Interview with Christopher D. Kolenda, Ph.D., founder of the Strategic Leaders Academy

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09/11/22 • 41 min

Dr. Kolenda works with leaders who want to apply insights from history and military operations to transform their businesses. A West Point graduate, recognized combat leader, and retired Army colonel, he defied conventional wisdom in Afghanistan by motivating a large insurgent group to switch sides, the only example of such success in the 20-year history of the war. As a trusted adviser to three four-star generals and two undersecretaries of defense, he became the first American to have both fought the Taliban as a commander in combat and negotiated with them in peace talks. He holds a Ph.D. in war studies from King’s College, London, and is the author of Zero-Sum Victory: What We're Getting Wrong About War (University Press of Kentucky; October 26, 2021) and Leadership: The Warrior’s Art (Stackpole Books; Second Edition, September 20, 2021), a trusted anthology that’s been in print for over 20 years and helped tens of thousands of leaders succeed in combat and business. His unique warrior-diplomacy has been featured in New York Times bestselling books and media outlets including CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Learn more at https://strategicleadersacademy.com/

Visit https://strategicleadersacademy.com/saber-six-foundation/ to learn more about Dr. Kolenda’s non-profit organization

Learn more at https://strategicleadersacademy.com/

Visit https://strategicleadersacademy.com/saber-six-foundation/ to learn more about Dr. Kolenda’s non-profit organization

Previous Episode

Interview with Carol Sanford, Author of “The Regenerative Life”

Carol Sanford is a consistently recognized thought leader working side by side with Fortune 500 and new economy executive teams, designing and leading systemic business change and design. She is Senior Fellow of Social Innovation, Babson College; Founder, The Regenerative Business Development Community, Change Agent Development community. Her best-selling books have 15 awards, are required reading at leading business and management schools including Harvard, Stanford, Haas Berkeley and MIT. Carol also partners with producing Executive Education through Babson College, Kaospilot in Denmark, University of Washington and The Lewis Institute at Babson. Her books are filled with case stories, from around the worldwide diversity represented.

To that end, Carol has been leading regenerative education efforts in both Fortune 500 and new economy businesses for more than 40 years. Her client list includes long-term relationships with Colgate Europe and Africa and DuPont Canada, US, Asia, and Europe. She also works with new-economy companies like Intel, Agilent, and leaders of corporate responsibility such as Seventh Generation, Numi Tea, and Guayaki. Google uses her work as a framework in the Food Innovation Lab. Carol is CEO of Carol Sanford Institute, an education company on building Regenerative Businesses that become non-displaceable in their markets, enduringly. The Carol Sanford Institute is based in the Seattle region of the Puget Sound.

She combines her economic development experience with her extensive business education and background using urban systems, psychology and learning practices. Carol has published dozens of works in 10 languages, including a series of articles in Executive Excellence, Stephen Covey’s newsletter and At Work, a Berrett-Koehler Journal. She is the author of five books with three publishers. Central to Carol’s philosophy and approach is a fresh look at what makes an organization truly regenerative. “It’s important to discover your singularity, what enables you to differentiate your business from the crowd,” she says, “and then thinking about how to do business so that communities, societies, and ecology as a whole are improved. These are not separate but interwoven pursuits. It’s completely doable, and a conversation worth having.”

She holds undergraduate degrees from UC Berkeley in Economics and Public Law and graduate degrees from California State University, San Jose in Urban Planning.

To learn more, visit: https://carolsanford.com/

Additionally, you can join Carol in making the world a better place: https://seed-communities.com/

Next Episode

Interview with Limor Bergman Gross, LinkedIn Branding Expert and Career Coach

Limor has worked in the tech industry for over 20 years as a software engineer, engineering manager, and Director of engineering. She knows firsthand what it is like being a woman in a male-dominated field. After spending nine years living in the US, she returned to her home country and decided to focus on her passion for supporting women's career growth in tech. Ever since she has been mentoring women and even created a mentorship program for women called PowerToFly.

In addition to her coaching, Limor consults with companies that want to build mentorship programs based on their specific needs.

To learn more, visit: https://limorbergman.com/