For more than 100 years, managers have relied on four basic duties: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. These ideas were created in a time when businesses were stable and predictable, so managers could assume that markets, company structures, and performance systems would be mostly the same. Today’s workplaces are totally different. They face constant change,…
Planning as Strategic Foresight
There was a time when planning was all about predicting the future, maintaining stability,
and making long-term plans. Strategic leaders take a very different approach. For them, planning
is strategic foresight: a constant evaluation of the environment to spot early signals of change
and to plan for multiple possible futures simultaneously. They don’t just assume the situation is
stable; they build flexible planning systems that rely on scenario thinking, real-time data, and
cross-organizational collaboration. As Day and Schoemaker note, foresight is a core leadership
skill that is now essential because it enables organizations to anticipate disruption rather than
react to it. Planning then becomes a leadership practice, based on agility, resilience, and
imagination. These qualities allow an organization to act confidently in the face of uncertainty.
Organizing as Designing for Flexibility and Networks
Traditional organizing emphasized formal systems, hierarchical structures, and fixed
roles, but strategic leaders have moved well beyond that model. They set up flexible structures,
with teams and networks to make quick changes when needed. In a time when digital
transformation and cross-sector collaboration are reshaping work, adaptability must be the
priority. As Esenyel puts it, this has to be about fostering an inclusive and digitally connected
environment. To organize effectively now, it is important to build partner networks, let
knowledge spread, and let teams decide what to do. A good strategic leader will set the
organization up not to be held back by old ways of doing things, but to be structured to meet
fresh challenges with confidence and creativity.
Leading as Mobilizing People and Purpose Across Boundaries
Traditional management followed a straightforward model: leaders told people what to
do and then motivated them to complete the task. Strategic leaders have a broader horizon. They
hope to find an inspirational common purpose that brings people together to work and be part of
the community and its industries. Leadership like this is systemic and relational; it is about
reading the situation and understanding the bigger picture. It requires emotional intelligence,
cultural sensitivity, and the ability to work harmoniously across diverse teams so they can make
contributions and take big risks. Uhl-Bien and Arena put it well: contemporary leadership is no
longer just about authority, but about allowing people to adapt. That means leading collective sensemaking in uncertain times and favoring experimentation and teamwork. Strategic leaders
will then use their power to build the external networks and partnerships that put the organization
on a better footing to deal with whatever lies ahead.
Controlling as Enabling Learning, Feedback, and Adaptive Governance
Historically, managers exercised control through rule enforcement and performance
checks, stepping in to correct problems as they arose. Strategic leaders are not so inclined; they
prefer a more forward-looking perspective. For them, controlling is better thought of as adaptive
governance. It is a form of leadership built on real-time insight, rapid feedback, and an ethos of
continuous learning, all of which enable the organization to anticipate change. In this view,
control is a means of supporting and strengthening one’s people, not of punishing them.
To foster improvement and make wiser decisions, these strategic leaders will rely on data
analytics, open measures, and low-risk, small-scale experiments. As Edmondson has pointed out,
you see better results from systems predicated on learning than from ones run on strict rules,
since the former are more likely to elicit innovation and promptness. The strategic leader aims to
establish a form of governance that does not impede the organization but enables it to adapt and
perform well, with continuous learning and no delay in feedback.
LeadershipForward Synthesis
A strategic leader will see the four time-honored functions of management in a different
light: no longer mere tasks, they are dynamic forms of leadership. Take planning, for instance; it
is an exercise in looking ahead to what may lie in store. Organizing is about putting in place
systems that are as connected and inclusive as they are flexible, able to respond at a moment’s
notice. The act of leading means one must rouse a common purpose and foster collaboration in
every corner of the enterprise. Even controlling is put to new use, less about oversight and more
about making room for feedback and learning to inform adaptive decisions.
In this way, the traditional functions are not jettisoned but made fluid and forward-
thinking, allowing an organization to deal with complexity clearly and courageously. Such a
reimagining is consistent with Esenyel, who argues that leadership must evolve to serve the
needs of a digital, inclusive workplace. Strategic leaders reshape these old models to tap into the
collective intelligence required for today’s environment.
References
Day, George S., and Paul J. H. Schoemaker. See Sooner, Act Faster: How Vigilant Leaders
Thrive in an Era of Digital Turbulence. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2019.
Edmondson, Amy C. The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the
Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2019.
Esenyel, Vildan. “Integrating Contemporary Theories for VUCA Realities.” Administrative
Sciences 14, no. 11 (2024): 270. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14110270.
Uhl-Bien, Mary, and Michael Arena. “Complexity Leadership: Enabling People and
Organizations for Adaptability.” Organizational Dynamics 46, no. 1 (2017): 9–20.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2016.12.001.
1Vildan Esenyel, “Integrating Contemporary Theories for VUCA Realities,” Administrative
Sciences 14, no. 11 (2024): 270, https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14110270.
2George S. Day and Paul J. H. Schoemaker, See Sooner, Act Faster: How Vigilant Leaders
Thrive in an Era of Digital Turbulence (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2019).
3Esenyel, “Integrating Contemporary Theories.”
4Mary Uhl-Bien and Michael Arena, “Complexity Leadership: Enabling People and
Organizations for Adaptability,” Organizational Dynamics 46, no. 1 (2017): 9–20,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2016.12.001.
5Amy C. Edmondson, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the
Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2019).
6Esenyel, “Integrating Contemporary Theories.”
