The War For Talent (Or Is It A War ON Talent?)

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

 

Two important statistics begin this discussion…

  • Starting in 2016, more people will be leaving the workforce than entering it
  • By 2020, 46% of all U.S. workers are predicted to be Gen Y

Thus the foundation for the war for talent, or what my friends at large companies are calling, ‘the war on talent’, as in competitors targeting and soliciting our top talent.

Not since World War II, when soldiers were leaving the workforce to fight, have we experienced a shrinking workforce. Moreover, with millennials soon representing 46% of the talent, this war for talent must be fought strategically, with different methods and different incentives than before.

Continuing the theme of execution as the driver of success and hiring the right people being a key part of execution, successful leaders are taking a two-pronged approach, focused on retention of older workers AND attraction, retention and incentives for younger workers.

In short, the war for talent is a competitive war with the same goal as winning business, i.e. getting your unfair share of the market.

We have begun conversations in all my Vistage groups on this topic. Here are some creative actions I am hearing; please share yours.

  • Apprenticeship – once reserved for the trades, today Vistage members are starting to create positions for apprentices to learn the expertise of seasoned executives before they retire.
  • Project Time – Google began this practice as part of their innovation culture; other companies are adopting a variation to give millennials the opportunity to make an impact early in their careers.
  • Social Impact  – Gone are the days when matching contributions are enough; companies who make a social impact attract Gen Y workers.
  • Long Term Incentives – As young executives start families, companies that offer “golden handcuffs”  retain their executives through the business cycles. While common in the large corporate world, these incentives are beginning to show up in middle market companies. Offerings include deferred compensation, stock options and stock grants.

 

Elisa K. Spain

Vision Is Not Enough…

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

 

Successful leaders have both vision and execution.

Lots of people have great ideas, and in my experience, it’s execution that creates success.  Why ‘Big Picture Only’ Leaders Fail.

And, what exactly defines execution? Last week, I began a conversation about one of the key components of execution – Capacity: Is It Capacity Or Is It Making Choices?

Continuing that theme, equally important to execution is Focus.

Successful leaders know they must set a vision – so there is a destination that their team can rally around. Once the vision is defined, they work with their team to set a business strategy to achieve the vision and then, they and their teams….

Focus, Focus, Focus on what needs to happen to get from here to there.

Successful leaders are able to tune out distractions and focus on moving forward. They have the ability to differentiate between a distraction and important new information and act accordingly. They know what needs to get done, how to do it and, they have the ability to inspire their teams to stay focused and avoid fatigue when things don’t move at the pace they want.

More on execution in coming weeks.

Elisa K. Spain

 

Is It Capacity Or Is It Making Choices?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

 

Working with CEOs over the last dozen or so years, I observed several common traits in those who successfully grow their businesses. I have written in the past about the importance of having a vision, having the right people, and having strong execution. Another more subtle characteristic shared by successful leaders… They seem to have an incredible “capacity”.

Webster defines capacity as…

  • the potential or suitability for holding, storing, or accommodating 
  • an individual’s mental or physical ability
  • the faculty or potential for treating, experiencing, or appreciating
  • the facility or power to produce, perform, or deploy:  maximum output

It’s this facility for maximum output that I am referring to. The ability to take on more, to handle more stress, to be present regardless of outside circumstances, to simply do more. It’s more than ability, it’s well, capacity.

And, here’s what I observe… while it appears that these leaders can simply handle more and do more than others, it is also their ability to choose. To make a choice and accept that when they choose, they may disappoint someone. And, they allow themselves to be okay with that.

Elisa K. Spain

Consensus Gives You Beige

by Elisa SpainNo 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 nearly 20,000 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, etc). With consensus all the colors get mixed together, resulting in a dull beige, i.e. a mediocre, watered down decision.

Sometimes this may be okay, when the goal is more about participation that it is about making decisions. The key is being mindful of your goal.

So, the next time you are asking for input, ask yourself, “is it vivid color I want or is beige okay?” And, if it is color you want, don’t settle for beige. Make the final decision yourself.

Elisa K. Spain

 

 

Oops, I Wish I Hadn't Said That, I Wish I Had Done This….

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

 

Back in elementary school, when playing sports, we often were allowed a ‘do-over’. As we got older, coaches and teachers stopped allowing this. The ball had to be played where it was. I suspect the reason for this was to “prepare us for life”. And, so we learned, no ‘do-overs’, if I screwed up or forgot to do something, too late, can’t fix it.

  • While, there must be rules in games (no way to score if there are not), does everything in life have to play by these same rules?
  • What if when we said something we wished we hadn’t, we simply went back to the person and said, “I am sorry, I wish I hadn’t said that, what I wanted to say is this…”
  • What if we wanted to do this, we went back and simply did it?

In short, what if we started with the premise that nothing in life is irreparable or irretrievable, except death. While certainly words matter, see my blog of this same name (Words Matter), actions speak loudly and ‘do-overs’ are a great way to take action and demonstrate intent. Another way to think about it… it’s not what you do, it’s what you do next.

Elisa K. Spain

 

 

Who Gets To Decide?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

 

Just about every leadership book and every leadership speaker talks about the importance of allowing people to fail. The concept is: true delegation does not occur unless and until I allow people to make their own decisions, take their own risks and succeed or fail on their own.

