Purpose

Stress Vs Passion

Why CEOs Fail

by Vistage chair Glenn Waring

Since 1994 I’ve worked with many CEO clients, both privately and in groups. In two thousand individual conferences and nearly two hundred all-day group meetings, I’ve begun to recognize some patterns.

First, there is a positive side to failure - successful people almost have to fail more frequently than others because they’re making more attempts. Few of us were sent off to school by mothers who said, “Take Risks!” yet successful CEOs have to learn to do this, decisively. With this “systems view” of failure, successful CEOs take losses in stride, even if that stride includes an occasional kick at the cat. So - one answer to “why CEOs fail” is “Because they understand that calculated risks are necessary to succeed, and such ventures will involve failure.”  Most of these CEOs recognize the status quo is not an option, and by “playing it safe” the

organization may actually be put at great risk.

Failures teach successful CEOs, and over time the following lessons seem to account for most of the learning:

1.      An inability to see the bigger picture. If you’re being eaten by a lion, it’s tough to see the lion.  Some pressures are industry-wide, even global, and the successful CEO may have to divest a core business to succeed (John Teets revamped Greyhound by selling the buses). This is difficult, and it is why so many successful CEOs surround themselves with good peers and mentors.

2.      An aversion to using solid financial practices. A CEO I know once shared with me over dinner that he didn’t pay enough attention to financials until he put a publicly traded company into bankruptcy. The reason, he said, was that the numbers would simply “swim together,” overwhelming his discomfort with financial indicators. Although it’s not hard to remedy - I have seen hundreds of CEOs do it - a CEO first has to admit there’s a compelling need to learn how to avoid going broke.

3.      A lack of clear vision: successful CEOs lead the organization to where it needs to be, and find ways to get buy-in at all levels. This is hard - otherwise, all organizations would do it well. Done right, clear vision can substitute for the field manual, empowering everyone to make crisp decisions in the company’s interest.

4.      Lack of passion. Most organizations no longer need arms and legs (command and control); instead, they need hearts and minds (sell and enroll). People need to be led more than they need to be managed. Provided things are going well, a lack of passion is usually burnout, which comes from solving the same problem over and over. When things aren’t going well, avoidance may look the same as ‘lack of passion,’ but it’s not - CEOs may talk about packing it in when instead they really need to face the difficult task at hand. Some years ago Fortune magazine polled 500 of its more successful readers and learned their strategies for success: (1) know thyself (2) seize opportunity, and (3) pursue meaning. When I encounter a lack of passion in an otherwise successful CEO, I gently suggest a process to revisit personal core beliefs. The fundamental questions of Who am I? Why am I here? beg to be answered, and if urgent tasks continually pull me away from considering these important questions, depression may be the result.  Passion matters, greatly.

5.      Lack of clarity on the reasons for success. Great CEOs hold their associates accountable for knowing what activities cause results. CEOs focus on what to do, and let associates take care of the “how.” Then, on a regular basis, associates monitor the activities that lead to success. For a sales manager this might mean counting and publicly posting the number of cold calls and referrals every week, in addition to the actual sales results. The difference between champions and good performers isn’t terribly great sometimes, but champions win consistently because they understand what causes a win. Finally, successful CEOs foster (and insist on) the use of reliable, continuously improving, and innovative methods for getting work done before they let their associates take care of the “how.”

6.      Distractions such as acquisitions (most of these fail), golf, and other anxiety management techniques. Successful CEOs pay attention to the central task, which is putting the organization in touch with reality, and leading.

7.      Disconnecting from customers. Some of my most successful CEO clients are on the road over half the time, talking to customers.

8.      Integrity outages. I’ve heard many MBA candidates complain about leadership that says one thing and does another. I don’t have hard data on this, but I suspect that associates will tolerate no more than about three inconsistencies before they start to tune out.

My CEO clients work hard, teaching me every day what it means to be decisive and fully engaged in life. I am certain of only two things: confusion is a precondition to learning, and losses accompany success.

For more information on making yourself and your organization more effective, go to www.effectiveorganization.com and login using password “ceo147”.  

Four Pillars of Good Leadership

In my work I get the privilege of being exposed to some of the best leadership methods and seeing them tested on a regular basis. Sometimes I see outstanding leaders, sometimes I see marginal leaders, and sometimes I get the rare opportunity to see absolutely abysmal leaders. Lucky me. This has allowed me to come up with four basic pillars that are present in all leaders, but the balance of which divides the good from the bad.

