Tag Archives: Business

Passion vs position

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From my own experience this comment on Peter Winick’s blog ‘Thought Leadership Leverage’ about the value of committed people (‘Do you have the right strategy and the right people?‘) – over suitably qualified but less committed professionals – makes good sense:

It’s interesting that you have identified the wrong people as those who are committed to the job at hand even over having the right skill-set and experience. This too has been what I have seen. People who are in positions that can make things happen and who pay lip-service to getting the job done don’t only hinder/stop implementation, they harm the organization by creating cynicism and making the next strategy that comes along even harder to implement.

Often organisations don’t even realise this is going on. All too often people are more adept at retaining their position, first and foremost, than delivering the goods. So if you find yourself out in the cold remember to stay positive – success is the best antidote.

Don’t eye up the models, talk to the people

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Great advice for newly graduated MBAs on the importance of people over business from John Baldoni in Harvard Business. I add to think ‘complex’ rather than ‘complicated’ that way you’ll better see the role people have first and the technical business systems second, rather than the other way round:

Look for life in the “white spaces.” As diligent students of business, you have been exposed to hundreds of graphic models that illustrate the flow of information from one process to another. What you don’t see in those models are the people to people connections that make those business processses work. Those connections occur in the “white spaces,” the undefined areas between the interconnected arrows and boxes. How well you manage those connections with colleagues and bosses will determine how high you climb, either in someone else’s company or your own!