Conventional Wisdom Institute

Are you casting a shadow like Washington or…?

2011-12-19T11:16:00.000-05:00

Headlines bombard us about executive pay, the tax code, and growing disparity between rich and poor. Pundits pontificate "They should or shouldn't do this." We react based on our own point of view.

But what about a leader stepping forward and taking action?

I was chatting with such a leader the other day. (I can’t reveal his name or other identifying particulars because they are not public yet.) He’s the top official of a small city suffering like so many others in this economy. Revenues are down, demands from residents and businesses are still high, and layoffs and service suspension have become the norm.

Of course he’s fighting back looking at ways to keep the city viable, growing, and innovative. He is trying to keep morale high for city workers who must meet demands, enforce codes, and keep the city running.

But this guy is going the extra mile at a time when it’s out of fashion. He floated the idea among the department heads and managers about taking voluntary furloughs…days off without pay. No big fanfare, no announcements in the local papers, no breathless reports on the local news. Just an idea. "Let's make a small sacrifice to help our city through a tough time."

He was the first to sign up to ease the city’s budget woes. He knows the pain people are suffering because in another recession he was laid off from his city job. So far a couple of department heads have also stepped forward and more are expected to do so as word spreads.

Now the cynics among us are saying, “of course it’s no big deal. He can afford it and will probably take a nice vacation. It’s just symbolic.”

I disagree…not just because I know the guy and he’s sincere. He’s taking a concrete action and setting an example for the rest of the city leaders. He’s walking the talk…something people say is important.

The official is employing "Shadow of the Leader."

Shadow of the Leader is an observation that people in authority through their likes, dislikes, treatment of others, language, personal preferences, beliefs, and values shape the culture of the organization. Employees watch the leader for clues about what’s important.

Although the idea is not new, the first systematic study was done by Larry Senn in his 1970 doctoral dissertation. (In full disclosure, Shadow of the Leader was the subject of my own dissertation in 1979.)

Creating a culture is one of the most important functions of a leader. Whatever example he or she sets will determine whether the organization achieves its stated vision, mission, values, and goals or not. We take our lead from what the leader does, NOT what he or she says…human nature.

In his first inaugural address George Washington stated he would serve without a salary. Congress in its wisdom convinced him to take the salary based on the republican principle that an official who was not getting compensation would be prone to corruption.

It was Washington’s desire to stay above the fray, always display character and rectitude, and set an example for others to follow. He knew his every move would be watched and used to set a precedent for future presidents.

If we are serious about our visions, missions, values, and goals and about leading our organizations, whether a tiny team or a vast country, understanding the power of our shadow and stepping up to take the next right action is absolutely necessary.

So hats off to the city official and those who extend his shadow to help their city in a time of need.

What shadow are you casting?

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Learn more about Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform and Progress Like the Founding Fathers and visit our Author Page on Amazon.

Mission Ain’t Wishin’ Drive Daily Results with a Powerful Mission

2011-10-19T16:24:00.001-04:00

When John Zumwalt became CEO of PBS&J, a well-regarded engineering firm, he helped craft a new mission. When many managers thought missions were a little fluffy and wanted to focus more on their traditional measures of success, he told them something extraordinary.

Get people on a mission and the metrics will follow

For Zumwalt and PBS&J, the metrics did follow – dramatic revenue increases, outperforming peers in talent retention, and wide-spread recognition as an extraordinary company to work with and for.

When I interviewed Zumwalt and 19 other executives with a track record of turning vision into reality, most told me stories of being mission driven.

But the importance of a mission is not just anecdotal. The Gallup Group* and many others who have studied this in depth find some astounding results:

83% of all workers believed having a clear mission was very important;

Importance of Mission
When companies were ranked by how strongly their employees agreed with the importance of mission, the top quartile had profitability that was from 5 – 15% higher than the companies in the lowest quartile;

Work groups with a clear sense of mission had from 30 – 50% fewer accidents; and

Mission-driven work groups had from 15 – 30% percent less turnover.

