A New Discovery - Naviond Intl

Have you been CEO of a company and are now looking at the rest of your life after business?  Maybe you sold your enterprise or have retired from the firm....so what comes next? 

You might be interested in a new Peer Advisory Group called Naviond Intl......Navigating Life after Business and Beyond.  Forming in Houston and other parts of the U.S. 

This period is full of questions. What kind of life should you lead now? How best can you contribute? How can you use your remaining time most beneficially?

Naviond members support and inspire each other to seek the kind of purpose, structure and identity in their future life that made them so successful in business.  These are Peer Groups of 8 - 10 members led by an experienced Business Coach and former Executive. 










Learn more at:     Naviond Intl web

What can Middle Market firms learn from Steve Jobs & Apple?

I had started reading the biography of Steve Jobs some months ago.  It's a long book.....on a recent vacation trip to Yellowstone National Park and other beautiful places out West.....I was able to finish the story.  Among the beauty of our National Parks I could not help but think about what differentiates people, leaders, and companies from each other. 

Not surprisingly.....I think there is much to learn from this complex person and company.  Even for those in the Middle Market.  Some of the insights that struck me include:

 - Follow your own path - not necessarily that of others
   Jobs was a person with rebellious habits and a disdain for authority or the rules.  It sure helps to differentiate if you approach your products, your services, different from the rest.

 - Develop your own drive & passion
   Jobs had a need for perfection and a love for product.  His was a curious blend of technology & art....an appreciation based on studying other cultures.

 - Drive for simplicity & create a focus
   Jobs learned much of this from his years of living in India and studying the Zen lifestyles & principles.  It was not about accumulating material possessions but rather getting comfortable with the inner self.
In firms, it is much easier to add projects or products and lose focus or priorities.  He was obsessive about eliminating choices, ...products... and creating a priority on just 3 or 4!!  This helped drive clarity through the firm. 

- Challenge your people....even more than they would themself
  To those that did not understand Jobs...he seemed arrogant and abusive.  He either loved your recommendation or said it was "crap"   in no uncertain terms.  This was not personal.  His belief was that people truly did not understand how much they could really accomplish.

 He believed that A players wanted to be around A players.  And B or C players (mediocre or inferior) will be comfortable around other B or C players and lower their expectations.  He challenged people to do things that they believed were impossible.....somehow, they actually achieved them. 

 -  Drive for an enduring company and not profits
 His drive was to create a lasting enterprise.....one that could create innovation and change the world.  The way that people used or interfaced with technology & tools.  Not a drive to maximize profits. 

Unfortunately he died too young.  Because of some of his extreme habits....of vegetarian and homeopathic beliefs....he rejected the medical prescription of chemotherapy and surgery until it was too late for his cancer.  A sad ending to a remarkable and different life.  His contributions will last for generations in a new way to use technology in our lives and that of our children. 

So, consider which of the above principles might just apply to your firm.  You might surprise yourself and your people. 

Memo to the Modern COO

Here is an interesting insight from the Blog of Seth Godin. 

It questions the old prototype of command & control.  Focus on decreasing costs & increasing productivity.  Or the newer servant leadership approach of increasing alignment & decreasing fear.

Which would help your future to be more effective?  Read more below:

Why is it so hard for organizations to understand what Tony did with customer service at Zappo's? Instead of measuring the call center on calls answered per minute, he insisted that the operators be trained and rewarded to take their time and actually be human, to connect and make a difference instead of merely processing the incoming.

People hear this, see the billion dollars in goodwill that was created, nod their heads and then go back to running an efficient call center. Why?
In the industrial era, the job of the chief operating officer revolved around two related functions:

• Decrease costs
• Increase productivity

The company knew what needed to be done, and operations was responsible for doing it. Cutting costs, increasing reliability of delivery, getting more done with less--From Taylor on, the job was pretty clear.

In the post-industrial age, when thriving organizations do something different tomorrow than they did yesterday, when the output is connection as much as stuff, the objectives are very different. In today's environment, the related functions are:

• Increase alignment
• Decrease fear

Alignment to the mission, to the culture, to what we do around here--this is critical, because in changing times, we can't rely on a static hierarchy to manage people. We have to lead them instead, we have to put decision making power as 'low' (not a good word, but it's left over from the industrial model) in the organization as possible.

As the armed forces have discovered, it's the enlisted man in the village that wins battles (and hearts and minds) now, not the general with his maps and charts. Giving your people the ability to make decisions and connections is impossible in a command and control environment.

And a decrease in fear, because this is the reason that we're stuck, that we fail, that our best work is left unshipped. Your team might know what to do, might have an even better plan than the one on the table, but our innate fear of shipping shuts all of that down.

So we go to meetings and wait for someone else to take responsibility. We seek deniability before we seek impact. The four-letter word that every modern organization must fear is: hide.
Our fear of being wrong, of opening up, of creating the vulnerability the leads to connection--we embrace that fear when we go to work, in fact, that's the main reason people take a job instead of going out on their own. The fear is someone else's job.
Except now it's not.

7 Reasons You Can't Learn Leadership on Your Own

Very few founders, startup CEOs, board members, investors, and others supporting the entrepreneurial community actively pursue and advocate disciplined, professional leadership development. This is an enormous missed opportunity.

Here are the reasons to develop leadership as posted in a recent article in Inc. Magazine. 

1.  Leadership development works

2.  Leadership is learned and can be taught

3.  Observing leadership is not the same as developing leadership

4.  Many board members and investors are not good leaders

5.  Leadership is about power

6.   You can't always see the ice cracking benearth your feet

7.  The future is not the past


This is written by Brian Evje  and you can read the full article    click here

So what are you doing about developing your key leaders?  

