Strategic Leadership

Strategic
Leadership
How to build, lead and sustain a high
performance organization

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LEADING PEOPLE
Rosen & Brown
Penguin Books

This is compiled from more than a dozen studies, focusing on

leading companies from the Forbes 500, Fortune 500, 700
privately-held firms, and interviews at the 3,000 largest
companies in America.
Successes depend on people - and in order to achieve success,
people depend on leaders.

It is a simple idea, but one with sweeping consequences. It

opens up tremendous opportunities, but also gaping pitfalls. In
order to succeed, leaders will have to reinvent their
organizations to get the most from their people. But to do that,
leaders must take a deep look inside and discover the ways they
influence their enterprise and their people. More importantly,
they will need to reinvent themselves.
A recent national survey of more than 10,000 workers found
that current leadership is costing American companies more
than half their human potential. To put that another way,
improved leadership alone could double worker productivity.
This translates directly to the bottom line. The single biggest
influence on employee commitment and performance, according
to another sweeping national study of more than 25,000
workers, is the leadership skills of their managers!
To be effective and successful, leaders must build organizations
that help employees strengthen their competence, creativity,
and commitment. Leaders must create healthy environments
where people are excited about their work, take pride in their
accomplishments, and contribute to their colleagues doing the
same. Their task, in short, is to forment ideas, skills, and
energy. This is leading people.

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THE EIGHT PRINCIPLES OF LEADING PEOPLE

VISION
Leaders see the whole picture and articulate that broad
perspective with others. By doing so, leaders create a common
purpose that mobilizes people and coordinates their efforts into a
single, coherent, agile enterprise.

TRUST
Without trust, vision becomes an empty slogan. Trust binds
people together; creating a strong, resilient organization. To
build trust, leaders are predictable and they share information
and power. Their goal is a culture of candor.

PARTICIPATION
The energy of an organization is the participation and effort of its
people. The leaders challenge is to unleash and focus this
energy, inspiring people at every level of the enterprise to pitch
in with their minds and hearts.

LEARNING
Leaders need a deep understanding of themselves. They must
know their strengths and shortcomings, which requires a lifelong
process of discovery, and they must be able to adapt to new
circumstances. They must promote constant innovation, and
leaders must encourage their people to refresh their skills and
renew their spirits.

DIVERSITY
Successful leaders know the power of diversity and the poison of
prejudice. They understand their own biases, and they actively
cultivate an appreciation of the positive aspects of peoples
differences. In their organizations, they insist on a culture of
mutual respect.

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CREATIVITY
In a world where smart solutions outpace excessive work,
creativity is crucial. Leaders pay close attention to peoples
talents, leaning on their strengths and managing around their
weaknesses. They encourage independent, challenging thinking
and they invest in technologies that facilitate the efforts of their
people.

INTEGRITY
A leader must stand for something. As a public citizen and a
private person, he/she knows what is important in life and acts
by deep-seated principles. Every wise leader has a moral
compass, a sense of right and wrong. Good leaders understand
that good ethics is good business.

COMMUNITY
Community is mutual commitment and it inspires the highest
performance. Its human nature to go the extra mile for ones
neighbors and fellow citizens, and a mature leader stresses the
organizations responsibility to the surrounding society. A leader
also acts as a steward of the natural environment.

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THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE

KOUZES & POSNER
JOSSEY-BASS
This book is based on an extensive research study that began in
1987 and has continued through 2006. More than 450,000
respondents on four continents were asked: What values

(personal traits and characteristics) do you look for and admire in

your leaders? They were also asked to select the seven qualities

they most look for and admire in a leader someone whose

direction they would willingly follow.

The top four responses, by a very wide margin, were as follows:

BEING HONEST
Honesty was selected more often than any other leadership
characteristic; it consistently emerged as the single most
important ingredient in the leader-constituent relationship.
That nearly 90% of the respondents want their leaders to be
honest above all else is a message that all leaders must take to
heart.
Just how do constituents measure honesty? By observing the
leaders behavior. In other words, regardless of what leaders say
about their own integrity, people wait to be shown; they watch
and observe carefully. Consistency between word and deed is
how we judge someone to be honest.
Honesty is also related to values and ethics. We appreciate
people who take a stand on important principles. We resolutely
refuse to follow those who lack confidence in their own beliefs.
Confusion over where the leader stands creates stress; not
knowing the leaders beliefs contributes to conflict, indecision,
and political rivalry. We simply dont trust people who wont tell
us their values, ethics and standards. Even worse, though, is
someone who tells us they hold a certain value then acts in
complete disagreement with that value.

