Results – Page 15 – 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

What Are You Willing To Give Up?

November 17, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

What are you willing to give up to get what you want? This is a question I often ask my Vistage members and coaching clients.

One of my favorite books on marketing, admittedly an old one, is The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Ries and Trout. For me, many of these 22 laws are relevant to life as well as marketing. Law #13, The Law of Sacrifice – You have to give up something in order to get something, resonates for me in making life choices.

What I notice in my conversations with my clients is those that are willing to let go of something…. are those that move forward. They invent the new products, hire the person that is going to make the difference, take the next job or start the next business. These people are willing to give up something to get what they want.

The ‘give up’ may be something we believe, it may be fear (of failing, being wrong), or simply a comfort level with what we have or what we know. The ‘give up’ may be tangible, dollars that may end up as a sunk cost; or accepting that a long term loyal employee is not going to be the one to take the company forward.

In short, when we are talking about giving up something to get what we want, the key questions are these:

How much do I really want the “something” I say I want?
What am I willing to give up to get it?

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Are There Subtitles In Your Conversations?

November 10, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Ever wish your conversations had subtitles?

How often do we begin what seems like a casual conversation, only to realize that something has happened. Emotion has entered and we are no longer talking about the subject at hand. Yet, we keep trying to talk about the casual subject while our thoughts wander to the meta message.

There is a scene in Annie Hall that I often think about when this happens.

We see in this film clip, a classic first date, where both of them are saying one thing and thinking something totally different. Their thoughts are shown as subtitles. What makes this scene so memorable is that these subtitles or “meta messages” frequently occur in conversation, including business conversations. And, in life, there aren’t any subtitles.

In the film, Annie Hall chose to end both the conversation and the meta messages by reminding Woody Allen that he had to leave.

In my experience, the more history we have with another person, the more likely we are to step on historical land mines in the course of our conversations. Ending the conversation and continuing later is an option. If the conversation becomes heated, sometimes this is the best option. Alternatively, we have an option to pause and talk about the meta message. In other words, have a conversation about the conversation.

‘Meta’ from Greek is a prefix which means ‘about’ or ‘beyond’.

Here’s how you might move from a conversation that’s getting difficult to a meta-conversation:

Pause. Once you observe either you or the other person is feeling anything other than neutral.
Name what you observe, about each of your viewpoints, e.g. I have the sense we started out talking about the agenda for our next meeting, and there is something else on the table.
Follow the Vistage model, stay in a questioning mode, “What is it about the next meeting that is giving you concern?”
Keep your language neutral. Stay away from the 5 “fighting words”. “You” (use I), “Always” (use frequently), “Never” (use seldom), “But” (use and) “Why” (use what).
Work toward mutual understanding, rather than being right.
Allow the other person to respond. I find that restating what I believe I just heard is helpful. And, then continuing to stay in a questioning mode.

And, allow the possibility that the intended conversation may have to wait until another day.

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

It Only Takes A Moment…

November 3, 2013 by Elisa Spain2 Comments

Appreciation as a leadership action. As leaders, we focus on big things so naturally when it comes to appreciation, we think big; the sales contest, the celebration parties, etc. As humans, we most value specific appreciation that is directed just to us. And, most of us find it difficult to do this. We celebrate the team, we complement the team, yet we rarely notice and communicate with simple appreciative words, a carefully selected card or a note selected just for one person.

Here’s an example:

Instead of, “you did a good job on the status report”; why not say, “You did a good job creating the status report this week. I like that it was succinct and included the due dates. It helped me see what was pending and how much was due at the same time”.

The great thing about it, this simple appreciation doesn’t take any planning and costs nothing. It only takes a moment and can be done in the moment.

Who will you give a specific appreciation to today?

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Stay The Course…

October 13, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Stay the course….

How often have we heard this phrase, and at same time, how often do we react to what is happening in the moment and as a result lose sight of where we were heading?

Most of us want to be flexible and responsive to our constituencies be they employees, customers, shareholders, family or friends. And when we set a new direction or introduce a new idea, the reality is, we are often met with resistance. Change is hard and most of us resist change. When met with resistance, it is tempting to retrench.

In my experience, when I resist this temptation and stay the course, I have been rewarded.

Just recently, a speaker was presenting a new concept. Some folks in the room were able to see the relevance to their business, but a few were not. The ones that could not spoke up and what the speaker heard was “my content isn’t relevant, I need to move in a different direction”. And when he and I spoke during the break, we agreed instead to stay the course. In the end, we were glad we did. In talking with the members afterwards, the vocal ones explained, “I just wasn’t getting it. All I wanted was help in making it relevant”. The others said they found great value in what they heard.

And, then Diana Nyad, gave us the best reminder of all. She had a goal, she stayed the course, despite folks telling her, “it couldn’t be done” and she was too old. And, after several attempts, tweaks along the way, she did it!

Huge leadership lesson here for me: When the vocal minority speaks up, listen, evaluate, help them understand the mission and then stay the course. The flip side, is not to listen when they see you are on a collision course, and that is a topic for another blog.

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Trust Your Gut For The No…

October 6, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Often when we are buyers, we find someone or something we like and then work to find data (experience, accomplishments, etc.) to convince ourselves why this person or this product is something we should buy.

When it comes to interviewing for key candidates, Vistage speakers, Barry Deutsch and Brad Remillard, recommend we take a more structured approach to interviewing to improve our hiring success. They recommend we start the process first by clearly defining the success factors for the role and then asking the candidate to tell us stories about how they have achieved this success in the past and how they will do it for us.

It dawned on me recently that this approach works in many (most?) situations when we are buyers. After all, when we are hiring, we are buyers.

