Last Of The Series – Leadership View #13: Balance Your Life

Last Of The Series – Leadership View #13: Balance Your Life

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

2013-07-21 iStock_000016245386XSmall


I began this series as a tribute to my friend, Marsh Carter, whose leadership has been an inspiration to me for at least 25 of the 45+ years covered in his View of Leadership. As I have written these blogs each week, using Marsh’s topic lines, it has been interesting to me how relevant Marsh’s large company experience is to the entrepreneurs  I work with each day.

For the final post in this series, I decided it is fitting that Marsh author the post, drawing this time from his experience rather than mine. 

Leadership View #13:  Balance your life – 3 legged stool analogy (balance between work, family and a strong outside interest for yourself)

Many people we’ve all known, including ourselves at times, have a tendency to regard our careers or jobs as the most important aspects of our life—this is especially true the last few years where hand held devices link us 24/7 to the office, our bosses, our employees and coworkers.  It may be more necessary now than ever before to try to balance our lives—that is, maintain a balance between our work, our families, our religion, and for our own mental health – an outside interest that treats us as an individual.

Think of your life as a three or four legged stool….when one leg is gone it won’t balance and falls over. We can’t take the pressures of work and family and go back and forth between them alone….that’s what the third leg, a completely different activity that is our individual interest alone comes in. Your third leg may be jogging, sailing, running in marathons, coaching a child’s sport, skydiving, piloting airplanes, pottery making, yoga, stamp or coin collecting…..whatever you enjoy that’s separate from work and family.

At the height of World War 2 when the pressures were immense, President Roosevelt would escape to his stamp collection, for an hour or so doing something completely different. General George Marshall would ride horseback many mornings to relieve the pressures of his job building and leading an Army of 8 million men and women.

Think about it—

  • How do you personally, if only for a short period of time, balance the pressures of work and family?
  • What is your third stool leg to balance your life?

Elisa K. Spain

 

Leadership View #9: An Absolute Skill Of An Effective Leader…

Leadership View #9: An Absolute Skill Of An Effective Leader…

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

2013 06-09 iStock_000001077015XSmall SunflowerLeadership View #9:

An absolute skill of an effective leader is the ability to grow and adapt.

So often we find that what has made us successful in the past, is not working for us today.

From the entrepreneur who built a successful company what I hear is, “I got here because I know my product, and I know what my customers need. Along the way I added a team and now they need leadership and management and I don’t have any experience doing that.”

From the key executive I hear, “I got to this level on my business knowledge; I have always been the expert. Now, I know I need to develop the experts below me, how do I do that?”

For me the skill of an effective leader is first recognizing the need to grow and adapt and then finding resources to help us get there. Vistage members recognize this and look to their fellow members and chair to support them on this journey. Often members take the opportunity to share their challenges with other members who may be further along on the same journey.

And…those that take the risk of letting their teams know they are learning right along with the team are those that I observe adapt the fastest. Often it is the people who report to us that help us recognize the growth we need and teach us, by asking, what we need to do to be there for them.

After all, isn’t effective leadership really about taking care of our team so that they take care of the rest?

Elisa K. Spain

 

Leadership View #6: Some Problems Can’t Be “Solved”

Leadership View #6: Some Problems Can’t Be “Solved”

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

2013 05-12 Fresh PerspectiveiStock_000019408214XSmall Leadership View #6:

Some problems can’t be “solved” (and, hopefully, made to go away) – they must be managed and may require the leader’s repetitive attention and time.

As leaders and managers, we have been taught to find the root cause and fix the problem. This Leadership View seems to fly in the face of that.

What do you mean “some problems can’t be solved”?

For me the key word here is repetition. For anything to be sustainable, it must be repeated. We humans get distracted, forget what we learned and have to be reminded. This is what Vistage is all about. Our members hear from a speaker 8 times a year. Do you really think each speaker brings something new to the table? Rather, they often are reinforcing a similar message. And, we hear the message differently depending on where we are in our lives and our businesses at the time. An entrepreneur leading a start-up will hear a leadership message differently 10 years later when he or she is challenged with building a leadership team that will lead to a sustainable enterprise.

