Celebrate Your Gift

 

Each year at this gift-giving time, I am reminded that we all have natural gifts.

Our challenge is to notice our strengths and work to enhance them. In my Vistage work, and as a leadership coach,  I refer to this as discovering and working in our genius.

While personal growth and development are part of living a full life, and after all this is what Vistage is all about, the successful CEOs and executives I know are the ones who work to become excellent at what they are already good at. And… these same successful people surround themselves with people who bring their own strengths, filling in the gaps.

As you reflect on your accomplishments for 2014, and think about 2015, take a moment and ask yourself:

  • What are my gifts? How did they serve me this year? How will they serve me next year?
  • What am I striving for that I could instead delegate to someone else?
  • What can I accept simply not doing?

Once we know and understand our strengths, and focus on them, we not only become more effective, we become more satisfied, and ultimately become better leaders.

Elisa K. Spain

P.S. This is the last post for 2014. Happy Holidays to all!  See you in the New Year.

When The Obvious, Isn't Obvious…

 

Simplify, simplify… These are the watch words of our world today. The more complex our society has become the more is written on the benefits of simplification.

And, I have begun to wonder if the complexity of our society is also leading us to forget to look for simple solutions when things aren’t working right. The obvious sometimes is missed, along the way to finding a solution.

The following experience happened awhile back and I often use it as a reminder to pause and look first for the obvious, even when it may not at first seem so obvious.

My internet service was continually cutting out. It would go down for a few minutes, sometimes an hour or so, and would always come back on its own. This went on for many months. I called for service repeatedly, the provider sent technicians out repeatedly. They replaced modems, they replaced wires, they really tried to fix it. I became convinced the problem must be with the wiring in the building so I hired an independent company who came out and checked the internal wiring. Everyone who was here, and there were lots of people, all said it should be working. But it wasn’t.  

Finally I called a technician who had been out for another issue in the past. I had saved his name because he was particularly helpful. I told him the whole story and he sent his supervisor out. The supervisor asked a few questions, listened to my story and then solved the problem in 5 minutes.  

How did he do it?

This sounds like one of those brain teasers doesn’t it? Actually, I guess it was. What he did was simple. He asked a few questions, he really listened to my answers, and then looked for the obvious. There was a loose wire where the system was attached to the building. He tightened the wire, and I have not had a problem since!

My takeaway from this … when something isn’t working, in business or in life;

pause, ask questions, listen carefully to the answers….and then search first for the obvious explanation.

 

 

 

What If You Can't Change What Is?

 

This blog is for those of us who seek to change injustice. What if we just found a workaround?

Outrageous? Perhaps not.

Some things that we perceive as wrong speak to the fabric of our soul, most of these fall into the category of social injustice. But, I am not talking about those issues.

What I am talking about here is business injustice. Those little, sometimes even big, things that happen in business that just aren’t right. At least, they aren’t right from our perspective. These situations happen most often when decisions are made by someone else that impact us or our team.

I heard the following story recently from one of the leaders I work with and was struck by the wisdom here.

The leader who shared the story told me that the compensation plan for his team was set at the corporate level and is based on several “factors”. These factors were to be evaluated and then bonuses paid based on performance against these factors. This leader was concerned because one of the factors required the team to act in a manner he felt was inconsistent with servicing the customers.

He has tried several times to lobby to change the plan without success. A few days ago in frustration, he shared his concerns once again with one of his colleagues who he hoped would work with him to get the plan changed. Instead the colleague said, “This is out of both of our control. While the plan includes these factors, it also allows discretion, my suggestion is you use your discretion to do what you feel is right”.

The questions that come to mind for me are:

  • How do we reconcile these things that are wrong?
  • How do we know which ones to accept and which ones to work to change?
  • And, if we are the one making these decisions that impact others, do we recognize the unintended consequences and are we open to change? Or at least open to a workaround?

Finally the key question, just because it is wrong or broken, does it have to be fixed? Or can we simply accept what is and find a way to make it work for us and our team?….

 

 

Today Is Giving Tuesday

 

Today, on Giving Tuesday, nonprofits, families, businesses and students around the world come together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give. Here in Illinois, Donors Forum, led by Eric Weinheimer (former member and friend of Vistage), is coordinating this initiative. They have one bold goal: #ILGIVEBIG, $12 million raised by Illinois nonprofits from 100,000 individual donors — in one day.

To celebrate today, I created a matching gift opportunity.

Many of you know about my passion for The CARA Program, a true social innovator (the only social purpose organization nominated for the Chicago Innovation Award).

Right now, anyone who chooses to give to this mission, I will match that gift, dollar for dollar, up to $5,000 (total gift of $10,000).

To make a donation of any amount, click here.  (And, please add “Elisa Spain Matching Gift” in the comments section to ensure your gift is matched.)

Thank you in advance for joining me on Giving Tuesday with a donation to the Cara Program, or to the social purpose organization of your choice.