Speaking of Leadership
Dan on Twitter- danmulhern: Manage ur mind in the recession. Grt post by @ellenfweber http://bit.ly/bHSQR9 See why I'm having her on Sat's show http://bit.ly/8krEqu
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Feb
23
Friends,
On my Everyday Leadership radio show on Saturday I asked callers to say what they thought would help us emerge from the recession and emerge stronger and more prosperous? As you would guess, I stressed the personal dimension of the question: What do you think you need to learn and do differently?
One caller – was it Dave from Dewitt? – said that he and his wife had been married for ten years, and feeling the economic pinch, they began to budget as a family. What they found out as they looked at their spending data was that their entertainment expenses were a big slice of the pie. He said that they have now become more disciplined about what they really need. One of the byproducts, he said, was that they have become imaginative about entertainment, spent more time at home, and really enjoyed this family time. A second fellow echoed the same message: Get back to basics he said; distinguish between wants and needs. Part of our way out of this mess is precisely that: Much more focus on what truly brings what the economists call “utility,” and we might call happiness or satisfaction.
This is pretty cool from a spiritual perspective, as well. In the economic market, it’s simple efficiency. When funds get tight, entities –whether families or businesses – tighten their belts and spend on the necessities that are most valuable. Yet this veers into the spiritual realm, as we distinguish between wants and needs. As one of my callers said, “You start to realize that having a third bathroom is not really that important.” The material world isn’t the whole enchilada.
Although things may look terrible from a material perspective, one can look deeper, and there you find some surprising silver linings. I think of a friend of Jack’s. This boy’s grandparents were comfortably semi-retired in Florida; or so they thought. But a job layoff and the hit on their retirement accounts led to foreclosure on their home. They moved back to Michigan and moved in temporarily with their daughter and their grandchildren. No one likes to be forced into such a circumstance, into this “efficient” way of dealing with a capital shortfall. But for millennia and in many countries to this day, grandparents’ living with their grandchildren is the norm if not the ideal. It’s possible if not likely, that the grandparents and kids actually have a RICHER life in the full sense of that word.
In these tough times, both at work and at home, it behooves you to ask: What is real wealth? How rich is our life? And: What do we really value? – As you . . .
Lead with your best self.
Dan
Feb
23
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Feb
16
Through The Lens of Opportunity
Filed Under All Posts, Reading for Leading, Retreats | 7 Comments
Friends,
You can fight the recession by looking through the lens of opportunity!
Over the last 4 days I conducted retreats through which people gave themselves the opportunity to step away from their work, home, and all the demands of everyday life to ask: Where do I really deeply want to be in five years, and how do I make this year the best I’ve ever had?* The comments of one woman broke open possibility for many of us. She seemed to have affixed an “opportunity lens†to her perspective, as she took in the great variety of goals on which people sought feedback.
For instance, one woman’s goal was to take her interior design business to the next level – to be featured in magazines and to secure work that was more comprehensive and allowed fuller creativity. We gave this woman many ideas about networks, marketing, and her work. The woman with the “opportunity lens†though caught all of our attention, as she said something to the effect of “if people can’t move, then help them improve?†Where others saw shuttered homes and frozen markets, she saw windows opening and light pouring in to existing home design possibilities.
A second person was discussing their spouse’s financial advising business. This person was evoking in all of us, the sense of how dark and gloomy it must be for someone in financial advising – what with their clients seeing portfolios shrinking, worrying about retirement, wondering what to do. You could almost hear us all thinking, “Gosh, that must be tough.†But then our woman with the opportunity lens turned us to opportunities in the crisis. She noted that the crisis offered a great time to educate people, to share information, and to be with clients during this crisis. People remember when you are candid and caring in their really hard times (and they also notice when you go dark, abandoning them during a scary time). The woman with the opportunity lens also pointed out that this was a great time for outreach. People are frustrated with their advisors, so this may be a great time for that person’s spouse to reach out and educate people about the current climate, risks and options. Who knows what investors might not be very ready to make a switch.
What was striking to me was that though we all were generating ideas and good ones, her application of the opportunity lens was consistent and it was illuminating. How many people – out of your groups of six or seven or eight – are consistently asking, “Where’s the opportunity here?†I suspect it’s not half, and I’d say, “Now, there’s an opportunity…for you to
Lead with your best self!
Dan
* I have led 7
Friends,
You can fight the recession by looking through the lens of opportunity!
Over the last 4 days I conducted retreats through which people gave themselves the opportunity to step away from their work, home, and all the demands of everyday life to ask: Where do I really deeply want to be in five years, and how do I make this year the best I’ve ever had?* The comments of one woman broke open possibility for many of us. She seemed to have affixed an “opportunity lens” to her perspective, as she took in the great variety of goals on which people sought feedback.
