WCEOhq Radio

Life Long Learners

By WCEOHQ guest blogger, Tom Biviano

Interesting ideas surround peer advisory groups. Leo Bottary in a recent post had some insights worth sharing with the WCEOHQ-RADIO audience.  He believes peer groups, while being around a long time, are poised to be a more effective tool for CEO's than ever before.  Why?   Because peer groups are “aimed squarely at problem solving, visioning, and personal and professional development.” This is the essential quality of the CEO Hour radio show's demographics, that being those WHO ARE LIFE LONG LEARNERS.

Another point he makes is that the peer groups themselves are different than in their prior incarnation. “Peer groups will ask the hard questions and arrive at their own solutions rather than have to comply with recommendations of trainers or outside consultants.  Over time, during this repeated collaborative process of actual problem solving, the participants become better listeners and better leaders.”

This point is critical to a successful group. No facilitator is going to deliver the power of collaboration. The talent is to guide the group, not teach the group, so that their questioning capabilities are strengthened over time. This yields better results in the group and in the businesses the CEO's lead.

So, LIFE LONG LEARNERS, consider Renaissance Executive Forum to strengthen your skills.

The Great Game of Business and Other Things

Last week I attended the Fall Conference of the Franchisee's of Renaissance Executive Forums.

Besides working and learning from each of our fellow franchisees, we participated in an extraordinary Workshop on identifying and executing your organizations "Inside Advantage" lead by Robert Bloom, author of the book bearing that name. (Also, authored most recently " The New Experts).

Each of us worked through Bloom's rigorous process to  discover or uncover our unique advantage, how to secure engagement by our teams, how to communicate it effectively both inside and outside our organization and lastly, how to effectively implement our advantage. 

What is the Inside Advantage of your organization? If you are not sure or just don't know then Bloom's book is a primer. By the way, Robert Bloom left us to return to be featured on the Bloomberg Business TV.  Guess we scooped them because we had him on the CEO Hour two weeks ago (Sept. 17th) You may listen to him by going to the CEO Hour Archives.

We were, also, challenged on another front by an in-depth dive into the Great Game Of Business by Jack Stack. If you are not familiar with the concepts or Jack Stack's work, then the GGOB is a must read.

Stack's story by itself was worth the time and price of admission. Besides building his current company from  essentially less than scratch to the over $300,000,000 enterprise that it is currently, he has spun off over 56 additional companies from the original company. The most impressive thing to me is that his company developed the leaders for all of these spin offs. How is that for leadership development?

We will be featuring the GGOB on the CEO Hour in the coming months culminating with our CEO All Member Meeting on December1st. More details to come.

Stay tuned to learn how to play the Great Game more effectively to win!

What will your legacy be?

By WCEOHQ Guest Blogger Jennifer Sertl, President, Agility3R and co-author of Strategy Leadership and the Soul

Whether you realize it or not others are learning from your example. Others are watching you, learning from you, emulating you. Once you understand this you can ask, "do I want people to truly emulate me as I am?”   If the answer is no, change your life so that you can be proud of your example and the legacy you leave behind.  From a business perspective—if you are promising adaptability or know-how or speed as your competitive advantage—then every choice inside your organization should demonstrate adaptability, know-how or speed. The more you execute these attributes internally—the more credible you are to your customers and shareholders.

I get frustrated when people talk about legacy—because it usually a privilege reserved for elders facing the end of their lives. “I want to build a legacy!” “I want to leave a legacy!” “I want people to know I was here.” All of these comments are very self-serving. These people are about trying to find a way to stay relevant, to be immortal. All we can leave behind is the impact that we make.

We leave a legacy every time we interact with another human being. An image I use frequently in my coaching is a leaf cascading gently onto the water.  As it does, it causes ripples.  Fall with intention, “I want to lead. I can make a difference.” Your declaration of leadership helps ensure the actions necessary to leave a positive legacy. Other leaves simple fall by accident. I care deeply for those ripples three, four, five layers out. Whether you meant to fall, or accidentally fell, when you interact with others – you leave ripples. Claim your influence because if it happens unconsciously you may not be leaving behind ripples that should replicate. Legacy isn’t for elders. Legacy is for any responsible and aware adult cognitive of the fact that they do nothing in isolation. Personal accountability requires that you claim your influence and get clearer and clearer on what is being left behind. And with more intention you have the potential to leave many impactful, useful, and productive ripples in your wake carrying your life’s mission forward with incalculable momentum.  This level of personal leadership is what I call leadership to legacy.

