By April C. Honaker
After over 30 years of leading businesses, including the Fortune 500 company International Paper, Doug Strickel recently retired. But he is not ready to leave the business world completely and continues to share his knowledge with others.
Founder of Strickel Leadership Development, he is now in the business of providing leadership training, consulting, seminars and keynote addresses to help foster better leadership skills in those he serves.
“The whole goal is to add value to people’s lives,” he said, “and to create a more desirable workplace for people.” With this goal in mind, Strickel has also written a book titled “People are the Plan: A Leadership Approach to Winning with People,” which is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online bookstores.
Strickel said he hopes the book will lead to more teaching and speaking engagements, which will allow him to continue to be a resource to others. With the book and with his other offerings, he aims to help people create a culture in their workplaces where employees want to join, are motivated and want to stay. “That culture starts with leadership,” he said. “It’s about creating a workplace where a worker has a purpose and is not just completing a task.”
The examples in the book are taken primarily from the business world but can be applied in educational institutions, nonprofits, civic organizations and other environments where teams are present. “The concepts are applicable anywhere,” said Strickel.
Strickel started learning about leadership and team building while growing up playing team sports and has taken the leadership aspect of team sports and applied it to business. “It’s about taking management further and explaining not just what but why,” he said. In an environment where leaders use Strickel’s approach, team members strive to be and do their best, which ultimately gets results and benefits everyone.
“The keys are valuing people, challenging people and building a team with the people,” Strickel said. According to Strickel, there is currently a vacuum of people who are truly leaders, and he intends to help fill that vacuum by equipping leaders with the skills they need to be successful.
“I’ve tried to model it, lead it and promote it,” he said. “The book is just one avenue of me trying to do that.” The whole idea is to have a positive impact and positively influence people to create and maintain a more positive workplace culture. Even the most broken workplace culture can be transformed with well-equipped leaders at the helm.
