Strategic Leadership

A re-conceptualisation of leadership at the top is necessary, in part because of the increasing understanding of the prevalence of shared and distributed leadership in organisations. Many leadership concepts (transformational, authentic, responsible, global), in contrast to the idea of distributed leadership, do not explicitly address where leadership is exercised. Once distributed leadership is engaged, the role of top leaders changes. Leadership may be dispersed but some aspects of leadership cannot be distributed or delegated. This chapter considers how strategic leaders such as CEOs may think about their role by bringing together the often separated fields of strategy and leadership. In this chapter we develop the concept of the ‘Main Idea’, the intent around which the strategy coalesces — it grounds, centres, inspires and gives a clear message. Moreover, it has psychological significance, containing anxiety arising from the risks associated with changing direction or having a new strategic imperative. Strategic leaders must embody the ‘Main Idea’: they must be personally credible and must demonstrate understanding of the organisation context. Strategic leadership is not a set of leader behaviours or competences but is conceptualised in terms of the role of a top leader - both psychological and strategic. A psychodynamic perspective is adopted to explore the strategic leader’s role.