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BEING FORWARD-LOOKING
We expect our leaders to have a sense of direction and a concern
for the future of the organization. Leaders must know where
they are going if they expect others to willingly join them on the
journey.
In a separate study of 300 senior executives, a leadership style
of honesty and integrity and a long-term vision and direction for
the company were ranked as the number one and two most
important characteristics in a successful leader.
In a joint study with Columbia University, 98% of the
respondents (8,500) ranked the ability to convey a strong vision
of the future as a very important quality for effective leaders.
We want to know what the organization will look like, feel like, be
like when it arrives at its goal in six months or six years. We
want to have it described to us in rich detail so that well know
when weve arrived and so that we can select the proper route
for getting there.

BEING INSPIRING
We also expect our leaders to be enthusiastic, energetic, and
positive about the future Its not enough for a leader to have a
dream about the future. A leader must be able to communicate
the vision in ways that encourage us to sign on for the duration.
Some react with discomfort to the idea that being inspiring is an
essential leadership quality. In the final analysis, though, leaders
must inspire our confidence in the validity of the goal.
Enthusiasm and excitement are essential and signal the leaders
personal commitment to pursuing that goal. If a leader displays
no passion for a cause, why should anyone else?

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BEING COMPETENT
To enlist in anothers cause, we must believe that the person is
competent to guide us where we are headed. We must see the
leader as capable and effective.
Leadership competency doesnt necessarily refer to the leaders
abilities in the core technology of the operation. In fact, the type
of competence demanded is value-added competence.
Functional competence may be necessary, but its insufficient; the
leader must bring some added value to the position. Expertise in
leadership skills themselves is another dimension of competence.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

What we found in our investigation of admired leadership
qualities is that, more than anything, we want leaders who are
credible. We must believe that their word can be trusted, that
theyll do what they say, that theyre personally excited and
enthusiastic about the direction in which were headed, and
that they have the knowledge and skill to lead.

THE FIVE FUNDAMENTAL PRACTICES OF EXEMPLARY

LEADERSHIP
As we looked deeper into the dynamic process of leadership,
through case analysis and survey questionnaires, we uncovered
five fundamental practices that enable leaders to get
extraordinary things done.
The best leaders in the world are able to:

Challenge the process

Inspire a shared vision

Enable others to act

Model the way

Encourage the heart

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CHALLENGE THE PROCESS

Those who lead others to greatness seek and accept challenge.
They are pioneers people willing to step out into the unknown.
They are willing to take risks, to innovate and experiment in
order to find new ways of doing things. But leaders need not
always be the creators or originators of new products, services or
processes. In fact, its just as likely that theyre not. Product and
service innovations tend to come from customers, clients,
vendors, people in the labs and people on the front lines, while
process innovations tend to come from the people doing the
work.
The leaders primary contribution is in the recognition of good
ideas, the support of those ideas and the willingness to challenge
the system in order to get new products, processes, services and
systems adopted.

INSPIRE A SHARED VISION

Leaders have a desire to make something happen, to change the
way things are, to create something that no one else has created
before. In some ways, leaders live their lives backward. They
see pictures in their minds eye of what the results will look like
even before they have started the project. Their clear image of
the future pulls them, and their people, forward.
People must believe that leaders understand and have their best
interests at heart. Only through intimate knowledge of their
dreams, their hopes, their aspirations, their visions, their values is
the leader able to enlist support. Leadership is a dialogue not a
monologue.

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ENABLE OTHERS TO ACT

Leadership is a team effort. After reviewing more than 2,500
personal-best cases, we developed a simple test to detect
whether someone is on the road to becoming a leader. That test
is the frequency of the use of the word We.
Leaders enable others to act. They know that no one does his or
her best when feeling weak, incompetent or alienated; they know
that those who are expected to produce the results must feel a
sense of ownership. Leaders involve, in some way, all those who
must live with the results, and they make it possible for others to
do well.
Leadership is a relationship built on trust and confidence.
Without trust and confidence, people dont take risks. Without
risks, theres no change. Without change, organizations die.

MODELING THE WAY

Leaders go first. They set an example and build commitment
through simple, daily acts that create progress and momentum.
Leaders model the way through personal example and dedicated
execution.
Leaders need operational plans. They must steer projects along
a predetermined course, and take corrective action. Yet the
personal-best cases we examined included very little about grand
strategic plans and massive organizational changes; they
sounded more like actionadventure stories. They were about
the power of little things piled one on top of the other until they
added up to something really big. Concentrating on small wins,
leaders build confidence that even the biggest challenges can be
successfully met.

