The Path to Success is Paved by Perspective

This weekend I made the drive across the mountains to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As we crossed into Virginia near the Blue Ridge Parkway, a gorgeous vista of the valley below us came into view. As my daughter and her friends headed off to dance class each morning, I headed to a nearby estate to enjoy my ritualistic woodland, morning walk. Bluebird houses studded the Reynolda Estate, and their inhabitants flitted among the trees and shrubs along my path. 
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​It was during this time of reflection that the idea of changing elevation to gain insight and clarity occurred to me. It struck me that in sharing my Vision Casting tool last week, I left an opportunity on the table to share a richer context. And that context, my friends, is this idea of breaking free from the mental models that constrict you. Here are four ideas to get you started.

Elevate 
I work with small businesses, and many of them have just moved from their initial start-up phase. They are now successful entities, and their success is mainly due to their all-hands-on-deck methods. No matter rank or role, everyone rolls up their sleeves and pitches in to get the job done, including the founder/CEO. The good news is that the CEO knows the business inside and out. The bad news is that the CEO is so enmeshed in the details that s/he can't think or act beyond this daily grind. A process like the Vision Casting tool reconnects these leaders with their purpose and gives sight to the enormous potential before them.

​During work last year with my client, Stephanie, we were able to use this process to identify three critical shifts required for her to grow and sustain that growth.

• Focus her position and work as the CEO
• Shift the responsibilities of key roles in her team
• Create a hiring plan to fill new jobs required to support her growth

By implementing these essential changes, Stephanie was able to achieve her growth goals by the end of the year, just six months from the start of our coaching relationship.

Zoom In
While start-up leaders are enmeshed in every part of their business by necessity, CEO's of established companies often become disengaged from the day-to-day operations. They are out-of-touch with the struggles and frustrations of their team and fail to bring the organization together to develop solutions to real problems and perceived issues. At its worst, these CEOs unknowingly contribute to disruption and dysfunction, which can erode their company's culture and the commitment of the team. One of my favorite books, How The Way We Talk Can Change The Way We Work (Kegan and Lahey, 2001), proposes that complaint is a sign of passion. "Beneath the surface torrent of our complaining lies a hidden river of our caring, that which we most prize or to which we are most committed" (p. 20).

A few years ago, I coached the CEO of a marketing firm that had rapidly grown from two employees to over a dozen and doing over a million dollars of business annually. With rapid growth, the employees were beginning to suffer burn-out. Wisely, the CEO left her private office and sat in the workspace shared by her creative group for two weeks. Her intention was to listen and learn. She tempered her inclination to jump in and direct and solve problems. However, she offered insights and information about the clients and the work that she uniquely held as the sales leader of the firm. Not only did this signal to her team that she was part of them, she also gained invaluable knowledge about how to change her own work in translating client meetings into briefing documentation for her team.

Stand In New Shoes
All successful companies and leaders develop a playbook. It is a way operating that is their path to success. It shapes and is shaped by your view of the customer and competitive landscape. Typically, the more successful your playbook, the more unconsciously you operate within its parameters. This is why big companies can fail. The buggy whip market became obsolete when the Model-T became the new standard for transportation. The Palm Pilot was usurped by the Blackberry, who saw it's market decimated by the introduction of the smartphone. 

My point is simple. The speed of change brought by market disrupters is escalating. Becoming insular, or worse arrogant can cause you to miss important tides of change. The best CEOs understand that their success is predicated on strong relationships with a variety of stakeholders - customers, governing agencies, partners, service providers, investors, employees, etc. They give priority to connecting with these stakeholders, listening to their needs and concerns, and then adapting business practices to maintain alignment with these shifting sands.​

Many years ago, I worked with a nonprofit that was facing a sector-wide shift in funding allocation. This agency traditionally received large, multi-year grants from corporate benefactors. This enabled them to plan and execute long-term service projects and employee a healthy staff of subject matter experts who had job security. Nonprofits were receiving greater scrutiny around the use of their funding dollars and were being asked to show proof of outcomes. Corporations were granting smaller, short-term funding and expecting quantifiable results before committing to additional donations. Operating in this new reality required different conversations and commitments with every stakeholder. Luckily, the head of development had spotted this change and had already begun the work in advance of receiving the first notification from a funder that the ten-year grant would not be renewed. This nonprofit continues to do great work today and was able to ride this wave of change with minimal disruption.

Invite Collaboration
No man is an island (John Donne's Devotions (1624)). As humans, we are innately social creatures looking to make genuine connections. The old models of doing business are insufficient because technology has enabled us to connect and create in new and more powerful ways. To learn more, watch Seth Godin describes this idea in his humorous and inspiring Ted Talk.

Wherever you are in your personal leadership journey, I hope that one or more of these ideas will ignite your imagination and set you on your path to Claim Your Extraordinary in 2020.