Why Strategic Thinking Is the Leadership Skill No One Teaches - Inside the Queenside Ventures x Chatham University Partnership
On Wednesday, January 21, Queenside Ventures partnered with the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Chatham University to host Coffee & Critical Thinking Skills - a morning focused on one question: How do we become better decision-makers?
In a business environment defined by speed, noise, and constant information, the leaders who stand out aren’t necessarily the loudest or the busiest.
They’re the clearest.
Critical Thinking Is Built, Not Assumed
During her signature talk, Ashley Lynn Priore shared a framework she’s refined through years as a competitive chess player and leadership strategist: critical thinking is not a personality trait. It’s a discipline.
In chess, every move carries consequence. In business, every decision does too.
The parallels are immediate:
Incomplete information
Time pressure
Emotional interference
Long-term tradeoffs
Stakeholder impact
Chess compresses those realities into a controlled environment. It becomes a training ground for decision-making under constraint.
And constraint is where real leadership reveals itself.
What Chess Actually Teaches Leaders
This wasn’t a conversation about becoming a chess expert. It was about strengthening the mental muscles that strong leaders rely on daily.
Pattern recognition: Seeing structure beneath chaos.
Emotional regulation: Separating reaction from response.
Scenario evaluation: Asking, “If I choose this, what unfolds next?”
Strategic patience: Understanding that not every opportunity requires movement.
Attendees engaged deeply because the applications were obvious. Whether leading a startup, scaling a company, or navigating organizational change, the need for disciplined thinking is constant.
Why This Partnership Matters
The collaboration between Queenside Ventures and Chatham’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship reflects a broader shift in leadership development.
Founders and executives aren’t just looking for motivation. They’re looking for frameworks.
The future of entrepreneurship depends less on hustle and more on clarity. Less on reacting and more on positioning.
When women entrepreneurs strengthen their strategic thinking, they don’t just grow businesses. They build sustainable influence.
That alignment made this partnership a natural one.
The Bigger Signal
Across sports, business, and civic leadership, there’s growing recognition that strategic cognition is trainable. It can be practiced, refined, and strengthened over time.
That belief sits at the core of Queenside Ventures’ work - applying competitive chess principles to leadership, branding, performance, and organizational growth.
Coffee & Critical Thinking Skills was one example of that philosophy in action.
Because the leaders who win long-term are rarely the fastest. They’re the most deliberate.
About Queenside Ventures
Queenside Ventures is a woman-led strategic advisory and media firm founded by Ashley Lynn Priore. The firm applies principles from competitive chess to leadership development, executive decision-making, and performance strategy across industries.
