Strategic Leadership: Analyzing Action, Thinking, and Experience

This essay delves into the multifaceted concept of strategic leadership, examining the crucial link between strategic thinking and strategic action. It begins by exploring the core competencies of strategic leadership, emphasizing that not all actions are strategic, and highlighting the significance of both short-term and long-term perspectives. The author reflects on a personal experience as a strategic leader, detailing the formulation and implementation of an advertisement strategy for a jewelry company. This involved a comprehensive market analysis, including a SWOT analysis, and the utilization of various marketing channels like social media, newspapers, and website development. The essay highlights the decision-making process, the consideration of key factors such as sales growth, and the challenges faced during implementation, including initial doubts and the need for significant investment. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of learning from mistakes, adapting strategies, and the ability to manage risk, ultimately illustrating how strategic leadership is a continuous process of learning and adaptation to achieve both short-term and long-term goals. The essay also references relevant literature on strategic leadership to support its analysis.

Running head: STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
Strategic leadership
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
Strategic acting has a close connection with the strategic thinking. They have a close
relation with the strategic influence. Many organizations faces the biggest challenge in
translating their strategic thinking into priorities. It is one of the most challenging aspect that
is faced by the strategic leaders. In the book named, ‘becoming a strategic leader’, in chapter
three the mind-set of fro the strategic actions have been studied and then they are analyzed at
severe essential strategic acting competencies (Hughes, Beatty and Dinwoodie, 2014). The
chapter gives a clear view of the strategic leadership and the relationship between strategic
action and strategic thinking. There are different mind-set for strategic action like all the
actions are not strategic, they are both long-term as well as short-term. It mostly consists of
uncertain decisions and it offers the opportunity of learning (Lepsinger, 2010).
When I was given a chance of acting strategically and lead my team my first and
foremost action was to take the risk of accepting new ideas. I put aside my hesitations on
putting forward my ideas of strategic planning to my supervisors and executives. I formed a
concrete action plan. The most important step in this context is to formulate the plan. I sat
down and formed an effective strategic plan.
I have made a strategic decision many times, in school as well as in the organization I
worked for. The most memorable change was the change that I made when I was working as
an executive manager in a jewelry company. I formulated an attractive advertisement
strategy. I took the decision of advertise the products of the company on social media as well
as in newspapers, hoardings at different places in the region. I also created a new website of
the company and made the products through online delivery. This increased the revenue of
the company. Therefore this strategic decision proved to be an effective one.

2STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
The key factors that I considered while making the decision was the growth of sales
of the product. I considered the strategy that could make the products more famous and it
would be able to be in demand.
While making the decision I examined the advertisement strategy of the rival
companies. I compared the marketing strategy of other companies. I made a market survey
that is the primary form of research and explored the way to attract maximum amount of
customers. I made a SWOT analysis of the same. In other word it can be said that I followed
the strategic sales model.
Initially I felt that I was not right. It was a challenge for me and I thought I took up a
great risk by making experimenting with the new decision. However later when I found that
the revenue of the company was getting increased and most importantly the number of
customers of the company was increasing I started feeling that I was on the right track. My
strategy was right that was visible from the result itself. It however took time to become
successful. The technical matters were complicated and therefore it took some time for me to
make the plan successful. In order to give advertisement in different channels of media a
huge investment was made. I identified the strength of the company and tried to promote the
same. At the same time I identified the weakness of the company and tried to work upon it.
Initially when we were not getting positive response from the customers it came to my mind
that the huge investment was a fault that was committed on my part. However after two
months when we got huge response from the customers I became more confident and was
self-consoled that the strategy imposed by me was correct.
From the time I made the decision I grew more confident about my strategy. In the
beginning I was a bit confused about my strategy and thought it was a failure. I made up my
mind to apply new strategy and learn from my mistake. I experienced a dilemma in the

3STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
beginning but gradually I was able to overcome the dilemma and got positive results from the
application of the strategy. I was able to take the risk and learnt to manage the situation in
case I had to face a situation of loss. I learnt that the act of strategy was a long-term goal as
well as a short-term goal and sometimes strategies could fail. The person at that time should
not lose hope but work hard for the formation of new strategy that would be an effective one.

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References and Bibliography
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management research: Guidelines and an empirical illustration via the strategic
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Dyer, G. and Dyer, M., 2017. Strategic leadership for sustainability by higher education: the
American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 140, pp.111-116.
Hughes, Colarelli beatty and Dinwoodie, richard, katherine and david. 2014. 2nd ed. san
fransico: Jossey-Bass.
Lepsinger, Richard, 2010. Closing The Execution Gap. San Fransico: John Wiley & Sons.
Ohlsson, A. and Larsson, G., 2017. Emotions in strategic leadership: a literature review and
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Strand, R., 2014. Strategic leadership of corporate sustainability. Journal of Business
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