#281: The leadership mentality that's a must
You have a choice, you can either be great at something or have this type of attitude. Pepsico's former CEO Indra Nooyi gives us this valuable advice
In a Motley Fool interview with former CEO of Pepsico Indra Nooyi, she speaks of two types of attitudes you can be as an employee. One wants to focus on doing their job to the best of their ability, and the other has an ownership mentality. She chose the latter.
Many of you are going to say you can do both. But you can’t. Think of it like this. If you spend all of your efforts only focusing on the job you are doing, you aren’t focusing on what else is happening in the company. If you take an ownership mentality, you are motivated by what effect the output you provide has. You will focus on ensuring that the right part of your output is usable, on time, and within budget.
I’ve written before about a culture where employees are both in sales and customers. Whatever you produce, data, paperwork, or any part of the process, has both incoming and outgoing components. For example, if you understand what the accounting team needs to create an outstanding invoice for the final customer, you focus on getting that specific data to them. You know the impact your output has on the overall process.
This ownership mentality takes you into all the areas of the organization to see what it is they provide. Ms. Nooyi understood everything on a surface level, from the chemistry behind the beverage to the retail shelf space required. Leaders begin to identify inefficiencies when they start looking at the bigger picture. What else is in the middle of these processes that is unnecessary to all the customers involved? If you spend all your effort doing everything possible to understand your product, you may send unnecessary info downstream. You may be slowing the process down, and time is money.
If I take Ms. Nooyi’s suggestion, I should end this blog. I should have gotten its point across. Her advice is obvious. Leaders need to understand the entire organization, not be experts in any one thing. Your job is to make better decisions, and this will help.
As you look at your position, what do you want to concentrate on, whether you are a worker bee or the CEO? It is hard work to determine what is and isn’t necessary, but it will improve your company tomorrow!
Are you looking to get some new input? Give us a call at Kole Performance Group to review your overall process. You can now schedule a 30-minute ZOOM directly by CLICKING HERE.
Kole Performance Group is partnered with Vistage Michigan, where we help you identify these inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement. If you are a CEO, President, or Executive Director looking for a Peer Advisory Group, contact us! We are developing a new group in Southeastern Michigan now!