CEO Success Report -
March 2004
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CEO Success Report
- March 2004
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Increasing the Effectiveness and Enhancing the Lives of CEOs
and business owners.
Contents of this issue...
.. Welcome - A few words from the publisher, Gary Lockwood
.. Thought-Starter - "Don't Take it Back"
.. Guest article - "Lessons In Authentic Leadership"
.. CEO Resources
.. Quotes to use in your staff meeting this month
.. Humor to lighten up the executive suite
.. Contact the publisher
.. Subscribe and unsubscribe instructions
See past issues of the CEO Success Report at:
http://www.CEOSuccess.com/archives
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WELCOME to this issue of the CEO Success Report!
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Hello again. I'm Gary Lockwood, President of CEO Success.
Welcome back once again to the CEO Success. I know you have
no shortage of material to read and I thank you for choosing to
read our newsletter.
We work hard to provide practical ideas, thought-provoking concepts
and useful information for you.
You (and over 1000 of your CEO peers), have honored me by
being a loyal subscriber. For that, I appreciate you.
Recently, a client was telling me about her upcoming three-week
vacation to Australia. She was excited about going on such a
fabulous journey. She was also dismayed at the thought of
returning to the mounds of work that will surely await her.
Together, we worked out a bold plan. Read about it in today's
thought-starter article, "Don't Take it Back".
May I ask a small favor? Please forward this issue to other CEOs
and company presidents who may be interested in receiving
these messages. Thank you.
And now for our guest article this month.
Too many business leaders spend their position power telling and
bossing but doing very little leading. The fact of the matter is that
an effective leader is necessary for a group of people engaged
in a complex enterprise to be successful. Understanding the crucial
ingredients of successful leadership is important for coaching
current leaders and developing future leadership talent.
Our guest author this month, Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D. discusses a
crucial character trait that has received scant attention; the
willingness and the ability of the person in a leadership role to
embrace reality.
In order to humanize this lesson, this article profiles a businessman
who has forged a highly successful company based upon his unflinching
commitment to deal with what is rather than wishing that reality would
somehow be different. Read more about Daniel at the end of his article.
I hope you enjoy receiving these articles and ideas to
help you sharpen your thinking about being an effective CEO.
My wish is that you use the ideas in the CEO Success Report to
get the results you really want. If you want some help in putting
them into practice, or if you have questions, email or call.
As you know, our specialty is Increasing the Effectiveness
and Enhancing the Lives of CEOs and business owners.
Enjoy this issue with my compliments.
Sincerely,
Gary Lockwood
CEO Success
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This month's THOUGHT-STARTER
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"Don't Take it Back"
by Gary Lockwood
Last week, a client (let's call her Carol) was telling me about her
upcoming three-week vacation to Australia. Carol was excited
about going on such a fabulous journey. She was also dismayed
at the thought of returning to the mounds of work that will surely
await her.
Together, we worked out a plan. We first identified all the routine
tasks that Carol performed. Then we assigned each one to an
employee who could cover that task temporarily, for the three-
week period.
One by one, she delegated every routine task to someone who
could perform that activity for the three weeks of her trip to
Australia.
At this point, we discussed the bold strategy. If those people could
perform all her routine tasks for three weeks, why not let them
keep on performing those activities? Why take it back?
Carol discovered that there was no reason for her to resume
performing those routine chores. If her people could do it for
three weeks, they could do it from now on.
Then it hit her! What was Carol going to do with all the time that
she'll have when she returns from her trip? For Carol, the answer
was easy. She will block significant time for:
Planning and developing strategy.
Strengthening relationships with key customers.
Identifying possible new products and new markets.
Finding ways to increase profits.
Meeting with new potential customers.
What does all this mean for you?
First, this technique works well when you're planning to be away
from your office for an extended period of time. So why not plan
a vacation? You come back from time off with a new perspective,
a higher energy level, increased creativity, and often, a breakthrough
idea.
Secondly, make arrangements to let go, for the time of your
absence, of the activities that are consuming your time.
Let go of tasks that someone else can do - "I can do it better and
faster", you say. Sure you can, but ultimately, you are judged on the
results you can cause to happen, not just what you can do on your
own. If another person can accomplish a task 80% as well as you,
delegate.
Let go of your need to say, "Yes" to every request - Some of the
most stressed people around can't say no to the next fund-raiser,
the next committee, the Little League, the church, etc. Politely, but
firmly say "No".
