In the current economic climate, it is more important than ever for organisations to have strategic leaders. These types of leaders are able to promote high performance in their teams, allowing the organisation to do well in the long term. If you are wondering whether you are a strategic leader and what to do if you are not, this is the book for you!
Ellington and Pisapia start off the book by pointing out the difficulties in attempting to become a strategic leader, i.e. what is a strategic leader, how does a strategic leader work and how do you begin to think like one? These are the types of questions that the average person would struggle to answer, but this is what Ellington and Pisapia focus on informing the reader about throughout their book.
This book is divided into two sections: the first section being about self-cultivation and the second being the organisation cultivation section. The self-cultivation section focuses on the main habits of a strategic leader, identified by the authors as being “artistry” and “agility”. The organisation cultivation section is based on the Strategic Learning Method which focuses on the four habits related to cultivating the organisation, identified as “anticipating”, “articulating”, “aligning” and “assuring”. The Strategic Learning Method suggests that by thinking strategically an organisation can “anticipate” and “articulate” its future; whereas when it comes to executing a strategy, the habits “aligning” and “assuring” help the organisation to successfully implement the strategy and continue to do so.
Over the course of the book, the authors help the reader to think carefully about being a strategic leader by making use of the 71 activities included within the book. These vary from listing words to describe a strategic leader, changing your mindset and rating yourself on various scales. The activities are simple to understand and complete; each one allows the reader to reflect on what they have just learnt, giving them a chance to apply their new knowledge to their leadership style. However, the activities are not all the type that can be completed individually as some require the opinion of a colleague or co-worker. Although this means having to ask someone to take time out of their day to help, having a second opinion is extremely useful. These types of activities will give the reader an idea of what their own perception of themselves as a leader is and how well this corresponds to their colleague's perception of them as a leader.
When attempting to become a strategic leader, one of the most difficult things to do is to change your mindset; this means to change how you think on a daily basis. Chapter 3 focuses on this aspect of being an “agile” leader. After completing the activities, if you find out that you have a fixed mindset then this is something that, according to the authors, needs to be changed to a “growth” mindset. This is because fixed mindsets prevent change; whereas, growth mindsets allow a leader to think of opportunities of change and to evaluate strategies that have been implemented. The authors suggest that this can be changed mainly by changing the type of questions asked; the use of open ended, more creative questions allows the leader to consider opportunities for change in the organisation. For example, rather than thinking “how can I protect my turf?”, a strategic leader will think “how can I help?”. A question such as this promotes a proactive type of thinking which will lead to more useful suggestions and ideas.
Furthermore, one of the pitfalls of many leaders is that they attempt to force compliance and commitment from the workforce, with the aim of “aligning” their goals to the goals of the organisation. However, Chapter 5 of this book highlights that this is not the best way to “align” the goals of the staff with the goals of the organisation. Instead, a particular type of environment should be created by leaders, which satisfies the conditions required for high performance. The authors state that a leader can do this by being aware of the following concepts which will help them to build stronger and more trusting relationships with their workforce; these are the zone of acceptance, trust and social capital (bonding, bridging and bartering). In the role of a leader it can be particularly difficult to create and maintain good relationships with the workforce; hence, as these are skills that may not come naturally to many leaders, the tasks in Chapter 5 are likely to be especially useful to readers.
The final chapter of the book brings all the different habits together. This is done effectively as the reader is asked to apply the knowledge that they have developed throughout the book to a case study example. The case study that is used is about Nissan, an organisation that is well known internationally. This is a good ending point for the book as it helps the reader to recognise how a strategic leader can become extremely successful across the world with the use of the six habits focused on in the book.
Overall, I can see this book being a useful tool for people at all levels of an organisation. Whether you are a manager aiming to improve an organisation or a keen employee hoping to work your way to the top, you will undoubtedly learn something about yourself and what it means to be a strategic leader from reading this book.
