I found this Management Values summary by Louis V. Gerstner particularly impressive. I highly recommend you build and share your values and principles when you take on a new role involving multiple levels of organization hierarchy. It is practically impossible for you to meet each team member face-to-face. Under these situations, such a memo creates standard guidelines to develop a singular and strong organization culture...
- I manage by principle, not procedure.
- The marketplace dictates everything we should do
- I'm a big believer in quality, strong competitive strategies, and plans, teamwork, payoff for performance, and ethical responsibility
- I look for people who work to solve problems and help colleagues. I sack politicians
- I am heavily involved in strategy; the rest is yours to implement. Just keep me informed in an informal way. Don't hide bad information - I hate surprises. Don't try to blow things by me. Solve problems laterally; don't keep bringing them up the line.
- Move fast. If we make mistakes, let them be because we are too fast rather than too slow.
- Hierarchy means very little to me. Let’s put together in meetings the people who can help solve a problem, regardless of position. Reduce committees and meetings to a minimum. No committee decision making. Let’s have lots of candid, straightforward communications
- I don’t completely understand the technology. I‘ll need to learn it, but don’t expect me to master it. The unit leaders must be the translators into business terms for me.
Memo to my team (once upon a time :-))
ReplyDeleteAs we are undergoing tremendous pressure on delivery side, it is important that we internalize and follow these. As long as we honestly feel we are following these, that is good.
• Respect for others – Give others a benefit of doubt. In case you feel your points are not being understood, step back and rethink the objective and how you can convey the message differently (albeit calmly)
• Complete Transparency in all our interactions – Under pressure, it is tempting to take short-cuts and hide facts. Let’s step back and take a breather, brush-up for whatever comes, and follow the right path.
• Ownership – This is something each of us is very passionate about. Let’s continue being passionate while being nimble and open to other ideas. As managers, our job is to facilitate the realization of best ideas.
• Result Orientation – We are all very focused on Results. Let’s do more upfront planning and commit to realistic results, leading to predictability and consistency.
• Collaboration & Teamwork – We are together in this race. No person or team independently reaches success line. While, it might be frustrating to face bottlenecks from different teams at times, it is important to talk to the right person and express the concern. It is very likely that we have already expressed these concerns a number of times before. However, a little bit of patience and tolerance helps in the longer run.