How do you overcome feelings of overwhelm and anxiety?

Welcome to the new Strategic Leader newsletter! In each edition, we give you a perspective, resource (e.g. a tool, framework), and recommendation (for a book, article, talk, service, or person).

If we haven’t met yet, thank you for joining me! You can learn a little more about me here and watching this short video.

Perspective

Many of us are feeling overwhelmed and anxious as we start the new season. Governments around the world lurch from crisis to crisis, the global economy looks shaky, and some companies are laying off staff. But times of uncertainty create great opportunities. Many of the biggest and best companies were established during recessions.

Strategic leaders find ways to thrive in situations like these.

They’re ambitious about what they want their organisation or team to become; decisive about where they focus and how they win; clear about what needs to change, and smart about how they manage themselves.

Let’s delve deeper into the last point.

The best strategic leaders:

1. Open their eyes and ears to signals of change, and act on them.
2. Obsess about delighting their customers and employees.
3. Focus on making the best possible contribution to shareholders and to society.
4. Step up their performance in big moments.
5. Identify the stakeholders they need to engage, learn from, and influence.
6. Structure their schedule so they have time to wander, explore, and think on top of the day-to-day activities.
7. Ask incisive, open-ended questions and listen attentively to the answers.
8. Create the conditions for people around them to experiment, innovate, learn.
9. Know when to stop – an activity, conversation, thought.
10. Manage their minds and body – through diet, exercise, meditation - so they are able to make wise decisions.

Question: which practice do you need to sharpen up?

Resource

To help you along the way, here’s a free?canvas?you can use to identify how you can spend more time with the stakeholders that matter to you and your organisation.

Recommendation

If you’re looking to refresh and upgrade your office, look, and lifestyle I recommend you checking out?Oliur. His site, and YouTube channel, includes great suggestions, product reviews, and commentaries.

Bonus: I’m a big fan of visuals to illustrate key concepts.?Elliott Aleksander?is one of the best visual artists around. A useful resource for you as you look to supercharge the way you communicate ideas.

One last thing

My podcast for strategic leaders -?Lancefield on the Line?– surfaces the best thinking, strategies, tactics, and lessons from the world’s best executives, entrepreneurs, and management thinkers.

A new season starts next Wednesday – with guests including Paul Polman , Amy Gallo , Bruce Daisley , Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic , Gena Cox, PhD Andy Woodfield , and Bill George . Check out the archive?here?and subscribe via your usual service –Apple,?Spotify,?Google, and plenty more.?If you’re feeling kind, do give the podcast a five-star rating!

Wishing you well, and thanks for subscribing,

David.

Thank you for reading this edition of the Strategic Leader newsletter. I hope you found it insightful and useful. Here are some ways to access further perspectives, tips, and resources:

★ Follow me on LinkedIn to join the conversation on my posts.?

★ Subscribe to my Strategic Leader newsletter every other Wednesday.

★ Take my Extraordinary Essentials test to assess how you stack up against six characteristics of strategic leaders.

★ Reach out to me directly at [email protected].