Tips for taking your organization from good to great

Friday, April 27, 2007

This particular conference was titled ‘‘Good to Great, Even in Turbulent Times.” The keynote speaker was Jim Collins, author of the book ‘‘Good to Great.” For those of you who have not had a chance to read it and are tasked with leading an organization, a team or a department, it is definitely a must-read. Additionally, Jim Collins has recently authored a monograph titled ‘‘Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking is Not the Answer.” This latest effort is intended as a tool to discuss and define the language of greatness from the social sector point of view.

While in Denver, we were also given the opportunity to learn from three outstanding business leaders: Tom Schmitt, president and CEO of FedEx Global Supply Chain Services; Gary C. Kelly, CEO and vice chairman of Southwest Airlines; and Ann Marie Neal, vice president of Talent Management and Development at Cisco Systems. Very soon we will be offering an educational seminar at the Charles County Chamber of Commerce to more fully explore their words of wisdom in depth as they apply to our own businesses and institutions. Stay tuned for a specific time and date.

Here are some takeaways that I bring back to our community:

*I encourage you to visit www.jimcollins.com and take advantage of the resources there.

*The Charles County Chamber of Commerce is working to establish industry councils of leaders in a variety of industries, sectors and service areas to share best practices, multiply our efforts and resources, and concentrate our industry advocacy effectiveness. Participate: ‘‘A rising tide lifts all boats.”

Here are some tips that each of us can put to practice to ensure that our organizations, no matter what type they are, follow the pattern of greatness. First, leaders must be obsessed with asking who, not what. Leaders must constantly be seeking out the right players for the game of their organization. Think about how much time you spend on tactics versus strategy. Jim Collins suggests that a minimum of 50 percent of a CEO’s time should be asking, ‘‘Who should be on our bus?” Pick people that have the ‘‘right” characteristics for your organization. So what is the ‘‘right” type of people?

The first step in his outline of six qualities is finding people who naturally align to your organization’s beliefs and values; consequently, your organization must be very clear on what it expects of employees and customers. This organizational clarity is paramount to what your company is and is not.

There are six key characteristics for the right person:

1. They fit within our core values. Find people that are predisposed to them and reinforce the values.

2. The right people do not need to be tightly managed. If so, you have the wrong person; manage the system, not the people.

3. The right people understand they don’t have a job, they have a responsibility. Change your ‘‘job descriptions” to ‘‘responsibility descriptions.”

4. The right people do what they say, which means they are careful about what they say and commit to.

5. The right people can practice a window and mirror maturity; when things go well, they assign to others. When things go bad, they look in the mirror and take responsibility. Great companies don’t pin the blame on the outside world.

6. The right people have passion for the company and what it does. Remember, not everyone is going to find what your company does turns on their passion.

It follows that, once you have the right people, then you can decide where to go. With the right people, anything is possible. I encourage you to be a student of disciplined continual improvement and help raise the tide in our community. Working together, we leverage the power of multiplication, not division.

Gore Bolton, owner of Bolton and Associates LLC, is the president of the Charles County Chamber of Commerce for 2007. The chamber may be reached at 301-932-6500 or 301-870-3089 or by e-mail atinfo@charlescountychamber.org.