A mere 7% of employees today fully understand their company's business strategies and what's expected of them in order to help achieve company goals.
Process improvement programs are like teaching people how to fish. Strategy maps and scorecards teach people where to fish.
Consistent alignment of capabilities and internal processes with the customer value proposition is the core of any strategy execution.
Without strong visionary leadership, no strategy will be executed effectively.
Leadership is a team sport - learning to work with others is a critical skill. This means articulating a clear vision, setting priorities, giving coaching, getting coaching and learning to seek advice from the team. All these activities
It bears repeating: you don't have to be good at everything.
Authenticity is critical to leadership. That means trying to be yourself - this involves some self-disclosure, admitting what you don't know and being willing to ask questions.
Business and leadership is about the future. What worked five years ago is unlikely to work tomorrow.
Great companies create an environment in which employees act like owners. They do this through clear communication, articulation of clear vision and priorities, coaching and openness to debate/discussion. I would argue that this type of environment helps people to be at their best - and helps the company to be at its best.
Why do leaders fail? Isolation and inability to learn. They are afraid to express doubt, admit vulnerability or seek advice from subordinates. Leaders must actively work to seek feedback and a reality check. They must be open to asking questions and framing issues. As the world becomes more complex and global, the risk of isolation becomes greater. The need for leaders to be open to learning becomes greater. Great leaders will need to ask the right questions and balance inquiry with advocacy.
As a leader, it is often better to ask the right questions and listen than to have all the answers.
Managing risk is very different from managing strategy. Risk management focuses on the negative-threats and failures rather than opportunities and successes.
Passion is the rocket fuel that helps you perform at your best. It helps you get through bad days, injustices, hardships and disappointments. It is hard to perform at a high level for a sustained period of time without passion for what you're doing.
One reason leaders don't delegate is they haven't been sufficiently clear with the team regarding their vision and key priorities - so that the team understands where the firm is going. If everyone is on the same page, it's a lot easier to delegate effectively.
There are three main areas of focus: vision, priorities and alignment. It is critical to articulate a clear vision - how do we add value based on what key competences? Some leaders fail to be clear enough or fail to update the vision based on changes in their industry and in the world.
If you're the smartest person in the room, it can sometimes be hard to learn to delegate - the person to whom you're delegating will do the task worse than you would - and it will annoy you!
Vision and priorities should precede actions. Actions should be judged through the prism of how the firm adds value and the key competencies it seeks to build.
To help people with the struggle, I have to reveal my own struggles.
In my opinion, you have to have a vision for how you add value to others through your product or service. Why do you exist? All of us need a reason to get out of bed in the morning and enthusiastically approach each day. Some people say money is their purpose - - my reaction is that, if money is your purpose, you risk running out steam well before you make a lot of money. Money is an outcome that comes as a result of adding value for a sustained period of time. I encourage people and companies to search for and articulate the vision for why they are doing what they're doing.
Every person I meet is struggling with how to understand themselves and reach their full potential. No one has it fully figured out. It is a life long struggle - -there isn't a precise destination or arrival.
There is usually a clock in our heads regarding decisions we make and the course of our lives. Sometimes this clock is helpful in that it get us to move rather than put off key actions. Other times, it creates us false sense of urgency that can cause us to overreact, lost patience and make poor decisions. In raising this issue in my book, I want people to be aware of the clock in their heads and question whether that clock is helping or hindering the quality of each particular decision.
Step one is to take ownership of figuring strengths ans weaknesses out. It starts with writing them down but, to take ownership, you have got to seek feedback of those who directly observe you - this is scary and uncomfortable for many people. It's no fun to hear negative feedback and most people don't want to stick their necks out to give it to you. So, you have to ask.
Screening out peer pressure and conventional wisdom. It is so powerful, that most of us aren't even aware of how much it is influencing our decisions.
We have all had injustice happen to us. It often shapes our failure narrative. For example, maybe you were fired and not you don't trust colleagues as easily in the future. You may not overcome injustice but you need to be aware of how it affects you today. You can't avoid injustice but that doesn't mean you need to be a prisoner of it.
There are multiple ways to solve a problem and add value. There are seldom right answers. So, you've got to use your abilities to diagnose a situation and use your best judgment on what to do and how to do it. You WILL make mistakes - when you do, admit them and go back and try to fix them. I don't know is often the right answer.
