At C-Level #3: How many bosses can a CEO have?

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How many bosses can a CEO have?At C-Level #3 is the third blog of an eight-part series following a first time CEO’s educational journey in a very challenging business environment, and exploring global concepts in leadership theory and practice.  

At the end of each blog are reflection questions for readers to consider as they navigate their own leadership journey.

This guest post by Mike Sayre — experienced software, e-commerce and manufacturing services CEO, COO, CFO and Board Director—is based on his first-hand experiences as a fledging CEO. Its intent is to provide additional insight or ideas to those in, close to, aspiring to, or trying to understand the top leadership role in any organization. Mike was also featured in the October 4, 2016 Innovative Leadership, Co-creating Our Future interview with Maureen Metcalf on VoiceAmerica focusing on the importance of leader trustworthiness in driving organizational change.

As you know from my previous At C-Level posts, I was a first time CEO of a manufacturing services company lacking in leadership and focus, who created a leadership tool – further refined by the company’s leadership team – in the form of a “philosophy card” containing a company mission, vision and operating guidelines that aligned with my own personal mission, vision, and operating philosophies. “The card” was often referenced by the leadership team and employees, now referred to as “associates,” to keep everyone focused in the same direction and reduce a lot of first-level noise around decision-making processes.

However, the importance of “the card” extended far beyond the leadership team and even the company’s associates. When I took over the CEO responsibilities, I understood I reported directly to the board, who represented the shareholders of the company. But I quickly realized I also had additional responsibilities to serve several other groups, or “bosses,” as well!

Appropriately then, the company’s new mission statement needed to reflect all my new “bosses,” which I preferred to refer to as our company’s stakeholders. One of the goals of this rather lengthy mission statement (and lengthy mission statements are not traditionally recommended) was to get everyone in the company to think about their responsibilities from a more global perspective.

Here is “the card” with the company’s mission and vision statements (the operating guidelines were on the reverse side):

sayre-values

 

For now, let’s just look at the mission and to what the team referred to as the “stakeholder star” with its five points that represent the five key stakeholders in the company and our major responsibilities to them: shareholders, associates, customers, suppliers, and communities.

In strategic, and even many tactical, decision-making processes, the “stakeholder star” was used by the leadership team to make sure they thought through the effects any final decisions would have on all the stakeholders moving forward. Many decisions favored one or two groups over the others, but not without going through the thought processes of how everyone was going to be affected, and making informed and conscious decisions with that information in mind.

In addition to the mission statement being given to current, prospective, and new company associates on the philosophy card, it was also posted on the company’s website. We gave the philosophy card to shareholders, customers, suppliers, and other community leaders as well. It outwardly displayed the company’s commitments to all its stakeholders and was greatly appreciated and respected. When the company expanded into Europe and Asia, “the card” and the demonstration by the leadership of how the company lived by it were attractive to eventual partners and new associates.

It’s Important to remember that as a for-profit public company, my number one fiduciary responsibility as CEO was to maximize the shareholders’ return on the investment. Unless you own the company, the shareholders employ you.

However, many C-level leaders underestimate how important it is to have all of the stakeholders cooperating to achieve those desired returns. Many leaders focus on one or two stakeholders without considering the rest. Understanding why all your key stakeholder groups are involved and what their expectations are is very important.

In addition, it’s essential to communicate that decisions are consistent with your mission and vision, and how the decisions you make will eventually get the stakeholders what they want. Managing their expectations is key. Utilizing the stakeholder star helps you better understand and be able to convey the trade-offs between stakeholder groups. It is a delicate balance.

My first CEO leadership journey paralleled a model called Conscious Capitalism that is currently getting significant attention in leadership development circles. I did not know it at the time, but we put into practice what the Conscious Capitalism movement seeks to accomplish.

In Maureen Metcalf’s recent “Innovative Leaders Driving Thriving Organizations” interview with Thea Polancic, the founder and executive director of the Chicago Chapter of Conscious Capitalism, Inc., (interview link) Metcalf and Polancic discussed the four pillars of Conscious Capitalism:

  1. Conscious Leadership – leadership motivated by a purpose
  2. Stakeholder Orientation – leadership attending to the health of an “ecosystem” of stakeholders, constantly balancing competing needs and expectations
  3. Conscious Culture – cultural agreement throughout the organization to accomplish the organizational purpose or mission
  4. Higher Purpose – the business has a higher purpose in addition to making money: money and profits are required as the fuel that feeds the organization’s ability to deliver on its purpose

My journey developing clarity around my personal purpose, aligning the company mission, vision, and operating guidelines, creating “the card,” and building a purpose-driven culture –

including how the mission statement was used to instill a stakeholder orientation in the company – is an example of how Conscious Capitalism can be successfully implemented and work in an organization.

Prime examples of major companies practicing Conscious Capitalism today include Whole Foods Market, led by CEO John Mackey, and Southwest Airlines, led by former CEO Herb Kelleher and current CEO Gary Kelly (Southwest’s former CFO).

Reflection questions:

  • Who are the major stakeholders in your company?
  • If your business stopped operations today, who would be affected?
  • If a key stakeholder stopped supporting the company and/or ceased to exist, how would it affect your organization?
  • What do you think is your major responsibility to each of your major stakeholder groups? How do you consciously, or unconsciously, fulfill those responsibilities today? Are you fulfilling those responsibilities?

In At C-Level #4, Mike will discuss the company’s ambitious vision on “the card” and how achieving the vision was measured.

To become a more innovative leader, you can begin by taking our free leadership assessments and then enrolling in our online leadership development program.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-creating Our Future, via iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible,  iHeartRADIO, and NPR One.  Stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute LinkedIn.

About the Author

Mike Sayre, executive advisor and organizational transformation practice lead, has been a successful CEO, COO, CFO and board director for multiple organizations in technology (cybersecurity, ecommerce payments processing and engineered computer products) and manufacturing (electronics and steel products). He shares his expertise with client boards and C-Level leaders, and advises, designs, plans, and oversees the implementation of successful strategies for turnarounds, growth, profitability and sustainability.

Mike brings 25+ years of organizational and business leadership and hands-on implementation experience to his clients.  His teams have achieved significant increases in growth, profitability and valuation, as well as shareholder, customer, supplier and employee engagement and satisfaction.

