Glory Days: Don't Let Them Pass You By…

Glory Days: Don't Let Them Pass You By…

by Elisa Spain2 Comments

Thank you Bruce Springsteen for this quote.  It seems today that the chorus of “glory days” conversation has increased. Perhaps it is because we live in a world of constant change and there is a longing for a slower pace?

My response to this is, the glory days were only golden in retrospect.  Every period of time has had its opportunities and challenges – it is only with hindsight that we see the value of a particular period in history.

Next time you find yourself longing for glory days, I encourage you to ask yourself the following questions:

  • What is it specifically that appeals to me about the past period?
  • What can I create today to give me the same feeling?
  • How can I be an effective leader today?

Elisa K. Spain

 

Why "Big Picture Only" Leaders Fail

Why "Big Picture Only" Leaders Fail

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

As discussed in last week’s blog, there is a difference between management and leadership.  Leadership is “doing the right things” and focusing on the big picture certainly falls into this category. That said, when leaders focus solely on vision and strategy and not on execution, put simply, nothing gets done.

Successful leaders know that they must set a vision so there is a destination that their team can rally around.

Once the vision is defined, setting a business strategy to achieve the vision provides  guidance for evaluating opportunities. With a strategy in place, we can ask the questions:

  • Is this opportunity consistent with our strategy?
  • If not,  AND there is a reason to do it anyway, what do we need to adjust in our strategy?

The final step is goals and action plans and a monitoring process to ensure results. It is this key step that is often missed and leads to failure. This is why Vistage members share their vision, strategy and goals and are accountable to each other for all three.

Robert Sutton, best selling author of Good Boss, Bad Boss, says it well:

“While managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing,  I argued this distinction was accurate but dangerous because it distorts how too many bosses–at all levels–view and do their work. It encourages bosses to see generating big and vague ideas as the important part of their jobs–and to treat implementation, or pesky details of any kind, as mere “management work” best done by “the little people.” Even if left unsaid, this distinction reflects how too many bosses think and act. They use it to avoid learning about people they lead, technologies their companies use, customers they serve, and numerous other crucial little things.”

For more from Robert Sutton, click here.

Elisa K. Spain

Leadership Quote: We Are What We Think…

Leadership Quote: We Are What We Think…

by Elisa Spain1 Comment

This month’s leadership quote: We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.  – Dhammapada

We hear quotes like this  from Vistage speakers, about the power of positivity, about trusting the universe and focusing on what we want to accomplish, about being mindful of how we show up.

The power is there; the challenge for us as leaders is to remember that what we think does, in fact, make our reality.

Here are some questions to consider:

  • Am I taking time each day to focus on the outcomes I want?
  • Are my thoughts consistent with the outcomes I want?
  • What am I doing each day to be mindful of how my thoughts become my outcomes?

Elisa K. Spain

Diverse Leadership Teams – Why Bother?

Diverse Leadership Teams – Why Bother?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Diverse leadership teams are hard…they are harder to build, are unlikely to come to consensus and are more likely to have conflict.

So, why bother?  Because… they are harder to build, are unlikely to come to consensus and are more likely to have conflict, they make better decisions. Research studies prove this out.

Before we go any further, let’s start with some definitions; here’s mine:

  • Homogeneous groups have similar backgrounds, preferences and personality styles
  • Diverse groups contain individuals with a variety of backgrounds, preferences and styles
Notice, I didn’t mention gender, race, ethnicity, sexual preference. Why? Because categorizing frequently leads to stereotyping and while stereotyping might be a shortcut to achieving diversity, it may not. In fact, it may instead simply lead to stereotyping as evidenced in the failure of diversity training.  Here’s a recent post on this topic by a fellow leadership coach, Peter Bregman, Diversity Training Doesn’t Work.

 

What to do?
As with any critical decision, start by asking yourself the #1  leadership question: What outcome do I want?
Diversity is not always the best approach. Homogeneous groups are easier. Because of their similar backgrounds, preferences and styles they are likely to agree and move forward quickly.
  • If the goal is getting more of what you already have, then a homogeneous group may be the way to go.
  • If the goal is innovation and critical thinking, you are more likely to get there with a diverse group.

