The New How

Chapter 3. As We Lead

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places.

— Will Rogers

Enabling Organizational Velocity

Some of us have the challenge of leading people and initiatives in addition to being champions of ideas. This expanded role offers a lot more opportunities in the area of collaborative strategy creation. For most of us, leading is a privilege that comes in addition to our regular, everyday workloads, work that each of us must perform flawlessly because resources—talent, budgets, headcount, and schedules—aren’t as abundant as we might want or need. Leading collaborative strategy is not as easy as it looks.

Perhaps a story of a newly minted general manager will highlight the point.

Not long ago, a Rubicon colleague asked me to take a meeting with Lucas, who had recently received a prestigious new role at a global media company. The meeting was framed up as an opportunity to explore creative new ways to drive “exponential growth” in what pundits might very well consider a mature business unit.

We talked over lunch at a bustling Greek restaurant. Lucas was sharp, creative, and ambitious. He came across as a confident executive and a strong leader. Nearly two hours disappeared as we spoke about corporate and divisional strategic issues, focused intensely on the questions related to growth. We talked about Lucas’s passion for his products and services, and the initiatives he wanted to start and the goals he had. He shared a plethora of detailed facts, keen observations, ...