Clearly I have NOT mastered this fine art of getting things done, as it has been a month since I last posted something.  Since then, however, I have been educating myself in the fine art of managing my time and the productivity of others.  I am currently availing myself of interns, with whom I am getting systemic changes accomplished that daily demands would have me ignore.  Like moving into Cooler Email, for instance, lock stock and barrel for managing my business from software-as-a-service.  There’s more to the story — stay with me.

Without some troops I would not tackle a project like shifting the locus of my business from my computer to another system so that others could share it.  Having that locus of control shifted makes many things possible that weren’t possible before.

While I have them (before they move on with their REAL lives), Ipek (on the left) and Semih (on the right) are making possible this transition to Cooler Email and other great tools of productivity.

On a related topic, I attended a business gathering last evening where we talked about execution of strategy.  The overarching theme of the evening was that for there to be a shift in the collective consciousness of bringing our heart to the business world, and not just our head, we all need to work for the common good and make decisions with the common good in mind, not just our selfish interests.

This is a theme of mine, and fortunately not JUST mine!  Working for the common good means that as we go about our regular work, we bring in the fine art of considering how what WE do will impact others.

I have helped Semih find a school where he will get his MBA, and I will help Ipek get a job.  I met these two young adults through an earlier intern, Orcun, whom I helped find a job and in doing so I lost him as an intern.  He replaced himself by introducing me to his two friends who needed internships.  THAT, my friends, is the FINE art of getting things done!  When I released my need for Orcun to be my intern, little did I know that I would end up doubling my workforce of interns!  My deciding based on the common good turned out to be good for me, good for Orcun, and good for Ipek and Semih.

I think that’s the way the world REALLY works, and it is NOT intuitive any more than leaning into the curve on a motorcycle is intuitive.  It is a choice, and in the end things get done that should get done, even though in the beginning we don’t see the whole picture.

This is the fifth year I have had the pleasure of judging the International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition in San Diego at the Bahia Resort.  Students come from all over the world to compete in this simulation of a real business, and it is an excellent learning experience for them, win or lose.

While this video is a long, amateurish video (I did it) of 20 minutes or so, the contents are worth watching for the joy of seeing professionalism at a young age.  The team included Ryan Rotariu, CEO; Asia Snook, VP Marketing, Kim McIntyre, VP Operations and Michelle Plamondon, VP Finance. Their challenge — to make executive team decisions while running a public, international company over a seven year period.  This is a stellar executive presentation to their “board of directors,” of whom I was one, in the Intercollegiate Business Strategy Competition (ICBSC), at the end of year six of the simulation.

I understand second hand that they participated in this simulation for a measley 1 college credit, and returned to college from the San Diego competition to take finals (they are undergraduate seniors).

Anyone who has presented results will be sufficiently impressed with their thoroughness of analysis, and indeed they did win against three competitors in their “world” of four competitors.  Enjoy!

Larry and I had occasion recently to dine at the University of San Diego (my MBA Alma Mater) with Frank Partnoy and several others from the Corporate Director’s Forum.  Pictured here to Frank’s right is Cindy Richson, an expert in corporate governance and critical member of the organizing committee of the Corporate Governance Conference that Larry chairs each year since its inception five years ago.  The group was gathered to discuss next year’s January Corporate Governance Conference.  I was there as a spouse, so my view of the event was somewhat different.

My fascination was with Frank Partnoy, law professor at USD.  First of all, he’s a very approachable and funny human being.  Second, he is the most entrepreneurial lawyer/professor I’ve met in a long time.  But third, and most fascinating to me, is the list of books that he has written, all seemingly devoted to uncovering the dirt on Wall Street and the investment world.

These books are entitled, in the order they were written, F.I.A.S.C.O.: The Inside Story of Wall Street Trader, followed by “The Match King,” about Ivan Kreuger, the infamous “Match King.”  Kreuger was known as the “Match King” because he held monopolies on the sale of matches in many countries, but his financial empire extended to banking, construction, film, mining, paper, railways, and telephones. He was a statesman as well as a financier, and usurped Jack Morgan as the leading lender to Europe. He rescued France from bankruptcy, and nearly saved Germany. He charmed everyone, from President Hoover to Greta Garbo to the journalists who put his boyish face on the covers of Time and The Saturday Evening Post. Kreuger favored perception over reality. He believed financial statements were an art, not a science. When asked to name his three rules for success in business, Kreuger advised “silence, more silence, and still more silence.”  He was found dead with a bullet through his heart.  He was labeled by some pretty significant historians, among them John Kenneth Galbraith (a favorite of mine) and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. as the greatest fraud in history.

