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The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving cover art

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving

The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving

Written by: FirmsConsulting.com & StrategyTraining.com
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CEOs and business leaders, management consulting senior partners, ground-breaking professors, thought-provoking writers and journalists, record-setting athletes and coaches, and award-winning actors and celebrities discuss the key issues facing the business world and broader society. Get free access to our newsletter, Monday Morning at 8 am, along with sample episodes from our training programs on www.strategytraining.com. Go to https://www.firmsconsulting.com/promo.© COPYRIGHT 2010 - 2019 THE STRATEGY MEDIA GROUP LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Careers Economics Management Management & Leadership Personal Success
Episodes
  • 661: The Science of Sustainable Performance with Award Winning Science Writer Elizabeth Svoboda

    661: The Science of Sustainable Performance with Award Winning Science Writer Elizabeth Svoboda
    Jun 15 2026
    Elizabeth Svoboda, award-winning science writer and author of The Art of Pacing, examines a question that sits at the center of many successful careers: how to sustain high performance without exhausting the very resources that make meaningful work possible. Drawing on research, conversations with elite athletes, and her own experience, Svoboda argues that pacing is not about doing less. It is about managing energy with the same discipline and intentionality that top performers bring to training and competition. The discussion explores why many professionals develop an unhealthy relationship with work early in life, often equating constant effort with virtue and personal worth. Svoboda explains how this mindset can lead to burnout, diminished judgment, and a narrowing of long-term possibilities. Several practical lessons emerge from the conversation: Elite performers treat recovery as a strategic requirement, not a reward. Olympic athletes deliberately build rest, recovery, and tapering periods into their schedules to ensure they can perform when it matters most. Self-knowledge is a critical leadership skill. The ability to recognize personal limits, monitor energy reserves, and adjust effort accordingly often determines long-term effectiveness more than raw ambition. Mentors, coaches, and managers play an important role in helping people pace themselves. A trusted third-party perspective can identify patterns and risks that are difficult to see from within. Burnout rarely appears without warning. Changes in sleep, sustained physiological stress, declining motivation, and persistent exhaustion often signal the need to reduce commitments before deeper problems emerge. Recovery requires more than rest. Extended breaks can create the space needed to reconsider priorities, reassess career direction, and reconnect work with personal meaning. The conversation also examines the relationship between identity and achievement. Svoboda challenges the tendency to define self-worth through productivity, status, or professional success alone. She argues that identities rooted in character, contribution, and relationships are more resilient when careers encounter setbacks or unexpected change. A particularly practical section focuses on helping professionals reconnect with their own priorities. Svoboda discusses a reflective exercise designed to clarify purpose, identify meaningful goals, and distinguish personal aspirations from expectations inherited from employers, mentors, or social norms. The episode concludes with a thoughtful discussion about artificial intelligence. While acknowledging its practical uses, Svoboda argues that human relevance will increasingly depend on qualities machines cannot replicate: lived experience, judgment shaped by struggle, authentic perspective, and the ability to connect deeply with others. She also raises important questions about consent, compensation, and fairness in the development of AI systems. For senior professionals navigating demanding careers, this conversation offers a disciplined framework for thinking about performance, recovery, identity, and the conditions required to sustain meaningful work over the long term. Get Elizabeth's book, The Art of Pacing, here: https://tinyurl.com/u8tfy5c8 Claim your free gift: Free gift #1 McKinsey & BCG winning resume www.FIRMSconsulting.com/resumePDF Free gift #2 Breakthrough Decisions Guide with 25 AI Prompts www.FIRMSconsulting.com/decisions Free gift #3 Five Reasons Why People Ignore Somebody www.FIRMSconsulting.com/owntheroom Free gift #4 Access episode 1 from Build a Consulting Firm, Level 1 www.FIRMSconsulting.com/build Free gift #5 The Overall Approach used in well-managed strategy studies www.FIRMSconsulting.com/OverallApproach Free gift #6 Get a copy of Nine Leaders in Action, a book we co-authored with some of our clients: www.FIRMSconsulting.com/gift
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    54 mins
  • 660: Former Co-President and Board Member of WWE, George Barrios, on Systems Thinking, Conviction, and Leadership Under Pressure

