Leadership Catalyst Blog
Dejected Cutler Listens to iPod on Sidelines while Bears Lose to Packers in NFC Championship
Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears created a lot of controversy last week when a knee injury prevented him from finishing the NFC conference championship game against the Green Bay Packers. Many questioned his toughness, and believed he had “quit on his team” during their most important game of the year.
An MRI later showed the injury was indeed serious, and confirmed the decision for him not to play. It did not, however, excuse the lack of leadership and poor attitude he displayed during the remainder of the game. Instead of cheering on his teammates or supporting the backup quarterbacks, cameras repeatedly caught him sulking on the sidelines, listening to his iPod.
The lesson for CEOs is that, like Jay Cutler, we are always “on camera” in our organizations. We need to periodically check ourselves to make sure we haven’t succumbed to bad leadership habits and make sure that we aren’t displaying a poor attitude, which can be contagious for the rest of our organization.
Mike Myatt makes a compelling case that attitude reflects leadership and is a decision.
“Show me a CEO with a bad attitude and I’ll show you a poor leader. While this sounds simple enough at face value, I have consistently found that one of the most often overlooked leadership attributes is that of a positive attitude. As a CEO, how can you expect to inspire, motivate, engender confidence, and to lead with a lousy attitude? The simple answer is that you can’t…it just won’t work. CEOs with bad attitudes will not only fail to engage their workforce, but they will quickly find themselves shown the door as their attitude’s impact on performance becomes visible to the board.”
Do you need an attitude adjustment? Click here for a 5 point checklist to check yourself, and some compelling statistics about why you may want to change.
Read More >>Research backs claims that Vistage CEOs outperform their nonmember peers.
All Blog Posts, Vistage Peer Groups / 31.10.20101 comments
In last week’s post, I featured a CNBC broadcast regarding Vistage Member CEOs forecasting short term growth for small companies over the next two quarters. In that report was a caveat that Vistage CEOs may not be a totally representative sample of Small Business CEOs, because independent research shows that they consistently outperfom peer nonmember companies. I asked Vistage International to share their evidence, and was impressed with the research they produced. As can be seen from the graphs below, a Vistage Sample of 1265 member companies was compared with a statistically matched sample of about a million D & B nonmember companies. Over the period 2006 though 2009, Vistage companies outperformed nonmember companies on CAGR by15 percentage points. Moreover, this trend was consistent across all major business segments, ranging from a 13.2 percentage point difference in the Transportation and Communication Sector, to a 25.7 percentage point difference in the Wholesale Trade sector. In other words, in one of the toughest economies in history, Vistage member companies averaged 5.8 % revenue growth, while nonmembers averaged a (9.2%) revenue decline. In future posts, we will explore the factors that contribute to that sizeable performance difference.
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CNBC reports that 67% of Vistage CEOs Predict Revenue Growth for their Companies
All Blog Posts, Vistage Peer Groups / 23.10.2010
Rafael Pastor appeared as a guest on CNBCon Monday afternoon wherein he released a new economic survey of Vistage CEOs outlook on the economy. In this 5 minute CNBC video clip (Please endure the 20 second lead ad), Pastor relates that the Vistage CEOs surveyed (representing over 14,000 member companies worldwide, with 10,000 member companies in the USA) are experiencing a modest lift in this economy, and are forecasting growth two quarters out, and a better economic forecast in 2011 than the market specialists are forecasting. (Note: Vistage CEOs may not be a representative sample of small businesses because independent research shows that Vistage member companies consistently outperform their non-participating peers.) Despite not being a totally representative sample, the Vistage CEO Confidence Index is a reliable leading indicator of GPD growth two quarters out. Pastor goes on to say that Vistage member companies do not forecast significant job growth in 2011. Rather, Vistage CEOs are focused on doing more with less, focusing on international markets, technology productivity enhancements to reduce costs, and operating their companies more profitably with little intention of rehiring many of those that were laid off earlier in the recession.
Other interesting survey highlights include:
- 92% expect health care costs to go up
- 67% say their business will be hurt if the Bush tax cuts are not extended
- 62% expect Republicans to control the November elections
- 52% say they would not start a new business in the current economic climate
CEOs, like HIPPOs, at times need to avoid trampling others.
All Blog Posts, Vistage Peer Groups / 08.08.2010
Walking into my client’s building, I noticed a large crew of maintenance workers feverishly manicuring the company grounds. When I asked the new CEO what had prompted such frenzied activity, he shook his head and said that earlier that morning, he had commented to the receptionist that he was having a hard time keeping up with his lawn, with all of the rain they had been having. His comment had been misunderstood by a bystander as criticism of how the grounds were being maintained, and reinforcements had been dispatched to manage the “grounds keeping crisis”. This was my first introduction to the “HIPPO” effect, which is an acronym for how the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion can ripple through an organization.
