YOUR VALUES SPEAK LOUDER THAN COMPANY VALUES

I'm interested in how top leaders can be so excited about the company values 
and yet be blind to or not interested in their personal values.
And yet, your personal values either support or erode the stated
company values.  Your personal values are up in neon for all to see through your day to day actions.

There are a million  reasons why you can excuse yourself from living the company values.  Complexity, competing values, extraordinary situations.
NOT.

There is a very different feel to an organization when the top leader's values support those of the company.  When this is not the case, there is a a kind of character flabbiness that leads to subtle cynicism, lax respect and self focus in general.

When there is a leader that lives the company values, all kinds of energy and power are in the atmosphere.  There is a back bone to the organization.
There is a sense of clarity and security that allows the focus to be on the business, not on personal safety.  There is a freedom to run fast.  The company makes sense.  Congruence releases energy.  There is so much less muck to manage.  

Try bravery.  Find a way to learn what values you demonstrate on a day to day basis.  

DON'T LET CONSULTANTS DO YOUR JOB

Consultants want you to need them.
They need you to need them.
Seems obvious but don't be blind to the moment when they are leading you, not vice versa.

Consultant Red Flags for Top Execs:

1.  You can't articulate the exact outcome that you want to accomplish with the use of the consultants.

2.  You don't have a precise end point for the work to be done. You are stalling.

3.  Your direct reports are taking action based on the consultants advice ---informing  but not involving you.

4.  You spend more time with the consultants than with your direct reports.

5.  You expect the consultants to make you job easier and they do.  (Managing/
leading consultants is just as hard as managing anyone else. Should not be easy)

6.  The ROI is being traded for placating and feeling good about yourself.

7.  The cultural language of the company has become that of the consulting group.

8.  The work space of the consultants has begun to look like home.

9.  The consultants attend major company meetings.

10. There is no feedback loop or performance discussion between you and the
consultants.  

THE EXCITEMENT OF BEING STEADFAST

New Year's carries the fenzied excitement for the new that I don't trust.
Especially in business right now.
Shallow new instead of deep innovation.
Anyway, I want to speak up for steadfastness to the point of boredom.

Absolutely one of the best companies I worked for and with was noted
by Wall Street analysts as "boring".

It was steadfast. 
It set a course.
It held the course.
It completed the course.

It set a course.
It held the course.
It completed the course.

Yawn, yawn, yawn.
Consistent, incremental positive results over time.

Oh to be excited by that much boredom.
Your company is yearning for it.
There has been so much "world class", "best in class" only to end up "bottom of the class".
Fresh starts, kick starts, new ways, my way or the highway.
Design, re-design.
Upscale, up level, upstart.

You've got people living in perpetual transition, neither here nor there.
Setting the course may be the hardest thing you'll ever do.
But boy is there power in the steadfastness of staying the course.
Aim for a little boredom.

END OF YEAR PAIN RELIEVERS

I lacked a certain kind of courage as an executive.
I didn't want to fire or downsize or lay-off anyone who had worked closely with me, laughed with me, done projects with me, put up with me, been employed by me.
No one deserved to be surprised by a sudden end of employment unless they had been unethical or done something illegal.
That included someone not performing well or someone profoundly irritating.

I wanted to avoid the pain, so I had to have pain relievers.  These two 
pain preventers worked for me.  I did fire people but it was never a surprise and always a transparent process.  Here's what kept me pain free.

1.  I never overstaffed my function.  I didn't want to let anyone go because I
had allowed people creep to occur.  Doing too much with too little seemed to keep people happy---if they were recognized and got a break every once in a while.

2.  This is the most important one.  I mention it as we approach a new year.
DON'T BE BLIND TO THE IMPORTANCE OF A FORMAL (the tone can be informal but the doing has to have the importance of something formal) PERFORMANCE REVIEW AND DEVELOPMENT CONVERSATION.  Everybody kind of hates doing them.  Everyone kind of hates participating in one.  Do it.  Do it.  Do it.
At least twice a year.  

Under staff and over do performance conversations.
Two great pain relievers.

ARE YOU A SCROOGE?

There are all kinds of ways to be an executive scrooge.
None of them are great for business.
Check yourself out:

Do you cut interactions  short to save time and miss the crux of the issue?

Is every conversation focused on cost rather than growth?

Are you afraid that recognition will make people work less hard?

Are you afraid that stating a problem publicly will make it worse?

Do you use too few words to communicate context and direction?

Are you stingy with raises and praise?

Do you withhold promotions too long so they are almost insulting?

Do you always look for deficiency first?

Is your first response "No"?

Do you wait too long to give major development opportunities to top people?

Stinginess can wither a business and create an atmosphere of contraction rather than of expansion and possibility.  Money is so not the only currency for an executive scrooge.  So spend more--time, attention, development, respect,
information about the business.  Spend, spend, spend.

SMALL M MORAL LEADERSHIP FOR YOUR COMPANY

I've been reading and thinking about Nelson Mandela and his moral leadership that impacted the world.

My immediate reaction was to write about how moral leadership was sorely needed in business today.  Then I thought twice.  And, of course, when one thinks twice, things get confusing. 

Moral has to do with right and wrong, good and bad. Honesty.
Is that needed in a company that makes my--say--paper clips?
What's the need or benefit for a moral leader and company of integrity?

It's worth a discussion with your Executive team.
What's constitutes right for our customers?
What's constitutes wrong for our customer's
And what constitutes good and bad for our customers?
What constitutes honesty for our customers?
This is not for customers to answer in a focus group.
This is for your top leadership group to agree on as a moral standard for the
company.

Now do the same conversation with the focus on the people working in the company?

I'm always a little afraid of rigid right and wrong.  Too simple, even too simple minded.  A business doesn't need to change the world.
But it does have to have its own kind of moral standard and integrity that fits
the business it is in.  

Try the conversation to see if there is  tight agreement on good and bad, right and wrong for customers and associates.  Make the answers specific and tangible.  Don't be blind to the power behind this kind of moral alignment for your company.  I think it will take you beyond generic company values into renewed inspiration for your business.

GETTING IT DONE ADDICTION

I love getting things done
It's one of my great pleasures
I feel freer afterwards, like I've earned a reprieve

Most business leaders share my addiction 
Straining toward results gets locked into the DNA
Pushing tight deadlines is daily business

Here's the tricky part
The constant push pops rivets
There is an art to the pacing of organizational accomplishment 
You are in charge of the "getting things done" environment of your company
Don't disperse that energy by applying it to everything always
Think physics
Gather that energy for what matters most
Constant steady pressure creates a systemic resistance --kind of like results gridlock.