Leadership: Your Accessible Humanity

“The degree to which you are willing to be open and therefore vulnerable strongly influences the degree to which others feel connected to you, are inspired by you, and are willing to trust you and your leadership.”  When I look back and reflect on my experiences with others’ leadership, a high point occurred while I was on an Alaskan vacation cruise with my oldest daughter last year. I was particularly impressed by the leadership displayed by many crew members and especially the Captain. In addition to having extraordinary knowledge about operating large motor vessels around the world, he had to have broad expertise in business including; operations, health and safety, customer service, motivating employees from several different nations, assuring environmentally friendly practices, international law, and much more to be effective in his job.

What really struck me most about this very busy Captain was his accessibility. With more than 2,000 passengers aboard, it was beyond impossible for everyone to dine at the Captain’s table. To solve that problem, he made a point of making himself available in creative ways multiple times throughout the trip. One of his most effective was a cooking demonstration he conducted on making Dutch pancakes.

He created openness or accessibility with light-hearted humor and by sharing part of his life with us as follows:

• He talked us through preparing and serving a dish his mom taught him how to make as a child including samples for each of us. It was surprising and fascinating not only that he could cook, but that he was willing to get up on stage in front of passengers and show us.
• He conducted the demonstration with the assistance of one of his staff who served as his “straight man” to keep a lively banter going. While the Captain took us through the food preparation, his assistant facilitated an “open Q&A” between him and the audience that included questions about his life on land during his time off, his relationships, and even his dog.

People left this very successful event with a sense of personal connection with the Captain which, of course, carried over to the crew and the cruise line itself. The experience got me to thinking more broadly about other times and ways that I have seen leaders share their humanity and what a powerful leadership move it is.

How available are you to your employees? Would you ever do something as accessible and personal as a cooking demonstration with a live no-holds-barred Q&A?

There is immense demonstrable value in allowing yourself to be seen as human. It creates greater trust and connection which calls forth increased risk taking, creativity, and collaboration.

Why not think of a creative way to let your team get to know you better? Demonstrate something you love – tying flies for fishing, building model airplanes, grilling, cooking or whatever?  It doesn’t have to take a lot of your time and it will be one of the ways that you grow your effectiveness as a leader.

Singular Goals: At What Cost to Vision?

 

 I’m starting off this blog with a fairly strong statement: Setting singular, specific, and easily measurable short-term goals can systematically lead to the demise of an organization’s true vision and mission, often without anyone noticing for years.

I have been involved in two separate and very diverse cases where clear, singular goals with short-term measurements and important rewards attached have been causing systemic flaws in overall intentions. These incidents occurred in two different and historically very successful organizations. In one case, the organization has identified the issue and is taking very effective corrective action. The other organization seems unaware and longer-term negative consequences are not yet clear.

The first case is with The Hunger Project, an organization very dear to my heart for more than 30 years. THP had a five-year grant to demonstrate “scale-up” of its effective Epicenter program in Africa. Much effort was put into identifying all of the critical criteria for measuring a self-sustaining community throughout the development of the program.  When the grant came, however, singular pressure occurred across the field organization to open new Epicenters, build buildings, and declare the earlier Epicenters self-sustaining to satisfy the objectives of the grant.

Fortunately, our African leadership identified that some of the communities had not truly reached a self-sustaining basis. They dug for real data around the level of effort and time required to truly achieve a self-sustaining community. The program has now been redesigned focusing on key human accomplishment criteria, the grant has been extended, and people throughout the organization are refocused on the big picture and broader measures of success. They did an amazing job of pausing, assessing and refining to be sure that the criteria for success were appropriate and that short-term “success” did not damage the long term vision and mission. When they found they were off course, they made the necessary adjustments to insure the outcomes that really mattered.

In the second case, the issue the organization is facing is that different departments deal with short and long-term issues and consequences. Those in one department are incentivized to launch new projects quickly, while the other group will be held accountable for long-term performance of each project. As more and more projects are launched prematurely to gain the short-term incentives, doubt is building “in the field” about the effectiveness of each new project leader and the overall credibility of the firm’s work over time. To date, higher-level managers seem unaware of what is happening or are driven by singular, short-term goals that will justify current, possibly detrimental behavior for some time. This is a recipe for missing the big picture and the ultimate vision, and higher purpose of an organization. The consequences will likely gradually develop and then seemingly “suddenly appear” and it may take a lot of time, money, effort and resources to correct, (if it’s actually a correctable situation in the end).

Do you see your organization in either of these two cases?  How are you motivated and measured?  If you have not yet stepped up to address underlying systemic issues and “moved to the high ground” of strategic leadership the way The Hunger Project leadership has, what are the long run costs?  As a leader you must be the keeper of the vision and mission and you must collaborate with your organization to understand if the path you are taking is the right one.

Mutual Trust, Respect & Safety – Essential Ingredients of Collaboration

Collaboration is a hot topic these days. When it comes up people tend to nod their heads and affirm “ah yes, collaboration, I know what that means,” and then immediately turn around and do something distinctly uncollaborative. Because we believe collaboration is fundamental to the new model of leadership we want to explore ingredients we believe are necessary to set the context for a collaborative environment.

To begin, we believe to even get started collaborating there must be an atmosphere of mutual trust, respect, and safety. This is something when raised with clients often gets a lot of heading nodding and affirmation of understanding, and then almost immediately someone does something that is counterproductive to this context. So if your reaction is “oh yes, I already know what that is” check yourself. Do you really know or is that thought one that Suzanne Frindt would call “instant, automatic and unexamined” – more of a reaction than deep understanding?

In order to diagnose the level of mutual trust, respect and safety within your team and organization you will need to be a bit of a detective. We always recommend starting any inquiry with yourself first. So try an experiment and self-observe for a day. When you are engaging with others are you aware of your body language, your body sensations, the thoughts racing through your head as you speak and the physical responses of your listener? Do you even really hear your own words? Your tone of voice? Can you identify where you are “coming from?” Your frame of mind? Your agenda? These questions are simple but not necessarily easy to practice. If the truth is that your communication just pours out and you’ve never even thought to examine it, start by actually listening to yourself as you speak. If you feel successful observing yourself in this way then see if you can also “be responsible for what get’s heard” (one of our basic Operating Principles – get a free download of them here). What look do you see on the face of the person you are speaking with? Do they sit forward or back after you speak? Do their eyes sparkle or go flat? These are simple tests as to how safe it is to engage with you at that moment.

