World Strategy Week is a worldwide, virtual event featuring the best experts and leaders in strategy, strategic planning, and strategic management to inspire, engage and innovate.
While putting full attention on accomplishing one thing increases the odds that the thing will be done well, it is all too easy for the career minded professional to end up doing nothing other than their work!
They would be wise to realize that top performers at all levels make time for other things such as family, recreation, exercise, spiritual development, and even volunteer work.
BAODN President Steve McGee facilitated the discussion in front of an audience of over 40 people at Big Heart Pet Brands Headquarters, One Maritime Plaza in San Francisco.
Panelists:
Christine Hunter; Vice President of Talent at Big Heart Pet Brands, formerly Del Monte.
Rochelle Kopp; founder of Japan Intercultural Consulting, wrote a book for non-Japanese about working at Japanese company, and teaches cross-cultural business communication.
Dena McFarland; was part of a significant change at Xerox where they restructured the company yet didn’t lay off anyone. She was also a consultant for hospitals to change their mindset from physician-centered to patient-centered.
Jeanamaria M. Alayaay; co-facilitated Lean Startup Product Development training for the White House Presidential innovation fellows and Presidential leadership programs, Enterprise Ireland (the Irish government’s tech accelerator), Evernote, and Microsoft Imagine Cup. She works at Luxr.
A rough summary of key points panelists offered in response to opening questions follows:
Leaders whose direct reports submit regular (e.g., monthly) status reports on progress, problems, and plans should consider re-working their approach to include more frequent (e.g., bi-weekly), one-on-one, real-time meetings to discuss progress and to collaborate and align on how things are going, priorities, and next steps.
Specifically, top leaders ask each direct report to prepare andsubmit a day or so ahead of meeting one-on-one:
An update on progress since last meeting, including a read-out of measures previously agreed upon to track progress.
A list of the top three or so things s/he is working on, and for each:
What s/he seeks to accomplish
What has been done so far to accomplish it
What has happened as a result of what has been done so far
Deep: Look for an extraordinary depth of competence in a functional or technical area or a methodology that is essential to the organization’s business;
Conceptual: The best leaders have an ability to abstract fully-formed concepts from a collection of parts and are able to communicate complex concepts clearly even to those who are not conceptual;
Connected: Target those who have strong interpersonal relationships with prospective or current clients, employees, partners, or funding sources; and
Driven: Look for an extraordinary inner commitment to achieve targeted results on time, on target, and on budget.
A diverse team of deep, conceptual, connected, and driven leaders who really like working with each other and who seek to accomplish the same end-result for the same reason and in the same way, have the collective capacity to accomplish nearly anything!
World Strategy Week is a worldwide, virtual event featuring the best experts and leaders in strategy, strategic planning, and strategic management to inspire, engage and innovate.
