Resource Management Innovations

Strong Leaders Build Strong Companies (and Families):

  Building leadership capacity (intentionally) into your organization has never been more important. Critical to leadership is the capacity for problem solving and decision making. No doubt you have heard the expression that you have to ‘pick your battles.’ Ok, fair enough. I suppose even anecdotally we understand that we don’t have sufficient resources to fight the good fight on all fronts concurrent. So what is that matrix that allows us to discern important from urgent? Of all the agenda items before me today (be they community, family or business) … where would my time be best spent? I know so many men and women who feel constantly challenged with respect to who, when, where, why and at what cost. Need a practical, real world strategy? (There is that word again!).

Lead with Vision:  

  In my leadership development classes I use an illustration that seems to resonate with folks. It is a rifle scope. When you consider the purpose of a rifle scope … it is designed to bring a target into focus. It brings clarity to the objective and by default … it also (indirectly) identifies all the stuff ‘out there’ that would otherwise be ‘out of scope’. That is really, really handy. Being able to define what is in, and what is out of scope. It narrows that decision making matrix considerably, because (you know) … there will be a lot of noise & clutter out there today in the world, with a lot of folks jockeying for my attention. Leaders with a Vision, have focus and clarity with respect to their purpose. They know where they are going, this year … right down to the moment, with the resources (people, time & money) defined that would be necessary to accomplish the objective that is in ‘scope’. It enables a leader to define the agenda before the company and to be able to share with each staff member what is expected of them and more importantly how we (and they) are doing with respect to the objective. Everything that isn’t in scope we give ourselves permission to consider not urgent, not important … and a non-action item.

  Our business partners will appreciate the benefits of (our) focus as well. In all of our roles, responsibilities and relationships it will give us the data we need to set and manage expectations.

  Without a clearly stated purpose you have no foundation on which you base decisions, allocate time or resources. You will subsequently base your decisions on circumstance, stress or ‘feelings’ at the moment. People who don’t know their purpose (what is it you are here to do) and have that translated into a Vision Statement … have no context for problem solving and decision making, thereby trying to do too much (the shotgun approach, hoping something hits) … and that causes stress, fatigue and conflict.

  You don’t have enough time to do everything everybody wants you to do. You have just enough time to do what you are supposed to do.

Question: “How much clarity do you have with regard to your purpose?” 

Linking Strategy to Execution begins with bringing focus and clarity to your Vision. Coffee?

Cheers;

Rick @ RMI
 

Posted By: Rick Kneeshaw 2010/03/25
Categories: Leadership and Management