applied know how
The foundation of being a great General Manager is not your skill or focus, its your ability to bring together and bring the best out of a great team of people. In the seventh in our series I’ll discuss how to do that.
Ok I’m going to make a provocative statement, bear with me … good general managers do not really “do” anything. … Read more
Everyone knows the aphorism “you are only as strong as your weakest link” but research now shows you can equally only be as strong as your strongest link- depending on the business you are in.
Adam Mastrioanni theorises there are two types of problems: strong-link and weak-link problems. Weak-link problems are those where the overall quality depends on how good the worst stuff is, and strong-link problems are those where overall quality depends on how good the best stuff is.… Read more
How you make decisions is a critical part of the make up of a new General Manager, in the sixth part of our series I’ll dicuss bias and how it limits our decision making.
General managers need to be aware of the biases that affect us all and so be vigilant in mitigating their impact – by such means as forming diverse teams, soliciting independent opinions, collecting wide-ranging data, reframing questions and assigning and rotating the role of playing “devil’s advocate”.… Read more
I hope this series of posts in transitioning into General Management remains interesting, in today’s fifth post, I’ll focus on the real focus of a General Manager, their customers.
Every decision in business must be based on serving customers first and foremost, solving their problems and doing so in such a way that the organization makes enough money to survive and in so doing enables other stakeholders to benefit.… Read more
In the third of our series of posts on transitioning to becoming a General Manager I’d like to dicuss the expertise that got you the GMs job and how this strength can become a weakness.
This transition is often called moving from being an “I-shaped” specialist to a “t-shaped” generalist
As a new leader, you may have worked your way up the ladder by being an expert in your field.… Read more