Strategic Leadership: The General's Art

What distinguishes strategic leadership? According to top U.S. Army generals, the difference lies in the discipline of thinking. Because the problems strategic leaders face are often multi-faceted and can involve ethical dilemmas, these leaders must move beyond thinking tactically and take a longer term, broader approach to finding solutions. Through the U.S. Army War College and other senior-service colleges, the Army teaches strategic thinking to its officers, developing some of the most esteemed leaders of our time.

Strategic Leadership: The General’s Art provides aspiring leaders with an understanding of the behavior and competencies that make a good strategic leader. In line with the curriculum followed by senior officers attending the U.S. Army War College, this book teaches leaders how to think strategically in a volatile, uncertain environment and thereby to provide transformational leadership and shape outcomes.

With contributions from senior military leaders as well as experts in the fields of strategic leadership, systems and critical thinking, and corporate culture, this invaluable reference shows readers how to move from mid-level manager to strategic-thinking senior executive.

Strategic Leadership: The General’s Art offers:

• Strategic thinking and leadership processes taught by the military to its senior leadership
• Strategic leadership theories and practical exercises to help put those theories into action
• The valuable knowledge that Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations gain through U.S. Army War College workshops

About the Editors

Mark R. Grandstaff, PhD, is an award-winning scholar, teacher, and facilitator with more than 25 years of experience in leadership development, organizational assessment, and strategic thinking. He has worked with organizations such as the Army War College, Air War College, and the Joint Special Operation Command to educate their senior officers in strategic leadership and thinking, develop leadership curriculum, and analyze and prescribe solutions for organizational problems. As part of his National Service Initiatives, President Clinton appointed Dr. Grandstaff to serve on the first Summer of Service committee, which developed leadership curriculum for those working with at-risk children.

In addition to his work with executives and other senior leaders, Dr. Grandstaff is an associate professor of history at Brigham Young University, and he has taught at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Maryland, University College. Much of his research involves the uses of history in understanding how national and institutional cultures affect corporate strategy and decision- and policy-making.

Dr. Grandstaff holds a doctorate in history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and his fields of interest are American institutional culture, American foreign policy, and organizational development. He also holds an MA in the sociology of religion and community formation and a BS in business management and aviation technology. Dr. Grandstaff is currently a Senior Fellow of the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership and a Fellow of the Inter-University Seminar for the Study of the Armed Forces. He is the author of three books and more than 40 scholarly essays.

Dr. Grandstaff retired from the Air Force Reserve after 24 years of military service, 16 of which he served on active duty in both the Navy and the Air Force.

Georgia Sorenson, PhD, served as Inaugural Chair and Professor of Transformation at the U.S. Army War College in 2005–2006. She is currently a research professor and founder of the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. In 2002–2004, she was the Visiting Senior Scholar at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond.

An architect of the leadership studies field, Dr. Sorenson has lectured extensively on leadership in more than 30 countries in the past decade. She was a co-founder of the International Leadership Association and serves on the editorial board of numerous journals, including Leadership, Leadership Quarterly, and Leadership Review.

Dr. Sorenson earned her doctorate in education at the University of Maryland, and her dissertation, “A Phenomenological Study of Ten Transforming Leaders,” is cited extensively. She earned her master’s degree in psychology from Hood College and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from American University.

Dr. Sorenson is the author of numerous books on leadership and has contributed chapters to several other books. Her most recent book is The Quest for a General Theory of Leadership, edited with George Goethals (2006). She is also coeditor of the award-winning, four-volume Encyclopedia of Leadership (2004).