By Ken Shelton ( entire pdf click here ) Feb Edition of Leadership Excellence
This issue features Richard Branson.
IN RECENT MONTHS, I'VE BEEN assisting on book about world-class performance by Michael G. Winston, former chief leadership strategist at Lockheed-Martin, McDonnell Douglas, Motorola, Merrill Lynch and then Countrywide Financial. When you witness and experience the good, the great, the bad and the ugly—the rise of great organizations and the fall of poor ones, as both Michael and I have done over decades—you learn lessons both in your head and heart. Perhaps nothing, professionally, is as gut-wrenching as seeing your company close its doors, lay off thousands of people, sell off assets, and leave many people with debts. And leaders of failed enterprises own much of the blame—even if they do their best to dodge it, as the Italian captain of the wrecked cruise ship Costa Concordia has done. Captain Francesco Schettino was accused of several crimes as a result of the grounding. But now, the master of the ill-fated ship says he's innocent and that the truth will be told—in his new book, of course. By all accounts, Costa Concordia was sailing too close to shore when the ship grounded off the coast of Italy, taking the lives of 32 passengers and crew. Now, Schettino, accused of abandoning his ship, manslaughter and causing the shipwreck, says he is innocent and did all he could do to help—sticking to his story that he tripped and fell into a lifeboat. Salvage operations continue at the site. As eye-witnesses to such business wrecks and salvage operations, Michael and I care even more about competitiveness, performance, results, relationships, outcomes, and organizational sustainability. Inspired by the Olympics For inspiration, Michael looked to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games. The book follows this outline or storyboard:
• Conditions: competitive, hostile, uncertain, changing. Such conditions drive the need to improve Performance.
• Start. You must start your performance improvement here and now, with who you are, what you have.