After learning how well you create an atmosphere of mutual trust, respect and safety with those you work with, it’s important to consider the whole team. The best test I know of regarding safety in a conversation with a group is “is there anything you wouldn’t share?” If so, that is the degree to which it is not safe. I am not saying you must be able to spill your guts. In professional environments it’s important to be open, but not necessarily personal. So we are not talking about exposing your deepest darkest personal history. Often in groups, people don’t even feel safe giving honest professional feedback about an idea that is on the table. If you can’t provide your honest perspective on the direction of the business, or a new product or service, then it’s not safe. By observing your willingness to be open you will have a conscious measure of safety.

So how safe is your work environment? Do you and your team interact within a framework of mutual trust respect and safety? If not, this is a critical piece to start building if you want to become truly collaborative.

2013 - Dream Big!

To move into a New Year powerfully and to create the results you want there are some key steps to take. The first is creating an “elegant ending” to the past. Last week we posted about “letting go of 2012,” and included a free download of a worksheet to help you do it. Now it’s time to move on to envisioning and documenting your 2013 “Yonder Star(s)” and creating plans for fulfillment.(Note: The first part of this post talks about how to effectively map out your personal goals. If you want to move straight into planning for your business check out the last paragraph of this post. We’ve got a Hot Wired Strategic Plan template for you as a free download.) One way to help yourself succeed is to make your resolutions “public” to others. To put more wind in your sails, promise others that you will deliver! You can ask someone you trust to be a “committed listener.” This involves a commitment from them to listen to you as you talk about the status of your plans, your struggles and your successes. It does not involve them giving advice or telling you what to do next, (unless you make a specific request for it). Another way to succeed is to hire a coach. Someone who is trained to support people in achieving their dreams and plans.

If you are a bit more experienced at this process, take a step up in rigor and create a set of goals for the different areas of your life. Categories you might include are: 1) Career/Financial 2) Well-Being or Health 3) Relationships 4) Spiritual 5) Personal 6) Wild Card How bold are you willing to be setting your goals? If you are completely certain you can make the goals are you stretching yourself enough? Focus on designing the most catalytic, highly leveraged action steps you can. By “catalytic” we mean that your actions produce the intended results without your being used up in the process. By “highly leveraged,” we mean you produce very big results with minimal resources.

If you’ve been successful at this level of work and/or are ready to take on your first effort at a Strategic Plan for your company or affiliation, we suggest using what we call our “2130 Partners Hot Wired Strategic Plan.” We call it Hot Wired because it covers many of the levels and topics of an elaborate plan and yet you can produce a decent draft in a couple of hours. The next pass can then be developed to whatever level of detail you wish. The key, however, is to get the initial draft knocked out in as short a time as you can so that you shift your paradigm about goals and actions as you develop the more detailed plans. You can download the worksheet for our 2130 Partners Hot Wired plan by clicking here.

Leadership: Underneath it All

Note: Dwight is currently out on leave so we are running some “best of” blog posts from his writing for the Vistage Executive Street blog that you may not have seen before. Enjoy!

There are perhaps infinite facets, qualities, layers and levels to successful leadership. While certainly a complex and rich topic, I am going to dive underneath most of these complexities to what is, in a sense, a “leadership bottom line.” I am talking about an “underneath it all,” that, if not addressed, causes a lot of problems. Most importantly, it can derail important strategic and cultural efforts, raise stress levels, and create a myriad of upsets in a team or organization.

This bottom line is essentially universal. It is the fear of not being good enough. At some level, this is not a fear exclusive to leaders, it is a human fear. Writer Ernest Holmes calls it, “the universal doubt.” I think doubt is not quite strong enough a word and that really, fear is more accurate.

Author John Eldredge in “Wild At Heart,” talks about your original wound. Brene Brown, in her powerful TED talks on vulnerability, calls it your shame. I have found it to be that very first hugely negative declaration I made about myself as I began creating my identity, my strategy to survive childhood. The important thing to know about these perspectives is how powerfully this dynamic shapes our thoughts, words and deeds in the present and how strongly your survival brain holds on to them and struggles to be sure no one ever finds out about it!

This fear may have slightly different wording in different individual’s minds; “I’m not good enough… I’m not worthy…I’m stupid…I am a fraud, etc.” You have your own personal and very specific version. The key is to know that your fear is powerful and will cause you to create elaborate personality adaptations to cover it up.

Some people become aggressive, some people become perfectionists, some people become fearful of making decisions. All of these approaches are survival strategies unconsciously driven by, “I’m not good enough and I must not be found out!” All are some version of fight, flight, or freeze.

If you are truly committed to developing powerful, effective, collaborative leadership capacities, then get to work on this deep seated issue! Begin to notice your own very personal version. Consider how it is a driver in your behavior and actions and notice the consequences for the other people in your life.

This may be a very uncomfortable inquiry that could require support from a coach, counselor, spiritual director or other professional. The important thing to remember is that this is a universal issue. It’s not unique to you, or even a small group of people. Knowing that it’s truly human to have this fear affords a sense of compassion for both yourself and others.

When you are really ready to experience powerful, effective, and sustainable leadership, tackle this issue head-on for yourself. It will forward your leadership and your life.

Suzanne Frindt Appeared on Conscious Discussions Radio Show

Suzanne Frindt appeared on the Conscious Discussions Radio Show hosted by Lillian Brummet on October 2nd, 2012. You can listen to the show at this link http://www.blogtalkradio.com/consciousdiscussions/2012/10/02/be-an-agent-for-positive-change or you can listen using the player below

Listen to internet radio with Lillian Brummet on Blog Talk Radio

2012 - How's It Working For You?

In mid-December we wrote one of our year end, “get ready for next year” blog posts called, “It's 2012 - Make It Happen!” Now that we are moving in to the second half of the year we are wondering - how’s that working for you?

Traditionally at the end of the year the majority of our clients and friends are working on “what’s next.”  The effort ranges from New Year’s resolutions, to budgets, to creating an entirely new vision and, (hopefully), strategy to go with it. Often somewhere in the first quarter, (if not actually in January), these “best of intentions” fall to the wayside. As the economy continues to be challenging and the levels of stress seem to be in an unprecedented range we thought now would be a good time to “look up and out” and revisit the idea of a bold vision in 2012.

Most of the time, when we talk about “bold vision” we find these efforts produce plans based on past experience, rather than launching a truly bold vision. So to clarify what we mean, we say vision has more to do with a dream for the future than what’s happened in the past.  This is a really critical point. When teams go to create a vision they really think they are working on the future, but this “predictions based on the past” almost always dominates the conversation and people aren’t even aware of it. (Next time you are in a high level strategy session or meeting about vision, see if you can detect what we are pointing to here. If you need more clarity, we talk a lot about the differences in our book, Accelerate, in the section on Leadership Choice Point.)

