Seek Wholeness Over Fragmentation

In 1997, I was asked by a group of long term clients to create and deliver an in-depth leadership training program which could become the training ground for future senior leaders for their organizations. In 1998, after much work, reflection and visiting with numerous leaders around the country, I designed and taught the first From Vision to Action Leadership Training. This year long leadership development course encompassed four quarterly sessions. Through its challenging, interactive curriculum, participants gained core skills and knowledge through immersion in research, issues and solutions related to leadership, strategic planning and execution, and implementing organizational change. This fall the 24th class will graduate from this in-depth training and people are already signing up for the 2019 class.

During the first class back in 1998, I asked my students to tell me what are the characteristics of a leader worth following during organizational change. I still ask this same question twenty years later. The reason being is that leaders are involved in making things run better and changing things to make them work differently given how the customers have changed.

Over the decades, the answers have been interesting and thoughtful. There has been some change in the description of these characteristics and those reflect the changes in our society. For example, successful digital communication was not a part of our discussions back in ’98. But over all, most students share about how leaders think and how they interact with others.

I like these answers and I encourage the students to zoom out rather than just zoom in to answer the question. The reason being is because a long time ago I read a book by Kevin Cashman where he stated that “if you want to become a better leader, you first have to become a better person.” I still think about this quote on a regular basis.

If we truly want to become better leaders, especially during times of organizational change, then we must become better people. If that is the goal, then a leader is not just what they do with their mind and how they interact with others. From my experience of working with great leaders, I have learned that a leader worth following in the midst of organizational changes does think well and interact well with others but they also do a few other things exceptionally well.

First, they role model good self-care. They take care of their body through exercise, eating well and utilizing healthy stress management techniques.

Second, they have a healthy social and emotional life. This means they take care of their family, maintain relationships with a close circle of friends, and have mentors and older friends who help keep things in perspective.

Third, they have a spiritual life. They are involved in a faith community, and routinely take time for faith related activities on a daily and seasonal basis, recognizing that some questions about work and life can only be answered from a faith perspective.

This week, reflect on the question, What are the characteristics of a leader worth following during organizational change? And then write down your answers. It is time to seek wholeness over fragmentation. Becoming a better person is a fabulous life goal.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

For Those Planning Ahead

I am delighted to share with you the following information about our 2015 training opportunities.

2015 From Vision to Action Leadership Training:

- March 3 - 4 - 5, 2015

- May 5 - 6 - 7, 2015

- September 15 - 16 - 17, 2015

- November 10 - 11, 2015

Location: Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Coralville, Iowa

Spring 2015 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable:

- April 8 - 9, 2015  

Location: Courtyard by Marriott, Des Moines/Clive, Iowa

Fall 2015 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable:

- September 23 - 24, 2015 

Location: Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Coralville, Iowa

During the coming weeks, more information about these events will be posted on our website. I look forward to your participation as we continue learning and sharing how to translate vision into successful action.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

2014 Training and Roundtable Dates

Good news!  

For those of you who are planning ahead, the dates for the 2014 From Vision to Action Leadership Training and the 2014 From Vision to Action Roundtables have been set. Here they are:

2014 From Vision to Action Leadership Training

- March 4 - 5 - 6, 2014

- May 6 - 7 - 8, 2014

- September 9 - 10 - 11, 2014

- November 13 - 14, 2014 

Location: Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Coralville, Iowa

Spring 2014 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable:

- April 9 - 10, 2014  - Courtyard by Marriott, Des Moines - Clive, Iowa

Fall 2014 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable:

- September 17 - 18, 2014 - Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Coralville, Iowa

More details will be posted on the website in the near future. However, I wanted you all to have the dates once they had been confirmed on my end.  I am looking forward to 2014 already!

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

The Brutal Facts

Every day this year, seven thousand baby boomers turn 65.

Currently, 70% of Americans are stressed out about work.

$ 300 billion is the annual cost to businesses due to employee stress.

And if the above was not enough, customers over 50 own the vast majority of U.S. wealth, causing more and more retail businesses to redesign how they do business to accommodate the wishes of an older population.

So as the potential for retirement rises, the stress increases, and the wealth continues to migrate to the older population, a ripple effect is taking place in the world of leadership, resulting in one simple question:

Who will be the next generation of leaders in your organization?

Ideally they will come within based on what Jim Collin’s research shows. Think Built To Last, Good to Great, and How The Mighty Fall.

Home-grown talent has potential.

But weekly coaching sessions and the occasional seminar only can do so much.

Real learning takes time, depth and focus.

Real learning in combination with exceptional coaching demonstrates a 72 percent improvement in performance according to the American Society For Training and Development (ASTD).

