If you’re a chief exec or even an executive leader:

• Do you have a comprehensive understanding of the groups that most affect the organization’s ability to reach its goals?
• Do you know who your top customers and most critical employees are?

Now that you’ve identified them, ask yourself:

• Why do those customers and employees choose your company?
• Why do they stay?
• What is the likelihood of their future loyalty?

… [ Read more ]

Authors: Chris Jones, Jake Herway
Source: The Biggest Mistakes New CEOs Make and How Not to Make Them
Subject: CEO / Executive Questions

• Do we shelter toxic leaders?
• Do we have the right people in the right places (especially managers)?
• Is our work environment transactional or relational?
• Are our benefits aligned with employee priorities?
• Employees want career paths and development opportunities. Can we provide it?
• How are we building a sense of community?

Authors: Aaron De Smet, Bill Schaninger, Bonnie Dowling, Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi
Source: ‘Great Attrition’ or ‘Great Attraction’? The choice is yours
Subject: Human Resources Questions

1. Who should I meet with outside of our team? Your ability to figure out how to influence others will improve if you can get to a quick understanding of the unspoken or informal networks that govern the social dynamics of your new team or organization. Your boss is ideally placed to provide you with this intel.
2. How do you prefer to communicate? It is

… [ Read more ]

Author: Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
Source: 7 Questions to Ask Your New Boss
Subject: Personal and Career Development

1. Is it now, or will it likely be, a winning ecosystem?
2. How well do the purpose and culture of the ecosystem resonate with your own values and preferences?
3. Are commitments required (exclusivity, for example, or ecosystem-specific investments) that could limit your future flexibility?
4. Do you have the transparency and decision rights to understand and influence the development of the ecosystem?
5. To what extent do regulations for input,

… [ Read more ]

Authors: Balázs Zoletnik, Martin Reeves, Ulrich Pidun
Source: How Do You Succeed as a Business Ecosystem Contributor?
Subject: Strategy Questions

Before having a 1:1 meeting with a direct report, reflect on these types of questions.

• Does the person you’re managing feel invested in your company or team goals? Why should he/she be? Have you clearly explained the vision or goals, and his/her part in achieving them?
• Does he/she feel as if you’ve got his/her back?
• Do you know what motivates him/her?
• In every relationship, both parties must get

… [ Read more ]

Author: Maggie Leung
Source: Managers, Take Your 1:1s to the Next Level with These 6 Must Reads
Subject: Management Questions

Purpose defines our core reason for being and the positive impact we have on the world. It shapes our strategy, inspires our people, engages our customers and community, steers choices at moments of truth, and is fully embedded in our culture. Whether we are reappraising an existing purpose or designing one for the first time, we need to wrestle with challenging questions such as the … [ Read more ]

Authors: Arne Gast, Bill Schaninger, Bruce Simpson, Nina Probst, Pablo Illanes
Source: Purpose: Shifting from Why to How
Subjects: Management Questions, Mission / Vision / Values, Organization Questions

1. What is our mission? The mission captures the purpose of an organization’s existence. It has to encapsulate something that you believe in, at a deep and personal level, such that everyone in the organization understands and lives it.
2. Who is our customer? Only when you have clearly identified your customers can you focus on satisfying their needs.
3. What does the customer value? It’s common for

… [ Read more ]

Author: Peter F. Drucker
Source: Book Summary – The Five Most Important Questions You will Ever Ask About Your Organization
Subject: Management Questions

1. What’s important?
2. What should be the same?
3. What needs to change?

Author: Jason Fried
Source: Nailing the Next Five Years
Subject: Strategy Questions

Questions to help unpack pivotal transitions

1. What do you want to do differently in your next role?
2. Imagine yourself in three years. What do you hope will be different about you then compared to now?
3. For the last few companies you’ve been at, take me through: (i) When you left, why did you leave? (ii) When you joined the next one, why did you choose it?

Questions … [ Read more ]

Source: 40 Favorite Interview Questions from Some of the Sharpest Folks We Know
Subject: Human Resources Questions

By asking core questions along these dimensions, it is possible to determine the cornerstones of a next-generation operating model.

Processes

• Process design. How should we design functional, cross-sector, and support processes? How can we best integrate innovations? How can we accelerate decisions?
• Performance management. What are our most important KPIs? How do we set and track targets? How do we encourage decision-orientation and collaboration?
• IT systems and technologies.

… [ Read more ]

Authors: Andreas Seyfert, Christoph Kuntze, Tim Lange
Source: Next-generation supply chain—transforming your supply chain operating model for a digital world
Subject: Management Questions