Leaders at the Finish Line
Many are calling these events [in the financial markets] unprecedented. Leaders can be paralyzed by them; or they can “choose” to grow and respond accordingly.
Where Leaders Go for Guidance
A CEO in New York shared a conundrum with me a few weeks ago. It involved money – the CEO’s compensation, to be specific.
A member of the Board had approached him with a request. A major portion of this Leader’s compensation for the year would come in the form of a stock bonus tied to hitting annual budget targets. At the mid-year mark, it was clear to the Board that the company would not hit the targets. The Board wanted to reward the CEO with the bonus anyway, and they were asking him to provide new (i.e. ‘lower’) targets that he and the company would be sure to hit. The request did not sit well with the CEO.
What guides your significant leadership decisions?
The Company Leaders Keep
What kind of company do you keep as a Leader?
Attempting to be consistent with the suggestion in my last post — Leaders vs. Summer — I challenged myself to read Cicero’s “On a Life Well Spent” over the course of the summer. Trust me, other than the Bible, I’m not given to reading 2,000 year-old texts regularly.
This morning, I came across this ending to a chapter in which Cicero describes Quintus Maximus, a friend and Leader he greatly admired:
“. . . when he was taken from us, I should never find another Man to improve by.”
Who’s in your life, walking alongside you as a Leader, who, when they are gone, will be a great loss?
The best Leaders I know don’t lead in isolation. They surround themselves with a few good friends. Friends who inspire them to be better, genuinely care for them, and with whom they can be vulnerable.
Interestingly, I think this can be particularly difficult for men. Women more naturally cultivate supportive friendships.
So, what does this look like? In my life, I have my wife and about a half dozen men who’s counsel I seek regularly. Here’s how I would describe them.
Leaders vs. Summer
A new leadership tool is at hand this week. It’s summertime.
Despite the demands of this challenging economy, things are just different. There’s less traffic on the road in the mornings. Less people in the office because of vacations. Everyone knows you have to get major deals closed by mid-July because key decision-makers will be hard to assemble until after Labor Day. Inevitably there’s more recreation and leisure in your schedule.
All this presents Leaders with opportunities to “shift with the season” — to experiment, create, learn, reboot. And when Labor Day gets here (80 days and counting), you can decide to stop or continue. Will you take advantage of it?
Fathers of Leaders
Tuesday morning’s Wall Street Journal (May 27) contained something you don’t see every day.
Front page of Section A: Anheuser CEO Fights for His Legacy . . . Busch Heir Still Seeks Father’s Approval
Here are some interesting comments August Busch IV was quoted making about his father, August Busch III, who he succeeded as Anheuser’s CEO —
* “I never, ever had a father-son relationship . . . . it’s purely business.”
* “His love and respect will be when I’m ultimately successful.”
* “I honestly do believe if I failed in my professional life, it would be much harder to ever gain his respect.”
Frustrated Leaders
A CEO frustrated with his board. A Board frustrated with its CEO. A Partner frustrated with his partner. A Partner frustrated with HIS partner. A CEO frustrated with her COO. A COO frustrated with his CEO. Boy, I run across these scenarios too often. I use the word “frustrated” because it represents the middle ground […]
18 Months in Crisis Mode
So here are some lessons from a Leader guiding his company through crisis for a little over a year now, and getting some traction.
A partial list of what Alan Mulally inherited when he took the CEO job at Ford in the Fall of 2006 – the “Brutal Facts:”
* A divided company, actually a lot of different companies under one roof, each with a leader going in a different direction
* Tight cash flow with a real risk of running out altogether
* A built-in $3,400 expense premium on every finished product based on onerous labor costs
* Complexity of business systems that predecessors had been unable to untangle
* Infighting and turf wars among his direct reports
* Lots of elaborate plans (marketing, manufacturing, sales, product) followed by poor execution
* A talented and dedicated team of workers (the problems lay mostly with management, not the workers!)
At lunch last week in Charlotte, home to big banks reporting record losses, my friend sat down and said, “Well, at least we can celebrate Ford’s good news.”
A Leader's Secrets
Elliot Spitzer is a role model for it. So is Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit. Bill Clinton. Jack Welch. Each of these leaders had a secret. When the secret was exposed it tainted or destroyed a promising or otherwise successful leadership legacy.
Why is it everyone shares their “secrets” of leadership success, but no one talks about the secrets of leadership destruction?
Leaders Making the Shift
The economic world as we knew it has shifted significantly over the past six months. How has your leadership shifted?
On Tuesday of this week, I met with the President of a 600-person company that finds itself right in the crosshairs of the current real estate – capital markets mess. The day before, Monday, he had let 10% of his employees go — a move that was emotionally difficult, but necessary. In the last three months, this Leader has seen the landscape of his industry shift radically.
What struck me as we talked was the peace and confidence he projected. Even more significant was the clarity he had about his company’s focus. “Everyone knows we are focused on two things between now and December,” he said, and pointed to the whiteboard behind me, opposite his desk, where the guidelines for the coming months were written. This Leader knows where he is steering the company as the landscape around him shifts.
Every Leader a Thought Leader
A Sampling of Wall Street Journal Headlines from the past week . . .
* New Fears Jolt Credit Markets (March 6)
* Housing, Bank Troubles Deepen (March 7)
* Jobs Data Suggest U.S. Is in Recession (March 8)
* Grim Reaper of Jobs Stalks the Street (March 11)
How do these affect your thinking first thing in the morning . . . as you head in to lead your company?
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” — Jewish Proverb
Leaders must be intentional about their thought life. Everything they DO is traceable to how they THINK.