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ENCOURAGE THE HEART

The climb to the top is arduous and long. People become
exhausted, frustrated and disenchanted. They are often tempted
to give up. Leaders encourage the heart to carry on.
It is part of the leaders job to show people that they can win.
Encouragement is curiously serious business. Its how leaders
visibly and behaviorally link rewards with performance. When
striving to raise quality, recover from disaster, start up a new
service, or make a dramatic change of any kind, leaders make
sure people benefit when behavior is aligned with cherished
values.

MYTHS, TRADITIONS AND REALITIES

These fundamental leadership practices offer hope. More than
ever, theres need for people to seize opportunities to lead us to
greatness. But why are people reluctant to answer the cry for
leadership?
We believe this cautiousness results not from a lack of courage or
competence, but from our outdated notions about leadership.
Our first leadership challenge is to rid ourselves of these
traditions and myths.
Traditional management teaching implies that the ideal
organization is orderly and stable, that the organizational process
can and should be engineered so that things run like clockwork.
Yet, world-class leadership comes from challenging the process,
changing things, from shaking up the organization.

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MYTHS, TRADITIONS AND REALITIES CONT.

At the same time, one popular leadership myth portrays the
leader as a renegade who magnetizes a band of followers with
courageous acts. In fact, leaders attract constituents not
because of their willful defiance but because of their deep faith in
the human capacity to adapt, grow and learn.
Traditional management teaching focuses on the short term, the
Wall Street analysts, the quarterly report, the annual report. Yet
all effective leaders weve seen have had a long-term, future
orientation.
Traditional management teaches that leaders ought to be cool,
aloof and analytical; they ought to separate emotion from work.
Yet when real-life leaders discuss what theyre the proudest of in
their own careers, they describe feelings of inspiration, passion,
elation, intensity, challenge, caring and kindness and yes, even
love.

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RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT GETS RESULTS

Faust, Lules, Phillips
AMACOM

Based on an in-depth diagnosis of more than 3,000 organizations

to assess their strategic architecture (vision, strategy, structure,
information feedback and control systems, reward systems); their
culture and functional areas (marketing and sales, operations,
HR, and financial); and a variety of key outcomes (revenue,
profit, community image, morale, turnover, etc.)

The diagnosis regularly reveals problems in six specific

areas where responsibility in the organization is rated
low.

CREATING A CLEAR, MEANINGFUL SENSE OF

DIRECTION
People want to know where they are heading. A clear
understanding of the organizations vision, mission, goals and
strategy not only gives people comfort; it lets them share in the
excitement of the journey. It gives them a context for their own
decisions and lets them be creative contributors. Within this
framework, employees can contribute their own solutions and use
their own common sense, experience, skills and judgment, and
they can take pride in their contributions.

The tools to communicate direction include:

A clear statement of purpose and core values

An inspiring and specific vision of an exciting future
A clear statement of our core business and position in the
marketplace
A focused set of strategic initiatives that we follow to
achieve the vision in the shorter term (1-3 years)
Processes and documents that communicate the vision,
strategies and goals and translate them into meaningful,
concrete terms for those who will make them happen

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HAVING AND LIVING BY VALUES PEOPLE RESPECT

Core values may drive a companys strategy and decisions and
may be major determiners of its success. But they are not the
only values by which companies are judged. There are a number
of other values, real or imagined, long-term or short-term, that
affect whether people will choose to be responsible to a given
organization.
Most people believe that a persons or companys behavior is in
some way reflective of their values. Human beings have a very
strong tendency to read intent into behavior. Employees
regularly infer the values of the organization from the behavior of
its leaders.

RESPECTING PEOPLE AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION

People want to work in an environment where they and their
contributions are respected. When there is no respect, each day
is demeaning. There is little sense of self-worth and contribution.
Confident, optimistic, capable people will not stay in an
environment that offers little respect.

HAVING A COMPATIBLE CULTURE

The culture of an organization is the embodiment of its true
values and philosophy. It is expressed in the typical behavior of
its employees and its policies, procedures, systems, structures,
decisions, and day-to-day actions. Employees need to feel
compatible and comfortable with the corporate culture.

BEING A SOURCE OF PRIDE

People like to take pride in their organization. Motivation
increases naturally as people see their organization doing things
they believe will make it more successful. The reciprocal is also
true; people lose all motivation when they witness their
organization behaving in ways that are contradictory to stated
values, goals or strategies.

