Strategic Leadership

Whatever else leaders may do, they need to capture and communicate their vision. That’s what leadership author Bruce Avolio calls strategic leadership. He describes this important aspect of leadership as the ability “to articulate the strategic intent that needs to be pursued and then to get others to interpret it, modify it as necessary, implement it, and then evaluate how close to intent they were able to achieve.”

When I think of how a leader implements strategic leadership, I think of how our political leaders pitch their domestic program. Several have articulated their vision in simple, yet easily understood terms.

For example, Theodore Roosevelt asserted the “Square Deal”.

Franklin Roosevelt offered Americans a “New Deal”.

And John F. Kennedy campaigned for the “New Frontier.”

In their own way, this slogan accomplishes Avolio’s idea of strategic leadership: each slogan represents a program, articulates that program, invites support from followers, and allows others to interpret it for themselves.

We remember these presidents and their programs because they were, in one sense, successful. That is, the imagery each president used to present their domestic program proved to be captivating to those in the electorate. The American people bought into these ideas and supported these presidents as they pursued their agenda. That is a key element of strategic leadership: ownership. It’s not just that a leader owns a vision. It’s that he is able to get others to own it as well. At its most successful, a vision is not the president’s or the leader’s but rather our vision. We take it as our own.

Leadership at its fullest expression, then, casts a vision that others find compelling and are willing to make their own. As you and I think about and pursue leadership in our various contexts, we should remember that our best and most successful leadership will cultivate and communicate a compelling vision. Are you implementing strategic leadership?