The moment I hear the term leadership, the first thought that hits me is how I am leading and operating myself. With the conscious drive to regulate my emotions and attitude, how am I inspiring, equipping and influencing people around me? How do I ignite the flame of hope and let them smile amidst the strongest storms?
When it comes to leadership, the quote by Robin Sharma always echoes, "To be a great leader, first become a great person. Always secure our oxygen masks first before assisting others,' and I love the analogy.
In the words of my coach, John C Maxwell, 'leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less'. As a lifelong learner and a Certified John Maxwell Leadership Coach, Speaker and Trainer, I often try to relate this description to my life and keep an open eye on observing the people around me.
Sometimes, I see exemplary leaders who motivate and inspire me to do better and BECOME A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE. Because of their legacy, I am on a continuous growth journey that enhances my core values, skills and dialogue so that people can trust and value me for who I am. Others take leadership as growing a follower base before they master self-leadership. They usually end up devastated.
Earlier this month, my team at the Professional Coaching & Mentoring Association of Maldives - PCOMA, the Global Coaching and Speaking Symposium 2024. The theme for the year was Coaching for Strategic Leadership Synergy. I did a lot of reading on the topic wearing a researcher lens.
Coaching
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) describes coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. Coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity, and leadership.
Leadership
Great leadership is all about having a genuine willingness and a true commitment to leading others to achieve a shared vision and goals through positive influence. No leader can ever achieve anything significant or long-lasting all alone, John C. Maxwell. We must never forget that leadership is a journey and not a destination. It requires continuous analysis of self, others, and the situation and a process of learning, unlearning, and relearning to adapt to every demanding situation.
Achieving leadership excellence is an ongoing process, and the five principles of leadership excellence by John Maxwell are;
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Develop character and integrity
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Have a vision for your teams
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Challenge yourself and others to grow
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Empower your team with responsibility and authority
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Communicate effectively, lead by example and show appreciation
Strategic Leadership
Strategic leadership plays a vital role in the creation and change of language, and organizational culture (Tipuric, 2022). Strategic leadership is a complex technique that includes many traits and attitudes: interest in creating balance and alignment in an organization, decisiveness in making far-reaching choices, and personal and professional dedication to an organization's well-being (Dziak, 2020). Its enactment is intended to simplify the multiple and complex organizational relationships and assign clear roles; convergence and coordination need to be tightly interwoven with strong and inspiring messages and symbols. Strategic leadership positions the organisation to its best advantage to maximise goal attainment.
Strategic leadership used to be defined as determining where an organisation was heading and how to get there. It was mainly about leaders engaging in strategic and ‘long-range’ planning and was seen as a process that belonged to upper management alone, often taking place behind closed doors (Cheng, 2000). When leaders engaged in the management processes of analysing, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating, they were basically considered to be strategic. However, after studying four cohorts of school leaders over four years, Quong and Walker (2010) developed seven strategic leadership principles.
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Strategic leaders are future-oriented and have a future strategy
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Strategic leaders are evidence-based and research-led
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Strategic leaders get things done
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Strategic leaders open new horizons
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Strategic leaders are fit to lead
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Strategic leaders make good partners
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Strategic leaders do the 'next' right thing
Knowing what it will take for a leader to win over the long haul and having goals and strategies to pursue is critically important— but that's not all that matters. Strategic leaders take it one step further. They actively engage and leverage the organization's pool of talent not only to achieve short-term results but also to work with them to set a direction that will produce long-term results and create a secure and prosperous future for everyone (Steven & Stephanie, 2016). This is where the final element of our theme emerges.
Synergy
Curley (1998) defined synergy as "an evolving phenomenon that occurs when individuals work together in a mutually enhancing way towards a common goal."
When it comes to synergy, I love the formula 1+1 = 3
Leadership synergy refers to the phenomenon where two or more leaders' collaborative efforts produce a result greater than the sum of their individual contributions. It’s not merely about working together; it's about leveraging each leader’s unique strengths, fostering a shared vision, and aligning goals to create a cohesive and highly effective leadership team (Sandoiu-Acsente. Diana, 2024).
The synergy leader provides a template or mental model for a system to use as a basis for a proposed architecture. A synergy leader empowers the organizational framework to organize the work of collective thinking. The mental model reflects the interconnected characteristics of the leader, the team members, and the enterprise within which collective thinking is valuable.
The more opportunities team members have to question, examine, and validate the paradigms, assumptions, perceptions, and value perspectives they use to create information, select alternatives and respond to situations, the stronger they become as team members.
How to Achieve Leadership Synergy
Creating leadership synergy requires intentional effort and a commitment to several key principles. The five ways discussed by Diana Sandoiu-Acsente are:
1. Building Trust: Trust is the foundation of any effective collaboration. Leaders must invest time in building strong, trusting relationships with each other. This involves being open, honest, reliable, and respecting each other's expertise and contributions.
2. Fostering Open Communication and Sharing of Ideas: Open and transparent communication is crucial for synergy. Leaders must share information freely, listen actively, and provide insightful feedback. This open dialogue helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page and can contribute effectively to the collective effort.
3. Establishing Clear Roles and Responsibilities: To avoid confusion and overlap, each leader must define clear roles and responsibilities. This clarity helps to ensure that each leader can focus on their strengths and contribute their best to the team.
4. Developing a Shared Vision: A shared vision gives the leadership team a common direction and purpose. Leaders should work together to develop and communicate this vision, ensuring everyone is aligned and committed to achieving the same goals.
5. Aligning Individual Goals with Organizational Objectives: Leaders must ensure that their goals and priorities align with the organization's broader objectives. This alignment helps create a cohesive, focused leadership team working towards the same outcomes.
What do you think about leadership synergy? What worked best for your organization?
References
Cheng, Y.C. (2000), Strategic Leadership for Educational Transformation in the New Millennium, Chulalongkorn Educational Review 6(2): 15–32
Dziak, M. (2020). Strategic Leadership. Salem Press Encyclopedia.
Quong, T., & Walker, A. (2010). Seven Principles of Strategic Leadership. ISEA.
Stowell, S. J., & Stephanie S. M. (2016). The art of strategic leadership: how leaders at all levels prepare themselves, Their Teams, and Organizations for the Future, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central
Tipuric, D. (2022). The enactment of strategic leadership: a critical perspective. Springer International Publishing AG.
