Strategic thinking
A strategic leader must first be a visionary and a strategic thinker.
Execution
Strategic leaders are masters at strategy implementation.
Integrity
Being grounded in integrity and compassion is an essential part of strategic leadership.
Management
Strategic leaders understand how to lead a team.
So, whys study a postgraduate Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership? This qualification is to develop strategic management and leadership skills for managers who have the authority and personal attributes to translate organisational strategy into effective operational performance.
This qualification reflects current practice in Strategic Management and Leadership and allows learners to develop and expand their high-level understanding of strategic management and leadership in the workplace. This qualification is suitable for mature learners with a background in academic study or industry. The qualification has a clear work-related emphasis on practical skills development alongside theoretical fundamentals.
What is the main objective of a strategic leader?
Analytic and process & Human dimension: Strategic leaders should always strive to be the designer of the “perfect strategy” by interpreting the market and its needs, placing it in line with the strengths, core purpose, and competence of the organization and its workforce. Therefore, good strategic leaders collaborate in the construction of the strategy with all vital stakeholders and members of their teams. While the strategy is being constructed, owned and executed, leaders should ensure that all grow knowledge and skills in strategic thinking. This evolution towards a strategically consciously competent membership group will enable the organization to become more proactive and faster to act as a change in the market, customers and competitors continuously occur.
Enrolling in the Postgraduate Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership
Successful completion of the postgraduate Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership qualification will equip learners with the key skills and capabilities to become an effective strategic manager. The qualification also allows learners to progress into or within employment and/or continue their study towards an MBA with advanced standing.
Strategic leaders gain their skill through practice, and practice requires a fair amount of autonomy. Top leaders should push power downward, across the organization, empowering people at all levels to make decisions. Distribution of responsibility gives potential strategic leaders the opportunity to see what happens when they take risks.It also increases the collective intelligence, adaptability, and resilience of the organization over time, by harnessing the wisdom of those outside the traditional decision-making hierarchy. Ordinarily, no one would have questioned the decision to close, but the company had recently instituted a policy of distributed responsibility.
One plant operator spoke up with a possible solution. When individuals like the plant operator are given responsibility and authority, they gain more confidence and skill. And when opportunities to make a difference are common throughout an organization, a “can-do” proficiency becomes part of its identity. At Buurtzorg, a Dutch neighborhood nursing organization, most decisions are made by autonomous, leaderless teams of up to a dozen nurses.
Be honest and open in your strategic leadership
Be honest and open about information. The management structure traditionally adopted by large organizations evolved from the military, and was specifically designed to limit the flow of information.In this model, information truly equals power. The trouble is, when information is released to specific individuals only on a need-to-know basis, people have to make decisions in the dark. They do not know what factors are significant to the strategy of the enterprise; they have to guess.
It can be hard to guess right when you are not encouraged to understand the bigger picture or to question information that comes your way. Some competitive secrets (for example, about products under development) may need to remain hidden, but employees need a broad base of information if they are to become strategic leaders. That is one of the principles behind “open-book management,” the systematic sharing of information about the nature of the enterprise. Among the companies that use this practice are Southwest Airlines, Harley-Davidson, and Whole Foods Market, which have all enjoyed sustained growth after adopting explicit practices of transparency.