Strategic leadership involves managers using their creative problem-solving skills and strategic vision to help team members and an organization achieve long-term goals. Strategic leaders are strong communicators, active listeners, passionate, positive, innovative, collaborative, honest, diplomatic, empathetic, and humble. This article throws light on some good Strategic Leaders who have turned around their organizations. The article also talks about Threshold Competencies in Strategic Leadership.

Threshold competencies include basic knowledge, skills, character, motives, self-image, and social role and these are essential for performing a job. Without these, some areas of performance will be of poor quality. To move beyond minimum performance, additional competencies are required.

The term threshold competency was coined in 2006 to describe the level of knowledge and skills an individual must have before they can take on a particular employment. This is typically measured by conducting interviews and written tests. Threshold competency is a term used to describe the level of skill or knowledge that an individual needs to be able to perform their responsibility in a job.

Can everyone become a leader? The answer is NO. Some people mould themselves in leadership position easily. Strategic leadership is a type of leadership in which leaders influence those around them to embrace a collective vision for the success of their organization. These leaders can work confidently in today’s VUCA world by approaching situations with creativity, vision and focus on long-term success and providing their team with a clear sense of direction and collaboration to work together toward a common goal.

Good leaders understand VUCA World

VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. It describes the situation of constant, unpredictable change that is now the norm in certain industries and areas of the business world.

Tactical leaders possess the unique ability to figure out the best strategies and implementing them methodically to help their organization remain sustainable. And, sustainability requires adaptation, whether it’s the available technology, the changing climate, fluctuating economy or other affecting factors, and organizations without strategic leaders are at risk of failure in the face of these factors.

What is Google CEO Pichai’s leadership style? According to reports, he is a modest, restrained man. He is empathetic, supportive, and graceful at navigating political minefields. He avoids confrontation, instead emphasizing cooperation. He waits out conflicts rather than confronting opponents. “He has great relationships. He’s just not a polarizing figure,” Minnie Ingersoll, a former Google product manager who worked with Pichai early in his career, told The Wall Street Journal.

EQ is an important threshold competency

Leaders with high emotional intelligence can utilize their emotions appropriately to influence positive outcomes. This is a must-have skill for leaders. It helps them effectively manage teams without causing rifts or conflicts.

However, there are some basic competencies that are essential for an employee to hold a leading position. These are: conceptual skills, integrity, humanity, communication skills, and business acumen. While the first four are basic traits that make an employee a good leader, business acumen is exceptionally important. Business acumen is an ability to understand and handle business situations. It is the collection of both general and organization-specific knowledge about how things get done and why they are important. 

Leadership competency is an essential element of a team leader at mid-level, or senior-level position in an organization. The most essential part of a leader’s job is to understand and convey goals, delegate tasks, set deadlines, and motivate employees. Good EQ helps leaders to perform well.

Employees who wish to progress into managerial roles are required to have leadership competency. The leadership ability of an employee is judged based on his interaction with other employees, subordinates, how he builds relationships with others, and how he handles conflict.

The leadership style of Mukesh Ambani is very distinctive. Mukesh Ambani doesn’t restrict himself to the traditional boundaries of monocratic, transformational, and situational leaderships among others. His has own unique style of leading. He is a visionary. He can think of the future – the unknown. He knows what technology will be feasible in the future. He understands the sustainability of a company and its potential not based on its present promises but what it promises in the future. It is this ability of the Indian billionaire that has ensured the unprecedented success of Reliance Industries, a conglomerate that was founded by his father Dhirubhai Ambani. Mukesh is an impatient man. He wants solutions to the problems at the earliest. For that purpose, he employs only the best hands. He doesn’t pretend that he knows the solution to each problem.

Effective leaders not only guide teams towards achieving strategic objectives but also foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement. They inspire employees to reach their full potential, steer through challenges, and capture new opportunities. A successful leader ensures employees’ prosperity and the organization’s economic success.

Respects discipline

Employees get influenced by their manager’s discipline, his style, which in turn improves their work performance. Some leaders also use a compensation structure to promote the achievement of strategic goals resulting in the union of individual and company goals.

A leader’s role is to prioritize the team’s needs and create an environment where everyone can flourish and learn from one another. They know that investing in people and prioritizing their requirements results in unwavering loyalty and trust. To inspire the team, managers need to communicate a simple clear and relevant vision of the way forward. Solving internal conflicts is not an easy task. Differences of opinion and confrontations are inevitable when a diverse group of people gathers under one roof.

