Keeping the Small Promises

"If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude."

– Gen. Colin Powell
Former U.S. Secretary of State

The term, "worthy of trust" is at the heart of the relationship between leaders and their teams. Can they trust you? Are your promises good? Can your "word" be relied upon with confidence? Or does your team need to "parse your promises?"

"Well, she means well, but never shows up on time.”
“He has a lot on his mind.”
“She's under a lot of pressure, no wonder she's curt and cranky.”
“He never welshed on a major promise.”
“She had to break her promise on pay last year and of course the year before... but this year, we can count on her.”

Are your people saying these things about you? Do they indicate your basic intentions seem honorable, but that you can't deliver? Do they suggest that there's a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of leadership – that you don't get it?

The fundamental medium of exchange in a corporation is "the Promise.” And that promise stems from "the Word" of the senior officer. It's currency. Or it’s not... While much thought goes into branding and packaging, the real issues are as simple as whether the market, your customers, your employees or the people in your immediate reach can count on your assurances with confidence.

A multi-year, multi-purchase relationship between a customer and a car company turns on the small promise made by the service department about when a car will be ready for pickup. A dry cleaner can usurp a long-term relationship with a customer by delivering a few shirts without buttons. A consultant can undermine a relationship with a client by submitting an invoice with an inappropriate charge for personal expenses. A senior can ruin the relationship with the employees by showing up late and out of sorts for a meeting, explaining away the upset by saying, "it's a small thing. I get the big stuff right don't I?” On the contrary, in our experience all relationships turn on the "small promises."

Think about it. If the grocer cheated you on a five-dollar purchase, wouldn't you question all the bills? If the hotel added fifteen dollars in false phone charges, wouldn't you start combing through receipts? If the credit card company charged you twenty dollars worth of interest, wouldn't you question their ethics? If the CEO comes late to the meeting, don't you start showing up late yourself? If the leader cheats on their spouse, but claims to be trustworthy in the office, isn't their character and the resonance of any other promise they’ve made brought into question? “Undermining a promise” and “devaluing the currency” amount to the same thing.

In fact, there is no real difference between a promise of timeliness and the promise of accuracy in the pay package. "A promise is a promise.” We spend a lot of mental ammunition justifying our personal failures on "small" promises while asking the same people to respect our honesty on the big issues. The larger truth: Life is complicated enough without having to distinguish between small promises (which are presumably breakable), and LARGE promises (which we claim to be inviolate).

Our advice:

Personally:
Take inventory of any "deflation of confidence" in your personal sphere. Resolve to make fewer promises, and to keep them.

Professionally:
Get there. Turn off the phone. Leave your excuses at the door. Engage fully. And shave five pages off every contract you originate.

Corporately:
Turn off the "marketing magic" and get back to making simple promises. Then keep them. The promise is currency, or not.


Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

Executive Counsel

“When the student is ready, the teacher
will appear.”

- Buddhist Proverb











Seeking a personal advisor…

You may think “you’re hiring yourself a coach” when in reality, something loftier needs to occur. It’s been our experience that students and counselors mysteriously find each other when they recognize they may have been connected all along.

It may be time to see your current circumstance from a different perspective. What’s your life journey about? Who can help you along the way? It’s an important decision. Here are some guidelines as you engage and surrender to the process:

COACH vs. COUNSEL

We believe the word "Counsel" connotes a loftier standard for the practice of listening objectively, advising the client – evaluating the range of available courses of action and perhaps role-playing one or more of the choices. "Coaching" is a popular choice with its roots in competition and athleticism; yet it rarely penetrates deeply into the intellect or the spirit of the "player." A Coach tells you what to do, how to play. A Counselor teaches you how to figure it out. We believe that is the point where Counsel exhibits the profound distinction between one who says, "OK, get in there and win!", and one who says, "Let's get a sense of how we tend to get in our own way, and see if you're imposing any barriers on your own progress. Then let’s discuss the options, decide among them and plan the steps."

We believe Counsel is "a Profession" in the classical sense, as in master, guru, tutor or mentor.

Do you RESPECT them?

CHOPS

Have they begun, operated or held a position of trust in business?

Can you come clean with them? Really! Will they demand that?

