Donald L. Jones
Strategic Planning, MGMT414
June 22, 2014
Leadership Role Essay
Strategic planning and leadership go hand-in-hand. Strategic leaders have vision, foresight, clarity of mind, and the willingness and determination to see the process through to the end. The influence and power that a leader has on the strategic planning process is important because they are the ones that people will follow and look to see the validity in the process. This paper will discuss the importance of five interconnected leadership tasks that are vital to the successful planning and implementation of strategic planning.
Understanding the people involved, including oneself To be an effective leader, one must understand themselves as well as others. All too many times, leaders have projected their weaknesses on others and shifted the blame instead of owning their own mistakes and pulling on the expertise and skill of others to make things work. On the flip side, a leader that is very aware of their strengths and weaknesses as well as very aware of their own emotional intelligence can be very instrumental in getting people to meet and accomplish organizational objectives. Integrity, compassion, and courage are great traits of an effective leader that motivates and champions others so that planning can proceed and meet objectives. These are important traits to have and understand because strategic planning has a lot of moving parts and intricate details that will bring out many different attitudes and personalities and effective leaders/motivators need to understand and be able to shift with the many different dynamics of interpersonal relationships.
Sponsoring the process Sponsors should have the power, prestige and influence to move projects along and have the ability to commit needed resources to the planning process. This person will usually be the senior leader and person who must set the tone for the process to begin and have