Leadership Quote: Those Who Win….

Leadership Quote: Those Who Win….

by Elisa Spain4 Comments

This month’s leadership quote: Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can. — Dr. Paul Tournier

Today’s blogpost  is offered by guest blogger Mary Lore, Vistage speaker and author of Managing Thought.

Mary’s book and program are all about managing thought and getting the results we want.

In my experience, a lot of leaders think “positive thinking” is about thinking happy rah-rah or touchy-feely thoughts or re-framing a thought to make it sound positive, for example changing the word “sh—“ to “fertilizer.” Or they think of that Stuart Smalley character on Saturday Night Live who made positive affirmations in the mirror. (I don’t want to be that guy!)

That’s why I don’t use the term positive thinking,coined the term powerful thinking, and developed theManaging Thought® process. Because to me, positivity isn’t about getting rid of the negative thoughts we have and replacing them with positive thoughts. It is about being aware of the 60,000 thoughts our brains present to us every day – one a second – and choosing to hold thoughts that are in alignment with who we aspire to be and what we truly wish to create – as leaders and as organizations.

In my experience, most of our thoughts are based in fear, focused on what we don’t want vs. what we do want – and we don’t even know it.

When we think about the time we don’t have enough of, the opportunities we don’t have, the customer we lost, the payments we can’t afford, the sacrifices and cuts we have to make, cash we don’t have, customers who aren’t buying, banks who won’t lend, the decisions we are forced to make, and the competition we’re up against, we are not thinking powerfully.

When we think that we don’t want to be viewed as a commodity, the economy is bad, my organization isn’t innovative, my people aren’t engaged, or that I don’t like this or that about my employees or suppliers, again, we are not thinking powerfully.

When we think thoughts of fear, self-doubt, worry, criticism, judgment, anger, frustration, anxiety, negativity and other disempowering fight, flight or freeze thoughts, we are not thinking powerfully. And when we think about surviving, we are not thinking powerfully, because we want to thrive.

When we think powerfully, we are thinking thoughts of vision and purpose, wonder and possibility, focused on what we want, on what truly matters. Our thoughts are inspired, creative, and impactful.

Most of us have not thought about our thoughts. We have no idea what we are thinking in each moment.  We have taught ourselves to turn our power to think and to create our reality over to our brains.

Yet we have the ability to pay attention to our thoughts. We always have a choice to focus on what matters and think in powerful ways which affects our ideas, our decisions, and our results. This awareness creates stillness in this fast-paced, ever-changing world and affects how we inspire others, how we lead, what we create from any situation, producing a distinct competitive advantage.

It is time for us to take back our power, to stop re-acting, and start choosing thoughts that serve us in our lives, our relationships, our organizations, our communities, and, through the ripple effect, the world.

How are you using your 60,000 thoughts today?

 

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

Vistage Confidence Index: Q3 Results Dip Once Again

Vistage Confidence Index: Q3 Results Dip Once Again

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

The quarterly Vistage Confidence Index is now available.

CEOs of small and medium businesses say their overall confidence is down due to a continued slowdown in economic growth and uncertainty over the future of U.S. politics.  This is according to the Vistage CEO Confidence Index, which indicated a drop of nearly three percentage points from the second quarter and a 16 percent decrease since March.

Following are key highlights of the survey:

Economic Growth Slows: The continuing decline in optimism has been due to the slowdown in the pace of economic growth that is expected to continue though the start of 2013. Just 27 percent of all firms in the 3rd quarter survey reported that the economy had recently improved, down from 36 percent last quarter and less than half of the 60 percent recorded at the start of 2012. Moreover, the proportion fearing a renewed downturn in the year ahead jumped to 22 percent in the 3rd quarter, up from just 7 percent at the start of 2012. To be sure, the vast majority of firms do not anticipate a recession, but simply a slowdown due to inaction on fiscal policies.

Hiring Plans Remain Favorable: Hiring plans were unchanged from last quarter as half of all firms planned net increases in the number of their employees. Just 9 percent anticipate a net reduction, a clear sign that firms do not expect a downturn. One-in-five firms (19 percent) reported that the payroll tax holiday allowed them to expand their businesses, but fewer firms (12 percent) reported that they would hire more workers if the government offered them a $1,000 tax credit for each new hire.

Investment Plans Slip: Planned investments in new plant and equipment declined slightly, with the percent that planned increases falling to 36 percent in the 3rd quarter from 40 percent last quarter and 45 percent in the 1st quarter. Economic uncertainty has reduced investment plans to their lowest level since the start of 2010.

Revenue Prospects Remain Strong: Two-thirds of all firms anticipated revenue growth during the year ahead in the 3rd quarter survey, unchanged from last quarter. Retaining and attracting new customers was singled out as the biggest challenge by CEOs, with cutting costs their next biggest challenge since the majority of firms expected they could not increase the prices they charged for their products or services.

Stable Profits Expected: Higher profits were anticipated by 52 percent of all firms in the 3rd quarter, barely different from last quarter’s 53 percent but below the 1st quarter’s 60 percent. Although CEOs anticipated an even slower pace of economic growth than last quarter, firms were better prepared to offset the impact of the slowdown on their profits. The 14 percent of firms in the 3rd quarter 2012 survey that expected declines in their profits was slightly below last year’s 15 percent and less than half the peak of 36 percent in the closing quarter of 2008.

Elisa K. Spain 

Leadership Quote: The Best Way To Predict The Future…

Leadership Quote: The Best Way To Predict The Future…

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

This month’s leadership quote: The best way to predict the future is to invent it — Peter Drucker.

