Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Dr. Bruce Gobdel, retired Crowe Horwath LLC Partner. We hope you enjoy Bruce’s wisdom and perspective.
Critical Components For High Performing Organizations
In my thirty-seven years of consulting with many diverse clients, the best organizations were consistently those that were values driven. They clearly knew who they were and what they stood for. In addition, the best leaders of client organizations were visionary. They had a capacity for seeing a desired future state for the organization, along with the passion for getting the organization there.
Sound strategy, appropriate structure, and “getting the right people in the right seats on the bus” were consistently shown to be significant.
All of the above are critically important for being a high performing organization. However, they are not sufficient. My best performing clients were also disciplined and well-managed.
Sound Management—A Path To Efficient Execution
Much of the focus of literature and college-level training today focuses on leadership. Certainly one can build the case that our world, our country, our communities, and our organizations would benefit from greater leadership. Advancing leadership thinking and training are good things.
Of concern is that the focus on leadership may well be diverting attention away from advancing management thinking, building management skills, and instituting strong management practices. We see many middle management jobs being eliminated in our society. Middle managers managed. Along with an even more important associated loss of middle class values, this loss is impacting how organizations get things done.
It is important to recognize that management is a valuable skill, and managing plays a critical role within organizations. Unfortunately, it is a skill less taught and a skill less valued.
The simplest definition of management that I learned in my Management 101 course is POMC. This is planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling. It is the tactical planning, the organizing of people and tasks, the motivating and developing of staff, and the controlling of the use of valuable resources. It is what “makes the trains run on time.” It is the efficient daily implementation of values and strategy.
There is an emerging field of management “operating systems.” These models offer much in terms of guiding management decision-making, meeting management, accountability, and more. They bring a systematic approach to organizational management that contributes to transparency and efficiency. One useful example of a management model is detailed in the book “Get a Grip-How to Get Everything You Want from Your Entrepreneurial Business” by Gino Wickman.
An additional impediment to sound management is the lack of attention given to management practice enhancement. The outdated or lack of management practices related to pricing, pay administration, and product/service development, as an examples, leaves many organizations highly vulnerable to customer and employee loss.
Project Management—On Time And On Budget
Project management may be one of the most important and most under-utilized skills and tools for employees at all levels of an organization today. It is not a stretch to envision most of what one does in their personal and work life as a “project.” Engineers and IT professionals seem to have figured this out. Others—not so much.
Project management is a fairly mature field of thinking. Most of you remember the concepts—start date, end date, assigned responsibility, critical path, and all. A Google search will lead you to many alternative courses and software tools. Done right, sound project management provides workers the freedom to be innovative, while still building a high degree of accountability.
Recognizing that much of what needs to be done can be seen through the lens of a project is the first step. Instituting sound project management throughout the organization is the second, and bigger, challenge.
What’s The Risk?
The risk is that organizations underperform due in large part to a lack of discipline. Great strategy, poorly implemented is a path to under-performance. Even a mediocre strategy well implemented can be okay.
To bring good management practices back to the important role that it must play, a high-performing organization should consider the following:
- Select new hires in part based on their proven management skills,
- Provide management skills training for a broader range of employees,
- Consider instituting a more formal management model across the organization,
- Review and enhance formal management practices, and
- Identify and institute an organization-wide project management method, to include training and software tool use.
This content was written and shared by guest blogger, Bruce Gobdel.
Bruce is a retired partner with Crowe Horwath LLC. He earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting, master of business administration in organizational behavior, and doctor of business administration in organizational behavior all from Indiana University. He was a licensed psychologist and a certified public accountant.
After a long and successful career in public accounting and consulting, Bruce continues to consult with select clients on engagements involving strategy, organizational structure, executive selection, performance feedback, and compensation. He also serves as an executive coach for a select group of executives.
Bruce has been heavily involved with the South Bend community and has held numerous leadership roles with local nonprofits including the Indiana Youth Institute, Michiana YMCA, United Way of St. Joseph County, Madison Center, and the South Bend Human Rights Commission.
Connect with Bruce on LinkedIn.
