Strategic Leadership

(Jacob Rumans) #1

Implementation 237


are rooted in coherent and connected processes of strategic choice and action.
As Dooris, Kelley, and Trainer reflect on these cases, they conclude: “Strategic
planning—wisely used—can be a powerful tool to help an academic organization
listen to its constituencies, encourage the emergence of good ideas from all lev-
els, recognize opportunities, make decisions supported by evidence, strive toward
shared mission... and actualize the vision” (2004, 10). In a word, even though
they do not use the term, good strategy is leadership.
Strategic leadership depends on many individuals, so it is experienced as a
collaborative and communal achievement. Problems and issues will still present
themselves, sometimes as frustration that the pace of success is not even more
accelerated. Yet it also becomes clear that the distrust and anxiety that often take
hold when people do not know where the institution is headed largely disappear.
People now see strategy as a valid enterprise because it delivers on its promises. It
responds to several layers of human need by defining aspirations that are worth
commitment, and by using an organized collaborative method to achieve them.
Strategic leadership not only sets a direction for the future but also takes the
organization toward its destination. In doing so, it embodies many of the capaci-
ties, satisfies the needs, and produces the benefits that describe the phenomenon
of relational leadership.

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