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TRUE NORTH
BILL GEORGE
JOSSEY-BASS 2007
A dramatic shift is taking place in the caliber and character of new leaders. These leaders recognize
that leadership is not about their success or about getting loyal subordinates to follow them. They
know that the key to a successful organization is having empowered leaders at all levels, including
those that have no direct reports. We call these leaders authentic leaders. Authentic leaders do not
only inspire those around them, they empower them to step up and lead. Thus we offer a new
definition of leadership: the authentic leader brings people together around shared purpose and
empowers them to step up and lead authentically in order to create value for all stakeholders.

There are five dimensions of an authentic leader:

1. PURSUING PURPOSE WITH PASSION

Most people struggle to understand the purpose of their leadership. In order to find their purpose,
authentic leaders must first understand themselves and their passions. In turn their passion shows the
way to the purpose of their leadership.

2. PRACTICING SOLID VALUES

Leaders are defined by their values, and their values are personal -- they cannot be determined by
anyone else. Integrity, however, is the one value required of every authentic leader. If you do not
have integrity, no one will trust you, nor should they. The values of an authentic leader are shaped by
their personal beliefs and developed through study, introspection, consultation with others, and years
of experience. The test of an authentic leaders' values is not what they say but the values they
practice under pressure.

3. LEADING WITH HEART

Authentic leaders lead with their hearts as well as their heads. To some, leading with the heart may
sound soft, as though the authentic leaders cannot make tough choices involving pain and loss.
Leading with heart is anything but soft. It means having passion for your work, compassion for the
people you serve, empathy for the people you work with, and the courage to make difficult decisions.
Courage is an especially important quality for leaders as they navigate through unpredictable terrain.

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4. ESTABLISHING ENDURING RELATIONSHIPS

The ability to develop enduring relationships is an essential mark of authentic leaders. People today
demand personal relationships with their leaders before they will give themselves fully to their jobs.
They insist on access to their leaders, knowing that trust and commitment are built on the openness
and depth of relationship with their leaders. In return, people will demonstrate great commitment to
their work and loyalty of the company.

5. DEMONSTRATING SELF-DISCIPLINE
Authentic leaders know competing successfully takes a consistently high level of self-discipline in
order to produce results. They set high standards for themselves and expect the same from others.
This requires accepting full responsibility for outcomes and holding others accountable for their
performance. When leaders fall short, it is equally important to admit their mistakes and initiate
immediate corrective action. Self-discipline should be reflected in their personal lives as well, because
without personal self-discipline it is not possible to sustain self-discipline at work.

In summary, authentic leaders genuinely desire to serve others through their leadership. They are
more interested in empowering the people they lead to make a difference than they are in power,
money, or prestige for themselves. They are as guided by qualities of the heart, by passion and
compassion, as they are by qualities of the mind. They lead with purpose, meaning, and values. They
build enduring relationships with people. Others follow them because they know where they stand.
They are consistent and self-disciplined. When their principles are tested, they refused to
compromise. Authentic leaders are dedicated to developing themselves because they know that
becoming a leader takes a lifetime of personal growth.

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INSIGHTS ON LEADERSHIP
SPEARS
JOHN WILEY & SONS
From a global study of leading CEOs, these were
identified as the key characteristics for organizational
success:

Service to the customer is the keystone of the

companys mission.

Core values shape the culture and provide liberating

support to associates.

Value is placed on community service in the

communities in which the corporation operates.

The enterprise is viewed as a learning organization.

Everyone is challenged to stretch toward his or her
individual potential.

Value is placed on the initiatives of associates to

continuously improve the system.

Emphasis is placed on teamwork and alignment.

From the CEO and throughout the organization,

extreme importance is placed on walking the talk.

The leadership growth model that emerged from this study

includes the following stages:
1. First, the leader must achieve a high level of self-mastery.
This stage also requires a self-assessment of ones own personal
system including the values that shape the individuals unique
approach to leadership.
2. The second stage includes attention to a deeper level of
communications. This means a serious commitment to
cooperation and behaviors congruent with core values.
3. At the next level, the leader must practice transformational
leadership. This dimension of leadership includes attention to
releasing human potential and high levels of interaction and
alignment.

