Management Innovation

THE Six Essential Traits of Effective Leadership

In my experience, these six traits are the most essential skills for effective leadership.  You may disagree.  If you do, please provide your input in the comments section.

1. Effective Influence….influencing the behavior of others toward the achievement of organizational goals in such a way that they continue to be influenced even when you’re not around
2. Developer….building peak performers first by being clear about what you’re looking for, second by hiring only the people who are capable of doing what you’re looking for and finally by providing what they cannot yet provide for themselves along the path from beginner to peak performer
3. Courage…addressing, with dignity and respect, the tough issues that might upset people knowing that moving the organization forward is more important than not upsetting the status quo
4. Strategy……not about tactical or incremental improvements….rather it’s about identifying and capitalizing on market opportunities that position you to dominate specific market segments
5. Vision Casting….create one crystal clear picture of the future that employees actually invest themselves in
6. Management Innovation…..it’s not about efficiency, productivity, more, better or faster….it’s about organizing in non-traditional ways that engage employees while focusing them on achievement of organizational goals

When leaders fail to lead effectively, one or more of these factors are missing.  As you think about the nagging challenges you face, do they generally fall into the same one or two categories above.  If so, you may have discovered your weakest leadership trait. 

In that case, find a way to address it by developing the skills necessary or including another leader whose strengths include the skill you lack.  If necessary, get outside help to address the issue.  It’s still less expensive than letting the problem continue.

For free access to all of our blog resources on improving business performance, click here.  To sign up for our monthly newsletter, click here.  To see how we have delivered results for companies like yours, click here.  For a no-cost, no obligation consultation to discuss your organizational challenges with our Founder and President, Jim Connolly, click here.

To your success!

Tackle Ineffeciencies Before Innovation

I’ve been swamped with organizational restructuring projects for the last 15 months. 

I’ve seen hundreds of processes and practices that needed to be eliminated or restructured significantly, including:

• Irrelevant Processes developed to feed information to software that had been replaced twice since the process was put in place
• Management practices that amounted to “welcome aboard - good luck”
• Leadership practices which indicated that leadership was the first priority right after you got your regular full time job done
• Approaches to organizational change that bordered on “if we don’t acknowledge the need for change we won’t have to change”

At the same time, the latest trend for organizations is the need for innovation.  Organizing in new and radically different ways in order to reduce costs, increase profits and improve competitive position.  Innovation is great, but…. 

Shouldn’t we address the “drafty windows” and the “old furnace” in our organizations before adding “solar panels” and a “windmill”?

Opportunities to improve business results by addressing a long list inefficiencies can yield immediate results and build a foundation for creative and innovative thinking.  Sure, some inefficiencies are politcally off limits.  So, tackle the others so those elephants in the room (related post) stand out more noticeably. 

3 Steps To Improve Business Results

1. Figure out what to stop doing - such as gathering data no one uses, eliminating the five unnecessary steps in the order entry process, etc.
2. Do things differently - improve processes, management practices, etc. and, in the process, get the organization more comfortable with on-going organizational change.
3. Then, and only then, consider how innovation can provide the opportunity to dramatically improve the way you do business.

For more insights on improving business performance and results, reference our other blog post categories here.  For a no-cost and no-obligation consultation to discuss your business challenges with our Founder and President, contact Jim Connolly here.

With Unlimited Resources, You Can Pursue All Alternatives

With unlimited resources, you can pursue all alternatives.

Since none of us has unlimited resources, which opportunities will your organization pursue in 2010?  Will you fill that key position?  Expand the product line?  Cut back in specific areas?  Borrow money to invest in capital equipment?

With an effective plan for 2010, you get to choose your course instead of letting your customers, competitors and market forces determine your results for you.  The fact is that there are some market segments where you competitors can beat you and other market segments where they can’t beat you.

Five Steps
As we come to the end of one of the most challenging years ever, do you have a clear plan for 2010?  Here are five steps you can take to improve your 2010 financial results:

• If you don’t have a business plan for 2010, develop a plan that will serve as a blue print for 2010.  You’ll be working your plan for growth, while your competitors get pushed around again like they did this year.
• If you have a business plan in place, is there a process that takes 14 steps in your company, while a competitor has figured out how to do the same process in 5 steps?  Is there a key employee or leader that is not performing well in his/her role?  There is a gold mine of opportunity for improved financial results to be mined in your organization.  Let us help you address organizational issues and build best practices in key areas.
• If you have fully implemented best practices, do you have a strategic plan?  More specifically, do you have a breakthrough strategic plan? There is a significant difference.Most strategic planning processes start with deciding on a mission statement without regard for whether the market wants any of what you have to sell.  A breakthrough strategic plan starts with an analysis of the external market environment.  Our process asks you “Where are there key opportunities that you are uniquely equipped to take advantage of that will deliver improved revenue, gross profit   and operating profit?”  Build competitive advantage that is unique to your company’s strengths.
• If you have truly developed a breakthrough strategic plan, what’s next?  Innovation.  Specifically, management innovation.  We have seen incredible product and technology innovation over the past fifty years.  However, the model we use to manage our organizations has its foundation in early 1900’s in the then emerging industrial revolution.  It was designed to achieve efficiency.  It did that.  But, today, we need more than that.There is a growing list of companies that are beginning to create innovative new management models that are built for the challenges we face today such as a global marketplace, deregulation, the pace of change, information overload and the impact of the Internet.  Why not be one of the companies that are soaring beyond the constraints of old management methodology?  We can help you get there.
• Finally, even if you have completed your planning for 2010, did you get feedback and guidance from a professional resource outside of your company?  “Improving the PRC process” may mean something to you today, but it’s not measurable and it’s not clear which part of the PRC process needs to be improved.  It also has no deadline and no one responsible for it.  Bottom Line:  It won’t get done, just like the things that didn’t get done last year.  Let us help you make sure your plan delivers the results you need it to deliver.

