Chapter three explains the importance of having the right people working for the company. The right people should be considered the most important asset in the company. In order for a company to go from good to great, it must start with having the right people in the right places. Collins refers to it as getting the right people on the bus and getting the wrong people off the bus. This concept starts with the “who” then the “what”. Leaders that went from good to great started with getting the right people then decided the direction in which to take the company. Great leaders utilize the wisdom and vision of great employees to their advantage.
Collins speaks of companies that use the “genius with thousand helper’s model”. This model
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Rigorous companies set standards that they hold their employees to. The right people, who perform, know exactly where they stand and are able to concentrate on their work. Rigorous companies follow these standards from top management down. Rigorous companies know when to cut the cord. It’s not fair to the company or the employee to keep them employed. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.
Great executive teams debate, and have heated conversations and agree to disagree to find the best solutions to overcome impediments.
Chapter four provides and analysis on how a company that can face the brutal facts of reality can succeed. Collins uses the comparison of two well-known grocery stores, Kroger and A&P. Kroger faced the facts that consumers habits where emerging and changed the way they conducted business. A&P wouldn’t face the brutal facts and failed.
Good to great companies allow the employees to have a voice and listen to what they are saying, good and bad. This allows the leaders to utilize the information to make changes and move forward.
By truly facing the facts, and keeping your faith, you can succeed. If you ignore reality, you are setting yourself up for
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What you can be the best in the world at?
3. What drives your economic engine?
Great leaders do things that they are really passionate about. They focus solely on what they can do better than any other company and they identify a ratio that has the single greatest and substantial impact on the company, such as profit per X or cash flow per X etc.
Having the right individuals in the right positions is a critical component to the success of any organization. True leaders surround themselves with the best of the best. They are not concerned with someone having more knowledge than them and taking their position, they develop them for succession. They build exceptional teams for the good of the company.
I agree with Collins regarding letting go of employees that won’t perform to the standards. It is very difficult to do, however in the end it’s a win for both. Employees that can’t perform become very frustrated and unhappy. It is better to let them go and find something that they can do well and be happy.
The analysis reveals that companies that stick with what they know and keep it simple do better. In my line of work, I always say to my employees you can’t be all things to all people. We offer simple plain vanilla lending products that we know are best for our members and we are great at
...spects of what makes up an effective leader, it is clear that there cannot be one clear- cut and dry definition of what a leader is. A leader is a make up of many different attributes and qualities. An effective Leader encompasses all of the attributes which go along with facilitating ideas and allowing an organization to grow and flourish, as well as inspiring and motivating those he or she oversees to do the same. A Leader has the ability and almost the reflex action to surface when it is time for a difficult task to be accomplished or a difficult decision to be made. Leadership may be a type of management but a manager is not always a leader. “Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.”
In Jim Collins book Good to Great, we explore the notion of being rigorous, not ruthless. “To be ruthless means hacking and cutting, especially in difficult times, or wantonly firing people without any thoughtful consideration.” (GTG, p. 52) In stark contrast, rigorous companies are no walk in the park, but the difference between the two styles is night and day. Rigorous companies adopt a top down approach when it comes to hiring management. There is an old saying that says a “fish rots from the head down.” This is analogous to a business hiring the wrong leadership and the business failing as a result of the poor hiring decisions in leadership. I think that successful companies, especially moving forward will
...gree and believe that they could get real results if everyone would consistently apply the company’s principles. I have learned personally in the business world consistency means a lot, all employees should have the same consequences. By letting go employees, managers and executives shows that the rules apply to all levels. It will cause everyone involved to have more respect for the company even if they don’t agree with the decision.
By getting rid of those employees who don't meet standards the burden of daily tasks is lifted on every other employee in that department. Eighty to ninety percent of business theft is internal (Paranoid
Dr. Sutton highlights what it takes to be a good boss. People that work for a good boss are 20 percent less likely to have a heart attack (Sutton, 2010). Dr. Sutton wrote that teams with stronger leaders cost the company less money and achieved their work better (Sutton, 2010). Engagement and performance of employees were based upon their direct boss and not if the company was good or bad (Sutton, 2010). Most bad bosses have employees who have check-out: actively disengaged, and undermine their co-workers accomplishments. Managers have to find the balance between performance and humanity to be successful. Performance is about doing everything possible to help followers do great work; while humanity is about employees experiencing dignity and pride. Treating managerial work as an endurance race instead of a sprint race with small wins will lead one to becoming a good boss called grit by Sutton. Sutton believes that good bosses walk a constructive line between being assertive and not assertive enough with guidance, wisdom, and feedback that he called Lasorda’s law (Sutton, 2010).