It was "as if the employee can't energize himself to do all he could without knowing how his job fits into the grand scheme of things."

The Gallup research also found the most critical influence a leader has on the organization is through the mission. When the leader is on a mission, it cascades through the organization if the leader constantly reinforces it.

Does your team have a clear mission to guide daily decision making and action? In these times of 'do more with less,' a strong mission is a requirement for successful action and results.

5 steps to create and use a strong mission.

Team brainstorms important values and results
Team prioritizes the list and chooses the top 3 – 5
Team can keep these phrases or write a short, simple statement incorporating them
Each team member discusses how his or her job contributes specifically to the mission
Team discusses results regularly in relation to fulfilling mission.

Start getting your results using a powerful mission. Sign up for my first webinar as part of Advantage HR Seminars; Get People on a Mission: Strategic Decision Making Drives Daily Action. This seminar is an approved provider for the HR Certification Institute (PHR, SPHR, and GPHR.) See details and Register here.

Apply these techniques to create or adapt your current mission to drive execution and daily decision making to get the results you need to sustain your organization and assure its growth. Live on October26, 2011 and available on DVD.

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*Rodd Wagner and James Harter, 12: The Elements of Great Managing, Gallup Press, New York, 2006. Material in this blog is excerpted from Conventional Wisdom: How Today’s Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers.

Hooray! My treadmill broke. Time to loaf and invite my soul

2011-10-14T09:24:00.000-04:00

My morning routine when I'm home has been the same for years: wake up about 5:15, hop on the treadmill, and watch BBC and Morning Joe. The treadmill has been a little sickly for some time. I have to limit myself to 1 1/4 miles at a moderate pace but it gets the blood flowing and the mind ready for the day...or so I've been telling myself.

On the road (where I spend a lot of time) I often look for a place to take a good brisk, long walk. If there are other colleagues around, all the better. One client became a favorite walking partner and we hit the trail every morning in Kuala Lumpur and Divonne, France...memorable walks and talks in fascinating environments.

Back home? Not as exciting but a comfortable rut.

Monday, that all changed. The machine, which had been stopping after less than a half mile for a few days, just stopped and that was that. What to do?

I headed out the door. It was 7 a.m. the sun was lighting up the eastern horizon and the great walking path along Snake Creek was beckoning. Why had I given it up so many years ago? Who knows or cares. I've rediscovered it.

Last week I tweeted the following quote from Walt Whitman “I loaf and invite my soul.” I must have been sending a message to my own soul.

Walking along Snake Creek, the distant roar of I 95 becomes a barely heard continuo. The bird symphony starts up - boat tailed grackles, parrots, Muscovy ducks, finches, and so many more complemented by the periodic heroic leap of mullet grabbing insects and splashing back into the placid water. Ibis, great white herons, baba yaga footed moor hens, night herons, anhinga, and kingfishers search for breakfast among the reeds.

Why did I ever stop this wonderful morning walk; Listening to the sounds of the natural world and the greetings of fellow walkers as we pass; Watching the sky turn every color as the sun slowly makes its way up over to my left; A full moon dominating the sky and then slowly fading?

Why? It's easy to drift into a routine and tune out what's really important. It's so easy to forget to "loaf and invite my soul."

What does this have to do with my usual topics of the founding fathers and leadership? A lot actually. You see, they knew how to loaf and find their souls. They took daily walks and rides or fishing and botanizing trips. Even the framers in Philadelphia didn't neglect their loafing time and in addition to physical activity they went to plays, concerts, lectures, and visited museums and interesting places. They understood they needed to make time to think, to dream, and to restore their creative juices.

Most of the successful executives I interviewed for Conventional Wisdom understood there was more to life than running their companies or cities. They cherished time to loaf and renew their souls.

Here are 3 lessons I started re-learning this week as I walk that delightful 5K circuit.

