Union Local Rotary Club President-elect Mike McCormick, left, welcomes author Chris Stitt, center, to a recent meting along with Union Local Rotary Club President Tim Snyder. (Photo Provided)

Belmont County resident and author Chris Stitt is making waves with his debut book “Scaling Pyramids: Leadership Lessons from a Mid- Level Bureaucrat” with the goal of coaching readers to engage and research informed exploration of what it means to lead from the bottom and middle of an organization — especially within complex systems that aren’t always built for innovation, agility or humanity.

Stitt said he wrote the book a decade ago as a cathartic exercise after bad experiences with a couple of managers.

“I decided that I knew so much more about leadership than these guys and that I could write a book, so I did,” Stitt said. “But then, just like how you don’t send the angry email right away, you sit on it for a little bit, I kind of sat on it for about ten years.”

He added that he was often encouraged to publish the book by the few people who knew about it.

“Once I retired, I figured it was safer to do so. So I started looking around at publishing opportunities and a friend of mine introduced me to the series editor, at CRC Press,” Stitt said.

“It’s not a self-published book, It was actually published by Routledge, which is a part of Taylor and Francis Group.”

He added that as he worked through the process, he received solid feedback but one of his pre-readers encouraged him to link the book to contemporary research in leadership and motivation theory.

“That kind of unlocked in me the willingness to do that. So I went back through the book and I applied a lot of the research principles that I had gained,” Stitt said. “Each of the chapters are focused on my own concepts and my own stories, but then it’s tied to contemporary research in leadership motivation and organizational dynamics theories.”

The book was released on Oct. 26 and is available through routledge.com but Stitt said it is also available on Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Walmart’s online store.

Since releasing the book, Stitt has been taking to social media to promote it but has also contacted various local Rotary Clubs to do a speaking engagement at their meetings.

He recently attended Union Local Rotary Club’s January meeting to discuss his book.

“I’ve also been promoting it via social media on LinkedIn, particularly LinkedIn, but also Facebook and some Instagram,” he said. “The reviews of the book have been very positive and very strong. A lot of people are describing it as a realistic guidebook for entry and mid-level managers.”

Originally from Cleveland Heights, Stitt moved to Bridgeport in 2023 with his wife Denise Stitts who’s originally from the area.

Prior to 2023, Stit was a globally experienced security and leadership professional with more than 25 years of experience helping organizations navigate risk, crisis and complexity. A former Supervisory Special Agent with the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, he served in senior leadership roles at five U.S. embassies across Central America, Africa and the Middle East, twice served as Chief of Emergency Planning for the Department of State and concluded his federal career overseeing security programs across more than 50 U.S. embassies and consulates in the Americas and Caribbean.

In addition to being the author of “Scaling Pyramids: Leadership Lessons from a Mid- Level Bureaucrat,” Stitt works with leaders and organizations on crisis readiness, security governance and leadership development. He holds an Executive MBA and a master’s degree in Strategic Intelligence and teaches Homeland Security at George Mason University. He also consults through his company Crisis Lead which also has a podcast and blog and also does public speaking engagements.

He said anyone interested in having him speak to their companies or organizations and/or run a workshop,or seminar can contact him at info@crisislead.com.