Narayan Murthy is known for his down to earth nature and friendliness. His achievements and hard work are a great example for any other Indian who aspires to be an entrepreneur. His encouragement has led to the revolutions of startup industries in India. He gives importance to passion and will to persevere. He says that leaders must give priority to the long-term interests. High levels of optimism and high aspirations.

Inspires Team

A leader’s job is to inspire their teams from time to time by appreciating/recognizing their efforts, comprehending complex situations, and acting appropriately towards creating a contented workforce. Leadership development programs help to reinforce the company’s vision, mission, and values. These programs bring employees together, and team-building events provide opportunities for socialization as well as encouraging employees to work as a team and better understand one another on a personal level.

Motivating employees is learning about their needs and desires, delivering what they require, and rewarding them for a well-done job. A leader inspires team members by listening to and appreciating their ideas, as well as recognizing their contributions.

A leader is accountable for ensuring that his/her team stays efficient and productive. They can encourage higher productivity levels from each team member by applying modern management strategies designed to improve time management, minimize employee stress, and increase the quality deliverables of meetings.

The Indian business tycoon Azeem Premji plays the role of chairman of Wipro Limited and has a net worth of US $7.2 billion as of October 2019. One of the top industry leaders in India quotes “Success is achieved twice. Once in the mind and the second time in the real world” among others demonstrate how he as one of powerful person in India thinks. Premji’s sharp strategic vision and crisp communication skills led his team to strive for excellence. He has been known for his modesty, simplicity, and non-extravagance.

Managing Change Effectively

Managing change especially when it’s traumatic is no joke. CCD, which once did roaring business through it’s over 500 outlets in India and abroad, has now plunged into debt, forcing the closure of these cafes that was thronged by youngsters and office goers. The founder V.G. Siddhartha committed suicide which called for change in leadership because the Bengaluru-based firm saw a sharp decline in its fortunes and piling losses. People thought that the Coffee Day company would not survive after Siddhartha’s death and questions thronged as to who would continue to run the company after him. People believed the company could not recover because of the accumulated debt. But Malavika Hegde, wife of V G Siddhartha, put all the suspicion to end and achieved a milestone by saving CCD from disappearing despite being a single woman and mother of two sons.

Good leaders uphold agreements and make sure others do the same. They don’t let people get away with not changing, and work to understand the underlying reasons so they can remove obstacles. Malvika Hegde aided CCD to sail through challenging times by improving employees’ ability to respond quickly in unpredictably changing business situations. Leadership plays a significant role during such times of layoffs, corporate restructuring, political turmoil, and new competitors.

Conclusion

Leadership is a vast subject and requires a necessary skill especially for team handling and senior positions in an organization. The list of threshold competencies that a leader should possess is immense. Many behavioural or personality traits can be observed and learned by leadership role in an organization. And leadership studies are a multidisciplinary academic field of study that focuses on leadership in organizational contexts and in human life.

A leader’s role can’t be overlooked because it impacts the entire business. A strong leader has the power to inspire, energize and motivate their entire team to work together to achieve shared goals, leading to more effective collaboration, innovation, and productivity.

To reinvent something means to change it so that it seems different and new; to redo, to make completely.

The year 2020 will be remembered in history for a long while. Until February, most companies were busy planning their long-term business strategies, busy setting ambitious growth targets, strategizing their value chains and adding new products to their portfolios. However, an unpredicted calamity Covid19 brought the entire world to standstill. The sudden event has forced governments and organizations to hit a pause and reset button. While uncertainty prevails over what the future would cause, what is clear is that it would be starkly different from the world we have known. Until a vaccine is made available to counter the virus, the requirements of social distancing, wearing masks, connecting socially online, in short, the need for restricted movement will continue.

We have seen a tremendous shift in mind-set of people. Though physical distancing is forced on us and we are connected electronically the need to stay relevant is all the more propelling. And, this is major transformation. Organizations are preparing for the new normal by changing their core organizational hierarchies, structure and their operation. While work from home has become the new normal, organizations have invented functional strategies to make distant working and remote client servicing a reality. It’s amazing to note that many small, medium and large organizations have quickly reconfigured their product and service offerings and have transformed their business models. Remote working is further expanding the scope of remote access to everything and greater security against cybercrimes.

With the on-going upheaval many organizations have seen opportunities and are reinventing themselves to rise over Covid19. Electronic gadgets are ruling our lives like never before. We are forced to keep with a lot of technology shifts and companies have had to evolve along with them. The companies that have survived are the ones that know this important lesson of listening to the customer always. The print industry has been the most affected industries since the technology boom. Many newspapers and magazines have either closed up shop or have gone in fully digital. National Geographic, however, has embraced technology – its magazine is still in print and the brand has millions of loyal Instagram, Twitter and Facebook followers, both for its account and its photographers’ accounts. Specifically, National Geographic has over 65 million followers. National Geographic realized that to stay firmly planted in its print ways would have killed its business. So, it went to where its customers were, which is online.

