Management, technology, random thoughts
Organisational culture can be tough to define, but it can be even more challenging to create a sustainable, high-performance culture. Ben Horowitz describes culture as “What you do is who you are” – the title of his new book. Having worked in several large organisations over the past 25 years, I agree entirely. It’s not what we say that builds culture, and it’s definitely not what we think. It’s what we do.
Continue reading “Building culture”
I took a long walk today by the seafront in Malahide, a charming coastal town in Dublin. The sun was shining, and there was a cold easterly wind. I wasn’t in top mental form – I’ve been in a good deal of pain following a recent surgery, and frankly, I was feeling grumpy. I thought the walk would do me good, and I had a podcast for company – Jocko Podcast 174. If you’re interested in leadership principles, I would strongly recommend a listen.
I don’t know how many times this has come up in conversations with staff members and mentees over the years, but it’s been quite a few. “I’m too busy to take a course..”; “My manager won’t let me study.”; “I would have to do the study in my personal time..”; “The tools are too difficult to use.”. I don’t have time to learn.
I sympathise with anyone who feels tremendously time-poor, for often valid reasons, but the above comments, and variants of them, feel like excuses.
Peter Drucker writes in his book that doing the right thing is one of the primary attributes of the “Effective Executive“. But how do we know that what we’re doing is the right thing at the right time?
In an ideal world, principles should inform and guide everything we do. We can think of principles as a sort of operating system, the context in which we execute for our organisations. To be principled has a moral, personal meaning, as in the OED definition: Continue reading “Where the right things get done – at the intersection of Principles, Mission and Goals.”
Imagine you’re at the bottom of a tall mountain; what do you know of what can be seen from the top? Now imagine you’re half-way up – you can see the path below you (and could act as a guide for it) but cannot see the summit. If you’re at the summit, you have the perspective to be a guide for anyone coming from the base of the mountain to the top, and can also see the landscape for a considerable distance around. It’s a (somewhat hackneyed) analogy of sorts for a management career, isn’t it? Continue reading “Leadership and the importance of multiple viewpoints”