Read, Watch, Listen: Rethinking the Keys to Successful Management
In this edition, we're bringing you a collection of content on the topic of leadership—an article, a video, and a podcast—to shed light on what makes certain leaders excel while others languish.
READ
When the CEO asks at the end of a meeting, “Are we aligned?” everyone typically nods. But more often than not, the actions people take later don’t match the direction they previously agreed on. A better question would be, “Are we all prepared to row in the same direction?” That is, are we, as company leaders, ready right now to carry out with our teams the decisions necessary to put our agenda into action??
In an era of exponential change, ensuring unity in action—what we often call leadership “activation”—is a formidable challenge for businesses. In our experience, leaders can generally agree on an overall direction and a set of priorities for their organizations. They can recite the vision, organizational strategy, and key metrics at will. But ask leaders two or three levels below the C-suite how their department is contributing to the company’s performance goals, and most can’t give a clear answer.?
If middle managers aren’t on the same page with each other and with senior leaders from the start, how can they possibly be expected to act cohesively in the face of rapid change and the often-unprecedented challenges that arise? Five key practices can unify leaders up, down, and across the organization—and spark concerted action.?
Read the article: When Leaders Say They Are Aligned—But Aren’t
WATCH
In light of the cultural shift sparked by the pandemic, it no longer makes sense for the way we work to be dictated by a fixed schedule, place, and job description. BCG’s Deborah Lovich offers critical insights to help leaders navigate this paradigm shift, ensuring that employees can keep their autonomy while remaining productive. The goal? Letting go of rigid bureaucracy to reshape work around our lives. ?
Here are three essential actions leaders will have to take to realize this vision: trust your people, be data driven, and think beyond the schedule.
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Explore more videos like this and others on our TED@BCG YouTube channel
LISTEN?
In this episode of the In Her Ellement podcast, Ashley Grice, CEO and managing director of BCG BrightHouse Consulting, shares some of the insights she has learned in her role and on her own professional journey.
Among other things, she explores what it takes to be a great business leader. Bringing your best self to work is key, exhibiting such qualities as authenticity, vulnerability, and empathy. But, sometimes, this is easier said than done. Too often, women are hesitant to bring their EQ as much as their IQ into the workplace because they are afraid of being stereotyped as too emotional.??
What does it mean to be a female leader in business? How do you set appropriate boundaries? Why is it important to be purpose-driven? These are just a few of the big questions being grappled with in this gripping discussion.?
Listen to the podcast: Purpose & Impact with Ashley Grice, CEO of BCG Brighthouse
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TEDx | Compliance and Ethics Speaker | Helping Businesses Earn RETURNS ON INTEGRITY and INSPIRE TALENT | Get the PROFIT EQUATION right by understanding integrity risks. ?? [email protected]
2 年The same way as financial, technical and strategic models, leaders should learn and teach their teams to use ethical decision making models, too. Because these do exist for a good reason ?? Talking about aplied business ethics, at which most commercial staff and their leaders unfortunately fail in real life, far away from neet conference rooms where some of them try to learn business ethics theory… And these ethical failures in actual business practices can take all your strategic accomplishments and your entire reputation to trash ???? So, aside from the WHERE and the HOW are we all rowing in the same direction and with shared purpose, leaders need to set the tone also about the ethical standard for the HOW and the WHAT part ?? And then make good effort to equip themselves and their people with skills and tools to really deliver these ethical values in real business, right on the very filed! Especially in times of uncertainty and lack of interpersonal connection, these can be deteriorated. While most leaders and their teams feel they are ethical persons (and in majority cases they truly are), they might actually DO quite the opposite… to perform the techincal WHAT and to hit that (short term) financial targets, fast and cheep?
Excellent article, thank you for sharing these wonderful insights
marketing strategies are subject to the volatility that is created between supply and demand
AGM at Savills India
2 年I am happy to came across this... I would term this as pillars for growth. 1) Trust : This is at the core for all businesses, without trust it is impossible to move ahead. 2) Data Driven : In today's time most of the decision we take are Data Driven.? 3) Think beyond the schedule : This is possible when you start owning things.
Operations / E2E Supply Chain management / Global Sourcing & Procurement / Procurement transformation / Domestic and Global Logistics Operations / Process improvement / Cost optimisation / Inventory management
2 年Happy reading ! Key takeaways are: i) If middle managers aren’t on the same page with each other and with senior leaders from the start, how can they possibly be expected to act cohesively in the face of rapid change and the often-unprecedented challenges that arise? ii) essential actions leaders will have to take to realize this vision: (a) trust your people, (b) be data driven, and (c) think beyond the schedule. Thanks for sharing.