Another great example is Netflix. It has primarily changed the way TV is consumed. Netflix is in true sense the catalyst that drove the shift toward over-the-top television, helping pave way for many other OTT platforms. People want to watch whatever, whenever and wherever.  Netflix experienced lot of hiccups. Its original business model was subscription based, where people could rent as many movies as they wanted, keep them as long as they wanted and trade them in for new ones after mailing them back. Netflix included streaming video, which even further encouraged its popularity. But, in 2011, when it split into two companies, Netflix and Qwickster, its spin-off continued delivering only DVDs by mail and increased its prices, people were put off. Netflix quickly realized its mistake, and reverted back to providing both digitally streaming videos and DVD-by-mail under one roof, and under one bill. The message is give the customers what they want. 

It’s a perpetual fact that all businesses even the most successful ones slack. They lose their hold in market when they start stagnating. Organizations are compelled to reinvent themselves periodically. What matters is their ability to pull off from decline stage of business and jump back at growth stage. Organizations therefore have to be very adaptable. The world is changing at a faster pace; innovation must be a regular function in an organization. The ability of both stimulates and harnesses human imagination.

Domino’s had to make drastic changes; they considered their core competence in fast delivery, pizza in 30 minutes or less. If they delayed the delivery, the pizza would be given free. Domino’s was less concerned about taste or quality; but as people started debating on social media, Domino’s realized gravity of the issue. People were condemning its pizza quality leading to lesser order and tremendous financial repercussions. Domino’s went into action. Taking to the wave, it made an enormous announcement: ‘we hear you, our pizzas are suck and we promise to improve them.’ They improved their pizza quality. Domino’s rolled out its new campaign and new recipe, sales skyrocketed. Companies need to absorb all tip-offs thrown by their customers time and again.  

Few years down the line, many organizations will restyle jobs enabling their employees to work alongside smart machines, robots, and new forms of technology. Already robots have entered households’ cleaning, mopping, cutting and chopping. Organizational leaders must start rethinking their plans. For the past century organisations consisted of jobs, the job profiles were designed to match specified outputs; work methods were devised for performing jobs. But, many present jobs are absurd in nature, they don’t sound normal in nature, they demand unrealistic workloads which leave many job hunters shaking heads in disbelief.

Most people sense that the way organizations are run today has been stretched to its limits and things are and will change shortly. In numerous surveys businesspeople make it clear that in their view, companies are places of anxiety and drudgery, not passion or purpose. Organizational cynicism affects government agencies, non-profits, schools, and hospitals just as much. Further, it applies not just to the powerless at the bottom of the hierarchy. Behind a facade of success, many top leaders are tired of the power games and infighting; despite their desperately overloaded schedules, they feel a vague sense of bareness. People yearn for better ways to work together; for more soulful workplaces where their talents are nurtured and their deepest aspirations are honoured.

So, I conclude that as technology continues to improve, companies will be forced to adapt, change or die. They need to remain customer centric. Big or small all organizations need to be ready to roll out products and services as per the demand of their customers. Change is inevitable, therefore reinventing from time to time is a necessity.

Most people are quite uncomfortable with change; the reasons why people detest any change are explicable. People resist a change or oppose it out rightly. That’s the reason why it is important to understand importance of feelings as change proceeds, and why they need to be guided through it. William Bridges’ Transition Model is a helpful framework in change management.

While most people expect changes are meant to be positive. A lot depends on individuals how they make things better, easier, and to fast-track the route to success. In organizations sometimes the hard-working employees end up being the number one obstacle to a new initiative. Bridges’ transition model helps dealing with the people-aspect of change management. It helps in turning them from obstacles to supporters. As an organizational consultant, William Bridges found that the most important responsibility was of guiding people through transition for successful change. He identified three stages of transition and his model strives to help business leaders to understand the feelings people go through a change process.

Bridges highlights the difference between transition and change. Change is speedy, and people often have no say when it happens. But transition is a slower process that happens internally. Transition is what goes on inside people’s minds as they go through a change process. Employees get affected by change when it transits from one stage to the next.  Therefore, business leaders must change their approach to people management in an empathetic development. The three stages of Bridges’ Transition Model are as follows:

Ending, losing, and letting go: When people first learn that they will have to face a change and their ‘comfort zone’ will be disturbed, they experience an emotional upsurge. If organizations fail to understand and acknowledge this fact, their employees might resist change all the way through a change initiative. When people see a change coming their way they feel afraid, they tend to rebuff, they feel angry, they feel disorientated, frustrated. And in short, they experience insecurity. Dealing with these feelings requires patience. People must be encouraged to be open about their emotional reaction to change and be understood by their superiors and peers about the way they feel. Throughout the change process discussions must be going on so that employees take initiatives on their own.

