EOS and the book "Good to Great" from Jim Collins?

[frchdragon]

We are implementing EOS in the company I work for. Several books were suggested to read in order to strengthen the leadership team.
This book "from Good to Great" was what was missing in my self discovery.
It really drove home what it takes to be a true leader and to drive change no matter what to build a truly great company.

Unfortunately a culture of Complacency and mediocrity exists, and my nature driven to succeed and working hard to achieve goals is clashing with it.

What is your take on this book? Anyone able to implement some of it?

[chassis]

Good book.

Change is possible always and everywhere. It needs to come from the top down. In the middle and at the bottom, people are invested in the status quo, and there are multiple status quos.

Even the top can “expect excellence” when really they aren’t. Watch out for this. Use quantified and verifiable external comparisons (benchmarking) using public company data or other data that is objective and third party sources as you can find. Be hard on yourself (the organization). Set goals high, as in orders of magnitude. You will be successful.

I have a lot of experience in change and performance improvement. Sometimes change is obvious (the house is on fire). Most of the time it’s more subtle, and therefore harder because the reason for change is not plainly evident to everyone.

Best wishes for success in the journey.

[frchdragon]

Originally Posted by chassis

Good book.

It needs to come from the top down. In the middle and at the bottom, people are invested in the status quo, and there are multiple status quos.

I think you found the issue, I appreciate the insight. Top management wants change but at a very slow pace. I have been waiting for 10 years for change and now that I am part of top management, they are telling me that I go too fast....
This is very frustrating and I don't know if I can slow my pace to the level of C players who resist change.

Management and Leadership is really harder than it looks.

[2000cs]

In my career, the real leaders were the ones who could effect significant change. The others were managers, caretakers, etc.

Initiating change is easy, sustaining it is hard. Employees quickly suspect “flavor of the month” and move on to other things. So a real leader develops a vision for the future, communicates it in terms employees can understand, and reinforces it with ongoing communications and aligned rewards. They are also honest about the milestones and failures/readjustments.

Radical change usually requires a “burning platform”. Could be business is failing, new competition, COVID impacts, whatever. Lights a fire under senior management and forces change. If there isn’t an obvious one, a good leader with a vision for the future will create one. Read Clayton Christenson’s (SP?) The Innovator’s Delimma for discussion on entrenched strategy and the blindness to new disruptive technologies.

I found it hard to get much change in a department if the rest of the company wasn’t on board, but sometimes real improvements can be made at that level. Doing that successfully is a good indicator of leadership quality, and should help career advancement (perhaps at another company).