|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Letter from the CEO Greetings Momentum Subscribers,
Many corporate cultures value impatience (let's get it done already!), bravado (did I tell you how great I am?) and a hard edge (that guy is never working on my projects after he screwed up with the client). What about valuing virtues like patience and humility? What impact does that have in a working environment? This issue of Momentum celebrates underrated virtues - and their impact on others.
Enjoy!
Karlin Sloan
CEO
Karlin Sloan & Company
|
|
The Virtuous Leader
by M. Nora Klaver
Looking back on 2007, we see a year of great anxiety in the marketplace partly due to the sub-prime mortgage mess and the continued greed of prominent business leaders. Despite these unethical behaviors, sparks of virtue still exist at every level within every organization. As much as unethical acts change the course of a company's future, virtue can do the same and more.
For years, I've been intrigued by the power of emotions and virtues. Not only are emotions physiological reactions to stimulus but they predispose us to act. In other words, your actions correspond to the emotions you experience.
Virtues are equally intriguing. Often associated with angels, saints and victorian social mores, virtues seem to belong to a bygone age. Thankfully, they are still present even in the toughest work environments. Think about the company leader who refuses a salary, or the director who reorganizes himself out of a job. Each of these acts comes from a virtuous beginning.
But how do we get there? How do we incorporate virtue into our lives at home and at work? There are four principles which make virtue accessible to all of us.
Principle 1: Virtue predisposes us to act, just like emotions do. (Think of them as basic emotions on steroids.) Both move us to act, but the actions resulting from virtue tend to be more profound. For example, Jeff spoke up in his organization about giving back, and created a special program for disadvantaged youth in the community, creating customer loyalty and opportunities for education.
Principle 2: Virtue can be learned. Benjamin Franklin was not only a brilliant inventor and political leader, he was a clever business man and an upright citizen. He brought together friends of "ingenious acquaintance" to form Junto, "a club of mutual improvement." This group met regularly to debate, argue and, most importantly, to deepen the virtues they aspired to. Each day, a new virtue was selected as a focus. They learned together what it meant to be honest, compassionate, courageous and hopeful.
Principle 3: Virtue demands a choice. It requires a deliberate and thoughtful decision between the easy way out and the virtuous path. Virtue doesn't come accidentally as Steve Piersonti can attest. Steve was a senior editor with a large publishing house. When he was directed to lay off his staff - despite record earnings - he refused and lost his job in the bargain. This decision didn't come easily, yet Steve chose virtue over the easy way out. What happened to the organization? Instead of listening to Steve's suggestions of how they could address the situation, they forced the issue and lost both a special leader, and the top tier of his staff that had been chosen to stay on by the company.
Principle 4: Virtue changes you forever. Once we adopt virtue, our perceptions naturally change. Seeing life through this lens, we see how connected we all are. We notice the blessings in life and recognize our place in the world. When our perception changes, we change as well. And once this change has taken hold, we are never the same. Steve Piersonti's decision to act with integrity changed him irrevocably. Now, it is practically impossible for him to take any action without that integrity.
Virtue isn't just an old-fashioned concept. With understanding, practice and choice, it can be accepted as a daily part of leading and managing from our best selves.
|
Humility and Level 5 Leadership
by Kevin Cuthbert
In these days where personalities and large egos seem to dominate in the media, it is useful to reflect on some of the attributes of successful business leaders. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins defines a level 5 leader as someone who has "a paradoxical blend of professional will and personal humility." He uses the example of Darwin Smith the former CEO of Kimberly Clark. Smith possessed an iron will when it came to company's direction and strategies, but he did not possess the "charisma" or big personality that we often associate with leaders. It turns out that according to Collins' research, leaders like Smith do a much better job of growing companies than do "larger than life" CEOs like Jack Welch.
Level 5 leaders:
. Have great drive and determinations about the success of the enterprise. This is the sole focus of their efforts. They inspire others through standards of excellence and not through sheer force of personality.
.
Shun public adulation. They are more likely to give credit to subordinates (or to simple good luck) than they are to take personal credit for success.
. Focus time and attention on building bench strength. They have clearly defined succession plans.
Collins recounts in the book that the concept of Level 5 Leadership "found us." He has specifically instructed his researchers to downplay the role of top leaders in order to avoid the trap of attributing too much success or failure of an enterprise to one person. As the project went on however, they could not ignore this clear trend in what they were finding.
As it turns out though, this notion of humility and its role in leadership can be traced all the way back (at least) to Lao Tse who said "Avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men." He also said, " When the effecitive leader is finished with his work, people say it happened naturally."
|
The Payoff of Patience
by Elizabeth Olson
We executive coaches are certainly not tasked with helping our clients become more impatient, however, impatience has been a well-honed success factor of the top executive in the US and they are proud of it! Knowing that, offering coaching strategies on how to slow down and practice the art of patience - even with the desired result of going faster later-is not easily swallowed.
