Establish a vision
Setting the direction for the enterprise is the primary responsibility of the enterprise leader. Gallup, a famous research institution, has surveyed more than 40 thousand global leaders and senior managers in the past 30 years, and found that establishing the development direction of enterprises is one of the most important abilities of leaders.
In China, setting the general direction for enterprises has become the routine work of leaders for many years. Therefore, they also led a number of successful enterprises, such as Lenovo, Haier and Changhong. In these enterprises, the leaders' own values play an extremely important role in the establishment of corporate vision.
Professor Yang Zhuang, deputy dean of the Business School of Fordham University in the United States and US director of Peking University International MBA Program, said: "Zhang Ruimin, Liu Chuanzhi and Ni all have a set of beliefs and values, which laid the foundation for corporate culture and promoted the implementation of corporate strategy."
However, the increase of uncertain factors in today's economic environment has brought new challenges to the establishment of the direction. Just pointing out a general and broad general direction for enterprises will still bring confusion to employees.
A recent survey by AchieveGlobal, the world's leading leadership development organization, shows that if the ability to build a vision is "poor, or even does not have this ability, the consequences will not only be that employees have no motivation, but more seriously, they will be depressed and anxious because they lose their way or doubt their current direction." China enterprises need to know more about corporate vision.
Information decision-making
In the complicated and changeable business environment, it is a trend for business leaders to give up information analysis and rational decision-making. Courtney and others of McKinsey & Company pointed out that underestimating the strategy generated by uncertainty will bring a serious consequence: if business leaders can't make strategies according to traditional analytical methods, they may be angry with the strategic planning process, and as a result, they simply put aside strict analysis and make decisions only by intuition.
However, a high degree of uncertainty should not be an excuse for business leaders to "pat their heads". Yang Zhuang said: "A great leader must be able to make effective decisions in a vague situation full of uncertainty. If you wait until the state is clear, it is very likely that you have lost the best opportunity. " Xie, President of Greater China Strategy of AT Kearney North Asia, believes that the rapid development of China enterprises in the rapidly expanding market mainly depends on the courage, professionalism and experience of entrepreneurial leaders in the past 65,438+00 years. However, the internal organization and operation of the enterprise have not kept pace with the overall development of the company. Many enterprises in China enter the next stage and need to build a more solid foundation to support their sustainable development. Among them, the decision-making of leaders is particularly important.
It is true that a successful decision cannot completely abandon the leader's own keen intuition. Li Chongji said: "As the helmsman of an enterprise, it must be forward-looking to the market." This includes cultivating high sensitivity to information and keenly sensing the opportunities and threats contained in complex information.
When analyzing information on the basis of perception, we need to pay attention to the problems of insufficient information and asymmetric information. In the case of insufficient and unequal information, business leaders should strive to create a positive and asymmetric situation with information that others do not have. In this way, in the interaction with customers, competitors, suppliers and partners, we will increase our chips and be in a favorable position in pure competition and competitive cooperation.
Allocate resources
Allocating limited resources to people, projects and tasks that can produce the greatest benefits is a basic task of enterprise operation, and the role of enterprise leaders in this respect has not been weakened, but enhanced.
Chen Guanming, managing director of Aurora (China) Investment Co., Ltd., pointed out, combining his profound experience in leading Aurora, "Rational allocation of limited resources is a strategy in itself. This requires leaders to constantly explore and solve problems in the course of business. "
The increasing uncertainty of business environment makes the decision-making and implementation of resource allocation more difficult, so special attention should be paid to leadership skills in resource allocation.
Gary hamel, a management guru, once talked about the relationship between leadership and resource allocation in an interview with Harvard Business School. He pointed out that an important problem of enterprise leaders in resource allocation is that "the process of enterprise resource allocation is generally too conservative." Business leaders should not hold all the power of resource allocation in their own hands, but should "transform' resource allocation' into a model of' attracting resources'. In this mode, everyone in the enterprise organization can create an internal market and exchange ideas, talents and capital. At the same time, leadership will also shift from the' smart prophet' who specializes in making large-scale decisions to those who make things happen. "
In short, business leaders who are far away from the market should not directly instruct the allocation process of all resources, but delegate power and allow resources to be' attracted' to people who directly face the market and the new market opportunities they find.
effective communication
For business leaders, communication is a global problem. The Center for Creative Leadership, an authoritative research and development institution of leadership, released a new survey report in June 5438+ 10 this year. More than half of the business leaders surveyed believe that today's business organizations are still unable to effectively communicate with employees and related personnel on streamlining institutions and other organizational change measures.
