Checklists? Those lists I prepare each day and don’t help me get everything done – don’t really need to know more about them … or do you mean those checklists that airline pilots use to keep me from getting killed? Now, those I like.
Some of you will remember an earlier post in the GTD context about the value of checklists. Now comes the book, The Checklist Manifesto, inspired by issues found in operating rooms but expanded to the many areas where simple checklists are invaluable.
Checklists couldn’t be simpler.
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Many years ago when we lived in the Midwest, we became very good friends with a young couple down the street. He was a fellow fraternity brother, from another college, but I remember him as a very capable physician with a unique ability to describe complex medical subjects in layman’s language.
One day, he asked me if I’d like to go to work with him on Saturday. He’d show me around, we’d have lunch, hang out. He couldn’t leave for lunch, but he would bring along some homemade sandwiches, bologna with lots of ketchup, he said, and I could sit in his pathology lab as he performed an autopsy … and while he was cutting and sawing, we would enjoy our lunch together. It was when he started laughing that I realized why my vision of an overloaded bologna sandwich, dripping with ketchup alongside an autopsy table, was kicking up a firestorm in my gut.
I think that’s how many business executives view an After Action Review (AAR) — a gruesome business designed to relive the pain of failed projects.
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If you remember, the General Motors board gave CEO Rick Wagoner a 64 percent pay raise — to $15.7 million — in 2007, when the company lost $38.7 billion. The company went bankrupt two years later at a cost of $52 billion to shareholders and another $13.4 billion to all taxpayers.
In Sword Tips, we’ve often remarked on the dismal job done by so many Boards of Directors, falling short of their fiduciary and ethical responsibilities and failing to hold the company’s leaders accountable for their performance as well as their conduct.
So, it’s no surprise that John Gillespie and David Zweig, have written “Money for Nothing“: How the Failure of Corporate Boards is Ruining American Business and Costing us Trillions”. You can find a review of the book here.
My advice? If you have no meaningful expectations from your Board, don’t have one. Keep grandma and your sister on your board. Have a nice dinner, some wine and keep telling each other how wonderful you are. When you wake up one morning and discover that your business is in the tank, you won’t need to call them on it. Just stay in front of the mirror a little longer.
“God grant me the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I can’t and the wisdom to know the difference.” – Reinhold Nieburh
The Power of One concept is not new — it’s the bedrock of everything from motivational speeches to Army One. There’s an entire industry devoted to the power we have over our destiny. In the context of Building a Business, we can view the Power of One as a series of concentric circles that ripple outward from the center … from where we stand as business leaders.
With a stagnant economy that has brought many businesses to their knees, we’ve been inundated with economic data, shards of doubt and glimmers of hope. While we can’t ignore these external forces, we can’t allow them to deter our commitment to reclaiming control of our agenda.
As a result, there’s no better topic with which to start 2010 than personal accountability, the singular touchstone of professional success over which we have the greatest control.
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Seth Godin, blogger extraordinaire, has compiled an interesting and FREE PDF download from 70 diverse thinkers in which each person provides ONE WORD to identify an important concept for 2010 … and then writes a single page to describe why they chose that word. From GENEROSITY to DIGNITY to POKER to RIPPLE, there are provocative viewpoints and challenging insights.
I hope it helps to launch a bounteous and rewarding 2010 for you and your family.
The Center for Creative Leadership recently completed a large survey to assess the leadership competencies need for success, both now and in the future.
One of the skills that I highly regard is resourcefulness, the ability to deal skillfully and promptly with unexpected challenges, etc. Interestingly, resourcefulness was the only skill that is in the Top 10 of existing skills. All of the others that are needed for success in the future are NOT skills that leaders have mastered.
This leads to a pretty big Leadership Gap, according to this survey. It might be a good time to take a personal inventory of your leadership skills and make sure you’re doing everything you can to develop the skills that will be needed.
