Power with a friend

Getting more from less

In the last few weeks I created the world’s messiest whiteboard. It’s the New Year thing. What’s the strategy going forward? What do I want to do? What should I do? Everything was on there except focus and clarity. It was time to slash and burn some priorities. Luckily I did this with a friend.

Friends are very useful. They know more about you than you think. In particular, they know where the line is between what you are good at and where you are kidding yourself.

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Three steps to avoid micromanaging

Help people get on with it.

Here’s a quote from management professor, Henry Mintzberg: “The manager does not leave the telephone, the meeting, or the email to get back to work. These contacts are the work.”

Most managers will relate to that. On the one hand, the flow of interruptions, requests and enquiries is a source of constant frustration. On the other, constant communication is at the center of successfully running any team or any business.

What’s the right perspective on this? 

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The Successful Exit

To take more with you, leave more behind.

When they broadcast emergency procedures as you taxi down the runway, the idea is to show you how to exit in the safest manner. It’s meant to be the most orderly solution. In any given circumstances, the fewest people will get hurt and the optimum number will survive.

A successful business exit is not a lot different. If you put together the right plan and execute it in an orderly manner, you leave all parties in the best possible shape.

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Staying bootstrapped

Keeping cash flow strategies green

Want to reinvent your business? A popular strategy is to return to the startup model. It reinvigorates the enthusiasm and drive that characterize a business launch, spurring innovation and idea generation. 

We see it in notions like “skunkworks” and “idea labs”. The track record, however, is patchy. Ideas emerge, but they often lack traction in the marketplace. Plenty of great innovations are still born; they are long on vision but lack financial discipline.

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Why you need to collaborate

It’s not just good for everyone else

Collaboration gets a lot of traction in management commentary. Wherever your look, we are encouraged to form alliances. Even Harvard Business Review recently devoted an entire issue to it. Everyone, it seems, wants to work together.

Teamwork, as collaboration was once known, has always been a key to success. What has shifted is the preparedness for greater collaboration across traditional boundaries.

Diversity has been acknowledged – not for its political correctness but for the fact that cross-fertilization of opinion and perspective leads to more robust decisions.

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