{"id":48440,"date":"2023-01-31T09:42:43","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T14:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/?post_type=articles&p=48440"},"modified":"2025-05-08T06:59:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:59:37","slug":"how-to-become-a-strategic-leader","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/how-to-become-a-strategic-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Become a Strategic Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Differences Between Operational vs. Strategic Leaders<\/h2>\n

What makes strategic leadership different from leadership in general? If you\u2019re a good leader, aren\u2019t you in turn a strategic leader?<\/p>\n

Effective strategic leaders \u2014 who have the ability to solve strategic leadership challenges \u2014 need different skills and perspectives than those in day-to-day operational leadership roles.<\/p>\n

Operational leaders must\u00a0master their functional area, meet short-term targets, and create stability for focused execution.<\/p>\n

Strategic leaders, on the other hand, must\u00a0focus on multiple facets of the business instead of ensuring success in a single area.\u00a0They\u00a0make decisions that position the business for the future, while meeting current demands. And, typically, strategic leaders are involved in creating significant organizational change. This difference means that the challenges faced by strategic leaders will also be different.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a Strategic Leader?<\/h3>\n

Being a strategic leader means having the ability to make common sense of a situation, no matter how complex and ambiguous the conditions.<\/strong> This is especially critical in today\u2019s complex and disrupted environment post-pandemic,\u00a0including social, economic, and political instability; global trade wars; industry upheavals; and more. This turbulence creates pressures on the organization as a whole, and leaders in particular, who are responsible for guiding the way through change and innovation.<\/p>\n

As a strategic leader, you must be able to offer guidance that allows people to make sense of the encompassing world and collective challenges, and also explain how the team as a whole will face them.<\/p>\n

Strategic Leadership Stands Out in These 3 Ways<\/h3>\n

Strategic leadership is broad in scope<\/em>.<\/h4>\n

Strategic decisions impact areas outside your own functional area, business unit, or even the organization. An effective strategic leader sees the organization as interdependent and interconnected, so that actions and decisions in one part of the organization are undertaken with their impact on other parts of the organization in mind.<\/b> Operational leadership does not necessarily extend this far.<\/p>\n

Strategic leadership is future-focused<\/em>.<\/h4>\n

Strategic work takes place over long periods of time. The strategic leader operates with a far-reaching timetable, integrating short-term results and a long-term focus.<\/b> Not all leadership requires a forward view to be effective. Very good operational leaders manage day-to-day functions effectively and are skilled at working with people to ensure that short-term objectives are met.<\/p>\n

Strategic leadership is change-oriented<\/em>.<\/h4>\n

The strategic leader is often a driver of organizational change. <\/b>The impact of their work cascades or ripples throughout the organization. Effective operational leadership doesn\u2019t necessarily institute significant organizational change.<\/p>\n

For example, achieving the quarter\u2019s targets may require that your team works well together \u2014 an important leadership task \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t necessarily require change. Senior leaders looking to become more strategic leaders must look beyond the process of setting strategy, to what comes next by asking themselves these questions:<\/p>\n