Effective Enterprise Leadership: Counsel for enterprise leaders from enterprise leaders— CHAPTER 2
Essentials of Effective Leadership
Many executives carry a list that summarizes what they intend to achieve. One leader shared their list during our discussion — it consisted of seven points conveyed in about 35 words. This book works similarly. It is a set of ideas summarized as succinctly as possible.
Based on my experiences as an advisor and executive and my conversations with executives across industries, four categories of essentials emerged. They form the structure for this book.
Know your role
Effective leadership begins with understanding the role. Identifying stakeholders and their interests is a crucial first step. For those new to the role, the comprehensive responsibility of juggling multiple stakeholder interests may require a mindset adjustment. For experienced leaders, the unique challenges and expectations of each situation merit exploration. In every case, enterprise leaders should understand why they were chosen for the role and the expectations for their personal impact.
Set your agenda
Effective leaders set and follow a robust agenda. They inform it through direct interaction with stakeholders and a thorough understanding of the strategic, operational, and cultural context of their challenge. They emphasize strengthening the ‘through line’ that connects markets and customers through the operating model to the employees that bring it to life. Experienced leaders translate their agenda to strategic and financial roadmaps that set the pace for progress, offer alternatives and contingencies, and provide checkpoints to assess progress and evaluate options.
Manage for performance
Effective leaders create a management system built to deliver their agenda. They align organizational roles and responsibilities to the enterprise’s operating model, with clear individual decision rights and collective decision-making processes. They establish meaningful measures and goals and a vibrant cadence of problem-solving and performance management. Effective leaders engage execution purposefully and personally. They intervene when necessary. They engage the owners of the enterprise in their agenda and tailor communications to their interests.
Unify with culture
Effective leaders unify their stakeholders through culture. They define a mission and a set of values that compels customers, employees, and shareholders. They communicate, internally and externally, and embed their intended culture through expectations and standards. Effective leaders measure and manage behaviors that affect culture with the same rigor and discipline they apply to business performance — they recognize that how results are delivered can matter as much as the results themselves.
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Revisit Chapter 1.
Read Chapter 3 here.