It is only in recent years that China enterprises have consciously emphasized the importance of communication, which is the result of learning from international multinational enterprises to some extent. There is still a long way to go for enterprises in China to implement effective communication comprehensively and systematically. But this is an inevitable trend.
In last year's issue of HBS Bulletin, five authoritative professors in the field of leadership discussed the implementation of leadership and agreed that the real job of leadership is communication. They all expressed their views on how to communicate effectively:
Nitin Nohria and Joe Badaracco believe that excellent leaders should be able to simplify complex things in communication and express them in simple and popular language.
John Kotter pointed out that knowing who to communicate with is also a basic skill. Understand what they want to hear, what they don't want to hear, what they can and can't accept.
Joe Badaracco further pointed out that listening helps to understand the object of communication. "Communication cannot always adopt a top-down model, and leaders need to be masters of listening."
Rosabeth Moss Kanter believes that communication in organizational change requires leaders to have enough patience and enthusiasm. Leaders should choose a career that they don't give up easily, be not discouraged when encountering setbacks, and often advocate this career on different occasions.
Inspire others
Incentive mechanism has always been the "soft rib" of China enterprises. Yang Zhuang said: "The CEO of China enterprises seldom spends time encouraging employees to go all out to achieve corporate goals. On the one hand, due to the lack of suitable governance structure, CEO has no motivation to motivate employees; On the other hand, because many CEOs have only received technical training and lack communication and motivation skills, they don't know how to effectively motivate others. "
To motivate employees, it is necessary to establish an effective incentive system and a transparent reward and punishment system to achieve internal fairness. Li Chongji, general manager of Wyatt Consulting Shanghai, said: "In the continuous competitive pressure or enterprise change, what employees need is constant motivation. Successful leaders must establish an effective incentive system, a transparent reward and punishment system, and implement "performance pay" within the enterprise, so that outstanding employees can get more recognition and have a sense of belonging. "
In order to arouse the enthusiasm of leaders, some enterprises in our country implement the annual salary system for leaders. The gap between their salaries and ordinary employees is getting bigger and bigger. This has played an important role in motivating employees to achieve business goals.
However, we should also pay attention to the other side of the problem, that is, to avoid the high salary of the top management of enterprises and affect the working relationship between leaders and employees.
John Kotter believes that the salary system of top managers in developed countries needs to be reformed. This system not only widens the salary gap between senior managers and ordinary employees, but also establishes a gap in their relationship. This is not conducive to the overall development of enterprises.
personnel training
A survey report by the Conference Board, an authoritative organization composed of world-renowned CEOs who study management and market problems and countermeasures, points out that the succession of senior management and decision-making committees is regarded as a major management challenge by CEOs. This reflects the importance of personnel training.
Yang Zhuang pointed out that in a successful enterprise, cultivating the ability of others is an important criterion to judge the maturity of CEO. Kim of Samsung galaxy also pointed out: "If a leader is afraid that his subordinates are better than himself and drowns them, there will be no competent talents under such leadership. Therefore, a leader who spares no effort to train talents will have many talents. In this way, the chances of success will increase. "
Tang Dali of Courtyard by Marriott Qilu has worked in the hotel industry for more than 20 years and has very rich management experience. He attaches great importance to the cultivation of successors, and encourages every member of his senior management team to find and cultivate their own successors in order to take up higher positions at the right time. He said: "To develop an enterprise organization, it is necessary to have a successor plan, and it is necessary to consciously arrange some potential and skilled people to the corresponding leadership positions for training. In my job, this process starts from the day you are hired and lasts until the moment you leave the company. "
shoulder the responsibility
In an uncertain business environment, even an excellent business leader can't always get things done right away. When encountering setbacks and failures, as long as you have the courage to take responsibility, sum up seriously and start all over again, you will have a chance of success. Therefore, in Gallup's survey, more than 40,000 business leaders regard responsibility as a trait of their success.
