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.

Workers in China focus on performance, which means they focus on their strengths not their weaknesses.  There, according to Marcus Buckingham’s research, 73 % of workers focus on their strengths, and 27% focus play to their weaknesses compared with the United States where only 14% spend most of their day focusing on their strengths.  We need to build our jobs to fit our strengths.

In the U.S. we believe our strengths are what we are good at, except we may be good at it and we hate it!  We CAN do it, but it drains us.  A weakness is an activity that weakens you.  A strength strengthens you. The assignment from Marcus for the audience was to take a pad of paper, draw a line down the middle, and over the course of the day note what you’re doing and also whether you loved doing it or loathed doing it.

Marcus points to 4 clear signs of strengths:

1.  Success – you feel effective
2.  Instinct – you look forward to it — you like doing it
3. Growth – your synapses are firing, you are in the flow, inquisitive and focused
4.  Needs how do I feel after I have done it?  Did it fill a need I have?

At end of the week, pick one activity that you loved and write a strengths statement that is specific and general at the same time.  In his funny way of sharing a story, Marcus told of when he was interviewing Rosa.  He picked the verb “interviewing.”  Drill down to the specifics of what you really liked about that.   Marcus got specific around interviewing.  “I only like to talk to you if you are really good at your job.  I want to explore why you excel.”  That is specificity around the verb “interviewing.”

End up with 3 strengths statements, and do it twice a year.  Do the same self-evaluation for what you loathe.

Now, as a manager, what about the people you manage? How will you discover your peoples’ strengths, and help them play to those strengths?

Furthermore, what is your strategy to manage drainers — activities that need to be done and you loathe doing it?  Here are some choices.
1. Stop doing it
2. Team up with others who are strengthened by it
3. Offer up your strengths until it is what you do all day
4. Perceive the need, then use a strength to neutralize your weakness
5.  Suck it up and do it

First be honest about what weakens you.  Move your job so the best of your job becomes most of your job.

Responsibility of  a Leader

The job of a leader is to lead people to a better future.  A leader needs optimism.  If you are not motivated that way, you are a pessimist.  How to get agreement from those you are leading is by providing CLARITY, so that people can taste the milk and smell the honey.  There is a vividness about the future, and it is painted in a way that we can see ourselves in that future.

A leader needs to know:

1.  Who do we serve?  Exactly who, not something vague.  Giuliani focused on reducing crime as his focus.   Make a choice, be vivid.
2. What is our core strength, edge, then paint it vividly. Not something vague like “our people are our core strength.”  It’s too vague.  IPhone’s core strength is not partnering!  They have other core strengths, that’s not one of them.

3. Tell me the one score we are going to use.   The Balanced Scorecard is good for management, lousy for leadership.  Marcus gave a prison example where the leader said, “We serve the prisoner.”  Whether right or wrong, he was clear.   What measure?  The recidivism rate is the measure of success — if successful in creating that future, they will keep prisoners from coming back.
4. What action can we take today??   Giuliani, as an example of a leader, cleaned up New York City and his measures were to remove graffiti and have cab drivers wear collared shirts.
In his keynote, Marcus kept coming back to fears, saying that real leaders create momentum when they measure specific actions because specific actions calm our fears.  That is brilliant.   What stops us from focusing on our strengths is our fear that our weaknesses will damage us.  If we are following a capable leader into the future that is vividly expressed with one or two clear measures of success, we can then move confidently forward.  If our managers are focusing on our strengths with us, we can then enjoy our work and make our greatest contribution.

The appeal — to the American audience, not the Chinese one — was to up the ante on our game.  Get clear about our strengths and use them in service of a clear and vivid future.

Fear is a big saboteur of trust, one of many saboteurs.  I had the pleasure to spend the day with Robert Porter Lynch in a seminar, Trusted to Lead.  The time flew.

Dr. Lynch has studied trust in organizations so thoroughly he is writing two books on the architecture of what it takes to build trust, providing a breakthrough in generating successful relationships; one for academia, one for business leaders.

Specifically yesterday we were learning about the ladder of trust in organizations (as opposed to some quick and insufficient definition of trust) and how people climb up the ladder of trust (above the belt) or descend down the ladder of distrust (below the belt).  No platitudes or hollow concepts, this was a sturdy, application-driven workshop experience.  This video gives you a two minute moving snapshot (if you listen closely, because I was in the back of the room) of a highlight moment of the day.