8 Kinds of Leadership Your Team Needs from You

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Lead Inside the BoxThis blog is a guest post from Victor Prince, co-author of Lead Inside the Box – How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results. Victor and his co-author Mike Figliuolo present the Leadership Matrix, or “the box” for short. The premise is you need to evaluate the amount of output you get from a team member and compare that to the amount of time and energy you have to invest in them to get that output. We call that second piece “leadership capital.” The result of those comparisons is the Leadership Matrix. Victor discusses the book in a Voice America Interview Lead Inside the Box aired on 10/18/2016 then available for download on demand.

We hear the phrase “think outside the box” a lot. If “the box” is something that is stifling creativity, it sounds like something to avoid. But when “the box” is a framework that smart leaders use to get better results from their teams, it is something to embrace.

Within that matrix, we define behavioral-performance patterns that team members demonstrate from Slackers to Rising Stars and everything in between. The real insight lies in practical advice on how to lead those folks to improve their performance. By understanding the behaviors your team members demonstrate and how you invest (or don’t invest) your time and effort into them, you’ll get a clearer picture of the 8 archetypical performance patterns that can show up in the box. With that understanding, you can begin leading your team members differently, which will improve your team performance.

Those archetypes are as follows:

Exemplars (High Output, Low Input) can be categorized based upon their career aspirations. Some Exemplars want their great performance to provide them a stepping stone to larger roles and responsibilities. These are the “Rising Stars.”  Other Exemplars are content remaining in their current roles. They’re experts and they’re satisfied with delivering outstanding results without much interference from their boss. These individuals are the “Domain Masters.”

High Cost Producers (High Output, High Input) break into subtypes based on the kinds of costs they incur. Some get results but at the high cost of damaging team morale and destroying the goodwill you and your team have accrued with others. These individuals are the “Steamrollers.” High-Cost Producers who get results but require an inordinate amount of hand-holding from their leader to get them done are the “Squeaky Wheels.”

Detractors (Low Output, High Input) are defined by the root cause of their performance issues. Some don’t have the skills they need to do their job. These individuals are the “Square Pegs.” We call Detractors who have the skills to do the job but they lack the will to do it the “Slackers.

Passengers (Low Output, Low Input) subtypes are determined by the kind of output they produce. Some only work to get their paycheck. They expend the bare minimum amount of effort required to keep getting paid. These are the behaviors of your “Stowaways.” Other Passengers exert a great deal of energy but they focus on tasks they want to do, not tasks you need them to do. We refer to Passengers behaving this way as “Joyriders.”

Once you have identified the behavioral-performance patterns present on your team, you will see your team in a new light. (You can use our simple online quiz to assess your team using this framework.) Armed with these new insights, you can figure out the specific type of leadership each team member needs from you to improve their performance. By seeing your team as a portfolio, you can also figure out where you should invest less of your time in some parts so you can shift it to invest more in other parts. In short, you will learn to get better results out of your team by working smarter, not harder, as a leader.

To learn more about leading people in all eight performance patterns in the Leadership Matrix, visit www.LeadInsideTheBox.com or read our book, Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide their Teams to Exceptional Results.

About the Author:

Victor Prince: As the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Victor Prince helped build a new federal agency and led a division of hundreds of people. As a consultant with Bain & Company, he helped clients across the United States and Europe develop successful business strategies. Today, Victor is a consultant and speaker who teaches strategy and leadership skills to clients around the world.

At C-Level #2: Too much noise!

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At C-Level #2: Too much noise!At C-Level #2 is the second blog of an eight-part series following a first time CEO’s educational journey in a very challenging business environment, and exploring global concepts in leadership theory and practice.  

At the end of each blog are reflection questions for readers to consider as they navigate their own leadership journey.

This guest post by Mike Sayre — experienced software, e-commerce and manufacturing services CEO, COO, CFO and Board Director—is based on his first-hand experiences as a fledging CEO. Its intent is to provide additional insight or ideas to those in, close to, aspiring to, or trying to understand the top leadership role in any organization. Mike was also featured in the October 4, 2016 Innovative Leadership, Co-creating Our Future interview with Maureen Metcalf on VoiceAmerica focusing on the importance of leader trustworthiness in driving organizational change.

I was a first time CEO of a manufacturing services company that was lacking in leadership and focus. I had been the CFO for five years and sensed these shortcomings were somewhat shortsighted as well. I thought things could be better and tried to fill in some of those gaps as CFO. However, providing leadership and focus for the whole company as CEO had just become my main responsibility and the questions I was being asked by the team quickly sharpened my sense of how much more important leadership and focus were than I had ever thought before!

Prior to me becoming CEO, the company had engaged a leadership coach, Chet, for the management team. Chet had been running periodic leadership development sessions with the group. However, and somewhat surprising to me, the sessions after the CEO change quickly eroded into serious complaint sessions, raising even more questions and doubt about the company’s lack of leadership and focus.

All of this noise was totally distracting the leadership of the company, including me! So I asked Chet for personal coaching as well.

Chet counseled me, “You can’t lead others until you can lead yourself.” Then he proceeded to ask me some very personal questions…my life’s purpose, what I wanted out of life, my work/life balance, etc. I was very uncomfortable talking about myself and was having a hard time figuring out how to respond to this line of questioning, let alone how it would help the company!

So Chet gave me a long list of personal questions and asked me to write not only my gut reactions to each one, but also why I felt that way. Chet had no interest in seeing what I wrote, he said it was only for me to use.

Over the next several weeks, I wrote in two- to four-hour intervals until I had several of the questions answered, as well as several “why” follow-ups for each one. At first, it was a very painful process. But as I pushed through, it got easier. The process of self-exploration and giving it life through writing it down provided me with such a high level of clarity of what I am all about and what is important to me, that I felt a huge weight of personal uncertainty lifting off my shoulders and being replaced with a much greater sense of self worth and confidence.

However, while I felt stronger and more confident, the company’s leadership and focus challenges had still not been addressed. I now needed to use what I learned and share my newfound clarity. So in about two hours on a flight to the West Coast, I created the first draft of a “philosophy card” for the company with a mission, vision and operating guidelines that aligned with my own personal mission, vision and operating philosophies. The leadership team fine-tuned “the card,” and had it printed and distributed to all of the company’s associates. I personally provided a training session for the associates and went over each section of the card so the associates all knew how much I believed in the mission and vision, and how serious I was about following the operating guidelines.