The position of enterprise leaders gives them the obligation to take responsibility. Tang Dali said: "Leaders make decisive decisions, which are sometimes unpopular and often risky. But in any case, it is better to make a decision under uncertainty than not to make a decision. At these times, leaders must take risks and responsibilities. "
Chen Guanming pointed out in combination with Aurora's experience: "We encourage colleagues who are creative and do things right, and discourage colleagues who only do things right and are afraid of making mistakes. This is also a culture that we advocate. Therefore, we need to constantly innovate and forge ahead in business management, dare to challenge old thinking and old models, try new methods and new fields, and not rest on our laurels. At the same time, we should be brave to face the risks of operation and take responsibility. This is the courage that a leader should have. "
honesty and trustworthiness
James M. Citrin is the head of global technology and communication business of Spencer Stuart, a famous American executive headhunting company. During his eight-year headhunting career, he has completed the headhunting appointment of more than 220 senior managers in high-tech fields. In this year's new book, 12 How Excellent Companies Sail on the Road to the Next Economy, he pointed out that effective leaders are those who effectively manage uncertainty, and honesty and trustworthiness are the first principle for effectively managing uncertainty.
How to play the role of honesty and trustworthiness in dealing with crisis and uncertainty? DDI, a global human resources consulting company with rich experience in leadership development, suggests that business leaders must remain emotionally true. It believes that if you can't share your true feelings, there will be a gap between leaders and others in the organization in times of crisis. Therefore, as a leader, you should be brave enough to admit your fears and anxieties, share your thoughts and feelings with employees, and move forward with everyone.
Li Chongji believes that the "greatest success" of successful leaders lies in how many capable people can be called to do things for them. This kind of appeal is not only the power or interest in their hands, but also depends on self-discipline and integrity. Only honesty can keep itself attractive in interpersonal relationships, establish a wide range of good social relations and interpersonal relationships, and thus attract and retain all kinds of outstanding talents needed by enterprises. "
Career orientation
Successful business leaders must have a strong sense of professionalism, regard the business of the enterprise as their own business and devote themselves wholeheartedly to it.
Yang Zhuang said: "A great leader must be someone who pursues Excellence and surpasses his peers. Take a look at the successful business leaders in China, and you will feel that many leaders have the characteristics of pursuing Excellence in various situations. " For example, Feng Lun, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vantone Group, has a strong desire to achieve his career, constantly pursuing Excellence and innovating the business model of real estate companies, thus forming the fourth business model of Vantone, which is different from the traditional three business models of real estate companies.
Wang Licheng, the chairman of Huali Group, who is known as the "first businessman" in China, led Huali Group from a small instrument factory to become a trendsetter in the international financial market through unremitting efforts. He not only owns two listed companies, ST Hengtai and Huali Holdings, but also acquired Pacific Systems and a Pacific business network company on Nasdaq. The company became famous because it officially acquired the CDMA mobile communication department of Philips in September last year and owned all the intellectual property rights of the company in CDMA wireless communication.
Fast learning
When a large number of Internet companies exclaimed that they were in a bubble, Zhang Chaoyang, president and CEO of Sohu, believed that the Internet was not a bubble, but Internet capital was a bubble. He learned the lessons of the Internet economic bubble and adopted a diversified Internet business strategy aimed at expanding market share and winning profits, which reversed the downward trend of the company in one fell swoop and achieved double-digit income growth in 200 1 for four consecutive quarters.
This shows the extreme importance of learning. Li Chongji pointed out: "Many successful entrepreneurs have experienced the low tide or adversity of their respective careers. Actually, failure is not terrible. The road to success is often not simply written in the books of management masters, but realized by entrepreneurs in repeated failures. " Thousands of projects have failed simply because we are too afraid of failure. As a result, we are unwilling to try. Meng Lo shared his leadership experience: "In my work, I encourage my colleagues to try different methods to solve problems without worrying about failure. Failure will only increase our ability to solve problems. When you create such an atmosphere and environment, you create a successful team! "
In order to help China's business leaders succeed in the new century full of business uncertainties, the above discussion is only one of the most important characteristics. Moreover, the connotation, problems, challenges and training skills of each trait will evolve with time.
Therefore, for business leaders, the most basic thing is to lay a healthy body and mind and keep a young mind. As Meng Lo summed it up: "If we do anything well, we must' love' it. Without this mentality, we can only waste time at most!