Let go of some meetings - The typical manager spends 17 hours
each week in meetings. Nearly a third of that time is wasted.
You've seen the symptoms: hastily called meetings, no ending
time stated, no agenda, no official record of what was done or
said, no follow-up. Skip some of the meetings or send someone
else.
Finally, don't take it back! Instead of returning to your routine
tasks, figure out which tasks you perform that REALLY make
a difference. The rest is just stuff. What are the 2-3 things that
YOU do to drive the business? When you can focus on high-
impact tasks, you can significantly increase your productivity.
Let go of the routine and don't take it back!
C Copyright 2001-2004 BizSuccess All rights reserved. No duplication
About the Author...
Gary Lockwood is Increasing the Effectiveness and Enhancing the
Lives of CEOs, business owners and professionals.
Email: mailto:Gary@CEOSuccess.com
Web: http://www.CEOSuccess.com
==================================
Guest Article
==================================
Lessons In Authentic Leadership:
Embracing Reality
by Daniel D. Elash, Ph.D.
Effective leadership is all about leading one's followers to the goal.
That may seem self-evident, but too many business leaders spend
their position power telling and bossing but doing very little
leading. The fact of the matter is that an effective leader is
necessary for a group of people engaged in a complex enterprise to be
successful. The path to success may be fraught with barriers, hazards
and unexpected events, and it is the work of the leader to guide the
enterprise through those obstacles. If the enterprise stumbles, the
leader, in some way, has failed. Because the stakes of modern
business are so high, much attention has been given to understanding
the necessary and sufficient abilities of a business leader with
varied and often confusing results. Understanding the crucial
ingredients of successful leadership is important for coaching
current leaders and developing future leadership talent.
A trait is an aspect of personality that endures over time and across
settings. One crucial character trait that has received scant
attention has been the willingness and the ability of the person in a
leadership role to embrace reality. In a business setting this trait
surfaces in several ways. Leaders who possess this trait are people
who continuously evolve their understanding of a changing environment
by being open to new information, no matter how frightening or
personally distasteful it may be. It is demonstrated when leaders
strive to be accurate in their assessments of the capabilities of
their organizations in action, as they currently are and as they
could be in the future. It shows in leaders who continue to adapt
strategies to evolving circumstances. It can be seen in leaders who
are able to abandon cherished ways of acting when new responses are
required. Finally, since it is seldom enough that the leader alone
possesses clear vision, it means that he or she insists that the
organization, as a whole, develops the maturity to embrace what is.
History is full of examples of people in leadership roles who have
and have not been able to embrace reality and, in turn, generate
astonishing results or abject failures. Think of Franklin Roosevelt
leading the United States through the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Think of Mahatma Gandhi, leading India to free herself of the yoke of
colonialism. One of the most telling contrasts is apparent by
considering the leadership of Churchill and Hitler during World War
II. In the darkest of circumstances, Churchill embraced painful
realities and literally grew psychologically in the face of adversity,
while Hitler, unable to do the same embarked on a frantic denial of
truths that ultimately led to defeat and sealed his doom.
Leaders at every level need to have the willingness and the capacity
to embrace reality if they are to guide their constituencies to
success. One doesn't have to be a figure of historical proportions to
wrestle with the seductive power of a self-serving view of one's
circumstances. Human nature predisposes all of us to make and hold
assumptions; to develop a point of view held strongly enough to be
called a "mindset," and to want what is easy to do to be sufficient
for success. An effective business leader must be able to rise above
these instincts, see circumstances for what they are, and do what
must be done regardless of preference or style.
Endurance Athlete, Leader and Realist:
In order to humanize this lesson, this article profiles a businessman
who has forged a highly successful company based upon his unflinching
commitment to deal with what is rather than wishing that reality
would somehow be different. He is Jose Diaz, the co-founder and
president of the Herbal Worldwide Holdings Corporation. Jose Diaz has
worked with a partner to build their company and its major product,
Fattache, a dietary supplement for weight control. While his partner
is focused on the legal aspects of the business and takes a lead role
in negotiations, Jose is responsible for the operational end of the
company and he draws heavily upon the lifelong experience of an
endurance athlete to shape his approach.
