Ten ways of calibrating executive management mindset

The mindset of executive management can be a stumbling block of organisational growth and performance if it is not well calibrated.

However, many organisations do not renew the patterns of thinking of their management even though they are key in determining the strategic direction and success of their businesses.

Most of business decisions taken by management are influenced by how they think and perceive the world. If their mental model is not calibrated, they are vulnerable to make sub-optimal decisions.

This concept is called bounded rationality and it was introduced by Herbert Simon, an American economist and Nobel laureate, to describe the limitations of human rationality in decision-making.

It suggests that while management strive to make rational decisions, they are constrained by many factors like their mental maturity level, cognitive limitations, and availability of information.

These are some of the constraints that forces management to resort to heuristics (mental shortcuts) to arrive at decisions more quickly, even if these shortcuts might not always lead to the best outcomes.

That is what is happening in many organisations right now and this is substantiated by their habitual organisational problems. Albert Einstein once said, we cannot solve our organisational problems using the same thinking that created them.

This strongly suggests that it is imperative to adjust management and employees’ patterns of thinking for the organisations to stay relevant, adaptive, resilient and effective in delivering their strategic mandates. Traditional patterns of thinking might have worked well in the past, but they may not be suitable for addressing the complexities and challenges of today's global, fast-paced, and technology-driven world.

Therefore, the importance of readjusting management mindsets is to improve leadership capability and capacity, so that they improve their decision making and improve the operational and organisational excellence.

Just like industry machines, management mindset calibration has a due date, and there are signals that demonstrate the need for readjustment. Some of these signals are lack of improvement in organisation, low employee

morale, high turnover rates, and unproductive culture and customer attrition.

The signals may also be in the form of high resistance to change, high innovation and transformation gap, hierarchical barriers, and rigidity. The purpose of this article is to discuss ten focal areas of calibrating management mindsets to improve and sustain organisational performance.

The first area is to improve their strategic acumen, and this is their ability to think critically, analyse complex situations, and develop forward-looking strategies to navigate challenges and capitalise on emerging opportunities.

This will make them lead with a long-term perspective, adapt to changing circumstances, drive the organisation toward its strategic objectives and vision.

The second area to improve is cultural intelligence and it is the ability to understand, model and shape a progressive culture that promote effective communication, humanity, inclusion, psychological safety, collaboration, collective leadership, and performance excellence.

This is important management competency because effective implementation of strategy is highly influenced by its culture. Similarly, sustainable motivation of employees is determined by the organisational culture.

The third area is emotional intelligence, and it is the ability to understand ones’ emotions and actions so that they can manage themselves and manage organisational relationships effectively.

Leaders with high emotional intelligence foster trust and team spirit, they are better equipped to navigate change and uncertainty, communicate clearly, empathetically, and sensitively and value and appreciate the diversity of their team members by recognising and nurturing team strengths.

The fourth area is their ability to foster cross functional collaboration. It is the practice of coordinating employees and teams from different functional areas within an organisation to work together to achieve common goals or solve complex problems.

Management who can infuse collaboration in the organisation, break down departmental silos, promote a culture of openness, communication, and teamwork.

The fifth area is organisation agility and flexibility. It is the organisation's ability to adapt, respond, and thrive in dynamic and rapidly changing environments.

Management who embraces organisational agility can shift direction, reorganise processes, and pivot strategies as needed to stay competitive and aligned with its goals.

The sixth area is holacracy and it is the ability of management to distribute authority, decision-making, and responsibilities throughout an organisation in a decentralised manner.

This concept was developed by Brian Robertson, and it addresses the limitations and operational inefficiencies often associated with traditional hierarchical organisational structures.

The seventh area is crisis management and is the ability of management to effectively respond and mitigate the impact of unexpected and potentially damaging events or situations that threaten the normal operations, reputation, or well-being of an organisation, its employees, stakeholders, or the public.

Other critical areas are change management, 360-degree feedback and feedforward and customer centricity.

The Author is a member of African Excellence Forum, holds Master of Science Degree in Strategic Management, Certified Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence from America Society for Quality and he is also a Certified Professional Excellence Assessor, Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt, ISO 9001:2015 Certified. Contact: 72211182, Website: www.iqm.co.bw and Email: veronmosalakatane@gmail.com LinkedIn: Veron Mosalakatane