7 Essential Qualities of Strategic Leadership

Learn the key characteristics of strategic leadership.

In order to be a successful leader, you need to be strategic. Strategic leaders not only manage day-to-day operations and solve existing problems, they also envision and shape the future. Referencing examples from a long-form narrative, The Art of Strategic Leadership by Steve Stowell and Stephanie Mead aims to define the qualities that strategic leaders possess.

Here are the 7 essential qualities of strategic leaders:

1. Ownership - "Organizations that nurture a sense of ownership in their leaders and team members find that the organization's talent becomes its competitive advantage." (53)

2. Tenacity - "All good leaders and managers need a healthy dose of dedication and determination to excel in their roles and responsibilities." (70)

3. Risk - "Really good leaders operate with the belief that they can't afford not to take risks." (89)

4. Agility - "The ability to be flexible and adaptable is often an underrated and overlooked talent. However, it is a necessary part of being proactive." (106)

5. Awareness - "Strategic awareness isn't just about seeing and understanding information, data, and signs, but about figuring out how to take action on that information in order to achieve better results and contribute to the organization's core strategy and mission." (124)

6. Driving Change - "As a leader, being a change driver is central to everything we do and is critical to making a strategic difference." (143)

7. Vision - "Leaders with vision create greater loyalty, stronger connections, and deeper employee engagement across the organization." (158)

We had the pleasure of chatting with author Stephanie Mead at the ATD 2016 conference in Denver. Watch the video to learn more about what you can expect in The Art of Strategic Leadership!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dXkZAm1yxc

This post was written by Michelle Drucker, the manager of marketing at BookPal. She is currently reading Making Work Work by Shola Richards and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.