Inspiration 4: A good leadership challenge or a crazy dream?
It’s well known that the Volkswagen’ leader, Martin Winterkorn, doesn’t tend to hesitate and likes to challenge.
He has recently given the GO! for a new project, which success is still questionable:
The “Budget Car” shall sell for 7000€ maximum at a margin of 8%:
The current analysis shows:
The production cost is 700€ too high!
However, Martin Winterkorn is convinced that his employees will manage to bring the cost down.
Is he putting too much strain on them or is this just another leadership challenge to fix?
Leadership lesson: An excellent leader vs. a kind leader
How are you running your team?
Do you as a boss only let your associates take on tasks of which every one is certain, that they won’t face any challenges?
Or do you dare from time to time to accept challenges that no one knows how to deal with?
If you want to run a normal business, you request normal work.
If you want to achieve the exceptional, your associates need to sweat.
Not because your team works a lot of extra shifts but because you are looking for a level of quality that your team didn´t reach before.
That is the only way to create and lead a truly successful team and business.
If your team starts calling you mad, saying something like:
“Again such a crazy idea!”
”He must be insane!” or
“What the heck did he smoke?”
you have the option to backpedal.
Or, of course, you have the option to stay true to your idea and have them take on the challenge.
The extraordinary can only prosper under extraordinary circumstances.
My tip:
Don’t be kind to your associates.
Challenge them instead!
Believe that they have great potential and the ability to achieve more tomorrow than what they have achieved today.
Employees like to be thrown into the cold water – with hindsight.
You just have to make sure that the water is not freezing and that you always have a safety buoy at hand.
In that case, this one will never happen to you …”kill the boss” trailer:
KILL THE BOSS ( HORRIBLE BOSSES)| Trailer englisch
KILL THE BOSS ( HORRIBLE BOSSES)| Trailer englisch Mit Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell & Jamie Foxx. Ein Film von Seth Gordon. DVD Veröffentlichung von Kill the boss (horrible bosses): 5. Januar 2012
