What Does It Mean To Be Present?

When we talk about being present in our Vistage meetings, the request is to turn off the outside world and be present with the conversation in the room. Many of our members have similar requests for meetings inside their companies. Some leaders even collect everyone’s mobile devices when they enter the room so that no one is tempted to check messages and check out.

And of course, its easy to check out without a mobile device nearby. We get lost in our thoughts. And, meetings are only one place this can happen; it also happens at home. When our partners, our children, our friends are speaking, are we listening? Or are we waiting to respond, or simply lost in our thoughts?

Perhaps 2017 is the year to begin… finding time each day, or even each week, to shut out the noise, to be in silence or even meditate, all as practice for being present.

Why Vistage Works

Elisa K. Spain

Q4 2016 Vistage CEO Confidence Index Results: CEO Optimism Surges

CEOs expressed record increases in optimism about economic prospects following the election. The Vistage CEO Confidence Index jumped to 105.2 in the Q4 survey, up from 91.4 in the 3rd quarter, and the second-largest increase since 2003.

The expected upsurge in business prospects have given a new urgency to finding, hiring, training, and retaining employees. This was the most significant and challenging issue voiced by CEOs in the latest survey. More than one-third of all firms expressed staffing and talent management as both their most significant current issue as well as their biggest challenge for 2017. Increases in investments and hiring represent a degree of confidence in the new president’s economic policies.

 

Q4 2016 Vistage CEO Confidence Index highlights include:

  • 58% of CEOs expected the economy to improve during the year ahead, more than twice the 22% recorded in the 3rd quarter.
  • 47% of CEOs plan to increase investments in the year ahead, reaching the highest level since the start of 2015.
  • 60% of CEOs plan to expand their workforce in the year ahead, the most positive net employment intentions in ten years.
  • 78% of CEOs expect revenue gains in the year ahead, up from 64% last quarter, and the most positive revenue expectation in the past ten years.

Why Vistage Works

Elisa K. Spain

Perspective…

A couple of weeks ago, I had an experience that reminded me how true it is that we see the world through our own perspective. So much so that our experience, in the exact same situation as someone else, can be entirely different. And it’s not until we pause and sincerely try to see the world as the other person does that we can appreciate their perspective.

Here’s the story. A man I dated briefly, my first year of college, sent me a message through Facebook Messenger. At first, I wasn’t sure who the sender was, after all, this was more than 40 years ago. After a while I remembered, so I responded and said hello. He wrote back telling me he was glad to be in touch because he owed me an apology. Turned out, from his perspective, when I transferred to another college we had an agreement that he was to join me. He didn’t join me after all, he said, and he felt he had broken our agreement.

High standards he has for himself you might say, especially since he is still thinking about this after 40 years, that’s perhaps a topic for another discussion about letting stuff go.

Going back to the perspective subject, my memory of the situation was completely different. What I remembered was he did contact me and I had moved on; I wasn’t wanting or expecting to see him.

Who knows which perspective is what actually happened; perspective in this case is clouded by years. However, the fact that each of us remembered the exact same situation so differently, has stayed with me since our brief interchange on Facebook Messenger.

It’s a reminder to me to stop and listen and ask questions, to be sure I work hard to see the world as the people in my life see it. As a leadership coach, I must work to see every perspective, not just my own. Not easy and nothing important is easy, is it?

The challenge for most of us is we are busy moving forward, busy with our own perspectives and we just don’t take the time to pause. We assume, we challenge, and we see only what we believe to be so.

In this new year, what will you do, to try to see the world from someone else’s perspective?

Why Vistage Works

Elisa K. Spain

Leadership Quote: You Control Your Future…

This month’s leadership quote:

“You control your future, your destiny. What you think about comes about. By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands – your own.”

-Mark Victor Hansen

If you haven’t tried this, perhaps 2017 is the time to start. Write down one goal or aspiration. Put it away somewhere and then remind yourself to look at it in June and again in December.

Why Vistage Works

Elisa K. Spain