CEO Success Report -
September 2003
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CEO Success Report
- September 2003
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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 PARK in the Comfort Zone!"
.. Guest article - "Thinking big about small-scale
projects"
.. 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.
Your personal "comfort zone" is where you are comfortable in
what you are doing in your job, your life and your experiences.
It is when you have no feelings of risk or anxiety. Some call it
"being comfortable". Some would call it "a rut".
If you are not learning, trying new things and growing, your job
or business may be deteriorating.
My "thought-starter" in today's issue looks at how to expand
your comfort zone.
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.
Large initiatives are often in the spotlight, yet it's the less
glamorous short-range projects that play a pivotal role in an
organization's success day after day.
Examples of short projects that have a big impact on a
company's overall success include: product roll-outs, computer
upgrades, in-house training programs, equipment installations,
conferences and annual meetings, office moves, budget preparation,
tradeshows and marketing events, among many others.
There's a strategic imperative to consider the adverse effects that
a haphazard approach to short-term projects can have on big
long-term results.
Our guest author this month, Dean Carlson, shows you how to
effectively manage important small-scale projects. By taking
just a few simple steps, you can increase team efficiency, reduce
stress, and accomplish more business-critical projects on time
and on budget. Read more about Dean 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 PARK in the Comfort Zone!
by Gary Lockwood
"Minds, like bodies, will fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state
from mere excess of comfort." - Charles Dickens
Most of us have a thermostat that regulates the temperature in
our house.
When it gets a bit too warm, the air conditioning kicks on to
bring the temperature down to an acceptable range. When the
temperature drops below a comfortable point, the heater comes
on to bring the room temperature up to a more comfortable level.
The "comfort zone" is the range of temperature that is not too hot
and not too cold; just comfortable.
Your personal "comfort zone" is where you are comfortable in
what you are doing in your job, your life and your experiences.
It is when you have no feelings of risk or anxiety. Some call it
"being comfortable". Some would call it "a rut".
You have your own personal comfort zone.
Your built-in "thermostat" regulates your level of anxiety, fear
and discomfort. When you step outside your normal, existing
boundaries in the areas of your knowledge, skills, habits and
attitude, you begin to feel a bit anxious. The natural tendency
is to pull back.
Try this: fold your arms. Now, fold them the other way.
How did that make you feel? Felt a bit unnatural, didn't it? That's
why you usually stay within your comfort zone. When you try some-
thing new, you often feel uneasy about it, and frequently pull back.
The security feels good.
The downside of all this is that always staying in your comfort zone
can be very limiting.
The world passes us by as we stagnate. Complacency, in our
fast-paced competitive world, can be fatal to business and
severely limit personal and professional growth. If you are not
learning, trying new things and growing, your job or business
may be deteriorating.
How do you <-- e x p a n d --> your comfort zone?
Before you just throw all caution to the wind, try some simple things.
> Drive home a different route.
> Shop at a different grocery store.
> Order something from the menu that you've never tried before.
> Sleep on the other side of the bed.
Make a conscious effort to experiment.
Let yourself feel the adrenaline level rise a bit. Allow your anxiety
level to increase. Feel your heart rate and breathing going faster.
The adrenaline is your body's natural drug that, in moderation,
makes you sharp, creative, and quick. It creates the feeling of
excitement and exhilaration that comes from trying something
new. Recognize that it also can be scary and stressful. Some
stress is useful. Too much can be harmful. Some stress provides
energy. Too much stress causes distress and can lead to burnout
if done to extreme.
Why would you want to give yourself the stress of stepping outside
your comfort zone?
Because that's where growth takes place.
Just like a muscle gets stronger when you exercise it outside its
normal range of use, you get stronger when you get out of your
rut. And just like your muscles, once you stretch beyond your
current capabilities, you don't ever go back to your original
dimensions.
As you try new things, you gain confidence. Confidence makes you
feel powerful and good. And when you are confident that you can
survive new ideas, you allow yourself to try even more new things.
What's the limit?
Obviously, you need to be realistic in your risk management. Most
successful people think through the possible outcomes of taking
a risk. Then they prepare for how they would deal with each
potential outcome. Successful people take risks, but they are
not foolhardy or stupid.
What are some higher-level activities that could add to your
personal and professional growth?
Here's my challenge to you.
Make a list of 50 things that, if you really were successful in doing
them, you would be a better person or have a better company.
Things like:
Give a speech (oh no!),
Write and publish an article,
Start an exercise program,
Meditate daily,
Teach a class,
Feed a homeless person,
Volunteer,
Climb a mountain,
Learn to play a new musical instrument,
Sign up for a dance class,
Try for that promotion,
And so on.