Jose Diaz has spent his adolescence and much of his adult life
competing at a high amateur level in bicycle racing. He has competed
around the world and his competitive experience has shaped his
thinking. Although he is not a scientist, he has studied nutrition as
he searched for legal, ethical ways to enhance his performance. Based
upon his passion and experience he developed a dietary approach to
enhance metabolism and burn fat. His research led to his development
of his company's product line. Once he had a product he still needed
to build a company. The lessons that he learned as an endurance
athlete have shaped the strategy and tactics he has used to build his
business.
The Working Knowledge of an Endurance Athlete:
There are four working assumptions that Jose learned as an endurance
athlete that have served him well as a business leader.
-->You can fool your mind but you can't fool your body.
-->Success requires focused, considered work to build and sustain
your capabilities.
-->You must evolve your strategy to apply those capabilities in
calculated ways.
-->Events will necessitate continual changes and adjustments.
You can fool your mind but you can't fool your body:
Preparing to compete in endurance sports requires a lifestyle
commitment. Training can be grueling, tedious and exhausting. You
always eat to compete, not to indulge your appetites. If you cut your
workouts short, sneak some forbidden food, or lose your focus, no one
may see you, you might have a great excuse or a clever
rationalization, but your body knows. It always responds to the
choices you make rather than to your expressed intentions. What
separates the top competitors from the rest of the field is a
commitment to the integrity of their training. Many business leaders
expect that their plans and intentions should be quickly realized by
their employees. Little effort is spent to hone the team members'
abilities. The ineffective leader expects that his or her intentions
should simply generate competitive success.
"You have only the focus, strength and stamina that you have
painstakingly built, no more and no less. You can think of your mind
and body as your production facilities. No matter how you have
dreamed of being a winner, in the heat of competition, you are only
as good as your preparation has made you," says Jose.
In the business world, it is easy for a leader to lose his or her
discipline. It is even easier in a complex endeavor to let the
organization lose its discipline. At the end of the day, however,
what you produce is only as good as how well you have prepared. When
a business doesn't perform many leaders become angry, they holler at
their people, they may ridicule or abuse them. Jose's reaction to
this statement was to say, "That would be like me losing a race and
hollering at my legs or my lungs rather than learning how to better
tend to my preparation. Losing teaches lessons to the competitor with
the courage to learn them."
"This is also the thinking that has gone into the development of
Fattache. We have funded medical research out of our own pockets. We
did it to learn how the body works, not to cook up a 'finding' that
says what we had hoped to hear. We have six patents on our products.
We took the time and did the preparation, intellectually and
scientifically to create a product that can perform the way that we
want against any and all competition."
"This thinking has also affected how we produce and manufacture our
products. Our products are continuously and rigorously tested as they
are produced. We want to ensure that the form and substance of our
performance are up to the test. There are no shortcuts that we could
take that wouldn't affect our ability to perform credibly in the
competition of the marketplace."
"Finally, in all of our marketing, we promise realistic results. We
tell our customers to expect modest results that require effort to
sustain. We are proud to be unlike our competitors, who often promise
instant and miraculous results from their products. Their plan is to
make a quick killing from a public wanting to fool itself. They use
advertising to seduce new customers as earlier users become
discouraged and abandon them. We want customers for life. To achieve
that level of loyalty we must tell the truth."
Success requires focused, considered work to build and sustain your
capabilities:
Any endurance athlete is constantly measuring the results of his
efforts and working to improve his capabilities. The athlete must be
dedicated and powerfully focused upon the goal. These athletes
measure themselves against yesterday's performance but are always
aware of the performance statistics of the champions. One must
consider both elements when preparing to compete. They analyze their
performance and adjust their training to create improvements. There
are many strategies and techniques used by people trying to gain an
edge, but they are always tested against the realities of the
competition, the course and the clock.
"Your strength, stamina and conditioning are either developing or
decaying. Take a break and you pay. Yet, overdoing it can create
mental or physical problems as well. One must always be reading the
numbers and learning the lessons," says Jose.
Many business people compare themselves against last quarter's or
last year's numbers but they are ignorant as to the current
performance of their competitors. They miss a vital part of the
formula for success. Or, they confuse abuse with dedication. Their
people are overtaxed and fragmented in their focus. They view the
path to success as doing more with less. An endurance athlete has to
be focused on the essentials, but they need the equipment, nutrition,
and support team that is good enough to fuel the desired performance.
