New Executive Guide
Payam and I have held executive roles for many years and this guide contains our strong opinions for individuals leading leaders.
Our take
Working on the business
Keith Cerny and Payam Moghaddam, co-founders
Keith
As an executive, your job is to find the right path among many, then make it clear to everyone in your organization.
Payam
Choose what the business will pursue, explain what can wait, and match the commitments to people, funding, and time.
Payam
Start with the result you need and the evidence behind the priority. Ask your managers what the plan requires before committing.
Keith
When their commitments conflict, make the tradeoff they lack authority to make. Explain your reasoning so they can use it in their own decisions.
Keith
Give managers authority along with responsibility. Discuss the decisions they can make and the coaching or information they need.
Payam
Set common requirements where the business needs them. Managers choose methods and assignments within those requirements.
Payam
Check whether priorities, resources, and targets support what you are asking people to do. Resolve contradictions within your authority.
Keith
Your responses matter too. If you ask managers to develop people, make time for coaching and recognize specific progress when you see it.
Payam
Then check the effect. Recognition is reinforcement when it increases the behavior; giving praise alone does not establish that.
Payam
Review results against targets with your managers. Ask what changed in the work, what the numbers leave uncertain, and which decision is needed.
Keith
Keep listening to team members too. Ask how priorities and procedures affect their work, and resolve routine changes with their manager.
Payam
Use the evidence to continue, adjust, or end the work. A completed project still needs to achieve the business result that justified it.
Keith
The open-door trap is becoming the default decision-maker for work your managers have authority to lead. Answering a request gives an immediate result, which can encourage you to take over again.
Payam
Ask what decision they need from you and why. Resolve the decisions that need your authority, and support them in making the ones they own.
Keith
Start with a current business commitment. Ask the responsible manager what they need from you to make it achievable.
Payam
The chapters below develop each part of the job. For help applying this approach with Admire, speak to an expert.
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