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Suzanne talked about, "Developing a Vision For Your Life," on The Success Design With Beth Shankle-Anderson Radio Show. You can listen to the show using the player below or by clicking here.
“He has come to realize that the tyranny of the urgent is a false calling for one’s life.” -Paul Heagen, Vistage Executive Street Blog Post, 8/25/11, commenting on lessons learned from Steve Jobs
Ever increasing volumes of information, (accurate, conflicting, and false), the constant barrage of shrill rhetoric, and the absence of visibility of where things are headed are the order of the day. Recently, a small group of my Vistage members discussed the subject and not surprisingly, words like doubt, fear, and fatigue popped out quickly as the participants shared.
Some preferred to spend more time on sorting out what might be reliable data, some suggested paying closer attention to one’s spiritual traditions and connection, and several pointed to their Vistage Group membership as a place to connect and find sanity. All these approaches met with consensus.
Discerning effective thoughts, feelings, and actions from the intense noise in the media and their day-to-day interactions with others seemed to be an important common thread. What has happened to our sense of visibility on where and how to lead? Did we ever really have real visibility or was it an illusion?
What if there never was any certainty – just the shared belief over the last decade that somehow we could predict where markets were headed, how competitors would behave, or how banks and creditors might respond? I’m not naively suggesting things aren’t tough. I’m wondering if the change is within us, a collective shift in our mindset, rather than “out there” solely in the circumstances?
During the Great Depression Napoleon Hill wrote “Think and Grow Rich” as a response to the collective conversation for malaise and failure that he was observing around him. I’d call today’s public conversation “Speak and Grow Poor…”
Great leadership, as Paul Heagen points out in referencing Steve Jobs’ well-known Stanford speech, is only clear looking backwards. “Better to trust your guts, even your sense of destiny, your ability to change the world around you.”
Circumstances are always with us and ever more intrusive due to our wired world and the pressure to respond to “the tyranny of the urgent.” Correlating behavior with circumstances produces the opposite of Steve Jobs’ leadership. It produces reaction, exhaustion, and basically, a soap opera.
Commitment to a shared vision is the energizer that will get you and your team charged up, in action, and finding ways to succeed, regardless of circumstances. Fatigue comes from resisting committing rather than from commitment. Commitment spawns a sense of freedom and clarity.
Shared vision and commitment will not be found in doing a better job dealing with your circumstances.Courage, the courage to be with the unknown, to “develop a friendship with the unknown,” as the poet David Whyte points out, is the missing link that will move you from reacting to your circumstances to great leadership.
Do you have the courage and tenacity to completely redesign your life in the middle of it and create a whole new level of success for yourself?
Our family enjoyed a good old fashioned Wild West show at the Ellensburg, WA rodeo over Labor Day weekend, complete with buffalo, cowboys, cracking whips, and amazing riding stunts. All of this just from the mid-performance entertainment – an act known as, “The One Arm Bandit.” We have seen this act many times and it never ceases to be exciting and inspiring.
What moves The One Arm Bandit from the category of just another act to extraordinary and inspiring for the rest of us is to realize that John Payne, a cowboy, was electrocuted in June 1973 and fell 25 feet in the process. His work partner revived him with CPR but the experience left him with severe injuries and without his right arm. Would you have pretty much given up on your life at that point? I have a strong feeling I would have…
Rather than give up, John completely reinvented himself and has been performing his rodeo show now for 23 years. He has won the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) “Specialty Act of The Year” award eleven times. His Facebook page has lots of pictures and you can watch his inspiring act on YouTube as well. But that’s not the point, is it?
In his powerful 2 CD set, “Midlife and the Great Unknown,” David Whyte, author, poet and speaker, addresses the real issues and challenges to be faced in creating the amazing re-invention of himself that John Payne has accomplished. Some might say, “he HAD to do it, there was no choice.” Perhaps he did and perhaps he could have become a dependent and dwelled in being a helpless victim.
The lesson and challenge here is – will you even allow yourself to cause a dramatic shift in your own life without a catalyst like a horrific incident? The statistical evidence is that you will not. Fast Company some years ago featured an article that said even when told they would die of a heart attack if they didn’t change their habits, nine out of ten did not.
Maybe you can’t think of any reason why you would even want to take on a dramatic change. Maybe you think it would mean your life isn’t working now if you took one on. What if it doesn’t? What if it’s all about joy, excitement, possibility and loving your life? What if it’s about keeping your business relevant in this dynamic, borderless world in which we find ourselves?
I invite you to use this moment to consider a much bigger game, notice all the thoughts that immediately rush into your head to push that consideration out, and keep exploring possibility for yourself. If this seems tough, but somehow compelling, trying getting David Whyte’s CD. This is your one life. Why not lead it to its fullest potential?
Collaboration is a hot topic these days. When it comes up people tend to nod their heads and affirm “ah yes, collaboration, I know what that means,” and then immediately turn around and do something distinctly uncollaborative.
Because we believe collaboration is fundamental to the new model of leadership we want to explore ingredients we believe are necessary to set the context for a collaborative environment.
To begin, we believe to even get started collaborating there must be an atmosphere of mutual trust, respect, and safety. This is something when raised with clients often gets a lot of heading nodding and affirmation of understanding, and then almost immediately someone does something that is counterproductive to this context. So if your reaction is “oh yes, I already know what that is” check yourself. Do you really know or is that thought one that Suzanne Frindt would call “instant, automatic and unexamined” – more of a reaction than deep understanding?
