The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs - Book Report/Review Example

The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs Cynthia Montgomery has become a familiar name in business management. As an author and speaker, Cynthia is passionate about business strategic management, which she considerers the best procedure in enhancing business. One of her books, The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs takes the reader through a thought-provoking literature on strategy. Cynthia believes that strategic leadership has to be spearheaded by the top management that needs to take the rest of the staff through the process. When it comes to establishing a successful business, the top management needs to have a working plan providing guidelines on where they want to see the business. CEO, managing directors, and other big titles in organizations need to be on the forefront giving guidance as well as implementing them. The book shows how much influence a leader has on the organization, making him a perfect example. According to Cynthia, the face of an organization reflects the kind of leaders it has. Leaders should therefore understand this and do more than just delegating to see their organizations prosper. Many business enterprises are ailing from lack of proper leadership. It is unfortunate that most people take up leadership positions without understanding the responsibilities involved. Most leaders simply rely on the strategies laid down by the company on its formation without creating new momentum. Most people in leadership position feel that their work is to supervise work and receive reports on how things are moving without having strategies that help the systems work. Having a strategy does not imply changing the modalities in which the company was established, but rather building on them and modifying them according to the current market needs. Most companies were established many years back, making some of the strategies used by previous leaders not capable of meeting current market demands (Montgomery, 2012). The main reason a company thinks of changing and modifying its leadership plan is to allow for new ideas and strategies. A leader who does not recognize such a responsibility will only hurt and harm the company. Cynthia insists that the most important thing that a leader needs is a strategic plan for the organization, which should stipulate what he or she intends to accomplish for the organization. Having a strategy implies that the leader has a desire t leave the company better than he found it. A strategy shows that a leader is ready for work, which will be reflected on how he or she leads his staff rather than send them. A strategy is a plan that will let employees know that every minute spent in the organization is worth and has to be utilized for its benefit. Competing in a global market requires one to understand some of the current business needs to come up with a plan that will satisfy clients. Customer needs vary with every changing day and season, which means that keeping him or her happy, requires a leader to understand and comprehend what he or she want. Without a strategy, it means that the leader is simply there to fill up space, rather than to work. Apart from the vision that the company has for the organization, every leader, starting from the top one should have his or her vision, which should not conflict with that of the organization. A company can be defined as a body with different compartments working towards a similar goal. A leader, who needs to lead his team to actions, heads each compartment. By the end of the day, every staff will be required to have a strategy that will facilitate growth. In some cases, leaders usually require departmental heads to come up with a strategic plan on what they intend to fulfill and accomplish for the departments they head. They mount pressure on such leaders, to meet up with their staff and strategize, when in the real sense, they have not drafted a strategy of their own. Cynthia says that having such a leader is like telling them to do the impossible, which the leader himself cannot do. The strategy of every department needs to be based on the strategy of the overall leader, who looks at the company vision for guidance. Leadership has to flow from the top and not otherwise. Companies that have scaled high regarding growth and profits have had leaders who are passionate about their work. A leader cannot effectively serve or lead when they do not own the organization. Owning an organization implies that handles its affairs as if that is the only thing that matters to them. A leader without a strategy for the organization is sending signals that he cares less about whether it succeeds or not. Such a leader sees no future in the organization, and the chances are that they will be more than willing to walk out if another opportunity shows up. A leader who draws a strategy is the best that an organization can have. Just having a vision for the company is enough assurance that the leader desires to be in the company and to watch it grow. Cynthia’s literature is not just based on theoretical work but has gone into details of using examples to communicate her message. Cynthia takes the reader through practical examples of people she refers to as strategists and how their leadership style worked for the organization. The business environment has placed an image of what a leader should look like and behave. When recruiting a person to manage an enterprise, the HR fails to pay attention to important details and instead focus on the outward presentation of the leader. There are many potential leaders, who have gone to some of the best business schools, yet they do not have the skills that make them good leaders. Papers alone cannot guarantee that one can lead and that he has a passion for an organization. Apart from the skills and experiences that a person has, it is important for a leader to have the interests of an organization at heart (Montgomery, 2012). Having an interest is to understand what the organization is all about and making the decision to take it to higher heights. Most leaders take up jobs in an organization, not because they care about the growth and the development of the organization, but simply because they have been promised a good remuneration package. Having such, an attitude implies that the leader is only there to fill up space and wait for the paycheck. According to Cynthia, money should never be the main motivating factor for a leader or any employee to perform. A leader who considers the paycheck more than the responsibilities at hand has lost track and cannot be trusted with running an organization. One of the reasons why many companies fail is because of corruption and lack of accountability. When a leader shows little concern for what the other staff members are doing, he opens up loopholes that will compromise the integrity of the company. Most of the integrity issues that are reported in the company are partly caused by the leadership. A leader commands a lot regarding the character and behavior that the staff adopts. Human beings are naturally observant and always look up for guidance and mentorship. When a leader shows little concern of what takes place in the organization, it makes employees also to feel they are welcome to do what they feel like, or exactly what the leader does. It is, therefore, important for any leader to realize that whatever he does, is a reflection of what he requires from his junior staff. Issues of integrity usually arise from a leader who has no strategy. A leader with a strategy will be working so hard and so busy for the organization, that some issues will not have time in his busy schedule. Strategy keeps a leader focused and his staff focused to, as he realizes the importance of having a supportive team. It will be so easy for a leader to notice a corrupt staff when he has a strategy. In the process of implementing a particular strategy, he will receive some resistance from some quotas. The resistance is a clear sign that some people are not willing to work with him in implementing the strategy. Having such information will help the leader know how to deal with such staff and ensure that they do not hinder his vision towards growth and development. The measures taken to handle resistant staff members will determine how well the leader cops up. Resistance is one of the encounters that a leader has to face in the process of coming up and even implementing the strategy (Montgomery, 2012). In every organization, there are at least people who are never ready for change and will resist almost everything that are meant to grow the organization. When looked at keenly, having a resistant staff can work well for the leader and even the organization. Resistance usually put the leader under check and pressure to succeed. Realizing that the failure of the strategy to yield fruits will invite ridicule from the resisting quotas, the leader will go an extra mile to deliver, just to ensure he does not fail. A leader should have big dreams for the organization, which he should fight on a daily basis to ensure that they are fulfilled. Businesses are facing numerous challenges that shake them, especially in a globalized market. The businesses are hungry for leaders that are focused and look at every challenge as an opportunity to excel. The business world is becoming more dynamic than ever, requiring a leader to make frequent changes to fit in the competition. Having the ability to adapt fast to changes and modifying the strategy will enhance growth and minimize on monotony. Employees love working with managers who understand the changing times and are willing to listen and even act as per the environment. Reference Montgomery, C. A. (2012). The strategist: Be the leader your business needs. Collins. Read More