Creativity requires loafing. You need to create time and space to let your mind do more than attack the problems at hand. In fact, if you want to come up with innovative and creative solutions you must get the endorphins flowing and the mind floating along unconstrained paths.
Nature is everywhere waiting to inspire you. In London last week, I wandered down a crooked alley and suddenly ended up in one of those marvelous little squares - quiet, tree shaded, no sounds from The Strand penetrating. I sat for a while just letting my mind drift. Later that day I came up with some surprising new ideas - no coincidence.
You have to quiet your own mind so you can listen to your soul. When you allow yourself to be quite, fully present in the moment, and without conscious thought, the most amazing things happen. I'm not talking about the soul in a religious or even spiritual sense...I'm talking about that core of our being that gets drowned out amid the clacking of the computer keys, the endless meetings, and jangling phones, not to mention the babble of other people's conversations, road noise, and TV.

Smart people loaf...and invite their souls.

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(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc.

Learn more about the framers of the US Constitution and modern leaders: Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers.

Want to learn more about harnessing the creativity of your team and using your mission to assure your success, join me in my new webinar adventure "Get People on a Mission: Strategic Decision Making Drives Daily Action"

http://www.advantagehrseminars.com/store/Get-People-on-a-Mission-Strategic-Decision-Making-Drives-Daily-Action/

Hail & Farewell, Joe - Greatest manager...EVER!

2011-09-19T09:38:00.000-04:00

I walked into the New York City Housing Authority that morning with a lot of hope and a lot of anxiety. You see, I'd been hired 8 weeks before to be a software developer and I'd used the city's legendary bureaucratic delays in on-boarding to take a crash course in COBOL and systems analysis. I needed that job but I knew I was in trouble.

Someone introduced me to my new boss, Joe, and showed me my desk in the corridor, not even a cubicle. We talked a little about my experience – very light, my education – totally irrelevant, and what I could actually do – very little!

Now at this point, most managers would have rolled their eyes, fumed at the bad luck of the draw, and stormed back into their own offices. After all, Joe had just been assigned a new less than useless “resource.” But that’s not what Joe did. He introduced me to the team, asked them to help me in any way I needed and then said, “Let’s grab a cup of coffee.” For the next few weeks Joe sat with me several hours a day, showing me around the computer system, helping me understand the project we were tackling, and making sure I was in every meeting he went to, no matter how high-ranking the attendees.

Slowly it dawned on me. Joe knew I was just a newbie and didn’t know much about programming. He also knew he could teach me the mechanics. But the reason he had asked for me to be assigned to his team – yes, he’d asked for me – was he saw things in my background that told him I had what he was looking for to grow his team…things that could not be taught.

When I was eventually appointed as a manager, it was Joe who once again took me under his wing. He saw I got the formal training and intense mentoring and coaching I needed to succeed. When I reluctantly left his team to head my own, we still had coffee every morning to talk as colleague…and I continued learning from him. After 5 years I took an opportunity to build a career in the corporate sector armed with what Joe had prepared me to do – function on my own as a manager.

Joseph Caccavo appears in the acknowledgements of every book I have written for a reason; he had a profound influence on my life and on teaching me how to be a good manager. When I teach management courses today, especially for those folks in IT or engineering or other technical disciplines, I evoke his example. Yes, it’s possible to be a great manager and be a super techie.

What a great manager does...

5 lessons from Joe Caccavo: the best manager…EVER!

Look for your employee’s true gifts: Joe searched inside every team member, no matter how weak they appeared, for that spark he believed we all have. He wasn’t a touchy feely kind of guy and he did not suffer fools lightly but…he had a gift. Joe could see what the rest of us were blind to, even in ourselves.

Bring your employee’s gifts into the light: Joe fanned that spark once he found it. He made sure we knew what it was and what he expected from us – to exercise our gift fully. He never accepted anything less than our best. He was the embodiment of tough love. No matter what, we had to perform at our peak. So we did.

