{"id":1417,"date":"2008-02-12T11:26:17","date_gmt":"2008-02-12T17:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/leading-out-of-our-status-quo\/"},"modified":"2008-02-12T11:22:21","modified_gmt":"2008-02-12T17:22:21","slug":"leading-out-of-our-status-quo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/leading-out-of-our-status-quo\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading Out Of Our Status Quo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Being in the final stages of strategic planning right now with my company (following the establishment of a Vision statement last year) I just can&#8217;t leave <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/vision-statement-vs-leadership\/\">Derrick&#8217;s post<\/a> alone.<\/p>\n<p>He is absolutely correct with his assumption that many &#8220;visioning&#8221; exercises are empty of real meaning or impact. As any good business consultant will tell you, execution of the vision and the strategy is a lot harder than crafting the words. Most companies do not follow through and get any real value. It sounds like that&#8217;s what Derrick experienced (as I have in several previous lives).<\/p>\n<p>But, for a company like ours that is transitioning from a manufacturing mentality to become a &#8220;custom solution provider&#8221;, the &#8216;vision thing&#8217; and the subsequent strategic planning has shown value already. Creating the statement was a company wide activity, and we got input from every level (a first). We are now working to help employees &#8216;connect&#8217; with that vision &#8211; what does it mean for you? what does it mean for your function and area?<\/p>\n<p>Simultaneously, the leadership team is working through a sometimes painful strategic planning session to align the\u00a0company&#8217;s structure, resources and efforts towards achieving that vision. One approach is more organic, grassroots, the other provides focus for our management efforts. If nothing else, it got us out of our status quo, made us ask ourselves the tough questions and gave us a process to do some worthwhile planning (the strategic planning process includes setting specific action plans and measuring results, so it&#8217;s designed to lead to real changes).<\/p>\n<p>Could a strong charismatic leader do the same without the hokey &#8220;OD&#8221; work? Sure. Many do. My suspicion is, those types of leaders use the same tools in a different way &#8211; they help people see the vision they articulate (even if its not developed by the employees), they reinforce and direct efforts that lead to that vision, and they make sure their organization supports it with its actions and behaviors.<\/p>\n<p>Will our effort be a guaranteed success and is it worth it?\u00a0 That&#8217;s up to us&#8230;and how well we execute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being in the final stages of strategic planning right now with my company (following the establishment of a Vision statement last year) I just can&#8217;t leave Derrick&#8217;s post alone. He is absolutely correct with his assumption that many &#8220;visioning&#8221; exercises are empty of real meaning or impact. As any good business consultant will tell you, execution of the vision and the strategy is a lot harder than crafting the words. Most companies do not follow through and get any real value. It sounds like that&#8217;s what Derrick experienced (as I have in several previous lives). But, for a company like ours that is transitioning from a manufacturing mentality to become&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/leading-out-of-our-status-quo\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31,11],"tags":[31,189,303,302],"class_list":["post-1417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-team-management","tag-leadership","tag-mission-statement","tag-vision-decision","tag-vision-statement"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-mR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1413,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/vision-statement-vs-leadership\/","url_meta":{"origin":1417,"position":0},"title":"Vision Statement vs. Leadership","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Color me skeptical, but I am just not a fan of vision statements, mission statements, company statements and whatever else is the latest iteration.\u00a0 I prefer P&L statements.\u00a0 I could be wrong on this so I'll provide an article from BusinessWeek.com titled Vision Decisions. The opening graph: Feeling the pressure\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Leadership&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Leadership","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/leadership\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1507,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/04\/recessions-are-tactical-problems-recruiting-is-strategic\/","url_meta":{"origin":1417,"position":1},"title":"Recessions Are Tactical Problems, Recruiting Is Strategic","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"April 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Steven Rothberg over at CollegeRecruiter.com provides a money quote in his post Why Today's College Students Need Not Fear Exploding Offers.\u00a0 Obviously, Steven's market is geared towards college students, but this paragraph is applicable to all businesses when it comes to hiring (emphasis mine): The recession of 2001-03 was worse\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":724,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/03\/cold-calling-numbers-game\/","url_meta":{"origin":1417,"position":2},"title":"Cold-Calling Numbers Game","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"March 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Is it me or is the saying \"it's a numbers game\" an overly-simplistic statement regarding a grossly inefficient tactic?\u00a0 Weight lifting is a numbers game.\u00a0 Sales and marketing is not.\u00a0 Some instances where this statement is\u00a0applied: cold-calling networking job searching mailers invitations I'm sure there are other examples but those\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":629,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/02\/candidates-who-have-been-coached\/","url_meta":{"origin":1417,"position":3},"title":"Candidates Who Have Been Coached","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Further proof of why we put limited importance on the face-to-face interview: I recommend that you answer difficult questions with SANDWICH technique. Practice writing out your answer - be sure to sandwich the negative with an emphasis on the positive. (+) (-) (+) Here is how you should fill in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/05\/how-to-win-the-talent-wars\/","url_meta":{"origin":1417,"position":4},"title":"How to Win the Talent Wars","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 31, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"From Sales & Marketing Management's e-newsletter (sorry, no link available): How to win the talent war: * Assess current strengths and gaps. Review the talent on hand and what your future needs will be. * Create a vision and strategy. Identify the tools, processes, and technology you will need to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assessing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1441,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/10-management-lessons\/","url_meta":{"origin":1417,"position":5},"title":"10 Management Lessons","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"There might be nothing more important to a business' success than strong management.\u00a0 When management struggles, the entire company pays a price no matter how large. ManageSmarter.com offers an article with 10 excellent tips for leadership.\u00a0 Here's a taste: \u2022 Have a vision and communicate it. Make sure you clearly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Leadership&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Leadership","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/leadership\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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