Strategic – The Skill to Set Direction, Create Advantage, and Achieve Executive Excellence

RICH HORWATH is founder and CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute where he is a strategy facilitator, advisor, and coach to executive leadership teams. He is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of eight books on strategic thinking and rated the number one keynote speaker on strategy at national events such as the Society for Human Resource Management Strategy Conference. Rich has helped more than a quarter million people develop their strategic thinking and planning skills over the past two decades in pursuit of his vision to teach the world to be strategic.

Introduction 1 Navigate Your Business 4 Being Strategic 6 The Unstrategic 7 Strategic Fitness 9 What's Your Strategic Quotient (SQ)? 11 Trail Blazes 14 Part I Strategy Fitness 17 Chapter 1 Strategy 19 Strategy Is Not 20 GOST Framework 22 Strategy Defined 24 When to Change Strategy 26 3A Strategic Framework 28 Strategy Development 30 Designing a StrategyPrint 34 Trail Blazes 36 Chapter 2 Resource Allocation 39 Reallocation of Resources 43 Discipline to Focus 46 Making Trade- offs 49 Trail Blazes 51 Chapter 3 Decision Making 53 Creating Decision Trees 56 Avoiding Decision Traps 58 Determining Decision Rights 60 Delegation: Lead at Your Level 64 Trail Blazes 68 Chapter 4 Competition 71 Assessing the Competition 72 Competitive Positioning 75 Learning to Differentiate 78 Understanding Competitive Advantage 82 Trail Blazes 86 Part II Leadership Fitness 89 Chapter 5 Leadership 91 Situational Awareness 92 Emotional Intelligence 96 Leadership Philosophy 98 Trail Blazes 101 Chapter 6 Personal Performance 103 Three Principles of Preparation 105 Energy Management 109 Executive Presence 112 Trail Blazes 114 Chapter 7 Mental Toughness 117 Seven Saboteurs of the Mind 118 Mental Training Techniques 119 Nonjudgmental Observation 122 Breaking the Judgment Habit 124 Trail Blazes 126 Chapter 8 Time and Calendar 129 Eliminating Time Traps 130 Three Ways to Monotask 131 Optimizing Email 136 Trail Blazes 137 Part III Organization Fitness 139 Chapter 9 Organizational Foundation 141 Organizational Structures 142 Purpose 143 Mission 143 Vision 145 Values 146 Culture 147 Internal Obstacles 151 Trail Blazes 155 Chapter 10 Business Model 157 Evolving Your Business Model 158 Creating a Value Proposition 161 Mapping a Value Chain 163 Designing the Future State 165 Trail Blazes 171 Chapter 11 Talent and Succession 173 Talent Scorecard 174 Five Talent Traps 175 Succession Planning 177 Trail Blazes 181 Chapter 12 Innovation 183 Insight 184 Solving Challenges 186 Biomimicry 187 Domain Jumping 189 Catalyzing Questions 191 Trail Blazes 194 Part IV Communication Fitness 197 Chapter 13 Strategy Conversations 199 Dialogue 203 Discussion 205 Direction 208 Trail Blazes 211 Chapter 14 Collaboration 213 Enhancing Collaboration 214 Facilitation Framework 218 Trail Blazes 224 Chapter 15 Customers 227 Internal Customers 228 One- on- Ones 229 Managing Up and Laterally 230 External Customers 232 Board of Directors 237 Trail Blazes 239 Chapter 16 Meetings 241 Strategic Meeting Framework 243 Strategic Approach to Meetings 247 Trail Blazes 251 Close 253 Notes 257 About the Author 271 Index 273