“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality” – Warren Bennis

Once you have assembled the right people on your bus and got them in the right seats the next question is where are you going and how are you going to get there? Introducing the role of leadership and strategy for growing a successful and sustainable business. 

In an increasingly complex and uncertain environment there is no one formula for success. However, the role of a leader has never been more important. That is to provide foresight, planning and agility to navigate the unchartered waters of a business’s evolution while bringing their people with them.

In the book The Work of Leaders the authors describe quite succinctly what their research identified as the three key roles of a leader:

• Crafting a Vision: imagining an improved future state that the group will make a reality through its work
  
• Building Alignment: getting to the point where everyone in the group understands and is committed to the direction
  
• Championing Execution: ensuring that the conditions are present for the imagined future to be turned into reality

But what is the leader’s role with strategy? 

Strategy is essentially the planning and direction of an organisation’s activities and resources, people, and capital, in order to achieve a set of pre-defined goals and objectives. 

Jack Welch put it very simply: “In reality, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell.”

Leaders have ultimate responsibility for implementing the agreed strategy. The leader’s role is essentially to “make strategy happen” by building the organisation’s culture and capability to deliver on the plan.

To summarise, the Leader’s role in Strategy is to:

• Develop and articulate a clear strategy: ensuring buy-in at all levels of the organisation.
• Ensure the strategy can be implemented: putting in place the appropriate systems and structures and assigning clear responsibilities to deliver on the plan.

When you put this all together, the ultimate challenge for any organisation is aligning the everyday actions of its people with its strategic direction. Only when actions and strategy are in harmony and running efficiently can an organisation truly claim to be successful and sustainable. The interplay of Leadership and Strategy are key to business success.

Click here to download the 10 key elements of Leadership and Strategy for a successful and sustainable business.