In the book we also emphasize that most ”leadership” activity is based on looking backwards, reviewing results to-date, and building a plan forwards from that past.  There is nothing wrong with this. As human beings our minds and memories are constructed to have a “database” that builds on past experience. If we didn’t have a “cumulative learning ability” we would be helpless. Every moment would be new. We wouldn’t be able to find home at night, wouldn’t recognize it when we got there, and strangers would occupy it if we couldn’t draw effectively from our past experience.  That’s the good news part.

The bad news part is that past-based predictions also keep us enslaved to what’s stored in our mental database, (or what we fondly call “the mental File Cabinet.”)  It keeps our attention on our limitations. For example, we know the story of a head-hunter who was working on a placement. He had spoken with a potential candidate and told him, “I can’t present you for this CEO job, for which you are an excellent candidate, because you don’t have a chemistry degree.” The last CEO of the particular company had failed. He had a chemistry degree and the Board of Directors insisted on the new candidates having one also. So it’s an interesting issue. In this example, if a chemistry degree could predict and determine success, why did the previous guy fail? Why does it make it a given that this other outstanding candidate would fail because he doesn’t have one? Somewhere in the past, this notion became a “predictor of success” and even in the face of evidence to the contrary, it’s still being pursued. (This is why we used the strong language “enslaved” in the first sentence of this paragraph.)

It gets worse when we are in this predictive state and also creating and executing on a vision. Check your own thoughts here and see how often you can be truly creative and go for something that is not a projection of the current path of your life, your resume, your finances, your job…you see where this is going.  Borrowing from the article I will cite below, we could call this “remembering the future.”

The Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition on 12-12-10 included an article, “Why The Mind Sees the Future in the Past Tense,” by Matt Ridley in which the author points out that recent neuroscience studies show the same parts of the mind hold our episodic memories and our imagined futures. Given the evidence here, it’s no wonder the “predictable” dominates our thinking.

What excited me about the article were the studies that show that, “the more unexpected something is, the more conscious we are of it.”  Your brain has to work harder when what shows up doesn’t match prediction, or expectation. What this means to me is that the most highly leveraged way to get yourself and your team in to powerful action is to start throwing new stuff in front of your collective brains. Create a BOLD vision that you can’t prove based on the past. You will be stimulated, more conscious, and therefore more present. You will be unleashing creativity instead of invoking your past experience, circumstances, knowledge, (or lack of it), and limitations.

I am not being “Pollyanna” or encouraging “woo-woo” here. Once your new bold vision, or as we call it, “Yonder Star” is created, it’s time to be responsible for the past. It’s time to get very clear about your situation – “the way that it is and the way that it isn’t.”  If you start looking from the perspective of your Yonder Star as if it is already fulfilled, your mind will start discovering what it did to get there. It will get very excited about remembering.

In his blog post, “Strategy Slam’”, a long-time colleague, Russ Phillips, recommends going to Denny’s by yourself with a pen and pad to do your creative thinking. I am much more creative in dialogue with other committed players.  Many people wait for adversity to set in, and it will, sooner or later, to force themselves and their associates to get creative…”sort of a create or die strategy.” There are lots of ways to “get yourself there.” What gets you in action for a bold inquiry?  What’s your most creative environment? What calls forth your commitment? What stops you? These may be the most powerful questions you can ask yourself as you revisit, resurrect, or invent for the first time your bold vision for 2012!

Are You A Self-Referencing Leader?

In the process of growing up and becoming a successful leader, you most likely put together a set of well-developed values, beliefs, experiences, and capacities. You have probably done well at suppressing your emotions and demonstrating your rational thinking. Being successful means your mix has served you well; you have been rewarded, “bonused,” and encouraged along the way. You have probably learned to rely on the way you interact, solve problems, and produce results to the point where the basis of your thinking, (your “paradigm”), is now instant, automatic, and unexamined. To paraphrase the Peter Principle, you can expect to be promoted to your level of incompetence, (if you haven’t been already).  This means that at some point,”the success train” of your career is coming to a halt. If you happen to own your own business, and are already at the top, it is likely to happen in the form of business expansion. In other words, your business will expand to your level of incompetence.

How does this happen?  Our belief is that as your work requires broader and broader reach and impact, the very traits and skills that got you rewarded and promoted to your next level of accountability, (or allowed you to create a successful business), can be what defeats you. You will be working with many more people who differ in their perspectives, learning styles, ways of processing information, and ways of interacting with others the bigger your career or business gets. In order to make the leap past the Peter Principle, you will have to expand your own skills and capacities.

Einstein’s oft-quoted statement “problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them” applies here. If you continue to rely solely on your own thinking and way of operating, (and why shouldn’t you since, after all, you are successful and you got here, didn’t you?), then you are in a place of “self-referencing leadership,” and that means the Peter Principle is “in effect.”  To continue to lead successfully, you will be required to think in new ways and benefit from the thoughts and perspectives of others. In other words, cherished self-reliance becomes obsolete. Collaboration, inclusion, openness, the ability to continue learning, respect of others’ skills, expecting others to contribute - these are the traits that are critical to develop.

To collaborate successfully will require opening up to creativity, inspiration, and empowering others. Doing this will require developing the added dimensions of intuition, (gut feel), and heart-centered knowledge to your already highly developed intellect. (See last week’s blog post on using all of your intelligence if this is a new concept.)

So bottomline, when success is at hand, and all the skills you currently possess have gotten you there, it’s time to push yourself to expand. You must increase your capacities to collaborate with others and your “capacities of intelligence” if you are going to overcome the Peter Principle and continue to be a successful, and not merely self-referencing, leader.

Does Your Organization Have a Cultural Strategy?

(This post is an edited version of an article by Suzanne Mayo Frindt. To get the complete text click here.)  Excellent companies have Financial Strategies, Operational Strategies, Marketing and Sales Strategies, and commensurate Resource Allocation Strategies (including People, Time, Money, Equipment/Assets, etc.) How many companies actually have a Cultural Strategy? Yet all companies have a culture, implicitly if not explicitly developed on a historical basis. A company culture can be defined as “a cognitive framework consisting of attitudes, values, behavioral norms, and expectations’’ (Greenberg and Baron, 1997), “the collective thoughts, habits, attitudes, feelings, and patterns of behavior’’ (Clemente and Greenspan, 1999), and “the pattern of arrangement, material or behavior which has been adopted by a society (corporation, group, or team) as the accepted way of solving problems’’ (Ahmed et al., 1999).^[1]

A company’s culture dramatically impacts the success or failure of all other strategies, and yet little if any attention is consciously placed on the care and feeding of a productive, learning culture. It is the invisible glue that binds together ever more diverse workforces including people from many cultures and generations. Most executives are not conscious of culture or of the implications of their decisions on the development of or degradation of culture. Without a culture strategy, where are they aiming anyway?