One requirement essential to trust is to balance two interests; self interest (individual good) and mutual interest (greater good, noble cause).  Many folks would have their savings intact if the greedy few hadn’t tipped the scales to ignore mutual interest and gobble gobble gobble for themselves, never mind the impact on the rest of us.

Dr. Lynch’s research reveals that 80%-90% of people are capable of achieving that balance, and we all should look out for the dark side that is in the other 10-20% of the population.  Whether we like it or not, that element is indeed real in our society, and it can play a very strong hand in our experience of life.  If we don’t feel safe with one another, how can we trust?  If we don’t trust, we revert to fear.

I invite you, the reader, to be a champion for trust and to learn how to be that champion in your organizations.  At the creationship tip-top of the ladder of trust, fun and joy are present.  Are you having fun in your organization?  Are you being creatively collaborative?  You could be.  As Dr. Lynch says, “Fun is where Fear Disappears.”

Orson Wells says in his very special voice,”We will sell no wine before its time.” You can see this wine commercial for Paul Masson on YouTube. This blog is not about wine, though. It is about timing.

I understand why to sell no wine before its time — the wine isn’t ready to be consumed!  It would not taste right, it would reflect badly on the wine maker, it would “leave a bad taste in our mouth” (pardon the pun) from the experience.

What about the timing for discovering the world revolves around the sun, and not the other way around?  It took over 1000 years from the first person’s assertion of the earth revolving around the sun, not the other way around, before Copernicus gained credibility for this novel view of reality!   Indeed, Nicholas Copernicus was destined to put forward the theory of the earth’s motion at a time when the idea could be heard. During an earlier era Aristarchus declared the same, too early in mankind’s receptivity to gain credibility.   Although true, truth found no champions.

A modern forward-thinking mind, Dean Kamen, invented (among other things) the electric scooter Segway. His intention was that they replace cars for local transportation but they proved too expensive. I see them downtown upon occasion, driven by the neighborhood “safety cops.” Kamen, according to Fortune Magazine (May 3, 2010), has learned that change takes time and a group effort. Indeed Wilbur and Orville flew, yet it took another 50 years before flying was mainstream.

Although adoption curves have their own timing, they are shortening by and large.  For example, the speed of change is lickety-split on the web. My wonderful social media intern, Audrey Vernhet, informed me recently that Facebook could cost money in the next few months. I am NOT ready to climb on that adoption curve!

Speaking of adoption curves, I wonder when business leaders will take up the accountability for being trustworthy and hold each other to account for the position power they hold?  See www.trust-in-leaders.com for an opportunity to comment by completing the research request.  I welcome your thoughts.

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.

I spent Friday evening and Saturday in the presence of a great man with a valuable message, in a program called “Claim Your Voice, Claim Your Life,” with Arthur and sponsored by The Abundance Network.

Arthur asserts, and lives, that vocal awareness gives us presence, and power, and authenticity.  After my short experience I concur and I saw it evolve in the room.

As Malcolm Gladwell points out in Outliers, 10,000 hours of practice are required for true, complete, in-your-bones mastery to occur.  That is so with Vocal Awareness as well.  Arthur’s work requires daily practice — seven minutes a day, to be exact.

If this concept is interesting to you and you want to know more, go to http://www.theabundancenetwork.com.   These several follow-up events with Arthur are occasional, spread out over time to allow practice.  It is not too late for you to join us!  Whether this is your path or you have another, and you are interested in mastery, I recommend the book Mastery, the Keys to Success and Long-Term Fullfillment by George Leonard.  It is small and mighty.  And, I recommend Arthur’s book, Vocal Power, Harnessing the Power Within and other products that can help you along that path.  Life is a journey, not a destination.

For me, I am on a journey to generate a conversation about trusting leaders, and leaders earning that trust.  That passion fires me up every day, and I am highly motivated to become more of myself, if that makes sense, so that I can illuminate the crying need, empassion and embolden leaders to be principled and to make choices that are not completely self-serving, but serve the whole of humanity and the earth as well.  That vision will take all I’ve got for the rest of my life, to make the difference I was put on this planet to make.  Not being a spring chicken, I’m in a bit of a hurry — but as Arthur pointed out, yocannot hurry the loving breath, which sources vocal awareness which sources authenticity.  The opportunity lies in the paradox — slowing down to accomplish more.  Oh, and by the way, being accountable for those choices!  Accountability pays!

Here are some of my thoughts about this topic, and very shortly I’m going to be conducting a survey so everyone can feed the conversation!

Authenticity is one element that fosters trust, as does integrity (doing what you said you would do, when you said you would do it at the low end, holding an empowering context at the high end).  I agree that having a vision (a future that is enrolling for followers) is critical, then the sustained execution that actually moves the organization toward that future, visibly, is important to sustaining trust.

