Leadership Quote: Those Who Win….

Leadership Quote: Those Who Win….

by Elisa Spain4 Comments

This month’s leadership quote: Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can. — Dr. Paul Tournier

Today’s blogpost  is offered by guest blogger Mary Lore, Vistage speaker and author of Managing Thought.

Mary’s book and program are all about managing thought and getting the results we want.

In my experience, a lot of leaders think “positive thinking” is about thinking happy rah-rah or touchy-feely thoughts or re-framing a thought to make it sound positive, for example changing the word “sh—“ to “fertilizer.” Or they think of that Stuart Smalley character on Saturday Night Live who made positive affirmations in the mirror. (I don’t want to be that guy!)

That’s why I don’t use the term positive thinking,coined the term powerful thinking, and developed theManaging Thought® process. Because to me, positivity isn’t about getting rid of the negative thoughts we have and replacing them with positive thoughts. It is about being aware of the 60,000 thoughts our brains present to us every day – one a second – and choosing to hold thoughts that are in alignment with who we aspire to be and what we truly wish to create – as leaders and as organizations.

In my experience, most of our thoughts are based in fear, focused on what we don’t want vs. what we do want – and we don’t even know it.

When we think about the time we don’t have enough of, the opportunities we don’t have, the customer we lost, the payments we can’t afford, the sacrifices and cuts we have to make, cash we don’t have, customers who aren’t buying, banks who won’t lend, the decisions we are forced to make, and the competition we’re up against, we are not thinking powerfully.

When we think that we don’t want to be viewed as a commodity, the economy is bad, my organization isn’t innovative, my people aren’t engaged, or that I don’t like this or that about my employees or suppliers, again, we are not thinking powerfully.

When we think thoughts of fear, self-doubt, worry, criticism, judgment, anger, frustration, anxiety, negativity and other disempowering fight, flight or freeze thoughts, we are not thinking powerfully. And when we think about surviving, we are not thinking powerfully, because we want to thrive.

When we think powerfully, we are thinking thoughts of vision and purpose, wonder and possibility, focused on what we want, on what truly matters. Our thoughts are inspired, creative, and impactful.

Most of us have not thought about our thoughts. We have no idea what we are thinking in each moment.  We have taught ourselves to turn our power to think and to create our reality over to our brains.

Yet we have the ability to pay attention to our thoughts. We always have a choice to focus on what matters and think in powerful ways which affects our ideas, our decisions, and our results. This awareness creates stillness in this fast-paced, ever-changing world and affects how we inspire others, how we lead, what we create from any situation, producing a distinct competitive advantage.

It is time for us to take back our power, to stop re-acting, and start choosing thoughts that serve us in our lives, our relationships, our organizations, our communities, and, through the ripple effect, the world.

How are you using your 60,000 thoughts today?

 

Great Leaders Shatter Expectations

Great Leaders Shatter Expectations

by Elisa Spain2 Comments

Great leaders shatter expectations, so says Vistage speaker Michael Allosso. This is planning season for most companies. The time when leaders get together to begin strategic planning for 2013.

What will you do in 2013 to shatter the expectations of your leadership team and your customers?

Please share your thoughts/plans by commenting on this blog post.

Elisa K. Spain

Vistage Confidence Index: Q3 Results Dip Once Again

Vistage Confidence Index: Q3 Results Dip Once Again

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

The quarterly Vistage Confidence Index is now available.

CEOs of small and medium businesses say their overall confidence is down due to a continued slowdown in economic growth and uncertainty over the future of U.S. politics.  This is according to the Vistage CEO Confidence Index, which indicated a drop of nearly three percentage points from the second quarter and a 16 percent decrease since March.

