This month’s leadership quote:
“I make more mistakes than anyone else I know, and sooner or later, I patent most of them.”
–Thomas A. Edison
#leadership #Vistage
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Entering the second half of 2018, Vistage Research compiled a report summarizing the key concerns CEO’s face today. This report draws on data from the Vistage Q2 CEO Confidence Index report and a team of expert economists. Here are the five key areas of concern:
Beginning in September, this blog will address each of these concerns in turn. Meanwhile here is the complete report for your consideration Decision factors: H2 2018 – Economic considerations for SMB executives,
Are You a CEO or President of a Privately Held Business? If you are also a lifetime learner, click here to learn more.
#Strategy
#Vistage Confidence Index
In publicly held companies, company performance and executive compensation is, just that, public. All shareholders receive both an annual report and a proxy statement and this information is contained within these documents. Additionally, it is a simple matter for a non-shareholder to obtain this information, sometimes with a simple web search, or at least with an inquiry to the company.
Yet in many, perhaps, most, privately held companies, this information is closely guarded and not shared.
Why not? Lots of reasons.
The reasons differ depending on the stakeholder we are discussing. Focusing on employee stakeholders, some of the responses I typically hear are:
What if instead, you considered radical transparency? What if:
Transparency without the accompanying education will not work. Thus, radical transparency requires an investment. The good news is, it’s an investment of time, not dollars.
As the war for talent continues, with no apparent end in sight, is radical transparency an investment that may lead to employee loyalty and therefore increased retention?
This month’s leadership quote:
“Those who failed to oppose me…who readily agreed with me and accepted all my views…
were those who did me the most injury.”
–Napoleon Bonaparte
Many of us as leaders, especially new leaders, feel we must have all the answers. Some even feel a sense of shame when asked a question, by a client or an employee, and they don’t have the answer.
And, despite these feelings of inadequacy most of us have felt at one time or another, I also hear stories of the magic of saying “I don’t know”.
One of my favorite stories came from one of my clients who grew up in his family business.
I met this man ten years ago and before I knew him, he had worked every job in the company and truly had all the answers. In fact, he was the answer man. Everyone came to him when they needed help figuring out what to do next. This worked fine when he was on the line and even when he was the operations manager.
By the time I met him, he was president of the company and being the answer man wasn’t working so well. He was so focused on solving everyone’s problems and making sure everything was done right in the factory, that he was not doing the job of President. He wasn’t focused on strategy, nor was he meeting with customers, nor was he innovating or coaching (answering folks questions ≠ coaching).
One day after we had talked about his frustration in one of our coaching sessions, he had an idea. He decided starting today, when folks came to his office, he would begin saying “I don’t know”. At first his team became annoyed with him. Over time, they stopped asking.
Today his company is filled with competent executives that run their operations effectively. So effectively that the company has doubled in size and he works fewer hours than he did when the company was half its size.
For some of us, we actually don’t know, others, like this man, do.
In either case, what are we giving up by wanting to, trying to, have all the answers rather than allowing others discover the answers themselves?
Most of us learned, “the way” early in life. Some of us learned it from our parents, some from our teachers or other adult role models. The way, we learned, was the way they did it. We observed or they told us, how to live our lives; and in what order to do things. Typically it went something like this, get an education, get a job, get married, pursue/advance in a career, have kids, retire, enjoy our grandkids.
For some this may still be the way, and for more and more people, this is only one of many choices. Today we have more choices and for most of us, a longer time frame during which we might choose multiple ways. For example, I know a grandmother who became a lawyer in her 70’s; and recently heard about an architect who became a restaurant owner in her late 40’s.
So, as you think about your way, whatever stage of life and transition you are in, give some consideration to deciding first what is important to you and then choose the way that supports that.
For me, one of the driving reasons I chose to become an entrepreneur, 20 years ago, (after 20+ years in the corporate world) was flexibility. I wanted control over my day, I didn’t want to live on a schedule and as silly as it sounds today, I didn’t want to put on pantyhose every day. :-).
What drives you? And, are you living your life and career in a way that is consistent with that drive?
Dunkin’ Donuts ran this ad back in the 70’s and even those born since then, resonate with the concept “time to make the donuts”, as in, get up, get ready, get to work, do the work, go home, start again tomorrow.
Whether working in the factory or working as an executive, it’s easy to fall into the habit of doing, problem solving, doing some more, and then starting again. The good part of this is, we get sh*t done. The challenge is, we sometimes lose sight of the why, i.e. our purpose.
Whether it’s our personal why or our company why that drives us, before we crash into ourselves coming and going, as in the last frame of the ad, perhaps it’s time to stop and ask “why did I choose to start this donut making business, or work for this particular donut making business and why are we making these particular donuts”?
I am often in conversation with people I coach where the person is focused on action. I hear things like…
Much has been written including various techniques to answer these questions. While these are important questions, and I am sure techniques for monitoring and evaluating these challenges are valuable, for me, it is difficult to address these issues without a pause. For me, asking these questions is starting in the middle rather than starting at the beginning.
If we were to start at the beginning, these are questions I would ask:
Once these questions are answered, then we can begin to address the questions above. For example,
There are many more questions to add to the second list, and the answers only become useful when we begin at the very beginning.
This month’s leadership quote:
“People don’t want to hear your story, they want to hear their story through you.”
–Nicholas Tremulis
My husband is a big fan of Nicholas Tremulis, a Chicago musician who plays a unique mix of rock, R&B, and pop. Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to see him live in a small venue. Between songs, Nicholas told us his story and the story of his music.
He talked about song writing with this quote. When I heard it, it resonated for me as not just about songwriting, but about leadership, in particular the coaching part of the essential roles of a leader. I like to tell stories and I read this quote often to remind me why I do, and to remind me only to tell stories for this purpose.
We as leaders are told all the time that everyone is always watching us. A smile, a frown, silence, all are interpreted as “a sign”. And since most of us think in terms of impact on ourselves, our followers interpret these “signs” as a sign of something that impacts them. This of course frequently results in “absent information, people make stuff up”.
As leaders, we hear this and interpret it to mean, we need to be “on” all the time. Yikes, especially the introvert leaders say, that is exhausting!!
What if instead, when we are feeling pressured, angry, sad, depleted, we let our folks know that we are working on whatever problem has put us temporarily out of commission, “I had a tough conversation this morning and I am distracted by that, I will look for you later this afternoon so we can talk about your issue”.
For me, time and time again I have seen this sort of human response draw people toward their leaders…
What has been your experience?
The initial results of my Pivot are excellent. I feel I have much greater clarity regarding the next 3-5 years.. more
