How To Be More Strategic

"Today’s business leaders are faced with many challenges: intense competition, increased regulation, and the need for constant innovation. Therefore, it’s imperative that as a business leader you have the essential meta-skill to navigate your business with a thorough understanding of your current situation, vision to see the future destination, and the ability to create the path to reach it,” explains Rich Horwath, author of the book, Strategic.

He says that being strategic is to possess insight that leads to advantage. Strategic is the opposite of unstrategic that includes:

Wondering aimlessly, lacking direction, getting lost in the weeds.

Doing everything, lacking the discipline to say no, and trying to be all things to all customers, both internally and externally.

Conducting meetings that take conversations down rabbit holes that cause widespread frustration amongst the members of your group.

Fortunately, the book provides you with the blueprint for navigating those hurdles while being able to take a truly strategic approach to all facets of your business.

Specifically, you’ll learn about Horwath’s Strategic Quotient (SQ), a validated assessment tool which evaluates an individual’s ability to lead and think strategically. The SQ evaluates a leader’s current mindset and behaviors using the “3A Framework” – acumen, allocation, action. It identifies the building blocks of a strategic leader and pinpoints areas for improvement to help individuals reach their full potential.

With Horwath’s guidance, leaders will master the four dimensions of strategic fitness that contribute to executive performance:

Strategy Fitness: Ability to understand and develop strategy, set direction, allocate resources, make decisions, and create competitive advantage.

Leadership Fitness: Leadership philosophy, personal performance, mental training, and ability to master time and calendar.

Organization Fitness: Ability to create the appropriate business structure, evolve the business model, develop talent while planning for succession, and innovate.

Communication Fitness: How to facilitate conversations, conduct effective collaboration, bring value to customers, and lead productive meetings.

Some of my favorite takeaways from the book include:

Strategic plans should clearly describe where the business is today, where it’s going, and how it’s going to get there. Inherent in that description is what you choose to do and—equally important—what you choose not to do.

If your strategic plan is long, complicated, and not crystallized into a usable one- to two-page document, then there is work to be done. The longer the plan, the less likely it is to be updated with new insights and remain a relevant compass for your strategic direction.

A company is only as good as its people. People are only as good as their actions. And actions are only as good as the thinking behind them.

The best leaders practice the concept of servant leadership by ensuring their people are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and tools to effectively perform their functions.

It takes a confident leader to invest a larger chunk of time exploring the right question to frame the challenge. As Albert Einstein espoused: “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”

Rich Horwath

Horwath shares these additional insights with us:

Question: Of the three unstrategic sins, which one plagues organizations and their leaders the most and why?

Horwath: Killing meetings. 83% of executives we surveyed said that their meetings were an unproductive use of time. If your car or television worked less than 20% of the time, would you keep them? People tolerate unproductive meetings because they become part of the culture—no agenda, starting late, people multitasking, and nothing decided.

Question: What is the primary takeaway you want readers to have after they have read your book?

Horwath: If you don’t increase your strategic fitness, you and your business will fail. To think, plan, and act strategically simply requires awareness, discipline, and focus—all of which are in short supply where the crack cocaine of the business world is multitasking. Both flood the brain with dopamine, provide a brief high, and kill your productivity.

Question: What is the best first action to take for a business leader to become more strategic and to follow your book's advice?

Horwath: I define strategic as possessing insight that leads to advantage. The first step then to being strategic is to continuously be discovering insights. An insight is a learning that leads to new value. Hold yourself and your team accountable for generating, recording, and sharing one to three insights per week, and then find a place to house them in the future so you’re continually building your foundation of expertise.

With practical tools and dozens of real-world examples, Strategic shows you how to be more than tactical―and how to be truly strategic. There’s no better time than now to read this book.