Thereafter, “the card” was often referenced in both leadership and associate meetings. It was easy for me to reference and consistently apply the philosophies and guidelines on the card because of my own personal alignment with them. It also made it very easy for everyone else to make decisions, even when I was not around, because they knew “the card” was where I would start my thought process. Using it as a leadership tool became second nature to me and our team, and significant improvements in leadership, focus and performance were almost immediate. It was a great first step in a longer and more complex turnaround process.

Note: Many companies have “philosophy cards.” But, if you don’t directly refer to it and demonstrate your use of what’s on it in your daily interactions, it’s not worth having. If it isn’t used, it becomes a negative and is just thought of as meaningless rhetoric that impugns your integrity. I first learned how to effectively use a philosophy card during my time at Worthington Industries, and I’ve since used a similar card in an e-commerce company with great success.

In Jim Collins’ bestselling book Good to Great, leaders shared firm belief in seven tenets, three of which our processes and the resulting “philosophy card” fully supported and which helped me drive company progress forward:

  • Find the truth and act on it by facing the brutal facts of reality while maintaining an unwavering faith that you will succeed. [What was happening in those leadership development sessions was getting to the brutal truth and I had to start addressing it!]
  • Stay focused on the essentials, stop the distractions, and cultivate that discipline. [“The card” brought new focus on the mission and vision of the company, and the operating guidelines cut way down on the distractions caused by uncertainty around what kinds of behaviors were expected.]
  • Greatness comes from sustained commitment to disciplined people, disciplined thinking, and disciplined action that creates breakthrough momentum. [“The card” and it’s constant and consistent communication and application introduced a level of discipline that did not previously exist!]

Reflection questions:

Here are some personal questions for you to answer for yourself. Write the answers in free form and do not worry about formatting, etc. Just write. Nobody else needs to see your writing. Then ask yourself “Why do I think that?” Then ask the same question again up to four more times. By the fifth “Why?,” you should be at the real core of your thought processes and truly begin to understand what makes you…well, you! Many people will totally resist taking the time to write it all down, just as I did initially. Push forward and do it anyway! The process of writing actually activates the brain in a different and deeper way than just “thinking” about the topic.

  • What is your greatest fear? Why is it your greatest fear? Why? Why? Why? Why?
  • Who has been the most influential person in your life? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
  • What is your purpose in life? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
  • How does/will your current company/role help you accomplish your purpose in life? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Take your time in thinking through these questions, formulating your thoughts, and writing your responses. There are no right or wrong answers. It’s okay if you don’t do it in one sitting. Spread it over days if you need to. Knowing with great clarity how you feel deep down is important for you and your organization, and it takes time!

For additional support creating your own personal mission and values statements, please see the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook and its corresponding workbooks that contain a chapter that will guide you through a more in-depth process. My reflection process to clarify my personal mission and values, and also those of the company, was very similar. Our leadership team then took my ideas as input and developed something they could all align around and consistently implement in the company. This process allowed them to reduce ambiguity and act as one team with a clear focus.

In At C-Level #3, Mike will write about having several new bosses (yes, that’s plural…do you only have only one or two?), how he approached that challenge and the conscious capitalism movement: leadership with purpose.

About the Author

Mike Sayre, executive advisor and organizational transformation practice lead, has been a successful CEO, COO, CFO and board director for multiple organizations in technology (cybersecurity, ecommerce payments processing and engineered computer products) and manufacturing (electronics and steel products). He shares his expertise with client boards and C-Level leaders, and advises, designs, plans, and oversees the implementation of successful strategies for turnarounds, growth, profitability and sustainability.

Mike brings 25+ years of organizational and business leadership and hands-on implementation experience to his clients.  His teams have achieved significant increases in growth, profitability and valuation, as well as shareholder, customer, supplier and employee engagement and satisfaction.

At C-Level #1: What’s it like to be a first time CEO?

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First time CEOAt C-Level #1 is the beginning of an eight-part blog series following a first time CEO’s educational journey in a very challenging business environment, and exploring global concepts in leadership theory and practice.

At the end of each blog are reflection questions for readers to consider as they navigate their own leadership journey.

This guest post by Mike Sayre — experienced software, e-commerce and manufacturing services CEO, COO, CFO and Board Director—is based on his first-hand experiences as a fledging CEO. Its intent is to provide additional insight or ideas to those in, close to, aspiring to, or trying to understand the top leadership role in any organization. Mike was also featured in the October 4, 2016 Innovative Leadership, Co-creating Our Future interview with Maureen Metcalf on VoiceAmerica focusing on the importance of leader trustworthiness in driving organizational change.

I had been the CFO of a manufacturing services company for about five years, reporting directly to the founder and CEO. Over that time, I was able to lead in greatly improving the financial operations and reporting of the company, engineered a significant financial turnaround, learned everything I could about the business and the people in it, became the founder’s closest advisor in the business, and gained the total trust and confidence of both the founder and the board.

In an unexpected turn of events, the founder of the company, much more experienced and happier leading technology development for the business, asked me to take over as CEO of the company while he took on the role of Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

The founder was the third CEO I had worked closely with in my career and, through observation, I actually thought I knew what the CEO’s job was all about…strategy and planning, relationships with large customers and suppliers and the board, driving for higher sales and lower costs, rallying the troops around the company’s goals and objectives, etc. I also loved the company, its people, capabilities, and prospects for the future. So I accepted the job.

The first couple of days were fairly calm, but over the ensuing weeks the problems and questions got more complicated and began coming at an accelerated pace:

  • We are losing money on a couple of new very large accounts representing most of our sales growth. What do we do?
  • Our largest customer, upset with late deliveries, is requiring a daily meeting in which he verbally abuses our best customer service representative, and she is talking about leaving. How should we handle this?
  • Our latest acquisition is not well integrated and is bleeding money. Why is this happening?
  • Our competitors all have locations in Europe and Asia and some of our largest customers will no longer let us bid on new work because we only have one location in the U.S. How can we develop international capabilities?

However, the most pressing questions to me came from the vice president of sales who was trying to figure out what exactly he was trying to sell:

  • What are we trying to do here? What is our mission? What do we want to be when we grow up?
  • Who is our target market, and what is our value to them?
  • What are our core values?
  • What are our goals and priorities?
  • How do we make all these decisions that we’ve never made before, let alone execute on them?

