Video Transcript: Lecture 12

Hello. So here we are. We're in the final lecture. So I just want to tell you, I'm so  proud of you for making it this far. You have done such a great job, and thank  you for your time and attention. So we have talked a lot about management  functions. We have talked about a lot of things related to firm performance. I  want to introduce a new term and that strategic leadership, and just spend a few minutes talking about some of the qualities of a strategic leader, whether as  CEO, or whether that is you or somebody else in your organization. Or you  know, no matter what level you are, you can certainly be a strategic leader. In  fact, one of your videos from this week is from Drew Dudley, who talks about  everyday leadership and how every single person is a leader, regardless of who  you are and what your positional power and authority is. So I'm a firm believer  that every single person is a leader. You may not have a formalized role of  leader, but you're certainly a leader in your church, in your home, among your  friends group, among your peer group, your strategic leader, as you'll see in the  Drew Dudley video, you're a leader around people you don't even know that  you're leading. So leading comes down to one word. Really, it comes down to  one word, and that is influence. So when we talk about leadership, when we talk about this concept of leadership, we're really, what we're talking about is  influence. So strategic leadership is the ability to influence others to voluntarily  make decisions that enhance the prospects of an organization's long term  success while maintaining short term financial stability. So that's a definition.  There's other definitions that are out there. But remember influence. So strategic leadership refers to a manager's potential to express a strategic vision for the  organization or part of the organization, and to motivate and persuade,  persuade being influence others to acquire that vision. Strategic leaders, create  organizational structure, allocate resources and express strategic vision, which  we talked about there certainly there have been some discussions about some  of the traits and characteristics that a strategic leader would have. I'm going to  show these I agree with some, I disagree with others, and I will discuss them  with you. So loyalty, I think it says powerful and effective leaders demonstrate  their loyalty to their vision by their words and actions. One of the things that this  is saying. This is saying is strategic leadership involves loyalty to the vision, but I would argue that it also extends to loyalty to your employees, and without your  employees, without communication, without those strong kind of things, you are  not going to have success in executing your vision. So leadership, absent of  communicating and articulating the vision and different policies and then taking  care of your people which are executing that vision, is a short sighted definition  of loyalty. You will see that further as we go. It is mentioned in other ways, but  loyalty is certainly not just about loyalty to the vision by your words and actions,  but loyalty to your employees as well. This says that efficient, effective leaders  basically keep themselves updated. They understand what's going on their  organization. They understand trends. I think we've talked a lot about that in this 

class, the needs, the need to look at trends, the need to make sure that you are  following the trends, and the need to constantly be doing that environmental  scanning and paying attention to the internal and external factors that exist, so  certainly, keeping themselves updated and understanding where the firm's at  and what their firm's doing is a characteristic or a trait of the strategic leader  talks about making you wise use of your power and what kind of power you  have talks about coercion versus consent. Again, this is about voluntarily  influencing. That's why I read that definition first. Certainly you have positional  power over somebody. Certainly you can make somebody do something, and  you can influence them to do something, but it's a lot better if it's their idea, if  they're motivated by it, if they're following the direction. They're rowing in the  same boat, and they're the ones that own whatever that idea is. So you know,  the concept of going in and making sure that your team understands what your  vision is, making sure that your team is following your vision is critically  important, having a wider perspective outlook. We certainly talked about this as  well throughout the class. You know, you have to know a lot about a lot. And  there's this actually, there's this theory, and it's Katz. Katz forget the name of it.  Katz do let's see. Let's see if I can find it. Three skills approach. There it is. So  Katz, three skills approach basically says, Let's try and find Yep, here this will  work. So Katz, three skills approach talks about how the higher you go, the  more kind of skills that are needed. So top management does not need a lot of  technical skills, but they need human skills, because they need to know how to  lead and motivate people. And they also need conceptual skills, where middle  management kind of needs to know all three, and then supervisory doesn't really need to look at the conceptual skills, but focus more on the technical skills and  the human skills. So Katz came up with these three skills, and these three skill  components, and that's one of the things that this leadership that we're just  talking about, that's that wide outlook and having that wide perspective  motivation. So this is, again, this is talking about the leader, but let's apply this to a follower as well. A strategic leader may maybe should have some zeal for the  work they're doing, but they should also should know how to motivate others.  Not everybody is motivated by money. Certainly money is important to live. But  you know, I can, I can tell you, from my perspective, that moan and money,  money is not my primary motivation. I am motivated by making a difference in  this world and helping people out doing things that are different. Certainly,  money is important, and I need to be able to take care of my responsibilities. But money is not the only thing, and a good strategic leader understands that for the organization and also understands that for their individual employees, and  understands how to how to best use their skill set and motivate them in a way  that makes sense to help them carry out that strategic vision, compassion. So  you have to have compassion. You got to understand your the feelings and  views of your subordinates and to make decisions considering them. You know, 

