests of other stakeholders.