The disappointment comes for followers when the gap widens between what is promised, and what develops.  (Many a slip twixt the cup and the lip).   And, with a company name of Accountability Pays, of course I would have to include accountability as very important; producing results you said you would produce, or being in communication and adjusting expectations.

But the essential ingredient that is not an acceptable “business term” that I believe needs to be present is love.  When love (an open heart) is present, people listen for other peoples’ greatness.  They are generous when mistakes are made.  In other words, they allow for humanity when it creeps in, which it will always do. In my view, this intangible, contextual element (love) needs to flow in both directions, up and down, between a leader and his/her followers… there is that intangible link between two people that, when expectations are not met or promises are broken, hurts emotionally.

Because the feeling love is intangible and contextual, and usually is not included in the context of business, it isn’t addressed when damaged, causing damage beyond the damage that is visible and tangible.  I think the presence of love as an ingredient in leadership is a missing conversation, and because it is such a large conversation — an elephant in the room — and because it means bringing feelings into the discussion — it is easier to leave it out than deal with it.

Love brings with it a level of engagement that is personal deeper than just getting results.  It makes firing people for shrinking profits much more difficult, for example.  And maybe it will always live in the background unspoken, but I see in my own experience as a coach that love is present when real leadership is present, which is paradoxically both more magnanimous and creates greater accountability.  And love clearly fosters trust.

I’ve been dialoging on the topic of trust and integrity on a LinkedIn group called the Executive Reform Movement, hosted by Phillip Tanzilo.  In response to a suggestion that  we have the talent in this country to innovate and strengthen sustainable solutions, I said the following.

I don’t think it’s talent that’s missing. It’s good old fashioned values — for example, putting the good of ALL (including self, of course) as the forefront of considerations, asking, “How will this decision/product/financial strategy impact others? The world?”

To answer your original question, for me integrity and trust are not the same things. Integrity is how you go through the world, as I said before, reliably or not. And none of us is perfect! What we could be trusted to do, when we fail ourselves or someone else, is clean it up and make a new promise.

I believe that trust is generally granted to those who have integrity (to tell the truth, clean it up, take responsibility, be on time if humanly possible…), among other values.

In the broader realm, then, trust is earned, through consistent, continual behavior where evidence exists that my well-being (as a consumer, for instance, or a citizen of the world who has to breathe this air and depend on these oceans for food and eco-balance) has been considered when making that business decision, producing that product, creating that strategy.

For example, a garbage patch of plastics floats in the Pacific Ocean twice the size of Texas, killing fish and destroying our oceans. Yet we all purchase plastic bottles and throw them away. CUT IT OUT. Lots of talented people produce those bottles, which are damaging our eco-system.

At an event recently, someone brought 2 plastic-wrapped boxes of many small water bottles, and I succumbed… it’s easier… rather than say, “These pollute. Take them back. Write to the manufacturer. Buy a water filter for your sink, use glass bottles they recycle.” Shame on me, and shame on all of us, for doing what is easy rather than what is right. It puts a tiny ding in my integrity, and I trust myself less the next time… why should others trust me?… if I don’t trust myself to do the right thing…  well, I did, and do, recycle.

Taking a stand for the greater good takes something. It is so utterly human to fail ourselves and others, and so incredibly courageous to take ourselves on, to tell the truth, to make a new stand and then live from it. Not unlike dieting… we know how to honor our bodies, do we do it? If we don’t honor ourselves, why would others honor us? And the human condition beat goes on…. but we’re seriously paying for it.

Leonard's Book "The Roadmap Home"

I’ve agreed to help an amazing man get his story out to the public. Today he launches his new book, called “The Roadmap Home.” Having written two books and launched them myself, I have a certain amount of enthusiasm with Leonard about what he has accomplished.

What is even more important to me is his story.  He is a psychotherapist with a story to tell about himself, which is well-written and worth reading.

I met Leonard at a publishing conference, and he impressed me as someone whose story you would want to know.  So, as we are deep into the holiday season, I think this is a perfect time to pick up a copy of Leonard’s book for someone you love, who might value a GPS to Inner Peace.  It is a map for a route to conscious living.  There are many reasons why I think that is extremely important, and one of them is the lack of trust in the world.  If you can’t trust yourself, and know your way home, you likely won’t trust anyone else, either.

Leonard, you have a winner!  My hat is off to you for the discipline and the courage it takes to produce a book of this quality and substance.

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.