Blog: Excellence in Leadership - Archive for November 20th, 2006

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The power of these questions cannot be underestimated, especially if you want to lead and not manage."

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Archive for November 20th, 2006

Car wash at 4am?

The other night I was traveling back home and passed a car wash. You know, the ones that are open 24 hours a day; take your quarters for some minutes of washing time.

Now while we all have passed those car washes at some time in our life—would you expect to see someone at 4 am in the morning washing their car?

Doesn’t that seem rather awkward? Maybe his guy was washing away evidence from a crime! I mean normal people do not get up in the middle of the night to wash a car, right?

Do we need a no car wash in the middle of the night law?

Tags: 24 hours a day awkward car right car wash car washes evidence open 24 hours quarters time now washing away

Filed by Frank Kanu under Something funny

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Managers Decide Intuitively

Managers decide intuitively instead of based on facts. Only 20% of all German managers feel good about the decision made. More than one third has at least a predominantly positive feeling, but nevertheless 39% are skeptical. (Article is in German).

How do you make your decisions?

Are your feelings dominant?

Tags: decisions feel good feelings predominantly predominantly positive feeling skeptical

Filed by Frank Kanu under Leadership, Management

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The 7-S-Model

The “7-S-Model” was developed by Tom Peter and Robert H. Waterman Jr. in the 1970’s.

To find out the success for enterprises they examined numerous large-scale enterprises. Their thought was that success and/or failure of a business are mainly determined by the employees.

Tom Peter and Robert H. Waterman Jr. developed a framework of seven characteristics:

Strategy—understand how the enterprise reacts to external changes.
Structure—how is the enterprise organized.
System—informal and formal business processes which have large influence on the efficiency of the organization.
Style/Culture—corporate culture and leadership style.
Staff—all aspects of personnel management.
Skills—the core authority of an organizational unit.
Shared Values—the common values that hold everything else together.

“In Search of Excellence” made the 7-S-Model known worldwide; especially the distinction between hard factors (Strategy, Structure and System) and soft factors (Style, Staff, Skills, Shared Values).

Tags: 7 s model business processes common values corporate culture distinction excellence external changes formal business hard factors hold everything leadership style management skills organizational unit organized system personnel management robert h waterman robert h waterman jr scale enterprises shared values skills soft factors staff staff skills strategy structure style system tom peter

Filed by Frank Kanu under Business, Definitions, Leadership, Management, Teams

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