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Podcast Overview
In this week’s episode, we will provide an overview of this podcast series: Future Proof Your Strategic Leadership. In January of 2021, there has never been a time when strategic leadership is more needed and is in short supply.
Kate Beatty, in her Forbes article, “The Three Strengths of a True Strategic Leader,” writes:
Statistics show that fewer than 10% of leaders exhibit strategic skills, a woefully inadequate number considering the demands on organizations today.
She goes on to write:
The job of strategy is not limited to a few top executives. Strategic leaders are needed throughout our organizations if they are to adapt, innovate, and succeed well into the future.
Everywhere we look today, there is a need for strategic leaders at every level. We, at ClarionStrategy, believe that you with ongoing focus and development can be that strategic leader.
We have found there are two reasons why there is a shortage of strategic leaders. First, about 75% of people are naturally more tactical than strategic. Second, those who have an aptitude and skill in strategic leadership are often overwhelmed by the tsunami of tactical work that floods across their desk every day.
This tsunami of tactical work is one of the reasons I wrote the book: Strategic Leaders Are Made, Not Born: The First Five Tools for Escaping the Tactical Tsunami.
The purpose of this podcast series is to help tactical leaders and workers to become more strategic and to help those who are naturally more strategic to make sure that your strategic leadership continues to grow.
We define strategic leadership in this way:
Strategic leaders create unique, significant, and consistent (USC) value for their stakeholders and multiply that value creation through their teams and organizations.
Each week, we will have a short episode that will help you to grow as a strategic leader, creating unique, significant, and consistent value to those in your personal life, professional life, and organizational life.
We call this the PPO approach. Everything we do at Clarion and in this podcast is designed to help you to be more strategic in your personal relationships, professional leadership, and organizational impact: PPO. This PPO approach is in line with the late Harvard Business School professor, Clay Christensen’s book, How will you measure your life? We want to make sure that you are not winning at work and losing in life. Dr. Christensen would say that he taught some of the best and brightest at Harvard Business School. The problem he saw was that these MBA students would apply their learning at work and forget their lessons at home. He said that this would often lead to great careers and ruined lives.
In our next episode where we talk about value creation, we will give examples on how you can create significant value where you work as well as at home with your family.
In today’s fast-changing VUCA world, ongoing learning is critical. VUCA is spelled V-U-C-A and stands for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. In today’s VUCA environment, your team and organization need strategic leaders who can successfully navigate these crazy days.
We know you are busy people so we will keep this short. While I am a big fan of Harvard Business Review and the value that this can bring to for-profit and nonprofit leaders, I realize that many of us are too busy to read HBR each issue. That’s why I listen to HBR’s IdeaCast each week as it highlights some critical HBR content in a 20-25-minute episode. This Future Proof podcast series will come out each week with episodes that are 5-15 minutes in length.
We will draw on the best research and practices in the fields of leadership and strategy while at the same time being concise and practical. You will have some practical next steps you can take with you from every episode.
Before next week’s episode, consider these next steps. First, do you see yourself are naturally a tactical leader or worker who is good at getting work done. Or do you see yourself as a more strategic leader who gets distracted by the tsunami wave around you. Give some thought to this question. Second, do you know some people around you who might benefit from this series. Maybe these are some people on your team who have real potential. Lastly, consider getting a copy of my book Strategic Leaders Are Made Not Born: The First Five Tools for Escaping the Tactical Tsunami. This is available on Amazon in print, eBook, or audiobook form.
In closing, I wanted to tell you a little about myself. I was born in Los Angeles and lived on the west coast until my family moved to Ohio. I went to Miami University in Ohio where I met my wife Cheri. After college, we heard about the opportunity for teachers in China. After doing my MA and PhD at Ohio State, we are off to China to teach in the mid-1980s. After returning to the states, I had the opportunity to serve as the provost and president of Crown College in Minnesota. During this time, I completed my MBA at the university of Minnesota where I fell in love with the study of leadership and strategy. When Cheri’s health required that we live in a warmer climate, I became the MBA director at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. At Trevecca, I also serve doctoral students as the director of our DBA program. On the side, I also lead ClarionStrategy, a small consulting firm. Our mission at ClarionStrategy is to build strategic leaders and organizations through coaching, consulting, and courses. One of my great joys each week is getting on a coaching call with someone who wants to grow as a strategic leader.
That’s it for now. I look forward to connecting on the next episode of this series as we look at the centrality of value creation in the life and work of the strategic leader.
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