Management outlook and procedures have been revolutionized by more and more innovations over the recent years. It is no longer possible to follow traditional approaches to develop your organization's direction, its management as well its effectiveness. Senior managers need to be good decision-makers. In this section, we introduce concepts for strategy, strategic planning, strategic leadership, their exact meaning and associated terms, and how to use them.
Leaders need to motivate and influence their employees with their thought leadership, but many lack knowledge of the concepts, tools, and frameworks that are most helpful in thinking strategically. This section will give you a practical but rigorous foundation of frameworks and tools to help you be a more effective participant in strategic decision making.
You have undoubtedly heard the word strategy and perhaps know a bit about the concept of strategic planning. These have become important parts of management vocabulary and thinking. The word strategy is derived from the Greek word “strategtia” meaning "generalship" which was used first around 400 B.C. The army general organizes and uses his troops for military action. It is this deployment of troops and soldiers that is the basic meaning of the word.
The dictionary meaning of strategy is, “the art of so moving or disposing of the instrument of warfare as to impose upon the enemy, the place time and conditions for fighting by oneself.”
This connotes the art and science of directing military forces. In business parlance, there is no definite meaning assigned to strategy. However, in an organizational context strategy relates to the science or the art of identifying and applying your human and physical resources and carefully preparing for attaining the future goals you have set for your organization.
The strategy is to create a unified, comprehensive, and integrated plan to ensure the achievement of basic objectives through the proper implementation process. The strategy is in fact a plan or course of action or a set of decision rules which are based on policies, objectives, and goals and targeted at moving an organization from its current position to a desired future state. Challenges of the current environment are evaluated to find strategic advantage out of them and strategy also defined the requisite resources that are needed to implement a plan.
A good strategy is one that helps in the accomplishment of the organization’s objectives. The top management of an organization is concerned with the selection of a course of action from among different alternatives to meet the organizational objectives. The process by which objectives are formulated and achieved is known as strategic management and strategy act as the means to achieve the objective. A few aspects regarding the nature of strategy in the organization context is as follows:
In our present Hitech scenario, society is changing very fast. What are the skills that are most relevant for leaders in relation to the changing economic environment? Leaders need to develop skills to drive innovation and change in order to play a more central role in their organizations’ activities. How do managers accept the change and meet business expectations by becoming a key figure in driving change and innovation?
Robert Katz identified three leadership skills called - technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills as the basic personal skills essential for leadership. Leaders must possess these three skills that assist them in optimizing a leader's performance. Technical skills are related to the field, human skills are related to communicating with people and conceptual skills related to setting the vision.
Develop your Leadership Skills
There are a number of broad skill areas that are particularly important for leaders. Today's demanding global business landscape is defined by relentless change and rising business complexity, bringing new challenges. Leadership skills provide career-enhancing resources and support you to be exceptionally successful in your career. Leaders need to provide direction to their teams and need to be able to make good and timely decisions to define and support strategic direction for the enterprise.
A manager or an employee in an organization who is experiencing a high level of stress may develop high blood pressure, ulcers, irritability, difficulty in making routine decisions, loss of appetite, accident proneness, and the like. These can be subsumed under three general categories, physiological, psychological, and behavioral symptoms. Stress can give rise to a number of changes.
Stress is a product of the busyness of modern life. It has assumed grave dimensions ever since the emergence of industrialism. In fact, stress is a natural, ongoing, dynamic, and interactive process that takes place as people adjust to their environment. Stress can be brought about by positive or negative life events. Distress can cause disease and eustress or positive stress can promote wellbeing and increased productivity. Learn to recognize and be responsible for your stress, and learn the ways to manage stress.
Tools for Developing Your Team
If a manager has too many weak spots in the talent of the team, the ability to empower the team members to independently execute the project is impaired. Assignments fall behind schedule or stretch out because the needed skills or knowledge are not in place when needed. To successfully execute important projects, hiring talented people, and increasing the talents of existing staff are most important.
Technology represents tremendous value if you view it from the proper perspective. IT empowerment also has its various levels in any organization. As a CIO or IT Senior Leader, you should try to move the technology function up the value chain. Learn how to transform your service delivery organization being looked upon as another cost center to a business partner that provides valuable services and brings competitive advantage for the business.
Functional skills are the core competencies that can be transferred to different work areas like understanding of finance is independent and a finance expert can comfortably adapt to a manufacturing or service industry. Functional skills are obtained by understanding the various processes and the principles applicable to a business function. Functional experts are in great demand as they are specialists and required to manage the business processes like human resources, operations, or finance.
Recognizing Stress & its Sources
As an individual, you almost certainly know what stress feels like. Stressors are events or situations to which people must adjust. Stressors may be physical or psychological in nature. The level of severity of stress is determined not merely by exposure but the intensity, duration, and frequency of stressors. The sources of stress are many. They arise from multiple areas both with the individual and from the environment.
Guide to Technical Leadership Skills
Technical leaders care about building amazing products and the best technical capabilities in their teams. Everything they do is focused on improving the user experience and bringing competitive advantage for their organization. Learn the skills and competencies you need to build a technical career path for yourself that starts with building technical expertise and grows into developing technical leadership.
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