Creative Strategy: Reconnecting Business and Innovation

CHAPTER 12

The Strategic Leadership Keypad

In the last chapter we examined a shift in theoretical perceptions of leadership from ‘leading from the top’ towards ‘leading from the middle’. But how does this relate to strategic leadership in practice?

Throughout this book we have argued that each of the dimensions of creative strategy requires the embrace of dichotomous elements. Here we will argue that strategic leadership means switching between two paradoxical processes. Strategic leadership, whether by an individual leader or a leadership team, depends upon interacting with people and ideas inside and outside the organization, and at the same time envisioning a clear way forward by abstracting away from these detailed interactions and seeing the bigger picture. To understand how this strategic leadership dichotomy plays out, we have developed a framework that identifies four practical dimensions or keys to strategic leadership, linked by a central ‘shift key’, which allows leaders to move back and forth between them.

Switching Positions: Introducing the Strategic Leadership Keypad

We can better grasp this idea of strategic leadership as a combination of envisioning and interacting through a sporting analogy. In sport, it is standard practice for the playing captain to be positioned in the midfield in football or as quarterback in American football, or down the spine of a team (hooker, number 8, halfback, centre) in rugby. By leading from the middle they can see the game develop ...