The concept of strategic leadership: challenges, evolution, principles

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the concept of modern strategic leadership in enterprises and identify potential directions for its evolution. It has been established that the challenges of the 21st century present managers with dilemmas related to the need to change the previous leadership formula. Nowadays, the emphasis is shifting towards intangible assets, such as personnel, knowledge, entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity, communication links. In order for companies to create an environment in which knowledge can be shared with virtually no increase in costs, they must use the competencies of all employees. That is, in the era of knowledge, enterprises must rely on corporate intelligence and the ability to learn, and not on tangible assets. Managerial leadership has been proven to focus on task performance, its critical audience includes individual employees, and its time horizon is medium- or short-term. Visionary leadership, while future-oriented, risk-taking, and proactive approaches, is often based on intuition, beliefs, and values, ignoring the rational constraints that may arise during strategy implementation. Strategic leadership is a synergy of these two management styles. Strategic leadership focuses on the long-term existence and performance of enterprises, its critical audience includes a team of employees, and its time horizon is long-term. At the heart of strategic leadership is the managers' understanding of the need to integrate the conviction about the importance of the company's vision of the future and its operational efficiency. It is substantiated that strategic leadership should focus on: defining a goal common to the entire enterprise; creating the image of the future enterprise; formation of a common system of values, which determines the direction of the company's operation. The article presents the principles of strategic leadership. The desirable traits of a strategic leader include: vision (intuition), analytical skills, strategic thinking, communication skills, flexibility and adaptability, potential development, responsibility.