6 Key Drivers of Success

A few weeks ago, a friend sent us an article by New York Times business columnist Adam Bryant along with this question, “In your experience, do these six ‘success drivers’ make sense?”

The article summarizes extensive interviews Bryant conducted with leaders of successful companies whose names you would recognize. He was looking, he says, for “the things that, if done well, have an outsize positive impact, and if done poorly or not at all, have an outsize negative impact.”

If you’d like to read the entire article, you can see it here: Management Be Nimble.

Or we can save you a little time. Bryant’s six success drivers are:

1. Have a extremely simple plan (narrow, with an exceptionally clear focus on where you’re going, supported by a small number of key goals)
2. Be clear about the ‘rules of the road’ (a small set of core values that are authentic, which means they truly define and differentiate your culture, and that you really live by them)
3. Treat people with respect (so that they feel free to challenge each other and pursue the greater good of the business)
4. Build a strong team (roles are crystal clear, right people are in right seats, and the team embraces a culture of trust and accountability)
5. Have adult conversations (an outcome of the two previous points – the ability for people to speak openly and honestly, without fear of repercussions)
6. Deal with difficult issues face-to-face, not via email (or other technology that makes misinterpretation and distrust more likely)

Those principles are timeless. They're described in dozens of business books from authors like Bryant, Jim Collins, Patrick Lencioni and many others.

And of course they make sense. If your company has a simple, clear plan that everyone understands, a strong culture based on a few key principles that everyone embraces, a rock-solid team, and an environment in which you’ve replaced politics with open, honest conversations focused on the greater good of the business, how will you not do better?

The question is whether you know how to make it happen – to do these things really well, so that you enjoy the ‘outsize positive impact’ Bryant describes.

The good news is that you don’t have to figure it out how to make it happen by yourself, we are here to help.