Intelligence
The first of these four pillars is intelligence. The ability to meet challenges with reason and logic is of utmost importance to a leader. With intelligence comes imagination and thoughtfulness that prevents many rash decisions from being made. Intelligence also serves to eliminate wasteful practices and pointless exercises, benefitting the overall organization as well as that leader's subordinates. An intelligent leader knows the craft. They are aware of the ins and outs of their organization and are capable of seeing where and how to improve it.

Passion
While intelligence is important, idle contemplation is a bane to any endeavor. At some point a leader must act, and the force that turns thought into action is passion. Passion is what inspires action, and fuels thought. A passionate leader is able to move mountains when necessary, and revels in the thrill of hard work. Passion is contagious, too. When a leader is passionate about their job it infects those around them and multiplies the efforts of the organization exponentially.

Focus
Unbridled passion, however, can result in a great deal of expended effort with very little result. Focus is needed to ensure that passion and intelligence are being poured into the right venues. This is the one that I struggle with the most as a young leader in my own organization. When everything is a priority then nothing is a priority, and it's rare to actually accomplish much. The ability to focus on a task to completion is a trademark of a high level of leadership in the fast-paced world of the workplace. Multi-tasking is great, but when it results in not accomplishing much at the end of the day it tends to be counter-productive.

Adaptability
The danger of focus is that a leader can become myopic and miss opportunities and challenges that they would have otherwise seen. As such, adaptability is the final pillar of good leadership. Adaptability is the one trait that is cherished above all others in the world of survivability, both of organisms and organizations. "Survival of the fittest" is too short-sighted. "Survival of the most adaptable" is more suited to the creature who wants to make it in a constantly changing world.


As pillars supporting any structure, they must be in balance for the structure to stand. If one of these is too far dominant then it throws the leader out of balance and creates a disparity. There are many intelligent leaders who are slow to act, passionate leaders who fail to think, focused leaders who fail to see critical issues and many highly adaptable leaders who never get anything done because they're chasing the next shiny object. A good leader is one who keeps these four pillars in balance and self-assesses to ensure they are being as effective as possible. At least, that's what I'm trying to do. 

Posted by:Gabriel Thorn

Why CEOs Fail

by Vistage chair Glenn Waring

Since 1994 I’ve worked with many CEO clients, both privately and in groups. In two thousand individual conferences and nearly two hundred all-day group meetings, I’ve begun to recognize some patterns.

First, there is a positive side to failure - successful people almost have to fail more frequently than others because they’re making more attempts. Few of us were sent off to school by mothers who said, “Take Risks!” yet successful CEOs have to learn to do this, decisively. With this “systems view” of failure, successful CEOs take losses in stride, even if that stride includes an occasional kick at the cat. So - one answer to “why CEOs fail” is “Because they understand that calculated risks are necessary to succeed, and such ventures will involve failure.”  Most of these CEOs recognize the status quo is not an option, and by “playing it safe” the

organization may actually be put at great risk.

Failures teach successful CEOs, and over time the following lessons seem to account for most of the learning:

1.      An inability to see the bigger picture. If you’re being eaten by a lion, it’s tough to see the lion.  Some pressures are industry-wide, even global, and the successful CEO may have to divest a core business to succeed (John Teets revamped Greyhound by selling the buses). This is difficult, and it is why so many successful CEOs surround themselves with good peers and mentors.

2.      An aversion to using solid financial practices. A CEO I know once shared with me over dinner that he didn’t pay enough attention to financials until he put a publicly traded company into bankruptcy. The reason, he said, was that the numbers would simply “swim together,” overwhelming his discomfort with financial indicators. Although it’s not hard to remedy - I have seen hundreds of CEOs do it - a CEO first has to admit there’s a compelling need to learn how to avoid going broke.

3.      A lack of clear vision: successful CEOs lead the organization to where it needs to be, and find ways to get buy-in at all levels. This is hard - otherwise, all organizations would do it well. Done right, clear vision can substitute for the field manual, empowering everyone to make crisp decisions in the company’s interest.

4.      Lack of passion. Most organizations no longer need arms and legs (command and control); instead, they need hearts and minds (sell and enroll). People need to be led more than they need to be managed. Provided things are going well, a lack of passion is usually burnout, which comes from solving the same problem over and over. When things aren’t going well, avoidance may look the same as ‘lack of passion,’ but it’s not - CEOs may talk about packing it in when instead they really need to face the difficult task at hand. Some years ago Fortune magazine polled 500 of its more successful readers and learned their strategies for success: (1) know thyself (2) seize opportunity, and (3) pursue meaning. When I encounter a lack of passion in an otherwise successful CEO, I gently suggest a process to revisit personal core beliefs. The fundamental questions of Who am I? Why am I here? beg to be answered, and if urgent tasks continually pull me away from considering these important questions, depression may be the result.  Passion matters, greatly.