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Strategic Leadership

A BRIEFING FOR LEADERS

DILENSCHNEIDER
HARPER BUSINESS

HOW A LEADER SETS DIRECTION

Create a strong vision

Articulate a clear course

Bias the organization toward action

Lift up the organization

Practice excellent personal communications

Earn conviction

Sustain the vision

Create unity of purpose

Leverage the strength of the culture

Support positive rituals

Harmonize vision and culture

Train people to focus

THE FIVE VALUES OF A

STRONG CORPORATE CULTURE
1. Integrity: be a living example of your leadership values
2. Accountability: do what you say you will dobuild trust through personal responsibility
3. Diligence: work hard, set a good pace, complete projects on or before deadlines
4. Perseverance: overcome obstacles while maintaining a positive and enthusiastic attitude
5. Discipline: do all of these things, every single day

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Strategic Leadership

The following is from a joint study of 1,500 outstanding

organizations conducted by: The Tom Peters Group, TPG/
Learning Systems and The Executive Development Center at the
Leavey School of Business and Administration.

THE SEVEN LESSONS

1. Leaders Dont Wait

They are proactive they want to produce victories. Waiting for

permission to begin is not characteristic of leaders. A sense of
urgency combined with disciplined execution is.

2. Character Counts

We call it the first law of leadership: if you dont believe the

messenger you will not believe the message! People expect
leaders to stand for something and to have the courage of their
convictions. Therefore, the first milestone on the journey to
leadership is clarity of personal values.

3. Leaders Have Their Head in the Clouds and Their Feet on the
Ground

Not only do we demand that leaders be credible; we also demand

that they have a clear and compelling vision of the future.

4. Shared Values Make a Difference

As important as it is for leaders to have a clear vision and values,

what they say must be consistent with the aspirations of their
followers. Followers have needs and interests, dreams and
beliefs of their own. Leaders must be able to gain consensus on
a common cause and a common set of principles. They must be
able to build a community of shared values.

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5. You Cant Do it Alone

Leadership is not a solo act. Winning strategies are always based

on a we, not an I, philosophy.

6. The Legacy You Leave is the Life You Lead

Followers are moved by deeds. They expect leaders to show up,

to pay attention and to participate directly in the process of
getting extraordinary things done. Leaders take every
opportunity to show others by their own example that they are
deeply committed to the aspirations that they espouse. Leading
by example is how leaders make vision and values tangible. It is
how they provide evidence that they are personally committed.

7. Leadership is Everyones Business

There is a myth that assumes that when you are on top you are
automatically a leader this simply is not true. Leadership is
earned not bestowed. It is not a title it is a responsibility.

KEY LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS

Listening Versus Telling

Defining, Shaping and Using Core Values

Living the Values in Everything You Do

Ensuring Employee Capability

Power Through Respect for Employees

Setting a Living Example

Displaying the Courage of Accountability

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EXAMPLE: GE LEADERSHIP VALUES

GE leaders, always with unyielding integrity:

Are passionately focused on driving customer success.

Live Six Sigma quality, ensuring that the customer is always

its first beneficiary, and using that concept to accelerate
growth.

Insist on excellence, and are intolerant of mediocrity or

bureaucracy.

Act in a boundaryless fashion, always searching for and

applying the very best ideas regardless of origin.

See change for the positive growth opportunities it brings.

Create a clear, simple, customer-centered vision, and

continually renew and refresh its execution.

Create an environment that stretches excitement, informality

and trust; rewards improvements; and celebrates results.

Demonstratealways with infectious enthusiasm for the

customerthe Four Es of GE leadership: the personal
Energy to welcome and deal with the speed of change; the
ability to create an atmosphere that Energizes others; the
Edge to make the difficult decisions; and the ability to
consistently Execute.

WHAT INHIBITS EXECUTION?

National survey of 4,000 senior executives:

4. Inability to work together as a TEAM (21%)

3. Company CULTURE (23%)
2. Economic climate (29%)
1. Holding onto the past / unwillingness to CHANGE (35%)

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10 KEYS TO BUILDING A CULTURE OF

DISCIPLINED EXECUTION
1. Top management must be fully committed.
2. Create a Guiding Coalition of respected senior leaders.
3. Make a strong case for the need to execute effectively and
communicate it relentlessly.
4. Create very clear focus on what is most important, and what
you must have the courage to say NO to.
5. Create systems and process to assign and track execution.
6. Ensure people have the training, tools and resources
necessary to effectively execute the focused objectives.
7. Give every person as much information as possible.
8. Push decision making down to the lowest reasonable level.
9. Lavishly reward those who meet the execution targets.
10. Deal decisively with anyone who does not.

GROUND RULES FOR A PROFESSIONAL TEAM

All members agree to be managed and coached to strictly

enforced standards of performance and quality work.