I asked one of our long term Vistage members recently if he had ever considered leaving Vistage. His answer was “never, I learn something at every meeting, every one-to-one.” He leads a highly successful, high growth business. My belief is he learns something new each time, because he comes with different ears each time.

The same is true for the people that work for us. Some problems can’t be solved, because things happen. Life isn’t static and our businesses and our processes aren’t static. Last year in a post entitled “Is Your Leadership Team Your Co-Advisor“, I talked about the DIME Method: Design, Implement, Monitor, Evaluate. For me the repetition speaks to the Monitor and Evaluate part of the continuum. As problems get solved and things change, we must monitor, evaluate and then design again.

As you mull over this idea that problems can’t be solved, I encourage you to ask yourself the following questions:

  • When was the last time we monitored or evaluated the systems we have in place?
  • Are we doing things, “because that’s the way we have always done it”?
  • What is the root cause of the problems that exist in my company today? Which of these require my repetitive time and attention?

Elisa K. Spain

 

Leadership View #5: When Leading Change..

Leadership View #5: When Leading Change..

by Elisa Spain4 Comments

2013 05-05 SuperHero iStock_000013976003XSmallLeadership View #5:

When leading change – get some early wins –this makes change irresistible to those that resist.  Getting these “early wins” may involve changing priorities or sequencing of events.

How often do we begin an initiative by setting a goal with a date when everything will be complete?

When starting a project we are excited to get “it” done. What if instead we focused on getting small wins and buy-in, how might we approach the project differently?

One of my favorite visible stories of a leader who understood the importance of early wins is The Chicago Wacker Drive Project. Mayor Richard M. Daley began this enormous project, raised the funds for it and hired the team to lead it. It was a massive undertaking. The job required rebuilding both Upper and Lower Wacker, a primary downtown Chicago artery.

What I remember most about this project is it began in early 2001 and was declared “finished” 20 months later in late 2002.  It was declared a success coming in on-time and on-budget. The reality was, only a portion of the Wacker Drive rebuild was completed during this period. Work on Wacker Drive continued for many years and continues today.

Mayor Daley knew he had to get an “early win” and sequence the events so that he could pause and celebrate success. The work that continued for ten years hence followed this same model. Small incremental projects are funded, begun and then completed and celebrated.

Here are my questions for you to consider when you next begin an initiative in your company:

  1. What is the ideal sequencing to get the job done right and on-time?
  2. If my goal is buy-in, what changes might I need to make to get that buy-in?
  3. Am I willing to go slower at the front-end to get to adoption?
  4. Who are the people I can count on to be early adopters and influencers? How do I engage them, so they are willing proselytize our success?
  5. How will I celebrate success?

Elisa K. Spain

 

45 Year Leadership View #4: A Leader Must Balance…

45 Year Leadership View #4: A Leader Must Balance…

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

thinker 04 21 13Marsh Carter’s Leadership View #4:

A leader must balance between near-term and long-term leadership and management tasks. 

Hmm.. last week’s leadership view involved balance and here we are with the same subject line again. It does seem that balance is a key challenge for every leader.

Most leaders have a sense of urgency, entrepreneurs especially. Often it is this sense of urgency that got us where we are. And, much like balancing the needs of the organization with the needs of our followers, we must also recognize which of our goals belong in the long term column and which belong as short-term.

And it is certainly a balancing act, because for high urgency leaders, we sometimes move tasks into the now, when they belong in the future. If you are challenged with sorting between short term and long term initiatives, here is a suggested approach to get started.

Begin by capturing all the ideas, tasks and goals. Next ask yourself the following three questions for each item:

  • How much time will it take to get this done?
  • What will be the impact/outcome for the organization when this is done? (people, resources, capital, impact on other initiatives  impact on customers, etc.)
  • What will be the impact/outcome for the organization while we are getting this done? (people, resources, capital, impact on other initiatives  impact on customers, etc.)

