We have pledged to share insights that we think might be useful to our friends and clients businesses and organizations.  2019 provided a lot of learning experiences and we have identified four significant traits that we think helped to distinguish high performing efforts:

• Information, Knowledge and Action leading to capturing and sustaining value
  • They have great business intelligence- have the right information and know a lot of context about their businesses and organizations (and their competitors) and act upon that to their advantage
  • They know what drives value and have keen insights about the ingredients to the value
    • Where do you make and lose money?
    • What is growing and lagging?
    • What the leading indicators suggest might happen?
    • What are the trends emerging that have not yet settled in?
  • They think and act systemically in their analysis and response
  • They develop and act on both enduring and flexible plans to capture and sustain that value
  • The whole team knows what drives value and embeds it in their thinking and actions
• Get the homework and hard thinking done “up front” and act proactively more than reactively
  • Think through the risk and reward in their work
  • Explicitly bring facts to the table and decision making process
  • Do diligence and ask appropriately tough questions
  • Document necessary legal agreements and cover for the “downside”- willing to spend a few more days negotiating than suffering challenges for years to follow
  • Know that it is too costly to deal with the unexpected or negative outcomes later- so they do their best to get the hard thinking and work done upfront
• They employ the Wine/Milk; Cheese/Bread Assessment Model  for the opportunities and challenges they face:

• Build and rely on the Team:
  • Think hard about the skills and experiences they need on the team and relentlessly pursue the right people- and don’t satisfice
  • Provide frequent and meaningful developmental experiences for their people:
    • Explicit and accountable endeavors
    • Endeavors important to the success of the organization
    • Guaranteed to shape perspectives, broaden scope and deepen skills
  • And if things are not heading in the direction they hope- See above: Wine/Milk;   Cheese/Bread Assessment Model

For more information refer to: https://pmccinteractive.com/2020/01/24/background-information-for-pat-mccormick/