5.      Lack of clarity on the reasons for success. Great CEOs hold their associates accountable for knowing what activities cause results. CEOs focus on what to do, and let associates take care of the “how.” Then, on a regular basis, associates monitor the activities that lead to success. For a sales manager this might mean counting and publicly posting the number of cold calls and referrals every week, in addition to the actual sales results. The difference between champions and good performers isn’t terribly great sometimes, but champions win consistently because they understand what causes a win. Finally, successful CEOs foster (and insist on) the use of reliable, continuously improving, and innovative methods for getting work done before they let their associates take care of the “how.”

6.      Distractions such as acquisitions (most of these fail), golf, and other anxiety management techniques. Successful CEOs pay attention to the central task, which is putting the organization in touch with reality, and leading.

7.      Disconnecting from customers. Some of my most successful CEO clients are on the road over half the time, talking to customers.

8.      Integrity outages. I’ve heard many MBA candidates complain about leadership that says one thing and does another. I don’t have hard data on this, but I suspect that associates will tolerate no more than about three inconsistencies before they start to tune out.

My CEO clients work hard, teaching me every day what it means to be decisive and fully engaged in life. I am certain of only two things: confusion is a precondition to learning, and losses accompany success.

For more information on making yourself and your organization more effective, go to www.effectiveorganization.com and login using password “ceo147”.  

Sherry Cooper’s formula for success

Sherry Cooper (@DrSherryCooper) is TMX professor of financial economics at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University and former chief economist and executive vice-president at Bank of Montreal.

The key attributes of successful people are remarkably similar, regardless of their choice of fields. I am often asked by young people and their parents where the best opportunities are, as though success were determined by economic factors – the pursuit of a career in a growth sector. Instead, I believe that potential lies within the individual and is determined by a set of attributes and behaviours that can be applied to any field. Here is a list of the eight indispensable characteristics of successful people:

1. Passion is essential. Doing what you love is key to any successful endeavour. If you do what makes your heart sing, chances are you will be good at it. What’s more, passion is contagious and energizes those around you. Follow your dreams and dream big. Anything else is a cop-out, and forget about the money. If you follow your dreams, the money will come. 

2. Energy is closely linked to passion. Doing something you love gives you the energy required to achieve your goals. It takes hard work – very hard work – to shine in today’s complex and volatile world. The willingness to put in the 10,000 hours required to master a skill, any skill, is essential. That includes the ability to write, speak, engage and motivate – all essential to reach your full potential. 

3. Perseverance is the difference between mediocrity and success. No one achieves anything meaningful without hitting roadblocks, experiencing failures and overcoming adversity. Indeed, these disappointments and difficulties hone your skills and redirect your energies. All failures must be seen as opportunities to reroute and reinvent. That is a winner’s mentality. Never give up and never let naysayers defeat you. Unfortunately, there will always be people who question your judgment and criticize your decisions. You can listen, but let it roll off you. Believe in yourself. 

4 . A willingness to surround yourself with positive people who make you feel good, and dispose of destructive and dysfunctional relationships. That includes bad work relationships. If your boss is unsupportive and demeaning, get out. You will never succeed under such a negative force. 

5. Focus is essential. It is what psychologists call being in the flow. Any real achievement requires hours of uninterrupted concentration, which is increasingly difficult with the constant bombardment of e-mail. Anything worth doing is worth doing singlemindedly, which is the antithesis of today’s multitasking ethos. 

6. Efficacy – the power or capacity to produce a desired effect – is crucial to your well-being. Take ownership of your power. You determine your destiny, not your biography. Regardless of your circumstances, you and you alone can make things happen. The defining factor in success is not resources, but resourcefulness. Passivity is the antithesis of resourcefulness. 

7. The determination to push yourself. Take the stretch assignment or, as Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg says, Lean In. Move outside your comfort zone; it is the only way to learn, and lifelong learning is crucial. The body of knowledge is growing so rapidly that anyone wishing to succeed must keep reading, adapting and learning new skills. 

8. Innovation. Creativity is the essence of meeting competitive pressures. Anyone who remains the same is falling behind as the pace of change is relentless. As Charles Darwin said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Yet most of us do not like change, which lets those who embrace change stand out and rise to the top.