Strategically Speaking

Several organizations that I am involved with are currently, have just recently or really need to spend time developing a strategic plan.

I have been involved with dozens of these efforts over the years.  Without fail, every single one of those efforts, at some point, devolves into a debate about terminology.

Do goals flow out of missions and action steps out of goals?  Does a vision flow out of a mission or vice versa?.  Do action steps need to be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) or should that be goals?  What is the difference between a vision and a mission and a goal?  Which is most important?  Which should be developed first?  Why did the chicken cross the road?

Without a good moderator, the debate can go on for hours.  I am convinced that it is this conversation that drives most people away from strategic planning.  Which is a shame because there are two very good things that can usually flow out of strategic planning.

The first is that, if everyone sticks with it, you come up with a plan. A strategic plan provides some guidance as to what the members of the organization should focus on over the next year or two.  It provides some direction as to organizational priorities and plans. It broadcasts to staff and other stakeholders the organizational priorities of the leaders of the organization.

The second good thing to flow out of the strategic planning process is that the organization's leaders sit down and talk.  It is, in my opinion, the more important advantage.

Too often, the leaders in an organization don't bother to get together and really talk about the direction things are going and the direction they'd LIKE them to going.  Too often the leaders of an organization don't take the time out from putting out daily fires to look ahead and think about what the future should look like.  If nothing else, the strategic planning process gets the leaders into the same room talking about the same thing for a short while.

A structured strategic planning process helps to ensure that voices that are often drowned out or ignored get heard.  A planned process helps to ensure that the leaders are focused on positive, forward-looking plans for the organization and not arguing over terminology.  A well run strategic planning process is a positive for the organization, regardless of the resulting plan.

In the long run, strategically speaking, it doesn't matter how you label things in your strategic plan, as long as you are talking about them!

The Leaders of the Inc. 500

I think that the Inc. 500/5000 intrigues me because it is really a list of inspiration.  It turns out to really be about the men and women who lead those companies.  The Inc. 500 publication is full of profiles and stories of the individuals who took a dream or an idea and pushed and pulled and manipulated that dream or idea until it became a fast growing company.

In today's blog, I want to take a brief look at the thoughts and thinking of the men and women who lead the fast growing companies who made the list.

• 42% said that their greatest challenge is "finding and keeping skilled workers."
• Asked to rank 21 traits associated with outstanding leaders, trustworthiness came in first, sincerity second and capacity to inspire third.  Likability came in 21st.
• 38% said they get their best ideas for new products and services from customers, 20% from employees.  Yet only 37% of companies have a formal method for collecting customer ideas.
• In one of the more intriguing factoids in the magazine, 87% of Inc. 500 leaders said that the right question is more important than the right answer.
• 93% believe managing and leading are two different things.
• 15% worked more than 100 hours per week in the first year.  Just 3% work that much now.
• Only 27% started paying themselves when they started the business.  9% waited until the fourth year.  
• 20% started their own business because they wanted to be their own boss.  18% did it because they had an idea they had to try out.  29% felt that entrepreneurship suited their skills and abilities.
• 61% started their business with less than $10,000.
• The entrepreneur the Inc. 500 leaders admire most is Richard Branson, followed by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Mom and/or Dad.
• 29% said that work-life balance is "a nice fantasy."  The other 71% say they are working on it.

There are tons of stories behind the Inc. 500.  The editors of the magazine have admitted that one of the benefits of creating this annual list is that it helps highlight subjects for future magazine profiles.  I know some bloggers who might do the same!

A Parable About Leadership

Leadership is a subject that seems to continually confound us.  A Bing search for "leadership books" generates 39 million results.  It seems to me that there are at least that many different perspectives about leadership and how to be a good leader out there.  

That is one of the reasons I like the story I am about to share with you.  I first read this story on Michael Josephson's excellent blog, "What Will Matter" and am reposting it here with his permission.  

Listening to politicians’ nasty rhetoric, one might think that leadership has to be aggressive and confrontational, but consider this parable about leadership.

A student assigned to write an essay about an effective leader wrote this story:

“I’ve been taking a bus to school for years. Most passengers keep to themselves and no one ever talks to anyone else.

“About a year ago, an elderly man got on the bus and said loudly to the driver, ‘Good morning!’ Most people looked up, annoyed, and the bus driver just grunted. The next day the man got on at the same stop and again he said loudly, ‘Good morning!’ to the driver. Another grunt. By the fifth day, the driver relented and greeted the man with a semi-cheerful ‘Good morning!’ The man announced, ‘My name is Benny,’ and asked the driver, ‘What’s yours?’ The driver said his name was Ralph.

“That was the first time any of us heard the driver’s name and soon people began to talk to each other and say hello to Ralph and Benny. Soon Benny extended his cheerful ‘Good morning!’ to the whole bus. Within a few days his ‘Good morning!’ was returned by a whole bunch of ‘Good mornings’ and the entire bus seemed to be friendlier. People got to know each other.

“If a leader is someone who makes something happen, Benny was our leader in friendliness.

