This week marks the two-year anniversary of the launch of my eighth book, STRATEGIC: The Skill to Set Direction, Create Advantage, and Achieve Executive Excellence. The inspiration for writing it was the amazing array of useful insights I gained from dozens of executive leadership teams I supported the last decade in facilitating their quarterly strategic thinking and planning workshops and individual strategic coaching.
Following are just a few of the topics covered in STRATEGIC that we’ve worked through together to help profitably grow their business and maximize their leadership performance:
· Creating a common language for strategy
· Writing clear goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics to set strategic direction
· Applying the 3A Strategic Framework to think, plan, and act strategically
· Techniques for the allocation and reallocation of resources across the business
· Increasing decision velocity and delegation
· Developing competitive advantage based on core areas of differentiation
· Crafting individual leadership philosophies built on values and principles
· Increasing mental toughness and confidence to lead with courage
· Effectively managing talent and a strategic approach to succession planning
· Tips for controlling time and calendar
· Designing the optimal organizational structure
· Evolving the business model to position for future success
· And dozens of additional strategic leadership topics
The Strategic Quotient (SQ) Assessment to has been completed by more than 4,000 leaders to help them better understand their baseline capabilities in thinking, planning, and acting strategically. It serves as a developmental compass to determine which topics in the book to focus on and enhance.
One of the questions we all ask after reading a book is, “Okay, what’s next? How do I practice and use this stuff?” The Strategic Fitness System was designed to answer that question by providing an ongoing strategic leadership development platform. At the heart of the system are 50 workouts, or micro courses of 10-20 minutes, consisting of a video, reading, tool, and insight journal. It also includes the proprietary StrategyPrint: the two-page blueprint for your business, along with a digital journal to stimulate and structure your thinking and planning throughout the year. A new Strategic AI Coach is also being added so leaders can access my 25 years of strategy experience, knowledge, and tools to help them develop winning strategy, strategically lead their people, and assist with any other strategic need they have.
As we approach the new year, it’s important to ask yourself: What will I do differently next year? Start with being STRATEGIC.