First there was Dilbert. The Pointy-Haired Boss and Catbert brought bad managers out of the closet, and the characters resonated with millions. Most of us are pretty sure that we personally worked with the individuals upon whom those characters were based.
Since there’s clearly so much material to be mined, a whole sub-genre of business books on how to deal with bad managers has emerged. The best among them can be quite helpful in providing a toolkit for surviving a reporting relationship to someone with a specific incompetence profile. And these books are Continue reading ‘Oops, That’s Me!’
I have participated in a lot of different kinds of staff meetings over the years, ranging from a structure based on a formal McKinsey management model to an agenda that consisted exclusively of the senior person talking about himself. Far and away the most common, however, has been the go-around-the-table model, in which each person reports on key activities in his or her function or business unit. 
Seasoned operating executives will generally agree that a well-run business needs to have a set of metrics, above and beyond bare-bones financial results, that are used to guide decision-making and measure progress. Without metrics we would be flying blind. Unfortunately, operating metrics can also look like a panacea to the uninitiated, thereby lending themselves to fad-surfing. When boards, investors, and far-removed executives are at a loss about how to improve business results, demanding that metrics be put in place has a certain simplistic appeal. A metrics initiative can create the illusion of taking action, it sounds easy enough, and it might actually fix the business. Plus, metrics can provide a means of avoiding the need to assess people and strategies via more time-consuming and uncomfortably subjective means. What’s not to love? 
A COO is often described as the person in the organization who makes the trains run on time. This was also Mussolini’s claim to fame – and he was a Fascist. Does this mean that a COO, or anyone else tasked with driving operational efficiency, is condemned to play the role of killjoy authoritarian if he or she is to be effective? 
A time management tune-up in the leadership ranks is an easy first step in tightening up operational performance. Simply starting meetings on time will free up some cycles for productive work, and it will help establish the framework of disciplined behavior and professional courtesy necessary to support an execution-focused culture. 
It is fairly self-evident that one of the keys to achieving operational focus is to undertake fewer projects – but in practice it isn’t easy to cross things off the list. It doesn’t feel right to eliminate intrinsically worthwhile activities, and crossed-off items have a tendency to creep back on the list if you aren’t vigilant. Here are some things to consider. 
It is interesting to note that the symptoms of operational crisis are often remarkably similar, regardless of the underlying cause or the type of company. The often-used hamster wheel analogy of running around in circles and getting nowhere really does fit very well. 
Chick Operating Officer 
