Why are managers not acting when they ought to?
"When it comes to action and results, clarity is more powerful than knowledge."

Why are managers not acting when they ought to?

Findings from informal research in organizations point to an important factor.

Confusion. The main reason why managers don’t act when they ought to.

They have too much to do. And they do not know how to focus on tasks is one of the top reasons.

The other reason is confusion. Not clear about what to do, where to go, and whom to talk to.

What is the cost of this confusion and inaction?

No one has computed that. But everyone thinks it could be enormous.

One CEO felt that “If we cracked this issue, we could increase our PBT by 100%.” Many CFOs and CMOs have confirmed this could be true.

What can we do to help managers move from ‘Confusion to Clarity?

Sridhar* is a former director of Ogilvy India, and former Chairman of Ogilvy One, India. And the author of the book “Unlock The Real Power Of Ideation”. And a certified executive coach from the Coaching Foundation of India. He has been experimenting with pro-bono one-hour conversations. With ‘confused’ managers who sought his help.

He finds that a patient, non-judgmental conversation with empathy helps. In 90% of the cases, managers had too much to do and did not know how to prioritize tasks. He teaches them a simple method called “paired comparison”.

He asks them questions that they may not have thought about.

Sridhar is happy to do this for your senior managers/executives. Pro-bono.

Write to Sridhar at [email protected] and explore how this can help your managers. And indeed, the organizations.

As one CEO said, “All things being equal clarity and speed of action could be our competitive edge.”

*I am using the third person instead of using the first person in this article. Felt uncomfortable using the first person singular; it seemed so boastful.

Shuvadeep Nag

making sense of consumer conversations

2 年

So true

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Martin Silcock

Transforming Customer and Brand Insights into Competitive Edge & Sustainable Growth | Helps CEO's, MD's and Marketing Heads in mid-sized companies that struggle to get clarity, confidence and value from insight data

2 年

“Confusion to clarity”

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Dr. Sundar Parthasarathy

Helping you find insights and take actions for your success.

2 年

I have known Sridhar for more than 10 years .. he is a master! To quote from his article, Sridhar offers "... pro-bono one-hour conversations. With ‘confused’ managers who sought his help." So, reach out to him ... Tell (or better still, tag!) others who you think may find it useful!

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Prasant A.

CMO | Digital Transformation | Global Marketing

2 年

It is absolutely relatable. Confusion is what makes people pause right before the ACT moment.

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Sudhanshu Singh

Consulting | Training l Mentoring l Teaching l Research l Innovation l eGovernance l Productivity l Optimisation

2 年

Sridhar Ramanathan In my opinion many managers do not make deliberate attempt to learn unless their learning is sponsored/mandated by management. Problem solving tools are easy to learn and apply. There should be Willingness to accept that there will always be others who know some things which are much more than you know and develop knowledge transfer mechanisms( after giving due respect to them). You stop losing clarity when you stop looking ( consciously) at bridges that connect your organization to outside world.

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