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Published August 24, 2011 at 11:05 PM

Got Rhythm? Ford (Alan Mulally) Certainly Does!

2 min read
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Picture of Patrick Thean

Patrick Thean
CEO of Rhythm Systems, CEO Coach and Serial Entrepreneur

Rhythm.  Execution Rhythm.  Rhythm builds momentum.  When you have momentum, it is much easier build on your momentum and succeed.  Momentum also makes it easier to recover mistakes.  Let's face it... We all make mistakes.  It's not "if" we will make one, rather it's "when" will we make one.  Do you have a strong execution rhythm that builds your confidence and momentum?

meeting

Read this Business Week article on how Ford's CEO, Alan Mulally, turned Ford around from a broken car company in 2006  to being the most profitable car company today, beating analysts estimates for 7 consecutive quarters in a row!  Note that Mulally has a strong execution rhythm built around his weekly meeting and his red yellow green dashboards.  His weekly meeting is on Thursdays at 7am for 2-1/2 hours with his top 15 executives.  Regarding public Red Yellow Green dashboards, the article reports that Mulally likes to say, "You can't manage a secret. When you do this every week, you can't hide."

Seems like we can learn lots from Mr. Mulally.  What's his formula?

Here's the formula:  Rhythm + Dashboards + Candor = Momentum

By the way, momentum is the business version of "mojo."  So... maybe instead of asking "Got Rhythm?"  I should have asked...  "Got Mojo?"