In order to diagnose the level of mutual trust, respect and safety within your team and organization you will need to be a bit of a detective. We always recommend starting any inquiry with yourself first. So try an experiment and self-observe for a day. When you are engaging with others are you aware of your body language, your body sensations, the thoughts racing through your head as you speak and the physical responses of your listener? Do you even really hear your own words? Your tone of voice? Can you identify where you are “coming from?” Your frame of mind? Your agenda? These questions are simple but not necessarily easy to practice. If the truth is that your communication just pours out and you’ve never even thought to examine it, start by actually listening to yourself as you speak. If you feel successful observing yourself in this way then see if you can also “be responsible for what get’s heard” (one of our basic Operating Principles – get a free download of them here). What look do you see on the face of the person you are speaking with? Do they sit forward or back after you speak? Do their eyes sparkle or go flat? These are simple tests as to how safe it is to engage with you at that moment.
After learning how well you create an atmosphere of mutual trust, respect and safety with those you work with, it’s important to consider the whole team. The best test I know of regarding safety in a conversation with a group is “is there anything you wouldn’t share?” If so, that is the degree to which it is not safe. I am not saying you must be able to spill your guts. In professional environments it’s important to be open, but not necessarily personal. So we are not talking about exposing your deepest darkest personal history. Often in groups, people don’t even feel safe giving honest professional feedback about an idea that is on the table. If you can’t provide your honest perspective on the direction of the business, or a new product or service, then it’s not safe. By observing your willingness to be open you will have a conscious measure of safety.
So how safe is your work environment? Do you and your team interact within a framework of mutual trust respect and safety? If not, this is a critical piece to start building if you want to become truly collaborative.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”
- W. A. Murray, Scottish Himalayan Expedition, 1951
We find this quote from W.A. Murray to be rich and something worth spending time with. He’s not talking about prediction here or simply the idea of projecting what’s already known, (which is what we find happens in so many business planning sessions we’ve been involved in). He’s talking about going beyond the known and the safe the way Himalayan mountain climbers do. (Read “High Altitude Leadership: What The World’s Most Forbidding Peaks Teach Us About Success” by Chris Warner and Don Schmincke for much more on this.)
Murray is talking about a path that is not based on past experience and evidence. It’s a created path that has team members moved and inspired to innovative action and new solutions. It requires a new form of leadership that goes beyond the top-down, command-and-control model in which most of us grew up.
So our question to you is – are you committed to being a leader?
We need to be clear by what we mean when we say “leadership.” It is not seniority or power conferred by rank. We are talking about possessing the unique capacities of real leadership. The definition we like most comes from Warren Bennis, “Leadership is the wise use of power. Power is the ability to translate intention into reality and sustain it.”
So if we look juxtapose Murray’s quote on commitment and Bennis’ quote on leadership what jumps out immediately? Perhaps something like “gee, how do you do that?” After all, although Murray uses the word commitment, isn’t he really talking about an existential expression of surrender and courage? He’s not saying, “let’s all go exercise our left brained, rational thought processes, take on the impossible, and finish by lunch,” and neither is Bennis. What does it look like to translate intention into reality, let alone sustain it? How in the world does Providence fit into that equation?
This leadership mindset calls for real courage, or the ability to be with the unknown, while committing oneself and the team to outrageous goals and timelines. It takes what athletes call “being in the zone.” You must summon your mojo and be willing to be accountable for outcomes produced, (or failed to be produced), by others. The key word here is “commitment.” So we ask the question – are you really committed to being a leader, or are you a leader by default because of your title?
The term “comfort zone” has become a popular way to describe how we are feelingabout various activities we are taking part in – “that pushed me way out of my comfort zone,” or “that was not in my comfort zone,” are pretty common phrases these days.
When we talk about our “comfort zone” what we are talking about is our personal orbit, our range of personal activities. Each of us has a daily routine, a weekly routine and perhaps even a monthly or yearly routine. Generally speaking we are creatures of habit and we develop comfort zones we like, and of course, feel comfortable in.
Often, even when we do try to venture out of it, we are quickly pulled back in to it. There is a dynamic called “homeostasis” which is critical to this. Homeostasis has both psychological and physical implications and what it’s pointing to is the fundamental and biological drive for equilibrium and stability in a system, (and yes, we are including human beings as systems). In effect, homeostasis helps create and regulate our “comfort zones.” This is a very important phenomenon to understand. It works for us in critical ways. For example, it helps keep our body temperatures stable. As we know, we all have a set-point for body temperature that is on average 98.6 degrees. The homeostasis in our bodies helps insure that when our temperature fluctuates, it comes back to this comfortable set point. The downside is that when we challenge ourselves psychologically and emotionally in various ways, there can be a “homeostatic back lash,” and a strong pull to go back to our existing comfort zone until we have solidly established a new set point.
So our comfort zone is somewhat like a thermostat. Unconsciously it has been set at a particular point and when we change it, it takes some time to “heat up or cool down” to the new set point.
An amazing example of this is the research that has been done on lottery winners. It has been found that generally, if someone was poor before winning the lottery, they will end up poor again. If they were middle class, they would ultimately end up middle class again and so on. This is a powerful example of what happens when our set points or comfort zones are radically and unexpectedly challenged and how powerful homeostasis can be.