2010 is just around the corner.  What steps will you take to be better prepared than your competitors for what is likely to be yet another challenging year?

We hope you’ll use these suggestions to drive results for your organization in 2010.  If we can be of assistance to you by guiding you through these strategic initiatives, please don’t hesitate to contact our Founder and President, Jim Connolly, for a no cost and no obligation consultation.  Use our expertise to drive results in your organization.

As always our blog articles and Web site are available as a free resource to you.

Four Secrets For Driving Organizational Results

A secret is defined as something hidden or concealed.  On the other hand, some secrets are hidden in plain sight.  You just have to know what to look for. 

So it is with these four secrets for driving organizational results.  These “secrets” are hidden in plain sight, but not used by most business leaders for a variety of reasons.  “We’ve never done it that way before.”  “I don’t have time to figure out a new way of doing things.”  “The results we get are not great, but they’re consistent.”

Whatever the reasons for not using these “secrets,” here are four secrets that can significantly improve organizational results if you will use them in your organizations.

1. Improve Employee Performance.  Organizational results is a function of individual employee performance.  Whether you implement behavioral interviewing, improve leadership effectiveness, increase employee accountability, improve the effectiveness of decision making, make meetings more productive or learn to have more honest and direct conversations, you can directly improve the performance of your employees individually and collectively.
2. Organizational Process/Structure: Your organization’s processes and structure are either helping build productivity and organizational effectiveness or your processes and structure are working against your efforts to improve organizational performance and results.  Organizational process and structure can create limitations, obstacles and a culture of “it’s not my job.”  Or, organizational processes and structure can create a balance between giving employees the responsibility they want while, at the same time, providing high levels of accountability for results.  Apply this secret and it will feel like you’ve released the emergency brake while driving down the road.
3. Breakthrough Strategic Planning:  If your strategic planning efforts are based on forecasting forward the same 2.5% growth from the last three years to next three years, it’s not strategic planning.  Breakthrough strategic planning involves looking for market opportunities where you can win and where your competitor’s can’t win.  What are the strengths unique to your organization and how can you capitalize on them?  Figure that out for your company and organize to take advantage of those opportunities.  If you do, you’ll set sales and profitability records that will stun you.
4. Management Model Innovation:  Face it, while we have a great track record for product innovation and technology innovation in the last fifty years, we have nothing to show in terms of management innovation.  We are, today, using virtually the same management model that was designed by people born in the late 1800’s to usher in the industrial revolution.  Job descriptions, organizational charts, titles, productivity measures and a fanatical focus on efficiency are all creations of the industrial age management model.  These 100+ year old practices were not designed to address today’s issues of global competition, deregulation, technology advances, 5 generations working in the same workforce, the increasing pace of change, information overload and the impact of the Internet.  Find new ways to manage the organization of today and you’ll build competitive advantage that cannot be matched.

Four “secrets”, each of which can improve organizational performance dramatically.  Decide on which “secret” you want to focus on and gather the resources necessary to implement some of these proven practices.  

If you do, you’ll get to the end of 2010 and be amazed at your progress.  If you don’t, you’ll be disappointed as you look back at the opportunities you missed out on in 2010.  The decision is yours.

Strategic Planning and Beyond

Hopefully you operate your company with a yearly business plan that includes a plan for sales growth and a budget based on reality.  And, hopefully, you compare your progress compared to plan throughout the year and make adjustments accordingly.  At the very least you should be using these tools.  If you’re not, you’re driving the company bus with your eyes closed.

If you see value in planning beyond one year, you are probably doing some form of strategic planning.  An effective strategic planning process helps you proactively determine the future of your organization by taking advantage of market opportunities that your competitors are not as well equipped to take on.  An effective strategic planning process will have a direct positive impact on your company’s profitability and organizational results.  If you are using strategic planning as a tool to lead your company, your eyes are open and you have a pair of binoculars, while your competitors are planning to buy some binoculars someday when they get a chance.

What’s beyond strategic planning?

While strategic planning can add significant results to your organization’s bottom line, there is something you can do beyond strategic planning to create breakthrough results.  Management innovation.  Management innovation is defined as anything that substantially alters the way in which the work of management is carried out. 

Face it, the management models we use today were created by industrial age pioneers born in the mid to late 1800’s.  But, we’re not in the 1800’s or the 1900’s any more, are we?  Today’s challenges include globalization, deregulation, the pace of change, the impact of the Internet and so on.  Our current management models were not designed to address the challenges we face today.  

A growing list of companies are challenging their assumptions about their current management practices and creating management models that address the challenges in today’s society.  The results are organizations achieving breakthrough results not even imagined possible by business or strategic planning.  How did they do it?  Fewer layers of management.  Increased levels of accountability and passion.  Every employee focused on delivering financial results.  No, it’s not a dream.  And, yes, it is possible.

Where do you find resources for management innovation?  One resource that I recommend is The Future of Management by Gary Hamel.  Warning!  The material in the book, like the author, is a bit dry.  OK, very dry.  In addition, the book is aimed at Fortune 500 companies.  You’ll have to do some translating to make appropriate application to your company.  However, it’s a great starting point. 

Where do you find resources to help you create and implement management innovation in your company?  Call us.  We’ve helped many organizations implement innovative management practices that resulted in our clients becoming leaders in industries where there hasn’t been anything new in years or decades. 

Management innovation is game changing.  Change the game before your competitors change it for you.