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Executive Ownershift by Dan Norenberg

I met Dan through someone I know, we connected and he very kindly sent me a copy of his book. I am a big fan of Dan’s work in general, as it shifts the thinking in an organisation from individual work to teamwork. So often we focus on building individual leaders, we forget that those leaders are part of a wider ecosystem. Below you will find the key points I took from the book. You also find here a link to the podcast episode I recorded with Dan. [My own thoughts are added]

Traits of effective leadership

Importance of vulnerability – asking for help as a sign of strength 

Importance of trust – but reality can be you need approval to do simple/ basic things (eg hiring, business travel, attending outside events) 

“It’s hard to become a chess player when you feel like a chess piece” 

Importance of having an executive leader who makes decisions 

“The way we do anything is the way we do everything” 

High performance at work

Performance levels decrease as you move down the organisation, eg Exec team 7/10, 3 levels down could be 3/10 

Issues need to be addressed at the source – the exec team – to stop the same problems happening again and again 

Hold each other accountable to agreed standards 

Purpose and boundaries of the Exec team 

Decision-implementation scorecard 

On teamwork

Similar to leadership, just because you’re called a “team” doesn’t automatically mean that you work well together 

It doesn’t take a genius to see what makes people different, but it does take patience and wisdom to see what different people have in common 

80% of execs believe they have the necessary skills to perform their role, but only 30% believe their colleagues do – [this must cause a lot of conflict]

Power vs trust [the concept of power has come up in a lot of conversations recently and I would love to explore it in greater detail]

The Knowing-Doing Gap

Knowing doing gap – changing behaviour not just saying you know something 

know what to stop doing! 

Exec team leader needs to make decisions – not decision by committee [this ties in to the purpose of the meeting] 

Set clear Standards of Excellence 

Common sense is about knowing, common practice is about doing 

3 mergers – legal, rational, emotional – need to get all three right

Knowing doing gap -> focus, discipline, accountability 

Future possibilities – effective meetings

The more meetings people attend, the more exhausted they feel, and the higher they perceive their workload to be [is there a perception that more meetings = more important?] 

Move conversations from talking about what’s broken to talking about what’s possible 

The executive leadership meeting is where the leadership team gives birth to their company culture  

Involvement breeds commitment [involve the team in decisions]

Decisions drive business success 

Agenda is more than just items on a list, should be clearly defined as: discussion; decision; problem solving; or brainstorming 

How to create effective change

Strategy: clarity, connection, collaboration, contribution, consequences 

People do what they do for the consequences of their behaviours (if there are no negative consequences, or if they haven’t received feedback on the negative consequences of their behaviour, then they’ll keep doing it) 

3 levels of engagement – responsibility, accountability, ownership 

Ownership is a choice, cannot be delegated 

During times of change – we become very internally focused 

External expertise as a catalyst for change 

Executives do not see themselves as needing “training” – so call it something else 

Doing something new requires courage, willingness to fail, vulnerability and going first

 Further resources

Listen to the podcast Dan and I recorded together here

Watch our LinkedIn Live recording on YouTube

Dan’s website

Previous Post: « 75: Let go of fear & craft your career with Tiana Madera
Next Post: Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute »

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