YES OR NO---YOU ARE CONSTANTLY CHOOSING ONE OR THE OTHER

I just said a big "yes" to myself and sat on my balcony in Mexico and read the March issue of Fast Company---the "world's most innovative companies" issue.

I allowed myself to dig in, no scanning.  Still I got up to do little tasks to tone down my excitement, my energy.  And then got mad at myself for doing it. There is such a temptation to run from the energy of YES.  NO is so much more comfortable and controlling.  AND this issue is all about YES.  Every person and company in it is saying YES.

YES creates energy and action and results------if you don't let NO tamp down all that excitement.  

YES to:
--Deciding to just start doing something/anything to solve a problem
--To the possibility of something new working---eventually
--Big important social goals and solutions
--Imagination, seeing that glimpse of different
--Steadfast determination to back-up the dream
--Strength of conviction
--A world view
--Caring about being green, gender aware, culturally hip and enjoying it
--The the pleasure, the amusement, the vitality of innovation
--To the irritations, the failures, the ego-maniacs, the boldness, the brashness, 
   the clash that goes along with innovation.

I would love to hear from top execs about the balance of YES & NO in your day.  How many opportunities do you have to say either?  How many times does the YES make you nervous and reach for control?  How many of your YES decisions are worth a "yes"?  What's your default position?  Yes or no?   

A big YES  is unsettling.  I experienced it just reading about bold (enough to mean something) innovation.  But saying "yes" isn't a feeling.  It's a commitment.  

YOUR SYSTEM MAY NEED A LITTLE MORE PLAY IN IT.

We are back in the business cycle of talking a lot about creativity and innovation.  Tough times seem to bring it out.  Unfortunately tough times also
cause systems to get tight, tighter, tightest.  There is a tendency to contract, to squeeze out any extra, to measure small things to the nth degree as economies struggle   This is the exact opposite from what innovation needs to flourish.

Loose and Tight are important dynamics in a business.
Knowing WHEN to get tight and WHEN to loosen is a leadership art.
And knowing  WHAT to tighten and loosen is essential.

Get tight about what your consumer wants.
Know it to the nth degree.
Get tight and keep good strong boundaries around your strategy.
Know what to say "yes" to and what to say "no" to when it comes to your business model.

BUT keep some play in your system when it comes to HOW to work within your strategy and business model.  I mean play in both its definitions.  Play meaning "ease and room to move" and play as in " fun and lightness".  I have personally seen play move a group from grim gridlock to easy results within three hours.

This does not mean get goofy.  It means give some room for movement and choice and autonomy to your people so that you can have a fluid company that has  a natural innovative, creative process.

BLAH BLAH BLAH BUSINESS BOOKS

There really are a lot of blah blah blah business books.
As a top executive you can get quite cynical as authors sell their very simple
model for a very simple problem that with a very simple matrix can make them a lot of money.  Give me a good matrix and I'll show you a best seller.

But there are some good business books too.  Mostly I read to solve a very specific problem.  I don't tuck in with a business book every night.  Usually I scan several books and put together my own concept or practice that fits exactly what I'm working on.

Today, one book keeps coming to mind because it is a remedy for the biggest blind spot of all which is the inability to see your organization as 
a live changing perhaps declining system.  You probably know the book.  It is HOW THE MIGHTY FALL by Jim Collins.  It gives the symptoms of various stages of decline that ring absolutely true to me.  

Here's my challenge.  Invite fifteen people to a lunch with you--randomly selected, various levels.  Make it an invitational to see who wants to play.
Ask them to read the book and assess which stage your company is in based on the indicators in the book.  Don't be blind to the idea that your company might be in the beginning stages of decline.  If you get news you don't like, have another lunch.  Then do something about where you land in the decline slide.  It's a hopeful book. 

 Seeing clearly saves a lot of money and opens lots of opportunity.  And it is the rare executive who can see without the blinders of over optimism, believing their own Wall Street spin, or who can tolerate seeing failure.  I bet this book has not sold as well as Jim Collin's others and it should because it forced a close look at reality.

DOING A VERY TOUGH THING FOR ANY EXECUTIVE

I'm putting my family first.
Visiting grandchildren in Mexico.
Already have 5 ideas to talk about.
Turning from compelling work for family is not easy.
It takes a firm priority
And discipline
And then fun and satisfaction.
Same as any other goal, I guess.

REMEMBER WHEN YOU CARED MORE ABOUT THE "WHAT" THAN THE "HOW"?

WHAT do I want to create?
WHAT idea intrigues me enough to disrupt things?
WHAT can I do better than anyone and that I LOVE to do?
WHAT do I keep thinking about and then shrug off as not possible?
WHAT am I afraid to do for fear of looking foolish?
WHAT would make me look forward to the day?
WHAT do I read that invigorates me?
WHAT do I see as a trend that makes me curious enough to study it?

The constant focus on "how" can be deadening. Efficiency, effectiveness, 
logistics, improvement. Taking the "now" and making it better. Good.
Needed. But not where your CEO brain needs to be all the time.

You have constant day to day demand of reporting results, managing people, resolving the  crisis of the day and monitoring progress--
selling and telling your story to different stakeholders. Needed. Yes.
But very present tense. Your CEO brain needs to be interested in the future.

Back to the "what" that would make you start the same company again.
Juicy, scary, compelling, exciting, just risky enough to keep you on your toes--fun.  

WHAT is the growth engine, not how.

LET'S HEAR IT FOR WANDERING AROUND!

I'm thinking about Tom Peter's today and his book Passion for Excellence.
If you don't have the book (or the passion) go get it.
The tenets of the book hold over time.

One of the basics of his research about excellence was the habit of leaders to wander around. It was called Management by Wandering Around.  By the way, it was not called Leaders Deigning to Say Hello with a wave like the Pope's.

It was about staying in touch with the people and the business by talking and probing and guiding and listening by walking around without any intention but connection.  It should be one of the most nourishing things a leader can do--for the business and it's people, but primarily for you as the top leader.

Don't be blind to the fact that you can become under-nourished yourself as you get too distant from the life blood and vitality of your enterprise.  You lose the passion for what your business is about.  You lose the pleasure of leading.
You lose the advantage of seeing and hearing future possibilities (and problems) before they emerge too late.  And don't be blind to the fact that much of leadership is managing.  Managing is a good thing, not a lesser thing than leading.  Try a little MANAGING by wandering around. Less grandiose.  More effective.  More fun.

SERIOUSLY?? STILL CHOOSING FEAR OVER SKILL?

I continue to hear overtly or in more coded language that fear is necessary to motivate people to do their best work.  

How Cro-Magnon can we continue to be?

I hate to tell you but there is plenty of fear in the air without using it as a leadership tool. Fear of a world economy gone berserk, fear of acceleration of natural disasters that break everyone's bank, fear of self-destructive political violence.  Hellooo.  That should do it in the fear department for almost anyone.

Continue to use fear if only by innuendo (like suggesting your direct report's job is under threat unless he or she  solves problems that you yourself cannot). Hope you get the irony there.

So keep using fear if you want:

People to do good work only when you are present

To give people motivation to steal and lie and pay you back

A workforce focused on its own security instead of your customer

To be seen as powerless unless using punishment

Talented people to leave the minute they get the chance

A workforce without initiative who does only as told

Customers who can smell the oppression in your store or office

This is what you are choosing if you choose or use fear to motivate.  Duh?