Strategist Leadership Style: Definition, Characteristics, and More

Organizations today face two daunting challenges:

1. Creating new sources of competitive advantage to sustain long-term growth.
2. Engaging leaders at every level of a business to be future focused in their roles and responsibilities.

Consider leveraging a strategist leadership style to achieve your objectives and create a culture of strategic thinking in your organization. Learn what this leadership style entails, along with real world advice to get started.

What Is Strategic Leadership?

Strategic leadership guides a business toward its long-term goals. A strategic leader is adept at seeing the big picture and the impacts on smaller objectives managed by other stakeholders.

Several traits are foundational for strategic leadership, but the following are the top three you should focus on when developing this style:

1. Visionary: Holds a clear vision for the business’ future and clearly communicates that vision to others.
2. Strategic thinker: Possesses the intuition and logic to see emerging opportunities and to exploit those opportunities while considering internal and external factors, vulnerabilities, and opportunities.
3. Change leader: Leans on agility and adaptability to navigate organizations or teams through inevitable change and transformation over time.

These are the anchors that form the foundations of a strategist leadership style.

What Are the Characteristics of Strategic Leadership?

A strategic leader typically embodies these seven characteristics:

1. Forward-thinking: A strategic leader is proactive. They see the big picture and lean into it to uncover new opportunities and tackle emerging challenges.
2. Strategic planner: The leader adopts a learning mindset and encourages the same in their team members. Being a strategic planner enables a leader to apply learned insights to help the organization thrive in the ever-changing marketplace.
3. Critical decision-maker: A strategic leader thinks systemically and relies on data. They are good at analyzing a problem and considering several outcomes and options before making a choice. This makes them critical thinkers and more results oriented.
4. Resilient in the face of setbacks: A strategic leader does not think of setbacks as failures. Rather, they are opportunities to learn and grow. In addition, these leaders display patience; they investigate problems with reliable data before moving forward with an alternative solution. They do not let emotions cloud their judgment.
5. Innovative and adaptable: Strategic leaders challenge the status quo, embrace calculated risks, and invest in creativity. They see the value these actions have in fostering a culture of innovation and adapting to a changing business landscape.
6. Results-oriented: The leader develops clear, actionable strategies that translate their vision into concrete actionable steps. This may entail metrics and establishing accountability among teams to ensure all parties involved achieve the right results.
7. Alignment-seeking: For a strategy to deliver meaningful results and a competitive edge, achieving thoughtful and thorough strategic alignment throughout the organization is paramount. Strategic leaders understand alignment offers team members a clear line of sight and a sense of what to do at any given time; it guides people in the right direction no matter the circumstances. This means organizations can spend less time thinking and deciding what to do and more time doing it.

How Do You Practice Strategic Leadership?

Practicing strategic leadership requires having the right principles and strategic plans formulated. These include the following.

1. Developing a Clear Vision

The absence of a clearly articulated vision hinders team members’ ability to confidently navigate the future. Effective strategic leaders bridge this gap by actively communicating the organization’s vision and strategic intent to their teams.

Furthermore, these leaders demonstrate a keen awareness of their audience. They tailor their communication style, using language that resonates with team members, ensuring a stronger grasp of the vision for everyone in the organization.

2. Anticipating What Could Happen

The leader should also communicate and implement actionable plans. This requires considering potential roadblocks and opportunities that may surface.

Through collaboration with team members, the strategic leader can map out contingency plans, ensuring the organization is prepared to navigate a range of future scenarios that may unfold.

3. Promoting a Culture of Continuous Learning and Development

Strategic leaders create a culture where it’s safe for people to be future focused, innovative, creative, and share diverse perspectives. They do so by:

• Actively listening: Listen to your team members’ needs and challenges. What types of learning experiences can this produce?
• Investing in resources: These can include training programs, conferences, technological tools. Resources help team members assimilate and get closer to the communicated vision and objectives.
• Encouraging experimentation: Create a safe space for taking measured risks. This opens exploration of innovative ideas and approaches without excessive costs or fear of failure that could lead to big wins.

4. Embracing Change as an Opportunity for Growth and Innovation

Leaders should openly discuss the inevitability of change and describe how it can lead to new opportunities and reduce resistance that often accompanies new endeavors.

While some may struggle to adapt in the face of change, strategic leaders embrace it as a catalyst for productivity, growth, and reinvention. They recognize that change is inevitable and actively invest their time and energy in extracting valuable lessons from each experience.

5. Monitoring Progress Against Key Metrics

Lean on data and logic to keep projects on the right track. Allow facts, past experiences, and metrics to guide your decisions. Encourage team members to propose innovative ideas and solutions with data to support them. All of this will help you accurately monitor progress and optimize your strategies.

What Is the Mindset of a Strategic Leader?

Overall, the mindset of a strategic leader centers on this idea:

The long-term, sustained success of an organization depends on everyone’s willingness and ability to think beyond the moment and make strategy front and center.

To further elaborate, strategic leaders believe:

• They have a critically important role in supporting and executing the organization’s strategic priorities and direction.
• Organizations need capable leaders who can provide strategic direction and motivate, coach, and inspire people to engage in work that will ensure long-term success.
• The leaders must look to the future and take responsibility for pivotal opportunities as well as issues and problems that may arise.
• The plans and strategies executed by strategic leaders should always map back to the organization’s strategy, mobilizing people to action.
• Strategic leaders should leverage their foresight to create strategic projects for their team to pursue.

Leverage Powerful Developmental Tools with CMOE

CMOE’s comprehensive portfolio of strategy training, resources and practical tools equip you with the skills to achieve both short-term wins and long-term success. Explore our courses, workshops, and consulting services. Contact us today to discuss how CMOE can help you elevate your strategic leadership.