As we discuss comfort zones, set points, etc. we want to be clear that this is not a piece about people who plod along and move slowly or people who seem risk averse. If you are a fast-paced, “go go go” type of person that is your comfort zone. What if you had to slow down, be more reflective, bring your energy “down and in” instead of being an “up and out” kind of person? What if you had to take on a meditation practice? Would you still be in your comfort zone? What if you are a thrill seeker and look for ways to “push the envelope” all the time? What would happen if you lived a more mundane existence and had to experience the ordinary? Would you still be in your comfort zone?
The thing is, if you want new outcomes, bigger results and to achieve your vision are you ready to expand your comfort zone? Are you ready to alter your personal orbit? Are you fortified and prepared for the inevitable backlash that may come from inside you, but also from those around you who may feel threatened or unnerved by change? If you are part of their system, their orbit, their comfort zone, and you change, what happens to their comfort zone? If you aren’t ready to expand your orbit, how can you expect your colleagues, team, or employees to do it?
To move into a New Year powerfully and to create the results you want there are some key steps to take. The first is creating an “elegant ending” to the past. Last week we posted about “letting go of 2012,” and included a free download of a worksheet to help you do it. Now it’s time to move on to envisioning and documenting your 2013 “Yonder Star(s)” and creating plans for fulfillment.(Note: The first part of this post talks about how to effectively map out your personal goals. If you want to move straight into planning for your business check out the last paragraph of this post. We’ve got a Hot Wired Strategic Plan template for you as a free download.)
One way to help yourself succeed is to make your resolutions “public” to others. To put more wind in your sails, promise others that you will deliver! You can ask someone you trust to be a “committed listener.” This involves a commitment from them to listen to you as you talk about the status of your plans, your struggles and your successes. It does not involve them giving advice or telling you what to do next, (unless you make a specific request for it).
Another way to succeed is to hire a coach. Someone who is trained to support people in achieving their dreams and plans.
If you are a bit more experienced at this process, take a step up in rigor and create a set of goals for the different areas of your life. Categories you might include are:
1) Career/Financial
2) Well-Being or Health
3) Relationships
4) Spiritual
5) Personal
6) Wild Card
How bold are you willing to be setting your goals? If you are completely certain you can make the goals are you stretching yourself enough? Focus on designing the most catalytic, highly leveraged action steps you can. By “catalytic” we mean that your actions produce the intended results without your being used up in the process. By “highly leveraged,” we mean you produce very big results with minimal resources.
If you’ve been successful at this level of work and/or are ready to take on your first effort at a Strategic Plan for your company or affiliation, we suggest using what we call our “2130 Partners Hot Wired Strategic Plan.” We call it Hot Wired because it covers many of the levels and topics of an elaborate plan and yet you can produce a decent draft in a couple of hours. The next pass can then be developed to whatever level of detail you wish. The key, however, is to get the initial draft knocked out in as short a time as you can so that you shift your paradigm about goals and actions as you develop the more detailed plans. You can download the worksheet for our 2130 Partners Hot Wired plan by clicking here.
It’s the time of year when many of us conduct annual rituals that may include everything from strategic planning sessions for business to making New Year’s resolutions or setting Bold Goals for 2012 and beyond. We’ve found any such process to be much harder to do when we haven’t completed and let go of the past. It’s very difficult, (impossible?), to really move forward when we are carting the past along with us. The process of letting go can include changing your attitude and perceptions about what the economy did to you, to digging very deep and letting go of some of the childhood stuff that shapes your life.
On the fun end of the spectrum, we have for many years put flip chart paper all over our walls when we have a New Year’s Eve party with a simple question on each, such as “What did I start and not complete?” or “What did I accomplish that I haven’t been acknowledged for?” or “What did I screw up that I didn’t get caught for?” Guests write on the charts all evening with colored markers and sometimes get even more creative with a touch of artistic display as well. On a number of occasions we have taken them all down at midnight and symbolically burned them.
On a business note, we do a similar exercise with our executive clients where we pass out a page with questions for them to fill out that explores accomplishments and failures in their businesses, practice of leadership, and lives. (We have a free download of this exercise sheet at the bottom of this blog post.) One of my favorites is “What must I communicate to be complete with 2012 and to whom?”
A few of the highlights from these types of executive discussions include discoveries of attachments participants did not realize were holding them back, people around them who they had failed to acknowledge, and places where they were not leading by example.
We also know that for many folks the holidays can include a lot of upset, ranging form anxiety around gift giving and office party attendance to remembrances of lost loved ones or unhappy childhood experiences related to the holidays. The latter is fertile ground for completion work.
Some of the comments we get about these exercises can be summed up as, “transition/transformation is a lot of work!” If you are intending to be powerful in 2013, have big goals, and produce great results, we highly recommend you spend the next couple of weeks completing and letting go of 2012, (and earlier if you need to), in order to create fertile ground for your 2013 vision to come alive.
If you would like to try our exercise format we have included it here as a free download.
Wishing you a happy ending to your 2012 and a fabulous 2013!
Note: Dwight is currently out on leave so we are running some “best of” blog posts from his writing for the Vistage Executive Street blog that you may not have seen before. Enjoy!
Collaboration is seemingly the current trendy word among consultants, authors, HR executives, and leaders who are attempting to “stay hip.” Is it really a valuable way of interacting? Will it last? And what’s the big deal? Why not just cooperate, the way individuals in most functional groups have been doing for a long time? Is there any real difference anyway?
