This month’s leadership quote:
“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mr. Emerson sums up our job as a leader in this one sentence. If we find a way to be and do this one thing, the rest takes care of itself.
This month’s leadership quote:
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
–George Bernard Shaw
We discussed this quote in my Vistage groups this month, and of course each of us had a recent story to tell. What we discovered was for most of us, our failures to communicate occur most often in our personal lives. We found that in our business lives we tend to be more intentional about ensuring that communication has in fact taken place.
The question we then asked was, ‘what can we do to up the success rate of communication?’ Below is a summary of the answers. As you think about your own recent stories, perhaps you will find this list useful:
Bottom line, communication will not take place if you are speaking and the other person isn’t listening. Seems obvious and yet, each of us has a recent story to tell about when it did not take place.
This month’s leadership quote:
“Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.”
–Warren Bennis
The challenge of course is gaining this self-awareness.
Whether we have been in a leadership role for a long time, or the experience is more recent, each day is an opportunity to move toward this simple, yet difficult, goal.
One of the great benefits of Vistage private advisory boards is the opportunity to learn all these things from our peers. We can then take what we learn back into our organizations and become the best version of ourselves.
Small business owners reveal that hiring and retaining talent is the most significant business challenge, according to a quarterly survey by Vistage Worldwide.
Vistage, a global organization, which assembles and facilitates private advisory boards for CEOs, conducts a quarterly survey covering a variety of small business topics. More than one-third of the 1,300 respondents cite staffing as the most significant issue they are currently facing, including identifying qualified candidates, hiring, retaining valuable staff members, and training. Additionally, CEOs note that their companies’ biggest barrier to innovation is talent, pointing to a common theme, and the importance of having a talent management & acquisition strategy in place.
Below are some key highlights from the Q2 2016 Vistage CEO Confidence Index (all members surveyed):
For more details Vistage Confidence Index.
This month’s leadership quote:
“I love listening. It’s one of the only spaces where you can be still, and moved, at the same time.”
–Nayyirah Waheed
This month’s leadership quote:
“Be decisive. Right or wrong, make a decision. The road of life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision.”
-Unknown
This month’s leadership quote:
“A leader that won’t listen to others will eventually be surrounded by people that have nothing to say.”
-Andy Stanley
When you ask most leaders if they listen, they will say yes. And yet, when you ask most employees if their boss listens, few say yes. Why is this?
Here’s my theory.
Most employees believe that to speak up is to risk being viewed as a troublemaker, disagreeable, not a team player, etc. etc. And most leaders believe they “have an open door policy”. They further believe that if folks have something to say, they will stop in and say it. And often they do. That is, the folks that have the courage to speak up. Sometimes though, it’s the quiet ones that wait to be asked that have the most to say.
And, on the flip side, how we respond when folks do speak up, matters too. Instead of making a case for why we want it done the way we said, what if instead we simply said, tell me more, what are you thinking or simply, thank you for the feedback.
Not always easy to pause and ask. And, if we don’t, we risk being surrounded by people that have nothing to say.
CEOs expressed greater concerns about the outlook for the domestic economy but remained upbeat about their own firm’s prospects in the Q1 2016 Vistage CEO Confidence Index survey. The Vistage CEO Confidence Index was 92.3 in the 1st quarter 2016 survey, down from 95.5 in the 4th quarter, and significantly below last year’s 105.8. Despite continuing economic and political uncertainty, more CEOs reported that finding, hiring, and retaining staff is the most significant business challenge they now face. With a tighter labor market, higher wages and benefits to secure key personnel may be needed. Given the still weak global economy as well as the sharply different economic policies favored by the presidential candidates, smaller firms have remained the engine of economic growth.
Below are some key highlights from the Q1 2016 Vistage CEO Confidence Index (all members surveyed):
54% of CEOs plan to expand their workforce in the year ahead.
32% of CEOs said the single most important issue they faced was finding, training, and retaining employees.
41% of CEOs plan to increase spending in new plant and equipment, the lowest level in three years.
70% of CEOs expect increased revenues in the year ahead, and 55% of CEOs expect increased profits.
41% of CEOs said they do not feel that they are prepared for a cyber-attack.
For more details Vistage Confidence Index.
This month’s leadership quote:
“Whatever anybody says or does, assume positive intent. You will be amazed at how your whole approach to a person or problem becomes very different. When you assume negative intent, you’re angry. If you take away that anger and assume positive intent, you will be amazed.”
-Indra Nooyi, Chairman/CEO Pepsi
This month’s leadership quote:
“Courage is not limited to the battlefield. The real tests of courage are much quieter. They are the inner tests, like enduring pain when the room is empty or standing alone when you’re misunderstood.”
-Charles Swindoll
For me, the leadership lesson here is courage of our convictions. The courage to stand alone as a leader. Those times when you know you are headed in the right direction, but you are feeling resistance along the way. Yet, you continue to lead your team to the goal.
It’s hard. Sometimes the feedback we are hearing is valid and we should change direction. And other times, the feedback is based on fear and we must muster the courage to keep marching.
Both wisdom and courage are required to know the difference.
The initial results of my Pivot are excellent. I feel I have much greater clarity regarding the next 3-5 years.. more
