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The Leadership Advisor
"Helping Leaders Develop Leaders"
December 2006
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Seasons Greetings!
Xmas Album

"Gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect." ~ Oren Arnold

"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas." ~ Calvin Coolidge

"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year long." ~ Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)

Xmas Fruit cake
by Lorene Rasmussen

The Holiday Season was my Mother’s favorite time of year. I sincerely believe the woman’s drug of choice was pine scent and fruit cake. Her idea of an extreme sport was baking 15 different flavors of cookies and 10 varieties of homemade candy. In mother’s hey day, she could have put Martha Stewart to shame. Like Martha, Mom had a few enemies, but she forged them into friendships at her kitchen table over a cup of coffee and an exclusive sampling of whatever she just baked.

Mom was a colorful, magnificent and multi- faceted individual. She didn’t go to college; she never received prestigious awards; she never ran a marathon or made a million bucks. Nonetheless, she did raise 6 hard working children; ran a “greasy diner” and stayed married to my father for well over 50 years. She had a passion for good food, good kids, and a good community.

Mom’s last paying job was mayor of my hometown, population 272. The community called her “Mother Mayor,” a term of endearment, even after she retired. At the next election, Mom won another race for office by the write-in votes alone, but she decently declined the position in favor of the second place gentleman who accepted the seat graciously.

Mom was a big woman; she stood 5’8” tall, weighed well over 200 lbs most of her life, and her voice entered the room before she did. Mom accomplished everything she needed to without the aid of computers, cell phones, or blackberries. She drove a big green Cadillac and always had a cigarette lit which was used for dramatic emphasis when she needed to make a point (which was most of the time).

Mom wasn’t a perfect manager but the woman knew how to manage projects and people and she did it from the gut, straight through her heart. Her management style would be considered commonsensical with confidence, which lead to some much needed reforms for our small town, such as $5Million water system.

As the Mayor, mother attended municipal conventions throughout the state. The conventions were designed to teach mayors and city managers how to write bonds, negotiate contracts, how to understand basic laws, and work with governing bodies such as the DEQ. So to imply that my mother wasn’t educated would be a misnomer. Even though she never took a class on management or was exposed to any ‘pop’ management books that could have honed her skills. Mom exhibited the management skills found in the very books I had to read in order to graduate from Boise State University.

So with that said, let me share four of my Mother’s management secrets that might help inform your management style, whether you are a hometown mayor, a small business owner, or someone who just needs to rethink some old principles in a new, down home way.

Speak Frankly - Mom was accused of being bold, speaking her mind and not mincing words, but I don’t ever remember anyone reporting that she was harmful or brutal, just truthful. Yet in his newest book, Speed of Trust, Stephen M.R. Covey calls it “Talk Straight,” which he says is honesty in action.

Mom believed there was an urgency when she took office. She was only going to be there for one term; just long enough to accomplish what she set out to do. Consequently, she needed to “speak frankly” regarding the details about the water system and community pride.

Lead the Vision - Originally, Mom campaigned for the office of mayor because our town’s drinking water was running through 100 year old rusty and rotted pipes that couldn’t keep pressure and needed flushed regularly so the water wouldn’t be brown. Even though this was an obvious problem, many of the town folk feared that their water bills would increase well beyond the $5 a month they were paying. We had people in our community that would drive to the next town (45 miles away) to haul their drinking water and do their laundry, but not everyone had that luxury.

Being a citizen tired of nasty water and prepared with the knowledge that if the town didn’t take responsibility for their own drinking water, the state was going to have to step in and take over.

Over gallons of coffee, one cup at a time, Mom communicated a vision of clean water. This project was unpopular with many of the townspeople. She even had a few life long friends question the validity of her decision to put in this expensive pipeline believing that the bill increase would be more painful then the nasty water folks had to use.

Just Do It! – Long before Dan Wieden released the very successful “Just Do It!” Nike ad campaign in 1988, Mom lived by those 3 simple words. In his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey would have called mom “proactive.” Mom would not accept the myth that “there is nothing that can be done about the circumstances of bad drinking water and low community morale.” She knew it would be a lot of hard work but complaining about it wasn’t going to fix anything.

Armed with desire and determination, she did the things that were required and spent time with the people that would be able to help achieve the results the community needed.

