Four Obsessions of a Extraordinary Executive Summary

Key Issue: Executive leaders can be distracted by many priorities that are not critical to the success of their business.

Solution: Focus on organization health, instead of intellectual competitive advantages. Decide what the few key disciplines that are critical to success of the business. Make sure all meetings and communication constantly
remind everyone of the disciplines that drive success.

The Four Disciplines of a Healthy Organization:

#1 Build and Maintain a Cohesive Leadership TeamCohesive teams build trust, eliminate politics, and increase efficiency by: Knowing one another's unique strengths and weakness, Openly engaging in constructive ideological conflict, Holding one another accountable for behaviours
and actions, Committing to group decisions.

#2 Create Organizational Clarity
A healthy organization minimizes the potential for confusion by clarifying: Why the organization exists, Which behavioural values are fundamental, What specific business it is in, Who its competitors are, How it is unique, What it plans to achieve, Who is responsible for what.

#3 Over Communicate Organizational Clarity
Healthy organizations align their employees around organizational clarity by communicating key messages through: Repition don't be afraid to repeat the same message, again and again. Simplicity the more complicated the message,
the more potential for confusion and inconsistency. Multiple Mediums people react to information in many ways, use a variety of mediums. CascadingMessages leaders communicate key messages to direct reports, the cycle repeats
itselfuntil the message is heard by all.

#4 Reinforce Organizational Clarity Through Human Systems
Organizations sustain their health by ensuring consistency in; Hiring, Managing performance, Rewards and recognition, Employee dismissal.