Are you managing a business or a business unit or is your goal to achieve such positions? Then this book is for you. It summarizes what I have learned about operational leadership over more than 50 years as a business manager and top management consultant:
Operational leadership determines company success.
Top management job is to spot the waves of opportunity and lead the company in riding them. Visionary and strategic thinking is required to spot waves. Operational leadership leads the company in riding them. It is like surfing big waves. To spot one is important, but success lies in riding it (operational execution) without falling off the surfboard.
For success in operational leadership, you must do five things right, in a never-ending cycle of agile leadership:
1) Set the right operational goals to establish the line on which you want to surf your wave. You only need one single goal.
2) Plan. Build your surfboard. Design the right plan: Focus it on resolving constraints. Write it down on one single page.
3) Execute. Surf your wave. Follow the goal to deliver the obligations outlined in your operational plan.
4) Check. Review progress against your goals and execution of your operational plan. Go back to planning if the operational plans need to be adjusted.
5) Contribute the value required from operational leaders: Lead your Plan-Execute-Check cycle to spin faster than your competitors. Institutionalize the culture of operational excellence.
Operational leadership is all about surfing monster waves of opportunity. It strains us to our limits. Yet it is the most fascinating and rewarding task in business management.