Employees must be told what their role will be, what their prospects would be the emoluments, the reporting relationship, their future growth in organization everything should be discussed with them.  Bridges believed that the emotional reaction to change is most important to be handled. Emotional health and wellbeing is something that shouldn’t be discarded.

The Neutral Zone: In this stage people are confused and puzzled; they are not sure if the change is good, bad or ugly. They feel uncertain and irritated. It all depends on how nicely managers administer the change process. Employees struggle with their new workloads and new tasks. Each person experiences the change differently depending upon his capacity. This phase is like a flyover between the old and the new. People take time to get detached from the old style, in this stage they try to adapt to the new. People experience resentment towards the change initiative. They are lost in their own world trying to cope with change. Their morale is low and therefore the productivity is also low. Employees carry anxiety about their role, status and identity.

Factually this stage can be one to initiate creativity, innovation, and renewal. This is a great time to encourage people to try new ways of thinking, practicing and working.

Employees must be guided by managers with patience. Their guidance is incredible, it is very important as people go through this neutral period. This can be an uncomfortable time, because it can seem unproductive, and in this little progress is being made. Frequent meetings and sharing feedback is a good solution. When people enter the neutral zone, they are not yet entirely comfortable with change and will still need a lot of encouragement.

The New Beginning: After a while, after few days pass things seem to start falling into place. People start seeing the real results of the change process. They might or might not see the positive result. Employees see how their efforts are starting to pay off. Suddenly, it all makes sense to them. The emotions are positive. They feel energized, they want to learn more, and they feel committed to their role. Naturally, this state of affairs should be sustained as the working atmosphere is positive. This is a time for celebration and rewards coming in pocket.

But, sometimes people can still slip back into stage 2 – the neutral zone. The results cannot be taken for granted, therefore it still necessary for managers to be vigilant.

Strength of the model: This framework focuses on transition, not change. The difference between these is subtle but important. Change is something that happens to people, even if they don’t agree with it. Transition, on the other hand, is an internal process, it happens in our minds. Change can happen very quickly, whereas transition usually is a slow process.

Changes occur in our lives at regular intervals, whether we are aware of them or not. As part of our nature as humans, we normally do not like major changes and the fear of the unknown that accompanies change. Some changes paralyze us emotionally. To handle changes in our life, we need to accept that we need to internally strengthen ourselves. And, we all need guidance and mentoring at each stage.

Kurt Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational and applied psychology in the United States. Lewin emigrated from Germany to America during the 1930’s and is recognized as the “founder of social psychology” which highlights his interest in the human aspect of change. He is remembered even today for one of his keystone models for understanding organizational change which was developed back in the 1940s, and still holds true today. His model is known as Unfreeze – Change – Refreeze which refers to the three-stage process of change management.

When changes take place in organizations the biggest problem they face is resistance to change in terms of: is there any real need for the change? Whether needs would be met with the impending change? The risks associated with adopting the change, lack of abilities to face the change, the fear that change might fail the organization, the process of change might not be handled properly by management. Thus, organization faces a lot of inconsistency. Kurt Lewin suggested three stages for smooth changeover:

1^st stage: Unfreezing

The Unfreezing stage is best handled when organizations realize that change is necessary. The biggest fact is that world around us changes each day. The business environment goes through constant change due to volatility. The first stage is about getting ready to change. It is getting ready to move away from the comfort zone. The first step is about preparation by one and all in the organization. Prior to the change, preparing people to change is most important. When majority people in the organization feel that change is necessary, it becomes urgency and people feel more motivated to have the change. This ends the procrastination; as the closer the deadline, people are more likely to snap into action and actually get the job started.

Unfreezing also means weighing up benefits and damages; if benefits outnumber the damages an action can be easily taken. This is analysis was called the Force Field Analysis by Kurt Lewin. Force Field Analysis is studying different factors for and against making change that the organization is aware of.

2^nd Stage: Transition

Lewin believed that change is not an event, but rather a process. He called the process of change a transition. Transition is the inner movement or a shift we make in reaction to a change. The second stage occurs as we make the variations that are needed. In this stage people in the organization get ‘unfrozen’ and start moving towards a new way of being. This stage of shifting is often the hardest as people are unsure and fearful. The transition if not handled professionally, becomes chaotic. It creates volatility among people. The transition state often emotionally drains people, emotions ranging from anguish to nervousness to anger to anxiety to relief. During the transition, productivity predictably declines.

