The pressure to respond to the challenges of the volatile, uncertain, complex, and
ambiguous nature of the environment tends to focus strategic leaders’ attention on tasks
associated with the present. However, if strategic leaders become enmeshed in short-
term requirements, they cannot focus on the mid- and long-term tasks that only they
have the authority to perform. Strategic leaders must concentrate their efforts on long-
term tasks while simultaneously addressing short-term requirements in the context of the
organization’s long-term direction.