BMA eBook - Manual / Resource - Page 259
What to Ask the Person in the Mirror
two or three of the company’s key drugs were
further along in the FDA approval process.
They preferred to tell their story to investors
when the company was closer to generating
revenue. When I asked him about the vision
for the company, the CEO sheepishly realized
that he had never actually written down a vision statement. He had a well-articulated tactical plan relating to each of the company’s specific product efforts but no fully formed vision
that would give further context to these efforts.
He decided to organize an off-site meeting for
his senior management team to discuss and
specifically articulate a vision for the company.
After a vigorous debate, the group quickly
agreed on a vision and strategic priorities. They
realized that in order to achieve their shared
goals, the business would in fact require sub-
stantial financing sooner rather than later—or
they would need to scale back some of the initiatives that were central to their vision for the
company. Once they fully appreciated this
trade-off, they understood what the CEO was
trying to accomplish and left the meeting
united about their financing strategy. The CEO
was quite surprised at how easy it had been to
bring the members of his leadership team together. Because they agreed on where they
were going as a company, specific issues were
much easier to resolve.
A common pitfall in articulating a vision is a
failure to boil it down to a manageable list of
initiatives. Culling the list involves thinking
through and then making difficult choices and
trade-off decisions. These choices communicate volumes to your people about how they
Testing Yourself
To assess your performance and stay on track,
you should step back and ask yourself certain
key questions.
Vision and Priorities
In the press of day-to-day activities, leaders
often fail to adequately communicate their
vision to the organization, and in particular,
they don’t communicate it in a way that helps
their subordinates determine where to focus
their own efforts.
How often do I communicate a vision for my
business?
Have I identified and communicated three to
five key priorities to achieve that vision?
If asked, would my employees be able to articulate the vision and priorities?
Managing Time
Leaders need to know how they’re spending
their time. They also need to ensure that
their time allocation (and that of their subordinates) matches their key priorities.
How am I spending my time? Does it match
my key priorities?
How are my subordinates spending their time?
Does that match the key priorities for the
business?
Feedback
Leaders often fail to coach employees in a direct and timely fashion and, instead, wait
until the year-end review. This approach may
harvard business review • january 2007
lead to unpleasant surprises and can undermine effective professional development.
Just as important, leaders need to cultivate
subordinates who can give them advice and
feedback during the year.
Do I give people timely and direct feedback
that they can act on?
Do I have five or six junior subordinates who
will tell me things I may not want to hear but
need to hear?
Succession Planning
When leaders fail to actively plan for succession, they do not delegate sufficiently and
may become decision-making bottlenecks.
Key employees may leave if they are not actively groomed and challenged.
Have I, at least in my own mind, picked one
or more potential successors?
Am I coaching them and giving them challenging assignments?
Am I delegating sufficiently? Have I become a
decision-making bottleneck?
Evaluation and Alignment
The world is constantly changing, and leaders need to be able to adapt their businesses
accordingly.
Is the design of my company still aligned with
the key success factors for the business?
If I had to design my business with a clean
sheet of paper, how would I design it? How
would it differ from the current design?
Should I create a task force of subordinates to
answer these questions and make recommendations to me?
Leading Under Pressure
A leader’s actions in times of stress are
watched closely by subordinates and have a
profound impact on the culture of the firm
and employees’ behavior. Successful leaders
need to be aware of their own stress triggers
and consciously modulate their behavior
during these periods to make sure they are
acting in ways that are consistent with their
beliefs and core values.
What types of events create pressure for me?
How do I behave under pressure?
What signals am I sending my subordinates?
Are these signals helpful, or are they undermining the success of my business?
Staying True to Yourself
Successful executives develop leadership
styles that fit the needs of their business but
also fit their own beliefs and personality.
Is my leadership style comfortable? Does it reflect who I truly am?
Do I assert myself sufficiently, or have I become tentative?
Am I too politically correct?
Does worry about my next promotion or
bonus cause me to pull punches or hesitate to express my views?
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