Task 1:

Define strategic leadership and strategic management. Evaluate the key differences
between the two responsibilities.

Discuss the proportion of a senior managers time that might be spent on each responsibility,
and identify some of the conflicts that may arise. Compare and contrast different approaches
taken to managing these dual responsibilities, by means of at least three illustrative
examples.

Provide an objective critique of the impact individual personalities can have on the approach
taken to management and leadership. You may use work based examples and external
examples to support your answer.

Guideline word count: 600 - 650 words

A.C. 2.1 - Evaluate the relationship between strategic

management and leadership
Use the Assessment Criteria as the
2.1 Evaluate the relationship between strategic heading
management and leadership

The Business Dictionary defines strategic leadership as The process of using well
considered tactics to communicate a vision for an organization or one of its parts. Strategic
leadership typically manages, motivates and persuades staff to share that same vision, and
can be an important tool for implementing change or creating organizational structure within
a business. Strategic leadership is not giving commands, is getting people to follow you by
creating a vision and showing a direction.

Strategic management is defined by the Business Dictionary as The systematic analysis of

the factors associated with customers and competitors (the external environment) and the
organization itself (the internal environment) to provide the
basis for maintaining optimum management practices. The At level 7 there should be lots of
objective of strategic management is to achieve better referencing backing up your own
alignment of corporate policies and strategic priorities. views and opinions
To quote Peter Drucker (Peter Drucker, quotes, online
research, 12ve Jan 16, https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/12008.Peter_F_Drucker),
leadership is doing the right things and management is doing things right. While a strategic
manager will do things as they have always been done, following rules, procedures and
measuring against targets, a strategic leader will challenge the way things are done, always
asking if what you do is adding value.
The main differences in responsibilities between strategic leadership and strategic
management are illustrated below, using the data from Business Balls website:

Typical Responsibilities
(not absolutely exclusive to either management or leadership)

Management Leadership

1. Implementing tactical actions 1. Creating new visions and aims

2. Detailed budgeting 2. Establishing organizational financial
3. Measuring and reporting performance targets
4. Applying rules and policies 3. Deciding what needs measuring and
5. Implementing disciplinary rules reporting
6. Organizing people and tasks within 4. Making new rules and policies
structures 5. Making disciplinary rules
7. Recruiting people for jobs 6. Deciding structures, hierarchies and
8. Checking and managing ethics and workgroups
morals 7. Creating new job roles
9. Developing people 8. Establishing ethical and moral positions
10. Problem-solving 9. Developing the organization
11. Planning 10. Problem-anticipation
12. Improving productivity and efficiency 11. Visualising
13. Motivating and encouraging others 12. Conceiving new opportunities
14. Delegating and training 13. Inspiring and empowering others
14. Planning and organizing succession,
and...

All management responsibilities, including all

listed left, (which mostly and typically are
delegated to others, ideally aiding motivation
and people-development)

(source: http://www.businessballs.com/leadershiptheories.htm#differences-management-
leadership

Good strategic leadership skills balance with good strategic management skills. But in my
opinion, a successful strategic leader doesnt have to get buried under management
responsibilities, but has to develop and continue motivate a very good and focused
management team, who will deal with day to day issues and activities.

Sir Alex Ferguson, in his book Leading, concludes that the difference between leadership
and management is to make everyone understand that the impossible is possible. Inspiring
a team to perform at their very best is the most important aspect of each activity and this is a
continuous process, adapting and changing together with the environment and market.

I will show the contrast in these approaches by use of three examples

Example 1: A few years ago my director entrusted me

with a new system implementation. He used a
balance of strategic leadership and strategic
management skills. His leadership strategy was
delegation, he entrusted me with delivering the
implementation project, but also considering how I am
The task will show you if you need
to include examples. Where
required mark the examples clearly
so they stand out to the assessor
going to deliver this, monitoring my performance until we got to the point where he entrusted
me with the project. He empowered me to plan better, improve and take on extra tasks,
develop my skills. He combined and balanced strategic leadership and management skills
and motivated and challenged me to achieve outstanding results.

Example 2: Over the last couple of years, the organisation I work for went through ownership
change. Before, we used to be part of a multinational group, whose strategy and leadership
vision was to implement the same way of workings across the group, using the same key
performance indicators to evaluate results. The vision was great, but the specifics of each of
the groups units have been put on a second place and actually we didnt move forward.
After the change of ownership, the company transformed and it was entrusted to operate
more independently, as long as the groups vision was followed.

Example 3: One other example is more of an unsuccessful leadership example. The

company I used to work for started to expand, but without a clear vision from the leadership
team. The leaders started to open business after business, but without actually having a
clear vision of why they are doing it and where they want to get to. After a few years, when
new businesses have been added to the portfolio the whole business actually collapsed.
This is an example of when strategic leaders are not focusing on the vision and thinking
about the purpose of the journey, but they are becoming more concerned about the
immediate financial benefits of expansion. The lessons learnt from this are to balance
strategic leadership with strategic management, but not losing the vision that will help the
organisation move forward.

Conclusion: When you see Evaluate as the

command verb be sure to give the
Effective strategic leaders must change their behaviour advantages, disadvantages and
according to each situation. Situational leadership is a conclusion
leadership model widely used by organisations.

In Example 1 above, the leadership style changed during the project, from managing to
delegation and empowerment. The success of an organisation depends on the flexibility,
skills and personalities of its strategic managers and strategic leaders.

Wordcount: 700 Insert the wordcount at the end of

each section. Guidance on
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