PrimeGenesis Blog
Onboarding Landmines – HP CEO Failure as a Case in Point
On the one hand, Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker is just one more of the 40% of new leaders that fail in their first 18 months. On the other hand, we rarely get as clear a view of why someone failed as we do in this case. Board chair Ray Lane...
Meg Whitman’s Day One Itinerary as CEO of Hewlett-Packard
Everything is magnified on Day One, whether it’s your first day in a new company or the day your new role is announced. Everyone is looking for hints about what you think and what you’re going to do. This is why it’s so important to seed your message by paying particular attention to all the signs, symbols, and stories you deploy, and the order in which you deploy them. Make sure people are seeing and hearing things that will lead them to believe what you want them to believe about you and about themselves in relation to the future of the organization.
The Los Angeles Urban League’s Blair Taylor Follows the Only Possible Path to Success
When Blair Taylor became CEO of the Los Angeles Urban League in 2005, he took over an organization with an 80-plus year history of success helping African-Americans and other minorities in Los Angeles achieve economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights. And he took over from John Mack, a strong leader who had led the League for 36 years. This was an organization whose behaviors, relationships, attitudes, values and environment were set – and working. (Follow this link for more on the BRAVE cultural framework from the new 3rd edition of The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan.)
But the world was changing and the League would need to change too if it was going to make the impact it needed to have on its community going forward. Taylor knew that the only possible path to success was for him to converge into the existing culture and evolve it by standing on the shoulders of the giants that had come before him.
Taylor spent a lot of time getting to know all the critical stakeholders. When he was done, he went back and spent more time getting to know them even better. As just one example, he continues to have lunch with one board member or community leader a week. There are 40 board members and literally dozens of community leaders. So when he completes the last lunch, he goes back and starts all over again, and again, and again.
When you're in a hole, stop digging
The story repeats. Someone makes a mistake and tries to make up for it by doubling down on something else, kicking off a spiral of doom. This time it's UBS' Kweku Adoboli. Last year it was someone else. Before that it was Nick...
The New Leader’s Journal: Roles Sort Impact
I guess I should have expected this, but I was surprised on two counts. 1) Ellen didn’t want the role in investor relations. She wants to be head of marketing. If she can’t do it here, she says she’s going to find somewhere else to do it. So we put her in a...
Intuit’s Current and Former CEO Drive Value Proposition In Sync
Make sure you’re getting the full lesson here about what makes for strong burning imperative. The best are:
Customer-focused, drive a customer-relevant value proposition
Sharply defined and crystal clear to all
Intensely shared by all – across the generations
In sync with the organization’s purpose and founder’s intent
As urgent today as they were when they were originally drafted
Continually evolving through experimentation as the team adjusts and improves along the way
The engine that powers executional bulldozers
This is a good example of step 6 of The New Leader’s Playbook: Embed a Strong Burning Imperative
Break Scope-Resources-Time Constraints by Creating Resources
While I stand by my earlier thoughts on the importance of time management and delegation in onboarding, in today's economy we're seeing more and more cases of bosses telling their subordinates to get it done no matter what. Productivity is up because...
Which Way to Run? Lessons from 9/11 Choices
The fight or flight instinct is one of our most basic survival tools. Everyone was running on 9/11. Most ran away from trouble. The heroes ran toward it. And the leaders helped others run in the most appropriate direction. Make no mistake about it. The first...
The New Leader’s Journal: Role Sort
Got my role sort figured out. I’ve arranged for Ellen to move to a role in investor relations. With the IPO, that function is becoming increasingly important. Ellen does have some strong communication skills. She just never bought into me. Want her in the company –...
GE CEO Jeff Immelt’s Long-Term View 10 Years In
GE has long been a source of strong general managers. That’s still important. Now Immelt is putting a premium on deep functional and business knowledge as well.
Do you remember the old description of the difference between a generalist and a specialist? A generalist is someone who knows less and less about more and more until eventually he or she knows nothing about everything. On the other hand, a specialist is someone who knows more and more about less and less until eventually he or she knows everything about nothing. Obviously, both are useless.
The right answer lies somewhere in between: general managers with deep functional and business knowledge.
This is a good example of step 10 of The New Leader’s Playbook: Evolve People, Plans, and Practices to Capitalize on Changing Circumstances
By the end of your first 100 days, you should have made significant steps toward aligning your people, plans, and practices around a shared purpose. Remember, this is not a one-time event but, instead, something that will require constant, ongoing management and Darwinian improvement.
Immelt is a model for long-term, ongoing management and Darwinian improvement. Just as he is viewing the first 100 days of his 11th year in the job as the first 100 days of the rest of his career, so should all of us. Like Immelt, we’re all new leaders all the time.