All development and training is built on the platform of culture. It is the ‘context’ that determines whether the financial, operational or marketing strategies succeed or fail. A human resource focus on recruiting, retention and succession planning by definition focuses on the experience and skill building of individuals and often misses the broader perspective of the cultural influence and implications. And whose job is it to develop a conscious strategy for culture? Whose job is it to continually feed and nurture a productive culture? We would say it lands squarely with Leadership!

What is a Learning Culture and How Does it Get Developed? A Learning Culture is one where the individuals and teams consciously invest in growing and developing themselves. In a Learning Culture executives are purposeful about the impact of decisions and strategies on the fabric of cultural development. There is a focus on reducing friction and waste in communications and developing productive working relationships. People know there is an expectation for growing and learning. Hiring decisions are made with an interest in an individual’s ability to learn, adapt, grow and shift. An atmosphere of curiosity, forward thinking and ‘how can we learn from this’ thinking permeates. It becomes the foundation or platform on which everything else is built.

What Are The Payoffs of a Learning Culture? For an organization, this type of culture provides much more innovation, creativity, agility, and expedited problem solving capabilities.

For individuals, it provides opportunities for learning and growth. It also provides forums to be challenged, to add value, and to contribute at a high level.

How Can We Develop a Learning Culture? There are many books and articles about learning organizations including work by Senge^[2] and Argyris^[3] that explain in depth about the what and how of learning organizations. Our 2130 methodology, (and terminology adaptation in some instances), ties to the 5 aspects of a learning organization that are generally accepted by leadership ‘gurus’ as follows:

1. Systems Thinking: Understanding how things influence each other as a whole. Our view is that executives and organizational leadership are accountable to the entire organization and all stakeholders for this larger view, including strategy development, planning, implementation, review and adjustment. In addition to a responsibility for systems thinking on an individual executive basis it is also critical that the entire executive team itself operate as a productive, learning system.
2. Shared Vision/Values: “A vehicle for building shared meaning” from Peter Senge’s “Fifth Discipline.” Unfortunately, this often looks more like the version from Dilbert “A long meaningless statement that proves management’s inability to focus.” Over the last 20+ years we have worked with organizations to develop Vision, Mission and Values in our methodology ‘Vision-Focused Leadership’. Absent a shared vision, individual agendas rule the day and gaining personal power becomes a major executive focus.
3. Productive Mental Framework: We talk about busting mental barriers, increasing mental agility and increasing capacities to deal with the unrelenting pace of change and increased complexity of issues facing leadership today. It is critical to become aware of our blind spots and biases to be able to think clearly in the present to make the best decisions in a complex business environment.
4. Personal Mastery: This is the commitment of every person in the organization to improve, develop and challenge themselves to be more than they are today. Individuals who insist on status quo and structural barriers to communication usually self-select out of a Learning Culture.
5. Team Mastery: Organizations must realize that groups of people, (of any size of 2 or more), create yet another ‘entity’ with its own dynamics and productivity levels. There are group skills and developmental opportunities that build on, yet are distinct from individual capacities. When groups develop these capacities we call that increasing their collaborative capital.

So What Will You Do Now? Take stock of your culture. What are the stories being told about your organization by employees, clients and vendors? What stories would you like to be told? Where are the gaps? Are you willing to commit to your role in your organization’s culture?

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^[1] From  “Developing a Corporate Culture as a Competitive Advantage”;  Golnaz Sadri and Brian Lees

^[2] Peter Michael Senge is an American scientist and director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is known as author of the book The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization from 1990 (new edition 2006). (Courtesy wikipedia.com)

^[3] Chris Argyris is an American business theorist, Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School, and a Thought Leader at Monitor Group.[1] He is commonly known for seminal work in the area of “Learning Organizations”. (Courtesy wikipedia.com)

The Opportunity for Greater Productivity is Real

Our blog post about “Lean Conversations” connected us to Dan Markovitz of  TimeBack Management  and provoked a great dialogue about increasing our own productivity and that of white collar or “knowledge workers” in general. Dan’s slogan “working at the intersection of personal productivity and lean manufacturing” really captures his offering. For those of you interested in looking at office productivity through the eyes of “lean,” we urge you to check out Dan’s blog posts.

From 2130′s perspective the opportunity starts with recognizing that there actually is an opportunity for huge breakthroughs in productivity for all of us. Unless you start your thinking from this possibility, you will never put your energy and intention into capturing the available gains for your associates and yourself.  The “urgent” will continue to distract you and draw your focus.  As Markowitz says, “you’ll never get off the fire truck!”

The second step is to create a vision of what your work practices would look like if it were the “golden era.”  In other words, if your work life were all working perfectly, what would you be getting done and what would happen to all the rest of it?  This means you have to identify a clear picture of what is important and valuable and what you are committed to, (what we would call your “Yonder Star”).  Easily said, and yet we find many clients who struggle mightily with this seemingly simple notion.  The critical point is everything builds from this starting point so if you aren’t willing to take this on, stop reading.

The next step is to track your practices.  Find those things that are necessary, predictable, and/or repetitive, amid all the unique activities in your week. Pull them out and put them on your calendar at times that are convenient, with plenty of lead-time to get them done.

Now compare your vision to all the stuff you have been doing and see if much of it really forwards you on your path to your vision and highest priorities. Now be rigorous and drop as much as possible of what doesn’t fit.  This may mean delegating or sub-contracting or it may mean you just stop doing it. Notice who you are afraid of offending or don’t want to disappoint. Is there a way you can re-negotiate? Can you just stop? Why not? What is it costing you to keep doing things that are not leading to your vision? Are you willing to keep paying that price? How much time have you got left?

Now ask “what’s missing today from my vision today that would be the most valuable thing I could put my attention on?” “What, if I/we got to work on it would give us the greatest leverage in fulfilling the vision?”  By leverage we mean getting the greatest result for the least effort and investment of resources. Pick one, and no more than three, activities and build time into your calendar for them. Share your new focus with others so that they ask you how you are doing.  They may even look to see how they can support you!  That’s real accountability – holding yourself accountable in a public way through your declarations.

