What Good General Managers Do series
Most strategic planning exercises are doomed from the start by being connected to the annual budget process.
The money always wins.
Strategy is creative. Financial Planning is operational. Strategic and financial planning require different skills, timelines, and different measures of success. Read More
One of the questions I get most frequently is how to get people who don’t work for you, to do work for you.
So many people are in matrixed situations, or they are a program manager over an endeavor that is dependent on people from all over the place. Read More
In this month’s Business Leadership Webinar
we talked about how to deal with difficult people, stack the deck in your favor, and get your way more of the time!
INFLUENCE DIFFICULT PEOPLE
Listen or download the webinar to learn more. Read More
This is third article in my series of What Good General Managers DO.
Aritlces in the series so far:
People
Listen: Stay Connected to Reality
Process
The Gap Between Committed and Done
Failure & Motivation (today)
Profit
Communicating
Many organizations struggle to get things done, as promised, on time. Read More
Last week I kicked off a series of articles about what good general managers do.
I keep finding myself talking to CEOs who are concerned that their new general managers (also directors and VP’s) just aren’t getting that they need to be working in different way now that they are in an executive level job. Read More
I get a lot of questions from people about what it takes to be a good general manager.
So I am going to write about this over the next few weeks on this blog.
Stepping into a general manger role for the first time is a big deal because it is a very different job than you’ve had before. Read More
1. Understand what drives the business.
2. Put your work and your communications in that context.
3. This gives you a tremendous advantage. Don’t miss this.
THINK LIKE A GENERAL MANAGER
In this month’s webinar we covered the key aspects of how general managers think, and why it’s important to think like a GM, whether or not you want to be one. Read More
One of the CEO’s I am working with on a business transformation said to me about his managers,
“No, he won’t actually help solve the problem, he is more of a reporter.”
Ouch!
Think about your behaviors. Read More
Awhile back I wrote a post about Debate Phase vs. Go Phase.
These labels help timid people raise issues when it’s helpful (Debate Phase) and then keep everyone focused on execution vs. talking more, when it is time to go. Read More
Organizations waste a lot of time communicating badly.
They fall into the trap of talking about things that have already been decided, or not talking when input is genuinely needed.
Executives don’t know all the answers (even if they act like they do). Read More