At this point, I realized what the company had been missing, why being the CEO had been so frustrating for the founder, and what being the CEO was really about…leadership and focus.

Gene Early wrote an executive summary of Jim Collins’ bestselling book Good to Great. I review that executive summary from time to time to help me keep the focus on what it can take to “breakthrough” from being a “good” company to becoming a “great” one. “Understanding that drives action” is one way to describe it. Good to Great companies worked to understand at a deep level what made their company work, and by continually looking for new answers to the question, they developed the momentum to break through to greatness. Their leaders understood these seven basic tenets that Collins put forth in the book:

  1. Success is not about the leader as a person, but about the success of the company;
  2. The right people in the right seats on the bus make all the difference;
  3. Find the truth and act on it by facing the brutal facts of reality while maintaining an unwavering faith that you will succeed;
  4. Tapping passion, extraordinary competence, and the key economic driver builds progressive momentum;
  5. Stay focused on the essentials and stop the distractions, and cultivate that discipline;
  6. Technology is best used to accelerate momentum, not create it; and
  7. Greatness comes from a sustained commitment to disciplined people, disciplined thinking, and disciplined action that creates breakthrough momentum.

Collins placed the leaders who moved companies from good to great in the top level of his developmental hierarchy and called them “Level 5” leaders. He characterized them as having “a unique combination of humility and fierce resolve.”

Reflection questions:

  • As you assess your current situation, on a scale of 1–5 with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest, how would you score yourself on the seven tenets above? For example, using the first tenet, how would you rate yourself on putting your company’s success before your own?
  • How can you use your scores on the seven tenets to shape your leadership development plan?

If you scored below a three on any of the factors or scored an average below four, please consider creating a personal leadership development plan with us. Metcalf & Associates and I offer leadership development support and executive advisory services, including transformational change and turnaround consulting.

In At C-Level #2, Mike will tell us what he did to get started and how he decided—after much inner turmoil—to approach the new and very exciting challenges before him!

About the Author

Mike Sayre, executive advisor and organizational transformation practice lead, has been a successful CEO, COO, CFO, and board director for multiple organizations in technology (cybersecurity, e-commerce payments processing, and engineered computer products) and manufacturing (electronics and steel products). He shares his expertise with client boards and C-Level leaders, and advises, designs, plans, and oversees the implementation of successful strategies for turnarounds, growth, profitability, and sustainability.

Mike brings 25+ years of organizational and business leadership and hands-on implementation experience to his clients.  His teams have achieved significant increases in growth, profitability, and valuation, as well as shareholder, customer, supplier, and employee engagement and satisfaction.

What Is Self-Care and Why Is It Such a Challenge?

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What Is Self-Care and Why Is It Such a Challenge?This blog is a companion to an interview with Dr. Deborah Zucker on Voice America Innovative Leaders Driving Thriving Organizations on September 27 focusing on the importance of building and sustaining vitality for leaders. It was written by Deborah who is the founder of Vital Medicine.

“Self-Care” is a big buzzword today in the health community. There are many books and professionals offering quick and easy tips for better “self-care”. But, I’m going to suggest something here that may seem kind of radical.

Self-care isn’t about the list of things you are supposed to do to be healthy, or about keeping up with the new health fads or latest scientific theories. Self-care isn’t about battling yourself into submission to satisfy the agendas of your inner critic.

Self-care is about a fundamental orientation toward the self that is rooted in kindness and compassion.

It is about nourishing all of who you are. And at its foundation, it is about your capacity to truly love and honor yourself and your life.

As wonderful as all this sounds, true self-care is far from easy. The spiritual teacher Adyashanti in his book, Falling into Grace, tells his students,

“The person you’ll have the hardest time opening to and truly loving without reserve is yourself. Once you can do that, you can love the whole universe unconditionally.”

So don’t be surprised if self-care doesn’t come naturally, or if you have unexpected and irrational resistance to doing it. We all have baggage, wounds, traumas, and beliefs that keep us from being able to turn toward ourselves with the level of kindness, compassion, and loving care that we may easily be able to extend toward others.

I’ve found that learning how to face and embrace those resistant parts of ourselves is foundational to having an empowered relationship with our own self-care. Issues like shame, self-judgment, and self-sabotage are rarely talked about in most conversations about health. And yet they are critical. We can’t ignore them if we wish to discover and live in our innate vitality and thriving health.

If we are unable to turn toward ourselves with loving care, how can we expect to be able to sustain life-giving habit changes?

It’s also hard to follow through with something that we’re not fully invested in. For example, I was recently talking with a new client who had the intention to integrate more movement into her life. She excitedly told me that she thought she had a great strategy. Since she had to be up early to take her daughter to school, she would just go straight to work and use the gym there before starting her work day. When I asked her what kinds of movement she loved to do, she listed going for long bike rides, hiking, walking with friends, and going to yoga or Pilates classes. When I pointed out that the gym wasn’t on her list, she admitted that she actually hates going to the gym. We laughed about how her strategy probably wouldn’t last so long! We were then able to come up with a better way to follow through on her intention for more movement by doing things she actually loves to do.

Inquiry Questions:

I invite you now, as you begin or re-establish your self-care journey, to explore what all of this means for you. Grab your journal, find a cozy place to sit, and take some time to ask yourself the following questions:

  • How might you embrace an orientation to your self-care that is truly rooted in deep care—full of self-kindness, self-compassion, and self-love?
  • What are some of the areas of resistance, self-judgment, and self-sabotage that have been enmeshed with your “self-care” journey that you can focus on uncovering, discovering, and embracing more fully?
  • What is one thing that you can do differently, starting today to bring more ease to your self-care journey?

By shifting how we approach our self-care we can slowly and gently learn how to honor and love ourselves into our most vibrant, alive potential. It’s an orientation of mindful self-responsibility in your health journey—one that is not harsh, mean, or judgmental, but instead is rooted in love and kindness, as well as gentle, nurturing care.

About the Author

Dr. Deborah Zucker is a naturopathic physician, transformational health coach, and author of The Vitality Map: A Guide to Deep Health, Joyful Self-Care, and Resilient Well Being. Her holistic approach to healthcare focuses on helping mindful, compassionate people to love, nourish, and heal themselves on every level so that they can unleash their gifts and service to the world. As the founder of Vital Medicine, she offers many virtual and retreat-based programs. She holds a doctorate in naturopathic medicine from Bastyr University where she has also served as adjunct faculty, and is a graduate and past mentor of the Generating Transformative Change program in Integral Leadership at Pacific Integral.

