YOU ARE NOT YOUR ROLE

After twenty days away from my world, I became acutely aware of shedding all kinds of roles--retired executive, writer or three weekly blogs, author of new book soon to be released, wife grandmother, mom, friend, sister-in-law, business woman, mentor to many. The roles fell away and it was restful, wonderfully empty time to fill (or not). I did not leave our house in Mexico except to get groceries. Not just doing nothing but taking a break from being someone.

So, this experience was on my mind when I sat down to write. I thought about the biggest blind spot most CEO's have. It's inevitable. Most people start a work life to support their personal life. That begins to shift when people are about 3-4 levels from the top position.
little by little the role becomes central and (let's say it) privilege and power are taken for granted and become invisible to you. Often, it's all others see.

I have helped many CEO's transition out of the top spot. It's easy to see how much of a person is left. Some thrash about terrified of not wearing the role and search to find another CEO position as fast as possible. Some get immediately larger as a person as if the role limited them and other top execs shrink and disappear as if they had no self other than the CEO identity. Often there is big hurt when former colleagues and friends drop the relationship like a hot potato. They loved the role, not the person. Always there is a shock and free fall of 
finding a new identity to wear, often one that fits better, is tailor made and allows more freedom to be real.

I've seen and supported too many transitions out of the top seat of power not to know that
this is THE blind spot of power. You carry projections, blame, admiration, affection, honor,
success, failure, sycophants, power to raise people up, hope. The solution, if there is one, is to grow as a person as you rise as a leader.

A LEADERSHIP OXYMORON—FAKE AUTHENTICITY

Authentic can become a product, rather than a way of being.
Some thoughts:

—Authentic is not the same as being spontaneous or very informally real.
   Being real is not necessarily authentic

—None of us are authentic all the time. Lots of what we do is rehearsed and that's a good thing.

—Authenticity does carry power with it.

—Being authentic is often triggered by an important moment

—It goes beyond knowing yourself. It involves knowing the moment and the context or what's needed and
   aligning the world with your inner self.

—It is not a method to encourage followership (as in your people like humor, tell a joke)

—It is not marketing yourself to the company. It is not about image even though many books talk as if it is.

Here is the definition of authentic: l. "An emotionally appropropriate, significant, purposive and responsible mode of living" 2. "Undisputed original--not a copy" 3. "accurate and reliable"

In authenticity, there is a demand for principle that is important (significant) and it is an on purpose stance in the world. There is something unique and original to the authentic leader. The leader is not copying nor can she be copied. There is a quality of holding steady and true, reliable, a ringing true day after day after day. There is  powerful coherence in what an authentic leader feels, says ,does, and stands for. 

The power comes from the awareness and work of the leader. You can smell it in others and feel it in yourself. You dig  deep and get aligned internally. You feel the moment when you are poised to "have it all together" and you step forward with the courage of your truth that has been distilled. At that moment, there is a power and an energy like the vibration of a note perfectly hit. A resonance goes through your organization that 

FROM MY ARCHEOLOGICAL DIG THROUGH OLD HANDOUTS

I am moving into a new office and used that move as an opportunity to shed books and materials from my 25 years in Organizational and Leadership Development. I bumped into some good ones.

I helped create the systems and structure to create a "learning organization" as an EVP of The Delhaize Group. I designed many a leadership retreat and as well as a leadership college and a hi-potential annual event and many other systemic approaches to learning across the various companies of the group.  Here are the principles that seemed to work to  have  impact on leaders that lasted into their future roles:

—Experiencing something again that refreshed, rekindled, reaffirmed their excitement about leading

—Learning with a team and giving and receiving support for learning

—Experiencing a free-flowing learning climate that made creativity and risk- taking into a learning 
   experiment not a life or death career moment

—Having  satisfying personal achievement during the learning--trying something very different that worked

—Broadening horizons with new people, new culture, new location

—Learning from feedback from others during the learning event

—Overcoming a low point in the experience and how to come back from it

—Having an intense experience which is vivid and deeply stirring enough to have a direct and lasting effect 

—Learning to learn from an experiential process that improves individual ability to learn from that experienc

—New learning that has an "aha" feel to it by guiding the learner to recognize patterns, see connections and  systems and their  interrelationships for the first time 

Training is very very very important for skills.
Learning is very very very important for top leader development

Some of the peak moments in my formal career were  designing a  learning experience and seeing the design do its work. The design carries the work and the facilitators/ teachers should be invisible and not needed by the end of the learning time together. It was so darned fun

Learning is inherently exciting and it's your job to keep your leaders excited about the business and about leading,

PS--I will be on Sabbatical in Mexico and will be on a personal retreat for the first two weeks.
I'll see you again on March 27th!

ARGHHHHHHHH!

I just spent time writing about the glue that connects people to an organization.
I liked it. I was articulate and passionate--the kind of moment that doesn't always happen.
AND I lost it, deleted it, sent it to some cloud. And my response is ARGHHHHH!

