Better Results Faster
In their imperative workshop, one new leader and his team developed hypotheses around how to grow. They tested those hypotheses and then, later, chose which efforts on which to focus. Now they were ready to share their new priorities with the company's ownership. At this point, we pushed them to come up with a stretch [...]
Skip-level management requires more frequent, more directive interventions than does direct management. The Leadership Pipeline by Charan, Drotter, et al lays out critical career transitions: =>enterprise manager =>group manager =>business manager =>functional manager =>manage managers =>manage [...]
Race car drivers are told over and over again to look at the track, not the wall. Leaders are told to envision the future, not get bogged down in the current reality. The advice is sound, but insufficient. Race cars don't magically steer themselves. Organizations don't magically right themselves. Vision is important. Operational excellence is [...]
Routines, timelines, and structure to establish control are non-optional components of success. You don’t have to manage them yourself if discipline is not one of your strengths. But you must make sure someone is managing them. We’ve seen far too many leaders build teams of really smart people, aligned around really smart strategies that don’t [...]
Rick’s Experience One of my clients named Rick was brought into a finance organization that, for all intents and purposes, was broken. The company had grown rapidly through both acquisition and organic growth, and his predecessor had paid attention primarily to internal workings and processes. As a result, no one in the broader organization was [...]