    660: Former Co-President and Board Member of WWE, George Barrios, on Systems Thinking, Conviction, and Leadership Under Pressure
    Jun 10 2026
    George Barrios spent more than three decades moving between strategy, finance, operations, and general management before helping lead the evolution of WWE from a North American live-event business into a global media company. In this conversation, he reflects on the principles that shaped that career and the lessons learned while leading large-scale change under intense scrutiny. A central theme is systems thinking. Barrios explains why effective leaders develop a deep understanding of how customers, markets, functions, incentives, and decisions interact rather than viewing problems through a single functional lens. He argues that better decisions often come from understanding second- and third-order consequences rather than focusing only on immediate outcomes. The discussion also explores where conviction comes from. Barrios rejects the idea that confidence is primarily a personality trait. Instead, he argues that conviction is built through preparation, rigorous analysis, and a willingness to develop a clear point of view. For leaders pursuing ambitious initiatives, this foundation becomes essential when facing skepticism, criticism, and uncertainty. Several practical lessons emerge: Strong leaders seek to understand the entire business, not just their area of expertise. Writing remains one of the most effective ways to sharpen thinking because it exposes gaps, inconsistencies, and unsupported assumptions. Courage is not the absence of fear. The fear associated with difficult decisions rarely disappears, but action reduces its influence. Storytelling is a leadership skill, not a communication accessory. People commit to difficult work when they understand the larger purpose behind it and can see their role within it. Significant achievements often require enduring what Barrios describes as the "swamp of despair," the period when progress is unclear, criticism is high, and abandoning the effort appears rational. The conversation also examines the implications of artificial intelligence. Barrios believes professionals should move beyond simply using AI tools and instead learn how to integrate them deeply into their workflows. At the same time, he emphasizes that AI cannot replace the value of an informed point of view developed through reading, writing, experience, and independent thinking. Drawing on his experience in media and sports, Barrios discusses why the economics of content creation are changing rapidly. As the cost of producing content approaches zero, differentiation increasingly depends on authenticity, trusted expertise, strong brands, and proprietary experiences that cannot be replicated by algorithms. He also explains why successful content organizations should think less about producing individual hits and more about building data-driven systems that consistently create, test, and refine content at scale. This is a conversation about leadership, judgment, resilience, and the discipline required to pursue difficult ideas when evidence is incomplete and consensus is absent. Get George's new book, Sometimes Wrong but Never in Doubt, here: https://tinyurl.com/4557tfpb Claim your free gift: Free gift #1 McKinsey & BCG winning resume www.FIRMSconsulting.com/resumePDF Free gift #2 Breakthrough Decisions Guide with 25 AI Prompts www.FIRMSconsulting.com/decisions Free gift #3 Five Reasons Why People Ignore Somebody www.FIRMSconsulting.com/owntheroom Free gift #4 Access episode 1 from Build a Consulting Firm, Level 1 www.FIRMSconsulting.com/build Free gift #5 The Overall Approach used in well-managed strategy studies www.FIRMSconsulting.com/OverallApproach Free gift #6 Get a copy of Nine Leaders in Action, a book we co-authored with some of our clients: www.FIRMSconsulting.com/gift
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    56 mins
  • 659: The Success Trap: Breaking the Cycle of Never Enough (with Brooke Taylor)

    659: The Success Trap: Breaking the Cycle of Never Enough (with Brooke Taylor)
    Jun 8 2026

    Brooke Taylor spent more than a decade inside high-performance environments, including leadership roles at Google, before turning her attention to a question that many accomplished professionals quietly wrestle with: why does achievement so often fail to produce a lasting sense of fulfillment?

    In this conversation, she examines what she calls the "success wound" — the tendency to attach self-worth to performance, recognition, and external measures of success. Drawing from her own experience with burnout, addiction recovery, career advancement, and entrepreneurship, she explains how these patterns develop and why they continue to shape behavior long after professional success has been achieved.

    Among the key insights discussed:

    • The root cause of many workplace struggles is not a lack of capability but an unhealthy relationship between achievement and identity. When self-worth becomes dependent on performance, even meaningful accomplishments can feel insufficient.

    • Many high achievers operate from a small set of recurring beliefs, including "I have to prove my value through productivity," "If I fail, I am a failure," or "I am only as valuable as other people's opinions." These beliefs often drive behaviors such as overwork, perfectionism, people-pleasing, procrastination, and chronic dissatisfaction.

    • Sustainable fulfillment comes more from how work is approached than from the specific role, title, or employer. Taylor argues that changing working habits and thought patterns frequently produces greater satisfaction than changing jobs.

    • Emotional regulation begins with recognizing how stress, fear, and inadequacy are experienced physically. Rather than suppressing difficult emotions, she outlines a practical process for identifying them, understanding what they are communicating, and responding with curiosity rather than avoidance.

    • Lasting behavioral change requires action, not insight alone. Taylor explains why taking deliberate "opposite actions" can be more effective than endless analysis when attempting to break entrenched habits.

    The discussion also explores addiction recovery, the role identity plays in sustaining behavior change, the hidden cost of codependency in professional life, and why many forms of burnout stem from carrying responsibilities that do not belong to us.

    Throughout the conversation, Taylor offers a thoughtful perspective on ambition, personal growth, and leadership. Her central argument is that professional success becomes more sustainable when it is no longer asked to answer questions of worth, belonging, or identity.

    For leaders navigating demanding careers, the episode provides a practical framework for examining the assumptions that drive performance and for building a healthier relationship with achievement itself.

    Get Brooke's book, Healing the Success Wound, here: https://tinyurl.com/4kfx8p9k

    Claim your free gift:

    Free gift #1
    McKinsey & BCG winning resume
    www.FIRMSconsulting.com/resumePDF

    Free gift #2
    Breakthrough Decisions Guide with 25 AI Prompts
    www.FIRMSconsulting.com/decisions

    Free gift #3
    Five Reasons Why People Ignore Somebody
    www.FIRMSconsulting.com/owntheroom

    Free gift #4
    Access episode 1 from Build a Consulting Firm, Level 1
    www.FIRMSconsulting.com/build

    Free gift #5
    The Overall Approach used in well-managed strategy studies
    www.FIRMSconsulting.com/OverallApproach

    Free gift #6
    Get a copy of Nine Leaders in Action, a book we co-authored with some of our clients:
    www.FIRMSconsulting.com/gift
    Show More Show Less
    54 mins
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