The 3 Levels of Leadership

The other day I saw a quote on Twitter discussing strategic leadership – this quote pointed to a leader’s requirement to create the “vision” for his organization.  This spurred my thoughts into the various levels that leaders operate at.  Clearly, the CEO of a Fortune 50 company will not exercise leadership in the same manner that a division manager or a project manager in the same company would.  Simply put, the size of the organization you lead will impact the way you lead.  This is what I refer to as the levels of leadership.[1]

Military strategy has used the concept of the “levels of war” dating back to the Napoleonic times.  Military strategists divide war into the Strategic, Operational and Tactical levels of war.  There are no clear and distinct lines between these levels, indeed, the lines between tactics and strategy are probably more blurry now than they have been in the past. 

The 3 Levels of War 

The strategic level of war is usually run by the National Command Authority – aka the President and his closest advisors – with significant input from the theater commander – think General Franks at the start of the Iraq War or (more infamously General MacArthur in Korea).  This is the level where the national strategy is created – the “strategic level” or war is where the nation’s leaders decide what are goals are, what we are trying to accomplish, and, broadly, how are we going to get there. 

The Operational level of war is where the theater or regional commanders apply military, political and economic power to achieve the goals established by the strategic commanders.  This is the level where a high-ranking military commander will plan a campaign of related military operations with the intent of achieving the nation’s strategy.  The 2003 20-day invasion of Iraq (near to my heart since I was in the middle of that one) is a modern example and the island hopping campaign in the Pacific theater during World War II is probably the best known example of an operational campaign strategy. 

The tactical level of war is where the rubber meets the road.  This is the battle itself; how combat power is applied directly against the enemy within the scope of the operational plan with the intent to reach the national strategy.  The firefights my unit got in during the run up to Baghdad in March of 2003 are perfect examples of the tactical level of war.  We were applying our combat power directly against the Iraqi Army as part of the operation plan to seize Baghdad as quickly as possible to achieve the national strategic objective of overthrowing Saddam Hussein.  The beauty of the Tactical level of war, is that it goes all the way down to the smallest unit and the individual Marine and is directly impacted by the National Strategy created by the White House. 

Leadership can also be divided into Strategic, Operational and Tactical levels. 

Click through for a discussion of these levels of leadership. 

Strategic Leadership

This is the leadership from the Boss – be it the CEO if a huge company, or the owner of a small business with five employees.  Strategic leadership is setting the vision and goals of an organization.  Perhaps the best modern example of a successful strategic leader is Steve Jobs.  He was the visionary behind Apple – he established Apple’s goals and the broad path the company would take to get there.  He was the absolute definition of a strategic leader. 

This is how the strategic leader looks after establishing his vision.
(Not really, but it shows the "hands-off" need)

The strategic leader has to set the vision and the goals of the organization.  He needs to provide the guidance to his operational leaders on what he wants accomplished and how he wants it accomplished.  Many business leaders find this part somewhat easy.  It is the second part where many strategic leaders fail: once they establish their vision, the strategic leader needs to stay at the strategic level.  He needs to stay out of the weeds and focus on the big picture.  If he gets too involved in the operations, he will lose focus on the big picture and will not be able to refine his vision as necessary. 

Operational Leadership

This is senior vice president level.  Your level below the company’s leadership who has to take the CEO’s vision and craft campaigns and operations to achieve that vision.  This is where the vice president in charge of sales determines which markets his people are going to focus on to reach the CEO’s sales goals.  This is where the manager of a factory will make his decisions on how to staff his factory or what shifts to run to meet the company’s production goals.  Or, on a small company level, this is where the company owner’s 2-3 closest employees figure out which markets to focus on to reach their bosses growth goals. 

An Operational Campaign Plan

 This is the level where the vision is made measurable and concrete steps and goals are established.  This is also the level where the strategic vision can be completely blown.  If the operational plan is poor, tactical brilliance cannot save it.  (The same goes for a bad strategic vision – brilliant tactics can’t save a bad goal.  Think: Vietnam War.)  This is why your operational leaders have to be well trained by the strategic leader.  If the operational leaders do not understand the strategy, they will not create the correct campaigns and will fail to achieve in their mission.  They need to understand what the boss is thinking and truly understand the vision.  If they don’t, they will likely head down the wrong path. 

Tactical Leadership

This is your project managers, your team leaders, your low-to-mid level leadership.  These are the men and women who will implement and execute the operational plan.  They need to know and understand the operational plan, but they also need to know and understand the company’s vision.  Even with a good plan, the tactical leader can fail to achieve the vision by making poor decisions within the plan. 

This is where many organizations fail.  They create a strategy, they discuss this strategy with high level leadership, and the senior leaders craft a plan with the intent to achieve that vision.  Then, they pass the plan along to their subordinates with no explanation of the highest level strategy.  Then, these lower level leaders will make decisions within the campaign plan that are contrary to the big picture.  

Example of tactics used by the marketing division

For example, the new vision for a company who has predominately served middle-aged women may be to expand into the under 20 demographic.  The marketing team is directed to come up with some new and innovative advertising without being told of the goal to appeal to a younger audience.  The marketing team may establish the best advertising campaign ever, but fail to achieve the goal when the ads are run in Good Housekeeping and on Lifetime. 

To be a successful organization, leaders at each level need to play their part, and they need to make sure that they are interacting with each other and leading within the framework of the company’s strategy.  The over-arching key here is communication and knowledge of the company's vision. 

Think you can help run a successful organization? 

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[1] This is completely different than John Maxwell’s “Five Levels of Leadership” which focuses on the type of leader you are.  This concept looks at the different levels that you lead.