Becoming a Strategic Leader

This book shows senior leaders how to leverage their unique personalities as an essential resource to help guide their organizations.

Conventional leadership coaching approaches focus primarily on personal change, exploring the qualities that define successful leaders. But to truly play transformative and visionary roles within their organizations, C-suite and other senior leaders must accurately gauge their own strengths and weaknesses, and learn to identify and address the "shadow side" of their personality traits.

This book offers a unique model for strategic leadership by encouraging leaders to think carefully about their personal leadership styles. The authors show readers how to use their Big Five personality profiles to identify their unique personality strengths, how to understand the personality styles of others they encounter in professional scenarios, and how to use this knowledge to steer their organizations to greater success.

Becoming a Strategic Leader also provides guidelines for coaching staff, managing performance, creating an optimal work culture, and establishing best practices for planning and leadership in the workplace.

Part I. Your Personality

• Introduction. The “Aha” Moment
• Chapter 1. Leadership Development Flaws
• Chapter 2. Self-Reflection and Assessment
• Chapter 3. Personality Traits
• Chapter 4. Your Top Two Traits
• Chapter 5. More on the Big Five
• Chapter 6. Head Versus Heart
• Chapter 7. Career Branding
• Chapter 8. Beware of the Shadow
• Chapter 9. Accurate Self-Knowledge
• Chapter 10. The Big Five – Recap

Part II. Strategic Leadership

• Chapter 11. The Strategic Transacting Model
• Chapter 12. Your Platform

Part III. Building Blocks of Strategic Leadership

• Chapter 13. Linguistics and Emotional Resonance
• Chapter 14. Emotional Intelligence
• Chapter 15. Interdependent Resonance
• Chapter 16. Listening
• Chapter 17. Improv and Body Language Exercises
• Chapter 18. How to Influence Behavior
• Chapter 19. Presentation Pointers
• Chapter 20. Call to Action Emails

Part IV. Strategic Coaching

• Chapter 21. Your Leadership Style
• Chapter 22. Performance Management
• Chapter 23. Creating a Winning Culture
• Chapter 24. Coaching Habits and Practices
• Chapter 25. Team Building

Conclusion

Supportive References

George W. Watts, MS, EdD, chairman of Top Line Talent, is a nationally recognized author, behavioral scientist, and senior executive. George delivers acclaimed leadership training programs throughout the world. He coaches CEOs on how to build and lead formidable “C” suite teams. Thousands of people have experienced his approach and commitment to teaching his powerful principles of professional development.

Laurie Blazek, BS, MBA, president and CEO of Top Line Talent, is the cocreator of the associated online TLT leadership development program. Laurie has over 25 years of business development, marketing, and leadership experience at large multinational banks including JP Morgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America. She has held senior positions in a wide variety of financial services sectors including asset-backed finance, corporate and investment banking, leveraged finance, private banking, and financial advising.

Visit her LinkedIn pageopens in new window and websiteopens in new window.

The authors combine deep expertise in psychology and business to provide a practical, easy to digest framework for understanding and celebrating your unique personality strengths and applying them to add strategic value to people and organizations.
—Eric Feuerlicht, MBA, Professional Certified Coach, Leadership Development and Coaching Director, Accenture

Combining Big 5 personality research with Carl Jung’s insights and the organizational transaction cycle, George Watts and Laurie Blazek have crafted a sturdy foundation for leadership growth. While targeted at business leaders, this book will resonate with non-profit and public sector leaders dealing with diverse personalities daily. It’s a budget friendly, accessible alternative to executive coaching, offering a quick path to both personal growth and enhanced people development skills.
—Karen S. Coltrane, MS, President & CEO, Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry

Becoming a Strategic Leader is one of those rare books that is both fascinating and practical. Watts and Blazek brilliantly blend personality theory with real-world strategy, giving leaders the tools they need to understand themselves, supercharge their teams, and win over key stakeholders. A must-read for every aspiring leader!
—James Millar, Founder and Managing Partner, Skybridge Associates; author of Building Bridges: The Case for Executive Peer Networks

Becoming a Strategic Leader is a brilliant intersection of proven science and astute observation. The authors’ program has the potential to radically transform leadership training and development. This will be must-have reading for my team.
—Karl C. Johnson Jr., President and Chief Financial Officer, Diversified Chemical Technologies, Inc.

Becoming a Strategic Leader provides a clear invitation for leaders to do something powerful with the insights from their personality as it drives value. This book will empower leaders to make the best choices for their lives and careers as they grow as leaders.
—Bradley Brummel, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX

Becoming a Strategic Leader goes beyond offering a leadership model that others should imitate. It also offers insights and tools to help leaders recognize when they are at their best, and leverage those strengths to add strategic value to their teams and organizations. This strengths-based approach is the key to developing authentic leadership skills that last!
—Tamara S. Lyn, PhD, ABPP, Warden (Retired), Federal Bureau of Prisons

This book is filled with tools, including simple yet thorough self -assessments, an understandable and usable model for strategic leadership, and practical, implementable actions readers can take to be better individuals and leader.
—Jill B. Smart, MBA, Former Chief Human Resources Officer, Accenture; President Emeritus, National Academy of Human Resources