I recently saw the movie "MoneyBall" with Brad Pitt as the lead playing a GM of the Oakland A’s baseball team. For the readers who have not seen the film, I won’t give away the major plot and ruin your experience.
The film had many correlations to our leadership options in homebuilding. This is what struck me as being very relevant to our decisions as leaders today.
- Don’t sit with the pack; shake it up even when everyone else thinks you have lost your mind. Doing the same thing will get you the same results. Select a creative niche for your business after some analysis and don’t stop moving forward as long as you believe it’s the right thing to do.
- Don’t make decisions on what society states is the norm and status quo. Many times what doesn’t look like a good solution because it hasn’t been institutionalize can be your best solution.
- Give the people you hire and trust the rope to accomplish their role. Be instrumental in choosing the “A” team for your business , set the vision, and then get out of the way.
- Don’t question yourself when you get hit with all the criticism. Stay strong to your beliefs and values and your agreed upon strategies . Send the message that it has been well thought out and unlike your peers; you are not going to change to the flavor of the month based on outside pressures.
- Make the hard decisions that allow your business to execute your niche and different direction. In any major organizational shift, some personnel causality’s are inevitable. Not to move quickly sends the wrong message which is, it’s easier to talk than to do.
- Identify exactly what skills, strategies, products, locations, funding etc. you will need to outperform your competition and then hire against those competencies, in both employees and outside consultants. Without the internal competencies in place .no vision will ever reach its potential.
The movie was entertaining and offered a real eye opener in transcribing sports related management skills into the day to day strategic and operational decisions we all face. The big take away is don’t look at what everyone else is doing, pontificating as the answer to your future success.
Use analysis upfront on what matters in your success and surround yourself with the plan, people, commitment and perseverance to pull it off. Staying with the pack is sadly predictable, boring and an assurance of mediocrity. Start today. I would be glad to discuss out of the norm strategies for you to consider.