Leading Strategically: New Thinking for Entrepreneurs,Organizations, and Your Personal Life

By Dr. Hassan Yemer

People want to be successful, but they seldom know how to clarify for themselves
exactly what that means. In his book Leading Strategically, Dr. Hassan Yemer offers
a compassionate, wise and focused approach oriented toward self-learning and
education that can bring real positive change, including in their own communities.
His passion comes through on every page. Equally important, Dr. Yemer provides
a workable roadmap for anyone prepared to take the journey toward a successful,
clearly defi ned and well-balanced life.
Dr. Sulayman Nyang
African Studies Department, Howard University
This book offers tested new thinking in management and leadership. It presents a
wide variety of perspectives on strategic thinking. This is a must read for anyone
interested in strategic management and leadership thinking, and an important
landmark in the development of the fi eld of strategic management. Dr. Yemer has a
distinctive voice, and it is passionate and honest. His book is very inspirational.
Dr. Joel O. Nwagbaraocha
Provost and Chief Academic Offi cer and Strayer
University former Interim President
An excellent, thoughtful read that extends knowledge to the area of strategic
thinking, both conceptually and practically; leading strategically is a book designed
to drive action forward. This is a must read for all leaders, managers, entrepreneurs,
and individuals, whether they work in organizations or are keen on personal
development.
Pierre Campbell
Public Speaker and the author of Simple Intelligence
G. O. (Get Optimistic), Leadership and Personal
development Coach

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483634159

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Dr. Hassan Yemer.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2013907922

ISBN:      Hardcover   978-1-4836-3414-2

               Softcover      978-1-4836-3413-5

               Ebook         978-1-4836-3415-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 05/14/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

132960

Contents

About the Author

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part I

Strategic Thinking for Our Time

1 To Lead or to Be Led

2 Leading with Authority

3 Where Leadership Begins

4 The Strategic Leader-at-Large

5 The Strategic Thinker-at-Large

6 Leadership Decisions: From Thinking the Thought to Walking the Walk

7 Leadership Types

Part II

Entrepreneurs and Organizations

8 The True Entrepreneur

9 The True Organization

10 Profitable Nonprofit Corporations

11 Concluding Remarks

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Bibliography

Advancing your leading strategically:

Endnotes

About the Author

Recently recognized as one of the most powerful thinkers in the area of strategic management and leadership, Dr. Hassan Yemer has breathed fresh new insight into the much-studied subject of strategic management. He has used his vast experience in the field and his theoretical knowledge to sort out the shifting dynamics of the individual and the organization. With twenty years’ experience as a management consultant and a successful academic career under his sleeve, he offers consulting services to public, private, and nonprofit organizations around the world and is frequently a guest speaker.

Dr. Yemer also actively teaches at Strayer University, where he is professor, associate dean, and business department head, together with his ongoing responsibilities at Management Decision Sciences Global Consulting, Inc. (MDSGC, Washington, DC). He founded MDSGC in 2000 and currently serves as its director and as senior strategic management consultant.

His teaching activities revolve around the areas of strategic management, modern management, leadership, organizational behavior, and research methods. Considered one of the most insightful problem solvers and a proven negotiator/mediator, his goal is to help people see the bigger picture of social change, where his constant refrain is for positive change. His driving philosophy has been to help both individuals and communities pave their unique way to meaningful, lasting success within a larger social context.

Dr. Yemer holds a PhD in the philosophy of sciences, applied management decision sciences (AMDS), plus an MBA and an MPA. Over the years, he has received many professional awards and appreciations.

As a medical scientist, I would like to employ science to generate tangible benefits to humanity. His book likewise attempts to communicate common sense and commonwealth to those lucky to read it. In my field of medical research, serendipity is the path to discovery. In his book, he identifies that the right personality and thinking leads to success. The book he authored is very timely and appropriate for those who wish to elevate themselves to the point of self-sufficiency, satisfaction, and genuine contentment. The book inspires self-exertion, introspection, and self-analysis.

One can only move forward with the lifting of his foot, not by begging others to raise it for him. Dr. Yemer identifies the source of one’s success, which is oneself. He also pinpoints the source of one’s failure, which is thyself again. If you desire to accommodate a genuine change in the way you think about your future possibilities, this book is a great place to start because it has a road map for your journey.

