Strategic Leadership

Many people think of leadership as "being able to get other people to do what needs to be done effectively".  Being an effective leader means more than being a good manager of people.  There are three key things that a great leader needs to be able to do.  They need to be able to set a direction that their organization needs to go in, design the organization to achieve the goals they set to move them in that direction, and nurture and build a culture that supports this direction. 

Setting Direction

Setting a new direction involves looking at the external environment and deciding what your company needs to do in order to gain a strategic advantage.  Part of being a leader is to integrate a vision of the future that allows employees to become more excited about the work they are doing.  They need to feel that what they are doing matters and that they are making a difference.  When employees feel needed they are more apt to being fully committed to the project, or work and not thinking only about compensation. Great leaders will think out of the box to come up with this strategy.  If you want your employees to become attached to your vision, you need to change the whole process, get them to like something totally new.

Designing the organization is simply implementing the new vision and strategies.  Successful leaders are actively involved in the business processes.  John Deere implements teams, systems, and other processes that will support their direction and vision. They try to make sure that the business and corporate levels are consistent in their views and directions.  If your business-level is pursuing a low-cost leader strategy and the corporate-level is trying to focus on quality, the business does not accomplish either and will not be as successful.  Everyone needs to be on the same page and in order to accomplish this a good leader will take part in everything so they can actively see the direction of their organization as a whole business.  That is why John Deere has made quality part of their culture.

Nurturing and building a good culture can be more than an effective way to avoid lawsuits and get along with the government.  Many managers see this as an effective way to implement organizational control.  An organization with a culture that expects quality work will get quality work.  If the employees and the managers are all trying to do their best there will be more pressure to do a good quality job.  Top managers and leaders will have a big impact on their company culture whether they want to or not and should be very careful about how they behave and what decisions they make.  John Deere has many different branches and divisions.  Each one of the managers in these divisions needs to push for quality and match the company expectations because that is their culture.

A successful leader will in the end, will make a profit and get the activities needed to make a profit done.  In order to do that they will need to be a good leader and a good manager.  They need to be able to instill a vision in their employees, provide them with direction, and provide a good cultural environment for them to work in in order to be a good leader.  They need to tie this into their management style to run their operation efficiently and effectively.