If you like this, consider subscribing to a once-per-week newsletter I do.
Take a look at the tweet above. I mostly like both Bevan and Baldoni, honestly, but this is absolutely horrible and comical. If a middle manager even vaguely attempted to “adopt a CEO mindset,” he/she would be among the first, if not the absolute first, on the chopping block. CEOs and C-Suite people don’t want others mimicking their mindset; they might claim so in meetings, but the reality of the C-Suite is that it tends to be a bunch of hyper-insecure men who have found one swim lane of true success and relevance in life, and they cling to that swim lane with the voracity of someone on a life raft in the middle of the Pacific.
“Get aligned to the org strategy” is maybe the only thing, or one of two things, here that makes sense. Only about 8% of managers can align strategy and execution, so having more middle cogs that can do this would be good for organizations in general. The problem is often that the word “strategy” itself is meaningless. Despite the rise in the “Chief Strategy Officer” title, a lot of executives are still pretty clueless on what “strategy” is, often confusing it with logistics and operations. It’s hard to “align” with vague stuff.
Next up: communicate relentlessly. That’s not a bad one. Communication at work is typically a train…