The North Bay Business Journal, a publication of the New York Times, is a weekly business newspaper which covers the North Bay area of San Francisco – from the Golden Gate bridge north, including the Wine Country of Sonoma and Napa counties.
This page provides the Print-Friendly Version of the article, as published.
Any related materials or articles referenced in the column, or otherwise applicable, will also be referenced below:
The electronic version of the article, as published, may be found here.
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Article published -November 30 2009
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
– Albert Einstein
Last time I presented the dichotomy of two opposing cultures and posed the question: If measured by financial performance, how can dramatically different organizations be equally successful? In this continuing series, we’ll explore some of the combinations and permutations of sound business principles and cultural patterns that often collide within an organization’s walls.
In many ways, it doesn’t seem fair that both charitable and churlish cultures can thrive. It’s easy to embrace the benevolent culture created by Sid Rich (we’ll call it Company South, “S” for Sid) as profiled in my last column.
That company deserves to be successful. Wouldn’t it be great if that was the company I worked for? Contrarily, when you look across the aisle at the rough and tumble world of Company North (“N” for Nasty), highlighted by temper tantrums, public floggings and a petulant devotion to spending a dime on anything, we’re either glad we’re not working there … or wishing we didn’t.
Some powerful lessons are evident as we compare and contrast these companies, their styles and culture, although some lessons are not very inviting.
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By now, you know that the Sunday NY Times Corner Office series is oft-quoted here to highlight varying aspects of leadership that flow from Adam Bryant’s conversations with notable CEOs and business leaders.
This week he interviewed Drew Gilpin Faust, the first female President of Harvard University. Communication is a critical factor in her leadership style, and I can concur with the extraordinary importance this has in a university setting, having spent 6 months consulting with UCLA. The university community is a diverse governance conundrum with many cooks and few bottle washers, so communication is vital across all of the constituencies and leadership platforms. It’s no less important in your organization but the style required in a university setting sets a high standard for what’s required from all business leaders.
She also emphasizes the value of MBWA … the leadership tactic of “Management by Walking Around” mentioned often here. She also emphasizes
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The North Bay Business Journal, a publication of the New York Times, is a weekly business newspaper which covers the North Bay area of San Francisco – from the Golden Gate bridge north, including the Wine Country of Sonoma and Napa counties.
This page provides the Print-Friendly Version of the article, as published.
Any related materials or articles referenced in the column, or otherwise applicable, will also be referenced below:
The electronic version of the article, as published, may be found here.
**********************************************************************************
Article published – October 19, 2009
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” - Winston Churchill
At first, I figured it is was too late to talk about surviving the economic storm we’re in … and then, I thought, hey, this isn’t over. Maybe the sense of impending doom has dissipated but the reduced level of business activity and an increasing sense of frugality in a buyer-dominated market are going to be our unbidden passengers for quite a few more miles.
“Let us go into the storm … and through the storm,” said Winston Churchill as he prepared England to confront the Nazi regime in World War II. As it applies to our current business climate, I thought this might be a touch of hyperbole, but then I recalled that Churchill’s odyssey raged for five years, not just the single year we’ve navigated since September 2008.
Imagine Churchill, FDR and others slogging for five dreadful years through the greatest threat to civilization we have known. So, how do we get through four more years of this business cycle, a time frame proclaimed by many before employment gets back to 6 percent and more customary growth trends resume?
Consider these few concepts inspired by the triumph and tragedy of those years:
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Welcome to Exkalibur. I’m Lary Kirchenbauer, President of Exkalibur Advisors, Inc. Please take advantage of our resources to help you build your business ... and let me know what more we can do to serve you.
Read my latest column from the NY Times affiliate, the North Bay Business Journal.
Lary has a remarkable ability to provide a clear and thoughtful analysis of the business drivers and potential outcomes facing private companies at each stage of development. His insight has provided a powerful framework for decision-making in many challenging situations.
Noah J. Rosenkrantz, CEO, GreenLine Systems