“A month ago, Benny didn’t get on the bus and we haven’t seen him since. Everyone began to ask about Benny and lots of people said he may have died. No one knew what to do and the bus got awful quiet again.

“So last week, I started to act like Benny and say, ‘Good morning!’ to everyone and they cheered up again. I guess I’m the leader now. I hope Benny comes back to see what he started.”

I think that the student who wrote this essay hits the mark on so many levels about leadership.  Leadership is about attitude and perseverance much more than title or position.  Leadership is transformational.  Leadership can be transferred.

In my opinion, you don't need to buy any of the 39 million books on leadership.  All you need to do is read about Benny and the bus!

Related articles

• "The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born." - Warren Bennis

Father Figure

My father celebrates the 41st Anniversary of his 39th Birthday today.  Happy Anniversary Dad!

It is natural on anniversaries to become a bit reflective.  I thought in honor of this day, I would share some of the things I learned from my father about leadership.

The lessons Dad taught me were taught by example.  I learned them by watching him.  I am not sure he knows that he was teaching all of this time...although I am pretty sure he will SAY he's known!

Leadership as experienced with my Dad:

1. My Dad is very free with advice.  He gives it all of the time. Yet he never demands or expects that I take 100% of his advice. All he asks is that I listen and then decide, not the other way around.  A leader tries to help when he can, yet allows people to find their own way.
2.  My Dad loves nothing more than a good debate.  Throughout my teenage years, we stayed close by arguing.  Both of us are usually willing to take any side of an argument, as long as it was opposite the position taken by the other.  I lost a lot of sleep during those late night debates, but gained valuable hours with my father.  I learned to love the art of a good argument, how to be a gracious winner and, occasionally, a good loser.  A leader doesn't shy away from a conversation, a discussion or an argument.
3. One of my Dad's debate techniques, when he doesn't have or can't find facts, is to make his statements with a great conviction.  His conviction and certainty in what he is saying is enough to give an expert pause.  His enthusiasm for winning has showed me that leaders pull out all the stops to achieve their goals.
4. Actually the one thing that Dad loves more than debating is his family.  And his friends.  And making new friends.  And meeting new people.  Dad is a people person.  Leaders get energy from the people around them.  They thrive on the power of interactions.
5. Dad is thrilled when he can connect people with each other, especially if it helps them solve a problem. I am guessing that he has made a good share of his friends by sticking his nose into their problems and helping them out.  Leaders appreciate the people around them and figure out what they can do for others, not the other way around.
6. My Dad has always been a salesman.  He has had many jobs, some which don't involve sales, but he has always been a salesman.  Leaders don't have jobs or careers, they have callings.
7. My Dad is the only person I have ever heard of who takes coffee or lemonade out to the garbage men.  My dad never thought twice about it.  My Dad taught me that a leader is kind to people.  All of them.  But especially to the custodians, secretaries and garbage men in your life.  They literally and figuratively hold the keys to your life.  If you are getting along with them, things go smoother.  If you don't get along with them, your life can get stinky and disorganized quickly!
8. If Dad chooses to work with someone, he is trusting to a fault.  I sometimes get frustrated by his blind trust in the goodness of people that he barely knows.  In the end, though, the few times he has been burned have been dwarfed by the friends he has made, the trust he has earned back and the stress and worry he has avoided.  True leadership is positive in focus and nature.  
9. Even though he has had more than his share of ups and downs, my Dad almost always has a positive, can-do, make that will-do, attitude.  A recent accident had him in inpatient rehab, reportedly for up to four weeks.  He was out in less than two. A leader lets his attitude be an asset, not a roadblock.
10. My Dad has the corniest sense of humor I have seen in anyone, except for maybe me.  A leader creates a legacy and passes it on to the next generation.

Happy Birthday Dad!  Thanks for the lessons!  I am looking forward to learning many more!  I love you!

Reading: Your Future

"The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read." Mark Twain  

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." Groucho Marx

I have never met a good writer who isn't a voracious reader.
I have never known of a great leader who wasn't a student of other great leaders.
I have never heard of a great thinker who wasn't an even better listener.

It is my opinion that writers, leaders and thinkers are made.  They are self-made.

Writers, leaders and thinkers all share a curiosity about the world around them and an insatiable thirst for knowledge.  They read in search of answers, often without knowing the questions.

They also read literature.  A great mind is not developed solely by reading self-help books.  A great mind is developed by exposure to great thoughts, most often found in great literature of all sorts.  Fiction, and poetry can teach us about the human condition.  Philosophy and science can teach us how to think.  History and biography can teach us about leadership and failure.

Often times a writer or a leader will find success while not having been previously in the public eye.  She was an overnight success, the pundits say.  In fact that couldn't be farther from the truth.  She grew page by page.  In the library.  Between the covers of a great book!

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Leadership Lost

"Being a leader is like being a lady.  If you have to go around telling people you are one, you aren't."
-  Margaret Thatcher, 1925-2013

 "I begin to feel like most Americans don't understand the First Amendment, don't understand the idea of freedom of speech, and don't understand that it's the responsibility of the citizen to speak out."           - Roger Ebert, 1942-2013

In the last two week we lost two groundbreaking leaders.  Both of them cleared new territory for those who came after them.  Both of them paid little heed to what had been done before but rather looked forward and acted on the possibilities of what could be.  I am talking about Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, and Roger Ebert, the film critic for the Chicago Sun Times.

