Leadership and Management of Details

Building a great contracting business requires the right balance of leadership and management.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
D. Brown Management
August 17, 2018 2 minute read
discipline leadership management wisdom
Share

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” - Peter Drucker

This quote or a variation often gets used to describe the difference between strategy and tactics; leadership and management.

Quote: The man in charge must concern himself with details. If he does not consider them important, neither will his subordinates. Yet the devil is in the details... Hyman G. Rickover

While it is possible to separate them the truth is that many of the top leaders are relentlessly disciplined managers.  Think:

Admiral Hyman G. Rickover who is considered the “Father of the Nuclear Navy” was a relentless and disciplined manager.  He oversaw every detail of building out then operating a nuclear submarine fleet with a record of zero reactor accidents.  

Contractors have to put together many thousands of parts coming from hundreds of suppliers and subcontractors across dozens of projects each year operating on very thin margins with tight cash flow and major safety risks.  

Disciplined management is a key to sustainable growth.

Improve your management processes

Strategic Market Experiments
A growing contractor must systematically allocate 10-20% of their resources, including talent and capital to Strategic Market Experiments that have a probability of growing into a major market and becoming a "Strategic Choice."
Related Article
Always Do the Math and Build Your Own Models
You will learn more in the process of building and refining your own models than you will in just reading 1,000 headlines. How much time do you spend developing your own models as a mechanism to learn?
Related Article
Tactical and Strategic Question Categories
When planning, separate the questions you ask yourself into tactical and strategic categories. Answer the strategic ones first, back-checking them against the tactical ones to evaluate the viability of your plans.
Related Article