Rather than restate definitions here, refer to Mike Cook’s blog, The Heart of Engagement, which recently (February 13th) dove into the distinction between collaboration and cooperation – “Collaborate; that Looks Like it Might Hurt? Can’t I Just Cooperate?” and David Wedaman’s blog, Theatrical Smoke, entitled “Liaisons, Collaboration, Cooperation, and Soup,” both of which do an excellent job with the subject.
According to Wedaman, “…collaboration comes at a cost: being highly unstable, politically unwise, and anxiety-provoking; we should not jump into it without knowing the costs.” To elaborate, he throws out phrases like: “politically vulnerable…freaks people out…occasionally hard to explain…[and] anxiety provoking.” If that doesn’t give you pause, what will?
In my post, “Discover Your Own Resourcefulness,” I addressed making big commitments and the immediate threats that arise in our minds. One of the antidotes is to discover or round-up missing members and surrender to a team. The other is to identify and execute missing strategies. After reading Wedaman, I’m guessing most of us would opt for the strategies piece and forget the whole team thing…
It turns out that collaboration, (and learning), requires a lot of surrender and that makes it “dangerous.” The risks, in this case, are largely to our own identities, political positions, ability to control outcomes, long held beliefs, and on and on… When we talk about surrender, we are not saying “give up” or “give in.” We are talking about being willing to jump in and be in an open, curious state. To do this requires that the rewards far outweigh the perceived costs, or the current fear level makes going forward look like a much better choice. Such situations occur when we take on really big goals or when the rate of change around us makes our world seem like standing at the edge of the ocean as the waves quickly erode the sand from under our feet.
To me, this is where the “hop” comes in that will have collaboration not only persist but become the more normal working paradigm. Webster’s informal definition of “hop” is the ability to “pass quickly from one place to another.” If we consider place as a state of mind, especially collective mind, it begins to shed some light on the issue.
In David Houle’s book, “The Shift Age,” he asserts that humanity will experience all of the change in the next 10 to 100 years that it did in the last 1,000 years. We live in an environment of change and many individuals are already experiencing “innovative exhaustion.”
The ability to connect with others and “hop” will facilitate collective learning, allow us to draw on our shared capacities, and move quickly from paradigm to paradigm as we fulfill big goals, create new ones, and keep moving into strange new and exciting worlds.
Note: Dwight is currently out on leave so we are running some “best of” blog posts from his writing for the Vistage Executive Street blog that you may not have seen before. Enjoy!
There are perhaps infinite facets, qualities, layers and levels to successful leadership. While certainly a complex and rich topic, I am going to dive underneath most of these complexities to what is, in a sense, a “leadership bottom line.” I am talking about an “underneath it all,” that, if not addressed, causes a lot of problems. Most importantly, it can derail important strategic and cultural efforts, raise stress levels, and create a myriad of upsets in a team or organization.
This bottom line is essentially universal. It is the fear of not being good enough. At some level, this is not a fear exclusive to leaders, it is a human fear. Writer Ernest Holmes calls it, “the universal doubt.” I think doubt is not quite strong enough a word and that really, fear is more accurate.
Author John Eldredge in “Wild At Heart,” talks about your original wound. Brene Brown, in her powerful TED talks on vulnerability, calls it your shame. I have found it to be that very first hugely negative declaration I made about myself as I began creating my identity, my strategy to survive childhood. The important thing to know about these perspectives is how powerfully this dynamic shapes our thoughts, words and deeds in the present and how strongly your survival brain holds on to them and struggles to be sure no one ever finds out about it!
This fear may have slightly different wording in different individual’s minds; “I’m not good enough… I’m not worthy…I’m stupid…I am a fraud, etc.” You have your own personal and very specific version. The key is to know that your fear is powerful and will cause you to create elaborate personality adaptations to cover it up.
Some people become aggressive, some people become perfectionists, some people become fearful of making decisions. All of these approaches are survival strategies unconsciously driven by, “I’m not good enough and I must not be found out!” All are some version of fight, flight, or freeze.
If you are truly committed to developing powerful, effective, collaborative leadership capacities, then get to work on this deep seated issue! Begin to notice your own very personal version. Consider how it is a driver in your behavior and actions and notice the consequences for the other people in your life.
This may be a very uncomfortable inquiry that could require support from a coach, counselor, spiritual director or other professional. The important thing to remember is that this is a universal issue. It’s not unique to you, or even a small group of people. Knowing that it’s truly human to have this fear affords a sense of compassion for both yourself and others.
When you are really ready to experience powerful, effective, and sustainable leadership, tackle this issue head-on for yourself. It will forward your leadership and your life.
Note: Dwight is currently out on leave so we are running some “best of” blog posts from his writing for the Vistage Executive Street blog that you may not have seen before. Enjoy!
“Creativity is the residue of time wasted”- Albert Einstein
This morning I found myself preparing to head into a very important strategic meeting and deeply engaged in a pattern of thought that made both of my partners wrong. Fortunately I flashed on one of my mom’s folksy sayings which she invoked when someone was being ornery, “oh, go soak your head!“ So I did. I jumped into a nice relaxing shower and came out renewed and ready for a conversation about possibilities.