Then choose one or two that you are willing to do within the next
90 days. Schedule those new activities, and then go for it.
Afterward, choose one or two more and do it again. Make
personal and professional growth a lifelong habit.
Don't stay PARKED in the comfort zone.
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
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Guest Article
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Thinking big about small-scale projects
by Dean Carlson
Most business managers wouldn't even consider starting a large and
expensive project without having an automated project management
process in place, yet many organizations routinely use ad hoc methods
to coordinate smaller-scale projects (typically ranging from several
weeks to several months). Although small projects usually lack high
visibility, there are good reasons to treat them as a high priority.
Large initiatives are often in the spotlight, yet it's the less
glamorous short-range projects that play a pivotal role in the
organization's success day after day. In many cases, smaller
initiatives such as feasibility studies are the launch pad for
attention-grabbing mega projects.
When you think about it, the list of small everyday projects is
endless. Examples of short projects that have a big impact on the
company's overall success include: product roll-outs, computer
upgrades, in-house training programs, equipment installations,
conferences and annual meetings, office moves, budget preparation,
tradeshows and marketing events, among many others.
Small-scale projects are often handled in fragmented ways, in part,
because the demands of today's fast-paced marketplace forces
workgroups to juggle numerous initiatives with constantly shifting
priorities and resources. So many people figure what's the point in
investing any up-front effort into a project plan that will probably
change multiple times anyway? Why bother tracking when project
revisions occurred and for what reason? Why not just stomp on the
gas and get on with it? Why not just email makeshift to-do-lists
back-and-forth among project participants? Why not just have
frequent team meetings to discuss status on tasks and issues? Why
take time to record the lessons-learned on a month-long project?
At a micro level, when people are in the thick of action and pushing
hard to meet a deadline, they often resist taking adequate time to
plan and track outcomes on short-lived projects. For busy people who
are swept along in a stream of important initiatives, it can seem
counter-intuitive to first slow down and plan in order to speedily
navigate later project challenges. At a macro level, however, there's
a strategic imperative to consider the adverse effects that a haphazard
approach to short-term projects can have on big long-term results.
The key to improving the coordination of smaller-scale projects is to
choose a versatile structure that is simple to learn, easy to
implement. A word of caution, steer clear of elaborate
methodologies commonly used in managing large projects - the
complicated procedures will only frustrate people working on
short-duration projects that inherently have many changing dynamics.
Also, using complex project software that requires specialized
training and is technically challenging to deploy, can impose
barriers to collaboration among dispersed internal and external team
members. Unlike software for large projects, automated tools for
short projects must let users readily adapt to events as they unfold
and easily accommodates deployment to ever-changing small teams
spanning multiple departments and/or businesses.
As organizations feel relentless pressure to create innovative
products and services, contain costs, respond to customer needs, hire
and retain skilled workers, improve internal processes, and generally
achieve more with less - the benefits of moving beyond a patchwork of
project-tracking methods can be many-fold.
The high-payoff benefits for effective project planning and tracking
include:
"Establishing well-defined project objectives that align with
the organization's goals
"Enabling workgroups to see a full overview of tasks and
resources across multiple initiatives
"Improving workload balancing and simplifying decision-making
on changing scope or priorities
"Building a realistic schedule and gaining strong buy-in from
team members and stakeholders
"Enhancing accountability between team members on completing
task assignments on schedule
"Streamlining communication with centralized access to latest
documents and real-time status updates
"Helping people sharpen their focus on day-to-day projects
priorities
"Keeping managers informed about pending issues, overdue
tasks, project budget updates, etc
"Making project meetings shorter, more focused and having
better follow-up on assigned action-items
"Building a knowledge base that retains key data for
modeling future projects and initiatives
When starting out to improve coordination of smaller initiatives,
using at least partially automated methods, it's best not to be
overly ambitious, so there's minimal disruption in getting work done
and meeting deadlines. Target 1 or 2 projects to begin with - the
goal is to develop a semi-formal process with basic documentation.
At the beginning, managers should be prepared that many people on
small project teams may feel awkward in adopting a semi-formal format
until new habits take hold and they experience the benefits first-hand.
An easy project to target early on is one that repeats from
time-to-time and has relatively few unknowns, such as training
programs, conferences, or marketing events. Once a project is
selected, the first step is to create a "core objectives" document
that summarizes the opportunity or problem that is driving the
project agenda and also describes how the project's success will be
measured. Although people on the project team may think the
objectives are obvious, it is important to establish and constantly
reinforce such "best practice" routines.
In the next step, the project team should outline high-level tasks to
be done, while staying mindful not to get bogged down in granular
details (that can be subject to many variables). The team should
then specify requirements/deliverables, define project scope (in
terms of time, people and costs), and list potential obstacles to
overcome (e.g. resource availability or time demands of concurrent
projects).
