Winning Steps

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I reviewed my division’s performance for 2019 yesterday. At Iress we call them Winning Steps but it’s essentially a balanced scorecard.

I reviewed my division’s performance for 2019 yesterday. At Iress we call them Winning Steps but it’s essentially a balanced scorecard.

It’s been a year filled with ups and downs. But I’m very pleased with our overall progress. We’ve done well to put the proverbial “big stones” in the jar first.

One of my winning steps was to complete a restructure with “zero regrettable attrition”. That’s corporate speak for making a big change without losing any people.

Not sure what I was smoking because losing no people is pretty ambitious even when you’re NOT making changes.

In the end we lost 1 out of 35. That’s a great outcome. The one that got away very nearly returned three weeks after leaving, so we must be doing something right!

I had coffee with every team leader and engineer when I took over Operations at Iress. Many of them asked me what my plans were for the division.

I told them I want them to look back at their careers and say “man, those years in Ops were the best”. I told them my main job is to keep everyone together, and to keep everyone improving.

Of course I messed up along the way. But 2019 has been better than 2018 and as Warren Buffett says:

“Mistakes made in one year often contribute to competence & success in succeeding years.”

#reflection #leadership