Do they work from/toward an objective standard? How do you know when you're done?

Are they trying to influence your decisions? Are they telling you what to think? Or, are they teaching you how to think?

Can they command your loyalty and concentration?

Are they a "big enough being?" Have they been around long enough to know?

Do you TRUST them?

CHEMISTRY

These relationships cross all kinds of lines and the process involves baring your soul.

Can you relate to each other? (Hey, chemistry counts! This is personal!)

Are they available to you at any time?

Do you have understandings about confidentiality?

What are the "Rules of Engagement?" Can this be fun, engaging, entertaining, demanding, fulfilling, meaningful?

Can you ask - and can they confront - the "Big Questions." Yes? Then this is “the one”!

Do you LIKE them?

This is a life journey, not a destination. The question is are you looking for a Counselor or Coach? A coach helps you read the map; the counselor helps you draw it. This is a big decision about a relationship that may last a lifetime. To get a grasp on what can’t be seen, on the principles behind the game of life, you need someone you respect, trust
and like.

If you’re ready, your teacher will appear. Bon Voyage!

Managing vs. Leading in Crisis / View from the Bridge

“Management works in the system; Leadership works on the system.”

– Stephen R. Covey
Author, Professor
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Despite the vast differences between leading and managing, especially during difficult times, business people have to wear both hats – we can't afford two slots on the org chart! This requires a holistic leader.

In times of crisis, one must manage the budget and control expenses. Yet, the damage in a crisis is not just to the balance sheet, but also to the well-being, confidence and soul of the firm.

Concentrating exclusively on the balance sheet means that one can lose track/touch with the formative intention and deep vision that actually drive and sustain a successful firm. Focusing only on function will ensure that you survive the crisis. Then what?

Is it over yet? Despite all the headlines and government pronouncements about the "end of the recession," many are not back to where they were with regard to personal income, confidence in their situation or certainty about their retirement. This may take longer than we thought. Perhaps the deeper crisis continues because there is such an obvious divide between the contrasting skills of Management and Leadership. (Perhaps this divide is less obvious than we thought…)

It's one thing to cut the budget, reduce salaries, change the comp plan, put off acquiring the new servers and fix the roof – oh and forget the big vacation! It's another thing entirely to communicate that all those actions were taken for good reason – because the economy is still in uproar and the systemic dishonesty and self dealing that gave rise to the problem (in spite of the dramatic rearrangement) haven’t been addressed. The eruption may be over, but we haven't healed yet! The time for crisis management though, is coming to an end. Now is the time for visionary leaders to emerge, tend to the healing and reconstitute the founding vision.

Yo! You with the two hats! Put – down – the – balance – sheet. Put aside the Manager hat. Now it’s time for some major league Leadership. Your people need you…and they’re hard to catch. People connect with more media input then ever, and your connection to them is only one channel in their daily mix of web, TV, radio and the "Starbucks Melange.” So while you’ve been consumed with scanning the numbers and apportioning the loss to keep things stable, you may have forgotten that the most insidious problem of all is – doubt. People have begun to doubt that they'll retire. They doubt the promises of far away famous politicians. They doubt their own ability to persevere. They doubt their managers, who don't appear to know the whole truth. Management doesn't handle or expunge doubt. But Leadership can do that – with a scoop of compassion.

The formula for multi-dimensional leadership:

1. Survive! It's a crisis! Handle the details, cut the budget and keep the game going. So much for the easy stuff.


2. Heal! As you emerge from the fog, take time for the healing. This is anything but business as usual. There may be a few (hundred) conversations involved.


3. Restore the vision! Reach for their hearts and minds. Help them regain their confidence and imagine a better future.


4. Carve out some time for yourself. Leaders must heal too. Talking helps. Do you have a confidante?


5. Now, ever so gently, go!
   

Maybe the real definition of "holistic leader" is one who manages the crisis while leading into the future.

Perils of the Visionary Leader

“The Sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to salvation is hard.”

The Razor’s Edge
W. Somerset Maugham
Excerpted from the Katha Upanishad

A leader’s responsibility comes in two parts: One – envisioning the future, the other – managing brilliantly in the present.  Teetering on this “razor’s edge” requires a human being with exceptional balance.  Whether it's thriving in a better future she imagines, or surviving in a worse one; the job is hers:  to see it, plan it, and manage the migration.

