Read 'Chapter 1: The Gap Nobody Knows' & answer the following question(s): |
1. | In the year 2001 alone, forty CEOs of the top two hundred companies on Fortune’s 500 list: |
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2. | Strategies most often fail because they aren’t executed well. |
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3. | Velocity is: |
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4. | Building to order means producing a unit after the customers order is transmitted to the factory. |
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5. | Higher velocity reduces productivity and increases working capital. |
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6. | Execution is synonymous with tactics. |
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7. | Execution is the missing link between aspirations and results. |
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Read 'Chapter 2: The Execution Difference' & answer the following question(s): |
8. | Every great leader has had an instinct for execution. |
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9. | An execution-savvy leader focuses on the cause of a problem not the outcome of a problem. |
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10. | A leader skilled in execution probes his organization to get a realistic assessment of its market risks. |
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11. | When a business is making major changes, the right people have to be in the critical jobs, and the core processes must be: |
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Read 'Chapter 3: Building Block One: The Leader’s Seven Essential Behaviors' & answer the following question(s): |
12. | Which of the following is not considered essential behavior for a leader: |
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13. | In companies that don’t execute, the leaders are usually out of touch with the day to day realities. |
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14. | Embracing realism means always taking a realistic view of your company and disregarding other companies. |
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15. | People in contemporary organizations need a smaller number of clear priorities to execute than those in an old-fashioned organization because: |
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16. | A leader who says "I've got 10 priorities.": |
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17. | Along with having clear goals, a leader should strive for simplicity in general. |
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18. | The failure to follow through is widespread in business, and is a major cause of poor execution. |
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19. | A good leader ensures that the organization makes distinctions between those who achieve results and those who don’t, in terms of base pay, bonuses and stock options. |
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20. | The most effective way to coach is to: |
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21. | Your aim in coaching an individual should be: |
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22. | Emotional fortitude allows you to avoid points of view which differ from your own. |
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23. | Strength of character has no basis in great execution. |
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Read 'Chapter 4: Building Block Two: Creating the Framework for Cultural Change' & answer the following question(s): |
24. | Most efforts at cultural change fail because: |
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25. | Cultural change gets real when your aim is execution. |
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26. | The foundation of changing behavior is linking rewards to performance and making the linkages transparent. |
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27. | Culture is: |
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28. | Structure divides an organization into units designed to perform certain jobs, but it is social software that integrates the organization into a unified, synchronized whole. |
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29. | Leaders create a culture of indecisiveness and leaders can break it. |
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30. | You change the culture of a company by changing the behavior of its leaders. |
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31. | Robust dialogue: |
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Read 'Chapter 5: Building Block Three: The Job No Leader Should Delegate – Having the Right People in the Right Place' & answer the following question(s): |
32. | In the hiring process, it’s critical to hire people with whom you’re comfortable. |
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33. | An organization’s human beings are its most reliable resource for generating excellent results year after year. |
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34. | Consistently successful business leaders focus intensely and relentlessly on people selection. |
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35. | The following is not a valid reason for why the right people are not always in the right jobs: |
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36. | Some leaders drain energy from people, other create it. |
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37. | It’s always better to hire the most highly conceptual strategic thinking candidate. |
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38. | Traditional interviews are extremely useful in spotting qualities of leaders who execute. |
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39. | Decisiveness is the ability to make difficult decisions swiftly and well, and act on them. |
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40. | How leaders meet their commitments is at least as important (or more important) as whether they meet them. |
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41. | Getting things done through others is a fundamental leadership skill. |
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Read 'Chapter 6: The People Process: Making the Link with Strategy and Operations' & answer the following question(s): |
42. | The strategy process is more important then the people or operations processes. |
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43. | Meeting medium and long term milestones greatly depends on having a pipeline of promising and promotable leaders. |
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44. | The last building block of the people process is its linkage to strategic milestones. |
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45. | Linking people, strategy, and operations helps distill organizational challenges for the coming year. |
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46. | HR has to be integrated into business processes. |
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Read 'Chapter 7: The Strategy Process: Making the Link with People and operations' & answer the following question(s): |
47. | A contemporary strategic plan must be an action plan that business leaders can rely on to reach their business objectives. |
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48. | A robust strategy is a compilation of numbers somewhat like an astrological forecast. |
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49. | When a business unit creates its strategy, it clearly lays out in specific terms the direction of the unit. |
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50. | An astonishing number of strategies fail because leaders don't make a realistic assessment of whether the organization can execute the plan. |
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Read 'Chapter 8: How to Conduct a Strategy Review' & answer the following question(s): |
51. | The strategy review is not a good time for a leader to develop people. |
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52. | It’s critical that the strategy process be linked to the people and operations processes. |
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53. | A strategy review should be a creative exercise. |
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54. | It’s good form at the end of a strategy review to write a letter to each of the leaders to solidify and confirm the agreements you made. |
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Read 'Chapter 9: The Operations Process: Making the Link with Strategy and People' & answer the following question(s): |
55. | The operating plan provides the path for the people who will get the business where it wants to go. |
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56. | In the operating plan, the leader is primarily responsible for overseeing the seamless transition from strategy to operations. |
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57. | A sound budget takes weeks or months to develop. |
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58. | The starting point of any budget is: |
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59. | Synchronization is essential for excellence in execution and for energizing the corporation. |
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60. | Debate on assumptions is one of the most critical parts of any operating review. |
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