 

Elisa K. Spain

 

Leadership Quote: What You Do Speaks So Loudly…

Leadership Quote: What You Do Speaks So Loudly…

by Elisa Spain2 Comments

2013 03-31 Action Plan iStock_000019998849XSmallAs it is time for my monthly leadership quote, I am taking a brief pause from the 45 Years of Leadership series.  The series will return next week with Marsh’s Leadership View #2.

This month’s leadership quote: 

What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you say – Ralph Waldo Emerson 

  • We say we provide a great place to work, do our actions demonstrate this by committing to the growth and development of our staff?
  • We say we want to grow our business, are our actions focused on growth?
  • We say we want to spend more time learning to play the guitar, are we practicing?
  • We say we want to make a difference, are we intentional each day in taking actions that do in fact make a difference?
  • Are we pausing each day, to ask ourselves if our actions are aligned with our words?

 

Elisa K. Spain

 

Disappearing Jobs, Does It Matter?

Disappearing Jobs, Does It Matter?

by Elisa Spain2 Comments

Sign dollar and the books on scales. 3D image.Last month I attended the Vistage International Conference during which Michael Milkin presented the Milkin Institute research on the changing U.S. demographics.  I was struck by the data change in the number of unskilled jobs. In 1950 there were 3 unskilled jobs for every 1 skilled job. Today, there are 4 unskilled jobs for every 1 skilled.

Michael postulates that this is the reason why the American dream is dead – it used to be you work hard and you get ahead. Today while hard work still matters, education and skills come first.

In my opinion, this also explains the sticky unemployment numbers.  At the same time, my Vistage members tell me  finding talented people continues to be challenging. In short there is a war for talent, while millions remain unemployed.

You might ask, so what is the leadership question? Isn’t this a global problem, not a leadership topic?

Here are my leadership related wonderings:

  • At what point does it become cost effective for companies to create their own educational programs?
  • When and how will it become cost effective for small/mid-sized companies to provide training via entry level unskilled jobs?
  • As robots continue to replace workers, what will be the impact on small/mid-sized companies capital requirements?
  • As the mismatch between job opportunities and qualified employees grows, how might this impact both immigration and emigration?
  • As the world becomes less dependent on geography, how might employers match their jobs with qualified individuals worldwide?

 

Elisa K. Spain

 

First To Market Or First In The Mind?

First To Market Or First In The Mind?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

Recently, during one of my Vistage Key Executive meetings, we were discussing the book Great by Choice by Jim Collins. During our discussion, one of the members raised the question, how important is it to be first to market? Or is it best to be a “fast follower”.  Jim Collins makes the case that the long march, as he calls it “the 20 Mile March” is one of the characteristics of companies that are great by choice.

My favorite marketing book 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout (an oldie but goody) – describes it this way in Law #3 – The Law of the Mind. It is better to be first in the mind, than first in the marketplace. The iPad is a recent example. Apple owns over 70% of the tablet market. Not only were they not first, they weren’t even a fast follower. The first tablet was invented many years ago.

Google wasn’t the first browser, Facebook wasn’t the first social website, Apple (again) wasn’t the first smartphone. Yet,  more books are written, businesses started, venture funds invested in “first movers”.

The question most are asking today is which is best? First Mover or Fast Follower?

For me the question is First to Market or First in the Mind? First in the Mind addresses timing as well as innovation. The best product or service idea, is only best when you have buyers. Timing therefore determines who wins.

What are your thoughts?

Elisa K. Spain

 

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

Coaching Companies To Greater Sales & Profits….And An Invitation

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

We hear a lot about sales strategy and sales management, as though it is something separate from business strategy.   Vistage Speaker Jack Daly encourages us to think of it this way, “a great place to work is a great place to buy”.

If you are a CEO qualified for Vistage membership and would like to hear Jack’s  indepth treatment of this topic, I am inviting 3 CEO guests to attend the September 12th meeting of my Vistage CEO group.  Please contact me at (312) 421-1813 if you would like to see if your company has what it takes (or if you would like to refer a guest).

Elisa K. Spain