Start practicing your new design.  It will take practice to break your old habits and build sustainable new ones. It does take the initial effort of the analysis above and building a new practice, but the outcomes will be worth it.

Let us know how you are doing!

5 Top CEO Challenges

Awhile ago I was forwarded an email written by Shama Kabani. [She runs an online marketing firm in Texas and is also the author of Zen of Social Media.] Here is the opening of the email: “I just got back from The Leaders of Tomorrow conference at St. Gallen in Switzerland. It was a fantastic trip, and I gleaned some great nuggets of business wisdom from the world’s best. One particular session I really enjoyed was presented by McKinsey partner Dominic Barton. As someone who spends much of his time with the CEOs of the world’s leading companies, he shared 5 insights from his experience.”

First, I was fascinated to discover this St. Gallen Summit as I wasn’t aware of it. Second I was really struck at the list of insights coming from McKinsey and recapped by Shama in her email. I found them compelling because in addition to my role as Principal and Co-founder of 2130 Partners I am also a Best Practice Chair at Vistage International. Vistage is the world’s leading CEO membership organization and I have worked with them for more than 16 years. I can say the 5 insights offered by Kinsey below are very consistent with my experience of the CEO population. Here they are with notes from me included.

1) They struggle with loneliness – The higher you get, the harder it is to find the right sources to trust. This is a fundamental reason for the success of Vistage. Having access to a peer group and being able to work issues with people who face the same types of challenges you do every day can be amazingly helpful for a top leader.

2) Lack of time - CEOs continue to balance an overflowing plate and prioritizing becomes key. This is something everyone is facing these days from the top office throughout an organization. We have found that the key issues here are in the “human dimension”- meaning that things often get slowed down between people through miscommunications, misunderstandings and upsets. This is why we developed our Productive Interactions program and why we have developed the concept of Lean Conversations.

3) Appetite for cross-sector knowledge – CEOs and companies across the globe are looking at what they can learn from industries other than their own. Cross-pollination at its best. What can marketers learn from HR? What can IT learn from sales? This is another area we find that communication is critical and is not happening at an optimum level. Often groups, teams, and departments become “silos.” There is usually a lot that can be learned by an organization and its leaders from within, from its own people. The challenge is opening up the flow for that to happen.

4) Understanding transitions – Leaders transition in and out of positions, jobs, and companies. They are consistently looking for help with these transitions. This is where a solid, experienced Executive Coach can really add value. Transitions are often fraught with emotions and complexities. Hiring a partner to help you through is key.

5) The battle for talent – The biggest competitive advantage of any company in the future is going to be people. Often CEOs don’t know the scope of talent available to them within their own company. This is a source of frustration for many. See point number 3 above. It is amazing how much knowledge and information inside a company does not flow. Again, challenges in the “human dimension” often hinder this flow. Fear, politics and other factors can keep key information like “how talented is your talent pool” from being clear to those at the top.

Bottom line, from our perspective at 2130 Partners, for CEOs to manage these top 5 challenges, investigating and investing in the “human dimension,” is the place to work. The greater the skills and capacities CEOs and those on their teams have to effectively and efficiently communicate and create results, the less painful these 5 challenges become.

Leadership: The OODA Loop

Being powerful in translating intentions into reality and sustaining them requires presence and adaptability in the face of life’s circumstances – circumstances that can change every moment.  Where can we turn for tools to support ourselves? The United States military has long taught our special ops teams and fighter pilots a thought process called the OODA Loop.  These teams function in relatively small units who have large assignments with very limited time and resources.  They train incessantly and plan their missions in incredible detail.  Yet, no plan survives its collision with reality and conditions in the field often differ from those on the planning table.

Adherence to the original plan would sometimes mean immediate capture or death and certain failure.  Given their commitment, failure is not an option and “all or nothing” is often the choice.  They must be able to make sometimes dramatic adjustments to achieve mission objectives and extract themselves with minimal to no casualties.

The OODA Loop thought process is an excellent antidote to holding onto the way it was supposed to be, the resources they were supposed to have, and the unfairness of the situation.  The acronym simply means:

1) Observe the actual “ground truth” – the way that it is and the way that it isn’t rather than how it was supposed to be.  2) Orient to the actual situation, the observable roadblocks and potholes, the unknowns, and the resources available.  Consider the options and strategies that are available. 3)  Decide on a path and how long you can go before reorientation is required. 4)  Act on your plan 5)  Immediately start this process over

In Organizational Development circles the Action Research people would be most comfortable with this thought process. 

In your world, how can you apply this simple process to adjust to "the ground truth" you and your organization are facing?  How can this OODA loop concept benefit your leadership development?

Leadership: Being 'Acutely Clear'

 “If you expect performance, then make it [meaning your expectations] ’acutely clear’ so people have the opportunity to succeed.” -- Jim Moats A very thoughtful leader, friend, and fellow Vistage Chair posted, “The Way Things Work” on his Peer Place blog and got me thinking about a provocative question one of our CEO clients asked the other day. We were discussing one of the people in his firm who has been producing extraordinary results from being in a coaching program. Her performance had become a major turn-around. Her comment to our coach was, “why didn’t anyone ever tell me…?” meaning, she had no idea she had been "missing the mark" to such an extent. When discussing this with the CEO, his question was “ I wonder how many good people are let go every year because no one ever communicated or invested in their success?"

This is an absolutely critical question to think about as a leader. How many good people reporting to you have "failed" and how many good people have you let go during your career because you didn't communicate clearly enough, effectively enough, or invest in their success? And, what is the cause of so much ineffective communication and such a plain lack of communication about something as critical and fundamental as job performance and success?

Sometimes it seems that unclear expectations are part of an instant, automatic and unexamined control mechanism. If as a leader, you are unclear, then you can leave others off balance. They really can't fully succeed and you are in control.  (Some part of you may even relish playing a "savior" role.) If your ideas weren't all that sound, and you were vague, you can always say “that's not what I really meant” if things start to go awry. Worse, if your team nails it and gets close to stellar performance, you can move the target. All of these are very unconscious ways to maintain leadership control and they can also be very destructive to your team. It's control in a delusional sort of way!

There is also a sort of laziness to being unclear. You can continue with a "ready, fire, aim" approach and just keep moving. While many entrepreneurs and leaders are extremely fond of this approach it also lets them off the hook. They don't really have to be rigorous. They don't have to think things through and they don't have to take personal responsibility because the ideas have "been delegated." If/when an idea fails it's because the team didn't perform.

