Look Before You Leap

“I’m Decisive.  I own this company and I am expected to make decisions.”  Is this you?  

Or does this sound familiar?  “You spend so much time trying to figure out what to do, that nothing gets done.  I didn’t hire you to sit around and do nothing”.

Jack was stunned as he listened to Julie and Robert.

Jack owns a very successful business.  Its been in the family for two generations before him, and his two children will carry it into the fourth generation.  Jack has already made that decision.   After all, Jack plans to retire someday, and as part of his exit strategy Julie and Robert will need to begin their preparations.  

Jack decided Julie should finish her degree in finance.  Her math skills are top notch, and she is at the top of her class in the business school.  Robert will need to apply himself more.  He will be taking over sales, because Robert is such a great people person, just like his grandfather.  Jacks dad Bill likes to stay involved, so Bill will be mentoring Robert in sales.  

Jack will require both Julie and Robert to spend some time at other business to learn more without the family ties and platform of favoritism.  Jack has already made those connections and arrangement with a few friends from his country club. 

Jack told his wife Susan that with these decisions, the retirement is in place, and his name on the door of this well known business will pass on to another generation.  “A perfect plan”, Jack said.

Susan agreed that the plan sounded wonderful.  Her vision of this business has always been for she and Jack to retire earlier than most of their friends, and begin to travel and enjoy a second home in a warmer climate.  In fact, Susan was in negotiations on the purchase of this second home in Arizona.

Jack engaged me to work with Julie and Robert.  He wanted my coaching expertise guiding them along as they finished college, worked a few years outside the company, and then began their careers in the family business.  

In my first meeting with Jack, he told me of the decisions he had made.  He was quite proud.  After all, he learned the importance of being Decisive after attending one of my seminars  focused on the twelve behaviors of the Rare Leader™.    Yes, Jack had learned pretty well.  He and Susan had their Vision as owners.  Jack had a natural Drive to Succeed, a Positive Outlook, and he was now displaying his Decisiveness.  He had also mastered several other behaviors of the Rare Leader™.  

However Jack missed the bell on the balance between Planning and Execution.  This is why I titled this program the Rare Leader™.  Great leaders may possess great skill levels in some or most of these behaviors, but it is very seldom (if ever) that someone can actually master a perfect score at all twelve behaviors of the Rare Leader™.  That is why I call it Rare.

I asked Jack about his planning process to have created this perfect plan.  Jack explained how easy this had been.  Considering his vision, the academic success of his children, and the ability to pass the business on to the next generation, there wasn’t much planning needed.  He saw the opportunity, and made the important decisions.

I asked Jack how Julie and Robert felt about the plan.  Jack told me how excited they both would be.  He knew they admired him, and shared the pride of the success and reputation of the family business.  I caught the words “would be” and paused, looking for words to place in my next delicate question.  So, Jack, as I understand you, Julie and Robert are not aware of your plan?  Have they not been involved in the planning?  “No, not yet” he answered, “but we’ll be telling them this morning when I introduce you to them”.

Jack was stunned as he listened to Julie and Robert.

Jack opened the meeting with his children very well.  “Have you each been thinking about your life after college”, he asked?(Remember the sage old advice, to not ask a question unless you know the answer?)  Jack had not anticipated Julie and Robert’s answer would be different than the answer he had already decided they would make.

Julie had come home this weekend to announce she was accepting an internship with a large financial research firm in New York.  Part of her excitement included the continued employment that typically is granted to successful interns.  Robert had thought very carefully about his education.  His aptitude scores helped him confirm his decision to follow his passion into Ministry.  He would be making his applications soon to seminary.

Jack was stunned...

Julie and Robert had grown up watching the anguish and fighting between uncles and aunts fighting over what their father Bill had built, only to see the older child Jack walk away with the reins to the family business.  Christmas was never the same any more.  Vacations were not spent with their cousins like the good old days.  They saw the tension and heartache of running a family business, and both Julie and Robert had decided long ago to never go into the family business and take a chance of hurting their own close relationship together.

Stunned...

What about working in the family business?  What about the fourth generation?  What about my Vision?  What about...

What about the planning portion of executing a decision?  

1. Does your Decisiveness take you away from good Planning?
2. Does your Planning include key partners affected by your Vision?
3. What could Jack have done differently?
4. What other behaviors of the Rare Leader™ should be exercised when discovering the fine balance between Planning and Execution?

If you want to learn more about the Rare Leader™ in you, 

or if you are interested in retaining Steve as your Executive Coach, 

Contact Steve Riege via: twitter, or his website.

Acting On Your Vision

”I’m high on ideas, but low on execution”.
  
How many times have you heard someone say this?  Typically you hear it from someone who sees themselves as very creative.  Or, as they might say...I’m an idea guy.  

We’ve lived with and worked with them.  A parent declares...”Let’s vacation in the mountains this year”.  Great idea.  It sounds like fun!  Time passed and there was no vacation, let alone a trip to the mountains.  Then, at the last minute there was a a mad scramble to put some kind of get away together.  Or, the manager at work who announces...”this month there will be no shut down of the line for unexpected maintenance.”  I love it when you have someone in a position of authority who feels they have been anointed to declare the future.

In a few months we will talk about the fine balance between a leader who plans, and a leader who executes.  I’ll introduce you to some people I have worked with who love to put action plans together, organize the troops, coach for effectiveness, check in for updates, and of course hold everyone accountable.  They may not have that celebration in the end, because there may not be known success.  After all, how do you measure their great action plan if it was not based upon a great vision.  Rare Leaders have both Vision and action.

Lets go back to this “idea guy”.  If they say “Im a visionary”, be careful.  A visionary is not a Leader with Vision.  A visionary has no action plan, and is nothing more than a dreamer.

A Leader with Vision is one of those Rare Leaders who is inspired by what they see, they share it with others, and they empower others around them to make the Vision a reality.  Rare Leaders actually do something with their Vision.  You could say they are “high on ideas, and high on execution”.

Over the past few weeks, we have discussed the Rare Leader who has Vision.  We have defined Vision as a clear inspired picture of a committed journey.  Vision is set up by trends, data, and patience.  Vision requires you to realize you have the ability to see things differently than others, and while you have the passion to believe it will come true, you have a need to lead others to find success.  Sharing your Vision inspires others around you.  Sharing your vision is an invitation.  It is an invitation to see the future and to make it happen.  The next step for the Rare Leader who has Vision, is to act on it.

Tell me...

1. When you see something that you believe is your Vision, what do you do do with it?
• Do you keep in inside of you, hoping for an epiphany?
• How do you set your sights on “making it happen”?
2. How do you set up your action plan?  
• Is it detailed and in writing within a nice clean binder on your shelf?  
• Is it simple, and easy to communicate? (perhaps a mission, or a set of goals where your Team can collaboratively provide details?)  What form does it take?
3. What do you do to keep your Vision and the action plan vibrant and moving in the right direction?
• Do you try to “do it all” by yourself?  (After all it’s your vision.)
• Do you mentor your Team?  Do you checkin to see if they need more guidance?  Do you provide resources?  Do you follow up on the action steps the Team committed to?  Do you celebrate success?  How do you Lead the action plan of your Vision?

Acting on your Vision requires you to Lead.  

After all, if you’re a Rare Leader, you can’t just be the idea guy.

If you want to learn more about the Rare Leader™ in you, 

or if you are interested in retaining Steve as your Executive Coach, 

Contact Steve Riege via: twitter, or his website.