A recurrent theme in the managerial literature surrounds the pitfalls
and difficulties encountered when a line manager moves up to a "CXO"
level position and must simultaneously shed the comfortable involvement
with the day-to-day "transactional" work—something at
which, by hypothesis of their promotability, they have been good at—and
adopt broad new strategic perspectives.
An intimately associated recurrent theme in the managerial literature
is that rivers of ink are spilled on this issue to no avail. Can,
in fact, anything meaningful be said about this, or does it always just
boil down to learning on the job, painful as that may be for everyone
in sight?
When faced with what seems to be a chronically difficult issue, I often
ask myself if some sort of procedural or tactical "crutch" could be
introduced that would tend to improve matters over time? In other
words, if the problem does not seem to admit of a frontal assault (as
here, where everyone in their right mind knows it’s a problem, but people
still fail left and right), is there an available flanking maneuver?
A current CIO article has
a nice approach, called the "Top Two."
Devote an inviolately-scheduled time once a week with each of your
key direct reports discussing their "top two" issues. You’ll
learn what’s truly important, and maybe even get an early warning of
something truly important that is in danger of running off the rails.
The legendary Washington columnist Walter Lippmann once suggested the
President should hold a wide-open news conference once a month, with
no pre-set agenda. Why? Not so the press could have a stab
at the President, but for the far more powerful and insightful reason
that it would require all the President’s direct reports to figure out
exactly where they stood on key issues of the day and articulate their
rationale to the President. Not, as they say, stupid.