I am pretty sure that there won't be too many articles or blogs that will discuss the passing of both of these two rather unique individuals.  However, to my mind, they had much in common.  Both Thatcher and Ebert broke new ground in their respective fields.  Both were divisive leaders, loved by some, despised by others.

Whatever you thought of her politics, it is hard to deny that Margaret Thatcher was a leader.  The first and only woman to serve as Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, I also believe that she had one of the longest tenures in recent history.  She was a towering figure in history and an impressive leader.

Articles and books have been and will continue to be written about Margaret Thatcher and her leadership style.  Margaret Thatcher, if only because of the historic nature and length of her tenure as Prime Minister and her very visible style of decisive leadership will be a subject of study for some time.

Roger Ebert was a leader of a different ilk.  An early adopter of new media, Roger expanded the perception of what a journalist is or could be.  He took one of the more mundane parts of the newspaper, movie reviews, and created an empire.  He teamed up with Gene Siskel to talk about the big screen on the little screen.  He was an early and voracious blogger.  When he lost his jaw to cancer and could no longer speak normally, he found numerous other ways to make sure his voice was heard.

Like Thatcher, there were many who despised Ebert for his showmanship, for his insistence on writing his own rules.  Like Ebert, Thatcher paid less attention to critics than to the voice driving her to break new ground and achieve great things.

Leaders begets other leaders.  Martin Luther King wouldn't have had the success or visibility he had without Rosa Parks and Malcolm X.  Mark Zuckerberg might have been just another Harvard dropout without Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.  Some have postulated that without the walls (and ceilings) that Margaret Thatcher knocked down, we wouldn't have had Angela Merckel in Germany or Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama in the US.  Without Roger Ebert, would we have had the early adoption of the internet by critics?  Would we have cared whether or not movie reviews were on the internet?  Would we have understood the Facebook thumbs up symbol?

The point is that tomorrow's leaders are in the wings, watching what today's leaders are doing and learning from their triumphs and their failures.  As each new generation of leader breaks new ground in style or inclusiveness or social consciousness, the leaders who follow find it easier to do so.  They can do this because they are standing on the shoulders of the generation that went before.  And hanging onto the shoulders of the other leaders of their generation.

As Margaret Thatcher indicates in her quote at the start of this blog, most lessons in leadership are better shown than talked about.  The world has been shown a lot by the two leaders we lost this month.

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The recent tragic events at the Boston Marathon leave me in a quandry as to how to respond or whether I should respond.  I will simply say to the people that were there and to those who were impacted by what happened there, the thoughts and prayers of a nation are with you.  I would also make a plea that as a society we work harder to find less violent ways to express ourselves.  Thank you.

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• Knowing Why

Knowing Why

The other day, a colleague said something profound to me.  He said, "Those that know how work for those that know why."

It is a simple explanation of the difference between advertising and marketing, managers and leaders, doing and creating.

As Simon Sinek says in his inspiring  TED Talk on how great leaders inspire action, people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.  If you understand why, you hold the keys to what makes business, or really any organization, work.

Understanding why, is what makes someone a leader.  Communicating why is what makes someone an inspirational leader!  Great leaders inspire us because they talk about their beliefs.  Their why.  They inspire us through connecting with the beliefs that we share with them.  As Mr. Sinek points out, Martin Luther King, gave the "I have a dream" speech, not the "I have a plan" speech.

Figure out why.


Watch Simon Sinek's TED Talk here.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

Public Speaking = Public Teaching

"Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership." -James Humes

I have given a lot of speeches and have found that I enjoy it.  I know that this is not a universally shared emotion related to speeches.  They say that many people fear public speaking more than death.  Others don't see the difference between the two.  


I think that Mr. Humes, in the quote above, may have hit on one of the reasons for this phenomenon.  Many people are uncomfortable putting themselves forward as experts.  They equate making a speech as an audition for expert status or leadership.  This puts a lot of pressure on how well you do on any particular speech.


On the other hand, if you approach a speaking opportunity as a teaching opportunity, you take off some of the pressure.  As a teacher you don't have to be an expert on a subject.  You just have to have something to share.  I doubt that many high school math teachers believe that they are the world's foremost authority on mathematics, yet they have some knowledge, some understanding of the subject.  By sharing what they know and what they understand, teachers help others to know and understand.  Truly great teachers give their students, their audiences, the tools to surpass the teacher's knowledge and understanding!


I also think it helps to look at speaking opportunities as a conversation.  My favorite part of presentations is when I am able to engage the audience in a question and answer session.  That is when you can really connect with the audience and have a true dialogue.  On special occasions, audience members will answer each other's questions, creating a true forum and exchange of ideas.  It is times like these that I feel most like a teacher.  


Giving a good speech does take a lot of work.  A good speaker works on what she or he is going to say, how to say it, what visual aids to use, etc.  But a good speech does not have to be an audition for anything.  It is just a teachable moment.