Star Trek & Leadership – What Do They Have in Common?

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metcalf-uniqueness-nimoy-quote

In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Star Trek, my co-author Dan Mushalko and I wanted to explore answers to this question: What traits from this iconic series apply to current leadership? That question probably seems particularly odd coming from me—the person who continually talks about the future of leadership.

Some background. In an interview with Dan Mushalko, General Manager of public radio station WCBE and a former NASA geek, and Jim Ritchie-Dunham, Harvard researcher and CEO of the Institute for Strategic Clarity vibrancy became a topic. And an interesting correlation emerged—the connection between the vibrancy theory, the vibrant performance of the radio station, and Star Trek. I wasn’t surprised given what I know about my colleagues, but I was delighted to share this in an interview. I have the good fortune of having these conversations regularly and find them quite fun.

As a foundation for this discussion, let’s start with what I think about innovating ourselves as leaders.

There are a few different tactics for effective leaders, but all include these:

  • Build on your past successes (should be about 80 percent of your development energy)
  • Identify what to change because it is getting in your way (should be about 20 percent of your development energy)
  • Identify what to stop doing even if it got you where you are—because the question is, will it get you to the next step on your journey(what you save here will add to your available energy)?

So, this blog post started based on a conversation about the similarity between the transporters on the starship Enterprise and transforming organizations. When the captain and crew use a transporter, their molecules are momentarily disassembled, beamed away as particles (hence the phrase, “Beam me up, Scotty!”), then rearranged whole again at their destination.

Implementing major organizational transformation feels much the same way, as though our molecules have been rearranged. For many of us, we find that we need to fundamentally change how we see ourselves as leaders; we rearrange our thinking, self-image, and mind-set. There are times I would truly prefer to have my molecules rearranged than spend time changing who I am as a leader. Yet this is the foundation of innovating how we lead: We innovate ourselves!

The parallels with Star Trek go even further. For example, there are enormous similarities between highly-effective leaders and the leadership modeled “on the bridge.” As we think about what we build on during our own pasts, looking at what has been true and effective for fifty years of Star Trek’s captains is a good place to start:

  • be aware of the new environment, and welcome changes as opportunities
  • there is infinite diversity through infinite combinations—everyone and everything creates opportunity
  • the more uniqueness you find, the higher potential you have
  • the Federation of Planets leverages collaboration; teams and departments do the same
  • everyone is seen and appreciated for their contribution—there is infinite potential in the world.

As you look at this list, how would you rate yourself on each item. If you used a 1-5 scale where 1 is low and 5 is high, where would you score over a 4? Does this list inspire you to ask questions about your mindset?

During the interview, we also talked with Jim Ritchie-Dunham about the idea of organizational vibrancy. One of the core principles is that our world is abundant. This is far from a wishful statement that evokes the image of wishful thinking or worse, it is based on the concept that there is infinite possibility in the universe to innovate out of our current challenges. It is through our diversity and uniqueness that we, as people, can welcome change and create opportunities to change our circumstances to improve our trajectory along with improving the trajectory of others. We create a vibrant world when we join together to create innovative solutions rather than when we discount people and their thinking and consequently forego opportunities.

As a leader, it is important to continually update mindset, skills, and behaviors. It is also important to recognize the foundational truths about how we work with other people that remain as effective today as they did in our past. What are your personal foundations which hold true for you? If you are a Trekker, what did you learn from Star Trek that you have taken into your own leadership roles?

To listen to the full Voice America interview with Dan Mushalko and Jim Ritchie-Dunham, click the following link, Creating Vibrant Departments in Large Complex Organizations.

To become a more innovative leader, you can begin by taking our free leadership assessments and then enrolling in our online leadership development program.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-creating Our Future, via iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible,  iHeartRADIO, and NPR One.  Stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute LinkedIn.

About the Author

Maureen Metcalf, founder and CEO of Innovative Leadership Institute., is a renowned executive advisor, author, speaker, and coach who brings thirty years of business experience to provide high-impact, practical solutions that support her clients’ leadership development and organizational transformations. She is recognized as an innovative, principled thought leader who combines intellectual rigor and discipline with an ability to translate theory into practice. Her operational skills are coupled with the strategic ability to analyze, develop, and implement successful strategies for profitability, growth, and sustainability.

In addition to working as an executive advisor, Maureen designs and teaches MBA classes in Leadership and Organizational Transformation. She is also the host of an international radio show focusing on innovative leadership, and the author of an award-winning book series on Innovative Leadership, including the Innovative Leaders Guide to Transforming Organizations, winner of a 2014 International Book Award.

Dan Mushalko, General Manager, Operations & Program Director at WCBE-FM and Owner, Mushalko’s Radiophonic Lab. A bizarre, convoluted professional life has taken Dan everywhere from a short stint at NASA to a long ride in radio…with experiences often overlapping. The thread through it all? A mix of creativity and leadership. So call the culmination of the cyber-man you read before you a Creative Leader. That’s his current incarnation.  Specialties: Station management, creative concepts in audio (ads, news, and drama), implementing new communications technology, listener analytics, creativity fostering and consulting, “teaching” writing and science.

How Does the Study of Natural Systems Improve International Leadership?

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Metcalf_DiversityThis blog is written by Cynthia Cherrey, the President and CEO of the International Leadership Association and internationally acclaimed leadership scholar, speaker and practitioner. It is a companion to a Voice America interview during which Cynthia discusses the importance of international leadership along with recommendations for important qualities successful international leaders need to demonstrate.

Alexander von Humboldt was a preeminent scientist and, arguably, the father of environmentalism, born in Germany and spent the majority of his life in Europe and the Americas. His travels, exploration, and ecological discoveries were in the Americas. He trekked the rain forest in Venezuela, climbed the Andes from Columbia to Lima, Perú, and traveled through Mexico up through western North America and points east. He wrote a prodigious number of volumes describing his great journeys throughout the Americas — a chronicle that blended science with poetry.

As early as 1800, while his peers were classifying the world into smaller taxonomic units, he was searching for global patterns. The insight for which he is renowned — and which was nearly two centuries ahead of its time —was that the world is a single web-like interconnected system.

