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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

The Concept of Vision As an Element in Successful Corporate Leadership

‘Without vision the people perish’ according to the Bible.

The concept of vision is widely considered as not only an element in corporate leadership but in successful corporate leadership. What then is corporate vision and its role in corporate leadership?

Vision is the way one sees what, how, where, and sometimes who one wants to be; or for a company, where, what or how the company is going to be in the future. It is in the subconscious mind not the eyes. Vision is created. It is a creation of visualized idea or ideas one considers when carrying about or engaged in any undertaking. These ideas, which later on are crafted into the direction the organization will be taking, form a kind of picture in the mind of the person; waiting to be nurtured into reality.

Vision is very pivotal in the plans of any organization; actually it forms the basis of any organisationâ019s mission statement and strategy from which the business plan is formed.

Corporate leadership on the hand is or could in simple terms be described as how an organization is led.

It is normally the lifeline of any organization either a start-up or an existing company but to be a successful corporate leader takes a good vision. Thus given the fact that a business plan has been formed on the basis of a good corporate vision, may suggest that a successful organization is in the offing as a result of good and effective leadership. It will also show that the leadership is organized.

Success is subjective and could be measured by any benchmark; however, in corporate terms, it is usually measured in terms of achieving the targets set according to the plans of the organization which has already been mentioned earlier on as emanating from the vision of the organization.

Corporate vision is normally the preserve of an entrepreneur (who could be the Chairman, CEO, or simply someone who sits on the Board), even though it can be reframed by the whole leadership from time to time. Writing in a business journal, someone commented that ‘for the majority of companies, defined visions and mission statements are nothing. The exercise of crafting them is a waste of time and talent if vision statements are used for nothing but published in the annual report and copied to the reception area… To be able to energize employees towards corporate objectives, visions should be more than a sign on the wall and managers should live them, believe them, and constantly communicate to employees’.[1] In other words, the leader’s vision of the future must be communicated to all and sundry in the organization to produce the required results. If that is done, then the benefits of vision which are among the following will manifest themselves in the leadership of the organization thereby making them successful:

* Sense of direction: vision basically gives the leadership a sense of direction. In a simple but important illustration, when one sets out from the house and jumps into a car; as soon as the car moves, it goes to a particular direction even if the steer is not controlled. The direction given by the vision of the leadership is usually deemed by the organization as important and gets the memberâ019s backing.

* Focus: the vision of the leadership puts the organization in shape to be able to focus on relevant strategic issues at all levels in the organization. It is believed that a clearly focused and committed organization with strong visible leadership can accomplish any task which they set themselves to undertake.

* Visionary leadership: with a vision usually comes a visionary leader. It is a role normally taken either by the leader who is not in an executive position to alienate him or herself from what I describe as ‘direct decision-making process’ but then wield greater influence on the decision makers by creating a conducive environment, inspiration and charisma for the organization’s leadership to make informed decisions, an example of such a leader is Sir Richard Branson of Virgin; or by one in an executive position, the visionary leader is always ‘ahead of the competition’ by making critical decisions based on his sense of vision; an example of such a leader is BP’s CEO, John Browne when he launched the ad campaign “Beyond Petroleum” linking emissions and global warming which granted him successful access to both Russia(as the first Western oil company to do so) and the US as the leading oil and gas producer with both ventures putting BP back on its toes.[2]

* Driving force: vision can also become the driving force of the leadership of the organization. Drive is a very important attribute in leadership qualities and key to a successful corporate leadership. It is imbued with the ‘can do’ attitude and this is not needed at anytime and anywhere more than in this modern competitive business world of today. Drive urges the leadership to try to overcome obstacles than they will otherwise have done; it also brings ambition, initiative and motivation needed to influence others might not have fully grasped the vision towards the achievement of the corporate vision.

* An effective and appropriate strategy and or leadership style: because of the sense of direction vision brings along, vision can affect the style of leadership or strategy for an organization.Many leaders adopt certain styles to lead a particular organization as a result of the vision they have for the organization. An example here is the strategy being used by the Japanese president of Toyota, Fujio Cho.Based on his vision to ‘Americanize’ Toyota(Toyota now has 70%-80% of its global profits from North America), he has decided to place more Americans and non-Japanese executives higher on the corporate ladder and closer to the centers of leadership in Toyota. In effect, Cho’s plan is to move new ideas now from America to Japan instead of the other way round as it used to be and is even considering encouraging the people to learn to speak English well in order to achieve his vision.[3]

* Self-confidence: vision gives self-confidence to the leader (or leadership).Self-confidence plays an important role in decision-making and in gaining other’s trust. The leader must be sure of what decision to make at least most of the times. It must be observed here that, the primary task of a leader is to have a vision of where the organization is going and thus set a clear objective to achieve them. However, followers are also essential if the leadership will be effective or otherwise. With self-confidence the leadership will not express high degree of doubt and then the followers are likely to trust and be committed to the vision and for that matter the organization. Self-confidence also boosts the leadership’s image and by that projection, they arouse the followers’ self-confidence in the leadership. Leaders with self-confidence are known to be assertive and decisive which is relevant for effective implementation of corporate decisions.

It is also important to note that corporate vision may contain relevant issues committed to ensuring quality and prompt responsiveness to customers, develop a great new product or service, and serving customers through the defined service portfolio. It also ensures providing an enjoyable work environment for employees as well as ensuring financial strength and sustainable growth of the company for the benefit of stakeholder.

The following is the vision statement for Fareham Borough Council in Hampshire, England (which is a corporate entity) as an illustration of the relevant issues of commitment that corporate visions may contain:

A Five Year Vision
Corporate Vision, values, Objectives and Action Plan
Vision Statement
Fareham-the prosperous, safe and attractive place to be

Driven By vision

Fareham has become a prosperous, safe and attractive place to live and work. This has not happened by accident but by careful management of development and constant attention to the environment. Our vision for Fareham is based upon the assumption that residents want to preserve all that is good about Fareham,whilst increasing prosperity and making it an even more inclusive and attractive place to live and work.

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