TOO MANY BOSSES, TOO FEW LEADERS: Wiring the BRAINS

RAJEEV PESHAWARIA

FREE PRESS; 222 PAGES

PART 2: ENTERPRISE LEADERSHIP

2.2          B-B-N: Wiring the BRAINS

www.thepencilpusher.net

The first step for an organization to successfully reach a desired destination is to decide the route to take.  The organization most clearly articulates its objectives and makes choices about how it will go about achieving them.  For an idea or strategy to be fully affective, it requires both quality and acceptance.

SOME COMMON MISTAKES MADE
1	Worrying too much about the quality of the decisions, and too little about creating widespread acceptance for them
2	Assuming that if the quality of a decision making or strategy is absolutely rock solid, people should have no problem buying into it
3	Assuming every human has the same brain
4	Most managers don’t understand that everything multiplied by zero is zero
5	Manager tend to work harder towards improving quality, and don’t work enough on improving acceptance

The BRAIN of a business is composed of 2 elements:

·        Compelling vision and strategy articulated with elegant simplicity

·        Ability to achieve acceptance and understanding of the vision and strategy

To set a compelling vision and establishing a differentiated strategy boils down to answering 4 questions:

1.        WHAT do we want to be

2.       WHO are our stakeholders

3.       HOW will we get there

4.       WHY will we succeed (our differentiating capabilities)

The answers must be articulated in a way that creates

·        Clarity,

·        Simplicity

·        Believability, and

·        Widespread acceptance

Packaging the communication is equally important as the strategy itself.

Many leaders take on a leadership position and dive straight into day-to-day problem solving.  The Brains (vision and strategy) are the backbone of any business.  The 2 keys to its success:

1.        The vision and strategy should be compelling and differentiated

2.       Communicating and cascading the strategy is as important as the strategy itself.

If the leaders do a good job at shaping and managing the Brains of a business, the employees will have

·        Compelling vision for future success

·        Clearly differentiated strategy

·        Clear guided resources allocation and decision making

·        Clear recognizable core capabilities

·        Clear and consistent articulate value position