Up Your Business!: 7 Steps to Fix, Build, or Stretch Your Organization, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded

Introduction

The world has become too politically correct, and quite frankly, it’s sickening. The “rationalize, sugarcoat, and don’t offend” mind-set of society has carried over into business and is perverting the performance-based psyche you must have to fix, build, or stretch your organization. Business leaders are not facing the tough issues. They’re seeking harmony over truth, and it’s creating a morass of mediocrity. Everywhere you look you see that marginal and moronic business leaders and philosophies have reached critical mass.

Business is simple. Not easy; simple. (Intellectuals try to complicate it.) It still boils down to having the right people in the right places doing the right things. You can read books on strategy and attend courses on corporate vision, but the fact is that without getting the right people on your team, nothing else you do will matter. Your vision is worthless, strategy impotent, and values corrupt without the right people to execute them. And just as important as getting the right people is getting rid of the wrong ones. Keep these losers around and they’ll dilute the effectiveness of your great players and pollute your culture. Too many managers are leadership wimps. They won’t make the tough calls on poor performers and allow these slugs to continually break momentum, sap morale, and diminish the managers as leaders.

Once you have the right people and get rid of the wrong ones, your job is just beginning, because you must develop the talented people ...