(The team that can run the organization smoothly in the absence of their leader)

One of the mistakes that leaders make is to put people who are not strategic in key strategic positions. In many instances this is due to the fact that the person being promoted worships the leader so much that the leader mistaken this with competence.

So every leader is confronted with the challenge of having strategic people on board to make sure that the company’s strategic goals are achieved. Although leaders may not get this right the first time around it is vitally important for them to pay careful attention to this aspect. It takes a combination of various key performance areas and some character traits to consider a person for strategic positions within your organization. Here are a few pointers.

1. Obsession. This sounds like a negative word but if one is to consider in in a more positive way it is a vital tool to determine whether the person is a candidate for a promotional post on not. Having people on board who just want the money that comes with the position is very dangerous. You must be obsessed with the company as a brand, its products and the values that the organization has decided to embrace as keys that with determine its corporate culture.
2. Synchronization. Every employee has ambitions and no one can stop them from being ambitious. It is however vitally important for people to have their dreams and ambitions to be synchronized  with the strategic goals of the organizations. When there is a mismatch of goals both the organization and the employee will be pulling in two different directions. Such a person may not be a candidate for a key strategic position.
3. It is vitally important to have people who are faithful to their commitments and  obligations.  Take the concept of brand loyalty as an example. People that can better present the company’s brands to the public will be people that are loyal to the brand. It takes  People who are committed to the company and its brands to be in strategic positions.
4. People who can be considered for key strategic positions must be people who are able to influence others to achieve results. The influence of such people should start at the level of the organization and extent to externally. People who can influence key stakeholders are vital resources that the organization should always strive to keep.
5. Personal development. I have  seen many leaders who consistently  make the mistake of appointing people who do not have the ambition to develop themselves. This affects the effectiveness of these people as they do not make important interfaces with vital pieces of information that  could  assist them to navigate their way through their journey.