Support your employee’s growth: Whether talking over our morning coffee, walking to the gym after work or riding the subway back to Brooklyn, Joe was always encouraging me AND making sure I understood how much more I needed to learn. He went to bat for us with upper management and out on a limb to see we had what we needed to succeed.

Help your employees step out on their own and move on: The first day Joe left me in charge of the team for the day, I was sick with anxiety. What if something happened I didn’t know how to handle? Joe told me I’d do fine and he had 100% confidence in me. Somehow I survived that day. Later I discovered he had simply taken a day off to push me out of the nest. He knew I could fly and after that day I had a little more confidence too. He just kept upping the ante until I was confident enough to strike off on my own new career path.

Never stop fighting for your employees: You have to understand, this was a public agency governed by both civil service and union rules and contracts. Joe, who was in the same union as the rest of us, couldn’t give us raises, promotions or bonuses. He had no budget to spend on gifts, prizes, food, or plaques. He had only the force of his personality. He bought those morning cups of coffee and Friday pizzas out of his own pocket. When we needed a new printer he convinced the vendor to install it free and then went to the department head and did battle for it. When we needed expert consulting he went to a local university and convinced some professors to come help us pro bono. (He bought them lunch.) When we needed a different level of support from the data center, he went down and trained them himself and showed them how to move to more advanced technology. The list would fill volumes.

The end result was a team that would have followed Joe anywhere and who would do anything to make our projects successful. We didn’t just perform better because we worked for Joe…we became better people.

Joe was no saint. He had a red-hot temper. He often ran afoul of agency “politics” and didn’t do well at the social functions that made or broke careers there. On the other hand, his temper was always aimed outward at protecting and growing our team.

When his wife called yesterday to tell me that Joe was gone she said, “You know, he fought that cancer to the end. That was Joe.” And that was Joe…fighting his last battle. He couldn’t win this one but he did win his fight for his team members.

Farewell, Joe Caccavo, the greatest manager…EVER…
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(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc.
Learn more about great management training and coaching -- based on Joe's principles and more when you visit http://www.AdvantageLeadership.com

Nobody's Listening! And 5 actions you can take

2011-08-19T16:04:00.001-04:00

Over 80% of people in any presentation - on line or live - are not paying attention! They are "multitasking." Have we all gone over to the Dark Side? Are we distracting ourselves to death?

The Professional Convention Management Association, UBM Studios, and The Virtual Edge Institute partnered up to conduct the research and published it as a white paper, Business Motivations and Social Behaviors for In-Person and Online Events.

The science is clear: Humans do not "multi-task." The brain just switches back and forth among things. Even the famous multi-tasking Millennials haven't changed evolution...yet. They've just trained themselves to move between tasks faster than us old folks.

The end result is still the same. Those milliseconds of distraction don't make it into short-term memory and therefore have no chance of transferring to long-term memory.

Our electronic companions just make it easier to be distracted. Back in the day, we used to doodle or daydream. Today we obsessively surf, text, and read email...What's the difference? When we doodled or daydreamed, we eventually realized our mind was wandering. When we do the digital dance we delude ourselves into thinking we're doing something important. We'll tune back in when the other person, speaker, or cars on the road do something interesting. Talk about destructive self-adsorption...

But this is not a new human phenomenon. Back in 1787 at the U.S. Constitutional Convention, one of the first tasks the delegates tackled was setting their meeting rules. They reveal their very human tendency to be distracted...

Every member, rising to speak, shall address the President; and whilst he shall be speaking, none shall pass between them, or hold discourse with another, or read a book, pamphlet or paper, printed or manuscript...A member may be called to order by any other member, as well as by the President; and may be allowed to explain his conduct or expressions supposed to be reprehensible.

I remember watching congress people texting and tweeting during the current president's State of the Union Address. Our founding fathers understood human nature quite well. As James Madison remarked, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary."