With that quick bit of “brainwashing,” I reflected on Daniel Pink’s recent “Fridays With Vistage” webinar where he talked about the crucial importance of free or uncommitted time for people in the workplace to unleash creativity and innovation.
He further pointed out the foolishness of continuing our traditional thinking about management which, in his view, is a technology invented in the 1850′s that was created to produce compliance, not creativity. (I have also blogged about this topic here.)
What is being called for now, according to many thought leaders, is imagination, innovation, and the agility to both create and respond to rapid change. This view is confirmed in a major research study, “The Global Leadership Forecast 2011” by DDI. Unfortunately, this study also says 40% of leaders report they are unprepared to deal with these trends.
Jonah Lehrer’s new book, “Imagine: How Creativity Works,” confirms that great thinking often occurs when we seem to be wasting time. (The shower I took this morning was an intervention along the lines he recommends.)
In a review of “Imagine” in The Economist, they say, “Drawing from a wide array of scientific and sociological research—and everything from the poetry of W.H. Auden to the films of Pixar—he makes a convincing case that innovation cannot only be studied and measured, but also nurtured and encouraged.”
As an example, the article also goes on to explain policies the 3M company has put into place to insure employees take risks and innovate.
So the point is that as leaders, this is critical information, especially in light of the Global Leadership Forecast report:
Leaders must insist on cultures that make creativity and innovation priorities. So how can you powerfully open up your thinking and that of the people around you? To gain success in today’s business world you may need to “waste some time” in order to figure it out.
Note: Dwight is currently out on leave so we are running some “best of” blog posts from his writing for the Vistage Executive Street blog that you may not have seen before. Enjoy!
I was fascinated by an article I read by Lucy Kellaway in the Financial Times on 6/17/12 called, “The Thin Line Between Thick Skin and Complacency.” She points out in her article that in business, we are often encouraged to become almost impervious to outside criticism. In fact, she claims that “every executive coach tells every aspiring person who has to deal with criticism the same thing: don’t take it personally.” In other words,develop a thick skin.
Given that prevailing reality, it is no wonder the public has developed such a low opinion of CEOs and worse that recently so many top executives seem to have walked right into disasters of their own making during public relations emergencies like the BP oil spill or the financial debacle on Wall Street. These leaders lost touch and connection with their employees, customers, and the public at large as they developed their thick skins and ability to repel criticism. The vibe from these leaders is “a feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievements” – literally the dictionary definition of complacency.
According to Kellaway, “instead of telling successful people to grow thicker skins – which time will help them grow anyway – we should be urging them to look after their skin and keep it as thin as it always was.”
Kellaway further argues that “the ideal is to have a skin as thin as an earthworm’s but the constitution of an ox. And also, perhaps, a clotting mechanism to ensure a scab forms on wounds and the victim does not bleed to death.”
Graphic as her quote is, it does point to a much more productive pathway for you if you are committed to being a highly effective leader who has the ability to develop and lead high performing teams. Be open to paying attention to the biting comments. They will energize you out of complacency and challenge you to do better.
While small to mid-sized company executives may not have developed the thick skin towards public criticism in the media in the same way that very large company leaders have, they may still have this “thick skin response” when it comes to feedback from their teams, vendors or clients. The important piece is not what size company you lead or whether criticism is coming from internal or external sources. The important thing is to consider not being armored and impervious, but instead to be more permeable and allowing feedback to actually have an impact on you.
Another way of saying this is that a background or foundation of mutual trust, respect, and safety is fundamental for productive dialogue and for strong, collaborative working relationships. To be trusted, others must know that you are being as authentic and transparent as possible and that you actually care about their well being.
So the bottom line is, be open to feedback, especially when you don’t like the news. You may not need to take it all to heart, but if you consider it with curiosity, you may find areas of complacency in your leadership that need a little jump start. Criticism can provide that spark if you allow it in.
Note: Dwight is currently out on leave so we are running some “best of” blog posts from his writing for the Vistage Executive Street blog that you may not have seen before. Enjoy!
Culturally, we are in a hurry, particularly in business. There is a huge driving force for results, for achievements, for action. Often just being busy looks like success. It’s gotten to the point that, as researcher Brene Brown says, “exhaustion has become a status symbol.”
The problem is new research is emerging and it looks like all this multi-tasking, fragmented attention and “busy, busy, busy” isn’t actually healthy or the recipe for success. Being in a constant state of reacting to “incoming” and jumping to respond to everything that comes your way is not leadership and constantly driving people and yourself relentlessly forward is not necessarily great leadership either.
We want to remind you of “the power of the pause.” This is a step that can be made anytime, anywhere and requires no special tools or equipment. Being able to stop yourself, gather your energy and breathe is actually an incredibly powerful and masterful leadership move that is deceptively simple.
We aren’t talking about shutting down, withdrawing, hiding or freezing. We are talking about returning to your center and a place of balance. We are talking about allowing yourself to exhale fully, (since at the pace most of us go we are halfway holding our breath), and just being thoughtful and reflective for a minute or two.
If you doubt the power of this consider the interview Oprah Winfrey did with Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook. (Click here to view.) Apparently she has a policy at her company for twice per day mandatory meditation time. As she says in the interview, many people are overwhelmed by the idea of meditation so she asks that they at least unplug, and take quiet time for reflection. Whether or not you are an Oprah fan or consumer of her programs and magazines is not really important here. She is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the US and has been so for many years. It is of note that someone who has built such an empire puts so much value on reflection and quiet time that she has made it a mandatory workplace policy.