Following are key highlights of the survey:

Economic Growth Slows: The continuing decline in optimism has been due to the slowdown in the pace of economic growth that is expected to continue though the start of 2013. Just 27 percent of all firms in the 3rd quarter survey reported that the economy had recently improved, down from 36 percent last quarter and less than half of the 60 percent recorded at the start of 2012. Moreover, the proportion fearing a renewed downturn in the year ahead jumped to 22 percent in the 3rd quarter, up from just 7 percent at the start of 2012. To be sure, the vast majority of firms do not anticipate a recession, but simply a slowdown due to inaction on fiscal policies.

Hiring Plans Remain Favorable: Hiring plans were unchanged from last quarter as half of all firms planned net increases in the number of their employees. Just 9 percent anticipate a net reduction, a clear sign that firms do not expect a downturn. One-in-five firms (19 percent) reported that the payroll tax holiday allowed them to expand their businesses, but fewer firms (12 percent) reported that they would hire more workers if the government offered them a $1,000 tax credit for each new hire.

Investment Plans Slip: Planned investments in new plant and equipment declined slightly, with the percent that planned increases falling to 36 percent in the 3rd quarter from 40 percent last quarter and 45 percent in the 1st quarter. Economic uncertainty has reduced investment plans to their lowest level since the start of 2010.

Revenue Prospects Remain Strong: Two-thirds of all firms anticipated revenue growth during the year ahead in the 3rd quarter survey, unchanged from last quarter. Retaining and attracting new customers was singled out as the biggest challenge by CEOs, with cutting costs their next biggest challenge since the majority of firms expected they could not increase the prices they charged for their products or services.

Stable Profits Expected: Higher profits were anticipated by 52 percent of all firms in the 3rd quarter, barely different from last quarter’s 53 percent but below the 1st quarter’s 60 percent. Although CEOs anticipated an even slower pace of economic growth than last quarter, firms were better prepared to offset the impact of the slowdown on their profits. The 14 percent of firms in the 3rd quarter 2012 survey that expected declines in their profits was slightly below last year’s 15 percent and less than half the peak of 36 percent in the closing quarter of 2008.

Elisa K. Spain 

Rush To The Urgent, Or Plan For 2013?

Rush To The Urgent, Or Plan For 2013?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

As we enter the fourth quarter of the year, are you still focused on 2012 or planning for 2013?

At a recent meeting with a group of business leaders, all from the same company, we went around the table and asked “who is on plan or ahead of plan this year and who is not?” A common theme emerged amongst those who answered that they were meeting their plan or ahead of plan.

Here is what I heard:

  • 2012 is over – we are already planning for 2013. We did the same last year and hit the ground running in January (actually before then)
  • everyone on the team knows their contribution to the goal and where each of them stand – i.e. we set individual goals as well as team goals, measure performance and make it public

Seems so simple and yet, only about 1/3 of the people at the table were actually achieving their goals.

Here are some questions for your consideration:

  • I wonder what stops the two-thirds  from following the practices of the one-third? Is it perhaps rushing to the urgent and missing the important along the way?
  • How does this all fit with what you are doing this quarter?
  • How might the experience of these successful leaders perhaps impact the choices you make in the remaining few months of the year?

Elisa K. Spain

Leadership Quote: The Best Way To Predict The Future…

Leadership Quote: The Best Way To Predict The Future…

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

This month’s leadership quote: The best way to predict the future is to invent it — Peter Drucker.

Love this quote on so many levels. First and foremost it speaks to the importance of having a vision. When I presented this quote at my Vistage CEO meeting this month, one of my “inventor” members, just smiled. For him this sums up why he does, what he does.

For my Vistage Key Executive members, they heard it as a reminder that we do control our destiny, even though sometimes we think it is controlled by others.

What does this quote say to you?

Elisa K. Spain

Getting It Done Or It's All About Execution.

Getting It Done Or It's All About Execution.

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

One of my Vistage members asked me this question this week, “What is the common theme among the businesses you know that have grown significantly?”

Or to ask the question another way, why is it that less than 1.5% of  U.S. companies are greater than $25mm in revenue and less than .27% are greater than $100mm*. And, why is it that Vistage members outperform their counterparts in their same industries?

