A leadership strategy connects the business strategy with the capabilities that are required to succeed. Without proper leadership, even the best and boldest strategies die on the vine, their potential never realised. Without a solid leadership strategy, the most sophisticated talent management and development efforts will be weakened or, worse, become a drain on time and money.
Like business strategies, leadership strategies are based on a thorough analysis of the current situation and an informed view of the future. Leadership strategies make explicit the number of leaders that are needed, of what kind, where and with what skills. They go one step further to clarify how leaders need to behave — individually and collectively — to achieve success.
To understand and develop the leadership of an organisation, several factors should be addressed:
•The quantity of leaders needed, as indicated by current and projected formal leadership positions depicted on an organisation chart (i.e. number, level, location, function, business unit, reporting relationships).
•The qualities desired in selection — demographics, diversity, background, experience level.
•The skills and behaviour that are needed to implement the business strategy and create the desired culture (skills, competencies, knowledge base).
•The collective leadership capabilities of leaders acting together in groups and across boundaries to implement strategies, solve problems, respond to threats, adapt to change and support innovation.
•The desired leadership culture, including the leadership practices in use, such as collaboration across boundaries, engagement of employees, accepting responsibility for outcomes, creating opportunities for others to lead, developing other leaders and learning how to learn.
In much of the work on talent and leadership depth, the focus has been on only the first three of these ways of describing an organisation's leadership. By leaving out collective leadership and leadership culture, we have overlooked what makes leadership come alive in organisations and the factors that often determine whether strategies and plans will actually be achieved.
A good leadership strategy takes all of these factors into account.
Very few organisations have an explicit leadership strategy. Is it any wonder that without one, CEOs find that they don't have the leadership talent they require?
For more information, see - http://www.positiveleadership.co.uk/
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