We know of one coaching client that was so overwhelmed at the idea of any stillness, quiet or reflection that he wanted to flee the building just considering it. He finally agreed to set the alarm on his watch for 1 minute each hour to stop, breathe and just slow down. After committing to this practice he absolutely loved it and was able to create specific segments of time to gather his energy and pause.
So we ask you to consider incorporating “the pause” into your repertoire. Even just a couple of minutes per day has value. You might be surprised how changing your pace creates new avenues for creativity, intelligence and other positives to emerge.
Note: Dwight is currently out on leave so we are running some “best of” blog posts from his writing for the Vistage Executive Street blog that you may not have seen before. Enjoy!
“When every resource in your organization is efficiently and collaboratively working toward a desired end state, without leader involvement in daily activity, you have an execution culture.” - Stuart Orr
In his presentation “Executing Strategy: Unlocking Your Organization’s Market Potential,” Stuart Orr of vision2execution, addressed one of the greatest opportunities for productivity gains in our economy today. He calls it the “vision gap” and cites two powerful quotes to drive his point home.
“The average firm achieves about 63% of its strategic plan.”
- McKinsey & Harvard Business School study
“Only 5% of large-scale changes actually work.”
- John Kotter: HBS author of “A Sense of Urgency”
Stuart digs deeply and delivers practical ways to organize your thoughts and actions so that the team delivers at high levels and has a meaningful experience in the process. What was most exciting to me was how his ideas speak to the question we have asked leaders for years, “what time could you go home if everyone in your organization simply came to work, did their job, and went home.” What’s your answer?
The piece I want to add to Stuart’s approach is that it all starts with you as a leader and your willingness to challenge your own ways of thinking and being in very fundamental ways. If you are not willing to allow deep intervention into your historic assumptions and beliefs, all of which reside in your own mind, his very sound and practical approach will not be heard or processed in a way that leads to new outcomes.
The challenge is neither easy nor a one-time occurrence. Like going to gym, it’s all about repetition and consistency. It is also unlikely you can do it completely by yourself. You already know what your own self-referential thought processes produce – the way that it is and is not for you and your interactions right now.
This is why peer groups like Vistage are so important and perhaps is the explanation why members stay in Vistage groups for 20, 30, and even 40+ years. Having a group of competent people around you who you don’t control and yet who are deeply committed to your success and well being keeps you exploring possibilities versus holding on to past ways of thinking and speaking that are no longer serving you and those around you. If you are not a “group person,” it’s important to do one-to-one work with a coach or some other type of outside support professional.
If you don’t yet have access to a Vistage group, and aren’t ready to hire a coach, download a set of our Operating Principles by clicking here. (These Principles have been developed and road tested with hundreds of people for success during the last 20 years.) Ask yourself, “what might be possible in my interactions and the outcomes I am working on with my team if we were living these principles?”
So as a leader, how much do you want a culture that delivers – an “execution culture?” Are you willing to really challenge your existing mindset? Please be slow to answer…it is not necessarily comfortable. It will take real courage. If you want a culture that delivers it starts with you.
Note: Dwight is currently out on leave so we are running some “best of” blog posts from his writing for the Vistage Executive Street blog that you may not have seen before. Enjoy!
When big issues arise, it is tempting to immediately jump to “I’ve got to replace our current person with someone better,” or more fashionably, “we’ve got to get the right person on the bus.”
When the decision is made that it’s time to bring someone in, shiny new applicants with fabulous resumes are methodically interviewed and eventually one is deemed “the white knight” that will ride in and solve the problems – “when {insert name here} gets here, all will be well.”
The problem is white knights are concepts from mythology. Any new hire is like the rest of us, human, except we don’t know them, we’re infatuated, and we haven’t yet noticed their warts. No one person, at any level, is going to come in and single-handedly fix core issues in an organization.
What leaders who turn to white knight solutions generally overlook is that every organization has its own culture and team dynamics. The new hire will inevitably be pulled into the dynamic of whatever has been going on. In the worst case scenarios, the new hire will be quickly driven off by other team members or deemed a failure by the hiring executive and “chased off.” In less aggressive scenarios they hang on and are absorbed into the existing condition.
Even heroic efforts rarely fix everything the white knight was originally expected to fix. The new hire fails because expectations were unrealistic, the key connections necessary for collaboration are not made, and the team is not supportive.
Unfortunately, what has often happened is that leadership has failed to understand the real underlying or driving issues, has been unwilling to address them, or has dismissed them as irrelevant or even non-existent.Problems were seen through the lens of people and talent rather than systems and teamwork.
Trying to solve deep business issues or problematic team dynamics can be tricky and time consuming. In many cases everyone is so busy they don’t have time to pause and reflect on what’s really going on. Just because people are high results producing team members, it does not mean that they have the perspectives, personalities, or interests necessary to be detectives and problem solvers. Most often systems and processes are the real issue rather than a failure to have enough heroes in the organization. Real breakthrough solutions may be beyond the skills of “those on the inside.”
If you find you want to bring in a new person to fix things, why not pause and take the time to reflect on what’s really going on? Perhaps bring in a pair of fresh, expert, consulting eyes and ears to reflect, inquire, analyze, and redefine the issues with you before you go down the firing/hiring track.