My client, let's call him Alex, recently saw the light while working with a four-person team tasked with designing a 2-day strategy retreat for sixteen of their peers. Normally, being the efficient and knowledgeable President he is, Alex would have crafted the strategic plan with a consultant, vetted it with a handful of trusted VP's, and then discussed it with these leaders for "buy-in". But, given his coaching goal of more empowerment and development of his leadership team AND the fact I was facilitating, he agreed to create a cross-sectional design team to prepare a high-engagement, decision-making meeting.
When I suggested two 90-minute planning meetings, Alex cut the time. Our first 60-minute meeting did not get us where we needed to be and Alex expressed frustration with how much more time this type of involvement required. I acknowledged the truth of his complaint and said the payoff would come later when the agenda would be more in tune with the needs of the participants (pay now or pay more later). He agreed to a two-hour second planning meeting and we accomplished our tasks but not without more concerns by Alex.
As the Design Team reviewed the initial strategic issues provided by Alex, they felt they needed rewording and prioritization. This annoyed Alex and was expressed as "they should only be allowed to work the process, not the content of the meeting." I encouraged him to be patient and see if this upfront time would help produce the ownership of decisions he was seeking from his people.
After the retreat he really saw how by letting go of being the sole driver and collaborating with the Design Team, his team was able to grapple with tough decisions and make choices they had never faced before. Even though Alex is not convinced the group made the same decisions he would have in all cases, he acknowledged old issues that had festered for years got resolved in two days. He also felt a profound sense of relief that he was not the only one accountable and the whines about these issues would go away- an aligned team now owned the decisions. Of course I never said "I told you so"...but Alex thanked me for my patience with him!
|
|
|
Quotations
"Endurance is patience concentrated."
Thomas Carlyle
"To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them."
Marleen
Charles de Montesquieu
"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."
John Quincy Adams
"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one." Marcus Aurelius
"I've been humbled. That makes you grateful for every day you have."
Drew Barrymore
|
Symposium Announcement
Chicago, Illinois
September 11-13, 2008
"Coaching Excellence for Sustainable Leadership"
The
stakes for sustaining and assuring powerful leadership at all levels in
organizations have never been so high. Data indicate that some 75
million workers in the U.S. will retire in the next five to ten years,
including fifty percent of the CEOs in major organizations. The talent
to replace them will need to be chosen from a much smaller group. This
same phenomenon is echoed throughout the world, in both public and
private sectors.
In a fast-paced, global business environment with information overload,
virtual teams and competing priorities, what roles can organizational
coaching play to:
- Help leaders develop resilience, influence and emotional intelligence?
- Develop high performing teams?
- Help leaders manage and lead effectively across multigenerational workgroups?
- Engage leaders and managers to alter organizational cultures to be more sustainable?
Join us in Chicago at an ICCO symposium hosted by Leo Burnett, and sponsored by Karlin Sloan & Company. We will engage, through provocative case studies and
facilitated reflective conversation, the challenges of leadership and
the role that coaching excellence can play in enabling and building
strength in leadership and capability in organizations for long-term
sustainability.
This elite program is limited to 50 participants so please register now to ensure your spot.
Register here: ICCO
|
|
KS&C 2008 Program Announcement:
The Sustainable Leadership Program is Here
The future is here, and companies worldwide are facing some very real opportunities and threats. What are our world's largest, most powerful organizations concerned about? There is a shrinking pool of top leadership talent available to draw from. Our leaders are burned out, stressed, and there's attrition at the top levels. There's a need for new leadership skills and styles as new generations enter the workforce, and organizations are gearing up for flexible, adaptive, strategic thinking at the executive level and throughout the organization. What will organizations be focusing on in the next five years? - Rising oil prices/ increasing energy demands
- Ecosystem degradation/ resource depletion
- Exponential population growth
- Instant access to information globally
- Rapidly changing market conditions
In order for our organizations to survive and thrive, we need to galvanize our leadership skills, capacities, and attributes into effective action. Collaboration, "coopetition", innovation, flexibility and individual commitment are the key. How ready are you to lead your organization into a positive future? What leaders take away from the Sustainable Leadership program: - Heightened awareness of your own leadership strengths, competencies, and attitudes.
- Strategies to engage your organization and improve performance across the board.
- Practices to make your work, your life, and your organization more sustainable over time.
- Time to reflect on your role and your impact on colleagues, customers, and the world at large.
- Ideas to help you and your organization increase the bottom line through practices and programs that contribute to the greater good.
- Customizable modules that address real issues in your organization through the "Smarter, Faster, Better" lens.
This four-stage program is designed for senior executive leaders in four modules; an introduction, and the smarter, faster, and better segments, spread over 3.5 to 5 days of course content. The program is customized specifically to the organization's top issues in leadership. One on one coaching augments the program to integrate key concepts and roll them out into the greater organization for exponential impact.
Contact us for more information about bringing Sustainable Leadership to your organization.www.karlinsloan.com |
be the change.
|
|
|
- 