Course
Overview

Strategic leadership is the ability to think on a big and small scale, long and short term, into the past, present, and future − with the judgement and insight needed to develop and execute a winning business strategy.

While strategic leadership is a valuable skill for every leader in an organization, it becomes increasingly essential as one ascends the leadership ladder. Strategic leadership includes an integration of critical thinking, systems thinking and strategic thinking. It is often the “secret sauce” that accelerates a leadership career. And ack of strategic ability will often impede one’s professional progress.

This course is designed to help a leader understand how corporate values and culture link to business strategy and execution. Leaders learn how to drive employee engagement, how to conduct a situational analysis and how to develop a winning business strategy. They also learn how to plan for the execution of a new strategy, how to communicate a compelling vision and mobilize employees to embrace the change.

This workshop is also designed to help participants improve their critical-thinking and problem-solving processes while applying these new skills to workplace challenges and ultimately make better decisions.

This workshop includes pre-work assignments, facilitated discussions, case studies, individual and small-group work, and other tools to assist participants in applying learning to their business roles.

Business Impact & Learning Objectives

Leadership teams are able to develop an alignment of core values, culture and employee engagement strategy.

Leaders are better equipped to “think about their thinking” which enables better judgement and decision-making.

Leaders learn to use strategic planning to guide the direction of their business and enhance the working culture of their teams.

Execution of business plans becomes more consistent and successful because of more strategic and contingency thinking.

Business planning and decisions are based upon more objective data and information because of a thorough discovery process.

Scenario planning is used more frequently to be better prepared when plan execution produces a sub-optimal result.

Learning Journey

Module 1(2 hours)

Organizational Culture
  • Core responsibility of a leader
  • Core values
  • Instrumental Values
  • How leaders impact culture
  • Leadership authenticity
  • Culture “Blind Spots”
  • The Leadership Bubble
  • Assessing Culture and Engagement

Module 2(2 hours)

People Judgement and Decisions
  • Getting the right people in the right seats
  • Aligning people decisions with core and instrumental values
  • Rationalizing and evolving organizational structure
  • Assessing employees for right person/right seat

Module 3(2-3 hours)

Strategy Development
  • The VUCA Environment
  • Strategy development process
  • Asking the right questions
  • Situational Analysis
  • Winning Value Proposition
  • Developing genuine insight
  • The “Vital Few” key priorities

Module 4(2 hours)

Planning and Execution
  • Measures, incentives, structure and process
  • The executional journey
  • Aligning strategy execution with culture and values
  • Identify “gaps,” then assign teams and “owners”
  • Adaptive and resilient culture
Intersession Activity**
Intersession Activity**
Intersession Activity**

Module 5(2 hours)

Change Acceleration
  • Overcoming resistance to change
  • The Sigmoid Curve
  • Frozen mental models
  • Deal directly with resistors
  • A compelling leadership strategy message
  • Change Acceleration Toolkit

Module 6(2 hours)

Iteration and Course Correction
  • Experimenting in the strategic execution cycle
  • The After-Action Review
  • Planning for iteration
  • Converting “failures” into educational “experiments”
  • Quick recognition and course correction

Module 7(2-3 hours)

Crisis Response
  • Crisis Situational Analysis
  • Align response with values, “brand promise” and strategy
  • Define the “vital few” priorities that will make the most impact
  • Develop a comprehensive communication strategy
  • Assign teams and individual “owners” to all priorities.

Post-Work

  • Personal Development Action Planning
  • 30-60-90 Day Action Plan Reviews *
  • Virtual, Group Touchpoint Session *
Intersession Activity**
Intersession Activity**
Intersession Activity**

Learning Objectives