Easy to say, hard to do, on so many levels. Some of the common questions are:

  • How much risk should I allow them to take?
  • What if I am certain they are making the wrong decision; a decision that is going to cost me money, put the company at risk, put the person at risk, etc. How can I simply look away and allow the failure to occur?
  • How many failures are okay?

Lately, I have come to realize this question, who gets to decide, applies in our business life and in our personal lives. It applies to our children and to our aging parents. Just recently this realization was brought home to me with the following stories.

The teenage son of a friend is more focused on sports than on his homework, a familiar story. Mom says, “we have to make him do his homework”. Thus ensures a fight between mom and son. Dad says, “let him suffer the consequences if he chooses not to do his homework”. Who gets to decide? Who is “right”?

The 89 year old father of a friend has cancer. His actions indicate he is confused about what he wants. He says he is willing to get treatment, but he misses his appointments. He lives alone and refuses a live-in caregiver, or even a visiting caregiver. Prior to the diagnosis, he was cognitively in fine shape. Son says, “we have to make him go for his treatments”.  Daughter says, “if he wants to be alone, doesn’t attend his appointments, doesn’t return the doctor’s phone calls, it’s his decision to make, not ours”.

Back to the three questions above…

  • How much risk should I allow them to take?
  • What if I am certain they are making the wrong decision, a decision that is going to cost me money. How can I simply look away and allow the failure to occur?
  • How many failures are okay?

Which choice is the more courageous one? Who gets to decide?

Elisa K. Spain

Is It Good Enough?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

 

How often do we notice something, point it out and then regret it later; wishing we had kept quiet? 

How often do we wait for more information, or better information, and miss an opportunity?

There is both a time factor and a human factor to achieving results. We often wait too long, strive for that final 5%, hoping to have perfect info upon which to base our decision.  

Or, instead of building up the confidence of the person doing the job, we ask for one more change, one more fix and lose sight of appreciating what has already been accomplished.

In our quest for excellence, sometimes we forget that perfection and excellence are not the same. Excellence sometimes is simply knowing what to accept as good enough and what to overlook.

Here’s an idea…

Today, instead of looking around your office, your plant, or your long to-do list and noticing what is missing:

  • What if instead, you noticed a critical item that is working and gave someone specific, positive feedback?
  • And, decided to overlook something less important, that may not be exactly what you wanted, but is really good enough?

 

 

Elisa K. Spain

 

Leadership Is Often About Being Uncomfortable

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

 

What?? How can leadership be about being uncomfortable? Isn’t confidence a key characteristic of leadership? Yes and…. only a confident person is willing to sit with discomfort.

One of my Vistage members reminded me of this last week. We were talking about some changes he is making in his organization, specifically around allowing others to take responsibility for decisions and allowing them to succeed or fail without his intervention.

He was expressing how uncomfortable he was in doing this – his exact words were, “this is difficult, frustrating and not my happy place”. His happy place, aka his comfortable place, is as a doer. At the same time, he wants to continue to grow this business and invest in other businesses. He knows this will only come with leverage, i.e. building a leadership team and allowing them to lead without his direct oversight.

When I challenged him on his statement about being frustrated and unhappy, wondering if he was planning to go back to “doing”, he got angry. He said, “I have no plans to change anything. I am okay being uncomfortable, I am simply acknowledging that I am”.

Another reminder, happiness in the long run often requires being uncomfortable in the short-term; and having the confidence to simply be there.

 

 

Elisa K. Spain

Attitude Is What Matters (Even With The Economy)

by Elisa Spain1 Comment

 

When I watched this Brian Westbury video, The Triple Mandate, I was struck by the fact that several years into the current recovery, many business owners and investors are still worried. Understandable. The Great Recession took its toll on both our economy and our psyche.  The memory, while distant, is still fresh.

Yet, what struck me listening to Brian’s view about gradually rising rates, and an undervalued stock market; in short, his optimistic view, was how many business owners and investors, relying on emotion, may be missing opportunities.

Some questions to consider:

  • When has your attitude, either optimistic or pessimistic, caused you to miss an opportunity? Or conversely, saved you from a loss?
  • When making investment decisions, when do you follow the data vs. rely on your instinct?
  • Is the answer to question 1 different when it comes to making investments in your business (either human capital or equipment) vs. investments in securities?

 

Elisa K. Spain

Words Matter Part II

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

 

A few weeks ago, my post “Words Matter“, generated several responses. One reader reminded me, like with everything, there is another side. The side of being too politically correct. The place where we so carefully script our words that we lose any sense of real communication.

What to do? On the one hand, increasingly we hear words of hate and intolerance, on the other, more and more we hear words that are so crafted they don’t mean anything. How do we reconcile these two opposing trends in our society?

I wonder if the common theme between the two is a lack of authenticity? And…

  • If fear is what is truly present, rather than intolerance, how do we express this authentically?
  • Is it possible to be authentic and at the same time express tolerance of differences?
  • Is it possible to be authentic and be kind in the words and tone we choose?
  • Is it possible to express our fears and concerns while being open to hearing someone else’s truth?

 

Elisa K. Spain