Leading with Strategic Thinking: Four Ways Effective Leaders Gain Insight, Drive Change, and Get Results

The authors, Olson and Simerson begin Leading with Strategic Thinking: Four ways effective leaders gain insight, drive change and get results, with an insightful question:‘You need to be more strategic’ When someone receives this kind of feedback, what does it mean?We often talk about strategic thinking and how important it is, but few people can actually identify how it works. The authors help us get clarity on just that. They deconstruct what strategic thinking is, and then they explain the different kinds of strategic leadership.The authors are careful to point out that strategic thinking is not the same as strategic planning. They highlight three activities in strategic thinking: assessing situations, recognizing patterns and making decisions. They identify three knowledge sets that underpin strategic thinking: systems thinking, cognitive psychology and game theory.Cognitive psychology is about how people perceive, solve problems, remember, make decisions and become motivated. Systems Thinking is an approach to understanding how systems behave, interact with their environment, and influence each other. Game Theory is the study of decision making when the decision involves two or more parties. Specifically, game theory is based on the assumptions that interests among multiple stakeholder groups may differ and that others involved typically have alternatives available to them.After carefully explaining the three activities of strategic thinking, the authors focus on leadership. They describe a “strategic leader as the individual who— regardless of role, position, or title— intentionally takes advantage of opportunities to think strategically, influence others toward a chosen course of action, andgarner needed buy-in, commitment, and advocacy.”Olson and Simerson then suggest there are four styles of strategic leadership:1. Visionary Type: These leaders are inspiring and charismatic2. Incubating Type: These leaders are nurturing, encouraging and effective facilitators3. Directive Type: These leaders are decisive, driven and manage performance4. Collaborative Type: These leaders cooperate in partnerships and teamsNot only does the book provide helpful insights into the type of leader you are, but it also gives many useful next steps to take immediate action to implement these practices. The authors also offer intriguing insight into the way your superiors, peers and subordinates may perceive your actions and suggest ways in which you can change your behavior to improve those perceptions.My only critique of this book is that rarely does strategic leadership fit simply into one of the four categories. We tend to change leadership styles depending on the complexity of the respective situation. However, these categories are illuminating and provide a helpful lens of evaluation.Olson and Simerson do point out that Leading with Strategic Thinking can easily be used as a reference manual to refer to in specific leadership situations. This is, in my opinion, the greatest value of this book. It will sit on my (virtual) shelf as a reference guide to refresh my thinking for when my strategic leadership styles need to adapt to the complexities of my organizational season.

Olson and Simerson’s Leading with Strategic Thinking is an exhaustive work capturing the essentials to leading organizations well. They develop their research and work by addressing the felt need many feel when challenged by people up and down the organizational chart to be more strategic. By providing clear pathways and next steps that differ from the old perspectives of simply reproducing what has been modeled, Leading with Strategic Thinking provides another way forward by dismantling old perspectives and reigniting a robust conversation around what it truly means to be “strategic” and a “leader” in today’s rapidly changing, constantly dynamic globalized economy.One of the greatest contributions of their work is the clear connection they draw between strategic thought and leadership. The authors conclude that these two are intrinsically linked. Applying multiple disciplines such as cognitive psychology, systems thinking, and game theory, the writers go through painstaking detail to tease out the unique contributions strategic thinking can bring to the nine leadership roles they have discovered through their study. In the end, Olson and Simerson conclude that strategic leadership is best expressed through two different components—strategy formation and execution. The rest of the book zeros in on the ways in which four strategies of strategic leadership—personal vision, structured process, collaboration, and empowerment—can be effectively implemented based on the needs, season, and dynamics of an organization.Providing broad examples from IndieGoGo to Google, Leading with Strategic Thinking provides a number of helpful anecdotes that help develop their thesis, while demonstrating the skills and behaviors that are essential for individuals to grow as strategic leaders. Perhaps their greatest contribution to the conversation on strategic leadership is in the distilled content they provide around the core competencies of strategic leadership. Their argument that leaders who are systems thinkers, decision makers, and risk managers employ the skill sets that lead to stronger organizations and more dynamic leaders finds strong quantitative and qualitative analysis throughout the chapter.While Olson and Simerson make compelling arguments for the value and implementation of strategic thinking, there is a flaw in their argument that they fail to address. They posit that strategic thinking is something that any leader can do and it is simply a matter of practice. While this seems to be a positive notion, there is very little argumentation to prove the point, and in fact, it seems as if their research would infer the opposite case. This contention falls flat when the core competencies of leadership, as explained by the authors, seem to be complex skill sets that take a mixture of both natural talent and practiced experience.In the end, I highly recommend this read for anyone who is leading an organization or wishes to improve their ability to make sharp, strategic decisions in a corporate context. The insights will prove to be helpful in clarifying reality, identifying next steps, and leading change.

LEADING WITH STRATEGIC THINKING BOOK REVIEW:Strategic thinking is not the same as strategic planning. Knowing the difference makes the difference in organizations that become culture shaping movements, and organizations that simply survive. This book not only helps define the difference, it serves as a guide to get you there. In my view the most helpful insights gleaned from Leading with Strategic Thinking is presented early in the book. In chapter two Olson and Simerson list four types of strategic leaders. They are:1. The Visionary Type – Charismatic and sometimes controversial who lead with personal insight. Passion is an important dynamic this type displays.2. The Incubating Type – Empowering and developmental approach to both projects and people, great at creating networks.3. The Directive Type – Observational and intuitive, evaluates from altitude to consider solutions to constantly changing environments, and bring guidance.4. The Collaborative Type – Draw creative energy from teams, gain momentum from cocreation, and great at forming partnerships.The reason the distinction between strategic leaders matters is because there is not one right way to be a leader. There are many approaches to strategic leadership, and there is probably a primary one that is most intuitive to you. Learning your wiring and leaning into your natural leadership gifting is a powerful approach to your work, whatever your responsibility may be. I highly recommend Leading with Strategic Thinking as it is formative and applicable across multifarious leadership contexts.

At best this book offers insights at the tactical or operational level for example page xxvi "Strategic thinking with its emphasis on assessing situations, recognizing patterns, and making decisions..." sums up the tactical level of this whole book. It goes on to draw an example from a pilot flying a plane (p.4). This is tactical / operational level thinking.Strategy would be asking 'What do we do as an airline which can crush our opposition?', 'Which model (long haul / hub and spoke / single plane model / other) gives us a competitive advantage?If you want to learn about strategy, buy 'Good Strategy, Bad Strategy" by Richard Rumelt.

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