As promised, I would like to write down some thoughts about an article – Reclaim your job – from S. Ghoshal and H. Bruch published in the Harvard Business Review from March 2004.

I like this article because it talks about the so-called managers (uhm, have you noticed – manager – not leader ;-) who just complain all the time about:

I am sure that you also meet regularly this kind of managers ;-) Bruch and Ghoshal made a quite impressive analyse about these points and found out, as expected, that….these are just excuses! This kind of boring reaction is mainly due to a lack of self-confidence and/or inhibition due to risks.

On the opposite, the two authors tried to identify which are the most important elements to be able to reach some success, instead of loosing time, focus and energy by complaining all the time. Three blocks crystallized:

– have our tasks under control and to manage the expectations of our stakeholders

– proactivity (acting, instead of re-acting mindset)

– go away from the desire to be indispensable

– busy to effective work

– learn to say simply “no”

– try to find new way to receive resources (money, people, mgmt attention, etc.)

– out-of-the-box, no can’t do mindset

– no limitation, break the rules

– choose a patient, methodical, out-of-the-box approach

– understand well the corporate strategy

– present alternatives to serve it efficiently

– base = strong expertise in a specific field

Waou, I find this framework really interesting and reproductible based on by own experience.