Explain the link between strategic management and leadership

Strategic management is defined as decisions taken by the managers in framing strategies in a way so as to augment organization’s performance and achieve competitive advantage (Thompson & Martin 2010). Strategic leadership is referred as potentiality of a manager to utilize strategies and attain mission and vision of an organization as well as to guide and motivate other members of the organization to achieve organization’s objectives (Hill & Jones 2012).

Both leaders and managers act in the organization to achieve the common goal of the organization. Where managers are concerned about shaping strategic ideas and plans to achieve organizational goals leaders are concerned about undertaking strategic actions to attain the goal. The linkage between strategic management and leadership can be well described using the Drotter pipeline model which identifies six key passages through which a leader grows and is also helpful for the management to develop leaders in the organization (Charan et al. 2010).

As per the pipeline model in case of first passage that is transition of a leader from managing self to managing others, organization need to ensure that the leader understands what is the organization’s expectations. At this passage a leader need to develop effective communication skill, able to handle conflicts, delegate work properly and should seek 360 degree feedback for own improvement. In case of transition from managing others to managing managers, a leader should inhibit the role of a coach and mentor. Leader should be able to create a competent team and use organization resources effectively. In case of third passage from managing mangers to functional manager, a leader need to think and act strategically and should be aware of the recent trends. In the fourth transition from functional manger to business manager, a leader needs to have a shift in values and perceptions so as to handle the entire business functions. During the fifth passage, from business manager to group manager, a leader need to have the capability to broader long term goals of an organization and undertake strategic decisions. In the sixth transition from group manager to enterprise manager that is the CEO need to be responsible for building leadership, implementing various decision making methods to cite a few (Charan et al. 2010).

Siemens needs to apply the Drotter pipeline model to overcome the leadership issues in the organization such as the case of bribery (News 2012). Moreover, organization needs to improve the link between management and leader since employees are reluctant to report to the management in case of any operational issues (The Economists, 2014).

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