The organisational employees are the main drivers for organisational growth since their output influences corporational profits. Just like every sports team needs a captain to lead them in times of adversities and take them towards success, the same goes for organisational leaders. These individuals are at the helm of managing the internal and external affairs of their firm’s employees.
Leadership in the Corporate World
Given the rapid pace at which innovations occur at the corporate level, companies need to understand these advancements and rope in leaders who can guide the organisational staff about the same. The interested graduates and professionals looking to work in leadership capacities need to enrol for selected courses. The certificate in strategic management and leadership is an innovative program for teaching learners about its critical components.
Several leading universities across the country provide knowledgeable programs that offer deep insights into the core practices of leadership and its various types. Transformational and strategic leadership are the most common leadership styles utilised by businesses today. Owing to the same reasons, the transformational leadership program from XLRI enables learners to get equipped with this style and understand the critical differences with its strategic models.
Differences Between Transformational and Strategic Leadership
The steps involved in the strategic management process are inclined towards aligning corporational with managerial objectives. After completing the strategic management process, companies need to consult the leaders and show the strategies deployed for further amendments and refinements. With the dynamic nature of organisations today, C-level executives focused on leveraging the successful and practical leadership styles- transformational or strategic types.
The certificate in strategic management and leadership guide upcoming leaders about the core competencies of strategic application of leadership models. The transformational leadership program from XLRI offers a perspective on transformational styles.
To attract profitable prospects in the leading sectors, budding leaders need to understand the contrasts between transformational and strategic leadership:-
- On the Basis of Goal-Setting
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Transformational Leadership
The main objective of transformational leadership is to inspire and motivate their followers through changing the existing working landscapes. These leaders possess tenacity, charisma, risk-taking abilities to challenge the current operational schemas and introduce new practices consistent with the leader’s ideologies.
It’s the responsibility of transformational leaders to ensure that everyone (employees, stakeholders, associates) know about the changes in the organisational workings and work towards their goals whole-heartedly. Transformational leadership takes the employees together on a mission to achieve one shared goal/objective.
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Strategic Leadership
The primary objective of strategic leadership is to bring about changes in the organisation solely based on the leader’s vision. The long-term planning of the company’s silos is reliant on these visions and ideas suggested by the strategic leader/s. These leaders believe in empowering their followers during times of distress and torrid periods.
Strategic leadership, as its name, is concordant with developing novel strategies that involve the separate process of development, planning, combining major organisational goals and deploying business plans that are sustainable in the long run.
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On the Basis of Principles
Principles are the definitive practices that a particular leadership style must abide by and regularly cross-check to avoid going out of the leadership scope.
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Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership has certain descriptive principles for its smooth and adaptive utilisation in the company’s models. Transformational leadership relies on the principles of motivation, simplification, determination, mobilisation, preparation, facilitation and innovation.
The simplification of processes and message delivery is vital for ensuring followers understand what they are doing. Motivation is the driving force behind transformational leadership since it’s required to increase employees’ work output and performance. Steeled determination is essential for staying motivated throughout the leadership process and completing the process.
Preparation is required to prepare employees for challenges that lie ahead, mobilisation for bringing the right people across the team, facilitation, and innovation revolves around rendering tools and techniques that help employees perform their tasks.
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Strategic Leadership
The strategic leadership sphere consists of principles that help make lives easier for both the leaders and their followers for the development of successful strategies. The principles that conform to the strategic leadership biosphere include- proper delegation of tasks, agility, collaborative practices and vision-boarding.
Proper delegation of tasks comes in handy while assigning roles and responsibilities to employees as per their talents and competencies. The strategic planning phase needs to be agile in nature to adapt to changing environments.
Collaboration across channels helps see the larger picture and fosters a greater sense of team bonding and positive work culture. Vision-boarding is a critical aspect of strategic leadership that helps in laying out a plan for bringing that vision into reality.
- On the Basis of their Core Elements
- Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership elements include- idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration.
Idealised influence refers to the leaders donning the hats of role models for their companies. Inspirational motivation is the process of empowering employees through the leadership process. Intellectual stimulation revolves around facilitating innovation, while individual consideration is the process of looking after an employee’s needs.
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Strategic Leadership
Strategic leadership elements include determining the company’s vision, developing human capital, developing an effective work culture, and establishing ethical practices.
The setting up of a company’s vision revolves around developing its main purpose. The development of an effective work culture where employees feel heard and valued. Lastly, establishing ethical practices is critical to ensure that all strategic leadership processes are carried out morally and ethically.
The differences above show the contrast between strategic and transformational leadership. Professionals enrolled for the certificate in strategic management and leadership, and the transformational leadership program from XLRI can study its course modules for understanding its intricacies.
Summing it Up!
Both transformational and strategic leaders provide a direction to their corporations and draft strategies that can help businesses seek newer heights. The role of leaders is central to organisational growth and its long term sustenance.
Therefore enrolling for the certificate in strategic management and leadership can help in understanding their major aspects. Moreover, the transformational leadership program from XLRI offers resourceful intel about this domain.
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