Updated: Feb 24
In Brief
“Leading in the Global Matrix: Proven Skills and Strategies to Succeed in a Collaborative World” by John Futterknecht and Marty Seldman (published in 2020) has attracted some attention as one of the current must-read books around operating in a matrix. Of course, matrix organisations have been around for a while now, but this book is one of the first to try to fully describe the management approach to be a truly successful leader in such an organisation.
Who should read this book?
The book is written as a guide for a reader who may be an experienced leader, but who is new or relatively new to leading in a matrix organisation. That said, there is something here for managers of all experience levels. Additionally, I feel that employees at any level working in a matrixed organisation will be able to benefit from the advice in this book, particularly if they have aspirations to become managers in the future.
Key takeaways
My key takeaway, was how much of your success is about your own attitude and approach. The authors use the phrase, “checkup from the neck up” to remind us to examine our own behaviour and beliefs before we start looking for external reasons for why things aren’t working out.
Other commentary
A chapter that was of particular interest to me was chapter nine, “Demonstrating Cultural Savvy”. This chapter highlighted some examples of businesses that had problems communicating effectively internally, where one group of stakeholder was based in the UK and tended not to say directly what they thought of any initiative or issue, whereas the other group were Russian and tended to be direct to the point of rudeness on all issues. This of course led to both groups being annoyed with the other and an overall lack of any progress being made. The authors offer great advice on how to begin and maintain such stakeholder relationships in a way that calls out the fact that cultural differences exist, establishing principles of working and, with the right mindset, ensuring that these don’t need to stand in the way of productive working relationships.
The other chapters that I found useful were those on; Cultivating a Matrix Mindset, Elevating Your Impact in Meetings, and Moving from Functional Expert to Strategic Thought Partner. Depending where you are in your leadership journey, many of the other chapters will also prove equally useful.
Overall
A book that will be useful to leaders at all levels within an organisation, either as a guide to things they should be doing, or as a reminder of things they have forgotten to do. Leading in the Global Matrix is a fairly easy read, and doesn’t delve too deeply into management psychology and motivation theories, but it does give a lot of practical and easy to adopt advice.
