Strategic Minds Podcast Por Rich Horwath arte de portada

Strategic Minds

Strategic Minds

De: Rich Horwath
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Are you tactical or strategic? Research shows that it’s the difference between bankruptcy and a Kevlar competitive advantage. In a world where bad strategy is the leading cause of business failure, and only one out of every four leaders are truly strategic, strategic fitness is the meta-skill of elite executives. On Strategic Minds, you’ll journey with New York Times & Wall Street Journal bestselling author Rich Horwath into conversations with extraordinary leaders and world-class experts to learn new ways to think, plan, and act strategically. You’ll discover game-changing insights, tips, and techniques to turbocharge your performance and position you as a true difference-maker in your arena.Rich Horwath Economía
Episodios
  • The Origin Story of Strategy
    Aug 12 2025
    How can leaders develop strategies that adapt to uncertainty and avoid the pitfalls of overconfidence? In this episode, Rich sits down with Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman — Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London and one of the world’s leading scholars on strategy, international relations, and military history. Knighted for his contributions and the official historian of the Falklands Campaign, Sir Lawrence has authored seminal works including Strategy: A History, The Future of War, and The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy. In this wide-ranging conversation, he shares insights on: How strategy is more than a plan — and why it’s a continuous, iterative process Why understanding your adversaries and allies is as important in business as in war The dangers of hubris, overextension, and failing to listen to dissenting voices How leaders can recognize when to adapt or reverse course without losing momentum Sir Lawrence also offers timeless lessons for business leaders on reading context, anticipating friction, and practicing strategic empathy. ⏱ Time Stamps (00:00) Deep Dive Interview with Sir Lawrence Freedman (54:35) Practice Makes Profit (56:23) League of Strategic Minds (58:43) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage 🔑 Key Quotes “Strategy is one of those things that you do without calling it strategy. So if people at any time are working out how to achieve what they want to achieve and looking at the means available, they're engaging in strategy.” “It's easier to have a good strategy if you've got resources, much harder if you don't have resources, which is why, incidentally, a lot of the most ingenious strategic thinkers have been underdogs because they really needed to work at it.” “The thing about strategy is it's a continual process. So I kind of talk about it as a sort of soap opera rather than a three-act play. You don't suddenly say, now I'm done.” “If you look at why military strategy fails most, it's because of underestimation of your adversaries.” “Most strategy, let's say 50% of strategy is defensive. I don't know how much that's taught in business schools, but that's the way in practice a lot of it's gonna work because you're just being caught out. So it's against the ability to read situations.” 🔄 Practice Makes Profit Rich shares a practical exercise for conducting a meeting audit — helping leaders reclaim time and improve organizational efficiency by aligning meetings with strategic purpose. 🧠 League of Strategic Minds Listener Question: What are the keys to leading a truly strategic meeting? Rich outlines the importance of clear agendas, pre-work, interactive dialogue, and actionable takeaways to transform standard meetings into value-creating sessions. 💡 Winsight: Idea for Advantage Michael Porter reminds us: “It’s healthy for people to disagree, but there comes a time when discussion ends. Strategy is about picking a direction and getting everybody really excited about it.” Leaders who decide decisively and align teams behind a clear direction outperform those who linger in consensus-building. 🔗 Links Sir Lawrence Freedman’s Books on Amazon: Strategy: A History The Future of War: A History Command: The Politics of Military Operations The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy (4th Edition) Sir Lawrence’s Substack: https://samf.substack.com/ Additional Links: Strategic Thinking Institute Website: https://www.strategyskills.com/ Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwath/ Rich Horwath on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichHorwath Rich Horwath on X: https://x.com/RichHorwath Rich Horwath on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richhorwathceo/ STRATEGIC Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1394215339 Strategic Fitness System: http://www.Strategic-Fitness-System.com Free Strategic Thinker Newsletter: https://www.strategyskills.com/subscribe/ Strategic Quotient (SQ) Assessment: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-quotient-assessment/ Subscribe to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-minds/id1748877976 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57wbZTtLJhznc4OBCe0OE6?si=c2c74bbb9b4340e0
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    1 h
  • Creating a Confident Mind for Elite Performance
    Jul 29 2025
    How can you apply the mental training techniques of world-class achievers to maximize your performance? In this episode, Rich sits down with Dr. Nate Zinsser — performance psychologist, long-time director of West Point’s Center for Enhanced Performance, and author of The Confident Mind. Dr. Zinsser shares practical tools for building unshakable confidence, how to mentally prepare for high-stakes moments, and why envisioning your wins before they happen is a key to sustained success. He also explains how athletes, warriors, and business leaders can all train their minds to adapt to any situation they face — and why a “first victory” begins before you ever walk into the room. Key Quotes: “I define confidence as a state of certainty that you will have about a particular ability, a particular skill or competence, a sense of certainty that allows you to bypass conscious analysis and thought about what you’re doing and basically execute unconsciously.” “You are in that spotlight, your body is going to surge. And you can either choose to say, ‘I’m excited. This is cool. Look at my body turning on.’ Or you can go, ‘Geez, I’m getting real nervous. I don’t like this.’ Choose wisely. It’s going to happen.” “And proper envisioning is a skill. It is a skill that, as I've said before, improves with practice. And sometimes you have to start with very simple things.” “Confidence is how you think on the inside. Arrogance is what you put out to the world.” “If success produced confidence, you'd have a ton of it. No, it's not about the success that you've had. It's about your willingness to emotionally invest in your own success, to allow it to build.” --- Practice Makes Profit: Rich shares how leaders can prepare for important events the same way elite athletes prepare for game day — by creating a daily mental workout to train their minds for high performance. League of Strategic Minds: How can leaders train for confidence the same way they train for physical performance? Is it really possible to "practice" in your mind? Winsight: Is your team winning? Are you outperforming the competition in providing superior value to customers? In its most basic form, strategy is how you plan to win. If you’re not currently winning, then create a new strategy. ⏱ Time Stamps: (00:00) Deep Dive Interview with Dr. Nate Zinsser(47:34) Practice Makes Profit(50:34) League of Strategic Minds(53:16) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage 🔗 Links: Find The Confident Mind by Dr. Zinsser here: https://www.amazon.com/Confident-Mind-Battle-Tested-Unshakable-Performance/dp/0063014831 Learn more about Dr. Zinsser at his website: https://www.natezinsser.com/about Strategic Thinking Institute Website: https://www.strategyskills.com/ Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwath/ Rich Horwath on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichHorwath Rich Horwath on X: https://x.com/RichHorwath Rich Horwath on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richhorwathceo/ STRATEGIC Book: https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Direction-Advantage-Executive-Excellence/dp/1394215339 New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System: http://www.Strategic-Fitness-System.com Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter: https://www.strategyskills.com/subscribe/ Are you Strategic? Take the Strategic Quotient (SQ) Assessment and find out: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-quotient-assessment/ Subscribe to the Podcast On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-minds/id1748877976 On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57wbZTtLJhznc4OBCe0OE6?si=c2c74bbb9b4340e0&nd=1&dlsi=f9d56ce5aafd4941
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    59 m
  • Cultivating a Future Ready Mindset
    May 20 2025