Zaki A. Sherif, MD, PhD

Cancer Researcher

Georgetown University Medical Center

Preface

I certainly hope this book will help readers find happiness and success. But one question has always nagged me about this cozy arrangement. Why is it that millions of people, from every walk of life, feel the need to spend so much time thinking and having others thinking for them about how to improve their lives?

The first answer that pops to mind is this: They want to be successful, why else? Or because they want to be happy. These are only assumptions, but fair enough. What else could justify the expense of hiring a coach or the trouble of gleaning everything that has ever been published on personal growth, leadership, strategy—the list is endless. So how have the mountains of self-improvement and management coaching books helped the people these coaches claim to be helping?

Despite their efforts and the vast sums of money they cheerily spend (remember, this is a multibillion-dollar industry), even the most faithful advice seekers admit that after putting down a great read, they still have to face the music, lift their heads up to the reality of life, so to speak, and remind themselves that they have not even begun to tackle the task ahead.

Books and documentaries and coaching gurus can be very useful, but when they become crutches, they tend to keep us from doing what has to be done. We could always lay the blame on life’s tasks, which can be cheerless, if not overwhelming. In time, most of us will forget that great book we read as quickly as one forgets a daydream; some will hold on to a handful of exciting ideas about how our spiritual side can lead to unimaginable material riches. The fountain of youth is inside you! Declares one marketing guru after another.

I can tell you with fair certainty that the quick-riches approach will serve neither the spiritual nor the materialist side of your personality. ABC wisdom and surefire solutions are profundities you don’t want to waste time trying to master. They promise a future that is forever within grasp and beyond reach.

That said, we should not be too categorical, as the public has adopted some of their ideas because they happen to be good, useful, or workable. To me, when I first drew up plans for this project, this was not enough. I wanted my book to be different from all the others. Generally speaking, this is not a bad attitude to adopt, as long as the quest for difference does not dictate our lives. Just trying to be different often indicates vanity more than inventiveness. Before writing this book, I put myself in my reader’s shoes, saying this to myself: I refuse to let style dictate my views. Style is what trying to be different is basically all about. I wanted nothing to cloud my judgment about the real issues that most people, including myself, have to confront. These issues need to be tackled head-on; in the end, they are the only ones that count. Style is, therefore, secondary. Only the most eccentric advice peddler will claim otherwise.

The point is that the last thing we need is another prophet of success hawking on about all the glitter awaiting us. Rather than lose ourselves in a search for uniqueness in an already-crowded world, let us at least begin by choosing clarity, frankness, and honesty and then build up from that point. These three values may be commonplace, but I will use my extensive experience in management consultancy and teaching to give substance to an approach I have been developing for several years.

My most cherished hope for my readers is, after all, not essentially different from what I hope for myself. I want my readers to refer to their own life experiences while they read page after page of this book. Let us share experiences. We can’t go wrong. This is the learning process at its best and the one motivational coaches talk about constantly. But I will have more to say on learning and education later on.

What you are currently doing, how you have done things in the past, what you think you did wrong and what you think you did right—these are threads that only you can tie. And you will. My task is to walk with you part of the way, the duration of this book, with the understanding that we will all benefit from your success as a larger community.

My approach is not based on an either-or understanding of what experts in my trade call nonlinear or linear thinking. That would be inadequate, in my opinion. Briefly, I will propose a mode of thinking that incorporates both linear and nonlinear thinking. Let us be frank. As vilified as linear thinking is in some quarters, we still need it to calculate our steps; and as downplayed as nonlinear thinking has been, we need it too like we need water and soil. Nonlinear thinking is like the fertilizer that linear thinking prepares before planting and for a good harvest. How else could we measure our progress without some sort of linear calculation? This, however, is only the beginning of the journey.

Together, we are going to pass the concept of good leadership through a prism. What do prisms do? They split light into a beautiful spectrum of colors. Just to be clear, I’m not advocating for a Zen moment. Good leadership is not an abstraction. Leadership is practiced in a multitude of social contexts and environments, not just in our minds. Consequently, there is no such thing as the perfect, fit-all model. Something different strikes us each time we consider good leadership in a new context. Hence my color metaphor. Leadership takes many different hues and shapes.

I believe this nuanced approach is far more realistic and effective than a model-based approach. It has had a long career in my personal life.

Very early on, I learned to turn hard experience into a realistic but, at the same time, a productive (not to say uplifting) view of the role of leadership in my life. I was facing challenges that would kill any person’s spirit. Instead of dancing around the