Today, we readily recognize that we are each part of a complex, web-like interconnected system of information and relationships. But for over 300 years Western scientists operated from a worldview based on the industrial era and a Newtonian (machine-like) way of thinking. Leadership under that paradigm is characterized by, associated with, and embedded in a command and control, fixed hierarchical structure, anchored by positional authority.

In thinking of leadership through the paradigm of natural systems, the leading edge is characterized through the exchange of information, evolution, learning, and adaptive fit. Nature readily illustrates that a living system actively cultivates others — an isolated system is destined to die. Nature seeks diversity. New relationships open up new possibilities. It is not a question of survival of the fittest. It is system diversity that increases survival of all system components. In fact, diversity moves a living system from surviving to thriving. Natural systems need many “agents of leadership” throughout the system because the system is constantly adapting and changing to meet the needs of its members. Instead of one positional leader there are many leaders dispersed throughout the system.

The field of leadership benefits from the insights and methods of study from many different disciplines and perspectives. This new paradigm is used as a framework to study, teach, and practice leadership by many leadership scholars, educators, and practitioners.

Within the ILA, scholars are studying leadership from the perspective of natural eco-systems because they reflect leadership models that could help human systems thrive. Practitioners are delving into how leadership practices could benefit from what nature can tell us about the power of diverse relationships. Educators teaching leadership are using natural eco-systems to explore the concepts of adaptation, self-organizing, and evolution as an expression of organic change and leadership.

Humboldt’s view of nature as a single web-like interconnected system — an ecosystem — led him to cross disciplines to gain deeper insights. Arguably a great synthesizer across many disciplines, he explored nature through scientific methods, but also through art, history, literature, geography, and economics. He was multidisciplinary and believed in fostering communication across disciplines.

The field of leadership is also an ecosystem, if you will. It is interconnected systems of people, places, and things that work in concert to produce this epiphenomenon we call leadership. The ILA’s network reflects the models Humboldt researched, its members reflect a diverse population and its activities create the synthesis he referenced and provided through his work. The ILA encompasses people located in widely varied disciplines, sectors, cultures, countries, and viewpoints. It is the diversity of this ecosystem that allows it to thrive as we find our intersections with one another and together explore leadership as an ecosystem.

The preeminent leadership scholar and educator James MacGregor Burns, one of ILA’s founding members, frequently referred to himself as a mere “student of leadership.” As the consummate inquisitive learner, his example challenges us as leaders to ask: How do we, in our ongoing leadership journey, become perpetual learners with an intellectual curiosity that gives us greater insights, new knowledge, and effective leadership? While we may not, individually, be synthesizers like Humboldt, as long as we are engaged in learning from each other in our own diverse networks, we can meet Jim’s challenge and our collective work will continue to thrive.

To become a more innovative leader, you can begin by taking our free leadership assessments and then enrolling in our online leadership development program.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-creating Our Future, via iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible,  iHeartRADIO, and NPR One.  Stay up-to-date on new shows airing by following the Innovative Leadership Institute LinkedIn.

About the Author

Cynthia Cherrey has been involved with the International Leadership Association (ILA) since its inception as an invited participant in the W.K. Kellogg Leadership project to advance leadership knowledge, education and practice for the 21st century. She has served as ILA’s executive director since 2000 and as president since 2011, when the ILA became an independent 501c(3) corporation. In September 2015, Cherrey assumed the role of president and CEO on a full-time basis.

Prior to starting her full-time role at ILA, Cherrey spent five years at Princeton University as the vice president for campus life and lecturer in the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs. Between 2003 and 2010, Cherrey served as the vice president for student affairs at Tulane University and a clinical professor in the A.B. Freeman School of Business. Following Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, she helped lead the New Orleans university through one of the most challenging periods in its history as part of the senior leadership team on recovery and renewal efforts.

From 1989 to 2003, Cherrey worked at the University of Southern California, serving ultimately as an associate vice president for student affairs, a clinical associate professor in the Rossier School of Education and lecturer in the Annenberg School of Communication. She taught undergraduate courses in communication studies and graduate courses in educational administration, leadership, and policy.

Cherrey has published journal articles and book chapters in areas of leadership, organizational development, and higher education. She also has served as co-editor of a publication series and co-written a book entitled Systemic Leadership. Most recently, she served as editor of Women and Leadership Around the World, part of ILA’s Women and Leadership: Research, Theory, and Practice series (Information Age Publishing).

A former senior fellow at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership and recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, she has spoken at numerous conferences and events around the world.

 

Is your well-intended project oversight actually obstructing progress?

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LeadershipThis post was written by guest blogger, Kathleen Starkoff, Founder, President and CEO of Orange Star Consulting in conjunction with an interview on Voice America aired on August 23 How Can You Successfully Implement Large Scale Change?

Most of us have had the occasion to be participants in or witnesses to complex mission-critical system based projects like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) conversions, company mergers, or acquisitions. Personally, I have engaged in hundreds of complex projects and what often strikes me, is the profound impact that overseeing executives can sometimes play, inadvertently complicating the effort. Have you observed any of these common oversight practices and their unfortunate consequences?

  • Single-dimension coaching is when one parameter, like the implementation date, formally or informally defines success. To be sure, the implementation date is often an important target established, presumably, with good reason. Further, on-time delivery represents a critical and challenging aspect of project management.

A simple and emphatic message like “deliver on time” is compelling. When such a focus is established, well-communicated and emphasized, one can assume that this primary focus will be achieved. Unfortunately, the primary parameter’s success is often achieved at the cost of lesser parameters, like poor quality or missed functionality, the sting of which lives on long after the implementation date.

Leaders who coach from a balanced perspective, understanding and appreciating the interdependencies of dates, plans, scope, and resources, will encourage better holistic outcomes. Further, leaders who support a preemptive plan for talent, time and/or financial contingencies for the inevitable unforeseen circumstance, at levels commensurate with the initiative’s complexity, channels the team’s energy solidly on execution.

  • Overly optimistic coaching is an environment where analysis and reporting tends to be unduly positive because influential leaders, who define the culture, value optimism. In project delivery, like sales and many other business areas, optimism is an important and necessary cultural characteristic.

However, optimism can play an adverse role in decision making when the characteristic is dominant. Project management requires coordinated planning, analysis and realistic progress reporting. When a team is overly-optimistic, and/or hesitant to report failure, the necessary and sensitive synchronization of data is compromised. When such data is then amalgamated across teams of similar optimistic culture, the compromise is magnified. The environment produces a proliferation of “on-target” milestones in project reporting right up until the milestones are unexpectedly missed.

