Taking Care of Your Business

Learning Lab: Mergers and Acquisitions

There are so many things about my CEO peer advisory boards that I love. What I focus on in this podcast is providing a glimpse into how these meetings are like learning labs. When we gather leaders open up, they share successes and failures, challenges and opportunities, things they've learned and things they're still trying to figure out! That's why it's like a laboratory: everybody learns from each other. At a recent meeting I opened the floor and invited people to share what they've learned from their experience with mergers and acquisitions. On this podcast you'll take home some nuggets of wisdom born from the group's hard won experience. You're in for a treat!

Minders, Finders and Grinders

Building a team is a lot harder than it looks! I recently came across an article in Forbes about the importance of getting the right balance among three very different kinds of employees: "minders, finders and grinders." In this podcast you'll learn about each one, not only the assets they bring to an organization, but also the liabilities when you have too much of any one good thing.

How Teams Evolve: Part 2

The best leaders understand that business teams are not static, they don't stand still. Teams change: sometimes they progress forward, other times they go backward. This is the second in a two part series, where you'll learn about the five stages of development for teams. It's called COG's ladder and it was developed 50 years ago by a manager at Proctor and Gamble. And the premise is that teams have to step up, they have to collectively climb up a developmental ladder to become high performing. And it's up to the leader to help them get there.

How Teams Evolve: Part 1

Organizational teams are like organisms: they are constantly evolving. Fifty years ago a manager at Proctor and Gamble published an article in the company's newsletter to help other people in his company to more effectively manage their teams as they evolve. The ideas in that article spread like wildfire to companies all over the world. The basic idea is that there are five steps in the ladder toward peak performance. And teams have to climb up that ladder in order to become high performing. In this two part series you'll learn about the five steps and how to leverage them, to help your team become the best of itself.

Becoming the Person You Always Wanted to Be

Last week I came across one of the best definitions I've heard of the impact that an executive coach can have. "It's the coach's job to tell you what you don't want to hear, and show you what you don't want to see, so you can become the person you always wanted to be." Being a CEO or business owner is a tough job. It can be frustrating. It can be exhausting. And it can be lonely. A recent Vistage white paper called "The Seven Biggest Mistakes CEOs Can Make" is a treasure trove of wisdom to help leaders stay out of trouble. One common mistake is not finding a good guide. People don't think twice about getting a personal coach or guide for golf or tennis, for cooking or planning a vacation, even for raising their kids,. Why not a coach for something as important as your business? It's a game changer. In this podcast you'll discover five ways that coaches bring value.

WEAKNESSES or Strengths: Part 2

What's the best way to grow as a leader? Power up your strengths? Or fix your weaknesses? In the first of this two part series, we focused on a practical way to leverage our strengths, through what I call the "superpower" exercise. Now we turn our attention to the other half of the equation: reducing the trouble you get into from your weaknesses. Instead of doubling down, today's message is all about dialing it back! As one author puts it, growth sometimes requires becoming a "less exaggerated version of yourself." If you're good at completing tasks tune into relationships. If you're adaptable, be more disciplined. If you're good at talking, practice listening.

STRENGTHS or Weaknesses: Part 1

In my CEO peer advisory groups there's an activity I like to do called the "superpower exercise." I invite my members to identify one big win from the last 12 months, and describe how they leveraged one of their superpowers to achieve the win. And then comes the fun part: I ask them to identify another area of their business where they are not leveraging that superpower. The superpower exercise focuses on what's "right" with people rather than what's "wrong" with them. And it encourages them to leverage what's right with their leadership. The competition for talent is going to continue, and one of the best ways to engage employees and managers is to develop them, to help them leverage their own God-given strengths to grow.

A Symphony of Motion

The legendary boat designer, George Pocock, described competitive rowing as an art form, what he called a "symphony of motion." Building successful teams in business--like building a successful rowing crew--is also a form of art. In this podcast you'll learn more about how the peak performance of a highly effective business team is also a symphony of motion, similar to a competitive rowing crew. First, they have a clear understanding of roles. Second, they have great coordination and timing. And finally, they have a strong leader, who knows what the team is capable of, and is able to push them to their limit, without causing them to burn out.

Trust and Leadership

This week I picked up a book entitled "On Becoming a Leader" by Warren Bennis, one of the world's great authorities on leadership. Bennis identified six ingredients of leadership, and one of them--trust--resonates with me, given the times in which we live. In this podcast you'll learn about the six ingredients of great leadership, and why Trust is different from the other five ingredients.

Mulligans

I lead a confidential peer group of non-competing CEOs. At our recent monthly meeting we discussed what each of us would like to take a Mulligan on in our business from the first six months of the year. I like the option of taking a Mulligan not only because I'm an average golfer at best. I also like the idea of thinking about what I wish I could "do over" in my life and my business. Not because I can change what's happened in the past, because I can't. Rather, I like the idea of reflecting on past mistakes in a community of peers so I can make changes and adjustments as I go forward. In this podcast you'll learn about the power of leveraging your Mulligans, whether at home or at work.