Vistage group members provide this type of feedback for other members at every monthly meeting. There are also a variety of coaches and consultants that can help you diagnose, confront, and solve real issues that are going on…even if the real issue is you.
Note: Dwight is currently out on leave so we are running some “best of” blog posts from his writing for the Vistage Executive Street blog that you may not have seen before. Enjoy!
One of the Operating Principles we developed at my firm 2130 Partners that is fundamental to the functioning of any group we facilitate, every course we deliver, and the materials we create is,“Confront and deal with the real issues.” Closely related is another Operating Principle, “Explore truths – mine, theirs, and ours.”
This past week I participated in a Board meeting of another company and we deliberated a very difficult and critical decision for the company’s future. We had to determine our response to a proposal that represented a serious relationship breakdown with what had been a strategic partner. In addition, we had to arrive at an immediate action plan among several unpleasant choices. Decisions and courses of action had to somehow be accomplished in light of what gave us the best chances to deliver on our strategic intentions.
Instead of getting right down to productive work on real issues, (as in the first Principle above, “confront and deal with the real issues”), we began “boxing with shadows.” A very vigorous conversation launched immediately that was totally dominated by various members’ opinions and judgments about the strategic partner’s intentions and their emotional reactions to all the meaning they were each placing on the communications that had been taking place. Such clear and thoughtful articulations as “bash him in the face,” “kick his ***,” and “he’s a liar and a crook and has been all along,” were bandied about as if they were thoughtful insights that were relevant to quality decision making. So the Principle of “explore truths – mine, their, and ours” was definitely not in effect.
Now, it’s important to understand that the Board members are otherwise very bright, articulate, experienced and highly committed business leaders. So how can such ineffective, emotionally aggressive conversations have taken place? As is often talked about these days, the “old brain” or “survival brain” can’t tell the difference between a physical threat and a threat in language. When the other party’s language occurs as a threat, whether he or she meant it to be so, the limbic system of the brain immediately takes over and it only has four available strategies to choose from: fight flight, freeze, or appease. It’s easy to see which one took over for a significant part of our board meeting because there was a feeling of “threat” within the group due to the communications from the outside party.
One of the ways to get out of such a survival-based and dysfunctional mess is to ask a question that the “old brain” can’t answer like “how will your approach help us succeed on our strategy?” At that moment the cerebral cortex or “thinking brain” has to take over and intelligent conversation can resume. Fortunately, in our case, we were able to get the Board members focused on creating alternative go-forward scenarios and that got the thinking and productive conversations back on track. We arrived at a very good, (and very difficult), solution set and the management team left the meeting empowered.
As a leader have you experienced these types of shadow boxing conversations vs. solution conversations? Our Operating Principles are road-test and developed over more than 20 years of working with Executives. Try them out and see if they might help your leadership conversations get and stay on track.
Note: Dwight is currently out on leave so we are running some “best of” blog posts from his writing for the Vistage Executive Street blog that you may not have seen before. Enjoy! “Organizations with the highest quality leaders were 13 times more likely to outperform their competition in key bottom-line metrics such as financial performance”.
- Global Leadership Forecast 2011, DDI
DDI, (Development Dimensions International, Inc.), recently released their 2011 Global Leadership Forecast. This comprehensive report based on survey responses from 14,320 leaders and HR professionals from 74 countries is titled “Time For A Leadership Revolution.”
The study overflows with shocking data on the dismal state of leadership and leadership development efforts around the world. It illuminates attitudes about the fundamental issues and suggests many dramatic changes to be made if firms wish to be successful. We will focus on one of the many important points from the report in this post. We urge you to measure your own leadership against the recommendations.
The study found the top three leadership skills most valued in the past were:
1) Driving and managing change
2) Executing organizational strategy
3) Coaching and developing leaders
The prioritization has shifted to new priorities going forward:
1) Driving and managing change
2) Identifying and developing talent
3) Fostering creativity and innovation
The report then points out the “dismal picture” for leadership painted by about 1/2 the leaders who reported that they are not proficient in any of the top critical skills for the next three years.
There is a big incentive to invest heavily to alter this picture as the Boston Consulting Group (2010) reports that, “those who focus on innovation enjoy up to a six-fold advantage on total shareholder return versus their industry peers.”
A bright spot is the point made in the DDI report that “leaders themselves don’t have to be highly creative to drive a culture of innovation. (We take exception to the context created by the word “drive” – more on that later.) Instead, leaders need to set and model ideal conditions for innovation.”
“Therein lies the rub” as Shakespeare would say! If leaders don’t have the skills to deliver on the top capacities, where in the world will they learn to shift a whole culture from command and control to one of shared vision, unleashed creativity, collaboration, and freedom to make mistakes? (As researcher Brene Brown has said, “One of my findings from interviewing entrepreneurs and leaders: When “Failure is not an option” neither is innovation.”)
The report suggests that leaders must address “four critical obstacles: 
lack of stakeholder understanding, lackluster ideas, aversion to risk, and failure to execute.” Further, they must deal with “personality derailers…risk aversion, distrust, and approval dependence.”
In our view, that means creating an organizationwhere courage and risk taking are rewarded andshared vision connects people to their passion, unleashes their innovation, and calls them to action rather than somehow “driving them” to be innovative.