There have been countless books, lectures, and and trainings, and retreats constructed around the idea of cultivating leadership in an individual. However, cultivating individuals’ ability to follow great leadership has received far less attention. Who are these people leading if each person within an organization is being trained to be a leader? The word follower has negative connotations, evoking the images of a weak, uncreative, milquetoast personality. However, Jimmy Collins, in his book, “Creative Followership: In the Shadow of Greatness”, suggests that the ability to be led brings as much creativity, consciousness, and indeed leadership to an organization or team as the leader himself. Great followership is a reflection of great leadership. In this, the follower is just as important as the leader in the relationship. Many great leaders have asserted that a leader with even a modicum of understanding of what drives their subordinates can take their organization to previously undreamt-of heights in creativity and productivity. Collins does not disabuse us of this notion, he does however add that the follower is indispensable agent in this interplay between leader and follower.
In this book, Jim Collins also challenges the notion that "people are your most important asset" and postulates, instead, that "the right people are." Despite the author's emphasis on finding the right people, there's no evidence that a company has to have concern for its employees as a core value for it to be great. There are a number of inherently great companies that didn't have this. I don't think Walt Disney cared about his people. He cared about films, and Disneyland, and smiles of kids. On the other side, with Hewlett-Packard and IBM, you had the antithesis of Walt Disney. When you look at corporate history, what matters is not what core values you have but that you have core value, and that you believe them. As another example, take David Maxwell's bus ride. When he became CEO of Fannie Mae in 1981, the company was losing $1 million every business day, with $56 billion worth of mortgage loans under water. The board desperately wanted to know what Maxwell was going to do to rescue the company. Maxwell responded to the "what" question the same way that all good-to-great leaders do: He told them, "That's the wrong first question.
Although there are many outstanding, albeit necessary qualities of a good leader, it is the leader’s beliefs in which greatness is given its first breath, fostered by action, and spread throughout the institution. A great leader believes in encouraging, not destroying; in setting the precedence instead of yielding to prominence ; in collaboration, not division; in giving, not taking; and in having high standards and volunteering to be the first of many to be held to them. A great leader does not take advantage of the people being lead, but instead, creates an advantage for the people by giving them the opportunities to lead. Only when people take ownership of an institution will passion be cultivated, action be taken, and greatness be achieved.
Getting the right people on the bus (and in the right seat), getting the right people off the bus, and then deciding where to drive it are important concepts that the author has frequently referenced. These concepts are essential to a company if they want to become great. A great quote from the book is "People are not your best asset, the right people are."
In Good to Great, Jim Collins discusses major key points companies have used to go from a good company to a great one. He did this by discussing seven characteristics companies should listen and absorb to transition from being good to becoming great. These characteristics included: level 5 leadership, first who…then what, confront the brutal facts, the hedgehog concept, a culture of discipline and the flywheel. Companies who can approach these successfully are the ones who enable themselves to separate from other competing companies. Furthermore, the statement Jim Collins said, which caught my attention immediately, was not in these seven characteristics, but in the first chapter of the book.
Many Scholars characterize the core qualities and skills necessary for an effective leader. Useem defines leadership as “Creating a vision and translating that vision into actions”. Historically, an effective leader was assumed to be exceptionally knowledgeable, authoritative, and dominate. Those leaders applied the command and control method to lead an organization. With the passage of time, this definition has been changed. The modern definition of an effective leader is honest, courageous, trustworthy, inspirational, and result-oriented. Today’s leaders create shared values and vision, and empower others to achieve their targets.
Leaders are the individuals who help to create options and opportunities. They help in identifying the choices and solve the problems. They build commitment and coalitions. Leaders do this by inspiring others and working along with them to construct the shared vision of the possibilities and commitments of a better group, organization or community. They engage the followers in such a way that most of the followers become leaders in their own right. The variety of demands of an increasingly complex world very often require that leadership be shared by most of the members of an organization, in appropriate ways for different situations. A leader is the on...
People always talk about how important it is for companies to have a good leader, someone who not only keeps the blue numbers, but also achieves a loyalty from customers, pleasant working environment, successful business partnerships and ahead of the competition.
When we work together in a team, or in a broader sense as a society, the leader takes on the most important role. It is the leader that helps prioritize activities and direct people’s thought process in the right direction. They are the ones who have the ability to bring the group together as a whole. Because of this, not anyone can be a leader. Only people with certain qualities and abilities are able to fill this role. So what makes a good leader? There is a defined path and specific characteristics that makes someone a good leader.
There are so many aspects to being an effective leader, yet they are so easy to achieve but some leaders do not care to. Effective leaders must motivate, value their employees, solve problems, and be accountable. An effective leader is said to know the organization, the purpose,