The one concept that I feel is most significant in this week’s reading would be the Hedgehog Concept, simplifying a complex world into a single organized idea/principle that guides everything else.
The Hedgehog Concept suggest that instead of focusing your organizations energy and time on many different concepts, if you concentrate on one essential concept and ignore everything else you can become great at what you do. By using the 3 circle/questions to help determine what is essential to your organization you can began to focus and move towards greatness. As a leader you must ask yourself:
1. What can we be the best at? Figure out what it is that your organization can be the best at in the world, as well as what it cannot be best at..
2. What
drives our economic engine? Figure out the one denominator that has the single most impact on your business. 3. What are we deeply passionate about? Focus on activities or ideas that ignite your organization’s passion. With these questions answered your organization will have a goal that will allow them to work towards being great. With this understanding in place leaders are able to focus the organization’s attention and goals where it can obtain the best results.
1. What were your organization’s purpose and goals for the past year? How did you fulfill them?
When discussing any triumphant or flourishing organization or institution, the main attribute which will always surface when examining the true fabric of what allows a particular organization or institution to excel, will always be leadership.
I found the Constructive Nature of Human Perception the most interesting to learn about because instinctively we can take fragmented, incomplete information and come to a much larger and holistic conclusion, even though what we are actually presented with is originally very incomplete. I found it fascinating that this could possibly be due to our human evolution and that this is basically the result of our survival instincts. We naturally discard useless information and only focus on what is really important, kind of like reading in between the lines, you look for what is less obvious or hidden or perhaps suggested by these
I think that the most important thing I got from this book, is the relacom concepts. I found if I translate almost every line of a scene, the intentions reveal themselves, and the delivery of line, is much more convincing. Another concept that I have always wanted to express, but couldn’t find the words, is the idea of ethno-centricity. I can’t remember which chapter it was in, but it explained that everyone thinks their own world is the center, and to properly build a character, sometimes you must lose this ethno-centiricity.
I chose this particular concept due to the need for effective leadership in today’s workforce as it pertains to employee development. In most cases, many businesses have ineffective leadership development programs that are designed to tear down employees rather than build them up. I have experienced such a lack of leadership through past employment experiences, however, those experiences have afforded me the ability to recognize and prevent those issues from occurring today. I have noticed a lack of focus on behalf of organizations where employee turnaround is the highest. There is nothing more stressful than an organization that is continually trying to see you fail added in with the daily problems of an adult life. The importance of leadership development is found in the constant need for strong and intuitive leadership throughout today’s modern organizations (Rowland, 2016). Organizations of the modern setting will need to explore alternative and innovative avenues to implement effective leadership skills as it pertains to specific industry cultures and or competition. I personally believe that the diversification of today’s workforce has promoted a positive change in how employees are treated and how organizations operate competitively in today’s business
Right Management. (n.d.). Organizational Effectiveness: Discovering How to Make it Happen. Leadership Insights Journal. Retrieved from: http://www.right.com/thought-leadership/research/organizational-effectiveness-discovering-how-to-make-it-happen.pdf
“Without leaders, things drift along”. They go where they want to go, following the path of least resistance. A leader’s job is to overcome this resistance and make the things flow in a different direction.
Dr. Sutton highlights what it takes to be a good boss. People that work for a good boss are 20 percent less likely to have a heart attack (Sutton, 2010). Dr. Sutton wrote that teams with stronger leaders cost the company less money and achieved their work better (Sutton, 2010). Engagement and performance of employees were based upon their direct boss and not if the company was good or bad (Sutton, 2010). Most bad bosses have employees who have check-out: actively disengaged, and undermine their co-workers accomplishments. Managers have to find the balance between performance and humanity to be successful. Performance is about doing everything possible to help followers do great work; while humanity is about employees experiencing dignity and pride. Treating managerial work as an endurance race instead of a sprint race with small wins will lead one to becoming a good boss called grit by Sutton. Sutton believes that good bosses walk a constructive line between being assertive and not assertive enough with guidance, wisdom, and feedback that he called Lasorda’s law (Sutton, 2010).
We live in an era of communication challenges. It is an age of increasingly scarce management and education to the markets of tomorrow. To solve this problem, to improve and restore the competitive edge of business, I recommend teaching leadership as well as organization. We need to move beyond the simplistic and boring, everyday organizational skills commonly taught in core courses in business schools. Important as these skills are, we need to redirect our foci towards the essential ingredient required to put these skills to work – leadership. As Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus have expressed it, “The problem with many organizations…is that they tend to be over managed and under led. There is a profound difference between management and leadership, and both are important.” “To manage” means “to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge or responsibility for, to conduct.” “Leading” is “influencing, guiding in direction, course, action, opinion.” Other characteristics include: motivating and inspiring individuals, providing direction and vision, earning the respect of others, turning talent and efforts into results, and being an excellent communicator and listener.
that today’s workforce needs to get away fro the CEO tradition and move towards more group oriented styles of leadership. This way the group comes together and decides on
In Good to Great, Jim Collins discusses major key points companies have used to go from a good company to a great one. He did this by discussing seven characteristics companies should listen and absorb to transition from being good to becoming great. These characteristics included: level 5 leadership, first who…then what, confront the brutal facts, the hedgehog concept, a culture of discipline and the flywheel. Companies who can approach these successfully are the ones who enable themselves to separate from other competing companies. Furthermore, the statement Jim Collins said, which caught my attention immediately, was not in these seven characteristics, but in the first chapter of the book. He stated, “Good is the enemy of great.” This sentence consisting of six words I believed was most powerful throughout the book. Having said this, he discusses how typically companies are satisfied with just good, good is good, no one ever tries to take another step to try and become great. While this book is discussing businesses, it also applies to everyday life; am I doing everything to be great, or am I too just satisfied with good? Reflecting back on past work, school and overall experiences, it came to my attention not all the time did I try and be great, for I was content with good, good was good for me. I never took an extra stride to try and become great at what I was doing. Chapter 1, I felt to be the most influential, it truly grasped my attention and made me think to never settle for just good because someone else out there is taking extra steps to be great. Moreover, while all the characteristics have a significant meaning in the text and assist one another in transitioning companies from good to great, the Hedgehog Concept is on...
To compete in a global economy, organizations of all types are focusing on improving productivity, quality, and service. In each of these areas it is important to tap the talents of the available human resources in these organizations. Effective leaders must understand and depend on the interrelationship among organizational structure such as power, authority, influence and leadership. In addition how it abides in organizations and how it move others to accomplish the organization goals.
Identify three skills that companies look for in managers and explain which might be most needed for the Camp Bow Wow leaders highlighted in the video.
...cation and motivation. Finally shared some thoughts on what are effective employees, successful managers, and exemplary citizens.
Finally, leaders are able to keep everything in perspective. They invest themselves fully but also are able to keep their priorities in order. As a child I never understood anything that my mother did or said but now that I am an adult I realize that my mother had a valid reason for everything she did. My entire childhood my mother has molded me to become a great leader and all the lessons that my mother has taught me I can spread the knowledge to my children. Successful leaders keep it all in perspective because they are able to separate the important from the urgent, and devote their time