The Challenge of Strategic
Leadership
Locational targets
Study 1: a capacity to think and lead strategically
ten times more important to perceptions of
leadership effectiveness as measured by peers,
superiors, and subordinates than all other
leadership behaviors studied. (Robert Kabocoff,
2014)
Study 2: Across 50,000 global leaders, the
best differentiator of those in top management
from those in middle management was a
capacity for strategic vision. (Zenger-Folkman)
Strategic leaders identify
valuable locations and lead
others toward them with pace.
Search for a
valuable position –
a competitive
advantage
Profit
TimeStrategy
Competitive advantage delivers sustained
profit stream
While skill in direction setting is
unrivaled in importance, it is
unmatched in difficulty.
Fundamental problem is that direction
setting is not once set and done.
Challenge #1
In volatile environments today’s
valuable direction easily
becomes tomorrow’s path to
irrelevance.
Challenge #2
Market
Value
Time
Sustained
value creation
Market
Value
Time
Many companies occupying
valuable positions,
experience this…
The Problem of Growth
Successful companies relentlessly discover new (and
unexpected) profit streams.
Profit
TimeStrategy
Firms must accumulate competitive
advantages
Strategic leaders must accumulate valuable
positions
Value Creation
time
Position 1
Position 2
Position 3
Position 4
Position 5
If success for a corporation
requires sustained value
creation, what is success for
you as a leader within a
corporation?
Challenge #3
Theory of
Sustained
Value
Creation
Innovative
High Quality
Globalized
High customer service
Efficient production
Superb talent development
The Leadership-Design Delusion
• Skillful leadership and a well
crafted organizational design allow
leaders to simultaneously
generate all the behaviors and
outcomes required to sustain
value creation.
Brain Overload
Divided Motivations
Design Conflicts
How do strategic leaders
drive sustained value
creation?
Behavior #1:
They compose theories
that guide ongoing
strategic choices
A brilliant
corporate
theorist…
Strategic leaders should
compose theories of how
they will drive ongoing value
creation in their part of the
organization?
Every manager
with a theory of
sustained value
creation
Behavior #2:
Strategic leaders
dynamically
design
1990-1995 1995-1998 1998-1999 2000-20051984-1990
Centralization Centralization Centralization
Decentralization Decentralization Decentralization
2005-2010
HEWLETT-PACKARD TIMELINE
Centralize
Sailing into the Wind
Carly Fiorina: “When you sail, you don’t get there in a straight line. You
adjust your course to fit the times and the current conditions.”
Behavior #3:
Strategic leaders
dynamically lead
Jack’s Dynamics of Leading
Sequencing directional initiatives to sustain
value creation
Value Creation
time#1 or #2, Fix, Close, or Sell
Workout
Best Practices
Global
Six Sigma
.com
Green
Strategic leaders are…
• …relentless value creators.
• …gifted in composing theories of value specific to
their location in the organization.
• …not fooled by the delusion that all desirable
directions can be pursued simultaneously.
Strategic leaders are…
• …able to discover, identify, and deploy those
levers that will drive today’s necessary change you
desire, or will solve the problems you seek to
solve.
@toddzenger
www.toddzenger.com
