Dear James,
Congratulations on your
promotion! We couldn’t be happier for you. We know you are excited about
exercising your leadership at a higher level. And we’d like to share with you
some information we think will help you with your new challenge. Start by
considering what skills this job requires and how they compare with the ones
you have. We’re sure you’ve got the self-confidence to make this kind of candid
self-assessment. If you’re short on experience in
one area (most leaders
are at some point in their careers, as you know), be sure you’ve got someone who’s
strong in it. Overall, you’ll want to put together a team balanced with the
different types of talent you
need to improve your chances
of success.
How well do you know
your organization? Make sure you get down where the action is, talking with
people at all levels, asking them questions, and listening to the answers.
You’ll learn much of value about the realities
of the business, and
you’ll establish the personal connection that is a hallmark of a great
leader.
Get a good handle early
on about the beliefs and behaviors of the people under your direction. Your own
behaviors have a great deal to do with your success so far, James. You’ve insisted
on boundaryless thinking, you’re open to opinions that differ from yours, and you’ve
practiced and led the honest, inclusive dialogues that bring reality into the
open. You have also placed
a high premium on getting
things done, winning, and attracting the very best and most diverse talent.
Are you among like-minded
people in your new job? Does this business have an execution culture, one where
people get things done because performance is recognized and rewarded? Do
people embrace reality and engage in constructive debates? Or is the place full
of political gamesmanship, but covering, and denial? If so, start creating the
social software you’ll need to
change the culture. It’s
how you get the whole organization to follow your lead, and it’ll be crucial to
maintaining your record of high achievement.
Nothing is more important
to achieving results than your personal leadership of thethree core processes.
These are the guts of
the business, and they’re your levers for changing or reinforcing the culture.
The biggest single difference between businesses that execute and those that
don’t is the rigor and intensity with which the leader prosecutes these
processes. You will be pulled in every direction as people want you to meet community
leaders, government officials, and suppliers
and put you on display in
every conceivable venue. But running the processes must be at the top of your
priority list.
We know you believe that
people are your organization’s most important assets, but your stewardship of the
people process is what will convert that belief to reality. Make your people
process second to none. Your success will be determined by the number of “A”
players you have and the extent to which you can harmonize their efforts. You
need to know at least the top third of the people in your unit in terms of their
performance and their growth potential. You need to be certain that appraisals are
honest and direct, and that your people get the feedback, coaching, and
training they need to grow. And because compensation is the ultimate driver of
performance, you must ensure that your compensation system rewards the doers.
We encourage you to
compare your people with those of the competition, to ask whether the
performance bar is high enough, and whether people have the necessary discipline
to win consistently.
Getting the strategy process
right is crucial to your longer-term success and that of your organization. Are
business leaders driving the process, or has it been delegated to nerdy and isolated
planning types? Does the plan have the right information to allow an accurate assessment
of your position versus your competition? Is it sufficiently detailed so that
your people can see
how they will achieve
both growth and productivity improvements? You can’t settle for vague
declarations in these crucial underpinnings of the plan you need specific
programs. Are the issues confronting the business
identified? Does your
new team have a track record of overcoming obstacles? As you know, if you don’t
identify, debate, and resolve the critical issues, the business stalls. Also,
are resources allocated in proportion to opportunities, or does every
opportunity get some resources and none
get enough? Is the plan straightforward, concise, and easily understood? Remember,
you want everyone in your business to have a good grasp of it.
You have a budget, but
do you have the action plan the budget should represent? We see countless cases
where the numbers are assembled painstakingly and presented expertly but have
little to do with the reality of running the business. A one-year operating
plan sets forth a template for achievement. It synchronizes all of the
organization’s parts and links them with the strategy and the people processes.
It nails down your team’s commitments by tying performance explicitly to incentives,
so that leaders exercise all the discipline and imagination they can muster to
deal with the ever present
unanticipated events.
James, we can’t stress
strongly enough the importance of your personal involvement in these three core processes. You must be in charge from the
start of each cycle, to the reviews, and to the follow-up steps you take to
make sure the things that are supposed to happen do, in fact, happen. This is
how you acquire both the knowledge and the authority to run the business as an
integrated, reality-based whole. It is how you ultimately assure that all three
processes are linked.
What else do you need to
stay on top of? The list can get endless, but three items stand out. First,
make sure you and your people really understand your customers: their needs, their buying behaviors, and the changes in those
behaviors. Know why they would prefer your products to others. Understanding
customers is the base of business success.
Second, always look for
ways to improve your results by introducing initiatives such as Six Sigma or
digitization. They not only can be productive, they can also bind your people
together in a common cause. Third, maintain and sharpen your intellectual honesty
so that you’re always realistic. See things as they are, not the way you want
them to be.
It will be hard at times
to know how you’re doing. We hope your organization gives you the feedback and coaching
you will be giving your own reports. But even when that’s the case, we have
found that a leader needs a confidant, someone outside the business to help her
keep her head straight. This person should be someone wise, an individual who
will be candid with you and help
you to keep asking yourself
whether you’re growing, learning, and making the tough choices. And take care of
yourself. The new job can be stressful, and you need to live a balanced life.
Don’t let yourself get too low or too high. Consistent behavior is a sign of a
contained ego, and inspires confidence in you from those around you.
Above all, James, remember
that you’ve earned your leadership by your commitment to the work you’ve done.
Keep that intensity of involvement and deepen it. Some people grow in their
jobs, and others swell. The ones who grow are passionate about their
businesses. They’re never too busy being big honchos to pay attention to the
important details and stay close to their people. They’re never too high and
mighty to listen and learn, to be as curious and inquisitive and open to new ideas
as they were the first day of their careers.
This is probably more
than you wanted to hear from two old friends. But we take great delight in your
progress, and we know you have the talent to do a lot more.
Sincerely,
makinde seun
seun
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