The Director As Strategic Leader

Who is this for

Chief executives, directors and senior managers who:

• Are responsible for the formation of departmental or organisational strategy,
• Oversee strategy execution and implementation,
• Will soon be assuming, or increasing, strategic responsibilities.

What you will get

• A set of implementable initiatives which progress your organisation’s strategic development and your personal leadership agenda.
• Insights into strategic thinking and associated techniques to address the questions that keep you awake at night.
• Greater appreciation of the big picture issues and how to address them effectively.
• Opportunity to reflect on your own challenges as a leader and how you can exercise strategic leadership within your organisation.
• New thinking on leadership and resilience in times of great uncertainty.

Case studies

“Irish Life group is a great supporter of Cranfield and its executive development programmes. In terms of course content, format, and materials, DASL seemed perfect for my needs.”
Brian Murphy, Head of Strategic Programmes, Irish Life Group

“An excellent week. Very professional, very engaging, and great content.”
John Cunningham, Customer and Fleet Solutions Director, Fraikin

Structure

The five-day programme runs from Sunday afternoon to Friday afternoon. Participants are invited to bring their own corporate or operational strategy to work on during the week.

The key elements of strategic leadership explored throughout the programme are:

Strategy

• Develop your strategy toolbox ready for implementation,
• Strategic management,
• Financial strategy,
• Strategic projects and how to develop them,
• Engagement as a catalyst for strategic success.

Leadership

• Build empathy, trust, rapport and engagement within your teams,
• Navigate organisational politics,
• Recognise and leverage your leadership style and preference,
• Lead high performing, winning teams.

Supply chain management and logistics

• Understand the key activities involved in managing an end-to-end global supply chain,
• Discover the greatest competitive weapon in supply chain management,
• Identify current and future supply chain disruptors and innovations.

Psychology and mindfulness

• How to stay psychologically fit to do your work.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

• Create an inclusive working environment,
• Underpin inclusive leadership to enable your business,
• Create a culture of physiological safety.

Building a resilient organisation

• Understand resilience and the nature of the resilience challenge,
• Develop strategies to build resilience within your organisation. 

What you will experience

This intensive programme is delivered over five days through a combination of theory, case studies and relevant real-world experience.

After undertaking psychometric assessments as part of the prework, your results are reviewed on the programme. These results will help you uncover the beliefs, drivers, emotions and behaviours of you and your team, and provide insights into how you can effectively deliver on your strategic agenda. You will better understand how you are perceived by others and see why they want to be led by you, or not. Building on this, you will explore how to develop your inclusive leadership style to lead with collaboration and empathy.

Participants share their ideas and experiences, contributing to the group activities. The programme is designed to explore cognitive preferences and leadership style to reach even higher levels of performance. By supporting participants and organisations to continuously adapt and focus on the changing needs of strategic leadership, the programme helps you successfully deliver on your strategic agenda.

Unique and practical programme features

• Gain a set of implementable and effective tools and frameworks to help determine a clear strategic direction for your organisation.
• Work on your own corporate or operational strategy formation and execution in real time.
• Draw on Cranfield’s renowned faculty, research, thought leadership and global perspectives on key issues.
• Acquire powerful insight and inspiration from the experiences of other senior leaders through peer-to-peer learning.

Programme Director

Dr John Glen

Concessions

20% discount (tuition fee only) for Cranfield School of Management Alumni who have attended one of our eligible leadership programmes.

Accommodation options and prices

Tuition, course materials, full board accommodation and lifelong access to Alumni Membership benefits are included in the price of this course.