Chapter 6. PRINCIPLE V: Insist on Functional Excellence

As leaders get promoted and gain more responsibility in an organization, they simply can't immediately acquire all the in-depth knowledge required to fully understand every area that falls within their authority. The higher an individual moves in the organization, the truer this becomes. In order to ensure functional excellence, leaders need to have very talented, courageous, and highly principled individuals working for them. These people need to have in-depth knowledge of their field and must be willing to challenge the boss when they don't agree. This is particularly true in skill-dependent functional areas like manufacturing, IT, finance, and HR. When leaders lack knowledge and also lack ...

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