YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ THIS! GO BACK TO WORK

YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ THIS and I know it.
And I still want you to.
Because as a top executive leader you can look so dumb and be so ineffective and do so much harm if  you are not checking your blindspots.
Here's the deal.
I'll try to be blunt first.
Then I'll say more so you know I'm not nuts.
I just want you to take five minutes every Monday  to turn around fast and try to catch a glimpse of  your leadership shadow/ blindspot, so you don't make so many messes that you don't know about.

Deal?

BE WORLD CLASS AT THE BORING STUFF TOO

GRANDIOSE, PUFFED UP COMPANIES

There are so many grandiose, puffed up aspirations for companies today.
As a  counter balance, let's hear it for the boring stuff that keeps your organization running.
One of my favorite CEO'S came into my office and caught me pissing and moaning about my boring stuff--budget preparation,  painstaking plans, reports on what I had done when I wanted to be working on what I was going to do.  Schedules, outside vendors, community speeches.  I looked up and asked him if he had as much gunk in his job as I did.   He said, "Forty percent of my job is gunk but my sixty per-cent is the best in all the company."  He then said, "Do that forty percent well and your sixty percent will get better and better."

As Ceo you set the strategy, the vision, the culture, the long range plans.  You search for talent and manage the outside world and the Board of Directors.  Don't forget to honor your gunk.  The day to day discipline of the business.  Being on time, not rescheduling unless under real duress, meeting with your admin person to keep him or her appraised of what's going on, constant review of your calendar to align it with what matters most.  And honor the daily stuff of everyone you bump into.  Ask about it.  Thank people for it.
Most people don't think the CEO has any gunk to do. Just the glamorous big picture creative stuff.  Right.  Let people know that you have daily irritating stuff and that it matters. Make Standard Operating Procedures worthy of attention. And let people  know that their sixty percent can get better and better in direct relationship to bringing excellence to the boring--the 40 percent gunk.  Don't be blind to the value of the gunk.

If you are a jerk, you'd better be brilliant

IF YOU ARE A JERK (and you know what I really mean) THEN YOU'D BETTER BE BRILLIANT


If you are not the smartest person in your company
If you don't have a vision for what could be that is embedded in detail in your DNA
If you don't have the fortitude to bring your vision to fruition no matter what
If you can't live, eat and breathe what it is you want to create
Then you can't afford to be an asshole.

You need to get nice.
Learn how to include
Learn how to celebrate
Learn how to share the limelight
Learn how to guard your integrity
Learn how to ask for help
Learn how much you don't know

Because if you aren't a brilliant jerk, you won't be forgiven

Everybody Raise Your Hand

EVERYBODY--RAISE YOU HAND!

Hand raising is a very healthy exercise for your company.  Volunteering, taking initiative, starting a project, raising an objection, developing a new idea.   Hand raising shows the willingness to expend energy, to give, to say "yes".

 You as the CEO or top leader always have your hand raised.  "Hey Board,  Call on me. Listen to me.  Here's what we will do, have to do, can do , are doing.  Here's an answer."" Hey EC  How about we, let's settle this, let's create that."  You are always in a state of raising your hand.  Great.  But do you have a hand raising organization? Do you create access to important work?  Posting is a wonderful hand raising tool.  Even at the executive level.  Raising your hand says, "I want this, I'll expose my flaws to have a chance to do it.  I have energy for this."  Passive talent planning systems that move talent like pawns can induce a subtle passivity and lack of tangential intitiative.  Does your organization post for important projects?  Can people drop into your office to share a thought?  Do people pull others together to create opportunity.  Is their an eager even irritating energy to say "Look at me, call on me, let me do this?"

 Hand raising means, "Yes I want to and I think I can".   So check to see if you are numb from having your hand raised all the time.  Maybe not raised as much as yanked.  Ask yourself as CEO, "Do I have a hand raising organization AND more importanty, ask yourself at this stage of your career and power  "What do I actually want to  raise my hand for?"

They're Watching

Assume you speak into a public address system

every time you label something as CONFIDENTIAL.

People care inordinately about what you have to say - from irritation with coffee in the cafeteria to the next merger upcoming.  You give out cues all the time.  Look outside the company for friendship and a place to spill your guts.  You are MAGNIFIED. 

Be aware of the fact that you have a virtual GRO-LITE on the top of your head EVERY MINUTE OF EVERYDAY.  Where you turn your head things start to grow - attention starts to be paid.   A  CEO who noticed an ice spot at the entrance and mentioned it only to have an expensive heated floor installed the next day.  Or the Retail ops exec who obsessed about bananas on the shelf and there were thousands of dollars o shrink in bananas that no-one cold figure out - until this exec left.   When you ask a question tell why.  If not, you will have people talking about the rationale and making up delicious stories not knowing just how boring you can be.

During times when you are considering acquisitions or restructures or other highly confidential strategic directives YOU DISAPPEAR.  YOU LEAVE A VACUUM THAT IS LIKE A NEON ANNOUNCEMENT THAT SOMETHING BIG AND SCAREY IS GOING ON.  Even when you are present you are not present.  Your preoccupation is evident.  You look sheepish and asleep at the wheel.  People gossip about you and wonder where you are and why you aren't doing your job.  And it's hard to interact when you are carrying big secrets.  It is your job to go toward the organization when there is a major transition going on.    This is when WHO  you are matters more than what you have to say.   Be physically present in as many places as possible.  CEO sitings matter more than substantial interaction.  Your presence is soothing  and grounding.  Much more than you will ever know.  This degree of truth about this  should be incredible humbling.  At hese moments you are the  papa or mama bear of the organization.  Like it or not.

Don’t be perfect.

-->Be human and flawed,

 but not when it comes to ethics

We like it if you lose your car keys all the time.

We hate it when you tell half truths to us.

We like it when you laugh about sibling rivalry at home.

We hate it when you have favorite friends at work that you socialize with.

We like it when you are nervous before a presentation.

We hate it when you talk to us maliciously about a peer of yours.

Anxiety

You are not supposed to look anxious,
so you fake it. 

You micro-manage.

Create a crisis that can be fixed.
Fire somebody.

Create a task force.
Hide.

Flirt.

Drink too much.
Let tangential remarks come out of your mouth.

Take too strong an action on a less important issue.
Talk to a receptive somebody two or three layers down
who will only comfort you.

You make them uncomfortable and
very, very, pleased to be your confidante-----

so pleased,

they will have to share what you said to prove it.