For most companies, a good leader is the difference between being a market leader, a challenger, somewhere in the middle of the pack or a company at the bottom of the pile. It's never a coincidence what position you have or take in the market.
It's always about the leader's ability to create a vision where the employees also share in the values that are created. It's about converting this vision into concrete and achievable goals. It's about understanding the market the company is in, what competitors exist in that market and how the company can use the resources it possesses to take the market shares defined in the objectives. And it's about translating all this data into plans and recipes that the entire organization understands and is able to use, as well as being willing to constantly make necessary adjustments to everything.
“And no one does this or achieves this alone. If you want to be the best, you have to learn from and together with the best. The best in their fields in similar markets with equal challenges and opportunities.”
Its our belief that leaders, like a manager on the soccer field or the virtuoso on the violin. Must constantly train to be good and learn new things. Over time, these leaders become the best and their companies will also be the best in their markets, locally, regionally, nationally or internationally.
Expertise & Markets
Being able to document and prove your knowledge. Its crucial for your organization to belive in you as their leader. And without their trust, you will face an uphill battle. A battle which historically will be lost more often than won. This is where you qualify to become a leader in the first place.
1. Expertise and respect
Your academic background and experience is what commands respects from your employees, peers and stakeholders. If you cant prove you can do it, demanding someone to follow you and belive in you will be difficult.
2. Markets and opportunities
Again, proof of concept. We believe in Mourinho managing a football team and Elon Musk in managing a car factory. But if they were to change roles, the automatic trust and belief would disappear. Thus you know Mourinho knows the football market just as Musk knows the EV market.
Vision & Goals
Developing a vision with concrete goals is the first step in engage your organization and make sure everyone puls their weight and everyone starts pulling in the same direction. This is where you create a team.
3. Create value for everyone:
When the Vikings went raiding in England. Their vision might have been to be the most efficient viking to explore and reach new markets. For any viking onboard, knowing the wealth created on such raids. This, for the common viking, translated to; Join this raid and earn more silver than your neighbours and watch your family grow up safely. Exploration is a good company vision. What makes it a great vision, is employees buying into it and getting them rearing to go.
4. Make these values obtainable
You need clear cut goals for the long and short run. Goals that highlights your vision. And goals that is logical and easy understandable for everyone you need onboard.
Data, Analysis & Assessments
This is your first step into developing your business strategy. How do you play the team you are captain to win. Which battles to choose, what opponent's to expect and which resources you can deploy.
5. What must be conquered to obtain your goals:
Evaluate where to attack, understanding the different needs and wants in different markets, segments and industries is crucial. You need to identify opportunities for short and long term.
6. Who are you competing withand which weakness can you exploit:
Knowing your market is key. Knowing who you face of to in each segment of each industry is just as crucial. You need to know their strengts and weaknesses. Ist just like Sun Tzu said; Know yourself and know your enemy and you will win. Know yourself and not your enemy, and you will win some and loose some. Not knowing yourself nor your enemy and you will loose.
7. How does your resources stack up
Thus knowing yourself, understanding how to utilize your resources and which battles to choose short term to make sure you win a Sun Tzu pointed out. Is key for your organization to be great.
Projects, Activities & Resources
This is where your can start engaging your market with a clear cut strategy, where everyone is pulling the right way and always playing to their strengts. Here you will experience that most of your competitors are not on your level, and you and your team will start to beat them regularly.
8. Based on the resources at your disposal, make plans
A plan without data is a wishlist and useless in a business sense. And without a plan, you are basically playing football with your mates in the Sunday league. You can win the occasional battle without a plan, but you will not win the war. Just make sure to plan for the low henging fruit first. Some short term success does wonders for your teams moral and belief in you as their leader.
9. Based on your plans, make recipes adapted to your employees
You need everyone to get their part of the job done. Someone just need the overview before they are ready to go. Others need a detailed outline of expectations, timeframes and such. It dosent matter, its your job to equip your team and organization with what they need to deliver your plan.
Compatible People & A Winning Team
You want givers. People doing their absolute best to make sure their colleagues gets opportunities, develops their skills, open up doors. While at the same time producing their absolute best 24-7 for themself and your organization as a whole.
10. A good personality goes a long way
Gatekeepers and free riders can kill off any project or organization. Just by closing doors and dampen the mood. Its your job to find them, weed them out and replace them with personalities and people able to deliver on your vision.
Classical Philosophy & Their Management Ambassadors
11. Classic greek philosophy and your talents
At some point classic philosophy were taken off the curriculum in business studies. This was and is a mistake. Every major leader, since the ancient greeks, has been a vivid student of classic philosophy. And has use these thinkers as the backbone for their management philosophy.
12 Develop your personal management philosophy
Steal! Look too Marcus Aurelius, Winston Churchill, Henry Ford. Understand the impact of Aristotles, Platoon, Stoics on management. Combine it with your personality, your traits and your strengts. And watch yourself become a Musk, Guardiola, Cuban or other major figures from other disciplines. In your industry.
Effort, Discipline & Techniques
13. Effort beats talent in 99 of 100 clashes
Being a manager is hard work. Going trough the motions is enough to be good. But it’s not enough to be great. To be great you must implement our Circle of management development into your daily routine, it forces discipline and helps with techniques and network. Your talent gets you into the circle. Its your effort within the circle who will decide how successful you will become.
A company dedicated to helping businesses any industry develop and utilize their competitive edges through learning, training, recruitment, and team development.