Being 'acutely clear,' (as Jim Moats describes), and in partnership with those around you, puts you in what we call in our book "Accelerate," the Productive Dialogue Zone.  It takes courage and a willingness to give up control in favor of the outcomes you want.  It also takes letting others participate in the “how” of getting there. By doing this you will need to challenge yourself to receive feedback on ideas and not take it personally. This actually makes your life as a leader easier. Allow your team to be rigorous and help think things through. Take the burden off of yourself and be inclusive.

In his blog, Jim further points out, “Setting acutely clear expectations rules out “trying” and creates the need for learning from each setback or unexpected obstacle.  Training makes average people strong, while trying makes strong people average.”

The trade off for apparent loss of control is dramatically increasing the odds of getting what you want, having real partnerships with people, and unleashing all kinds of creativity around you.

Do you recognize yourself or your leadership style here?  What do you REALLY want and are you willing to be rigorous with yourself and open and inclusive with others to get it?

Leadership: Do You Compete or Collaborate?

On a recent evening in a beach bar on a quiet bay in the Grenadines where our sailboat was anchored for the night, I met a gentle soul named Alvin who was native born and raised on the island. Despite the idyllic setting, Alvin was a troubled man. On the surface, he had little education, jobs are scarce, and he is in a desperate struggle financially. For many of us, that would be enough to cause us to give up.  However, Alvin's troubles ran even deeper. Alvin said he longed for connection and conversation. He said his own people are very "contentious" with each other, leaving little- to-no room for meaningful relationships.  His observation was so sincere and heartfelt that it "hooked me."  I've been thinking about it ever since. How many times do I hear people say in meetings, "I disagree with that..." “You’re wrong about that…” or “You’re confused…” as if that approach was useful rather than instantly causing disconnection and the need to defend oneself. 

Just last week I was working with a new client in a strategy workshop and experienced the same kind of gap between brilliant vision and passionate commitment juxtaposed with arguing, dismissing the input of others, telling each other they are wrong, and throwing out a variety of other dismissive comments. 

In their marvelous book, "The Communication Catalyst," authors, Mickey Connolly and Richard Rianoshek simply and powerfully describe this cycle as: disagree -> defend -> destroy!  Alvin is at the receiving end of that cycle in his daily life, with no capacities developed to alter the defeating pattern.  His wisdom shows in that he has realized the dynamic that is the cause of his pain. Unfortunately, I have found few other people caught in this cycle who share his reflection and wisdom, particularly in professional settings. It seems to me a high percentage of people have an instant, automatic, and unexamined “Contention Response.” This is usually accompanied by repeating the exact same phrase, only louder, if the other party “doesn’t get it” as if louder will produce more results. In our highly competitive business culture, it is not only unexamined, it is often a badge of pride and honor to perpetuate this cycle. The problem is, it doesn't really work to create results. It may shut down the opposition to ideas and it may finish the conversation, but it doesn't create an atmosphere of innovation and/or successful collaboration.

This week we are leading a customized version of our Productive Interactions program for young indigenous leaders from across Latin America in Lima, Peru. Our invitation to this group comes from a brilliant indigenous Peruvian woman leader we have known and worked with for years through The Hunger Project.  When she first learned of our work she said, “We’ve got to have that!  We get together, share great vision and commitment and then we argue.  It is imperative for us to learn to have much more productive conversations!” We really believe the ability to have productive interactions is the lynch pin for leaders and their businesses and/or organizations of any type to move to their next level of success.

If this communication cycle sounds familiar, then perhaps addressing contentiousness is a fundamental place for you to work to raise your productivity and that of your teams.  An excellent start is to study our Operating Principles (free download here) and work with your group to adopt them as your "rules of engagement"  when you interact with each other.  I recommend starting with Principle #9 “explore truths – mine, theirs and ours” and Principle #7  “listen newly, be intentionally slow to understand.”  Try practicing curiosity listening for just a week and see if it doesn't start to shift the productivity of your conversations.

So You Want Things to Change?

Most of the time when consultants, coaches or other “outside interventions” are tapped by leaders of organizations it’s because there is some type of crisis or turning point. Usually “the pain” has become high and the solutions to the issues just aren’t apparent to leadership. There are various causes of business pain, but the one we are going to focus on today is a common one. It is some variation of “go fix my people.” There is often a perception issues are being caused by an individual, several individuals, a department or team. Underneath it all, particularly within owner-entrepreneur types of environments, there is a very particular bottom line and let’s cut right to it. Owner/entrepreneurs work the way they work because they like it. It’s working for them. What “the pain” is almost always about is that the way they are working, is not creating the results they want and they don’t like it. However, the request is “go fix the other people!” Ultimately, so the owner/entrepreneur can continue with their patterns and approach without having to shift themselves. Sometimes, depending on how urgent the “pain” is, leaders will shift, but inevitably, the minute there is enough breathing room, they snap back to their previous ways. Just as inevitably, the patterns that don’t work for the business, (but work on a personal level for the leader), are back, and soon enough, the “pain” is back.

The most important challenge for leaders when there is business “pain” is to look in the mirror and ask tough questions. Sure, there may be some work that needs to be done with other people, or teams, but leaders set the mood, tone and culture to an enormous extent. So if you are a leader experiencing “business pain,” start with yourself and some fundamental questions:

• Who am I BEING as a leader? Meaning, what are my attitudes, beliefs and patterns of reaction? Am I willing to dig deep and understand my role in what is happening?
• Am I willing to change?
• Am I willing to create a vision for myself about the type of leader I am committed to being and am I willing to create a set of practices to support the fulfillment of that vision?
• Am I willing to find the support I need to make shifts?

Change is possible and change takes work. Whether a leader changes or not, energy is being expended. It takes energy to keep patterns in place when they aren’t working and there is a state of resistance. We call that ‘friction and waste,’ a subject we address in our blog posts on Lean Thinking. It takes energy to make changes. There is a cost either way. The question is - where does a leader “pay up?”

If any of this sounds familiar, consider taking yourself on, not just your teams, processes or organizational structure.

We have a proprietary approach and method we offer for this, and there are many others out there as well. The key is to find the one that resonates for you and get to it!

