I’ve been slacking on the “Lead” part of “Lead.Learn.Live.” I’ve been distracted with “Premium” Hot Chocolate, Grilled Cheese sandwiches and painted pumpkins inspired by Jackson Pollock. Here’s one of two leadership primers to kick off the coming week.
The Harvard Business Review authors of Does Management Really Work? conducted research over a 10-year period involving thousands of organizations to determine whether companies adhere to three practices that are considered essential elements of good management. Before we get to the 3 basic elements, two of the key findings of this research were:
1) Many organizations throughout the world are very badly managed…
2) Effective Management execution on the basic practices is strongly correlated with better results
Take a pause before hitting the “read more” link. (I’ve already done it…so play along.) What exactly are these 3 essential management practices?
- Targets: Does the organization support long-term goals with tough but achievable short-term performance benchmarks?
- Incentives: Does the organization reward high performers with promotions and bonuses while retraining or moving underperformers?
- Monitoring: Does the organization rigorously collect and analyze performance data to identify opportunities for improvement? (Constantly measure results)
- Nothing earthshattering here yet most companies aren’t executing on management principles 101.
The research article offers considerable depth on the subject including competing in the complex global economy.
Source: Harvard Business Review – Does Management Really Work?
