Strategic Lessons From David & Goliath For 2014 Planning

Strategic Lessons From David & Goliath For 2014 Planning

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Option 2 D and GAs you put the final touches on your business plans for 2014, or for that matter, your personal plans, I suggest a read or a listen to Malcolm Gladwell’s Latest Book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. 

The book is not about how the weak rise up and triumph over the strong, as you might expect given the title. Rather, the book is about how throughout history, people succeed not in spite of, but because of their disadvantages.

Gladwell begins the book with his own interpretation of the David and Goliath story describing David’s triumph as a function of his going into battle using methods unique to him, (i.e. working in his genius as I am fond of saying), fighting Goliath with a sling shot rather than hand to hand, as was the norm. David takes advantage of his small size and wins because he was innovative and confident.

Throughout the book, Gladwell points to examples of successful inventions and innovations that happened because entrepreneurs who, like David, were perceived as disadvantaged, used their disadvantage to win.

So, as you think about how you might win against the Goliaths in your industry, I encourage you to consider the following questions:

  • What do you perceive as your competitive disadvantages?
  • How might you turn these disadvantages into true competitive advantages?

Here is a 15 minute Ted Talk from Gladwell to inspire your thinking.

 

 

Elisa K. Spain

Leading What We Don't Understand

Leading What We Don't Understand

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

2013-12-01 Who What iStock_000017953256XSmall

 

I have hesitated to jump into the Obamacare website discussion, however it provides such a great leadership lesson that I feel I have to. The lesson is this, even when I don’t understand, when I am the leader, I must lead.

Sounds obvious and yet, so often when it comes to technology and other unfamiliar areas, CEOs choose not to lead. In fact, otherwise effective leaders when they find themselves in situations where they lack familiarity, hire experts and then fully abdicate responsibility for leading these experts.

My sense from reading the press, is this is exactly what happened with the Obamacare website. If you read Kathleen Sebelius’ (Head of Health and Human Services) background, she has held many leadership roles, including Governor of Kansas, and at one time was considered a potential presidential candidate. Yet, at least from what I read, despite her strong leadership background, she hired experts to build the website, left them to figure it out and then hoped for the best outcome.

As Ms. Sebelius discovered in the most public way possible, even experts need to be led.

So, how do we lead when we lack familiarity? I was discussing this question recently with one of my Vistage CEO clients who had hired an expert to install a new ERP/CRM system, here is what we came up with:

  • Accept that it is my job, as the leader, to monitor and evaluate when I am responsible
  • Ask for a project plan with specific measurable milestones and agree on a regular meeting schedule to monitor these milestones
  • Ask questions, and when I hear an answer I don’t understand, assume more information is required, and ask more questions (rather than assuming I don’t understand because I am unfamiliar)
  • Ask the people on the line what they are concerned about
  • Get enough information to know when naysayers are change-resistant or if course changes must be made

What else would you add to this list?

Elisa K. Spain

What Are You Willing To Give Up?

What Are You Willing To Give Up?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

White finish line text and lane on red running trackWhat 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

Stay The Course…

Stay The Course…

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

2013-10-13 Hand on Ship iStock_000010063419XSmallStay 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

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

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

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

2013-09-29F iStock_000022814566_ExtraSmallThis 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

 

Go Ahead, Drop Some Balls…

Go Ahead, Drop Some Balls…

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

High resolution image orange spheres. 3d illustration over white backgrounds.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

 

 

When Making The Counter-Intuitive Choice…

When Making The Counter-Intuitive Choice…

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

2013 09-08 iStock_000024950177XSmall
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

Managing Business Assets W/ Portfolio Management Risk Practices

Managing Business Assets W/ Portfolio Management Risk Practices

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

2013 08-06 Elisa Spain Risk Management


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:

  1. Will you delegate full responsibility for managing your portfolio to me? or
  2. 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

Leadership View #10: Take The High Risk…

Leadership View #10: Take The High Risk…

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

2013 06-16 iStock_000008237816XSmallLeadership 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

 

Leadership Quote: Most People Need Repetition

by Elisa Spain2 Comments

2013 05-26 Ribbon on Finger Stock_000013061976XSmall (1)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