Many business leaders want their organizations to jump from a new
idea to powerful execution without doing the work required to build
the new muscles. To continue with the sports analogy, the similar
situation would be for the owner or managing director to believe that
since s/he has good athletes on the team, they should be able to
adjust effortlessly. They should just figure it out, as a group,
without missing a beat. In a business setting, the boss doesn't feel
that workers have the time to practice, rehearse and play together as
a team. So the typical pattern is that they tell people what to do
and when the team/business falls short they blame the workers rather
than their strategy.
Jose commented that, "I don't want to spend money foolishly. We run a
global company with only four full-time employees; our offices are
modest, yet we continue to fund medical research and travel the globe
to ensure our success. I wouldn't travel by boat because the ticket
might be cheaper any more than I would pass up protein as an athlete
in order to save on my food bills. You have to know what you need to
do to sustain peak performance and expend what the course requires.
You've always got to be sensible, but business people who try to
succeed by investing less than the competition requires will always
fail."
Jose believes, "Current performance is focused on the ultimate goal,
winning in competition. That goal serves as the reference point for
evaluating performance. It isn't enough to find a routine and fall
into a rut. You have to challenge your body in unexpected ways or it
adapts. You are constantly making calculated adjustments with both
the next race and the whole racing season in mind. I have found that
the same lessons hold true for running a global business. We can't
simply replicate what works in Europe and expect that it will work in
South America. We have to amass the capabilities to do what it takes
to win in each arena. We also have to recognize that entering a new
market is different than sustaining performance in that market over
time. As I said, we don't want to generate passing interest in our
products; we want to build the sustained relationships that lead to
the best results. That's why it is consistent performance, delivering
what we promise, that is so important."
An evolving strategy applies those capabilities in calculated ways:
An endurance athlete's strategy is formed during training and away
from competition. Once the contest begins the one certainty is that
unexpected events will occur. Savvy competitors assess what you are
trying to do and work to defeat your efforts. No one mindlessly works
their plan without putting their results at risk. While many events
are predictable there are always ones that aren't. Simply measuring
yourself against your strategy creates such a narrow focus that one
is always vulnerable to surprises.
"As we've risen to the dominant position in our markets in several
areas of the world, our competitors have responded in a variety of
ways. They've used some dirty tactics. They've spread misinformation,
and they've altered the way that they do business in the face of our
competition.
In turn we've responded to the challenges in keeping with our
long-term goals. We have fought the misinformation tactics in court
and won. They attacked our scientific credibility and we had to
respond, as expensive and distracting as that was. At the same time,
when competitors have raised the level of their hype and made
extravagant claims for their products, we've stayed the course. We
will only offer the promise of realistic results when our products
are used appropriately. We even offer workout guides with our dietary
supplements to underscore for the consumer the need for them to
understand how their bodies work.
My interest in this whole field began in my competitive days when I
was looking for legal, legitimate ways to support my body working at
its peak. I never minded being defeated by someone who had outworked
me but it galled me to play by the rules and have someone cheat to
gain an unfair advantage. I developed my products as a result of the
research that I first did for myself. That's why I can believe so
passionately in what I am selling. I know what I am talking about. I
am not simply selling something that I know how to make and
convincing people to try it. I am making available that which has
been competition proven and delivered results that made a real
difference for me."
Many businesses fall into the rut of listening to their production
people or their sales force exclusively and losing sight of what
provides the results that the customer really wants. They chase a
temporary sales advantage or produce what they can presently produce
even as the market shifts away from them. They become so wedded to
their current capabilities that they become predominantly
self-focused in their decision-making. If you listen to their sales
meetings you can hear them, reps and managers, berating the customers
for not buying more product. After all, the sales force has honed
their pitch to present their products in ways that make sense to
themselves! Others continue to represent their products as having an
advantage that they used to have when their competition has caught up
to them or even leap-frogged their offerings. It takes a realist to
recognize that yesterday's edge has dulled with time.
Events will necessitate changes and adjustments:
To be a winner, an endurance athlete knows that he or she must not
just perform as they have envisioned; they must be prepared to adjust.
Like jazz musicians improvising within the chords, the competitor
must know how to deliberately shift gears and make adjustments. Many
business leaders fail in not ensuring that their people know how to
adapt within the plan as well as they know how to work the plan.
Every strategic plan or yearly business plan that sits on the shelf,
gathering dust, bears silent testimony to this reality.
