Tag Archives: proactive leadership

Leadership

Three Leadership Mindsets for Achieving Excellence in Execution

What does it take to achieve Excellence In Execution Leadership?

A Proven Leadership Formula

A proven formula for Excellence In Execution Leadership emerged from research and hands-on Execution work with leaders in the Fortune 500, non-profit sector, government agencies and the military. An especially useful source has been the leadership of the Desert Storm air campaign-one of the most successful campaigns in military history. Because of its size and complexity and the fact that it was such a rapid victory, it contains valuable leadership lessons for today’s environment.

When asked this seminal question, “How would you describe the leadership success formula of Desert Storm?”, Colonel John Warden, the architect of the air campaign, paused for a moment and then crisply replied, “Think Strategically, Focus Sharply, and Move Quickly.”

The benefits of applying these mindsets in your organization are faster, better results in the three interdependent phases of Execution: strategic thinking, planning and implementation.

Leadership Mindset 1 – Think Strategically

A Case Study: Organizations that consistently win in the New Normal have one thing in common-committed proactive leadership that thinks strategically about the organization’s challenges and opportunities and acts accordingly. That was the case with Texas Instruments (TI). For over ten years, during a period when many of its competitors, including Intel and Motorola, were experiencing major growth in their market value, TI’s market value was flat. By the mid 1990’s, TI’s leadership began to realize that the problem was not their tactical capabilities. It was a lack of smart strategic thinking about how to win in the Internet and mobile communications marketspace.

So how did TI’s leadership put that insight into practice and what was the result?

They shaped a new vision and new Grand Strategy during a series of strategic leadership retreats that engaged over two hundred of the top leaders from around the world. Big decisions were made and aggressively implemented across the organziation.

One key decision was their target market. Instead of continuing to fight competitors for a share of the memory chip market, TI targeted the explosive market for digital signal processors-DSPs, which are a key component of Internet and mobile communication devices. And, most importantly, they decided to be dominant in the DSP market.

They made other tough leadership decisions, such as shedding their huge defense unit, a long-time sacred cow, in order to pump more money into the DSP effort.

The new TI leadership attitude was summed up by the CEO in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. He declared, “This isn’t a market we want to play in; this is the market where we intend to win.” And they did win and win big: TI’s market value increased six-fold over the next three years.

Leadership Mindset 2 – Focus Sharply

There’s a consistent concern among the leadership teams that are responsible for implementing strategies-resource constraints. They wonder if they have the enough resources to get the job done and somehow achieve breakthrough performance.

In today’s challenging operating environment, resource constraints are always going be a factor, but there’s a proven leadership solution: sharply focus your available resources on the Leverage Points in your organization and market for maximum strategic impact.

What is a Leverage Point?

The trim tab on a boat rudder is a good example of a Leverage Point. Buckminster Fuller, the futurist best known for coining the term “Spaceship Earth,” explained it this way:

 

Think of the Queen Mary-there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab. It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. It takes almost no effort at all.

 

Every successful Execution leader intuitively knows the ‘People’ Leverage Points within their own organizations. That is why, when they want to get something done, they reach out to the key leadership Leverage Points-board members, other senior executives, top customers and the informal leaders that the rank-and-file in the organization tend to follow.

What may not be so obvious are the population, processes and physical infrastructure Leverage Points, such as interest groups (population Leverage Point) strategy making and leadership decision-making (processes Leverage Points) and technology platforms (physical Leverage Point).

The leadership lesson is this: to have maximum strategic impact with available resources and significantly increase your probability of success, sharply focus resources on key Leverage Points and affect a critical mass of them in the right way at the right time.

Leadership Mindset 3 – Move Quickly

There is a fundamental truth about leadership in a world that is operating on Internet Time: laggards lose. Organizations need speed, and the speed of leadership determines the speed of the organization. The world’s most successful companies have leadership that moves quickly to spot new opportunities, mobilize resources and bring new products and services to market in a flash.

A prime example of high-velocity leadership is Virgin Group’s Sir Richard Branson. You are probably familiar with the Virgin brand from its music megastores and airlines. What you may not know is how rapidly Virgin has launched one new business after another. “Often the window of opportunity is very small,” explains Branson. “So speed is of the essence.”

In the vast majority of leadership situations, time is NOT on your side – the slower you move, the less chance you have of achieving your objectives. One reason is Murphy’s Law, which states that “anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Another reason for speed is the ever-changing environment. No matter how theoretically perfect your original plan may be, as the execution timeline lengthens, its value depreciates because the context changes.

 

  • Leadership that operates with a Move Quickly mindset will win for a number of reasons
  • External competitors are outpaced.
  • Internal opposition to change is pre-empted.
  • Key planning assumptions don’t become obsolete.
  • There are fewer unanticipated consequences.
  • Implementation gaps quickly surface and can be corrected.
  • Fast wins create a positive psychology in the organization.
  • Desired results and benefits are accelerated.

 

How fast should you move? The answer is simple: move at the speed you need to succeed. With few exceptions, this means moving faster than the rate of change in your environment and faster than your competitors.

SUMMARY – The three leadership mindsets we’ve just reviewed-Think Strategically, Focus Sharply, Move Quickly-are the keys to faster, better results in the three interdependent phases of Execution: strategic thinking, planning and implementation.

Leadership Mindset 1 – Think Strategically: Organizations that consistently win in the New Normal have one thing in common-committed proactive leadership that thinks strategically about the organization’s challenges and opportunities and act accordingly.