The debate about what to do about our total distraction infractions is hot. Some say, "let's tell people not to do it." Others say, "let's get the tweeting built into the program." Both miss the point. The first doesn't work because people will ignore such instructions. The second doesn't work because it only encourages what our 18th century predecessors recognized as reprehensible behavior.

Why are you attending the webinar or seminar, teleseminar or conference in the first place? Isn't part of your motivation to learn something? Research shows, if we want to remember something, that is, move it to long-term memory, we need to engage as many senses as possible. Watching, listening, and writing engage at least 3 senses. Suck on a lollipop and write with a scented pen and you hit them all.

So here's my prescription to apply a little Conventional Wisdom:

Gandhi said it best: Be the change you want to see. You are in control of your own behavior. Stop distracting yourself.

As our Zen masters teach us: Be in the moment - in the NOW. Engage yourself entirely in the presentation, conversation, event. Focus your energy.

Use all 5 senses and maybe that elusive 6th sense. Emphasize your own preferred learning style to maximize retention and movement into short- and long-term memory.

A member may be called to order by any other member. Take responsibility for the success of every event yourself. Ask others (politely) to respect the speakers and give them full attention. Or suggest they help you by not behaving in a distracting manner.

Practice Morita psychology: Know your purpose. Feel your feelings. Do what must be done. This simple prescription from Japanese psychologist, Shoma Morita, can be applied to anything. In this context: "My purpose is to gain this knowledge. I feel like every stray thought must be communicated to my tribe and every email must be read instantly. I quiet my mind and focus on the speaker and ignore my urge to distraction and self-importance."

Consider the advice of all these cool folks - the founding fathers, Gandhi, Morita, and thousands of years of human insights into grappling with our...ooh, bright shiny object...human nature.

I'm off to a webinar soon and will try to practice what I preach...
How about you? How do you un-distract yourself...or do you?

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(C) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc.

References:

Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 reported by James Madison. editor, Adrienne Koch, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1987

Sign in and read the original report: http://www.virtualedgeinstitute.com/business-motivations-report/
Want to know more about what we can learn about business from the founding fathers and contemporary executives? http://www.ConventionalWisdomCenter.com

Are companies shooting themselves in the head?

2011-06-13T17:51:00.000-04:00

Bersin and Associates (1) have published a study highlighting the changes in corporate training and development in 2010 over 2009 and earlier. The changes are a mixed bag of slight improvements and further decline. Overall:

Training budgets dropped 21% between 2007-2009 but are now stabilizing
Average employee hours spent in formal training was 12.8 - 16.2 hours
Average spend per employee was $682
Percentage spend on leadership development rose 24%
Instructor-led training dropped to 60% of all training hours
Percentage of organizations using blogs and wikis for learning was 14%.

Jefferson UVA

Smaller companies were increasing training (up 1-3%) while large companies were still on the decline (down 1%). Supposedly, improvements from the prior year show a ray of hope since training began declining with the recession. I’m not convinced.

Everybody knows when times are tough, training is the first thing to go. This recession proved the old adage correct again. But is it a smart strategy? If you want people to do more with less, don’t you need to train them to do that?

If you need people who will think outside the corporate norms and come up with ways to help make the company more profitable, don’t you have to provide time, space, and training for that?

If you need every individual to be more responsible and accountable, don’t you have to train them for that?

Although businesses report a new emphasis on aligning the training with the business and making use of all the ‘learning technologies’ and ‘informal learning’ available, is there really any difference?

My observation, and that of my colleagues in the training arena, is that nothing much has changed. Companies still treat the training experience itself as a transformational mechanism. In other words, they send someone to training and then hope they will perform differently. Here’s a recent conversation:

Ø Client: The training didn’t work.

Ø Trainer: What do you mean?
Ø Client: People didn’t perform differently or better.
Ø Trainer: What did you do to reinforce the concepts from the class? What was your strategy to help the managers perform better?
Ø Client:????