The team should identify simple metrics that can incrementally track
project progress, such as time spent on major planned activities as
well as "unplanned" tasks and issues. One big reason for using key
metrics is to establish an early warning system to alert the team
when a project is headed down a problematic path. Leading indicators
are especially critical on cross-functional projects, because the
more departments and external partners involved, the greater the
challenge in completing projects on schedule and on budget. Having
current progress data is essential in helping sponsors and
stakeholders make timely decisions about emerging project trouble
spots. Do we reduce project scope? Do we extend the deadline? Do
we recruit more resources? Do we pull resources from another
project? Do we need to shift project priorities?
After deciding on the key metrics, assign the high-level tasks to
team members, estimate task durations (with start date and due date)
and make sure everyone has a clear picture of the time-critical
string of dependent tasks (task dependencies). This is where the
strong visual image of a Gantt Chart, that shows a timeline of
interconnected tasks, helps the entire team focus their efforts in
the same direction and strengthens accountability bonds between team
members. The graphical components of a Gantt Chart helps everyone on
the team see who suffers when a task date is missed or when someone
was not notified well in advance that a due date might be missed. If
possible, try to create one centralized place where anyone on the
team can access current information and save people from having to
constantly chase down project updates. A well-structured plan that
is regularly updated and readily accessible keeps everyone on the
same page, keeps the momentum rolling, keeps people results-focused,
and keeps surprises to a minimum.
Choosing the best tool to improve team collaboration on smaller
initiatives depends on a number of factors. If the project team works
on just one project at a time and the workgroup consists of several
individuals located nearby in the same office, then, a well-organized
spreadsheet can often do the job. On the other hand, if the team is
comprised of people in different locations and/or participating in
multiple projects simultaneously, then it is probably better to use a
web-based project application with an inexpensive month-to-month
subscription, such as Teamwork.com. Full-feature online
applications that don't require software installation, can greatly
simplify project collaboration because they are easy-to-deploy and
the entire team has the ability to remotely access all the latest
project-related information (including documents) using a standard
web browser.
With proper tools and a proper approach, the capability to
effectively manage important small-scale projects is within everyone's
reach - whether it is a couple-person-office, or a large corporation.
By taking just a few simple steps organizations can increase team
efficiency, reduce stress, and accomplish more business-critical
projects on time and on budget!
Dean Carlson is the Founder of Teamwork.com and has trained more than
20,000 individuals on time and project management skills over the
past 20 years. Dean can be reached at dcarlson@teamwork.com or by
phone at (425) 467-1847. For a 30 Day Free Trail of Teamwork.com
just click on the link.
http://www.teamwork.com/?pid=bizsuccess01
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RESOURCES for CEOs
=============================================
The Executive Committee - Chief Executives Working Together
http://www.CEOSuccess.com
** Attention CEOs
Business leaders are choosing a new way to better their companies and
themselves - through membership in TEC, an international organization of
CEOs.
Imagine the benefits of meeting regularly with a small group
of company leaders in your area to share experiences, exchange ideas and
solve common problems.
Thousands of chief executives turn to TEC for a learning experience they
cannot get anywhere else. We are committed to connecting CEOs with the
people, ideas and information they need to help them improve their
businesses and enhance their lives.
Check it out at http://www.CEOSuccess.com
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QUOTES to use in your staff meeting this month
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Having more money does not insure happiness. People with ten million
dollars are no happier than people with nine million dollars.
Hobart Brown
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most
intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Charles Darwin
If you are never scared, embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take
chances.
Julia Soul
Consumers are statistics. Customers are people.
Stanley Marcus
You miss 100% of the shots you never take.
Wayne Gretzky
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HUMOR to lighten up
the executive suite
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Crazy Drivers
As a senior citizen was driving down the freeway,
his car phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife's
voice urgently warning him,
"Herman, I just heard on the news that there's a
car going the wrong way on Highway 401. Please be
careful!"
"Darn," said Herman, "It's not just one car. It's
hundreds of them!"
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Overdue Bill
A lawyer sent an overdue bill to a client. A note
was attached that stated: "This bill is one year old."
By return mail the lawyer had his bill back. To it was
attached a card which read: "Happy Birthday."
------------
Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away
three weeks before you need it.
***excerpts from: http://www.joker.org/ ***
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CONTACT CEO Success
=================================
Gary Lockwood is the publisher of the CEO Success Report.
Email: mailto:Gary@CEOSuccess.com
Office: (800) 272-1575 (USA) * (909) 739-7444
Fax: (909) 494-4314
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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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