Leaders who engage from a curious (“Tell me what is happening.”) perspective versus a leading from a goal focused (“We are on target, aren’t we?”) perspective, create a safe environment for the messenger to share the unbiased reality of the project. This open and trusted relationship can be replicated across project teams to create a virtuous cycle of fact based data and information. It also encourages the preemptive identification and resolution of issues, minimizing big surprises and increasing the probability of success.

  • System-centric project planning is when a project’s definition of success is the conversion or implementation of a system. That is, after months or years of IT and business engagement, a system goes “live” with a new system or version, which is, statistically speaking, far easier said than done.

But implementing a system without leveraging the opportunity that large scale system change represents is regrettable. It is a terrific people and process change opportunity, work that can be leveraged for real benefit. The work of engagement around design, training and conversion with the business provides the perfect platform for identifying people and process opportunities and integrating the change into the solution. The benefit annuity is squandered, if the success hurdle is simply system related. Instead, system change can and should be used to drive ongoing business benefits of real dollar savings or customer service improvements. It does not make the system change effort any more difficult. Conversely, the addition of these benefit increases business ownership and engagement providing an effective stimulus for the change.

Leaders who engage early in the project construct to define substantial complementary business outcomes measured in specific quantitative and/or qualitative ways will be able to creatively and sustainably address problems or opportunity areas. The business outcome focus will ensure the enthusiastic engagement of all parties through the project’s duration and a vibrant celebration for the resulting annuities brought to life by the system change.

The number of times that I have witnessed these themes carried out in various forms is material. As real and material as the adverse impact on the mission-critical project or the business; in every case, the leader, while well-intentioned in his actions, caused suboptimal project performance, delivery and outcomes.

I have also witnessed these themes performed in the most positive sense. Leaders, who through their visible and vocal sponsorship, seemingly doubled the energy of the project team, enabling impossibly-tall hurdles to be jumped and ridiculously-aggressive deadlines to be met.

Chances are that you have witnessed a bad example, or two, of the above issue causing themes. After reading the related comments and insights, I hope you are one of the leaders who is learning from the errors of others and you are leading in a way that avoids these errors and better yet sets the standard for what is possible! What are you doing to exemplify the positive representation of the themes and the exceptional results? What do you do to encourage others to avoid the pitfalls and learn from the lessons of others?

About the Author

Kathleen Starkoff, Founder, President and CEO of Orange Star Consulting is a cyber security expert, a talented headline speaker and a senior, trusted advisor to CIOs across a wide range of industries, Fortune 500 companies and the National Science Foundation.  Her ability to provide valuable counsel is a result of her 20 years of IT leadership experience in industry-leading organizations including CIO at The Ohio State University, CTO and Enterprise Risk Manager for Limited Brands and CTO of Bank One Corporation.

Ms. Starkoff is a recognized “Leadership Fellow” and a featured cyber security speaker for the National Association of Corporate Directors.  She is also Board Chair-elect and Chair of the Governance and Nominating Board Committee of Flying Horse Farms, part of Paul Newman’s SeriousFun Children’s Network, which provides transformative camp experiences for seriously ill children. She holds a master’s degree in business administration from Case Western Reserve University, and a bachelor’s of science degree, cum laude, in mathematics from Kent State University.

“Board Basics” Rule

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Board basicsThis post reflects a collaboration between Dr. Dale Meyerrose, major general, U.S. Air Force (retired), president of the MeyerRose Group and Maureen Metcalf, founder and CEO of Innovative Leadership Institute, and is written in conjunction with a VoiceAmericainterview that aired on August 16, “Emerging Roles of the Board and Cybersecurity.”

Many aspire to join boards, and other leaders aspire to manage their boards in order to promote organizational success. Much has been written about responsibilities of boards of directors, but few distinguish those task lists from the essential roles of a board and its directors. By understanding those few, basic requirements of a board, the savvy leader can maximize effectiveness in driving organizational success.

Dan walked into the board meeting to discuss the company’s performance and strategy going forward. He was confident that this would be a smooth meeting because he meets regularly with board members and has a clear understanding of their values and past guidance. As a veteran CEO, he understands the importance of working closely with his board and that progress means that the entire senior leadership team is working from the same “sheet of music.” Key to his success as a senior corporate official is to comprehend everyone’s role and anticipate the board’s needs as they work together to ensure the organization’s success. So, what does Dan know regarding “board basics” and roles that allow him to have this confidence?

  1. He understands the importance of a collective corporate conscience. Board members must ensure that the entire organization acts in a socially responsible and ethical manner. While it is true that public corporations have the primary goal to deliver stockholder value and create sustained value, they must also act in a legal and responsible manner in the process. We submit that corporations that over-emphasize profit (some people would argue there is no such thing) can put the organization at risk by “cutting ethical corners.” A single, historical example says it all: While the complete case study of Enron is beyond our purposes at hand, their clear fixation of profit over ethics and unnaturally fast growth over sustained growth provided business schools with the stereotypical example of an organization lacking a corporate conscience or ethics.
  2. Shareholder advocacy is self-evident to most business people. However, Dan knows that stakeholder considerations go beyond just the shareholders. Leaders and boards are always making trade-offs to ensure all key stakeholder interests converge in the right way for the right reasons, at the right time for the good of the organization. The board is responsible for creating the strategy and oversight to instill trust of all stakeholders in the corporate culture. Shareholders can vote with their feet if they feel that their interests aren’t taken care of, as can rank-and-file employees and management. Further, partners and suppliers have options of price and contractual protections that potentially make the cost of doing business with the company problematic. While profit remains the main measure, it is not the only performance assessment of overall health and trends of the enterprise itself and its eco-system of stakeholders. We believe that John Mackey, co-founder of Whole Foods, embodies these principles. He is clear in his passion about his company making a strong and sustained profit—and that he sees part of that equation being fulfilled through the creation and nurturing of a healthy eco-system of employees, suppliers, partners, customers, and the environment. The results of his company in his market sector validate this approach by successfully meeting ALL stakeholder expectations.
  3. To ensure sustainability, Dan recognizes that the board serves as a “strategic compass” for the organization to safeguard corporate well-being and long-term growth. This means organizational focus is on the long-run and is constantly attuned to changes in the company, the industry, consumer tastes, technology, and society in general. The key is differentiating that which matters from that which is merely interesting or important, and anticipating future roles and values for the corporation. Again, there are many epic failures of a board being less aware, or completely unaware, of the conduct and performance of their company. We find that there are relatively few organizations with both the board and senior management capable of weathering changes over time. In 1950, the average company stayed on the S&P 500 for half a century. By 2012 the average company stayed on the S&P 500 for thirteen years. The dynamic forces facing corporations in the 21st century are changing the nature of business—and the speed with which change occurs compounds the complexity.