How Important is Face Time?

Recently the new CEO of Yahoo...... Marissa Mayers, took a lot of heat over a change in corporate policy regarding the elimination of remote work from home.  Certainly does not seem up with recent trends, you might say.

But there seems to be more to the story. 

The question revolves around the importance of Face Time in stimulating new ideas and creating a coherent identity.

   Read more from the New Yorker article:     click here

It seems like the company was struggling with the creation of new ideas.  Was having a problem with generating a strong, coherent identity.   Other experts talk about the importance of hallway chat in driving innovation and new ideas.

Do you stimulate the interaction for ideas and innovation?  Might be worth considering.



    

The Advantage - Do you have one?

The Advantage.....Do you have one?

I just finished Patrick Lencioni's newest book called     The Advantage
It is a straightforward and interesting read about one critical element......The Healthy Organization!!

He makes a persuasive case that achieving this Health  (or culture, if you will)  can create a meaningful and economic advantage for your firm or organization.  It sounds simple, but is much harder and time consuming to achieve.  But after all.....he maintains....is this not the primary role of leadership?  That is you, the CEO.

The 4 critical elements include:

  1.  Building a Cohesive Leadership Team

  2.  Communicating Clarity

  3.  Overcomunicate Clarity

  4.  Reinforce Clarity

There are some very specific suggestions and elements outlined in the book that can be followed. 
This incorporates some of the key insights from prior books (The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team)  and (Death by Meetings.)   Some of which may seem counter intuitive....like have more meetings not fewer.  But more effective meetings around driving to clarity.  A major insight is to separate tactical meetings and discussions from strategic meetings.  This will actually drive more productivity. 

I suggest you review the concepts covered in The Advantage......it just might help you create one!!

Insights from Daniel Pink, Author

I attended a conference recently for Vistage Intl and had the priviledge of hearing Daniel Pink, noted Author, as one of the Keynotes.  He presented some clear and brief insights from his life experiences.

These included the following principles:

 1.  Passion is overrated.  People find it difficult to describe this term.  Instead ask people "what do they always do"    Tune in to this....it will show your passion. 

 2.  Questions beat answers.   Asking questions put the other person in active mode....providing answers is more passive.  People tend to tune out your sales speak.

 3.  Make it purposeful and personal.  What is your sentence?   This is another way of asking what is your Vision.....but helps clarify into simple language.  What would be your approach, in just ONE sentence?


To read more explanation of these.  See the below from Vistage writer Terry Morawski.


Dan Pink opened his keynote at the Vistage Think Big Conference by warning the audience his speech would not be drawn from his most recent book, To Sell is Human. Admittedly, this was a risk, especially since his book was a bestseller on the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal business lists. The “off script” Dan Pink turned out to be a special treat for the Vistage audience.

Pink shared three lessons he said he’d learned in his life from his research, writing, and also from being a father and husband.

Lesson #1: Passion is overrated. 

 This brought out a few chuckles from the audience initially.  Pink knew he was making a bold statement to challenge such a deeply entrenched buzzword as “passion.” You do not have to look far to find passion listed by most companies in job descriptions, mission statements and marketing materials.

Pink said when he was at a career crossroads in his life, well-meaning people would often ask him “What is your passion?” He said this question is nearly impossible to answer. Also, people often answer this questions incorrectly. The best nudge he received was from his wife who encouraged him to not think about passion, but to think about what he has consistently done in his life.

Despite various unfulfilling career paths (including higher profile jobs like speech writing for Al Gore), Pink had always found time to write. He said he had not chosen writing because it was especially easy for him. Passion is a “hot” emotion, but Pink says we should focus on the activities we are driven to do by more moderate emotions. When coaching leaders, he says, “Don’t annoy people by asking them, ‘What is your passion?,’ instead ask them ‘What do you do?’”

Lesson #2: Questions beat answers.

 How many times have you been about to walk into a tough meeting or important sale and told yourself, “I can do this!” Pink says this type of motivational self-talk is missing the mark. Instead, he says we will get better results by asking, “Can I do this?” This approach leads to an internal conversation which will be more productive than simple cheerleading.

For moving employees to act, Pink suggests replacing a cold directive with a simple question, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how ready are you to…?” If they answer with a four rating, for example, ask them why they did not rate their readiness at a two.This approach forces the employee to rate, and evaluate, their own readiness. This quick introspection get them thinking about what is lacking to achieve a goal. Some of my table mates at lunch said they also could not wait to try this strategy with challenging customers.

Lesson #3:  Make it purposeful and make it personal.

 Pink referenced a study of the alumni fundraising call center at the University of Michigan. The call center was divided into three groups who were asked to spend five minutes prior to making calls to do the following: one group did whatever they wanted, one group read letters from former call center employees and one group read letters from alumni who had benefitted personally from donations. The group who read the alumni letters greatly outperformed the others due to their direct connection with their job’s ultimate purpose. Are you reminding your employees why they do what they do every day?

Pink encouraged every individual to find their purpose by answering the question, “What’s your sentence?” In other words, what is the short, one sentence version of how you want to be remembered. Asking yourself will help direct you toward a path which will be successful and fulfilling. Asking employees this question will help you assist them to be in the right seat on your company’s bus, as Jim Collins would say.

 At the closing Q&A, he was asked what his “sentence” would be. Pink said, “He wrote books that helped people see their lives more clearly and live their lives more fully.” Judging from the rousing standing ovation when he was finished, I would say “Mission accomplished, Mr.Pink.”