"We operate with such a small staff because we use distributors,
contract manufactures and brokers. In this way, we maintain the
ability to be maximally flexible. We are always ready to evolve and
adapt to better tools or methodologies." Jose has said that although
forming a new partnership with a distributor is a calculated risk, he
lets the results speak for themselves. He will support business
allies but he constantly monitors what they deliver, not what they
promise. "The results are clear. They are what they are. If you don't
deliver, we move on," he says.
"I trust my instincts when getting to know a new ally. There is no
foolproof way to make such decisions. We are loyal to people who are
performing. We'll do our best to help them be successful. But they
know going into the deal that we are watching. Performance is
everything."
"If I own my own plants then I am committed to the equipment and the
technology. My capital is tied up in assets with limited capabilities
and life spans. By being humble, we don't need to be big to play on
the world stage. We value flexibility over size. Our money continues
to go into research and product development. That is our business.
That's what we know. I am happy to let others do what they do best."
Dealing With the World as it is:
Jose has shared the perspective of a man who has brought an
unyielding sense of pragmatism to his business. His perspective was
honed on mountain roads from Europe to South America. The harsh
realities of endurance competition focused his mind. While he
competed as an individual performer, he learned lessons that have
proven to be vital to leadership effectiveness. Embrace reality,
anything else starts the journey to failure. Work to build the
capabilities required to perform against the best or stay home.
Strategies and tactics have to evolve as conditions unfold and to
become full of one's self means that one closes his mind to the
impact of changing conditions. Finally, when you've done the work,
reach for the stars; always push to find the limits of your potential.
These lessons in authentic leadership flow from his willingness to
embrace rather than resist reality.
About the Author...
Daniel Elash is a writer and business consultant focused on helping
companies realize their potential. He is constantly seeking stories
of ordinary business people creating extraordinary results. E-mail
the author at delash@syntient.com or visit his web site
www.syntient.com for further information.
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RESOURCES for CEOs
=============================================
US Census Bureau American Community Survey
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/
The American Community Survey is an ongoing nationwide survey
designed to complement the US national census, which is taken once
every ten years. The goal is to provide updated demographic, housing,
social and economic information more frequently than once a decade,
since the resulting data is used to make billion-dollar decisions on
federal program funding.
Currently the ACS provides updated annual data for all states, as well
as for all cities, counties, metropolitan areas and population groups
of 65,000 people or more. Check out the site for 2002 data profiles
in either tabular or narrative format. You'll discover updated
information
on age distribution, household type, nativity, language, geographic
mobility, education, occupation, commute time, housing costs, income
and more. You can also compare 2002 data with data from previous
years to assess changes over time.
Check it out at http://www.census.gov/acs/www/
* this resource brought to you by Larry Chase's Web Digest.
Visit http://wdfm.com
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QUOTES to use in your staff meeting this month
================================================
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting
different results."
Albert Einstein
"Fall seven times, stand up eight."
Japanese Proverb
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
Socrates
"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting
otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem."
Theodore Rubin
"The sweetest of all sounds is praise."
Xenophon
=================================================
HUMOR to lighten up
the executive suite
=================================================
The Meat
--------
One night at the dinner table, the wife commented, "When we were
first
married, you took the small piece of steak and gave me the larger.
Now you take the large one and leave me the smaller; You don't love
me any more..." "Nonsense, darling," replied the
husband, "you
just cook better now."
COFFEE BREAK
------------
A blonde was recently hired at an office. Her first task was to go
out
for coffee. Eager to do well her first day on the job, she grabbed
a large thermos and hurried to a nearby coffee shop. She held up
the thermos and the coffee shop worker quickly came over to take
her order. She asked, "Is this big enough to hold six cups of
coffee?"
The coffee shop worker looked at the thermos, hesitated a few
seconds,
then finally replied, "Yeah. It looks like about six cups to
me."
"Oh good!" the blonde sighed in relief. "Then give me two
regular, two
black, and two decaf."
***excerpts from: http://www.joker.org/ ***
=================================
CONTACT CEO Success
=================================
Gary Lockwood is the publisher of the CEO Success Report.
Email: mailto:Gary@CEOSuccess.com
Office: (909) 739-7444 Fax: (909) 494-4314
Postal: 6837 Raspberry Court, Corona, CA 92880
========================================
Your Comments, please?
========================================
I appreciate feedback, corrections, and comments about the
CEO Success Report. Please send your thoughts to:
Gary@CEOSuccess.com mailto:Gary@CEOSuccess.com
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