If Jack Welch had written Winning back in the late 1970’s, he would say Mom was living by “Rule #5: Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.”

Value Others – It would be ridiculous to insinuate that Mom was able to pull off this $5Million water line installation by herself. Mom knew there were some people she desperately needed on board to accomplish the mission and she knew there were others that would criticize her the entire way. Both groups had value. The dichotomy created became a natural check and balance system that kept Mom on target to envision the completed project. Mom would esteem others by listening to their concerns, communicating the genuine need, and serving them in her home. Basically, Mom had the audacity to believe our town deserved good, clean drinking water, and showed value to the towns people by taking on the dubious task for them. I guess if you can raise a house full of good kids, you all ready have a fundamental understanding how to value others.

No doubt I have painted a picture of Mom to be somewhat “bigger than life.” I’ll even admit I may not have remembered some of the details as accurately as they occurred. However, I do believe even within a legend, we can all glean the essential principles that can be incorporated into our own management/leadership style.

May this holiday season be a time for you to reflect on the persons that made a positive impact on your leadership style and if possible, why not take the time to thank them this year.

Lorene Rasmussen is the Partner for Business Operations which guides and supports the daily and strategic operations of Leadership Advisors Group. She combines a unique sense of fun and organization to insure operations run smoothly and that clients receive the highest quality service possible.

Lorene earned a Bachelors of Business Administration degree in marketing from Boise State University and is a certified Life Coach through Genesis Enterprises in Seattle, Washington. Lorene is #5 of 6 children and has been listening to Christmas music since October.
Prosci
Your Invitation to a Change Management Benchmarking Study

Prosci and the Change Management Learning Center are delighted to announce the launch of the worldwide 2007 Best Practices in Change Management Study. The study is designed to uncover best practices, what works and what does not work in managing the human side of change.

Participation in the benchmarking study is free. Participants receive a complimentary copy of the final published report of the research results.

The study aims to answer questions like:
  • What is the biggest contributor to project success?
  • What are the biggest obstacles?
  • What are the root causes of resistance and what are the most effective responses?
  • What are the most important sponsor activities and biggest mistakes?
  • What would teams do differently on their next change?

If you are interested in participating, please click on the graphic to participate in Prosci's fifth change management study.

If you have any questions, you can speak with one of Prosci's change management analysts by emailing changemanagement@prosci.com or calling 1-970-203-9332.

It is contributions from people like you who are dealing with organizational change that result in the best practices, lessons learned and ever increasing body of knowledge in the field of change management.

Thank you for your participation,
Tim Creasey
Director of Research and Development
Maximizers
Organizations that effectively build a core of principle-centered leaders consistently outperform their competitors and often achieve a breakaway performance with their industry. The 10 foundational character principles known as the MAXIMIZERS will have a profound impact upon your life.

  • Makes Things Happen
  • Achieve Personal Significance
  • X - Out the Negatives
  • Internalize Right Principles
  • March to a Mission
  • Integrate All of Life
  • Zero in on Caring for People
  • Energize Internally
  • Realign Rigorously
  • Stay the Course

Join us!
As a participant, you will enjoy a full day of engaged discussion about the principles of personal leadership. Additionally, you will leave with a life-time operating system that you can use to guide and refine your personal leadership.

$375.00

Friday, January 26, 2007

8 am to 4:30 pm

George Fox University - 1810 Eagle Rd., Meridian, ID

Contact Lorene: 208.871.5981

Previous participants in the Achieving Authentic Success workshop have this to say:

“I’m going to define my values and then realign even though it will be a challenge. I’m going to work on realizing my value (self-worth).”

“This helps me focus on things I need to do but leave because I am too busy.”
Leadership Advisors Group will help you and your organization succeed by:
  • Developing effective leaders.
  • Creating strategic plans that drive organizational progress and team unity.
  • Delivering strategic results through effective change management.

You are receiving this email from Leadership Advisors Group because you are a valued client, have requested information regarding our services, or you are part of a highly respected organization. To ensure that you continue to receive emails from us, please add phil@leadershipadvisors.com to your address book.

May your holiday season be filled with all things good. Let us encourage you to take time to be with the ones you love!

 Xmas House
Phil Eastman & Lorene Rasmussen
Leadership Advisors Group

phone: (208) 344-0471
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