It's 2011 - Dream Big

To move into a New Year powerfully and to create the results you want there are some key steps to take. The first is creating an "elegant ending" to the past. Last week we posted about "letting go of 2010," and included a free download of a worksheet to help you do it. Now it’s time to move on to envisioning and documenting your 2011 "Yonder Star(s)" and creating plans for fulfillment. (Note: The first part of this post talks about how to effectively map out your personal goals. If you want to move straight into planning for your business check out the last paragraph of this post. We've got a Hot Wired Strategic Plan template for you as a free download.) One way to help yourself succeed is to make your resolutions “public” to others. To put more wind in your sails, promise others that you will deliver! You can ask someone you trust to be a “committed listener.” This involves a commitment from them to listen to you as you talk about the status of your plans, your struggles and your successes. It does not involve them giving advice or telling you what to do next, (unless you make a specific request for it). Another way to succeed is to hire a coach. Someone who is trained to support people in achieving their dreams and plans. If you are a bit more experienced at this process, take a step up in rigor and create a set of goals for the different areas of your life. Categories you might include are: 1) Career/Financial 2) Well-Being or Health 3) Relationships 4) Spiritual 5) Personal 6) Wild Card How bold are you willing to be setting your goals? If you are completely certain you can make the goals are you stretching yourself enough? Focus on designing the most catalytic, highly leveraged action steps you can. By "catalytic" we mean that your actions produce the intended results without your being used up in the process. By "highly leveraged," we mean you produce very big results with minimal resources.

If you’ve been successful at this level of work and/or are ready to take on your first effort at a Strategic Plan for your company or affiliation, we suggest using what we call our “2130 Partners Hot Wired Strategic Plan.” We call it Hot Wired because it covers many of the levels and topics of an elaborate plan and yet you can produce a decent draft in a couple of hours. The next pass can then be developed to whatever level of detail you wish. The key, however, is to get the initial draft knocked out in as short a time as you can so that you shift your paradigm about goals and actions as you develop the more detailed plans. You can download the worksheet for our 2130 Partners Hot Wired plan by clicking here.

Ready for 2011? Better Let Go of 2010...

It’s the time of year when many of us conduct annual rituals that may include everything from strategic planning sessions for business to making New Year’s resolutions or setting Bold Goals for 2011 and beyond. We’ve found any such process to be much harder to do when we haven’t completed and let go of the past.  It’s very difficult, (impossible?), to really move forward when we are carting the past along with us. The process of letting go can include changing your attitude and perceptions about what the economy did to you, to digging very deep and letting go of some of the childhood stuff that shapes your life. On the fun end of the spectrum, we have for many years put flip chart paper all over our walls when we have a New Year’s Eve party with a simple question on each, such as “What did I start and not complete?” or “What did I accomplish that I haven’t been acknowledged for?” or “What did I screw up that I didn’t get caught for?”  Guests write on the charts all evening with colored markers and sometimes get even more creative with a touch of artistic display as well.  On a number of occasions we have taken them all down at midnight and symbolically burned them.

On a business note, we do a similar exercise with our executive clients where we pass out a page with questions for them to fill out that explores accomplishments and failures in their businesses, practice of leadership, and lives. (We have a free download of this exercise sheet at the bottom of this blog post.)  One of my favorites is “What must I communicate to be complete with 2010 and to whom?”

A few of the highlights from these types of executive discussions include discoveries of attachments participants did not realize were holding them back, people around them who they had failed to acknowledge, and places where they were not leading by example.

We also know that for many folks the holidays can include a lot of upset, ranging form anxiety around gift giving and office party attendance to remembrances of lost loved ones or unhappy childhood experiences related to the holidays.  The latter is fertile ground for completion work.

Some of the comments we get about these exercises can be summed up as, “transition/transformation is a lot of work!”  If you are intending to be powerful in 2011, have big goals, and produce great results, we highly recommend you spend the next couple of weeks completing and letting go of 2010, (and earlier if you need to), in order to create fertile ground for your 2011 vision to come alive.

If you would like to try our exercise format we have included it here as a free download.

Wishing you a happy ending to your 2010 and a fabulous 2011!

Accelerate: High Leverage Leadership for Today's World Is Here

Debut Book From Suzanne Mayo Frindt and Dwight Frindt Provides a Simple, Elegant and Insightful Approach to Consistently Produce Extraordinary Results

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE ELECTRONIC MEDIA KIT

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA--(Marketwire - November 15, 2010) - Suzanne Mayo Frindt and Dwight Frindt work closely with leaders and executive teams to unleash creativity and effectiveness throughout their organizations. Their practical methodologies reduce the friction and waste in daily conversations and inspire highly productive teams that regularly deliver on bold commitments. Their collaborative leadership practices are not steeped in academia -- they are carefully crafted methodologies based on their years of hands-on experience counseling executives combined with a global business perspective derived from their active involvement with business cultures around the world. The Frindts are co-founders of 2130 Partners (www.2130Partners.com), a leadership development and education firm training leaders to create focus, alignment, and collaboration for a sustainable shared vision. In their debut book, Accelerate: High Leverage Leadership for Today's World, the authors provide a remarkably simple, elegant and insightful approach to consistently producing extraordinary results.

We live in a world of unprecedented and accelerating changes in our lives and work. Now, at a time when previous business models and assumptions are being turned on their heads, individual livelihoods and whole firms are disappearing or springing up newly on a regular basis. Successful businesses are transforming themselves and finding ways to prosper in the evolving new realities. The leadership required for these firms is radically agile, proactive, and creative. Success will accrue to those who learn to tap the creativity and productivity gains available through being aware and effective in the human, collaborative dimension, while laggards will suffer in the face of the unrelenting change.

Accelerate is a match for the challenging times in which we live, where leaders are facing problems and issues that are complex beyond any previous era. The authors provide readers with deceptively simple access to meaningful transformation in their work and lives. Unlike other leadership books, Accelerate starts with whom to BE rather than what to DO to produce effective leadership. You will find proven principles and practices to expand your leadership capacities for productive thought and interaction, to create a culture of self-generated accountability, and to turn friction and waste into real productivity gains.

Always with a keen eye on the future, the authors have just returned from several weeks in China, now eclipsing Japan as the second largest economy in the world. There they participated in The World Academy for the Future of Women, and in the Fourth Annual Women's Symposium at Sias International University (www.sias.edu.cn/en). Suzanne Mayo Frindt created curriculum, both served as instructors for the Academy, and Dwight Frindt delivered a keynote speech at the Symposium.

Sias University is the first solely owned American university in Central China. It develops well-rounded trans-national professionals by combining Chinese and Western educational philosophies, providing students with a broad based learning perspective and alternative ways of thinking about their lives, careers, and leadership aspirations.

About Suzanne Mayo Frindt and Dwight Frindt The Frindts are co-founders of 2130 Partners, a leadership development and education firm founded in 1990. 2130 Partners is dedicated to facilitating executive leadership potential through Vision-Focused Leadership™, a methodology grounded in shared vision and built through collaboration.

