Strategic Leadership Competencies

Competency is the capability of an individual. Strategic skills are those abilities of the person through the incorporation of these could lead to the much higher growth of an organization. As described by Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016), strategic competencies are of different types it is divided as personal, interpersonal, informational and actionable competencies. As described by Lepsinger (2010) “Successful execution depends on the ability of individuals to integrate the leader and manager roles” (p. 149). These strategic competencies form the basis of an organization. It is not essential for this to apply in a single job in a big company but as a whole company should practice these competencies.

I work in the organization and environment of numbers. This job revolves around how to increase production with increasing numbers of account balance. As part of my job as an administrator, I have to deal with a lot of situations while dealing with insurance companies.

Informational competency is the most accountable of all at the organization I work, as it involves analyzing by data processing, modeling, measuring and evaluating (Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J., 2016). It requires clarification of points, not just the visioning as stated by Lepsinger, R. (2010) “Many businesses put a lot of energy into crafting their vision and strategy and gaining agreement on them. However, it seems they take less time clarifying assumptions about what it will take to achieve the strategy and set priorities for action” (p. 149). As an essential part of my job I have to deal with supplies of office regarding materials, inventory, network bills, etc. which involve regular accessing of new deals while ordering for articles and also grabbing best offers from the suppliers. Also, actionable and interpersonal competencies are also the accountable competencies to incorporate as it involves designing by Planning, crafting and visioning and also involves Administer by organizing, resource allocation, delegating, authorizing, systematizing, goal setting and performance appraising respectively. (Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J., 2016). My part of the job doesn’t only involve just dealing with insurances but also with scheduling staff which requires planning, allocating daily assignments of work which involve systemizing. It also consists of creating advertisements and planning new ideas for attracting more patients which affect visioning and goal setting. Performance appraising is a vital part to guide or administer any employee it is must learn to appraise on their performance.  It helps individuals to do better, raises self-esteem and motivation.

Above all, it strengthens the management / subordinate relationship and fosters commitment (Tumbewaze, P., 2010). So, incorporating these competencies would be best for improvement of growth of the organization.

Personal competency might not work as it involves self-management (Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J., 2016). I believe self-management would not work in our organization. As it involves prioritizing time in thinking about managing oneself and it doesn’t involve practicing such competencies as taking a team in the account and thinking about others while working as a team would be much better for the growth of the organization.

The three most important principles I believe according to my organization are as below:

Active Leadership– It is necessary to foster employees now and then and make them clear on what is essential to be prioritized (Galbraith, J., R., 2007). It is the responsibility of Leaders’ to continuously communicate with every employee. As in our organization is a mistake done by a receptionist while making an invoice of billing, the whole account receivable team has to suffer as money is not going to come from insurance if wrong procedure codes are billed. So, checking their work and acknowledging them regarding new rules is necessary for maintaining the efficiency of work.

Organize rather than reorganize- As stated by (Galbraith, J., R., 2014) “Rather than periodic reorganization events causing the organization to lurch forward, leaving employees with whiplash, aim for 80 percent initial alignment, with a plan for how to continue organizing toward the ideal” (p. 25). As for the organization starting from the very beginning while reorganizing is a never-ending task for our organization because it is still not paperless. It involves a lot of documents and details of the patient record and revamping by adopting new means leading to extra time for learning new methods and then applying it. It is a drawback of our organization having a shortage of staff, as a result of which it is better to prioritize in organizing things rather than reorganizing them as it involves a lot of steps for which more employees are required which is not a condition with our organization. 

Clarifying assumptions and priorities (Lepsinger, R., 2010)- It is true about many business organizations to put a lot of energy in thinking, assuming things to happen according to their work and working on everything without prioritizing which to do first (Lepsinger, R., 2010). As in the administration department, it never works on assuming certain things instead it works with numbers and also on clarification. There is a straightforward example to follow this principle which is doing more work on patients without knowing if they are liable to pay off the bills or not, just on assumptions after treatment they will pay. But this is not the case with every individual. Also, prioritizing specific matter is important like while dealing with payments it is necessary to deal with insurances as soon as possible as they have the particular time limit like around three months after which the claim usually expires. So, prioritization is a vital aspect for our organization.

The least essential principles I discovered in the course readings are below:

Creating multiple pathways for raising and testing ideas (Leitch, J., Lancefield, D., Dawson, M. (2016) – According to the author it is innovation is an integral part of the development which involves bringing new ideas. The implementation and testing those ideas will only be able to tell about how it helps. But this where our organization never supports as according to them they are working correctly. According to them bringing new ideologies and testing them will lead to more consumption of time and if the idea fails it will lead to more loss of the company. So, this is the principle which is not going to work for our organization.

Coordinate and Monitor High-Impact Actions (Lepsinger, R., 2010)- Recalibration of the plan with upcoming new aspects is difficult for our organization. As our organization core committee have trust issues with every employee and they do not trust anyone’s work. The organization adopts the methods which are best suitable for them and the benefit of the organization without thinking of employees and considering them. This contradicts the principle stated.

Evolve, Do Not Install (Galbraith, J., R., 2014)- 

It suggests lateral connections are cumulative. It is one of the company’s policy to not intrigue in other’s work and especially administration. To focus more on their work. This contradicts to the principle as it doesn’t allow to evolve and learn new aspects. Rather than teaching them, they can be developed by themselves, but it is not what is being practiced and is a huge drawback for the employees.

The least effective course materials

According to me, the least useful article is levels of international strategy (Galbraith, J., R., 2014). As this is nothing to do with our organization and personally.

Personally- Being a health worker learning about strategies across border strictly restricted to business personalities which has not much or none link with a health worker. As it specifically related to trade business strategies which are not a part of the health worker work routine.

Corporately- Even our organization is localized dealing with a province not even within the country except the supplies and materials brought across the country. So this mainly seems to be irrelevant according to our organization.

References:

Galbraith, J. R. (2014) Designing Organizations: strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Hughes R., Colarelli-Beatty K. & Dinwoodie  D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Leitch, J., Lancefield, D., Dawson, M. (2016). 10 Principles of Strategic Leadership. Strategy+Business. 84. Retrieved from: https://www.strategy-business.com/article/10-Principles-of-Strategic-Leadership?gko=25cec

Lepsinger  R. (2010) Closing the Execution Gap. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Tumbewaze, P. (2010). Business perspective: Why performance appraisal is necessary in any organization. The New Times. Retrieved from: https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/82561

Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016). Navigating strategic possibilities: strategy formulation and execution practices to flourish. Randburg: KR Publishing.