Pyramid Model: Managing & Developing A Sustainable Business

If people in leadership positions fail to manage and develop our business, chances are it will become uncompetitive and/or unsustainable even if we attend to the other four areas of the leadership pyramid.

This area is placed at the peak of the pyramid because it's from here that we need to look 

• over the big picture and the balance between the four points below; 
• ahead to the future and 
• out at the dynamic 21st century environment in which we are conducting our business 
• to ensure alignment rather than fragmentation or stagnation

When supervisors and managers ignore their responsibility for managing AND developing the business, the leadership team fragments and leaders start to focus on their personal agendas; silos and 'empires' develop; succession gaps emerge; communication gaps develop; ambitious staff become frustrated; competitive threats build; decision making becomes increasingly reactive and crisis management becomes the norm - the business starts to run the managers; to find, foster and develop future leaders;!

So the challenge here is to make time

• for strategic activities such as environmental scans, scenario planning, business reviews and long term/strategic planning; 
• build and maintain full and open communication and cooperative relationships with, and between, the members of the senior management team;  
• to find and develop new business; 
• to build and sustain effective working relationships with key external stakeholders (including the communities that give the business a 'social license' to operate); 
• to hold managers and leaders accountable to the business and their people;
• to keep the leadership pipeline flowing by identifying, fostering and developing future leaders and by creating opportunities for them to grow and lead;
• to attract, recruit, leverage and retain talent;
• to ensure that the intellectual capital of the business is retained, leveraged and developed;
• to secure supply sources...and more.