So, am I saying no gut at all? All data? No. Absolutely, there is a gut to every decision we make, and in most situations, especially when we are buyers, trust your gut for the no. If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. When hiring, it’s the behavioral questions that help us learn if a person is a cultural fit. If a person’s style, ethics or values don’t fit, it doesn’t matter if they can do the job.

When committing our time or buying a product, isn’t it really the same key question?

What are my expectations (success factors)?
What is the data that supports that my expectations will be met?
Then the gut question: How does this feel?

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

Go Ahead, Drop Some Balls…

September 15, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Just the other day, I was meeting with an executive acquaintance of mine who had just received a significant promotion. While he is excited about his promotion, he is challenged with looking for his replacement in his previous position; and in the meantime was doing both jobs. When I asked him how it was going, he responded, “just trying to get it all done, without dropping any balls”.

This conversation reminded me of one I had with one of my Vistage CEO Advisory Board members. He was lamenting the challenges one his executives has with burnout. In this case, the CEO was saying “I wish he would learn to drop some balls, his effort to get everything done is what is causing his burnout”!

For those of us who want to dot every I and cross every T, (I admit I am one of them), the ‘to do list’ can seem endless. What I heard this wise CEO saying is, “go ahead, drop some balls”, just choose the ones you are going to drop.

What if instead of starting each day with a list of what we are going to do, we instead begin by removing from the list the things we aren’t going to do. Here are some examples to get you started:

What if you reviewed email once or twice per day, and let everyone know that is your plan?
What if you coded your email so that critical emails moved to a priority list and you responded to these first?
What if you paused and asked yourself, does this email, call, text, inquiry require a response?
What if you removed yourself from EVERY email where you were listed as a cc (or sorted these to a “someday maybe” list).
What if you paused, before saying “yes”?

Please send me your comments with ideas to add to this list…

P.S. In honor of this post and my upcoming vacation, the next blog post will appear September 29th.

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

When Making The Counter-Intuitive Choice…

September 8, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

I have often heard our Vistage economists, Brian & Alan Beaulieu say, “the time to invest is late recession, early recovery”. And it is one thing to say this in theory, and quite another to actually have the courage to do it. Not unlike the recommendation to buy more equities when the market is down. While we all understand the “buy low, sell high” adage, natural risk aversion causes many of us to do exactly the opposite.

And yet, the Beaulieu’s advice works. As an example, I had the pleasure of watching Baird & Warner, the 2nd largest real estate company in the Chicagoland area. With two of their top executives as members of the Vistage Advisory Boards I lead, I have a close connection to Baird. And while Baird, like everyone else, made tactical cost saving efforts such as closing offices and increasing efficiencies; at the same time, they were also investing in the future, making capital investments and key hires.

The result: as the real estate industry continues to recover, Baird has earned its unfair share of the market. Outperforming the competition on every key indicator, deals written, deals closed, etc.

When I spoke with Steve Baird, his response was “while everyone else is hunkering down – I took the opportunity to double down”.

Here is Steve’s summary of what it takes to build, and sustain (in his case for 5 generations), a world class company. Food for thought as the current economic cycle matures:

investment
reinvention
continuous feedback loop
commitment /stick to your principles
time is an asset
you have to do it for years – not just ride market share up and be really good
not just a great product – need a great business
building world class is not building to sell – be clear
be careful of sacrificing profitability for the sake of more business

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com

Managing Business Assets W/ Portfolio Management Risk Practices

September 1, 2013 by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Businesses are assets, right? What might happen if we followed the risk management practices of portfolio management in running them?

The “portfolio managers” of our business are our leadership team, our key executives. Business owners have a risk tolerance that leads them to be more or less involved in activities in their businesses.

What I observe as a Vistage chair and leadership coach is sometimes executives frequently feel either micromanaged or adrift and unclear of expectations.

When the business owners abdicate instead of delegate, only to jump back in when things are not going as they expected (but didn’t verbalize), this creates unnecessary risk; leads to outcomes we don’t want and drives everyone crazy.

What if, instead, owners and executives followed the same process as we do for our investment portfolios?

When we hire an advisor to manage our traditional portfolio of stocks and bonds, the first thing they want to know is the answer to the following two questions:

Will you delegate full responsibility for managing your portfolio to me? or
Will the account be co-advised? Meaning, before I make a purchase or sale in your portfolio, I must consult with you?

When the owner of the portfolio chooses #1, the client and the advisor work together to design a portfolio that meets the risk tolerance of the client, the advisor constructs the portfolio and typically the advisor provides reports, usually monthly or quarterly, that inform the owner of the status of their portfolio. Additionally, the advisor’s reports include a comparison of their performance to that of their peer group.

Sometimes, the owner of the portfolio chooses #1, but instead of delegating authority, monitoring the performance of the portfolio, and periodically evaluating the portfolio manager; the owner abdicates, i.e. moves on to other things and ignores the portfolio manager.

I heard a sad story from a friend recently who chose option #1, neglected the monitor and evaluation part, and didn’t discover the result until he needed the money and realized it was gone. The advisor was not dishonest, he simply made poor investment choices.

If you decide to try this approach, here are some questions you and your executives might consider asking:

What decisions will the executive have full responsibility for?
Which decisions do you want to co-advise?
What risks are you most concerned about?
What kind of reporting works best for you? Written, verbal?
What do you want to monitor, and on what frequency?
How will my performance be evaluated?

And finally the most important question,

What is our agreement as to how to give each other feedback when the outcomes or the process didn’t go as we expected?

Elisa K. Spain

Elisa Spain

elisaspain.com