The answer quite simply is the combination of a scalable business model and ruthless execution.

Peter Drucker says businesses have more than enough leaders; what they really need are “competent managers who can do the hard work of decision making, planning, and coaching”.

The leaders of companies I know that have scaled understand this.  These are the companies that develop plans and execute on those plans. They follow the DIME method – continuously Design, Implement, Monitor and Evaluate.  For more on the Dime Method, see 7/22/12 blog – Is Your Leadership Team Your Co-Advisor.

Elisa K .Spain

*Source Keith McFarland, Breakthrough Companies

Leadership Habit: What If I Can't Today?

Leadership Habit: What If I Can't Today?

by Elisa Spain2 Comments

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?

Elisa K. Spain

Are You A Bad Boss? Are You Sure You Aren't?

Are You A Bad Boss? Are You Sure You Aren't?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Most of us think of a bad boss as one who explodes, intimidates and otherwise behaves badly. The reality is this type of bad boss represents less than 20% of the behavior that actually defines the worst bosses (based on research conducted by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman). For the full results of Zenger and Folkman’s findings, click here.

The more common “bad boss” shows up in one the following ways (in order of most to least fatal):

  1. Failure to inspire.
  2. Acceptance of mediocre performance.
  3. Lack of clear vision and direction.
  4. An inability to collaborate.
  5. Failure to walk the talk.
  6. Failure to improve and learn from mistakes.
  7. Inability to lead change or innovate owing to a resistance to new ideas.
  8. Failure to develop others.
  9. Inept interpersonal skills.
  10. Bad judgement – leading to poor decision.
In short, even if we are kind and soft spoken; if we aren’t demonstrating leadership, we are not good bosses.
Vistage members know this and that is why they join. As you read through the list and the accompanying article, I encourage you to ask yourself:
  • Which qualities on the list do I excel at?
  • How might I become a better boss by focusing on #6?

 

 

Economic Uncertainty… What To Do, What To Do?

Economic Uncertainty… What To Do, What To Do?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

As summer winds down and attention focuses back on business, the subject on the minds of business people continues to be economic uncertainty. We lived in a world of prosperity for such a long time, prior to 2008, that many of us forgot that the economy moves in cycles.

The Vistage economists, Brian and Alan Beaulieu from the Institute for Trend Research tell us the next recession is not until Q3 or Q4 2013 and yet, any softness in the economy is read by the general press as a beginning of a recession. In some cases, the perception exists that the recession of 2008 continues, despite results that prove otherwise.

So what’s my point?

While macro-economic factors will impact all businesses, what matters most is what we do each day. One of my Vistage CEO members who owns a commercial construction business said it well. When asked the reason for his success during the real-estate debacle, his answer was simply, “While we are one of the largest privately held businesses in our industry, we do business nationally. We are a small % of the overall construction business in the country and therefore there is and was plenty of business out there for us. Our team recognizes this opportunity. And every day, we deliver world class service to our current customers and continually focus on acquiring new ones.”

  • What is your story of prosperity?
  • How are you benefiting from the current economic uncertainty to gain an unfair advantage in your business?

Elisa K. Spain

 

Leadership Quote: We Cannot Become What We Need To Be…

Leadership Quote: We Cannot Become What We Need To Be…

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

This month’s leadership quote: We cannot become what we need to be, by remaining what we are – – Max Depree

When faced with anything new that is significant in our business or our life… a new role, a new competitor, a new technology, most of us humans, first resist.

And, it is what we do next that matters most.

Change is difficult. And in my experience as a leader and a leadership coach, what  I have learned is when we say we like change, the truth is we only like change when we are leading it. When change is thrust upon us, the resistance begs to take over.

What if instead, we were to embrace all the change that comes our way, not just the change we initiate. By recognizing that we cannot remain as we are; rather, we must recognize the changes we must make within ourselves so that we can become what we need to be to thrive in the new environment.

Elisa K. Spain