Transitions become peaceful when people are communicated the need for it. People learn new behaviors during this stage. The day-to-day activities are simultaneously carried on. Therefore, this stage is very challenging. Only when people are convinced themselves and they see benefit, they give signal of willingness. This is not an easy time as people are learning about the changes and need to be given time to understand and work with them. Support is really important here and can be in the form of counselling, training, coaching, advising and analyzing. The chances are they make mistakes and the mistakes must be pardoned as part of the process.

Using role models and allowing people to develop their own solutions also help to make the changes. It is very important to communicate clear picture of the desired change and the benefits to people so they do not lose sight of the destination.

3^rd Stage: Refreezing

Kurt Lewin called this stage freezing which many people refer to as ‘refreezing.’  This stage is about establishing stability once the changes have been made. And when the changes are accepted they become the new norm. People form new relationships and become comfortable with their routines. This can take time. But it brings newness, freshness and innovation with it. In today’s world change takes place within days or weeks. There is just no time to settle into comfortable routines. Hence organization rarely get refreeze, the modern thinking about change is that it is continuous and sudden. Hence organizations prefer staying flexible to change. And staying unfreeze for next change is better. Given today’s pace of change this is a reasonable criticism. In 1947 Lewin wrote: “A change towards a higher level of group performance is frequently short-lived, after a “shot in the arm”, group life soon returns to the previous level. This indicates that it does not suffice to define the objective of planned change in group performance as the reaching of a different level. Permanency of the new level, or permanency for a desired period, should be included in the objective”.

British Airways case: In 1981, British Airways (BA) was considered an unproductive, loss making nationalized company. Had it been a private ownership company, it would probably have been declared bankrupt. John King, who was appointed Chairman in 1981 brought in the turnaround because the passenger airline was making annual losses of £140 million. By 1989, two years into life as a private company, BA was making over £260 million profits per year. This case throws light on change management. The first thing King did was BA was privatized. King recognized that the organizational restructuring is unavoidable, change management is compulsory.

King removed 22,000 employees while reshuffling its operations. He hired Colin Marshall as CEO.  BA’s fleet of aircraft was replaced. He also removed unprofitable routes. These actions of his allows BA to shed its weight in terms of oversized staff, ineffective and obsolete  fleet of aircrafts, thus, helping the airline to reshape itself. Though the need for change and the type of change required was obvious to the new chairman, King realized that the organizational restructuring would affect every single person associated with the company.

King knew that the change should occur in a systematic timeframe, it cannot linger on for years and the reason and implications change must be communicated to the employees, without wasting too much of time he communicated the cause of restructuring by putting a plan in place to achieve the goals of organizational change. In the case of BA, the ultimate goal was the privatization of the company. To get there, King first had to ensure its survival. To achieve the goals King involved the whole organization in his change management plan: from HR, operational staff, technology, engineering, aircrews, and administration. He realized that resolving conflicts and dealing with resistance to change was part of the change management process.

Lewin’s Unfreeze-change-refreeze can be explained in the following steps adopted by BA:

Unfreeze:

King created a sense of urgency: The urgency was simply communicated; the employees were told either change or face closedown of the airline. The staff was told that it would be rather prudent to close the airline, rather than continue making losses of huge sums every year.

The new vision and mission was communicated to all stakeholders. The stakeholders were made aware to act upon the action plan. When stakeholders are involved in the change process, the change can be effectively carried on more swiftly. If restructuring involves job losses, then stakeholders should involve workers’ groups or unions.

Change:

A flexible atmosphere for created for the change: It is very important to realize that rigidity  does not allow to change, people and processes are interlinked, hence resistance should be avoided at each stage.

Change management must be led by leaders: Change management must be led by the leaders consistently and supported by managers at all levels. These managers not only convey the message down the line, but also report on feedback and progress.

Implementation plan must have clarity: Strategizing change requires following the project implementation plan. The two will go hand-in-hand, as all stakeholders move toward organizational strategic goals.

Refreeze:

Cultivate behavioral change: after changes are brought in, the change must be projected through people and their attitude. People should walk the talk of the adopted change. At this stage counsellors and mentoring helps people a lot.   In 1982, Colin Marshall became the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of British Airways plc. In this period, British Airways produced its first additional profit which was the outcome of the cost-cutting actions implemented by John King. Colin Marshall decided to pay attention to its customer service in order to ensure that company carries on making profit. Marshall hired Consultants to collect data about workers and customer attitudes. Significant gaps were plugged between what was delivered by BA staff what the consumer actually required.