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Comments

How To Become A Catalyst CEO

Catalyst leaders are individuals who accelerate decision-making, empower teams, and spark innovation. To improve your catalyst leadership skills, you’ll want to read the new book by Constantine G. Alexandrakis , which provides a hands-on guide for building leadership teams and cultures that ignite business transformation. The book is The Catalyst CEO: Why CEOs Can’t Lead Transformation Alone―And What The Best Do Instead . Drawing on decades of experience advising world-leading companies, Alexandrakis challenges the cult of the hero CEO and offers a powerful new paradigm on what it truly takes to make business transformation happen―and stick. Alexandrakis defines transformation as more than change. “It’s a deliberate reinvention of how a company creates value through its people, its business model, and its place in the world.” He adds that “Real transformation depends on teams that are willing to argue clearly, and directly, while still finding a way to decide and move ...

James G. Ellis Shares The Leadership Lessons Behind A Lasting Legacy

In his new book, James G. Ellis shares the lessons he learned throughout his career as an entrepreneur, CEO, professor, mentor, and one of the nation’s most respected business school leaders. He is the former Dean of the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. For aspiring leaders, educators, and entrepreneurs, A Journey of Insights: Lessons In Leadership And Legacy , offers a roadmap to success grounded in real-world experience, with a focus on humility, listening, and building strong, collaborative environments. The book is both a personal memoir and a strategic guide for those aiming to leave a lasting legacy in business. At the core of his message is the central theme that listening to voices around you throughout life is the key to success. “In essence, ears can speak louder than voices,” shares Ellis. The book also explores pivotal moments that helped define Ellis’ understanding of leadership, including encounters with Pres...

How To Transform The Influences Of Your Childhood Into Your Unique And Most Effective Leadership Style

The most significant predictor (up to 80 percent) of how someone shows up in their interpersonal interactions as a leader, and as a human, is their childhood, claims Pam Manfredo Curtis, PhD , author of the new book, The Origins Of A Leader: Transforming Family Patterns Into Leadership Power . Grounded in decades of psychological analysis, executive coaching, and behavioral data, Curtis elaborates that how leaders perform today is dramatically influenced by their childhood, with patterns formed early in life continuing to shape behavior, decision-making, and relationships at the highest levels. “When you know your why , you can change your how ,” says Curtis. “Put another way, when you understand the influential factors of your life, you can choose how they affect you. Curtis encourages you to explore specific childhood environments and discover how they shaped your strengths, communication patterns, and hidden limitations. Regarding the implications o...

How To Rewire Your Mind To Build Your Adaptability Quotient

Alec Litowitz argues that the most valuable skill of the next decade isn't IQ or even EQ (Emotional Intelligence). It's AQ: your Adaptability Quotient, the ability to question assumptions, update beliefs, and respond effectively when reality changes. Litowitz is the author of the forthcoming book (releasing on September 15, 2026) The Adaptability Quotient: Rewiring Your Mind For Success In The Next Human Era . And he shares that “AQ is a learnable way of using your mind like a high-performance machine: to model risk, absorb feedback, make faster corrections, and create repeatable advantages in conditions where most people stall out—or drown.” In short, it’s all about how to move from “making the right decision” to “making decisions right.” “As artificial intelligence, media, and scientific advances reshape the cognitive landscape, adaptability becomes the essential discipline for reclaiming human agency,” adds Litowitz. “And a s AI resha...

Proven Strategies For Keeping Teams Focused During Times Of Uncertainty

“Crisis leadership is not only about operational efficiency—it is fundamentally human-centered. Leaders who communicate openly, prioritize safety, listen empathetically, and empower teams can sustain trust, engagement, and performance, even in life-threatening circumstances. Organizations that maintain this balance are not only surviving—they are building for the future,” explain the authors of the new book Against The Storm: How True Leaders Prevail When The World Shakes . The authors and leadership experts Tom Kolditz and Mariana Khomitska share in their book a practical framework that can be applied across industries and roles. “One of the primary purposes of our book is to pass along leadership tools for crisis management,” explain the authors. “Effective crisis management is fundamentally about reducing uncertainty to restore a sense of control and stability." Key strategies focusing on minimizing the effects of uncertainty a...

