Class 2, Peer Response 2

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Like the author has mentioned, different strategic leaders employ different ways and ideas of their leadership. A strategic leader is a person who is able to develop matching competencies top their organizational needs, one who is able to develop and lead people, shows effectiveness in networking, is strategic in process development, and forges the values and culture. This is unlike what the author previously thought regarding a person who stands out strong. As the author has stated, strategic leaders stand out uniquely from one to the other, with great diversity (Ireland & Hitt, 1999; Davies & Davies, 2004). For them to remain different and stand out from the crowd, they operate within a competitive landscape that encourages them to meet the needs of those that they serve while meeting the set goals. Not only these, but their personalities, strengths, and weaknesses also help them stand out which motivates them to become strategic leaders.

As the author identifies, a strategic leader possesses certain characteristics and qualities that makes them stand out. The author identifies the essential skills of a strategic leader as being paramount to ensuring effective leadership. These are anticipating, challenging, interpreting, deciding, alignment, and learning, all of which are important to a strategic leader. However, the author identifies anticipating, challenging, deciding, and learning as the most important. The author views these as the characteristics that the leader ought to possess. This enables them to be flexible to deal with any challenges while remaining persistent, be strategic and informed of how things are bound to change in future so that they are prepared in good time, and they have to be strategic in decision making (Schoemaker, Krupp, & Howland, 2013). They have to learn from past mistakes, their surroundings, and their team. The leader has to ensure that the essential skills or characteristics are all applied for effectiveness.

The author goes ahead to identify the importance of the leader bringing the idea of courageously making decisions and coupling it with challenging the ideas of others that they think may or may not work for the organization they run. This ensures that the decision has a firm foundation. Anticipation plays a significant role in the strategic leader’s run within the organization. With good research and a good understanding of the system of the organization, the strategic leader is able to become an effective visionary of how things may turn out in the future of the organization. This way, they are able to plan ahead, while still managing to deal with upcoming issues, as the author points out. Effective decision making and the challenging aspect are applied in this case too (Schoemaker, Krupp, & Howland, 2013). Together with the team, the leader is able to receive various options of solutions to issues that may have sprung up. This will be informed by how knowledgeable the leader is of the subject as well as to the period leading up to decision making so that there may be solid grounds upon which to make the decision. Despite the uncertainty, the strategic leader should be able to wade through the mud and consider the company’s high stakes to make a decision. The flexibility in decision making is made easier by an active and informed team working with the leader for utmost effectiveness.

References

Davies, B. J., & Davies*, B. (2004). Strategic leadership. School leadership & management, 24(1), 29-38.

Ireland, R. D., & Hitt, M. A. (1999). Achieving and maintaining strategic competitiveness in the 21st century: The role of strategic leadership. Academy of Management Perspectives, 13(1), 43-57.

Schoemaker, P. J., Krupp, S., & Howland, S. (2013). Strategic leadership: The essential skills. Harvard business review, 91(1), 131-134.