Message of the Day - Knowing when to let go and crossing over the barriers

Good Morning,

My most current read is ‘Hesselbein on Leadership’ (http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787963925.html) written by Frances Hesselbein, one of the pre-eminent gurus on management and leadership today. I first heard about Mrs. Hesselbein when reading my first Peter Drucker book. He raved about her work in her work as CEO of the Girl Scouts. He then chose her to run his foundation. Other leadership books also point to her work as examples of great leadership. Topping it of, when Jim Collins writes your Forward, that says a lot by me. I really enjoyed this book: it is laid out in sections with each section hold several essays on various subjects.

One of the items that Frances Hesselbein brings up is: knowing when to apply a concept called ‘Planned Abandonment’. That is, knowing when to let something go. What that something is does not matter as much as it no longer serves you or your organization any more. It could be a policy that used to help, that now is now either ignored, or when followed, causes more problems. It could be policy that worked when your customer base was local, and now you have customers worldwide. Many people also hold onto values way longer than they need to.

This concept is corroborated by two other very prominent people as well. Jim Collins, mentioned above, says in ‘Good to Great’ to make a ‘Stop Doing List’ and Marcus Buckingham in ‘The One Thing You Need To Know’ says that the one thing you need to know to achieve sustained personal success is to stop doing those things that detract from your ability to get your job done and achieve success.

Another concept which Mrs. Hesselbein covered was how the separate organizational sectors: government, public businesses, private businesses and non-profit organizations are converging in their use of modern day leadership and boundaryless organizational management. Years ago, how you managed a government office differed greatly from how you managed a Fortune 500 office, but those differences are fading away. Many businesses are crossing the lines to learn from the other areas.

I truly agree with this, and have learned a lot from seeing how a church is lead and managed and have been able to apply concepts from there to my job in a Fortune 500 company. What you read in a book for business can also be easily applied to a non for profit organization and visa versa.

This opens the door to so many possibilities!

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

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