Could I receate it? Probably. Will I? No. Not now anyway.
But it made me remember the ARGHHH feeling that top leaders experience and learn to live with as a very regular part of their job. The ability to manage an organizational ARGHH moments is a CEO skill that separates you from the rest. It may be fundamental.

What does a solid CEO do with AARGH moments?
--Sees that it is indeed an unredeemable event
--Quits fighting the facts
--Gets mad and sad (yes, sad) with one or two trusted colleagues
--Stays quiet and thoughtful for awhile--ie. shuts the door, goes and touches the daily business
--Sighs, breathes and lets go
--Gets good perspective before action
--Keeps stable (there is a CEO attribute if ever there was one)
--Weighs the common good
--Creates a new path
--Moves on

This process can take an hour or a business quarter or a year.
Most of us are too fast or too slow and get stuck on one of the steps.
It is the art of the CEO to know what to do in the ARGHHHHH moments in their company and how to move through them.

And I will come back to the glue that holds a company together.
Just not now. I'm still fighting the fact.

ARE YOU JADED?

Before I started I  had to a self check to see if I was jaded. I'll tell you why. 
I checked my digital account of HBR and didn't want to open the magazine.
--How to Win and Keep Customers
--Where to Find Hypergrowth
--What Keeps CEO's Awake at night
--Building a Workforce for the Future
--Diversity
--How to Learn From Failure

Well, OK. Valid topics but same ol' same ol'. I worked on these same topics for 25 years. 
I began to hear, "blah, blah, blah" in my ears.
Not good. These same topics used to excite me and I actually did great innovative work with my colleagues on each of them. Is it the grinding sameness of what goes on in any business?  Or, has their been no breakthrough thinking about business. Or does breakthrough belong to the new smaller millenial businesses.
I do remember the jaded responses of some of my bosses when I was new in Organizational Development  and had endless enthusiasm about what could be done along with a dose of naivete-- both of which helped me do very bold work in all the above areas.  

I write in the middle of a blizzard in New England so I have some time for musing due to wonderful, wonderful cancellations. So here I sit. And I begin to get interested. 
--Win and Keep Customers sounds like they are objects you use to win a game. 
  Food for thought there. What if we changed that to liking our customers, glad to see customers
  knowing them intimately
--Why Hypergrowth?  What if we don't have room for growth as the ultimate answer. What if rightsizing 
  actually meant something and was the optimal size for maintaining good enough profits over a long time.
--Building a Workforce for the Future. What if workforce needs are universal across age cultures and so are NOW not the future--like meaning, using talents, flexibility, engagement in team production, recognition of contribution, authenticity in leadership to name a few.

So now I'm interested. How did that happen?  
--I had time to be dissatisfied and think without the need for resolution or action
--I had irritation that let me think new thoughts about perennial topics
--I started by being against not for and it spurred my interest
--I used other's thought to jump start my own

So it didn't take an expensive week long event to begin to have "fresh" eyes again.

So maybe You may not be jaded but it is something that creeps up on top leaders.
Think about it. I use to call them the 'salty dogs'. 
  

WHO/WHAT IS THE AUTHORITY IN YOUR COMPANY?

I'm thinking of the turmoil in our world
It's hard for the center to hold with so many of our institutions in chaos and in need of transformation
It is so tempting to turn every event or disruption into a dramatic life or death moment. And, yes there are some that are life or death. You have to know the difference.
A fundamental question in any culture is, "Where does authority reside?"
In God?  In the top leader of the country? In the law?  In money?
(Sometimes in the US I think authority resides in celebrity and fashion)

But for your company, the authority should be in the customer
They are the boss, the power and the  the decider of life or death in your business
When politics knocks at your door--focus on the customer
When moral duty calls --think about your customer
When civic duty pulls--follow your customer
When you get entranced with your own personal power--bow to the customer

The customer is your authority. Stay grounded in that awareness. Be humbled by
The demand to serve customers well
Let your customers be the rudder to guide your company through the churning in the world around you
Stay steady in that focus.

ARE YOU HAPPY? WE NEED HAPPY CEO'S

As you drill down to get granular to control the bottom line (pardon my business babble) things can get grim. Punishing sales budgets. Grim. Anxious to be perfect Board Meetings? Grim.
Grinding along meetings focused on the present, not the future? Grim

How on earth to be happy?  Start by:

—letting enough extraneous thoughts, topics and interests into the room so that you can find human humor

—steppping back and acknowledge some of the absurdity that goes on

—telingl the goofy stories of the past

—getting over yourself--Ceo's aren't that important!

—enjoying and allowing the funny person on your team to be funny with no disparagement about not being  serious enough about the business

—letting the atmosphere be social while being productive

—starting with being happy yourself regardless of situations; then you will be contagious


Happiness is good energy. Hopeful energy. Contagious energy. Optimistic energy. Energy that gives an extra boost to do what seems impossible. Grim doesn't make work work. 
One of the things I most remember is the laughter of the Executive Committee. It kept a kind of lightness and carbonation in the atmosphere that often needed it to make the tough decisions.