High Output Management
Teams over individuals, time as edge. Lead with strength in tough spots.
leadershipHow you handle your own time is, in my view, the single most important aspect of being a role model and leader.
AQ's take: My time chaos infected the team. Fixed it, they improved.
Aug 23, 2022Another example is waffling, when a manager puts off a decision that will affect the work of other people. In effect, the lack of a decision is the same as a negative decision; no green light is a red light, and work can stop for a whole organization.
AQ's take: Waffled on hires. Killed momentum. No more.
Aug 23, 2022delegation without follow-through is abdication. You can never wash your hands of a task. Even after you delegate it, you are still responsible for its accomplishment, and monitoring the delegated task is the only practical way for you to ensure a result.
AQ's take: Delegated then ghosted. Projects died. Now I monitor.
Aug 23, 2022Remember too that your time is your one finite resource, and when you say “yes” to one thing you are inevitably saying “no” to another.
AQ's take: Every yes cost me sleep. Now I guard time fiercely.
Aug 23, 2022As a rule of thumb, a manager whose work is largely supervisory should have six to eight subordinates; three or four are too few and ten are too many. This range comes from a guideline that a manager should allocate about a half day per week to each of his subordinates.
AQ's take: Six directs maxed me out. Ten? Chaos. Spot on.
Aug 23, 2022We did all this because under this strong attack, we learned that we must lead with our strength. Being second best in a tough environment is just not good enough.
AQ's take: Hit me hard. I've wasted years being 'good enough' in brutal markets.
Jul 24, 2022When products and services become largely indistinguishable from each other, all there is by the way of competitive advantage is time.
AQ's take: Ouch. Explains why my copycat features flop. Time to outpace everyone.
Jul 24, 2022The second idea is that the work of a business, of a government bureacracy, of most forms of human activity, is something pursued not by individuals but by teams.
AQ's take: Teams over solo heroes? That's why my solo hustles stalled.
Jul 24, 2022The output of a manager is the output of the organizational units under his or her supervision or influence.
AQ's take: My output mirrors my team's. Failed to see that, team suffered.
Jul 24, 2022A team will perform well only if peak performance is elicited from the individuals in it.
AQ's take: Pushed my people to peaks. That's when magic happened.
Jul 24, 2022A manager’s output = the output of his organization + the output of the neighboring organizations under his influence.
AQ's take: Influence beyond my org? Realized I ignored neighbors too long.
Jul 24, 2022“When a person is not doing his job, there can only be two reasons for it. The person either can’t do it or won’t do it; he is either not capable or not motivated.” This insight enables a manager to dramatically focus her efforts. All you can do to improve the output of an employee is motivate and train. There is nothing else.
AQ's take: Can't or won't nailed it. Trained the can'ts, fired the won'ts.
Jul 24, 2022“I have seen far too many people who upon recognizing today’s gap try very hard to determine what decision has to be made to close it. But today’s gap represents a failure of planning sometime in the past.”
AQ's take: Past me ignored gaps. Now I own planning fuckups.
Jul 24, 2022“CEOs always act on leading indicators of good news, but only act on lagging indicators of bad news.”
AQ's take: CEOs blind to bad news? I've been that delusional boss.
Jul 24, 2022A common rule we should always try to heed is to detect and fix any problem in a production process at the lowest-value stage possible.
AQ's take: Fix early cheap. Learned after expensive late fixes.
Jul 24, 2022What we actually do is difficult to pin down and sum up. Much of it often seems so inconsequential that our position in the business hardly seems justified.
AQ's take: My 'important' meetings? Mostly fluff. Brutal truth.
Jul 24, 2022Reports are more a medium of self-discipline than a way to communicate information. Writing the report is important; reading it often is not.
AQ's take: Reports force my lazy brain to think straight.
Jul 24, 2022Your information sources should complement one another, and also be redundant because that gives you a way to verify what you’ve learned.
AQ's take: Redundant sources caught my biases. Saved disasters.
Jul 24, 2022