We are human beings not human doings. The ripples I create are wisdom, grace, and impact.

What will your ripples create?

I hope you will join me in the upcoming leadership series Strategy Leadership and the Soul to learn more about how you make impact.

Leadership to Legacy

By WCEOHQ Guest Blogger Jennifer Sertl, President, Agility3R and co-author of Strategy Leadership and the Soul

"We are what we repeatedly do; excellence then is not an act, but a habit."  — Aristotle

Personal leadership is about having an intention a clearly defined declaration of what you want to create in the world—and have every single thing we do geared toward that goal. If you want to be defined by
excellence — then everything you do must resound with excellence. Not just the big important things, but the small invisible acts that no one sees or hears about.

Finally, for the first time ever, this year the goals I made are personal.  Not about accomplishments but about enhancing my being. In 2008 I declared I wanted to be wise, graceful and impact-ful. As I write
in my journal at the end of the day it is about acknowledging where I was successful in accomplishing these attributes as much as where I could have been wiser, more graceful and had a greater (positive) impact. The more I focus on these goals, the greater my potential for creating value in the world. I can think of few things more important for me than to continue this practice.

So what does this have to do with you?

Part of what we need to realize here and now is that everything we do, every thing we touch, every conversation we have has our “print” on it.  Just like Cold Case can open a murder investigation 20 years old and determine the DNA of a person—we are leaving our DNA everywhere. When you own this, taking personal responsibility for your actions and their subsequent 're-actions' and truly appreciate the impact of you then you may actually hold yourself to a higher standard of accountability. Just like DNA has a double helix and an imprint.

What is your imprint?
What do you want to leave behind in your wake?
What is your essence?

If you can identify this and realize that everything you do has this essence to it- you leave your mark everywhere whether you take responsibility for it or not.

Given that, make a clearer choice about what you leave behind.  What do you want to create in this world?  I would love to know!

More on this and leadership next time.

What's your 118?

Former Kodak CMO, Jeff Hayzlett was on the CEO Hour several weeks ago. (listen to his interview)  During the show he  discussed his concepts regarding  his "118," which loosely defined is the 118 seconds that we have with our modern day version of the "elevator speech."  That interview and the subsequent reading of his book, The Mirror Test, Is Your Business Really Breathing?  lead me to thinking about my own "118."  It also lead to my own mini-research project of listening carefully for the "118" of others. Putting the continuing results or reporting of that anecdotal research aside for moment please indulge in my "118" (or less).

When asked what I do, my answer is, "I lead CEO Prayer Groups." (quizzical look ensues and the occasional question, "What?")  My somewhat facetious response is, "Yes, because most CEO's don't have a prayer!"

More seriously,  I believe that we are all put on this earth for a purpose. My role is to assist others to design their world of work and life in fulfillment of that purpose. To me that conversation and process is truly the highest form of  prayer. Well, the conversation goes on from there. For those interested I give some background but the "118" has long since concluded.

Many years ago I was introduced to the concept of Business Meetings as Prayer Meetings by Jerry Harvey (Abilene Paradox.) Harvey, very devout in his spiritual life, describes attending a Church Board Meeting where near the conclusion of the meeting, one of the Board Members described how important it was to her personally to come to and participate in these meetings. She described her personal situation including the passing of her husband not long before and other personal travails. As she was in the middle of sharing this information the minister, dutifully playing his perceived role, asked everyone to gather hands and say a meeting concluding prayer.  Harvey's pointed comment was that the minister had interrupted the "real prayer" with his version. Harvey's essay on this and the "Last Supper as a Failed Management Team Meeting" can be found in his book "How Come Every Time I Get Stabbed In the Back My Fingerprints are on the  Knife".

Work as prayer- what do you think of my "118"?  What is yours?

Leadership in the 21st Century

Who wants to start? The question on the table is: what does leadership look like in the 21st century? Is it the same as it was in the 20th century? If not – and I believe it’s not the same – how is it different?

Ask your executive committee what leadership looks like in the 21st century and they’ll likely describe it using words like “innovative” and “creative.” They might offer descriptions that include phrases like “focus for results” or “focus on tomorrow.” Regardless of what your executive committee believes, and regardless of what the pundits writing about leadership say, reality always wins.

