I find it interesting that the question “Where is your business losing performance?” is so badly answered.
It seems that many CEOs often don’t have the lens for performance that enables them to articulate a clear and accurate response.
This is problematic, but fortunately quite easily solved by training one’s attention to the whole ‘system’ as opposed to specific aspects of it that don’t offer up a holistic view on their own.
‘Concinnity’ is an unusual word but it neatly describes what I’m talking about. It means ‘a skillful blending of the parts achieving an elegant harmony’. If a CEO can start to view their business in this sort of light, spotting performance leaks becomes much easier. The trick is that the reasons for losing performance are compound by nature, meaning that there are multiple factors that lead to the performance leak.
For example:
A weak business purpose attracts sub-standard talent who oversee the marketing/brand/sales function of a business poorly which leads to distant customer relationships that results in slow sales.
Or,
A CEO who is overly operational produces leaders who under-focus on people management, build teams that are slow to deliver, resulting in a lethargic culture that breeds low energy and thus poor overall business performance.
Total Business Performance (TBP), as I wrote about in a recent missive, is the final judge of a CEO’s ability and it seldom lies. For CEOs who truly wish to build businesses that perform well, developing a performance lens is a non-negotiable. Every month that passes by I see the diminishing usefulness of outdated CEO skill sets.
The pain that this will bring is entirely avoidable if CEOs are willing to re-invent themselves. It’s just a question of starting the journey and building a skill set that is fit-for purpose in today’s business context.
Then the performance leaks become identifiable.