If you decide you want to build a diverse team, ask yourself the following questions to get started:

  • Do I know the backgrounds, preferences, and styles of current team members?
  • What actions do I need to take to learn this information about my current team?
  • What are the gaps in the current team?
  • Who in my organization could I add to the current team to increase the diversity?
  • If I am hiring team members, what qualities would add to the diversity?

If you would like to read more on the  results of diverse groups, here is an article by two Kellogg professors to get you started: Better Decisions Through Diversity.

Elisa K. Spain

 

Laws Of Success: Discipline Is The Bridge… What If We Could Put It On Autopilot?

Laws Of Success: Discipline Is The Bridge… What If We Could Put It On Autopilot?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

How many times during the day do we pause and remind ourselves of what the intention of the day was?

What if instead, discipline became a habit? What would the impact be?

When I read a recent post by Tony Schwartz, author of Be Excellent at Anything, I was reminded of this quote:

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”      -Jim Rohn

Tony describes it this way:

“Put simply, the more conscious willpower we have to exert each day, the less energy we have left over to resist our brain’s primitive and powerful pull to instant gratification. According to one study, we spend at least one-quarter of each waking day just trying to resist our desires — often unsuccessfully.

Conversely, the more of our key behaviors we can put under the automatic and more efficient control of habit — by building something he  calls “Energy Rituals” — the more likely we are to accomplish the things that truly matter to us.

How different would your life be, after all, if you could get yourself to sleep 8 hours at night, exercise every day, eat healthy foods in the right portions, take time for reflection and renewal, remain calm and positive under stress, focus without interruption for sustained periods of time, and prioritize the work that matters most?

The solution is to learn how to co-opt the more primitive habit-forming regions of our brains, so that rather than reinforcing our negative impulses, they become the soil in which we build positive rituals that serve our long term interests.

So how do you get started? Begin, by slowing down. Speed is the enemy of reflection, understanding and intentionality. When we slow down, we can begin to notice both what’s driving us, and how to take back the wheel.” Click here for the full article.

For further reflection on this topic, I am reminded of these previous EKSleadership posts:

 

Elisa K. Spain

What Makes For A "Best Place To Work"?

What Makes For A "Best Place To Work"?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Last week,  Crain’s Chicago Business published their annual list of “Chicago’s Best Places To Work”. As I read through the  list, I was struck by the differences in the companies that made it to the top ten. The list included Fortune 500 companies, companies with less than 100 employees, technology companies, financial services companies, manufacturers, etc. etc.

In short, the list was very diverse.  The diversity of the list is what caused me, as a leadership coach to pause and ask “What is the leadership lesson?”

My sense is the answer lies in the wisdom we gained from Edgar Papke, a Vistage Speaker who spoke to several of my groups in the last month on the topic of Alignment: How to Build and Lead High Performing Teams and Organizations. We learned from Edgar that it isn’t about one culture being “better” than another. Rather, the goal is to align your customer needs and your unique selling proposition with your culture. Companies that achieve this alignment, according to Edgar, consistently outperform their competitors.

Extrapolating from Edgar, what makes companies “winners” as best places to work, are those that achieve this alignment.

So, before you start adopting the practices of the companies you read about in the list, I encourage you to pause and ask yourself:

  • What is the culture of my company?
  • Is our culture in alignment with our customer needs?
  • What gaps in alignment can we address that will make this a “best place to work”?

To read the Crain’s article click here.

For more on Edgar Papke and Alignment including measurement tools, click here.

Elisa K. Spain

What Leadership Lessons Can We Learn As Undercover Bosses?

What Leadership Lessons Can We Learn As Undercover Bosses?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

The popular TV series “Undercover Boss” has ignited conversation about the value of walking in our employees’ shoes – or perhaps they in ours.  It’s a rare company where you can accomplish this “undercover” and yet the opportunity is still there to learn from our employees who are on the line.

In family-owned businesses it is common for the children of the owner to do every job in the company before taking on a leadership role. Similarly, this happens naturally in entrepreneurial businesses because everyone has to be able to do every job in the early days.

Then companies grow, employees move from generalists to specialists, we hire leaders because of what they know and can add, the demands are high and we “don’t have time”  for anything more than what we do every day. And yet, Vistage members know the importance of taking a day away to work on their business by attending their Vistage meetings. What if we took this day away to another level?

