Q&A With Dr. Michael Gerharz 

Today’s Q&A is with Dr. Michael Gerharz. Michael is the author of the book The Path To Strategic Impact which is available to read now! If you want to buy and read Michael’s book here is his link https://geni.us/the-path 

Q: Michael, would you please give a brief description of The Path To Strategic Impact? 

A: The PATH to Strategic Impact takes on a tough truth: even the smartest ideas go nowhere if people don’t get them.

For example, strategies light up boardrooms with bold ideas, but too often they fall flat when it’s time to act. The problem is often not the strategy itself. It’s indeed brilliant, smart, intelligently created. The problem is communication. It’s just not communicated effectively.

That’s where my book comes in. It’s not about dreaming up ever more clever ideas; it’s about communicating the ideas you have so clearly and powerfully that they drive real action.

The four PATH principles I introduce in the book—Plain and simple, Actionable, Transformative, and Heartfelt—help leaders find words that inspire people to make ideas happen. With PATH, your strategy stops being words on paper and starts moving your organization forward.

Q: How long did it take you to write The Path To Strategic Impact? Why was now the right time to write and publish it?

A: Oh, that question has so many angles to it.

It took me a few weeks to write the first draft. But it also took me 16 years to arrive at a place where I could write it in a few weeks. It felt like the time had arrived for this book, that the ideas just wanted to get out and be put on paper.

Then again, I didn’t even set out to write a book. I wanted to write a short eBook. I quickly jotted down a structure and drafted the intro. But then, when I looked at the introduction, it felt that there’s so much more potential here, that this topic deserves more. So, I sent the draft of the introduction to some friends and asked them whether they would want to read a whole book about that. When the response was an overwhelming yes, I committed to writing the book and the first draft.

That reaction was more evidence that these ideas wanted to get out.

It’s a topic that almost every business has experienced multiple times. Surprisingly, there just wasn’t a good answer. I mean, libraries have been filled with books about how to craft a smart strategy. Yet hardly any book addresses how to communicate it properly. But that’s where many strategies fail.

So much time and energy are wasted, basically each and every year, on strategy efforts that fail, when some of that energy is better invested in finding better words and making a difference. I hope that my book comes at the right time to help businesses find those words and make that shift.

Q: What lessons & feelings do you hope readers learn & feel after reading The Path To Strategic Impact? 

A: I hope readers walk away with renewed confidence: We got this! Strategy doesn’t have to be an abstract, frustrating concept confined to boardrooms. It can be a unifying force that everyone in the organization can rally behind. 

In the book, I’ve tried to make the case that this is within reach. It’s not that you’d need to be a natural born storyteller. Or that there’s some secret sauce you don’t have access to.

It’s a simple checklist. Are your words plain and simple? Actionable? Transformative? And heartfelt? If so, then chances are that your ideas will make a difference. If not, you know what to adjust. With a few tweaks in your language, you can light the path for your team to join you and make a leap together.

Q: If you are currently writing another book, will it be similar to The Path To Strategic Impact, another topic entirely or will you try your hand at fiction this time?

A: I’ve written fiction already. It’s a lesser-known part of my professional life but my wife and I are behind the creative duo aprilkind (German for “Child of April”). We’re the inventors of some beloved characters for children such as the Sleepy Caps or the Grumbletroll, a bestselling children’s book series in Germany which we co-authored, and which is also available in the US.

Regarding my non-fiction books, my goal is always to write the book that’s missing. That’s why it took me so long before publishing my first book, and then another stretch period between the first and the second book. I don’t see the point in writing yet another book on communications. We don’t need another book that repeats what’s already been said. But a fresh perspective? We’ll never have enough of that.

Having said that, I cannot know when the time will be ready for the next book, but I’m certain that it will come, perhaps this time rather sooner than later – if only because I will continue writing my daily blog. That forces me to explore the untrodden paths and by writing about what I see publicly, I kind of force myself to look for words that allow others to see what I see. I’m confident that this will reveal another perspective worth sharing.

For now, I’ll keep exploring and writing