The challenge this month is to determine who is worth the investment.

Remember: seven thousand people each day turn 65. They will retire, and they will take with them their leadership skills, knowledge and perspective. One day, their strategic mindset will walk out the door.

So, who will be the next generation of leaders in your organization?

Choose wisely.

Plan wisely.

It will make a difference.

Then, enroll these key people in the 2012 From Vision to Action Leadership Training.

Here is a link for more information about this unique learning opportunity: http://www.chartyourpath.com/VTA-Leadership-Training.html

The future of your company will depend on who is leading it.

Tomorrow is only a day away.

Geery Howe, M.A.Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer inLeadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational ChangeMorning Star Associates319 - 643 - 2257

Retaining Key People

Tuesday morning: November 9, 2010

Dear friends,

“When push comes to shove, we’ll deal with that problem.”

I hear this nearly every week now when working with executives regarding strategic planning. The phase when “push comes to shove” means that a problem will be confronted when it reaches a certain level or crucial point. Originally the term came from rugby in the 1950’s, where, after an infraction of rules, forwards from each team face off and push against one another until one player can kick the ball to a teammate and resume the game.

Today, we have a problem that has reached a crucial point. We must retain key people in key positions or the pressures of this economy could cause an organization to enter into a very difficult and extended period of decline.

Weekly now, I talk with these key individuals and discover that they are very frustrated with their organizations. The reasons vary from place to place, but they report to me that they are frustrated by the lack of leadership, effective communications, operational excellence, or strategic vision within their organization. But what ever the problem, these key people all end up at the same place, a feeling of dissatisfaction and disengagement.

Joel Kurtzman in his book, Common Purpose: How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve The Extraordinary, Jossey-Bass 2010, shares six different ways to retain leaders. He recommends that we “identify them early, and make sure they know it,” “celebrate their accomplishments,” “educate them about the organization and its capabilities,” “give them access to the team at the top,” “respond quickly with a counteroffer if they plan to leave,” and “reward them with new challenges, not just more money.”

But as I review this well thought out list, I always think about the subject of coaching. In a chapter called “Recruiting Supportive Coaches: A Key to Achieving Positive Behavioral Change” from the book, The Many Facets of Leadership by Marshall Goldsmith, Vijay Govindarajan, Beverly Kaye, Albert A. Vicere, Marshall Goldsmith presents the results of an extensive literature review about the effective strategies involved in helping successful people get even better. As he writes, “Successful people are much more likely to accept coaching from those whom they respect and whom they see as successful.” Furthermore, “successful people are less likely to value coaching from those whom they do not see as successful.” As he continues, “This phenomenon tends to occur even if the content of the coaching from the less successful people is very similar.... This made us realize that when dealing with successful people, the source of the coaching can be as important as the content of the coaching.”

At the same time, Goldsmith explains, “Another clear finding of our literature search is that positive behavioral change is much more likely to last if the individual who is trying to change has a "support group" (or at least "support person") who is assisting in the change process.” As he continues, “Your best coaches may often be people whom you respect and who impact your life on a daily basis.”

With the above in mind, we as executives must come to understand that the degree of commitment in the work force reflects the degree of respect within the work place and the degree to which people believe they are part of the team. But in a business world that is focused on pursuing growth, promoting innovation, maximizing efficiency and getting things done using procedures, systems and process discipline, the concepts of respect and team spirit seem pretty old school, if not ancient history.

Nevertheless, these softer skill sets, from my perspective, have a great impact on retaining key people. For in the beginning, middle, and end of organizational change, we at times forget that people bond with people before they commit to plans or great ideas. And right now key people are experiencing a high level of dissatisfaction with the lack of respect and team work within the work place.

One solution is to teach people to become better leaders. By educating them about how to take the long view or bigger picture perspective along with how to successfully manage the details related to strategic implementation, we help them to build a work environment based on respect and team work where employees want to contribute. This kind of education is unique and very effective.

In the late 90’s, I created just such a training in order to help key people become better leaders and to help key leaders retain their best people. It was called The From Vision to Action Leadership Training. This in-depth, year long training course encompasses four quarterly sessions, and helps participants gain valuable skills, knowledge and perspective about leadership, strategic planning and execution, and implementing organizational change.

For more information about how to register for this unique opportunity which starts in March 2011, including cost, dates and location, I encourage you to click on the following link: http://www.chartyourpath.com/VTA-Leadership-Training.html.

From experience and the extensive amount of well-written books on the topic, we know that retaining leaders is vital to short and long term success. Before push comes to shove in your organization, now is the time to invest in those individuals who can create a work environment where we retain and attract the talent for today’s challenges and tomorrow's opportunity.