The effect is even greater when a CEO has strong views about an issue. For example, Steve Jobs pushed through the introduction of the new iPhone, even though problems about the antenna design had been known for months.
Suzanne Lucas (a.k.a. Evil HR Lady) suggests 5 tips for how employees can avoid being trampled by a HIPPO. I think they are pretty good, and I recommend that CEO’s not only read them, but distribute them and discuss them at a team meeting to assure their opinions are being constructively challenged.
CEOs, like HIPPOs, at times need to avoid trampling others.
Read More >>What can CEOs learn from a twenty-something college dropout?
All Blog Posts, Vistage Peer Groups / 29.07.2010
Zuckerberg
I often talk to fellow CEOs about their development, and who they would like to have in a CEO peer group with them. Like most of us, they want someone who has already been down the road that they are traveling, and can point out the opportunities and landmines they may encounter on their journey. They typically think of someone who is more experienced (and older) than themselves who can challenge them and hold them accountable.
However, Joe Frontiera wrote an article in this week’s Washington Post entitled “Facebook’s leadership: Dissecting Mark Zuckerberg “ that challenges this notion that lessons must be learned from someone more experienced. In this one page article, he identifies lessons that can be learned from this 26 year old’s brief tenure as the co-founder and CEO of face book. Given Facebook has been estimated to be worth as much as $35B, these are lessons worth heeding. The one page article is worth a 5 minute read to learn more about the lessons highlighted below.
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The key lessons learned in observing a 26 year old, highlighted by Frontiera are:
- “Believe in the vision.”
- “Execution can trump innovation.”
- “Mistakes become mistakes when you let them.”
- “The Devil is in the details.”
- “Ownership matters.”
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Watching the Watchdogs
This blog post was inspired by a Stephen Colbert bit called “Who’s watching the Watchdogs” that aired on TV a couple of nights ago. In this spoof, Colbert attempts to hold Consumer Reports accountable for holding corporations accountable for product quality and safety. It is a brilliant parody of someone not knowing much about what an organization does, trying to be tough in holding them accountable for what they do. After you have read this post and have about 7 minutes, watch the video to see the tie in and have a good laugh.
Colbert’s story line struck me as similar to the challenge of holding a CEO accountable for holding the rest of the organization accountable for doing the right things. In public corporations, this task falls to the board and shareholders, assuming they are close enough to what is happening in the organization to know what really has to be done. But who holds the CEO accountable in family or privately owned businesses, where there is little or no board involvement?
CEOs are human with strengths and weaknesses, just like the rest of us. And just like the rest of us, they tend to shy away from things that are outside of their comfort zone, and gravitate towards those things that they enjoy doing and are good at. There also can be a difference between knowing what to do, and doing it.
Many small business executives are turning to CEO peer accountability groups to meet this need. These are groups of 10 to 20 CEOs committed to growing and improving their businesses. The groups attend monthly meetings chaired by a former CEO and skilled facilitator, to help each other address their key business challenges and hold one another accountable. To assure that members are totally open in discussing their issues and challenging one another, no competitors or companies doing business with one another are allowed in the same group.
The other day, a member of such a group told me how peer accountability dramatically improved his business. Like many entrepreneurs, he had a marketing background and loved to sell, but had little interest or experience with operations. For years he had tried to coach and develop a plant manager that he felt wasn’t effectively leading his team or operating his plant to its full potential. He was reluctant to make a change, however, because he didn’t know much about operations, the plant was in a remote city, and there just never seemed to be a “convenient” time to take on the headaches of replacing him.
When it was his turn to host a meeting, this CEO presented his strategy and challenges for the next year, among them being to get his plant manager on board. His peers, having heard about his problems with this guy for a couple of years, confronted him. They asked him if he had been successful at personality transplants before and whether he really thought he was going to change this guy. When he said probably not, they asked if he felt he needed to replace the guy. When he answered yes, they asked him if there was any reason the guy would still be working for him when the group met the following month. He laughed and said, apparently not.
This CEO said that while he knew it was the right thing to do, it took the group to get him to bite the bullet and make it happen—he didn’t want to have to face them again having taken no action. In hindsight, he says it was one of the best decisions he has ever made. The plant has performed much better under new leadership, and one of his biggest stressors has gone away.
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Increase your CEO effectiveness by finding an objective source of accountability.
- Network with other CEOs to find someone that can provide a useful sounding board and informally hold you accountable for making tough decisions.
- Hire an executive coach to challenge your thinking and hold you accountable. (see case study)
- Join a monthly CEO accountability group to get the “unvarnished truth” and be challenged by objective peer CEOs who are committed to your success.
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