High leverage tasks vs. Low leverage tasks...

High leverage tasks vs. Low leverage tasks. Shortly after CEO Jeffery Immelt took over the reins at General Electric he estimated that on their best day, GE salespeople spent only 30% of their time in front of the customer. He wants to work that up to 70-80% of their time. My question is what are the salespeople doing if they are not in front of customers? You can travel just about anywhere during the evening hours and...

Are you a slave to your subordinates?...

Are you a slave to your subordinates? If not, why not? The primary role of the manager is to enable the value creation abilities of their subordinates or team, then the role of the manager is, in part, one of servitude to your subordinates. In my customer-centered view, a manager’s subordinates can be viewed as his or her clients. And just as any client they need to be well serviced. The managers must keep close communications...

The hypocritical leader...

The hypocritical leader. One of the major differences between a successful firm and the typical firm has to do with leadership. In many firms top management leads by directives and policy statements and even some by press releases. They talk a good game and give plenty of lip services, and while that may work especially in the short-term ultimately that leadership style is not every effective. You can’t phone in leadership. Executives...

You must have biased employees...

You must have biased employees. Bias is something we as humans have. Although biases can help us categorize things and may help speed up some decision-making, biases are generally seen as negative. Biases help prevent us from having a completely open mind. Having an open mind is especially valuable when the clever manager is concerned with creating new business opportunities. So what do you do? The smartest organizations...

The Law of Crappy People...

I cannot take full credit for originating this idea, but neither can Marc Andreessen (founder of Netscape), from whom I borrowed heavily. In an article from 2000 in Fast Company magazine, Andreessen was asked about some of his management ideas. Of all the ones he spoke about, this idea really struck a cord with me. This is the reason I have adapted and expanded it here. We know that the competition for talent has also...