This conversation has been repeated thousands of times over. At the height of the quality management movement, Japanese managers averaged 40 hours of training a year within a strategic framework of individual and team development.

The common conversation when discussing training options with HR or training managers revolves around the time factor. If a course is designed for 3 days, the immediate demand is to cut it to 2. If 2 days were the norm, cut it to 1 and so on. Why? The time away from ‘real work’ is the criterion, not the content and the context for the training.

Many years ago when I was a manager at a large company, the entire company went through extensive training. The days in class weren’t the end. I sat with my manager before and after the class to set goals that we periodically reviewed and she reinforced the concepts. We discussed the ideas at staff meetings and were assigned ‘buddies’ to help us as we changed the way we worked and managed.

This approach has been part of work with my own clients – where they are willing to invest in the development of their people. The results are always there with this approach because, as Sophocles pointed out, Knowledge must come through Action. One-off training IS just a vacation from work, no matter how good it is deemed by the participant. Without the context, no training, technology, or ‘alignment’ will be successful.

In the Bersin study managers asked trainers, “What does that mean for us in the next 5 years?” This was seen as a new focus on ‘aligning’ training with the business. I see it differently.

Five years from now, will you have the leadership and managerial capability you need to succeed, to compete in a globalized economy, to reach your goals? A paltry 12 – 16 hours a year won’t do it. For years I’ve asked managers if they had any training before they took up their managerial duties. No matter the situation less than 1% were trained.

Most companies, nonprofits, and government agencies are failing when it comes to developing the next cadre of leaders. The results are appalling management and leadership and the inevitable poor results. People in the trenches often perform heroics so the company won’t go down – which only reinforces management’s bad behavior. At some point it all collapse on itself.

“Are companies shooting themselves in the head?” If companies, governments, and nonprofits (NGOs) want to be around for the long haul they must invest not only in training but in true education – a structured strategy to develop leadership and managerial capacity, to mentor people, to coach them, and to reward great management and leadership, not heroics.

In another context, Thomas Jefferson said, "If a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be." (2)
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© Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, Ph.D., president Advantage Leadership, Inc.

(1) Bersin and Associates. The Corporate Learning Factbook 2010, cited by Jennifer Rai via Twitter/LinkedIn
(2) Jefferson in letter to Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816; spelling from original letter

The Heat are ON FIRE! 5 Actions to Burn Up the Courts

2011-05-27T15:20:00.000-04:00

The headline in the Times today says it all:

Stars Lead Late Rally as Heat Advances

Of course I was rootin' for the home team..."In the finale, [LeBron] James and Dwyane Wade alternated big shots and suffocating stops as they crushed the Bulls’ spirit and ruthlessly erased a 12-point deficit in the final 3 minutes 2 seconds," the New York Times reported breathlessly. The Miami Heat beat the Chicago Bulls 83 - 80.

So what does this have to do with strategic leadership, the theme of this blog? Actually, a lot.

http://tinyurl.com/3wyvwmt

See the Heat were down 12 points -- it looked like a Bulls victory, game over...but LeBron, Dwyane, and Chris Bosh and the rest of the team didn't get the memo. And that's part of what sets strategic leaders apart. They're playing a different game.

When I write about the founding fathers and framers of the U.S. Constitution, I don't have to go far to find examples of that different game...think of George Washington and the Continental Army encamped at Valley Forge, crossing the Delaware or leading the far bigger and more professional British army on a wild goose chase up and down the eastern seaboard. Washington didn't know he was defeated by the major military power of the 1770s. Never-the-less, it was General Cornwallis who surrendered at Yorktown, not vice versa.

