Strategic Thinking and Leadership
Leadership plays a critical role within an organization. It is involved in coming up with the strategic planning that can facilitate achievement of set goals. A strong management team can determines the level of success of an organization. Leaders of a company are responsible for coming up with the right strategic planning and incentives, developing strategies that encourage innovation and creativity. Critical thinking with the right strategic approaches is an important skill needed in order to enhance the level of productivity within an organization (Keupp, Palmi?, & Gassmann, 2012). The current paper discusses strategic thinking and leadership as well as their importance to organizations.
Management studies and strategic planners have different opinions regarding the most influential set of factors in defining organizational change. These factors are a combination of the right management and strategic approaches. According to Sun Tzu, strategic leadership is the major factor that determines the level of success of an organization. A company’s management should come up with the most rational approaches that are ideal to the development (Langley, Smallman, Tsoukas, & Van de Ven, 2013).
Therefore, Sun Tzu states that through creativity and innovation, it is possible to find the most strategic approach towards the achievement of the set goals and objectives. Moreover, innovation is one of the basic elements for any firm in a competitive environment where change is continuous, unpredictable, and pervasive. This has called for various research studies for the last two decades. Revolutionary technological advances and globalization aspects of business have called for creativity to retain competitive advantage within the industry concerned. Although there are various studies related to the strategic approaches to being a competitive firm, a few studies have been conducted showing the relationship between creativity, innovation, and the level of productivity. The management process entails improvisation, experimentation of the most rational approach for the most rational strategy to be applied. This mainly involves one management stage to another through adoption of creative approaches. Critical thinking enables development of the innovative approaches that are ideal in the development of an organization. Sun Tzu and Clausewitz in The Principle of War attribute the success of any organization to leadership and rational development of the strategic approaches through creativity (Keupp et al., 2012; Galliers & Leidner, 2014).
Creativity is critical in leadership. It allows coming up with unique approaches that are ideal in the formulation of competitive advantage within an organization. Different studies indicate that creativity creates avenues for developing new strategies that are more ideal in the development of an organization. Furthermore, creativity helps to come up with new competitive ideas that are beneficial to an organization and thus improving productivity. New ideas and approaches should be harnessed and tapped to increase productivity. A well-developed approach is vital when the change to be adopted by all the members of a company or a firm involved. The management should apply all possible resources in the most innovative ways through the collective inclusiveness of all employees to adopt the most appropriate measures to improve productivity. In fact, innovation and creativity are critical ingredients in the development and formulation of strategies. According to the study and articulation by Sun Tzu, leadership is the most critical factor towards being competitive (Hill, Jones, & Schilling, 2014).
All things considered, critical thinking and leadership entail the development and formulation of possible strategies that match an organization’s goals. The strategies should be rational. Innovation and creativity allow management to come up with the most effective approach that can be utilized as competitive advantages in the industry concerned. Management studies have all linked success in the development of an organization to the creativity and innovation in management.
References
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Langley, A. N. N., Smallman, C., Tsoukas, H., & Van de Ven, A. H. (2013). Process studies of
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