sometimes this one's a little bit tougher. I can say that my life, I've certainly had  very compassionate leaders, and I've had leaders that weren't so  compassionate, and, you know, going back to motivation and going back to my  values, I have to make sure that they align with my leaders and they align with  the organization. So if I found that my leader did not have compassion for me,  did not understand where I was coming from, did not make an effort, then  certainly I would not be part of that organization for a long time. Certainly there  are other things that I could do, as LeBron James famously said one time, I  could take my talents to South Beach. So certainly having compassion for your  workers is very, very important. Self control, this is a difficult one. I think certainly there have been people that have been very successful in leadership roles that  have not had a lot of self control. I can think of a couple examples. I won't  mention them now, but I'm sure you can think of some examples as well, of  people who have been very who have been accused of not having a lot of self  control, both in and giving in their impulses and being very cruel. And certainly,  that's not the way we want to operate, as a strategic leader, social skills. So this  says, must be friendly and social. But I wouldn't, I wouldn't say that. What I  would say is that you got to understand how to work with people and talk to  people and operate with people. You got to understand how to how to how to be  able to sell yourself, you have to be very adaptable in social situations. So this is one I don't really agree with. I would not consider myself a social person as a  general rule. I'm an extreme introvert, and actually, I wouldn't. Are myself very  friendly on that, but I'm an extreme introvert, so it's hard for me to be social all  the time. So yes, there are times and places where I need to exhibit social time,  and I need to be active and out there and friendly and doing those things, but  there's also times that I need to retract and bring in, and it's understanding those situations when it's okay to retract and retreat, and then understand those  situations where it's okay to get out there as well self awareness, and this goes  into self awareness is understanding your own moods and emotions. I have  things to help me with that, obviously measuring my tone all day long, and  understanding how I sound to others, how I come off to others, that's critically  important. So that is an important skill, self awareness. We just talked about the  readiness to delegate. So I was having a conversation with somebody, and they  were saying that they are not a very good leader. And I said, Well, that's  interesting. Why would you say that? And they said, well, because I don't want  to delegate, and I would rather do it myself, and it's me. I'm allowing my  protection, my perfectionist tendencies to take over to what to it gets to the point where what I will do is I would rather have somebody sitting next to me watching me do something than doing it myself. And I said, Wow, well, that's obviously  something you need to work on. And they agreed, you got to understand that  you cannot. There's this term in the academic world, I really don't like it. It's  called being the sage on the stage, meaning you have all the knowledge and 

you're off and you're doing this. And that, I really don't like that term, but you  can't always be the sage on the stage. You got to realize that you need a team  of people to execute that vision, especially as you go from one person, you hire  others, you hire others, you hire others, you hire others. You got to delegate  them, and you got to empower them, and you got to allow them to have freedom to bring up ideas and to do things that are different and make sure that they  understand that vision. If you if somebody understands that vision, and you hire  the right person, and you have that good trusting relationship with them, then  they're going to be able to execute. And they're going to be able to execute in  very, very, very powerful ways. You have to be articulate. You have to be able to  articulate the vision. You got to be able to articulate to other stakeholders or  shareholders. You got to have very good awareness. Like, you know, you're  watching this video, and I'll certainly watch it later, but I know I'm like, you know,  I'm over here, and I'm scratching myself, and I'm saying, um, and all those  things. Like, you know, you got to understand what your what, how you're  coming off in front of other people. So as a strategic leader, you have to  understand this concept, reliability. Consistency. You have to be consistent. You  have to stick to your vision, you have to stick to your plan, but you have to be  willing to be adaptable. And that's something that's not on this list is, yes, you  have to have consistency to head toward your vision, but you got to be  adaptable with how to get there. And you have to be willing to change things and move things and do things differently if necessary, to make sure that you are  successful. And that goes to also the concept of anticipating. You have to be  able to anticipate the challenges and see beyond the horizon. And we talked  about that a lot, is you gotta, you gotta be able to do some horizon scanning,  and you got to understand what is out there and what is beyond. And as a  strategic leader, you got to be able to anticipate what's the next business model  and be able to execute that. You have to be able to challenge, you have to be  able to challenge that status quo. You have to be able to look at, look at  something, and you need to say, no, that's not acceptable. And you have to take what is and realize that, that in the future, things are going to be different, and  you can't do business as usual. You know, one of the terms that you hear a lot in six sigma that is challenged, and it's personally a term I don't want to hear is,  Well, why do you do it that way? Well, that's the way it's always been done.  Well, that's not a good answer. I mean, it's really not that's the way it's always  been done. Well, why? Why has it always been done that way? Is there a better  way? Can we change can we make things better? Can we gain those  efficiencies to get that competitive advantage to succeed as an organization,  you got to be able to interpret as a strategic leader. You're going to get a lot of  information, and you got to be able to wade through what is real, what is not  real. I just got a text from somebody actually, let's see if I kept it when we were  on break, and this person started a new job. So I'm going to, I'm going to cover 