When George Hanbury began his tenure as city manager of Portsmouth, Virginia, he missed the notice that the city should be razed to the ground and rebuilt. He simply rolled up his sleeves and turned the city around. When Herb Kelleher had to sell a plane to make payroll, he missed the message from the competition that he should abandon his project to start a new airline. Instead, he and CEO Howard Putnam built a profitable, unique business that is still flying high. (The original competitors are long gone.)

In Conventional Wisdom, I recount these and other stories of strategic leaders who don't give up just because someone else thinks they should. What does it take? Here are 5 actions we can all take to "burn up the courts" and be successful in tough times.

Know where you're headed: The Heat were headed to the Championship -- not just the playoffs. Washington was headed for an independent nation. Hanbury was headed for the return of a historic seaport where people wanted to live, work, and visit. They all had a driving, living VISION.
Have a strategy: None of the top basketball players are just winging it any more than the successful executives. They all have a strategy and a plan. Of course, the plan has to be adjusted to deal with reality on the ground. LeBron, Dwyane, and Chris had a game plan, they had practiced and practiced, and at the end of the game knew they had to step up the pressure and simply stop the Bulls in their tracks. When Hanbury was asked to work his magic on Ft. Lauderdale, he ran into stiff opposition. He adjusted his strategy but kept the pressure on the opposition by continuing to move forward. When the French fleet arrived off Yorktown, Washington knew he had Cornwallis trapped and the troops charged the redoubts.
Focus between your ears: Every new story on the brain and how it functions and the neuroscience of leadership and success shows the same thing that Henry Ford pointed out in the last millennium: "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." Top athletes must have a mental game to win and hire success coaches to keep them sharp or to get back on track. Washington is well known for beginning to construct his winning character as a young man and learning from early, disastrous mistakes. Military historians may argue over how good a general he was, but there is no arguing with the results he got because of his tough mental discipline.
Adopt Morita Psychology: Dr. Shoma Morita developed a powerful approach to dealing with the challenges of life. It comes down to this formula: Know Your Purpose. Feel Your Feelings. Do What You Must Do. Of course this prescription is difficult and almost impossible for some folks but not for strategic leaders. When public safety unions hired a sky writing plane to fly over the local stadium spelling out the message, "Fire Hanbury," he certainly wasn't a happy camper and he couldn't ignore his emotions. But he knew his purpose was to put the city back on a firm financial footing while transforming Ft. Lauderdale from a spring break wasteland into a vibrant, modern city. He kept to his message of fiscal responsibility with a promise of better times to come. At his retirement from the city, he was praised by the unions because he fulfilled his promises, and ignored their emotional meltdowns.
Be relentless: When LeBron was interviewed at the end of that exciting winning game last night he said simply, and to the point, “There’s no sense of relief right now. We still got work to do.” As the founding fathers found out rather soon after the peace treaty with Britain (and as emerging governments are finding out today,) when the bullets stop flying there is still lots of work to do. Washington chaired the Constitutional Convention that put together a governing structure to save the barely united state from anarchy, dissolution, civil war, and absorption into Britain, France, and Spain. It's the last 3 minutes of the game...time to push! Sink 12 points and stop the offence and outsmart the defense.

It's time to Turn Up the Heat!
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(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc.
Read our latest strategy e-book on your Kindle. 30 Days to Building a Strategic Plan that Gets Results.
Find Conventional Wisdom, Success Planning, and 30 Days on our Amazon page.

Read more about the game in the New York Times: http://tinyurl.com/3wyvwmt

Thoughtful, Committed Citizens

2011-02-20T07:03:00.000-05:00

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Meade

As we watch the revolutions and upheavals live on TV it is easy to forget these momentous changes are actually happening and are real. TV is full of staged "reality shows" that succeed or fail based on bringing out the worst of our human nature. Back stabbing, cattiness, cruelty, avarice, lust, mean spiritedness, vulgarity, and just plain nastiness bring in the audiences and ratings.