In the real world, the world we all get up and go out to work in, leadership in the 21st century defies conventional thinking. Here on WCEOhq-Radio, we’ll be uncovering the myths and missteps of clinging to old-fashioned 20th century business models, and we’ll have discussions on insight into the new business model. Engaged in those discussions will be dozens of smart, forward-thinking CEOs.

We invite you to attend our radio show to hear from active CEOs with unique perspectives on leadership in the 21st century. Some will be bringing years of experience as entrepreneurs to the discussion. Others will share the stepping stones that brought them success over a period of many years, and still other CEOs will challenge your thinking with pointed discussions on the on the new rules of business in a digital world – a world increasingly based on the growing need to engage both front-line employees and customers in the core values and the real purpose of the company.

This isn’t your grandfather’s business. Maybe it’s time to contemplate whether it’s your son’s or your daughter’s business and if so, what does that mean?

We welcome your thoughts and feedback. Join us.

"Overload" or "Achieving Underload?"

This past week every single CEO in my Executive Coaching 121s started the conversation with the words "I'm on overload." This is not new for sure but it jumped out at me. Maybe, it was the universality, consistency or just the use of the same words. Could it be that they were merely reflecting back my own condition?
 
Let's face it nobody is going around saying "I'm not busy" or "I just have too much time on my hands." Well, you get the point. On a segment on last Friday's CEO Hour Radio Show I explored some basic tools about how to handle "overload." I talked briefly about the importance of clarity of purpose, focus, priorities, and creating space.

The work of Steven Covey (Seven Habits), David Allen (Getting Things Done) and others provide some nice "tools." Exercise, Meditation,  and Personal Retreats also come to mind.

My personal favorite I mentioned  in a prior blog post is keeping track or score of  "Promises Made Promise Kept."

Please take a few minutes from your personal "Overload"  to listen in to the podcast. And would you contribute  your answers to the following questions:

1. What do you do to  avoid  getting into "overload"?
2. What do  you do to get out of "overload" when you are in?

We will explore further on our next show.

"It's not the recipe it's the cook!"

    Our past week’s guests on our radio show, The CEO Hour –High Performers Learning Together, were Steve Wershing, CEO of Ensemble Financial Services in our first ½ hour, and we spent the second half of the show with author, blogger, and CEO Leadership Guru, Dr. Lee Thayer.

    Our guest Steve Wershing provided some key insights into the current state of the Financial Services industry. Included were his key reflections on the past year and a half, and a bit about the future regulatory reform.  As the CEO for Ensemble that supports many Independent Financial Advisors, his comments are cogent for those who utilize Financial Industry services. 

    Dr. Thayer as always made comments designed to be provocative and stimulating. He addresses the tagline that we have borrowed as a theme for our show, "It's not the recipe it's the cook.”  He challenges that leadership is learned experientially and that his writings can provide some important insights. Dr. Thayer has agreed to be an ongoing guest resource for our listeners. His next appearance will be on May 21, 2010.  Please join us then and bring you questions.  We will ask him to take a deep dive into his latest book "Leadership Virtuosity".

    This coming week we will be interviewing Kevin Pickhardt, CEO of Pharos Systems International and Barbara Traylor, CEO of Whale Hunters.

  Pharos Systems International, Inc. provides powerful and innovative print optimization software and services to educational institutions, corporations, and libraries across the globe. Pharos pioneered print control and management software in the early 1990s and continues to lead the industry today.

  The Whale Hunters is a strategic sales coaching company that helps small businesses grow fast by making sales to large account customers. 

    We hope you can join us this Friday, April 23, 2010 from noon – 1:00pm EDT for a great show.  To hear the show live and call in to join the conversation go to www.wceohq-radio.org and click on The CEO Hour on the right side of the homepage.  The number to call in is 888-327-0061.    You can also join us through Twitter: (http://www.twitter.com/wceohqradio) where we will take your questions.

 Join us then!

Bruce's Classic - How to Build a Promises Based Company and Culture

    How often have you heard someone say, or even a business promise, that we "do what we say we will do."  Nary once have I ever heard say, "we don't keep our commitments."  Working with business leaders lead me to the observation that far fewer promises were being kept than made. Indeed there may even be a bit of a charade going on that the promisor and promisee (sorry terminology left over from my lawyer days creeps in periodically) never had clarity in the first place about what the promise was.