    If plans don’t always pan out, how can we best prepare for the future? In this episode, Rich sits down with Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt who was Google’s first Chief Innovation Evangelist and is now a Stanford educator and an Executive-in-Residence and Visiting Fellow at NYU Stern. In this conversation, he shares insights into how to ritualize and embody cultural values, how to prepare for the future and the power of choosing to show up.

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    Key Quotes:

    “Instead of planning, we should invest more in preparing. Because planning is usually external. It's timelines, it's spreadsheets, it's steps, it's milestones, all of those things. But preparing is internal. It's your mind state, it's your emotional readiness to adapt.”

    “ Innovation is a permission problem, not an idea problem. People don't need more creativity. They need more psychological safety to use it.”

     ”If you wanna create an environment for innovation, I would recommend using rituals and not rules. Rituals are sticky and they're human… Leaders have specific values in an organization that they wanna activate, bring to life. I think rituals are the best way to actually do that.”

    Practice Makes Profit: Making collaboration seamless by assessing alignment.

    League of Strategic Minds [listener question]:    What strategy myths hold organizations back from being more successful?

    Winsights: Ideas for Advantage:     Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, said, “I bet 70 percent of the innovation we do focuses on slightly improving a process. That incremental invention is a huge part of what makes Amazon tick.” Do you and your team have a process to stimulate innovative thinking throughout the year so that you're always providing new value to your customers? Innovate and evolve or risk becoming obsolete.

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    Time stamps:

    (00:00) Deep Dive Interview with Frederik

    (47:34) Practice Makes Profit

    (50:34) League of Strategic Minds

    (53:16) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage

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    Links:

    Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-minds-podcast/

    Frederik Pferdt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fgpferdt/

    Strategic Quotients Assessment: https://www.strategyskills.com/strategic-quotient-assessment/

    Rich Horwath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richhorwath/

    Rich Horwath on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichHorwath

    Rich Horwath on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richhorwathceo/

    Strategic Thinking Institute Website: https://www.strategyskills.com/

    Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book: https://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Direction-Advantage-Executive-Excellence/dp/1394215339

    New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System: http://www.Strategic-Fitness-System.com Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter: https://www.strategyskills.com/subscribe/

    [Subscribe to the Podcast] On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-minds/id1748877976

    On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57wbZTtLJhznc4OBCe0OE6?si=c2c74bbb9b4340e0&nd=1&dlsi=f9d56ce5aafd4941

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    55 m
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