David Maister asks:
How well does your firm stack up against these behaviors and states of mind?
– New challenges are eagerly, continuously sought out.
– The firm and its people never rely on momentum for their success, but are always seeking to build new capabilities.
– Compared to key competitors, the people in the firm are distinguished by a superior, burning passion to get somewhere new.
– The firm emphasizes and requires adaptability, flexibility, and responsiveness as key virtues.
– The firm’s strategies are created through continued and repeated experimentation.
– The firm is markedly superior in creating (not just hiring for) energy, excitement, enthusiasm, drive, determination, passion, and ambition.
– Service offerings, locations, and operating units are repeatedly assessed against the three key criteria: Do the people in the firm find this exciting? Are we making money? Are we doing something special that others are not doing?
– There is a restless refusal to accept “It’s OK.” People never settle, never give up, never coast.
– The firm sustains energy and investment actions both when things have gone badly and when things are going relatively well.
– The firm does not judge its performance by the levels of its accomplishments, but by the “relative incline”: whether or not it is improving relative to competitors on the characteristics it has chosen to compete on.
– Management is held accountable for its ability to create and sustain drive, enthusiasm, passion, ambition, commitment, and excitement, and instills these things in the individual members and groups that make up the organization. Managers who cannot do this are replaced.
Be honest! Read the entire article: “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Much You Want It” >>