Strategic Leadership Series: 01

The Role of a Strategic Leader

Is it to create change or maintain the status quo?

Discuss.

The following excerpt is taken from an academic essay I have submitted to the Chartered Management Institute as part of my Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Leadership & Management studies.

Read time: 10-15 minutes.

The leadership skills, behaviours and qualities a person needs to deliver strategic goals and organisational plan [note: if you haven’t got a plan, make a plan] are many and varied, especially in the global context. This goes further where the industry still suffering the widespread effects of covid-19, and arguably, has broken even further compared to sector conditions beforehand. Swathes of the workforce have left due to the pandemic and there are unsustainable business models hanging on for dear life. In a rapidly evolving world, with technology and digitalisation gaining momentum, the arts sector faces many challenges not least, and with current sector conditions considered, a highly skilled, readied and agile sector with a workforce that can prioritize health & wellbeing, weed out outdated leadership and rise to meet present and future unseen obstacles/opportunity.

The sector is governed by Arts Council England and to demonstrate this point, although there is a commitment to change in their current 10 year strategy called ‘Let’s Create’; the strategy explicitly mentions ‘that the business models of publicly funded cultural organisations are often fragile, and generally lack the flexibility to address emerging challenges and opportunities, especially around the decline of public funding and the growth of new technologies’ and‘that many leaders of cultural organisations report a retreat from innovation, risk-taking and sustained talent development’. This is an opportunity and gap in the market for today’s young leaders, including me, as a highly-skilled visionary creative, aiming to create change, and to support others to do so.

From anecdotal evidence [my opinion too], the arts sector is over 90% reliant on public subsidy, slow to base new developments on robust data, stuck in ‘old ways of doing things’ and a lack of strategic leaders with skills required for the next normal. As cited by Clore Leadership (2014), a body with a remit to develop leadership in the wider cultural sector in the UK, they say that employers should engage more actively in the development of their staff, with established leaders continuing to personally encourage and support younger staff, as well as create more opportunities for staff development within their organisations. Ill-defined career paths in the arts sector are seen as a key barrier to leadership for the majority. This is particularly the case for the global majority, disabled and younger people. Many skills that leaders consider as important for the future relate to the reduction in public funding: fundraising and philanthropy, strategic planning, lobbying and influencing. As such, in relation to my skills and leadership qualities, as well as my age and ambition; the sector-wide reputation I uphold, in addition to a high level of self-awareness, I am well placed to create change. 

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

— John Quincy Adams

I became a sole trader in 2020. This act demonstrates my natural tendency for motivation and laser focus on achieving goals, which as Goleman explains in the Harvard Business Review (2013), “Emotional intelligence begins with self-awareness - getting in touch with your inner voice. Leaders who heed their inner voices can draw on more resources to make better decisions and connect with their authentic selves.” It also highlights my natural leadership qualities and personal strengths. In 2010 and again in 2017, I was fortunate to have undertaken the Clifton Strengthsfinder 2.0 (2007), as part of team building and a commitment to CPD in my previous role with artsNK. I learned that top strengths are ‘strategic’, alongside ‘learner’ from the ‘strategic thinking’ theme, as well as ‘communication’, ‘activator’ and ‘self-assurance’ from the ‘influencing’ theme. According to the assessment;

“The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, "so what?". This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can accurately evaluate the potential obstacles.Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections.”

Image by Maria Zaric on Unsplash

Additionally, in 2020, I undertook the VIA Character Strengths Profile and have worked with the findings of this in applied practice with my coach, Kim Carr, connecting my vision and strategic plan [again, there’s the plan part, have you got a plan?]. Within the findings of my character strengths analysis, which are complementary to the Clifton StrengthsFinder results, are qualities of ‘curiosity’, ‘perspective’, ‘honesty’, ‘fairness’, and ‘bravery’. In relation to bravery, defined by VIA as “not shrinking from threat, challenge, difficulty; speaking up for what’s right even if there’s opposition; acting on convictions even if unpopular”, and by Brene Brown’s research into courageous leadership, where conclusions are presented around the need for more leaders to be courageous, wholehearted and self-aware enough to lead from their hearts, instead of from a place of fear (read that book: Dare to Lead 2018).

Whilst this is unpopular in the arts, for ‘fear of rocking the boat’ is a common mentality due to precarity of funding and existing power dynamics, however these natural qualities also positions me uniquely to lead the way. 

>>> There are ways you can learn more about your qualities as a leader. But where to start?

>>> What are your thoughts on the role of the strategic leader in the arts? Are you creating change?

>>> Get curious, do some reading, buy yourself the Clifton Strengthsfinder book and do the test.

>>> Reach out - let’s chat. I can help you uncover some of your strengths.

Email: hello@amydaltonhardy.co.uk