The best strategy won’t help you a bit if you can’t execute it well.

Have you ever been in a situation when your boss has an idea, which she/he thinks is very prospective to implement? The boss explains the goals to her/his subordinates, and directs them to follow the instructions and to start integrating the idea. Subordinates argue a bit describing disadvantages and potential problems... But she/he is the BOSS, so they finally go and pass the strategy statements to their subordinates.

And the company starts moving towards newly stated goals?..

No. Actually no. What really happens is the resistance that increases on each level of company hierarchy. Managers do not believe that the idea is really good. They pass it to their subordinates, but they add their own distrusts while describing the tactic steps. Even if they do not give any negative comments, for subordinates it still sounds like just some more extra work they have to do to satisfy "top managemer's whim".

Football is a game of strategy, but even more, it is a game of execution. The best strategy won ’t help you a bit if you can ’t execute it well.

© Eric Sink on Business of Software, 2006

That's true. If you have a good idea, and have thought over the strategy to reach the goal, make sure it will be executed perfectly! Otherwise, you'll just loose some of your employees' work time and reduce their motivation.

How can it be done? The answer is quite easy to say but yet much harder to do. The 1st thing is to make sure that your direct subordinates share you enthusiasm about the goal, understand and accept the strategy, and are allowed to provide their comments and thoughts about it.

Actually, giving the chance to participate in strategy development is important not only to rise people's enthusiasm. This feedback can be really helpful, because your direct subordinates know more than you about people who is on the next level of company hierarchy. The people who report to your have different information flow, so they can and do know something that is not included into the picture you see yourself.

The most natural learning center for most organizations is at the level of that much-maligned institution, middle management.

© Peopleware. Productive Projects and Teams. 2nd ed.
Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister

I was participating in several discussions where people were arguing about the meaning of middle management term. As used in this article, middle management means the next level under your own position in the company hierarchy. Just don't forget that these people knows something that you do not know, and their knowledge can be really useful to improve and execute your strategy in the best way!

Why it worth to read generic management literature

Actually not, if you are completely satisfied with your current position and don't want||plan to change anything in future.

If your case is different, then there are at least several reason to read a few management books or take special courses:

1. There are some things that are being taught everyone, who ever takes management courses. Among those basic knowledges, there are some items that look quite interesting and thus are easy to remember. People do remember those items and start referring to those statements in their business or even personal life (at least for some time after learning the topic :-)). It usually worths to know what are they talking about to understand them or to argue. You don't have to take this information too serious, but it still makes sense to get it. Among such basic staff, I can mention:
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs (or just Abraham Maslow pyramid);
• Urgency / Importance quadrant by Stephen R. Covey. BTW, there are also some more popular things introduced by Covey, so I would recommend to read one of his books;
• Conscious Competence Learning Model.
  
  
2. Sometimes such reading is fun:
• Peopleware. Productive Projects and Teams. Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister;
• Screw It, Let's Do It by Richard Branson;
• Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency by Tom DeMarco;
• Life Inside a Bubble by Igor Ashmanov (the book is in Russian).
  
  
3. One more interesting category is "courses/manuals" for top managers. A lot of them are too obvious, some advices are really stupid, but anyway it worth to read to understand your bosses :-) Really, when you read this kind of literature, and find a lot of recommendations your boss follows or better has just recently started to follow, there is quite high probability that she/he will follow other instructions from the same source. I won't provide exact references in this article to avoid unnecessary rumors in the companies that I was working with. However, the rule does really work!
   

Disclaimer: if you are a technical specialist and believe that it's your right way, don't spend to much time on managerial staff. Few books on this topic is more than enough to get an idea what is this all about. Keep your valuable time for more important things, keep going through IT news, learning new technologies and increasing your professional skills.

Competitive Salary

or a myth about the rating of personal needs...

The most important factors for most applicants are working with smart and interesting people, working on interesting problems, free lunches and other benefits, a nice office, and a boss who "gets" them. Way down on the list is salary, although that certainly has to be competitive.

Joel Spolsky, Joel on Hiring and Retention.
Business of Software Blog, October 30, 2007

You can find similar statements in different market reviews and even in some widely accepted theories like the Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

But, what does Competitive Salary mean? I bet, for most people it's equivalent to the statement, that the salary must be enough to support the style of life the person is used to. Usually, this amount is a bit higher than the sum of all current earnings.

So, the 1st thing a potential employee is looking at is the salary. Only after accepting proposed salary, she/he starts looking at other benefits the company can provide.

Want to argue? OK. Try to find a person, who will accept new job without asking about proposed salary amount ;)


P.S. By the way, different surveys give discrepant results. Unfortunately, there is no chance to check how objective such surveys are. There are some references to the surveys conducted in Belarus and Russia (target pages are in Russian):

• http://www.smix.biz/articles.php?id=38
• http://www.bybanner.com/article/2449.html