If you are part of senior management, like Dan, do you have confidence in dealing with your corporate board? If you’re one of “Dan’s” board members, do have the reciprocal trust in him? Understanding “board basics” is critical in today’s challenging business environment. If you are senior management, it is important to understand the roles that your board fills and to leverage them to ensure the success of the enterprise. If you are a board member, are you fulfilling these roles? Or, has the “to do list” and urgency of the present obscured your focus on these basics that rule? Or, as many in the workforce might say: “Basics rock!”

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Dr. Dale Meyerrose, major general, U.S. Air Force (retired) is president of theMeyerRose Group—a cybersecurity, executive training/coaching, and eHealth technology consulting company. He is an adjunct instructor at Carnegie Mellon University, Institute for Software Research running their Cybersecurity Leadership Certificate program. General Meyerrose, a Southwest Asia veteran, was the first Senate-confirmed, President-appointed Chief Information Officer for the Intelligence Community after over three decades of military service.

Maureen Metcalf, founder and CEO of Innovative Leadership Institute, is a renowned executive advisor, consultant, author, speaker, and coach.  Maureen designs and teaches MBA classes in Leadership and Organizational Transformation. She is also the host of an international radio show focusing on innovative leadership, and the author of an award-winning book series on Innovative Leadership, including the Innovative Leaders Guide to Transforming Organizations, winner of a 2014 International Book Award.

12 Characteristics of Great Leaders

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Executive InsightThis is a guest post written by Mike Figliuolo. Mike was a Voice America guest on the show Lead Inside the Box and is a respected colleague.

The differences between a good leader and a great one boil down to a handful of traits that set the great leaders apart. Fortunately, all these traits are skills you can build over time.

Most of us are good leaders. Most of us aspire to be great leaders. Few are. What’s it take to transcend “good” and become “great?” What’s the secret?

There isn’t one.

The foundation for being a great leader is building a set of traits that inspire people to follow you and achieve outstanding results. In my experience, there are a dozen traits that are required before a leader can even hope to be great.

Building and demonstrating these traits does not guarantee greatness. Not by a long shot. But the absence of any one of these twelve traits will definitely hold you back from being great. In no particular order, here are some key leadership differentiators. Great leaders are:

Authentic – what you see is what you get. They share their hopes, fears, dreams, and failures. They truly care to know you as a person and want you to know them the same way. They strip away the façade and reveal their true selves to their team every day.

Visible – they’re known throughout the organization. They’ve built meaningful relationships with peers, subordinates, and superiors in seemingly every corner of the company. Their reputation precedes them in positive and powerful ways.

Influential – they can sway an audience with their words. They can make a case that’s clear and moves people to action. They’re able to explain not only what they want done but also why it’s beneficial for the listener to support their idea.

Memorable – their stories inspire others. They make their actions memorable and the lessons they teach easily accessible. Everyone loves listening to their stories not only because they’re entertaining but also because they inform, inspire, and instruct.

Compelling – they demonstrate gravitas in groups large and small. People are drawn to them because they know how to connect with their audience. Combined with their ability to influence and be memorable, the compelling leader galvanizes teams to action.

Efficient – they get stuff done. Fast. They’re mindful of how they manage their time as well as how they invest their energy in their team members. Their time investments are thoughtful. They invest based upon where they’ll get the greatest results long term for the time they put in.

Innovative – they see solutions that aren’t obvious. They challenge existing ways of thinking and generate new ideas on a regular basis. They think big and push the organization beyond what it believes its limitations are.

Strategic – the future is something they think about quite frequently. They consider possible scenarios, plan for them, and generate approaches for winning in the markets of tomorrow. The choices they make are mindful of the possible actions of others in the market.

Thoughtful – when faced with a problem or a challenge, they stop and think before acting. They have the ability to break big problems into smaller ones, understand true root causes, and generate solutions that solve the real issue at hand.

Decisive – once they’re done thinking and they’ve considered the options, they swing into action. While they may not have all the information, they have enough information to move forward. They’re able to balance judgment with risk and are willing to take calculated chances to have an impact on the organization.

Fair – when they’re negotiating, they don’t focus on winning for themselves. They focus on winning for everyone. They understand many negotiations are more about the long-term relationship than they are about saving a buck in an individual interaction. They’re able to prioritize fairness over profit. Whether the negotiation is with a team member who wants a day off or a supplier selling a multimillion dollar contract, these leaders strike deals that everyone finds acceptable.

Resilient – there’s no shortage of challenges and failures for leaders to face. The great ones know how to pick themselves up when they’ve been knocked down. They carry on. They dust themselves off and summon strength from deep within to carry on the fight.

Do those 12 characteristics guarantee a leader will be great? Of course not. But they’re a great start. Being deficient in any of them will hold you back from being the best leader you can be. I believe this so firmly that I’ve put together a two-day long learning event focused on helping leaders build these skills. I’m hosting Executive Insight 16 on November 10-11 at the Waldorf Astoria New York. It’s 13 sessions focused on practical, pragmatic approaches to building these critical leadership traits. I’d love to have you join us. Visit www.executiveinsight16.com to learn more about the program and register. If you register by September 8th, you’ll save up to $300 on the registration fee.

If you know you need to build any of these skills, find other leaders who already have them and see how you can learn from them. The sooner you improve your skills in these areas, the faster you’ll become the leader you’re capable of being.

Mike Figliuolo is the author of The Elegant Pitch and One Piece of Paper. He’s the co-author of Lead Inside the Box. He’s also the managing director of thoughtLEADERS, LLC – a leadership development training firm. He regularly writes about leadership on the thoughtLEADERS Blog. His firm is hosting Executive Insight 16 on November 10-11 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. It’s two days full of great learning and insights on leadership topics delivered by experienced executives on the thoughtLEADERS team. Learn more at www.executiveinsight16.com.