{"id":10351,"date":"2021-05-20T14:24:42","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T14:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klassacademy.com\/?p=10351"},"modified":"2021-12-04T10:27:03","modified_gmt":"2021-12-04T10:27:03","slug":"leadership-create-a-healthy-culture-for-long-term-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klassacademy.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/20\/leadership-create-a-healthy-culture-for-long-term-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership: Create a healthy culture for long-term success."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/div>

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

If your short-term goals are not aligned with your long-term vision, then you\u2019re \u201cBarking up the wrong tree\u201d Book by Eric Barker<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Well, former Chairman and CEO of the industrial giant Honeywell, David M. Cote<\/strong> transformed the flailing conglomerate, and grew the company’s market capitalization from around $20 billion (2002) to nearly $120 billion (2017), delivering returns of 800 percent and beating the S&P by nearly two and a half times. Quite impressive! How did he do that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
To consider the success of such a big company, is perhaps outside most people\u2019s scope. Still, I encourage you to read about the Honeywell success story, detailed in Cote’s highly acclaimed book “Winning Now, Winning Later<\/strong>” released in 2020. It is both a readable and practical guide for management and leadership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
One of the primary messages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
“Success is always about achieving two seemingly conflicting things at the same time”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
For example\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Do you want low inventory or great customer delivery?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Do you want high margins, or do you want big volumes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Do you want the people closest to the action empowered for quick decisions, or do you want great controls so nothing bad happens?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Do you want low functional costs, or do you want to have great internal customer service?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Should we focus on our short-term numbers, or should we invest for the long-term?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
“With every one thing that you could focus on, there’s a contrasting thing that you need to keep in mind at the same time. Success comes from discovering what the root cause is that drives both things, so that you can achieve both.<\/strong> This wasn\u2019t an original discovery of mine, it\u2019s just that too few people do it because it\u2019s hard.” David M. Cote<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s fulfilling these \u201cwe can do both<\/strong>\u201d imperatives that lifts enterprises to their full potential. And the most important is simultaneously achieving what many managers find vexing if not impossible, \u201cmaking the numbers\u201d while at the same time making the daring bets to ensure those numbers will be far higher in five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$ <\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In my view, there are some similarities between this concept of aligning short-term and long-term goals, with “setting your compass<\/strong>“. Making sure that you are pointing in the right direction is of course so important at every level, in your personal life as well as in business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Reference Steve Covey’s “Wrong forest” analogy, where a group of loggers are busy chopping away doing great work under the supervision of the managers and achieving high productivity and throughput. Someone climbed the tallest tree overlooking the forests, notices something and shouts “hey, you down there …” – reply: “we are busy, and making great progress” … and the person on the mountain yells “Wrong forest<\/strong>!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
No doubt that when Cote started with Honeywell back in 2002, he climbed that tallest tree, stepped back, and initially looked at the company from a different perspective. Taking into consideration the bigger picture, applying 3D strategic thinking, and steering the company in the right direction, along with his fundamental approach of aligning short-term goals with long-term vision, had a remarkable impact on the success of the Honeywell during his 18 years as CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$