We are very excited about the findings in this report as they present a powerful case for leaders to commit to developing themselves as leaders which is what we are most passionate about. Some ways to do this are to participate in Vistage groups and also to engage in learning paradigm creating skills available through our work in 2130 Partners. If you are wondering how to “safely” get started on the trail of developing your skills for the new leadership priorities, try reading our book “Accelerate: High Leverage Leadership for Today’s World.”
Suzanne Frindt appeared on the Conscious Discussions Radio Show hosted by Lillian Brummet on October 2nd, 2012. You can listen to the show at this link http://www.blogtalkradio.com/consciousdiscussions/2012/10/02/be-an-agent-for-positive-change or you can listen using the player below
Note: Dwight is currently out on leave so we are running some "best of" blog posts from his writing for the Vistage Executive Street blog that you may not have seen before. Enjoy!
There are multiple definitions of “management” including: “The process of dealing with or controlling things or people,” “The responsibility for and control of a company or similar organization,” “the person or persons controlling and directing the affairs of a business, institution,” among others. We say these definitions are hogwash, and for multiple reasons.
The first reason is the idea that when working with teams of people managers can possibly “control” anything. Honestly, it’s hard not to laugh while thinking about it. When was the last time in an organizational setting anyone truly controlled anyone? At best, leaders may be able to encourage, direct, recommend, insist, bully, or worst case, create what we call “vicious compliance,” meaning people will do what you say, but with the least amount of effort, creativity and commitment that they can get away with. Rarely, if ever, do managers at any level actually have “control.”
What we say is management IS communication and good management IS good communication. So what does this mean? At the core, what this means is a good manager is going to understand upstream, downstream and lateral communication flow. In other words, when a topic needs to be addressed, something has changed on a project, or there is relevant news a good manager is going to automatically make an assessment about the directions of communication flow and is going to discern “who needs to know what” to keep the flow of work happening smoothly. He or she is going to understand the consequences of the information they have received to those around them. A good manager is connected enough to his supervisors, executives, direct reports and lateral partners to know very quickly what needs to be communicated and in what format and style so that there is minimal interruption and maximum efficiency. It’s the “up periscope” theory. Rather than immediately focusing on their own piece of the pie, a good manager is going to pause and “look up and out” to see who is affected by change, who needs the input or update, and then he or she is going to get that information communicated effectively.
The key difference between management, good management and great management from this perspective is the effectiveness of the communication. Does the manager have a good gauge to assess how much to communicate, to how many people and through what format? Part of this is cultural. Some organizations collectively “over communicate” usually meaning there are lots of group emails and “reply alls” to those emails and lots of group meetings. Some cultures are more minimalist and insist on real precision as to who needs to know what and if this is misjudged, some wrist slapping usually takes place. Regardless of the culture, a good manager can quickly assess and address the communication needs.
Regardless of whether your title falls in the management or executive level you are in charge of communicating effectively to at least some part of your organization. So how well do you manage communicating to your teams? If there are changes, or there is news about a project do you consider the various streams of communication and who might be affected in the various directions? How good of a manager, or really, ‘communicator’ are you?
As you can imagine, with the Olympics in London, business leaders in the UK were very concerned about the impact of the Games on their businesses from a variety of standpoints. Employee engagement was a big issue. Would there be traffic problems that made it difficult for employees to get to work, particularly in London? And most importantly, would workers be distracted by the Games and find ways to “skive?” (British slang for evading work).
The Institute of Leadership and Management based in London has released a report based on a survey of over 1,000 managers about the impact of the Games on their businesses. The results are surprisingly positive. You may well say, “So? The UK has a different culture, the games were ‘across the pond,’ and a one time effect is not necessarily a new paradigm.” However, some things in this report really caught my eye as particularly relevant to all leaders of organizations, not just those in the UK.
A percentage of the companies surveyed took the Games as an opportunity to test various flexible work schedule options. To quote the report, “It is encouraging to find that businesses took the opportunity to trial flexible working practices and those that did found it far from being ‘a skiver’s paradise.’ Their people were productive and motivated. We hope that organizations continue to offer more flexible working which, when properly managed, is a powerful motivator and helps to attract and retain talent.” I see several key takeaways from this:
People rise, (or fall), to the level of expectations. Rather than being “evaders,” expecting people to perform well when given flexibility worked. Employees rose to the occasion and were responsible with their flexibility.
Providing flexibility is empowering and motivating. Giving people a chance to watch the Games and to work their schedules around traffic issues and such helped to raise morale and made them feel empowered.
The notion that everyone needs to be at their desk 9am – 5pm, Monday through Friday is simply outmoded.
Many U.S.A. leaders are already employing or seriously looking at flexible ways for employees to work. It’s empowering, creates increased productivity, and can solve some staffing issues by being able to access quality employees who can’t or won’t work regular hours every day in an office. Working moms and house husbands, for example, are great sources of talent and can feel very empowered by flexible hours, working from home and working partial weeks.
Since most surveys show that pay is not a motivator over time, perhaps shifting your beliefs and practices around how people work in your organization can give you access to a breakthrough in productivity. To fully access the opportunity offered, investigate your own limiting beliefs about trust, how people behave when you are not watching, what motivates them, and how accountability actually works.
If your head is in an empowering place and you are still reluctant to unleash people, investigate your policies and processes for determining whether work is getting done and how much is to be done by whom and by when. Fill in any missing procedures. Learn about “Self Generated Accountability,” (which we maintain is the only real accountability anyway), and how linking it with good tracking may give you the freedom to change how people work in your organization for the better.
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