They are often called upon to give keynotes and lead programs in such diverse locations as Bismarck, North Dakota and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. In addition to their extensive business leadership experience and educational credentials, they credit their 30 plus years as investors in, and activists for, The Hunger Project (http://www.thp.org) for its profound influence on their work and lives. They have traveled throughout Africa, India, Bangladesh and Latin America to support the organization's goals in mobilizing local people to create lasting society-wide progress in health, education, nutrition, family incomes and the empowerment of women.

Events 2130 Partners will hold public workshops and book signing events:

November 2010 19 -- Seattle, Wash.

December 2010 3 -- Orange County, Calif.

February 2011 2 -- Los Angeles, Calif.

For event information, please go to: www.2130partners.com/whats-new.

About 2130 Partners 2130 Partners is celebrating its 20th year of facilitating executive leadership potential. The name 2130 Partners and the firm's core philosophy are derived from the Native American principle that leaders are accountable in their decision making for their impact on each of the next seven generations. Seven generations from its founding in 1990, or 140 years, is year 2130. Clients and 2130 Partners are asked to consider what input we might get from the people who will be alive in the year 2130 about how we spend our lives, the decisions we make and the focus of our leadership. The firm serves clients around the world, with offices in Orange County, Calif. and Seattle, Wash. Visit www.2130partners.com.

Accelerate: High Leverage Leadership for Today's World ISBN: 143926664, available at www.2130partners.com/accelerate-the-book or amazon.com Authors: Suzanne Mayo Frindt and Dwight Frindt Published in 2010

For more information about Accelerate: High Leverage Leadership for Today's World, please visit www.2130partners.com/accelerate-the-book or contact: Kathleen Janson, (949) 654-2512

The Powerful Role of Consequences When We Are Overwhelmed

I recently attended a presentation of "High Performance: How To Get It. How To Keep It" by Greg Bustin at a Vistage meeting in Orange County. Greg packed a lot of material into his three-plus hour presentation geared around formal planning.  The idea I really sparked to, however, was the notion of consequences. In designing accountability systems, one of the commitments Greg has people do is agree to accept the consequences of their actions or inactions.  I’ve been reflecting since on the implications of that simple statement. The dictionary offers two distinct definitions of the word "consequences" ; 1) something that logically or naturally follows from an action or conditions.  2) significance; importance.  Of most interest to me is that the dictionary does not associate any good or bad to consequences and yet in everyday language I suspect the word has a lot of baggage, (negatives), associated with the word.  I suspect many readers will even find the idea of "punishment" associated with the word consequences.

As I considered this idea of consequences, of accepting them, and of letting go of the "good/bad" judgments, I decided to play out this concept in my real life to see how it might apply.

The inquiry came to together for me around email. I get more email than I can handle and still have a life and my health.  I have struggled with that for too long now. I see virtually all of our clients and Vistage members struggling with it. Why? I didn’t ask most of the writers to send me the email. What makes me think I absolutely must answer it? 

I realized that in my own internal dialogue there are messages that say something like “a good person would answer all of his email every day.” “People won’t like me if I don’t answer their emails.” “I won’t be respected if I don’t answer…” “I’ll be kicked out of the club if I don’t answer…” “There is one of those emails in that e-stack that has a zinger in it.  If I don’t handle it, I’ll be screwed!” Etc., etc., etc.  It's really an "inner critic" internal dialogue that is stirred up by the fear of negative consequences. This "critic attack" is part of the instant, automatic, and unexamined beliefs I have tied to performing and being liked or appreciated that are running the show.

I have not approached the outcomes of unanswered emails as simply outcomes - meaning consequences without baggage.  I have been reacting to a negative significance or importance that I am essentially "making up" about not answering email or being very slow to answer.   As a result of this exercise, I have decided I will give email my best shot within a larger set of priorities - attending to my work, my relationships, and my health and well-being.  For all those emails that are answered very late or never, I am completely willing to accept the consequences.  I will apologize or clean it up as necessary but I won’t sweat it.  Having made the "unconscious conscious," (a Pat Murray notion –renowned Vistage speaker from the San Francisco Bay area), I can consciously choose to limit my time and energy devoted to email and simply be willing to have the consequences, free of any meaning I have been putting on it all.

I have found this to be a very "freeing" exercise and it occurs to me there are probably alot of times we are "overwhelmed," and what is really going on underneath is some type of fear related to negative consequences.

So how about you?  Can you see any similar issues in your life that are driving a sense of overwhelm?

The Pitfall of Self-Referencing Leadership

In the process of growing up and becoming a successful leader, you most likely put together a set of well-developed values, beliefs, experiences, and capacities. You have probably done well at suppressing your emotions and demonstrating your rational thinking. Being successful means your mix has served you well; you have been rewarded, "bonused," and encouraged along the way. You have probably learned to rely on the way you interact, solve problems, and produce results to the point where the basis of your thinking, (your "paradigm"), is now instant, automatic, and unexamined.   To paraphrase the Peter Principle, you can expect to be promoted to your level of incompetence, (if you haven’t been already).  This means that at some point,"the success train" of your career is coming to a halt. If you happen to own your own business, and are already at the top, it is likely to happen in the form of business expansion. In other words, your business will expand to your level of incompetence. 

How does this happen?  Our belief is that as your work requires broader and broader reach and impact, the very traits and skills that got you rewarded and promoted to your next level of accountability, (or allowed you to create a successful business), can be what defeats you. You will be working with many more people who differ in their perspectives, learning styles, ways of processing information, and ways of interacting with others the bigger your career or business gets. In order to make the leap past the Peter Principle, you will have to expand your own skills and capacities.

Einstein’s oft-quoted statement “problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them” applies here. If you continue to rely solely on your own thinking and way of operating, (and why shouldn’t you since, after all, you are successful and you got here, didn’t you?), then you are in a place of "self-referencing leadership," and that means the Peter Principle is "in effect."  To continue to lead successfully, you will be required to think in new ways and benefit from the thoughts and perspectives of others. In other words, cherished self-reliance becomes obsolete. Collaboration, inclusion, openness, the ability to continue learning, respect of others' skills, expecting others to contribute - these are the traits that are critical to develop.

To collaborate successfully will require opening up to creativity, inspiration, and empowering others. Doing this will require developing the added dimensions of intuition, (gut feel), and heart-centered knowledge to your already highly developed intellect. (See last week's blog post on using all of your intelligence if this is a new concept.)

So bottomline, when success is at hand, and all the skills you currently possess have gotten you there, it's time to push yourself to expand. You must increase your capacities to collaborate with others and your "capacities of intelligence" if you are going to overcome the Peter Principle and continue to be a successful, and not merely self-referencing, leader.