Teamwork is mandatory, not optional.

Excellence in customer satisfaction (internal / external) is an

enforced standard.

Personal and professional growth is a nonnegotiable minimum

standard.

All team members must show a sincere interest in the

customer and a sincere desire to help them.

The primary focus must be on delivering quality work and

building strong customer relationships.

Demand excellence and refuse to tolerate mediocrity.

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KEY TEAM COMPETENCIES

1. Setting clear, specific and measureable goals.
2. Making assignments extremely clear and ensuring required
competence.
3. Using effective decision making processes within the team.
4. Establishing accountability for high performance across the
entire team.
5. Running effective team meetings.
6. Building strong levels of trust.
7. Establishing open, honest and frank communications
8. Managing conflict effectively.
9. Creating mutual respect and collaboration.
10. Encouraging risk-taking and innovation.
11. Engaging in ongoing team building activities.

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A
VALUED MEMBER OF A TEAM

Develop and display competence.

Be pro-active.

Follow through on commitments.

Deliver required results.

Ensure your actions are consistent with your words.

Stand behind the team and its people.

Be enjoyable to work with.

Communicate and keep everyone informed.

Help the other members of the team.

Share information, ideas and credit freely with the team.

Hold yourself 100% accountable.

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PERSONAL LEADERSHIP COMPETENCY MODEL

Based on the presentation and all of the materials you have read, please create a detailed outline
of your own personal leadership competency model. What are the specific skills, abilities,
and attitudes you feel you must have in order to become the sort of leader you aspire to be?
Please be as precise as possible, listing measurable and observable behaviors whenever possible. I
am not looking for just a few bullet points here, I want you to give this some serious thought and
describe in clear detail what your personal leadership philosophy is built upon. What are the most
essential things you need to do every day to be a living example of an excellent leader? Look back
over the reading, study the notes you took from the presentation, think about great leaders and
poor leaders who have worked with in your life and develop a very clear, vivid and specific
description of exactly what your leadership philosophy is and what you feel you must do every day
to be an effective and successful leader.

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PERSONAL LEADERSHIP COMPETENCY MODEL

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IDEAL LEADER COMPETENCY MODEL WORKSHOP / PRESENTATIONS

Now that you have each completed you own Personal Leadership Competency Model, as a group
I would like you to compare and contrast what you have each written. Share your list. Look back
over the book together, pick out key ideas and phrases that are particularly meaningful to you.
Discuss with your team why you feel strongly about certain aspects of your model, why you feel
they are so critical. The goal is for each team to synthesize all of their personal models into one
focused leadership competency model that you all feel represents the most important elements of
being a successful leader in your organization. In other words, combine all of your individual
models to create one overarching Ideal Leader model for your organization. The key to this
being a successful workshop is to make sure that everyone in your group is participating in a
robust and frank discussion about what each of you honestly believes are the most important thing
for a truly effective leader in your organization to focus on day in and day out.
At the end of this workshop each team will be responsible from making a 5-7 minute presentation
on their model. I want to see that you have given this a good deal of thought and honest debate
and created a solid framework that is focused, realistic and challenging and that each of you is
willing to personally commit to. Also, please assign a scribe in your group to capture all of the
ideas and turn them into me. It is important that this person right legibly and gets all of the key
ideas down so that I can understand exactly what your team was focused on.
Take your time, make sure everyone participates and push each other hard for a quality
conversation and a meaningful output of ideas.

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Strategic Leadership

N OTES ON I DEAL L EADER C OMPETENCY M ODEL

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Strategic Leadership

IDEAS TO ACTIONS WORKSHOP

This is an extremely important workshop, so please take it very seriously. Keeping the Ideal
Leader model you have created for your organization clearly at the front of your mind, discuss
your findings in your group, talk specifically about areas for needed improvementand exactly
how to truly make positive changes in those areas. The goal of this workshop is for each team to
develop a list of five very specific action steps that your organization can commit to in order to
make real progress in improving your leadership effectiveness.
Remember: What gets measured gets done; so every action item must be clear, specific,
measurable and realistic. This is where you take the great ideas youve just developed and figure
out how to actually make them happen. As you write your action steps work hard to make sure
that they are realistic and clearly show what it takes to implement them in the real world, You
want as little ambiguity as possible this is how you close the knowing doing gap, with solid
steps of how to make your ideas into actions.

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Strategic Leadership

I DEAS TO A CTIONS W ORKSHOP

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Strategic Leadership

I DEAS TO A CTIONS W ORKSHOP

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