Keep Them On Your Side by Samuel B. Bacharach

Author:Samuel B. Bacharach
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Platinum Press™, an imprint of Adams Media, an F+W Publications Company
Published: 2006-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Performance Momentum:

Monitor and Make Adjustments

We have a niche market—K–12 textbooks, with a special emphasis on math and science. In the old days we had a lock, with little or no competition. It was all about getting the books out. It was less of a sales business than a shipping business. Now, the competition is amazing. I’ve got companies from Amsterdam competing with me in upstate New York. Now it is a question of getting the right salespeople in the schools and moving the product. We’ve done that. This new crew is amazing. I’ve given them more autonomy than I care to think about. They have their own cars, we cover all expenses, and resources are absolutely not a problem. The question is: How are they doing? The new program has been in place for two months and I’m not sure if it’s too early to evaluate them. If I jump in too quickly, some of them may jump ship. Then what do I evaluate them on? On how they’re doing the job? On the output? It may be too early to do anything, but when and how do I find out?

You have structural momentum. You know who will do what. You’ve given them the resources. You know how you want them to carry things out. Now, you can walk away and let things take their course, right? Not even close to right. How often have you been in a situation where projects are launched and left to their own demise? No evaluation, no standards, no feedback, no momentum.

Sure, your initiative is based on a good idea, and it’s moving ahead just fine. But you have to stay on top of it. You have to have the capacity to detect when things veer off course and step in to make corrections. Even the most well-conceived, best-planned initiatives are bound to face unanticipated challenges. Your capacity to sustain momentum and keep people on your side will be tested by your ability to monitor performance and make adjustments.

Managerially competent leaders maintain momentum for their initiative by making evaluations and, in turn, making adjustments based on those evaluations. They understand that a plan is just that—actions based on a certain set of assumptions. But when those assumptions change and when actual events prove those assumptions incorrect, the most effective leaders adapt. They don’t send the ship into the iceberg because their plan called for moving along that path. They revisit where they are, where they need to go, and the new set of assumptions that present themselves (e.g., if we continue on this course, we will sink the ship).

This seems like an obvious notion. Yet, time and again you read in the news about failed efforts in the boardroom and in the legislature and a pattern emerges: circumstances changed, but leaders failed to change their plans accordingly. “The ways that worked in the past no longer worked this time.” Sometimes, by the time a leader realizes his initiative is failing, or dead on arrival, it is too late to take corrective action.

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