Leadership Quote | Elisa K. Spain

Leadership Quote: If I Had Only One Hour To Save The World…

November 24, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

“If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution.”

-Albert Einstein

How often do we jump in and start solving things before we know what the problem is? When we process issues in Vistage, the set goal is question, question, question until the person whose issue it is finds their own way to the solution. And yet, it is so tempting to jump in with answers. Socrates, like Einstein, tells us that wisdom comes from asking the better questions, defining the problem.

Perhaps us lesser mortals, have the opportunity to be just as wise…by pausing, asking questions, defining the problem, and letting the solution emerge rather than be told.

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Leadership Quote: Becoming A Leader, Becoming Yourself….

October 27, 2013 by Elisa Spain2 Comments

This month’s leadership quote:

“Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple and it is also that difficult.”

-Warren Bennis

The challenge of course is gaining this self-awareness.

Identifying our genius
Learning how we show up to others and the impact we have
Learning when to lead from the front of the room and when to lead from the back

Whether we have been in a leadership role for a long time, or the experience is more recent, each day is an opportunity to move toward this simple, yet difficult goal.

One of the great benefits of Vistage private advisory boards is the opportunity to learn all these things from our peers. We can then take what we learn back into our organizations and become the best version of ourselves.

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Leadership Quote: Create Goals, Not For What You'll Achieve…

September 29, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

This month’s leadership quote:

“Create goals, not for what you’ll achieve, but for who you get to be in the process.”

Occasionally, I hear from people who say, “I don’t have goals and frankly, I don’t see the point”. While setting achievement goals is somewhat personality driven, the value is there for all of us when we create goals for the purpose of….well, creating a purpose.

Goals, be they personal or business, give us a direction to go in. They help with that ball-dropping prioritization, I talked about a few weeks ago, Drop Some Balls, and they give us clarity each day.

When we begin to think about goal setting as defining who we want to be, suddenly it is less about achieving and more about “who we get to be in the process”.

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Leadership Quote: Vision Without Execution…

August 25, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

This month’s leadership quote:

Vision without execution is hallucination.

— Thomas A. Edison

When leaders focus solely on vision and strategy and not on execution, put simply, nothing gets done. Successful leaders know that a vision is a destination that their team can rally around. They also know that while the vision is their job, it is a team effort to develop a strategy for getting there.

At the same time, once the vision and strategy are defined, results only happen with implementation. And only succeed with the monitoring and evaluation that follows.

In my experience, leaders who see their only job as generating the big ideas and abdicate their leadership role when it comes to execution are suffering from the hallucinations Thomas Edison describes. By avoiding learning about the people they lead, the technologies their companies use, the customers they serve, and numerous other crucial little things, they miss the key elements of execution.

This is why Vistage members share their vision, strategy and execution plans, are accountable to each other for all three and outperform their industry peers.

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Leadership Quote: Leadership Is Not Magnetic Personality…

June 30, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Once again, I am taking a brief pause from the Leadership View series for the monthly quote. The series will return next week with Leadership View #12.

This month’s leadership quote:

Leadership is not magnetic personality — that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not ‘making friends and influencing people’ — that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations — Peter F. Drucker

What a relief, this means EVERY leader has the potential to succeed…That is, if he or she wants to. For me, this quote means that to accomplish successful leadership, we must step outside of ourselves and focus on the people we are leading. We must identify what drives each individual on our team, identify their unique genius and coach them toward success. It is our job as leaders to inspire the people we lead to take the next step, to take the risk to achieve growth and as Drucker says, achieve beyond their limitations.

Perhaps the place to start is with identifying these same factors within ourselves…

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Leadership View #10: Take The High Risk…

June 16, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Leadership View #10:

Take the higher risk / higher reward job.

Much like when choosing investments, the higher risk choices lead to higher returns. And much like with investments, intentionality is the key. If you truly want the higher reward (or greater leadership role) and are willing to take the risk to modify both your behavior and your choices, go for it. And, along the way, gather feedback from your manager, your peers, and your subordinates so you know where your blind spots are and the modifications you will need to make.

A great place to start is with Marshall Goldsmith’s book, What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There.

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Leadership Quote: Most People Need Repetition

May 26, 2013 by Elisa Spain2 Comments

Once again, I am taking a brief pause from the Leadership Series for the monthly quote. The series will return next week with Leadership View #8.

This month’s leadership quote:

Most people need repetition more than instruction.

I had a clear reminder of the importance of repetition last month. One of my Vistage members noticed we were neglecting some of the tenants of our group’s Operating Agreement and called it out in a meeting. His noticing led to a rich discussion amongst members of that group, and one of the members said it well: “Just like diet and exercise, we know what to do and sometimes we need a reminder”.

In our busy lives, we are mostly focused on the urgent (hopefully it is the urgent and important). If we want to pay attention to the Important, Non-Urgent issues in our lives, we need reminders. Whether it is our Vision, our Mission or Operating Agreements that we share with our teams, or the commitments that we make to our spouses, life partners or family; we all need that repetition to keep us focused.

As a reminder,

Most people need repetition more than instruction.

What do each of us need reminding of today?

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Leadership Quote: Our Job As Marketers And Leaders

April 28, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Once again, I am taking a brief pause from the 45 Years of Leadership series for the monthly quote. The series will return next week with Marsh’s Leadership View #5.

This month’s leadership quote:

Our job as marketers and leaders is to create vibrant pockets, not to hunt for mass. – Seth Godin

This quote comes from Seth’s Super Bowl blog, entitled, Why do we care about football? In this post, Seth claims, that while mass TV built many elements of our culture, mass TV (except for the Super Bowl) is basically over. The new media giants of our age (Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.) don’t point everyone to one bit of content, don’t trade in mass. Instead, they splinter, connecting many to many, not many to one.

Facebook, Twitter and Google connect businesses to business, businesses to consumers and consumers to consumers. The question is no longer simply are you B2B or B2C but rather who are your customers, who do you want to have as customers and how do you continue to be relevant to them.

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Leadership Quote: What You Do Speaks So Loudly…

March 31, 2013 by Elisa Spain2 Comments

As it is time for my monthly leadership quote, I am taking a brief pause from the 45 Years of Leadership series. The series will return next week with Marsh’s Leadership View #2.

This month’s leadership quote:

What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you say – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We say we provide a great place to work, do our actions demonstrate this by committing to the growth and development of our staff?
We say we want to grow our business, are our actions focused on growth?
We say we want to spend more time learning to play the guitar, are we practicing?
We say we want to make a difference, are we intentional each day in taking actions that do in fact make a difference?
Are we pausing each day, to ask ourselves if our actions are aligned with our words?

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Leadership Quote: To Succeed, Jump As Quickly At Opportunities…

February 24, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

This month’s leadership quote:

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions — Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin certainly modeled the prerequisite to living his quote, that is, to stay curious. When we remain curious, we can see the opportunities and avoid jumping to possibly erroneous conclusions. His inventions were all a result of curiosity, trial and error and seizing opportunities.

What might you observe today that merits exploration rather than a conclusion?
What opportunity might be there waiting for you by remaining curious and asking the better questions?

Elisa K.Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com