that part, but they started a new job, and they texted me and said, Hey, I was  almost scammed by somebody. I thought somebody actually wanted. And some  something. So this person wrote them and said, as the CEO of the company  and said, Let me, let me know if you're available. At the moment, I'm in a  meeting. I can't take a call right now, but I need you to run a quick tast for me.  And then they named their name, and then they said, I want you to a store that  sells Apple gift cards and buy a bunch etc, etc. Anyway, it went down and down,  but, but you got to be able to interpret and know what is real what is not real.  Now that is very extreme example, but, but think about it as a leader. You got to  be able to analyze and interpret and know, especially when it comes to the  strategic direction of your company. You got to be able to know what information  is real, what information is not, and then how you can use that information for,  again, that competitive advantage. You got to be able to be decisive. You have  to know that that the decisions that you have to make a decision, sometimes no  decision is a decision, but you got to be decisive. If you have an opportunity to  buy another company, you remember we talked about mergers and acquisitions, or sell off your company, part of your company, you're gonna have to make a  decision. You're gonna have to sit back and go, you know, this is what the  market saying. This is what's happening. Yeah, I think it's a good time to buy that company and then, and they diversify a little bit, you got to be able to align, and  that's and that goes back to this was talked about in that graphic I showed. But  you got to be able to align, and you got to be able to discuss, align your people  around the vision. You got to be able to get a stakeholder buy in. You have to be able to do those things. You have to be able to learn. You do have to learn that's  something that's critically important, is organizational learning, institutional  learning. You have to constantly be reading and learning and adapting. And then the final thing I will add, and again, this has kind of been discussed, but I want to discuss it in a different way, is to say that as a strategic leader, you have to be  able to communicate. You have to be able to communicate your people, and you have to be able to see the strategic vision moving forward. So, you know, there's a lot of ways to do that. Certainly, there's a lot of different leadership theories  that are out there. From transactional leadership, raise a laissez faire  leadership, there's transformational leadership. You know, my favorite is servant, or values based leadership as a model where you put the needs of the followers first. And but one of the ones that I think is the best in this situation is situational  leadership, which means that you got to adapt your leadership style to the  different people. So you got to have high emotional intelligence, and you got to  understand how to communicate to people, how to give them the resources,  then they need to be effective in their job, and ultimately, it's all to execute that  strategic vision for your company. So as we close, I hope you have gained a lot  of knowledge from this class. Certainly this topic is very complex, very, very  complex. So you know, certainly I understand the complexity of this class, and I 

hope this overview gave you a good idea about how to implement strategy in  your own company, in your own life, in your own mission field, and the things  that you can do to be a strategic leader and a strategic manager and a strategic  thinker moving forward. So thank you so much for your time and attention in this class, and let us close in prayer one final time, Heavenly Father. Just want to  thank you for this class. I want to thank you for each individual in it. I want to  thank you for what they have accomplished here today. Lord, they have just  gone through an entire 12 modules, and what an accomplishment that is, Lord.  So I just want to take a moment to say thank you. Thank you for the successful  completion of this class. Thank you for the part that I've been able to play in it,  and certainly the part that they've played in it. Lord, I pray that you will bless  each individual in this class moving forward, that you will help them to be  powerful witnesses for you in Jesus name, we pray amen. Thank you class, so  much for this opportunity. Thank you to Christian leaders for giving me this  opportunity to speak with you. And I just from the bottom of my heart, I just want  to thank you for trusting me with part of your education and learning from me.  So thank you and enjoy the rest of your studies.