Frank’s most recent book is called “Infectious Greed: How Deceit and Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets.”  I can honestly say that I have not READ these books, cover to cover, but I have met Frank, and he’s a man with a mission and it’s a mission I heartily endorse.

Here’s what his website (www.frankpartnoy.com) say about Infectious Greed.  “Recent corporate scandals have brought our attention to the dangerously complex and unregulated financial practices of some of the world’s most successful companies. Frank Partnoy, author of the riveting business bestseller F.I.A.S.C.O.: The Inside Story of Wall Street Trader, brings his impressive understanding of complex financial transactions and legal expertise to a fascinating tour of the institutions, scandals, and business cultures that brought us to this moment. In tracing the evolution of increasingly complex derivatives’ use over the past fifteen years–and an appetite for risk and return that made it possible–Partnoy demonstrates that despite the media’s narrow focus on Enron, it was only the tip of the iceberg. The culmination of a steady erosion of personal and institutional control, today’s financial landscape is loaded with ticking time bombs with far greater potential for harm and loss than any other period in our history.”

Go Frank, go!  I hope this latest book sells as many or more than your previous books, and that the people who should learn their lessons do so.  The dinner was delicious, and thank you again for sharing your roasted garlic.

This is the most important message we could hope to take into ourselves right now, given the despair that is so easy to soak up around us, seeping into our attempts at holiday merriment.  This message puts the authority for our futures back into our own hands.  (It does have a Christian quote or two, but they don’t have to be Christian thoughts.  Every religion brings this message in its own verbiage.  Listen from that universal place).

There isn’t really anything to say about this gift from Earl Nightingale, except it is worth the half-hour required to soak up the encouragement and the guidance.  I’ll stop now, so you can do just that!

We have a new friend, Kim DeMotte, whom we met at a fabulous conference last month for people who want to build on their success to expand the good they can bring to the world. At a dinner, Larry and Kim struck up a conversation about corporate governance, and Kim said some things that resonated with Larry and myself.

First, you have to trust people to do a good job, and in this instance we were speaking of someone holding the job of CEO. When a CEO reports to a board, how do you govern that CEO such that they are responsible AND allow them to do their job, their way.

In this video with Kim, you can get it straight from “the horse’s mouth,” (sorry Kim, not a literal translation)… Kim is an advisor to the corporate world. He lives in St. Louis. What you should know about Kim, in addition to his comments here on corporate governance, is that he authored a book called “The Power of No” in which Kim (and contributors) illustrate just that! Get the book, it’s excellent!  I particularly appreciate Kim’s straight talk.  No muss, no fuss, just straight talk.  We could use more of that today, with a sagging low in trust of leaders in this country (and elsewhere, we don’t on the corner on that malady).

In the name of mission (and I would say some think mission is vision, so I’m including vision here also), do the right thing. Clear communication enables a whole host of positive effects. Too many wus’s won’t take a hard stand, set a clear boundary, say no. Amazingly enough, some of the most mature, noble looking men fall into the trap of being too nice, and mucking it up for everyone from the top of an organization down to the last person to feel the effects of poor leadership.

To that I say, “Cut it out!” Get Kim’s book, read Susan Scott’s “Fierce Conversations,” and go back to the mission. Whatever doesn’t fit the vision and the mission, do not tolerate.

I believe that true leaders foster trust, that leadership is earned, and that it is granted by followers.  “Leadership” is a way of being with people such that others want what the leader stands for.  Leadership is not about position power.  It might be about charisma for awhile, but if the leader does not deliver what is promised, charisma will not hold the followers’ trust.

I just made a significant assertion and would like to test it out.  I would like to know if you see YOUR leaders fostering YOUR trust, and if so, how?  By leaders, I do not mean “representative” leaders, those whom you know only by reputation with whom you have had no personal experience.  I mean leaders whom you follow because of who they are being and what they stand for.  You might have chosen to work at a company because of exceptional leadership and your trust in that individual, or team.  You might attend a particular church because of the minister and their leadership in the area of spirituality.  You might have joined a not for profit because the leader was successful in enrolling you in the cause, and embodied a trusting presence.  I am wondering about your PERSONAL experience of leaders fostering trust.

We have experienced significant disappointment in leaders in recent months who have demonstrated the antithesis of fostering trust.  The newspapers are full of stories about business leaders at AIG, car manufacturers, financial institutions of all kinds, and political leaders who put self-interest before the interest of customers.  Self-interest at a senior executive level does not foster trust!  I have personally seen a great leader painted with the same brush because of the press around poor leadership. These disappointments, although maybe not personal, can damage our willingness to trust.

The issue of leaders fostering trust is subtle and powerful.  If I were to conduct a survey, what issues would I need to include in that survey to generate an understanding of what, in a leader, fosters trust?  I welcome your comments, your questions, your concerns.