How To Become Your Best-Self Leader Everyday

“By focusing in specific ways on five key leadership elements— Purpose, Process, People, Presence, and Peace —you can increase your time, capacity, energy, and ultimately your leadership impact,” explains Amy Jen Su , author of the book, The Leader You Want To Be: Five Essential Principles for Bringing Out Your Best Self—Every Day . Su shares both Western management thinking and Eastern philosophy to provide a holistic yet hands-on approach to becoming a more effective leader with less stress and more equanimity. She draws on rich and instructive stories of clients, leaders, artists, and athletes. And, she focuses on three foundational tenets: s elf-care, self-awareness, and personal agency . Most important, Su explores in depth, chapter-by-chapter the Five Ps : Purpose – Staying grounded in your passions and contributions, doing your highest and best work that has meaning and is making a difference. Process – Relying on daily practices and routines that honor your natural energy rhyt...

The Five Critical Roles You Need To Build A Winning Team

The book, Team Players , by leadership expert and New York Times bestselling author, Mark Murphy , explains why a team needs more than strong leaders—it needs the right mix of five roles and talents to succeed. In addition, Murphy reveals that the secret to extraordinary teams isn’t making everyone the same—it’s embracing and leveraging fundamental differences through those five distinct team roles. No amount of teambuilding, trust, or cohesion can overcome having the wrong mix of people in the room. The five essential roles and talents are : The Director assumes a leadership role within the team, guiding its direction and making important, difficult, and even unpopular decisions. The Achiever immerses themselves in the details of accomplishing tasks and getting things done, with a keen eye for delivering error-free work. The Stabilizer keeps the team on track with meticulous planning, processes and procedures, clear timelines, and organization. ...

Learn The Power Of Probabilistic Thinking

Dive in for a fascinating read as you discover the life-changing power of probabilistic thinking, taught by Kyle Austin Young in his book, Success Is A Numbers Game . “Every goal that you’re pursuing has two hidden numbers attached to it—a probability of success and a probability of failure,” explains Young, “If you can make the first number bigger and the second number smaller, you can rewrite your predicted outcome.” “Whether you’re trying to start a business, run a marathon, get a promotion, earn a pilot’s license, grow a bumper crop of tomatoes, or sign an acting deal, these two percentages are always lurking in the shadows predicting what is going to happen.” But, adds Young, "Most of us never think about them. We assume our odds are unknowable and unchangeable. This dangerous lie leads millions of people to fail at goals where they were perfectly capable of succeeding. You can choose a smarter path,” encourages Young. In Success is a Numbers Game , ...

A Roadmap For Next Generation Of Leaders Driving Culture-First Change

The transformative success of everything today’s leaders are driving – including AI (Artificial Intelligence) – will be determined not by whether they are “good” or “bad,” but by whether their organization’s culture embraces them. Decades of failed efforts prove that successful change can’t be mandated. That’s what Phil Gilbert believes and professes. “Change is a product, not a mandate,” says Gilbert. “Transform your initiative into a desirable offering that teams choose to adopt rather than an edict they’re forced to follow. Your organization is the market, and every project team is a potential customer who must be convinced that your approach will solve their problems better than the status quo. This product-centered mindset creates voluntary adoption that spreads organically.” This proven approach to making transformations is something people run toward, not away from. You’ll learn how this happens in Gilbert’s new book, Irresistible Change: A Bluep...

Decision-Making Lessons From History

As seen on Public Television, the book, Decisions , by Robert L. Dilenschneider , features vignettes on 23 individuals who made decisions that shaped the world. Each chapter offers practical thinking on how these women and men made decisions. You can use their decision-making skills as guidance at work, in your leadership role, and in your daily life. You’ll learn decision making tips from Harry Truman , Margaret Thatcher , Mohammed Ali , Rachel Carson , Pablo Picasso and others who made decisions during war and peace, and in fields of science, commerce and invention. Author Dilenschneider suggests takeaways about decision-making from each featured historical figure. Some of my favorite decision-making lessons from history and from the book include these: Own your decisions . Be responsible for them and for their implications. Do not be reactionary—that is, making decisions to spite others or because of outside pressure—but do be r...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog