Selasa, 02 November 2010

Have a Direction

Every team must have a direction. Call it mission, vision, goal, target, milestone, or deadline. The executive, leader, manager, must point the team, group, department, platoon, or company at something to be achieved.
Be well,
Dwika-ExecuTrain


Tip #2 For Technical Managers

"Create a Target"
**Steven Cerri

Over the course of my management and leadership career I've worked closely with CEOs. CEOs are often labeled "leaders". And yet I've watched as many CEOs fail as succeed by their own actions, not by outside forces.

During my coursework for my MBA, I came across a book by Chester Barnard, titled, "The Functions of the Executive". This book had a significant impact on me and my future work. it began to inform my work with CEOs and other high-level executives. Every time I saw a leader fail or succeed it seemed that it was due to their management abilities, and every time I saw a manager succeed or fail it seemed to be due to their leadership abilities.

Over the course of years I began to develop a unique view about management and leadership. And that view is that to be a successful leader the leader must also be a good manager and to be a successful manager the manager must also be a leader (although this requirement is not as strenuous as that for the leader).

As I looked at CEOs and managers that I worked for and with, I began to formulate the idea of "executive functions" and this was an expansion of Barnard's ideas of The Functions of the Executive. I developed a structure called the Six Functions of the Executive©. These are six functions that both the manager and the leader (both are executives by my definition) must perform regardless of their level in the organization. However, the tasks to be performed by the executive (from supervisor to CEO) at each level in the organization differ depending upon their level in that organization. So all executives, from supervisor to CEO and leader must perform these six functions to be successful and yet the tasks each performs within these six functions is what differentiates the supervisor, from the manager, from the president, from the CEO.

The first function of the executive is to "Create a Target". Regardless of the level in the organization, the supervisor, the manager, the leader, must create (meaning create from scratch or interpret a directive from upper management) such that the executive is clearly "pointing" the team in the direction they are to go.

Every team must have a direction. Call it mission, vision, goal, target, milestone, or deadline. The executive, leader, manager, must point the team, group, department, platoon, or company at something to be achieved. It is the responsibility of every person who leads anyone, even themselves, to point toward an outcome, and it is the first of Six Functions of the Executive; in this case, you, the Technical Manager.

Therefore, for every current technical manager here are some questions:
1. Are you pointing your direct reports toward clear targets or goals?
2. Do your direct reports know what is expected of them in concrete terms?
3. Do your direct reports know "how they will know they've been successful" in achieving the target, in unambiguous terms?
4. Could your direct reports tell you or someone else what their target(s) is?
5. Could your direct reports tell you or someone else what the team's target(s) is?
6. Does the target remain relatively stable or does it change frequently?
7. Do your direct reports feel that "one minute we are going in this direction and the next minute we are going in another direction?"
8. Do your direct reports regularly achieve success regarding their individual and team targets?

The answers to these questions should optimally be:
1 through 5 = yes
6 = stable
7 = no
8 = absolutely

Be well,
Steven

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