(571) 303-8096 
chris@chriskolenda.com
Did you ever feel like you were doing everything right, but success was slipping away?
When I led 800 paratroopers in the mountains of Afghanistan, every day was a battle for survival. We were winning every battle, but each victory seemed to bring even greater challenges. After 90 days, four of our troopers were killed, and scores were wounded. Our metrics indicated success, but I felt the conflict was getting worse. The people we thought we were helping were the same ones trying to kill us.
You are winning the battles and bringing in revenues, and your team is proud of what they are achieving. But you feel the ground shifting under your feet. Gaining a decisive competitive advantage feels just out of reach. You need buy-in for strategic innovation, but your people might not yet see the need for change. Doing the same things in the same ways won’t get the same results if your competitors innovate. Just ask Sears or Blockbuster.
Back in Afghanistan, it was clear to me that the ground was shifting. If we kept doing the same things, we’d get the same or worse results. But deviating from the playbook was risky—it meant going against deeply entrenched norms. The pressure to “stay the course” was intense. Yet, it was also clear that the status quo meant no path to success. We needed to blaze a new trail.
The turning point came when I stopped seeing the Taliban purely as enemies and started seeing them as people driven by practical grievances. This insight ignited a new approach: we needed to spend less time chasing bad guys and more time building allies. We would add, not just subtract. CEOs must innovate, too, and earning buy-in can be challenging.
It wasn’t easy, but we innovated successfully. Six months later, the biggest insurgent group in the area stopped fighting and started working with us. It was the only example in the 20-year history of the war.
CEOs and senior leaders like you face high-stakes challenges: market disruption, evolving employee expectations, fierce competition, and the constant pressure to innovate. In business and in the military, your leadership capacity drives outcomes. The good news is that your capacity is infinitely scalable and drives sustainable business growth in any market condition.
Seeing ahead and creating the future.
We used pattern recognition to diagnose the situation, upstream thinking to shape outcomes rather than react to events, and simple strategies to shift from an enemy-focused approach to one built on partnership.
Unbeatable positioning moves you from random results to predictable success.
Setting standards while fostering ownership.
Compelling clarity focused our unit's culture on a new strategy. Gaining buy-in created enthusiastic engagement that promoted initiative innovation.Supportive accountability spurred relentless improvement.
Having people on the same page creates an unstoppable force.
Turning discernment into action.
Keen judgment, developed well in advance, enabled us to discern what was happening beneath the surface. Purposeful presence built trust within our ranks and with local leaders, and promoted bold execution.
Unwavering inspiration inspires people to contribute their best.
For the people I work with, sustainable business growth is a means to a larger end.
You use it to make an Enduring Transformative Contribution: providing a joyful workplace, advancing employee livelihoods, and strengthening your communities.
A successful consulting business allowed me to establish the Saber Six Foundation, a nonprofit that empowers veterans to turn post-combat stress into growth.
In this short book, you'll learn how to master the six habits that inspire people to contribute their best to your company's success.
You get personal, one-on-one support to achieve your goals, solve problems, overcome obstacles and plan action steps that get you the outcomes you want.
Group coaching for your leadership teams accelerates your results by speeding trust and communication.
Highly-interactive and inspiring presentations that support you building Unshakeable Business Endurance.
I work with you to understand your objectives and conduct pre-event surveys to gain audience insight, so I can customize keynotes and workshops into highly relevant, actionable, and memorable events
The most direct route to Unshakeable Business Endurance is with customized Trusted Advising and Consulting Programs that support you in creating Unbeatable Positioning, an Unstoppable Workforce, and Unwavering Inspiration
Build trust within your inner circle at a powerful historical venue while strengthening Disciplined Foresight, Empowering Oversight, and Courageous Insight.
See the Antietam & Gettysburg page for more details. I've done offsites in National Parks, Normandy, Battle of the Bulge, Chattanooga, and many other venues. Let's customize one for you.
Chris Kolenda works with CEOs and executives ready to end dependency by unleashing self-reliant, proactive, and accountable teams. His 3-Discipline Leadership System™ provides you with a simple, straightforward, and highly effective process for building those teams so you unlock greater performance rather than chaos. You go from owning a job to owning your business and your life.
Chris works primarily with CEOs, senior executives, and leadership teams, and organizations that want to soar to new heights. He supports you through advising, workshops, offsites, and consulting projects, with his 3-Discipline Leadership System™ as the consistent organizing principle.
Chris works across industries because the core principles and processes that inspire people to contribute their best are industry-agnostic. He works with leaders and organizations who recognize that their leadership capacities are infinitely upgradable.
Chris provides leadership consulting, executive advisory support, speaking, workshops, and off-sites. His services reduce dependency by creating self-reliant, proactive, and accountable leaders and teams.
Yes. Chris delivers three core keynote presentations: Steering with Conviction gives you practical ways to move outside your comfort zone successfully to achieve transformational goals. Building an Inspiring CultureⓇ turns uncertainty into an advantage, ignites ingenuity, and unlocks people’s discretionary contribution. The Infinite Mirror shows you the action steps to transform a challenging, conflict-ridden situation into cooperation and mutual support. Chris uses pre-event questionnaires and interviews to customize the keynote to your objectives and audience interests.
Yes. Chris offers in-house workshops and off-sites at historical places like Gettysburg and Normandy, as well as National Parks. Getting outside your comfort zone and into the fresh air creates powerful emotional connections and open-mindedness. Workshops are practical, interactive, and focused on helping teams apply ideas to their real business challenges.
Yes. Chris provides executive advisory support to leaders and teams seeking a strategic partner to help them navigate complex decisions, lead change, strengthen team performance, and grow as leaders. His work is especially valuable for executives facing high-stakes challenges and transitions.
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