Advice & Counsel - Transitions: For In-Place Leaders
Seeking to Extend a Successful Run
Usually, a good leader of a successful organization is first to recognize the need for it to change. She must ensure senior managers come to the same level of creative dissatisfaction with the current state of things and that a critical mass of people change tried & true habits that have worked for them. Perhaps the structure must be changed, processes redesigned, or people replaced if unable to step up to meet new expectations. It is hard work under normal conditions, but gets even more complicated when she is in the early stages of planning a hand off. She must balance the requirement of doing what is best for the current needs of the business with those of what's best for the successor.
Dan helps through:
- An Era Management Plan for operations, organizational, and personal improvement tailored for the leader's particular style & situation. Dan co-developed this approach in the early 1970s and has applied it since then with leaders in various types of organizations as they have implemented new agendas.
- Advising the leader on changing the culture so that it supports operations improvements. Culture is always evolving, and because the organization is a general system, improvements in work processes or performance measurement will cause subtle changes to the culture that will effect how it evolves. Through years of being on the front lines of organization change, Dan's practical advice has helped leaders manage this interaction to ensure continuous progress.
- Diagnosing alliances & coalitions whose support affects both the pace of change and also how the organization prepares for a leadership hand-off. Dan provides an objective diagnosis of the forces acting on these influential groups and practical ways to ensure they line up behind changes which must be made.
- Advising on operations improvement. Drawing on his long experience in gaining the most benefit from Six Sigma & Lean enterprise techniques, Dan counsels the leader and his senior team on the use of these approaches in their environment. And when outside consultants & educators are necessary, he advises on where, when, & how to utilize them productively.
- Counsel on new teams & structures. Often, leaders in these situations conclude that new senior managers must be put in place to achieve and sustain higher performance, and the organization structure must be changed as well as the processes that drive decision-making. Dan helps think through the right combination of styles that should make up a new top team, how to best integrate new people once they are found, and structures & processes that best match the strategy.
- Counsel on succession. As the leader strengthens the organization, he turns his attention to preparing to pass responsibility to the next generation of leaders. What kinds of people should assume command? What should they know & be able to do? What should be their beliefs & how should they act? What role should the board play & when? How to best prepare the organization for a leadership transition? The wise leader benefits from help to prepare for such questions well before he must answer them.