Option #1: Strategic Leadership and Knowledge Management

For your Portfolio Project, you will utilize knowledge about strategic leadershipandknowledge managementand provide for the Portfolio Project an essay that addresses the following aspects:

The Nature of Strategic Leadership Within this section, explain and discuss how the nature of strategic leadership is critical to the success of the leadership of a firm. Be sure to address the following points for this section:

• Explain and describe the nature of strategic leadership.
• Why is high-level cognitive activity of a leader important?
• How and why should a leader gather multiple inputs to formulate a strategic direction?
• How does a leader anticipate creating a future to address the unknown?
• Why is revolutionary and contrarian thinking important for the leadership team?
• Explain why creating a vision is critical to the success of the leadership of a firm and address the pros and cons of not having a vision.
• Explain how leadership can determine and measure the effectiveness of strategy direction.
• As the CEO of a firm, explain how you would implement the strategic direction and factors that will cause revising the strategic direction for your firm.

Conducting a SWOT Analysis Within this section, explain and discuss how a SWOT Analysis can assist the leadership team develop and implement a strategic direction. Be sure to address the following points for this section:

• Internal strengths
• Internal weaknesses
• External opportunities
• External threats

Lesson Learned Within this section, explain and discuss how lessons learned from the research can assist you, as a CEO, to develop and implement a strategic direction for your firm. Be sure to address the following points for this section:

• Provide at least two examples of successful business strategies and explain why these business strategies were successful. 
• Provide at least two examples of unsuccessful business strategies and explain why these business strategies were unsuccessful. 
• Explain and describe, as the CEO of your firm, how you would contribute to the management knowledge and the learning organization.

The portfolio project is an 8-10 page research paper (approximately 3,500 words). Follow the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA Requirements when formatting and documenting your sources. Your final paper will be graded not only on content, but also on the quality of your writing, including syntax and grammar. It is highly recommended you closely proofread your assignment prior to submission.

Final Paper Instructions

1. Include an introduction. It must provide a clear statement of your position on the topic.
2. Your paper must be at 8-10 pages in length, not counting the title and reference pages—which you must include.
3. Examine your position for each question by providing citations from at least seven outside sources other than the textbook. The CSU-Global Library is a great place to find sources.
4. Offer your conclusions regarding how best to manage the issue (i.e., your informed opinion on the issues raised).
5. The paper shall comply with the requirements defined within CSU-Global to Writing and APA Requirements.
6. Refer to the Portfolio Project rubric for grading criteria.

The paper must demonstrate what you have learned about current issues related to experiences of strategic leadership and knowledge management. Your paper is expected to have depth and offer a thoughtful analysis on the topic. The paper should be based on references to scholarly materials (rather than on introductory textbooks, popular website writings, or musings, for example) and should support your claims with evidence.

The most common mistakes in writing an essay are, (a) simply summarizing the topic and not analyzing it or discussing your views, and (b) failing to relate the subject to the broader context of leadership and operations management, as discussed in class and found in the readings. Adequately including the broader contexts includes, for example, considering how your research might yield a different approach to strategic leadership and knowledge management.