Leadership Coach | Elisa K. Spain

Everybody Needs A Coach

September 15, 2019October 24, 2020 by Elisa Spain Comment Closed

“Everybody needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you are CEO, a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player, we all need feedback” so says Bill Gates & Eric Schmidt in this 1.25min TED Talk. Perhaps a bold statement. And yet, doesn’t every professional athlete and every famous performer have one? You may be surprised to learn, so does every successful CEO, whether leading a Fortune 500 company or a privately held company. If you buy into what Bill and Eric are saying, and you are a: Soon-to-Be, or Newly Appointed CEO or Business OwnerCEO or Business Owner Wanting to Up Your Leadership GameCEO or Business Owner Considering an ExitExecutive Pivoting to EntrepreneurshipFormer Executive Considering Re-Entry Or perhaps, you are simply looking for clarity, to define where you are and where you want to be. Wherever you are in your journey, if you want the feedback that Bill and Eric talk about, and the accountability to get to your goals, now...

Leadership Quote: The Quality of a Person’s Life…

February 25, 2018February 12, 2018 by Elisa Spain Comment Closed

This month's leadership quote: "The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor." --Vince Lombardi Head Coach, 1959-1967 Green Bay Packers Why Vistage Works Elisa K. Spain...

Leadership Quote: Compete With Things To Come…

February 22, 2015 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

This month's leadership quote: "Compete with things to come - not with things that were." -Carlos Rizowy So easy to look in the rear view mirror and ask ourselves, what’s coming? And, what Carlos reminds us is that what we see in the rear view mirror are only the things that are present now. The things to come require “eyes down the road”, as they say in driver training. It is only when we are looking down the road that we can see what we will be faced with and, therefore, will be competing with. If we wait until it is in front of us, it is, at a minimum, more costly and often too late to respond. Elisa K. Spain...

Consensus Equals Beige

July 15, 2012 by Elisa Spain2 Comments

When a leader asks for input and then makes a decision, the result is vivid color, i.e. a better decision. It is a better decision for lots of reasons. First and foremost, your team feels valued when they are asked to participate in the decision process. Second, there is value in the wisdom of crowds, many times the group will surface ideas that the leader hasn't thought about. As a Vistage Chair and leadership coach, I see this happen each month during the executive sessions I lead with CEOs and Key Executives. This, of course, is why 15,000 people around the world are members of Vistage - because we know the value of seeking input from others. Where it all goes awry, is when we seek consensus either from our team or from our Vistage group (or our family, friends, book club, etc). With consensus all the colors get mixed together, resulting in a dull beige, i.e. a mediocre, watered down decision. Next time you...

The Introvert's Guide To Leadership (& The Extrovert's Guide To Leading Introverts)

March 18, 2012 by Elisa Spain2 Comments

Some say 40% -50% of the top large company CEO's are introverts, including Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Charles Schwab and Steve Spielberg. Amongst entrepreneurs, the numbers are higher. Why? Because entrepreneurs frequently are the expert at their chosen business and experts most often are introverts. So what does this mean for those of us who are introverted leaders and for extroverts with introverted leaders on your team? As with all style differences, first start by celebrating and leveraging the differences in style. While other factors come into play in style differences, the key difference between introverts and extroverts is where they draw their energy. Both introverts and extroverts seek input. Introverts tend to seek the input and then "go within" to think things over and make a decision. Extroverts tend to think out loud, drawing their energy from the interaction with others. One thing to keep in mind about introverts - they aren't necessarily shy, frequently just quiet - taking it all in. Introverted leaders are...

Questions Of Culture – What Are Yours?

January 15, 2012 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Despite the sticky unemployment numbers, businesses are hiring. See 9/20/11 Blog "The Economic Shift" for a discussion as to some reasons for this dichotomy. Now, back to the point of this post... I am seeing a lot of discussion about the questions to ask in an interview to learn the fit of a potential hire. Two of my favorites, From Bob Herbold, the former Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft Corporation and author of What’s Holding You Back: 10 Bold Steps that Define Gutsy Leaders. When you were young, who was the person that was most influential in teaching you valuable lessons about life? What were those lessons the person taught you? What are those tapes this person put into your head that are still there today and have emerged as guiding principles for you? The lessons you are looking for are basic principles that suggest a high degree of self confidence, a sense of personal responsibility, a strong drive to achieve, and solid fundamental ethics. No hint of these kinds...

Vistage CEO Confidence Index Q42011 Results

January 6, 2012 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

After precipitous declines during the prior two quarters, CEO confidence bounced back at year’s end with the largest quarterly gain since the start of the recovery in 2009. The Vistage CEO Confidence Index was 98.8 in the 4th quarter 2011 survey, up from 83.5 in the 3rd quarter, and reaching the highest level since 105.2 was recorded at the start of 2011. The Q4 2011 Vistage CEO Confidence Index reflects responses from 1,641 US CEOs, surveyed between December 12 and December 22, 2011. Read More Elisa K. Spain...

Laws Of Success: It's All About The Ride

January 1, 2012 by Elisa Spain4 Comments

Years ago, I was sitting on a bench at Union station. An old man sat down next to me and we engaged in conversation. I asked him where he was headed and he replied with glee, "San Francisco!" Wow, I said, that is a long way to go on the train. His reply: “There is as much fun in getting there as there is in being there.” This man's answer has stayed with me and I often think of him in these situations: When I am too focused on getting to the outcome When it's time to pause When it's time to remember to be in the moment Recently, I came across this TED Talk by Professor Srikumar Rao, who developed the first MBA course on Creativity and Personal Mastery. Professor Rao is known as the happiness teacher. Like me, he is a leadership coach and he teaches his students how to achieve success by first plugging into your hard-wired happiness. I wonder if my traveling acquaintance, from many...

Want Greater Success? Nurture Your Butterflies

December 25, 2011 by Elisa Spain3 Comments

Good leaders always strive to have butterflies in their stomach, says Kathleen L. Flanagan, president and chief executive of Abt Associates, a $450mm consultancy firm. When we are out of our comfort zone, we have the greatest opportunity for success. It's when we become complacent and run on auto-pilot that we as leaders are most at risk of failure. In this interview in The New York Times, Kathleen describes her first big promotion, the first time she managed people, how she had butterflies in her stomach the entire first year, and how she ultimately learned to trust her gut. Her advice is the same advice she heard from her first boss and mentor, the one who gave her that first job. “There is no blueprint, you have to make a plan and be goal oriented. Always have butterflies and always plan for success." To the advice she received from her former boss, Kathleen adds her own wisdom: Be flexible. Listen to people. Give them the...

In The Search For Self-Improvement, Don’t Forget To Celebrate Your Genius

December 11, 2011 by Elisa Spain2 Comments

The notion that we can constantly make ourselves better, in theory, is a great idea. But when does it become too much? For me, the best way to answer this question is to notice our strengths and work to enhance them. In my Vistage work and as a leadership coach and advisor, I refer to this as discovering and working in our genius. According to Alina Tugend, author of this New York Times article Pursuing Self-Improvement, at the Risk of Self-Acceptance, it was Dale Carnegie who ushered in the era of introspection and self-improvement. She asserts that we have become so focused on achieving that we are never able to appreciate who we are or what we’ve already accomplished: “[W]hen we’re constantly reaching rather than occasionally being satisfied with what we have in front of us, that’s a recipe for perpetual dissatisfaction.” For me the best way to avoid the “better, better, better” trap is to ask the following questions: What am I already good...