Think of a work environment where you feel valued:
where you’re able to be your best, most creative self;
where you can use your strengths;
where your input is solicited;
where you jump out of bed in the morning looking forward to beginning your day;
where you’re able to collaborate with others to solve problems;
where you gain energy;
where you see the value in others’ contributions. (more…)
This is a conversation I’ve been engaged in with multiple leaders over the past month. These are individuals trying to move their careers forward and balance their own desires and interests with the expectations of others in their environment around appearance, style, communications and behaviors.
In recent years, trends have moved from organizations being very prescriptive about the appearance and behaviors of their employees, to understanding the need to be open to more variety. This shift is focused in part on the recognition that employees want greater ability to bring their “whole self” to work, and the risk of losing talented individuals who can contribute to improved results. So, what is authentic presence? (more…)
How many times have you attended an event and purchased raffle tickets to win something of value but with one hitch? You must be present to win. You couldn’t just show up for a little while, leave early and hope to learn or hear something interesting or to engage with someone who might be a mutually beneficial business connection. You had to stay…until the end…because that’s when the winners were announced. Even if you didn’t win a prize, you had a greater opportunity to gain something of value from being there until the very end.
The same thing happens in other aspects of life and work. If you want to gain clients, information, understanding, insight or relationships that are worthwhile, you have to be present to win. You can’t sit in your office and wish it to happen. You have to go someplace, do something, meet someone, invest time and money (time IS money of course) and give of yourself by engaging with others. More importantly, you have to take a risk and give at a level where you stretch beyond how you may feel at the moment or beyond your comfort level. (more…)
Whether you’re an entrepreneur with a billion-dollar business and thousands of employees, or under a million dollars in revenue and 10 employees, you’ve had to perform multiple functions as your business grows. Your role has stretched from tactical to strategic and spanned multiple functions and responsibilities. But even as you successfully maneuver these challenges and the business grows, you must evolve from being a Jack or Jill of All Trades, performing functions that exceed your capability and capacity; to becoming a Master of One, performing work that aligns with your purpose and expertise.
This is the challenge for many entrepreneurs who retain such close control over their businesses that they don’t benefit from others’ expertise and in the process limit the company’s growth prospects. Some find it difficult to trust that others will make better decisions in critical areas. But it is crucial to transfer accountability to others who will take on responsibility for aspects of business growth. (more…)
“What if we’re wrong?” That was the question a senior leader asked his CEO as they were discussing business strategies and plans. “We probably are,” she replied, “but let’s move forward nonetheless.”
This conversation was recounted by the CEO of an $18 billion company recently. Like every organization, they were making major corporate investment decisions based on assumptions seeded by the best available information. These were long-term strategies developed to align with forecasts of customer needs and technological innovation, based on trends and predictions, and presuming an appropriate measure of volatility. In other words, they were making an educated guess. Some people freeze, waffle or delay in the face of such massive decisions, but leaders must ultimately take a position and move forward, frequently knowing that they’ll be wrong, or they have only a partial solution. But failing to prepare for the future isn’t an option. (more…)
Jake was elated. His COO had just called him into his office to give him the good news. The executive committee approved his promotion to VP of Client Services. This was the promotion he had been working towards for the past five years. It had even come a bit sooner than expected as his predecessor resigned several weeks ago to take a position with another company. He wanted to call his wife immediately to share the good news, but she was on an airplane returning from a west coast business trip. Instead he had to rush to pick up his two sons and take them to their after-school sports activities. He was scheduled to be on vacation over the next two days and looked forward to the long weekend to get his mind in gear and prepare to step into the new role. It would be effective one week from today and the announcement would go out on Monday. (more…)
How many times have you had a medical issue you considered to be minor, and instead of going to the doctor, you googled the topic, asked friends or family for advice and visited the drug or grocery store for solutions to address it. All of this only to realize after a period of weeks that you really needed expert help. Even if you had health insurance, you didn’t want to take the time to visit the doctor’s office, get a prescription, go through a medical procedure, or worse, hear news you didn’t want to hear. This “bad news” might range from a firm directive to change your eating or health habits, or worse, a condition left untreated has reached a serious state. It now requires greater intervention, greater disruption of your “normal” routine, and significant stress to manage through it all. You took a risk and now you’re dealing with the consequences.
What similar risks are you taking with you and your team’s leadership effectiveness? How are you developing their leadership capabilities to be able to accomplish organizational objectives? When challenges occur with interpersonal relationships between colleagues, performance and cohesiveness of team members, alignment with organizational goals, organizational transitions and change, are you able to correctly assess your ability to manage these situations? How do you address culture change? When do you determine you need a different approach or a third-party intervention to facilitate the right discussion and help you prepare a different strategy? (more…)
Supporter relationships are evidenced by business interactions that are more transactional. Supporters focus more on what they are getting, rather than what they are giving. Supporters emphasize the importance of clients’ understanding and valuing their expertise. They tend to receive more crisis calls as a reactionary response from the businesses because something hasn’t turned out as expected.
Partnership relationships are evidence by a shared investment and mutual interest in business results. Partners are engaged with business leaders and contacts. They proactively take the pulse of the business to understand what’s working well and what isn’t. They place more focus more on how they’re helping the business than what they’re getting out of it. (more…)
Everyone has a purpose, but not everyone will recognize it and fulfill it. And one of the biggest reasons why is because they won’t have the patience to go through the process to see it come to pass. Joe is a good example of how practicing patience and preparation ultimately led to fulfilling his purpose.
Joe grew up the youngest of four brothers on the family farm in the Midwest. His father owned herds of cattle and while they weren’t poor, they were far from rich. One day Joe had a dream that he would be running a multi-million-dollar company and make a distinctive impact on millions of people. Different from any other dream, this one was vivid and clear. The next morning, he remembered every detail of it and couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow this meant something. Now this seemed the farthest thing from reality because none of Joe’s brothers had gone to college or left the family business, and there was no expectation that he would either. (more…)
Bob sat down at his desk and let out a huge sigh. He had just returned from lunch with one of the board members at his company. They were preparing for the current CEO to retire within the next 6 months and the board wanted to initiate a formal selection process to confirm Bob as a candidate to replace him. Bob had been with the company for 15 years and held the CFO role for 5 years. It was time to step up. He knew the inner workings of the company as well as challenges in the industry. He also knew that his chances of being selected were pretty good. But there was one nagging issue on his mind. He fundamentally felt that the strategy the current CEO and Board were pursuing wasn’t going to pay off the way they thought. He had shared his concerns in the past but given the politics didn’t feel he could push it too far. Now, if he were to be selected as CEO, he realized he couldn’t lead the organization forward with a strategy he didn’t believe in. He knew that two or three of the twelve board members might support his thinking, but that wasn’t sufficient to make the shift he felt was necessary. And if he declined consideration, he’d have to come up with a really good reason because telling them he didn’t believe in their strategy would call into question his role over the past several years. (more…)