Sebastian Perrier

The bed-rocks of a winning organization:

Mission: announces exactly where you are going; shows direction into profitability. Every decision should be linked to the mission. The mission should be concrete and specific. The mission should be stated by the top management. The mission is the defining moment of the leader.

Values: describe the behaviours that will take you there, to the mission. Values should be stated by everyone in the company. Welcome debate, feel ownership.

Candor: be direct and honest – speak your mind. This is the biggest secret in business – forget about competition when your worst enemy in the way you communicate with one another internally. Gets more people into conversation, generates speed, cuts costs because it eliminates meaningless meetings. Lack of candid is selfish, because it makes your life easier to avoid conflict. Instead, to get candor, reward it, praise it, etc. Complacency can kill you.

Differentiation: companies win when their managers make a clear and meningful distinction between top and bottom performers. Cultivate a culture of strong and weak. Companies suffer when every person is treated equally. Managers have to take hard choises and live with them. 20 – 70 – 10 rule (bottom 10 has to go). For this you need to meassure performance.

Voice and Dignity: let people give the oportunity to speak out their opinion (not necessarily make a decision, but yes to speak out). And always respect people for their work, effort and individuality. GE implemented the Work-Out sessions. A 2 or 3 event days with everybody talking with a facilitator. Managers would commit to give an on-the-spot yer or no to 75% of the recommendations that came out and resolve the remaining 25% within 30 days. Manager will be present only at the beginning of the session and then disappear until the end of the session; returning only at the end to make a decision.

Nevertheless, a company is not a democracy. It is not that every idea should be put into practice; that is the managers role. But with these brain-storm sessions you get better ideas and suggestions. JW Book Quoted: “Why are you only paying your employees for their hands, when you can count on their brains too for free”. They need it and you too.

How he came to define success…

1. PROACTIVITY: a leader takes ownership and responsibility of his destiny and life; his behaviour is dependant on his decisions, not on external conditions. He exercises free will decisions based on his values, a leader does not blame others for his situation, he is not controlled by the external circumstances.
2. VISION: a leader knows where he is going, has a goal in mind which is related with his values. Goals or vision is applied to different aspects of his life: family, professional, friends and social. However, a leader’s definition of success is not to reach those goals, is to work hard to try to achieve them while enjoying the journey. A leader provides direction, has the big-picture in mind. Is not tight to his history, he is only constraint by his values, beliefs and philosophy (and he is 100% committed to them).
3. MANAGEMENT SKILLS:  a leader has the skills to organize and coordinate the way to achieve the vision stated. A good leader is able to prioritize and decide what things to do first and how to do them; he manages himself, not the time (because it is impossible to manage ‘the time’). See time management matrix: pay attention to not urgent + important issues (quadrant 2). To do this, he has to be proactive to avoid urgent and important things to happen (prevent them) and he says no to the other quadrants. Quadrant 2 things to do include: planning, doing exercise, building relationships and reading.
4. OTHER: other attributes of leaders is to be emotionally inteligent and try to find solutions that benefit all parties; this is not easy and it does not imply to let your interests go: you must be brave to defent your interests, to take hard and necessary decisions and to listen and understand others. Finally, leaders must be creative in order to find new solutions and synergies.