The perils:

1.    Married to the present.  Managing well requires a deep awareness of every aspect of the business and our myriad reasons for being just here!  With so much invested in the best possible present, it can become difficult to contemplate moving on – particularly for founders.  Leaving behind their first creation: the first building, team, humble mission statement, first dollar in its frame, and the traditions and cultural accumulations of the firm can bring on separation anxiety and become a powerful incentive for remaining (stuck!) in the present!

2.    Threatening the Present “To imagine the future is to threaten the present.”  Richard James

Merely imagining a different future can be very unsettling. Most of us prefer things to remain the way they are – even if they’re not great, at least they're familiar.  In a more perfect future, some of us might be found redundant, and therefore; dispensable... Thus, the future can be a “clear and present danger” to the present.  When the CEO starts thinking such things out loud, people start to worry -- and resist.

3.    Pulling away from the Team Creating the future (that’s what envisioning is, right?) requires the powerful exercise of dedication and imagination.  To build a successful future for an entire organization is no easy task.  In order to muster that much focus, one has to pull away from the present – with obvious corollary damage: tasks languish, communication becomes episodic and distracted, energy and sleep arrive in irregular fits and starts, and the trappings and polish of the office suffer from inattention.  (Ever encounter a disheveled CEO in the hallway, the morning after an all night planning session?)

4.    Apparency of Delirium Imagine a conversation with someone who constantly looks up, down and away, then darts into a fuzzy focus on faraway.  Not the best conversationalist obviously, but if they’re also extra animated with some odd gestures while failing to bring you into the process; you’d be within your rights to consider them dotty, delirious or downright daft.  But they’re committed to their vision – which nobody else can see.  They might resist any critical appraisal, or any counter creation… making them difficult in meetings.  The man shambling through the airport jetway muttering to himself about the ‘shining city on the hill,’ might just be St. Francis!  Then again…. Such people can evacuate a subway car, clear a park bench or level the nearby tables in a restaurant -- as people flee the radioactive grandeur of the vision.  Yet this is precisely how an imaginative CEO can appear in the throws of a visionary moment.

These are the perils of the visionary leader.  As they devote themselves to the vision, they can leave friends, colleagues and family behind; dominating discussions; not really connecting to us or waiting to gain support and understanding.  Next time you encounter such a person on a park bench, inquire if they’re a CEO on a “Creation Break” from the office – and guide them safely home.

Some guidelines for Visionary Leaders attempting to walk the razor’s edge:

1. You’re in a tough place, one foot in the present – managing it for everyone’s benefit, and one foot in the future – projecting your vision ahead to create the space we’re moving toward.  You have to get us there safely.  Forgive yourself if you lose balance from time to time.
2. Recognize that most mortals find the exercise of creativity weird, destabilizing and un-nerving.  Keep it out of public view and safely private until absolutely necessary to recruit allies and teammates.
3. Once you’ve got a handle on the future, it may become dear to you,  and every day apparently wasted in the present becomes an offense against the vision.  Perhaps without noticing it, you may become curt, short and critical of everyone else’s easy present life.  The compelling, demanding vision of the perfect corporation, building, nation or perfect cure can make "dwelling in the now” downright uncomfortable.  Spend a little time in the gym or the garden to come down from the height.
4. If everyone could lead, they might – but most can’t, so they don’t.  Let them off the hook if they can’t duplicate your view or flourish at your altitude.  Recognize that this is the meaning of the charge: Noblesse Oblige – the Obligation of the Noble One to Lead.  Suffer the burden gladly. 
5. The bridge to the future, after you’ve imagined it, will be your ability to describe it so other people can see it too – there, just over the next hill.  Your skills as a speaker will be sorely needed, to paint the picture, mark the path and motivate people to start moving.

So.  Here’s a “path to salvation”: Stabilize and thrive in the present while channeling the vision, and protecting the team from the white heat of your creativity and fevered commitment.  When the time is right; form and then tell the story of how your firm came to a sharp threatening turn and then discovered a new path up the mountain into the future.

Boldly walk the razor’s edge!