Leadership Mindset 2 – Focus Sharply: To have maximum strategic impact with available resources and significantly increase your probability of success, sharply focus resources on key Leverage Points and affect a critical mass of them in the right way at the right time.

Leadership Mindset 3 – Move Quickly: Laggards lose. Organizations need speed, and the speed of leadership determines the speed of the organization. The world’s most successful companies have leadership that moves quickly to spot new opportunities, mobilize resources and bring new products and services to market in a flash.

Together, these leadership mindsets provide a comprehensive mental model for Excellence In Execution-three leadership imperatives for winning in the 21st century.

Leland Russell, Strategic Advisor and President of Leadership In FastTime®
Contact: Leland.Russell@geogroup.net
Author of acclaimed book, Winning in FastTime

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Leland_Russell/860234

 

Leadership

Eagle Eye Leadership: The Principle of Focus and Priority

Activity is not the same as productivity. Motion does not always signify progress. Activity is not necessarily accomplishment. Diligence is not necessarily effectiveness. Faithfulness is never the same as fruitfulness. Not all efforts bring about results. There is a world of difference between getting things done (busy) and getting results (progress). Telling the difference is what this article is all about. Knowing the difference is what really makes some leaders more successful than others. Successful leaders are leaders with an eagle’s eye: they practice and live by the principle of focus and priority. They are not activity driven (busy), they are result driven (progress). They don’t care about knowing or doing everything; they are mostly concerned about knowing and doing the main things.

Great leaders are not a repository of everything or anything; they are repositories of only what matters. They don’t see everything, they only see what matters. They don’t go after everything; they only pursue the main things. They see, not as we see; they see through the eyes of the eagle; they see based on priority and they focus only on their vision. They practice a different kind of leadership; not one based on execution (activity), but one based on contribution (productivity). This is a leadership built on focus and priority; a leadership driven by vision and purpose. This kind of leadership is what I call ‘eagle eye leadership’.

What is eagle eye leadership?

Eagle eye leadership is a kind of leadership practiced mostly by successful leaders in any work of life. It is a kind of leadership based on focus and priority. In other words, eagle eye leadership is a kind of leadership based on focus and priority and is mostly practiced by successful leaders in all works of life. Eagle eye leadership refers to a leadership hinged upon vision and purpose. It is leadership focused on vision and following a purpose. It’s a leadership pursuing a vision and obeying a purpose. It’s not a survival driven kind of leadership, but a significance driven kind of leadership. It’s not a kind of leadership built on diligence alone (hard work) but also essence (designed work). This kind of leadership doesn’t just ask “what is to be done?”, but also asks, “Why must it be done?” This kind of leadership doesn’t just work hard (diligence) but only works based on the vision it’s pursuing and a purpose it’s obeying (essence).

Eagle eye leadership is not a reactive kind of leadership that is based on just doing (movement or motion), but a proactive leadership based on improving (progress or contribution). Eagle eye leadership weighs every decision, situation and action against its original vision, destination and intention. It asks “how does this decision, situation or action play out and affect my initial vision, destination or intention?” it asks, “what is the place or role of this decision, situation or action in my overall intention, destination or vision?” it doesn’t just do, but does only when it finds a purpose, a place or reason for what needs to be done in the overall scheme of things. Every move, decision and action is tied to a predetermined end, purpose or vision. It is interested in doing only what matters; such things that would significantly affect the bottom-line. That is; the original vision, purpose and objective initially agreed upon. It weighs every action, decision or situation against the ultimate goal, vision or purpose in mind.

Eagle eye leadership is all about focus; a concentrated effort or attention on a particular thing (in this case, a vision) and priority; following or doing only the things with the greatest returns and of the greatest importance (in this case, purpose). Therefore, eagle eye leadership is all about focusing on the vision only and making the fulfillment of the purpose your priority. In other words, you focus the vision and prioritize the purpose. That is to say, you make the vision your main emphasis and then you put the purpose above in front of all you do. This is what I mean; your task as the leader is to make the vision of the business your destination (focus) and make the purpose why you are in business your number one goal or objective (priority).

Focus the vision

The vision is the mental picture of the business in the mind of the leader, it could be an image or concept conceived through imagination. The vision often refers to where or what the leader perceives and sees the business to be in the nearest future. The vision is a mental projection of the business, a mental destination for the business. It is usually future-bound. What tomorrow will look like, where we want to be in some year’s time, how big we hope to be.

The vision is the mental picture of a better or preferable future for the business. This is what the leader must emphasize on. A business without a vision is a business without direction. There’s only one place such a business will end up; nowhere!

Prioritize the Purpose

The purpose is the original reason why the business was created. It is the initial intent of the founder of the business. The purpose is why the business exists; why they open up for business everyday, and why they ever considered starting up such a business in the first place. The purpose usually is determined in the past long before the business came into existence. It is the foundation on which the business was built; this is why it’s seldom changed. The purpose dwells on the outcome of the business, it doesn’t focus on outputs. Outputs are the exact goods or services offered by the business to the market, while outcomes are those needs being met by the goods and services produced. While the vision of a business can always be changed since it’s something you project, the purpose most times remains unchanging unless it’s no longer of relevance to the market. The purpose is not something the leader sees and decides to obey or follow. The purpose of a business is often the need the business was created to meet or fulfill.

Tito Philips, Jnr. is a young Nigerian who is MAD-Making A Difference. He’s a People, Business and Life developer who is passionate about helping you become SIGNIFICANT -different (being Unique) and Making a difference (being useful). You can read more about his thoughts on Business here; http://www.naijapreneur.com, and his thoughts on People and Life here; http://www.MADphilips.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tito_Philips,_Jr/772622