I was asked recently if I could give any advice for a business leader taking up the challenge of a new position. While it’s generally dangerous to advise someone when you aren’t familiar with their environment (their organization, their team, and their individual leadership challenge and goals), I believed I might be on safer ground if I phrased the response in the form of 3 Questions.
In the hope that this may possibly be useful to the Community of Business Leadership Practice out there, I offer those 3 Questions:
1. Individual – am I leading by example and learning to make different mistakes? Am I owning my personal development, my life-work balance, and my focus and execution on simple, clear goals, with meaningful measures of success?
2. Team – am I hiring and enabling Key People in Key Positions (KP2) for success? People who don’t think like me, who will challenge & engage us in projects that provide clear line of sight to value? Projects that may deliver a different, better future than I might otherwise have chosen, on my own?
3. Organization – am I setting and/or contributing to a clear vision and specific, strategic goals? Goals that the Teams & Peers I serve can (a) challenge, improve, support & then (b) drive in a detailed focus & execution on (c) projects that deliver enduring value for our Customers and our Organization?