I hope you can join this level of learning in 2011.

My best,

Geery

P.S. For those of you who are wanting to improve employee engagement throughout your organization, look no further than this recently posted article (11/2/10) at the on-line Gallup Management Journal web site called “Leading Engagement From the Top” by Jennifer Robison: http://gmj.gallup.com/content/144140/Leading-Engagement-Top.aspx

The article reports about the recently conducted research by Sangeeta Agrawal, a Gallup Consultant and Jim Harter, Ph.D., Gallup’s chief scientist of workplace management and well being, about the impact of executive engagement on managers. In a well written two page article, the researchers discover through detailed analysis what are the specific ways senior executives can improve managers’ engagement. Without copying the entire article word for word, the first thing is to concentrate on mission or purpose.

From my perspective, the best have known this for years. It also is exciting to see Gallup confirm this through their research. As we look to 2011, we must education more managers and help them become leaders who can understand this research and make similar choices in their circle of influence. This is, where I believe, the 2011 From Vision to Action Leadership Training can make a profound difference.

Geery Howe, M.A.Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer inLeadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational ChangeMorning Star Associates319 - 643 - 2257

The Strategic Skill Set

Tuesday morning: October 12, 2010

Dear friends,

“The world is too big, too changing, and too varied,” writes Marshall Goldsmith. “As a result, leaders and their followers must make the right decisions on their own because they have internalized the organization’s mission, values, strategy and brand.”

In a challenging world and sluggish economy, more and more executives share with me the importance of organizational clarity. They agree with Marshall Goldsmith that making the right decisions is mission critical to their success. They comprehend that understanding the organization’s mission, values, strategy and brand promise will result in sustainable results. They want employees to believe in what they are doing and to recognize how much impact they have on the overall company’s success. Yet, on a day to day, quarter to quarter basis, these same executive struggle with how to make this happen.

To help them overcome these difficulties, I remind them of two important leadership lessons. First, knowledge comes with a half-life. When I graduated with a Master’s Degree in Instructional Design and Technology from the University of Iowa in the 80’s, I was on the cutting edge of many things but once out in the “real world” I realized I was far behind in the area of technology.

For example, my class on how to generate exceptional transparencies was outdated and our introduction to computers was comical when it came to what was happening in many offices and training centers. In essence, the real world knowledge was moving faster than the education system could keep up.

Nowadays, I realize that for many leaders the focus of technology is still on the hardware. I often listen to leaders talk about the rush to purchase the new iPad, Chrome OS Tablet, or latest phone. But in reality, it is the way we are using technology, i.e. computing, that is changing faster than the computers.

Second, some executives are becoming “intellectually lazy.” As Joel Kurtzman points out in his new book, Common Purpose: How Great Leaders Get Organizations to Achieve The Extraordinary, Jossey-Bass 2010: “... one of the worst mistakes a leader can make is to become intellectually lazy. Real leaders need to take in enormous amounts of information and knowledge and to process what they take in from the vantage point of their team and from the point of their organization and its mission.” The lazy element from my perspective is not about the ability to consume vast amounts of information. I see people doing this every day. Instead, it is the lack of discipline to analyze the information from different vantage points. The later takes a great degree of effort and thought.

And this is where we are falling short day after day, quarter after quarter. We are not creating a pool of people within our organizations that know how to step back and look at the organization from different vantage points. From my perspective, tunnel focus has become epidemic. Working with knowledge that has clearly passed it’s shelf life, executives see parts but not the whole, invariably causing poor decisions and strategic misalignments.

The solution is to teach people how to reflect, analyze and plan strategically. Then, we need to teach them how to implement this level of work and integrate it into the cultural fabric of the organization. This is no small feat but the best companies do it on a regular basis because they know it is the foundation to organizational clarity, commitment and engagement.

To assist executives and their companies in achieving this level of success, I created the From Vision to Action Leadership Training in the late 90’s. This in-depth, year long training course encompasses four quarterly sessions, and helps participants gain valuable skills, knowledge and perspective about leadership, strategic planning and execution, and implementing organizational change. It builds capacity and understanding so executives can have the discipline to analyze information from different perspectives.

For more information about this unique training opportunity, including cost, dates and location, I encourage you to click on the image of our website on this blog page. Then click on the word “Training” on the navigation bar. There you will find detailed information about the “From Vision to Action Leadership Training.”

In a world that is complex and moving quickly, we need people who can lead and manage with a strategic skill set. The From Vision to Action Leadership Training has for over ten years been doing just this. I hope you can join me in 2011 and participate in this exciting learning opportunity.

My best regards,

Geery

Geery Howe, M.A.Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer inLeadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational ChangeMorning Star Associates319 - 643 - 2257