Strategic Jaywalking Cover Introduction

In a world where the pace of change is faster than ever, leaders at all levels must find new and better ways to innovate, create, and adapt. Strategic Jaywalking is a practical, common-sense approach to leadership and life in a world where being at the top of your game will lead to success, while staying with the status quo risks mediocrity or even obsolescence.

Having led and coached hundreds of business leaders across the spectrum, Jay McDonald gets leadership from the C-suite to the board room to the trenches...and now, you can, too. Written in a conversational style, Strategic Jaywalking is like sitting down with Jay for a few hours of conversation on leadership, life, and how you can practice both at higher levels.

Leaders have multiple challenges today including ongoing talent wars, supply chain issues, inflation growing at a rapid rate, changing workspaces, and five generations in our workforce with different values and expectations. Strategic Jaywalking is a book for both young and old, from new to experienced leaders. It's for the aspiring leader as well as the accomplished business owner, CEO, or non-profit executive.

Jaywalking is a term for pedestrians walking in or crossing a roadway with traffic at a place other than a suitable crosswalk or traffic signal...or otherwise in disregard of traffic rules. Applied to business and life, it is a metaphor for coloring outside the lines and being positively disruptive through innovative thinking.

Strategic Jaywalking is about measuring risk and finding the best way to solve problems and explore critical thinking. It's designed to provoke thought in how each of us can be our best as humans and as leaders.

This book provides Jay's observations, experiences, successes, and failures gained from his leadership career as a serial entrepreneur, business owner, CEO, board member, and coach of professional leaders. It's straight talk from someone who not only talks the talk, but more importantly, has walked it as well.

Through vivid stories, it explores the qualities of great leaders, as well as the not so great. While cast in a business context, Strategic Jaywalking contains life leadership lessons for everyone. It's full of valuable action points in the form of "What?", "So What?", and "Now What?", providing readers with a road map of quality steps to consider in their leadership journey.

Who are Jaywalkers? Examples include Martin Luther King, Jr.; Albert Einstein; Oprah Winfrey; Mother Teresa; Steve Jobs; Sara Blakely; and Jeff Bezos, to name a few.

One of the best advertising campaigns in history was Apple's "Think Different" ad. Its theme, "Here's to the crazy ones...because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." -Steve Jobs, 1997

Strategic Jaywalking is your recipe for "thinking differently." Jay McDonald's willingness to share his lifetime of first-hand experiences is a wonderful opportunity for you to gain valuable insights into the essentials of life and leadership excellence from someone whom top business leaders turn to for advice.