Enduring Leadership Lessons

Scanning the headlines last month, I noted that General Motors announced a plan to recapitalize through an IPO to supplant the government bailout funds used to help guide them out of bankruptcy.

In reflecting upon the GM situation and looking at it through an organization design lens, I find that although there were many factors that contributed to their decline, at the heart of the matter was a failure of executive leadership within the organization.

In the complete article, I have outlined several of the lessons that can be taken away from the situation. I've also extrapolated some more enduring, universal lessons that leaders must understand and embrace regardless of your company’s industry or products or services.

In summary, these lessons include:

• Ensure your company has a robust, on-going and adaptive planning process for scanning and monitoring the market place
• Open your planning process to a diversity of viewpoints and perspectives
• Focus on the things your company does well, stop doing the things not done well
• Think “horizontal” not “vertical”
• It takes will, courage and lasting executive sponsorship to make change successful
• Engage your team’s hearts and minds
• Remember, behavior “patterns die hard”

The complete article can be found here.

- Mark LaScola, Managing Principal, ON THE MARK