LeaderShip Edge

April 2007 :: Organizational Know-How

“Personal attributes are just one small slice of the leadership pie, and their value is greatly diminished without Know-How.”

- Author Ram Charan from latest book “Know-How”

You know what?

It seems everywhere you turn these days businesses are trying to differentiate themselves by focusing on a tiny sliver of business knowledge and advantage, in the hope it will make their organization successful.

For example:

Some organizations pride themselves on the level of their employees' academic, technical or business acumen, you know their – Know What.

Other organizations stress the importance of networking, relationships and knowledge sharing, you know their – Know Who

Still others will focus on corporate governance, social purpose, social responsibility, and green strategies, you know, the answer to them is to – Know Why.

However, Ram Charan, author of previous worldwide best-sellers "Execution" and "Confronting Reality", stresses the importance of one thing in his latest book, something he calls “the real content of leadership”. He says is all boils down to – Know How.

So, in essence, it's great that you know what to do, who to talk to, and why you're doing it, but do you and your organization actually know HOW to do it?

Should Have Known

So many organizations are full of perfectly intelligent, technically competent and maybe even charismatic people. The problem is, these people are ineffective when it comes to taking their organization to the next level (or even worse yet, out of a tailspin).  Somewhere along the line, the principle of hiring "the best and the brightest" morphed into hiring only "the brightest" with little precious little regard for whether or not they had the "know how" to get the job done.

Intelligence is crucial, but it is only valuable if your employees know how to put it to great use, and elevate the effectiveness of your organization.

Knowing is Half the Battle

For any organization to be successful in the future, we agree with Ram when he says that your people need to have a firm grasp on the skills to: 

• Position the business - the foundation
• Pinpoint external change - before the point tips
• Lead the social system of your business - herding cats
• Judge, select and develop People - how leaders are made
• Mold a team - unity without uniformity
• Develop goals - the buck starts with you
• Set laser-sharp priorities - it’s Monday morning - now what?

 Each one of the “Know-How’s” is critical.

Each one involves personal determination, and accountability.

These skills aren’t about working for the business, they are about working on the business. They are about taking the business to the next level, and beyond.

The “Know How's” are the first attempt to move the binary discussion of the past from its polarized emphasis on either hard business skills or soft interpersonal skills onto an entirely new plane that suggests “Know How” is the most important new business skill of all.

Knowing to Go Deeper

To help further explain the “Know How’s”, Charan takes the concept deeper into an individual’s personality, and yet further still into their cognitive make-up. While the actual "Know How’s" can be learned, Charan explains their effectiveness is greatly enhanced if the individual has certain personal attributes and cognitive abilities.

The personal traits include ambition, drive, tenacity, and realism.

The cognitive abilities include such things as the ability to “zoom in and out”, from the specific to the conceptual, with respect to a challenge or problem. They also include the ability to reframe and see a topic from a variety of perspectives thereby gaining a deeper understanding of the task at hand.

While this may appear to be a bad news situation for some, the reality is that if one doesn't possess these attributes and abilities, it simply means that more attention must be paid to the “Know How’s” themselves.

In our Opinion

Developing an Organization that "Knows How"

Know Who – Traditionally, your organization’s role models have likely been representative of more “charismatic” leadership qualities. To find the role models of the Know-How’s, you’re going to have to look a bit deeper.

Know Why - For most of your employees, the emphasis of their personal development may have been focused on the “wrong” things. Your role will now be to show them the benefit of moving to this new approach. It’s not a new fad, it’s HOW things should be done.

Know What - “Traditional” Management Development Programs focus on broad categories. To excel at the “Know-How’s”, your programs of the future will likely have to refocus on developing these specific new capabilities.

Know Where - Another area that may be in need of re-thinking and recalibration is the recruiting and retaining of top talent. Your “old” focus may have been on purely academic accomplishments or previous positions. In an organization that “Knows How”, the top talent is measured by their success in “Knowing How” and being able to share it with others.