Philosophy
We have all heard the expression “walk the talk” and we all understand it means preaching by example. For Executives to be able the walk the talk in an effective manner, they need a defined “talk” to walk to. But in leadership terms, what is a defined “talk”?
We are always surprised, as we visit and talk with Directors and CEOs; how they are focused on just a few bits of the business, mostly the operations parts. If one tries to understand their leadership and corporate governance style, you quickly realize, and most of them would admit themselves, that they are too reactionary. Do they have a vision? Largely, yes. Is it shared by all employees? To a large extent, no. Is the plan being executed aligned with the vision? Only to some small extent. Are the core values lived by all? Generally, employees do not even know what they are. Does everyone understand the role they play in delivering the organization’s mission – but wait! What is the difference between mission and vision?
Having lead organizations, large and small, we fully share in the pains most Boards of Directors and CEOs face, and how difficult it is to stay focused on what matters most – putting off the fires, or preventing them. Over the years, we have learned the importance to spend just as much time working ON the business (doing things right) as we spent working IN the business, making things happen – particularly at generating revenue. To do so effectively, we came to realize that it was important to develop and communicate a leadership framework that was coherent, and understood by the organization - That becomes the executives’ “talk”. By documenting a leadership framework, the Board of Directors and the CEO will start establishing a common language (the “talk” which will frame all other discussions in a particular paradigm – that of the Board of Directors and the CEO. And only when the talk is clarified can the executive be “seen” walking the talk.
Leadership language is quite often confusing for employees. It is hard to distinguish between vision and mission, strategies and business plans, core values, core competencies, and culture and other like somewhat esoteric terms. This is generally caused by the lack of consensus amongst the so-called leadership gurus, but also because the gurus often focus on one aspect of leadership. Over the years, we have taken stuff that works from all business books, and put aside stuff that did not jive. We developed a leadership philosophy we called Executive4sights™ framework, which is based on our pragmatic and tested approach.
There have been too many books that give hopes of a simple solution to success. The Executive4sights™ framework leadership philosophy is by no means simple; but nor is leading an organization simple. Most of them have a few good ideas, but it is the collective wisdom of their authors, supported by their research, blended together in a cohesive, all encompassing approach, that gives Executive4sights™ its strength.
The Executive4sights™ Leadership framework, emblemized by a four-legged E, encompasses a Strategic Planning framework, an Organizational Development framework, a Strategy Execution framework and a Stakeholder Value Creation framework, working in a continuum to produce a cohesive business philosophy. A business philosophy is different from the leadership philosophy. The business philosophy is the summation of the outputs from the leadership philosophy and includes the vision, the culture, the strategies, and an execution framework. The Executive4sights™ framework is a leadership philosophy that should be used by the Board of Directors and the Senior Leadership Team to crystallize, formalize and implement a business philosophy, which will give meanings for execution, ensuring that people, not only do things right, but more importantly do the right things.
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