    Several years ago I was facilitating a management team meeting for a small company. A question came up regarding the delivery of the final version of a critical software program. The Vice President of IT was asked when the version was to be delivered. The dialogue went something like this:

“What day next week?  Wednesday

What time of day?  5:00

When you say delivered do you mean fully functional, operational and tested for use by all users?  Yes

Can you remind us all of the key deliverables so that we all have the same understanding? Yes, they are.....!”

    What are the consequences to your fellow team members and the clients of the firm of either fulfilling delivery or not as described on next Wed. 5:00?

    After exploring with the team the consequences I turned to the other team members and asked.

"Is there anyone here that believes that Joe (VP IT) will deliver as promised?”

Not one single team member believed that he would.

I then asked, “Why didn't anyone say anything? Why was it up to an outsider to raise the issue? “

Turning to Joe: "You’re not going to deliver as promised next Wed. @5:00, are you? Sheepishly,No!”

“Why did you promise?  I didn't want to let CEO down" Not very logical but nevertheless the answer.

Directing my attention to the other team members, "If none of you believed that Joe was going to deliver, why didn't any of you say something?"

    After telling a version of this real life story to CEO and Executive Groups, I received several answers, observations, and perhaps even a few conclusions.   But before we get to that, let's revisit the work of Jerry Harvey. Harvey was the architect of the series of articles that lead to the book "Abilene Paradox." In his immensely humorous and entertaining style, Harvey reminds us that most often "it's not what we disagree on that gets us into trouble but rather what we agree on."  To my way of thinking the management team in my story took a mini trip to Abilene that Jerry Harvey would have found worthy (hot and dusty as well.)

    Put aside for the moment the root causes and Harvey's analysis of the cure to the taking of the trip.

and return to the theme of this post.  The management team in my story clearly had a "culture" of not keeping promises.  If they couldn't keep promises (commitments) to each other, how likely is it they will keep them to clients/customers?

    If this is true, how could that culture be changed? My simple answer was "One Promise at a Time".

Borrowing and building on the adage that what gets measured gets done, this leads to the tracking

or measuring of promises made and promises kept.

    Since I don't like to suggest to others that which I would not do myself, about six months ago I launched my own non-scientific experiment of keeping score of the number  of "promises made and kept".

    Please think about it for a minute. If you truly tracked or kept score, what would be the consequences?   A few are perhaps, obvious:

1. More promise are kept

2. Fewer promises are made

3. More clarity about the actual promise

4. We would require more clarity about promises made to us

5. We would hold other's accountable for the promise made to us

    Well, the six months results are in. The good news is I've made progress in many respects. The less than good news is that I have a ways to go to keeping all promises made. The other good news is, I "score" better in my personal life’s promises than the work related promises I make.

    What would happen to you, to your family, team or organization if you kept score of "promises made and promises kept?  Give it a try and let us know the results!

The CEO Hour - our first radio show

Well, we did our first radio show last Friday and I want to thank to Yvonne DiVita, CEO of Windsor Media for being our guest. Yvonne spoke with fascinating insight about her journey in business, marketing to women and pet blogging. 

Yvonne and her organization have assisted in the organizing of the first "Pet Blogger's Conference" called Blog Paws, in Columbus, Ohio later this week. You can listen to the interview with Yvonne by clicking on the CEO Hour and choosing which segment you want to hear. As our first CEO guest interview, Yvonne set the stage for several themes including the direction and power of social media, as well as the unconventional aspects of CEO Leadership. Yvonne commented on these themes in her April 3rd Lipsticking blog post titled Meeting Nose-to-Nose.

On this week’s show we will interview David Dorsey, author of the top 100 business book “The Force.”   This week’s featured CEO is Mike Mandina, President of Optimax . Optimax is America’s largest optics manufacturer and is headquartered here in Ontario, NY. 

In our future shows we will be featuring CEOs, authors and consultants that will be business resources to CEOs and top executives.  In the month of May we will be adding a new feature of the month.  Each month we will feature a local not-for-profit organization and try and give back to our community.   More details about that in a future post. 

Please join in the conversation of high performers learning together!