As a leadership coach, I wonder about the following:

  • What inspiration and strategic insight every CEO and their leadership team might gain from a day, or more, away from the leadership job?
  • What if instead of your job, you did one of the customer facing or customer impact jobs in your company? What leadership lessons might you learn and what results might you achieve?
  • What would happen if you gave your employees a forum to be boss for a day and share what they would do if they were walking in your shoes?

Here is a WSJ article to get you started thinking about the potential results: How to Be a Better Boss? Spend Time on the Front Lines.

Elisa K. Spain

Leadership Quote: Those Who Failed To Oppose Me…

Leadership Quote: Those Who Failed To Oppose Me…

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

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

As leaders,  how do we avoid the trap of responding only to those who agree with us?

  • What do we do each day to encourage our employees to  tell us what they really think?
  • Are we able to hear feedback from those who disagree and not brand it as “not being a team player”?
  • What forums do we have to solicit input from our employees who are “on the line”?
  • What actions have we taken lately that demonstrate we heard and listened to opposing views?

Elisa K. Spain

Innovation Vs. Discipline Part 2: Kodak Vs. Fujifilm

Innovation Vs. Discipline Part 2: Kodak Vs. Fujifilm

by Elisa Spain1 Comment

Lots of press swirling around the impending bankruptcy of Kodak. While Kodak suffers, its long-time rival Fujifilm is doing rather well. Why? Is it innovation or is it discipline? (See March 4, 2011 Blog, post Which is the Winning Strategy? Innovation or Discipline for Part I)

At one time, Kodak was one of the most innovative and disciplined companies in the world, with a rigorous approach to manufacturing. And, discipline is more than discipline in production; discipline also is a disciplined approach to the market – recognizing AND acting on changes in market dynamics.

Kodak and Fuji both saw digital coming. Fuji acted, Kodak was complacent. (Success breeds arrogance?)

Fuji continued their film business while diversifying into other business lines.  They were consistent and disciplined in their approach to new markets. They identified market opportunities, invested in exploring the new markets and when satisfied the opportunity was there, had the vision and leadership to move forward with the investment and organizational changes required to reconstruct their business model.

Kodak on the other hand, dabbled in opportunities while never making the  investment and organizational changes required to adapt to the new world. They became a victim instead.

For me, as a leadership coach, this story of Kodak and Fuji, raises the following questions for CEO’s and leaders of successful businesses:

  • What is the equivalent of the digital camera for us?
  • Are we noticing when we are becoming complacent?
  • Are we in tune with market changes and prepared to act in a disciplined manner?
  • Do we have the cash or sources of capital to make the investment in diversification?
  • Are we willing to make the uncomfortable organizational changes necessary to diversify into new markets?

The Economist details the story of both companies in this article, “The last Kodak moment?”

Elisa K. Spain

 

Which Is The Winning Strategy? Innovation Or Discipline.

Which Is The Winning Strategy? Innovation Or Discipline.

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Lately it seems there is an abundance of books and articles advocating for one or the other.  Jeffrey A. Harris, in his new book Transformative Entrepreneurs,  advocates for innovation. He cites examples of Steve Jobs and Walt Disney and his findings are summarized in this recent Forbes article.  Jim Collins on the other hand, in his latest book, Great by Choice,  finds otherwise.  In my January 22nd post “Laws of Success: The Answers May Surprise You”, I discuss Jim Collins’ findings, one of which is the companies in his most recent research are no more innovative than the comparison company. In fact, the companies he calls 10X take less risk than the comparison companies and Jim’s findings tell us is that first and foremost, the 10x companies are more disciplined.

So, as a leadership coach, I am wondering which is it, innovation or discipline? Perhaps it is both.  To thrive, all companies must innovate; the challenge is what you do next. Here are some questions to consider:

  • Do you have a culture that inspires and reinforces innovation?
  • Do you have a process for capturing new ideas and turning them into concepts that are then carried forward through a product development stage gate process, i.e. is there discipline around the innovation?
  • How are innovations funded, are there dollars available to try out new ideas and allow for failure?

 Elisa K. Spain