Love this quote on so many levels. First and foremost it speaks to the importance of having a vision. When I presented this quote at my Vistage CEO meeting this month, one of my “inventor” members, just smiled. For him this sums up why he does, what he does.

For my Vistage Key Executive members, they heard it as a reminder that we do control our destiny, even though sometimes we think it is controlled by others.

What does this quote say to you?

Elisa K. Spain

Getting It Done Or It's All About Execution.

Getting It Done Or It's All About Execution.

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

One of my Vistage members asked me this question this week, “What is the common theme among the businesses you know that have grown significantly?”

Or to ask the question another way, why is it that less than 1.5% of  U.S. companies are greater than $25mm in revenue and less than .27% are greater than $100mm*. And, why is it that Vistage members outperform their counterparts in their same industries?

The answer quite simply is the combination of a scalable business model and ruthless execution.

Peter Drucker says businesses have more than enough leaders; what they really need are “competent managers who can do the hard work of decision making, planning, and coaching”.

The leaders of companies I know that have scaled understand this.  These are the companies that develop plans and execute on those plans. They follow the DIME method – continuously Design, Implement, Monitor and Evaluate.  For more on the Dime Method, see 7/22/12 blog – Is Your Leadership Team Your Co-Advisor.

Elisa K .Spain

*Source Keith McFarland, Breakthrough Companies

Economic Uncertainty… What To Do, What To Do?

Economic Uncertainty… What To Do, What To Do?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments

As summer winds down and attention focuses back on business, the subject on the minds of business people continues to be economic uncertainty. We lived in a world of prosperity for such a long time, prior to 2008, that many of us forgot that the economy moves in cycles.

The Vistage economists, Brian and Alan Beaulieu from the Institute for Trend Research tell us the next recession is not until Q3 or Q4 2013 and yet, any softness in the economy is read by the general press as a beginning of a recession. In some cases, the perception exists that the recession of 2008 continues, despite results that prove otherwise.

So what’s my point?

While macro-economic factors will impact all businesses, what matters most is what we do each day. One of my Vistage CEO members who owns a commercial construction business said it well. When asked the reason for his success during the real-estate debacle, his answer was simply, “While we are one of the largest privately held businesses in our industry, we do business nationally. We are a small % of the overall construction business in the country and therefore there is and was plenty of business out there for us. Our team recognizes this opportunity. And every day, we deliver world class service to our current customers and continually focus on acquiring new ones.”

  • What is your story of prosperity?
  • How are you benefiting from the current economic uncertainty to gain an unfair advantage in your business?

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

What Is The Business Practice All Leaders Do And Everyone Says They Hate…

What Is The Business Practice All Leaders Do And Everyone Says They Hate…

by Elisa Spain1 Comment

What is the business practice everyone does and everyone says they hate? MEETINGS!

How often do we hear, I hate meetings? And yet, how do most leaders spend most of their time? In meetings.

Most of us accept that, as leaders, we need meetings to communicate and get things done through other people. And yet,  most leaders, say they dread attending meetings, even the ones they are leading.

As a leadership coach, I enjoy my meetings. I draw energy from the peer group meetings I lead and from the coaching sessions with my Vistage members.  Some meetings, of course, are better than others and I find value in all of them. I  enjoy the interchange, the questions, the sharing, the challenging and the learning. And, my members tell me that meetings inside their companies sometimes have these characteristics and sometimes they do not.

I am curious to hear from you. What’s working for you in meetings and what is not?

For those who hate meetings, here are my questions:

  • When you say, “I hate attending meetings” what would you rather be doing?
  • What is it about one-on-one meetings you don’t like?
  • What is it about group meetings you don’t like?

And, for those of you who like meetings and find them to be productive:

  • What is it about one-on-one meetings you like? What makes them work for you?
  • What is it about group meetings you like? What makes them work for you?

And, for those of you who want to learn more about leading productive meetings, one of my favorite books on the subject is Death by Meeting, by Patrick Lencioni.

 

Elisa K. Spain

Is Your Leadership Team Your Co-Advisor Or ?

Is Your Leadership Team Your Co-Advisor Or ?

by Elisa SpainNo Comments


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

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.

The full process is based on the DIME method (coined by my friend Scott Morgan, author of an out-of-print book by the same title).  DIME: Design, Implement, Monitor, Evaluate.

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 evaluate part, and didn’t discover the result until he needed the money and discovered it was gone. The advisor was not dishonest, he simply made poor investment choices.

Ok, so what does this have to do with leadership and running a business? Here is what I have learned as a Vistage Chair and leadership coach.

The “portfolio managers” of our business are our leadership team, our key executives.  Each business owner has a risk tolerance that leads them to be more or less involved in activities in their businesses. The result sometimes is key executives either feel micromanaged or business owners abdicate  instead of delegate, only to jump back in when things are not going as they expected (but didn’t verbalize).

This seesaw drives both owners and key executives crazy and leads to outcomes neither wants. What if instead owners and key executives sat down together and asked the investment manager questions. These questions might include some of the following:

  • What decisions will I 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

 

Consensus Equals Beige

Consensus Equals Beige

by Elisa Spain2 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 15,000 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, book club, etc).  With consensus all the colors get mixed together, resulting in a dull beige, i.e. a mediocre, watered down decision.

Next time you are asking for input, ask yourself  if what you want is color. And, if it is color you want, don’t settle for beige.  Make the final decision yourself.

Elisa K. Spain