For instance, one woman’s goal was to take her interior design business to the next level – to be featured in magazines and to secure work that was more comprehensive and allowed fuller creativity. We gave this woman many ideas about networks, marketing, and her work. The woman with the “opportunity lens” though caught all of our attention, as she said something to the effect of “if people can’t move, then help them improve?” Where others saw shuttered homes and frozen markets, she saw windows opening and light pouring in to existing home design possibilities.
A second person was discussing their spouse’s financial advising business. This person was evoking in all of us, the sense of how dark and gloomy it must be for someone in financial advising – what with their clients seeing portfolios shrinking, worrying about retirement, wondering what to do. You could almost hear us all thinking, “Gosh, that must be tough.” But then our woman with the opportunity lens turned us to opportunities in the crisis. She noted that the crisis offered a great time to educate people, to share information, and to be with clients during this crisis. People remember when you are candid and caring in their really hard times (and they also notice when you go dark, abandoning them during a scary time). The woman with the opportunity lens also pointed out that this was a great time for outreach. People are frustrated with their advisors, so this may be a great time for that person’s spouse to reach out and educate people about the current climate, risks and options. Who knows what investors might not be very ready to make a switch.
What was striking to me was that though we all were generating ideas and good ones, her application of the opportunity lens was consistent and it was illuminating. How many people – out of your groups of six or seven or eight – are consistently asking, “Where’s the opportunity here?” I suspect it’s not half, and I’d say, “Now, there’s an opportunity…for you to
Lead with your best self!
Dan
* I have led 70-some people through these retreats in the last 15 months, and universally they’ve said, “I have never given myself such a great opportunity to focus on where I’m going.” They’ve come away aligned and excited. I’d encourage you to watch for future retreats to see what they’re talking about.
Feb
9
Truth and Morale in Turbulent Times
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Friends,
I found myself on my radio show on Saturday, tucked between a renowned business consultant-and-writer, and a CEO of a successful public relations firm. We were talking about executing and leading in these tough times, and they were in remarkable agreement.
Ram Charan, co-author of Execution has just published a new book Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty. He had time to squeeze in two points. The first was cash, cash, cash – in these times you have to watch your cash. This is true of companies and true of individuals. When assets are not liquid, banks are not lending, customers may cut back on you, attention to cash is vital.
The second point he made was that you have to communicate, communicate and communicate some more. There is so much rumor and fear, so much misinformation out there, that you can’t afford not to tell folks what’s up. I asked, “Doesn’t that kill morale even more – especially when there is some bad news out there?” “No,” Charan insisted, “Bad morale is caused by misinformation and fear…People can confront distress when they have facts, clarity and specificity, the more people know the source of the difficulty.”
Kelly Rossman affirmed that the core advice she gives to her PR clients in “crisis management” is: get the facts out there, be clear and specific. Where mistakes have been made, acknowledge them and move on.
People want their leaders to solve problems – to attack the market, bring out better products, etc. But they also want their leaders to keep them up to speed, to give them an accurate picture, and to tell them where they can help. If you’ve been avoiding some tough news, put trust and confidence back in your workers, by communicating with directness and specificity to
Lead with your best self,
Dan
Feb
2
Super Bowl Oscars and Inches
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Friends,
On my radio show last week we had a fun tussle over one of those age-old questions. I was asking guests and callers this either/or: If you could either pick a team of great talent but just good teamsmanship, or a team of good talent but great teamsmanship, which would you pick? In response, MSU football Coach Mark Dantonio said (paraphrasing here): there’s something to be said for a great quarterback, but he said that he constantly tells his team games are won and lost by inches, and that’s where the team comes in. Did you watch the Super Bowl last night? Touchdowns at the end of the first and second half were decided by less than inches.
If you’re an Oscars fan, then you’ll remember an extraordinary scene from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which inches and seconds dictate all the meanings that matter.
What gets lost in the spectacular catches, tackles, and the super-slow motion of football or film, is that for that one frame of highlight film, there are thousands of frames of a guard and tackle working together, a coach spending extra minutes, a player lifting 10 pounds more 10 more times. In every film, there is a truth that could be told, a line that could be spoken, an act that could be taken that would avert tragedy or secure victory. And so much more so in life.
It makes me wonder in this spectacular recession – where we look to Obaman heroes and Madoffian villains – how a few inches can matter. There’s a magnificent mortgage crisis, but there are also thousands of lenders and millions of borrowers, each of whom could or can execute with purpose and with values. Great companies will survive, and not so great companies will perish. Leaders matter. But so do those million daily choices people make on the teams they’re on, as they pit: good enough vs. great, fully honest vs. mostly true, self-preserving vs. generous, win-win vs. win-lose or win-tie, faith-filled vs. cynical, merciful vs. vengeful, or trusting vs. doubting.
There’s a level of talent you can’t control a whole lot, but there are decisions of teamwork that you make hourly, every day, decisions that ask you, will you
Lead with your best self?
Dan
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