Jo leads a strong unit. To lead the whole company, she has to cross six obstacles.
What this film is
A short story without words. Jo, Ava and the customer are invented. Each obstacle and each message comes from Douglas A. Ready's article on enterprise leadership. It is my reading of his work, not his.
The six obstacles
The pedestal. Culture makes icons of successful unit leaders. That keeps others from acting for the enterprise.
The gap. A product-push silo mentality cannot deliver the integrated solutions customers now ask for. Leaders must act across boundaries.
The fog. A strategy word like “integration” means nothing to people until it is made concrete. Enterprise leaders reduce complexity so others can focus on the customer.
The tightrope. Tomorrow's vision against today's customers. These tensions are never easily resolved, and must not be swept under the rug.
The rock. Rewards still pay for unit results. When the strategy changes and the rewards do not, the rewards win.
The gate. Division leaders open key jobs in their units to high potentials from elsewhere, so they learn the whole.
The closing line paraphrases Ready: an enterprise leader is not a job title, but a way of thinking and behaving.
Source
Douglas A. Ready, “Leading at the Enterprise Level”, MIT Sloan Management Review, 45(3), Spring 2004.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by the author or the publisher.