Are your people 'shovel ready'?
Sure to be one of those phrases that wins some kind of award
for 'used the most this year' shovel ready is an apt prescription for
successful organizations or wannabe successful businesses in 2009.
Many organizations are rapidly redefining their short,
medium and long term goals into short, shorter and shortest goals and reducing the
strategic horizon to a 90 day focus with a one year horizon. Does this signify
the end of strategy and the rise of operations?
The February issue of Harvard Business Review has a good
article on Leadership, (Stop Overdoing Your Strengths) that discusses the
duality of opposing leadership virtues. Strategic Leadership involves
planning ahead, pursuing growth and promoting innovation. Operational Leadership
focuses on managing the day to day results, maximizing efficiency by conserving
costs and reducing expenses and maintaining order through the discipline of
using processes and procedures effectively. We see operational and strategic leadership as
not exclusive rather as specific to the context of each situation. Being a
conscious leader means agility with the current environment and agility for the
future.
The new paradigm for strategic leadership compresses time
and creates a sense of urgency in being able to seek strategic opportunities
that require a rapid decision making process followed by a speedy deployment of
resources. The one thing we are hearing is that there are tremendous
opportunities today because of the shifting priorities and realities of
business. If your strategic thinkers are exhibiting that "deer in the
headlights" look, they are likely reacting to the uncertainty and increased
risk of decision making. They are used to relying on their Fact Finding and
Follow Thru strengths while preventing chaos. An influx of Quickstart instinct
on to the team might be just the prescription you require. From an Enneagram
personality type perspective when you are under stress or so focused on your
strengths (i.e. work faster, more attention to detail etc.) your personality
can get distorted and this prevents you from being an integrated leader.
While it may appear that the roles of strategy and
operations are moving closer to a convergence perhaps what is really happening
is that strategy has become a much more opportunity focused pursuit, while
operations becomes more about organizational readiness.
The danger in seeing opportunity is seeing it when it's too
late.
If you would like a
copy of the HBR article let us know and we will send it to you.
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WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE DO and HOW WE DO IT
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At the heart of it, we are helpful. Our clients are busy,
successful, smart and curious.
We approach any relationship with a sense of gratitude,
generosity and respect. We like to have fun. We form strong relationships that
lead us to anticipate our client's future needs and create a successful
partnership. Our work is about uncovering our client's perspective and creating
certainty, expanding and discovering creativity and possibility and above all
taking action.
We understand and are experts in change from a theoretical
and a practical basis. We know the value of engagement, communication and the
importance of creating a sense of confidence.
It's been said that our style is "organic." We're not about
imposing a solution on anyone. The longer we are in business the more certain
we are that each of you is unique and magnificent. For us it's all about
achieving the best results possible. That means sharing our knowledge,
experience and wisdom. Maybe we create new ways of doing things by partnering
with other really smart people with like values. We communicate an awful lot.
Business is booming.
We provide all of the human development side of strategic
HR. We help hire the right people. We work with teams including boards of
directors so they can become more effective and more efficient. We coach
leaders; sometimes with our proprietary process called The Best-Half™.
Organizations looking to develop or implement strategic plans have us on
speed-dial. Many of our clients have said "we are nice people to work with."
As authentic leaders - we will let you decide.
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