Michael_A._Hitt,_R._Duane_Ireland,_Robert_E._Hosk

Chapter 12: Strategic Leadership 385

By word or by personal example, and through their ability to envision the future, effective
strategic leaders meaningfully influence the behaviors, thoughts, and feelings of those
with whom they work.^5
The ability to attract and then manage human capital may be the most critical of the
strategic leader’s skills,^6 especially because the lack of talented human capital constrains
firm growth. Indeed, in the twenty-first century, intellectual capital that the firm’s human
capital possesses, including the ability to manage knowledge and produce innovations,
affects a strategic leader’s success.^7
Effective strategic leaders also create and then support the context or environment
through which stakeholders (such as employees, customers, and suppliers) can perform
at peak efficiency.^8 Being able to demonstrate the skills of attracting and managing human
capital and establishing and nurturing an appropriate context for that capital to flourish

Figure 12.1 Strategic Leadership and the Strategic Management Process

Vision Mission

Formulation

of Strategies

Implementation

of Strategies

Strategic

Competitiveness

Above-Average Returns

influence

and

formation ofshapes the

Effective Strategic

Leadership

yields

yields

Successful

Strategic Actions