For the last few weeks TV has brought us true reality with scenes of real courage in the face of the full force of dying regimes. Men on camels wielding clubs charging into crowds of people, tear gas and percussion grenades lobbed into swirls of women and children, police wielding sticks beating anyone within their reach – all the scenes of violence as dictators desperately try to hang onto power.

This is reality TV. I’m writing today from a lovely town in the French Alps, looking out over a postcard scene of the town below and the country side stretching into the distance…so far from the struggles in the streets…yet a flick of a button and the BBC brings it all to life. I can’t escape and don’t want to.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Margaret Meade was absolutely correct. This blog usually focuses on the U.S. revolutionary generation and the framers of the Constitution. When I first found this quote, I thought about it in those terms. But today it takes on new meaning.

But we should not forget that thoughtful, committed citizens come in all varieties of human imagination. Just last week, in South Carolina, thoughtful, committed citizens were gathering in period costumes to attend a ball and reenact the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy. These people are serious about maintaining a fanciful view of the old South and the glory of the Cause for their peculiar institution…the obscuring language of the old South for the days of slavery and oppression in the distorted name of self-determination and democracy.

The U.S. founding generation held widely differing views on slavery and its place in a Republic based on the lofty words of the Declaration of Independence. But whether they abhorred it, sanctioned it, practiced it, or thought it would somehow disappear on its own, they enshrined slavery in the Constitution. A few paragraphs in a blog are not enough to explore the topic. The fact remains, even these men whom we admire so much, who had faced down the greatest military power of the day, who had been courageous in the face of superior numbers with superior organization and fire power, who had faced death, these men were not prepared to stop slavery.

The neo-Confederates danced the night away, basking in the reflected glory of a world that never was, a world that was shockingly cruel and dehumanizing to blacks and corrupting to whites. Meanwhile, half a world away, people are standing up to dictators and facing death for a chance to run their own lives in the real world.

The neo-Confederates and their ilk in the political arena yammer about states’ rights, nullification, self-determination, interposition, secession, and the other discredited catch words of a bygone era. Like the dictators who are being forced out and confronted today, the "neos" are appalled and frightened by the rise of something that cannot be repressed in humans forever – the desire to live free.

Democracy is a messy affair. The history of its evolution in the U.S. bears testament to this. Our bloody Civil War in which over 600,000 of us were killed by our fellow citizens and the deadly clashes over civil rights and war in the 60s remind us all too well that thoughtful, committed citizens can have vastly different views of what democracy means.

We have no newsreels to show us the reality of the Boston massacre or Lexington and Concord, the charging of the redoubts at Yorktown, or the actual battles and skirmishes of our Revolution. We have eye witness accounts and grandiose paintings. Today as I watch the BBC I see the actual chaos and brutal reality of these clashes. How many of us would stand up while we were fired on with live ammunition and "rubber" bullets, while being gassed, clubbed, and assaulted?

Luckily our ancestors did it for us. TV gives a little insight into what they actually did. But we must be thoughtful, committed citizens in our own lives whether it’s voting, working for a candidate or fighting for an important cause. All the time, however, we must remember there are other thoughtful, committed citizens who are opposing us. As soon as we forget the humanity of the other side, we slip into a frame of mind that allows us to hate, to oppress, and to commit cruel acts ourselves.

We will not know the outcomes of the uprisings, revolutions, and protests taking place today for many years. If democracy emerges, it will be messy, have its missteps, and setbacks. Here in the U.S. we must treasure our own democracy not fictionalize or sentimentalize it. The neo-Confederates are just one manifestation of the anti-democratic impulses that are also part of our human nature.

In full disclosure, I must share that I rejected membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution and United Daughters of the Confederacy. My grandmothers were mad at me for years. But I could not join organizations dedicated to the distortion of history. Observers of the current protest will be tempted to see things with their own coloration. Only with time will the narrative be clearer. For the time being, we can be thankful for the technology that allows us to communicate and watch as history unfolds before us. We can look for our best selves and strive to be thoughtful, committed citizens.

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©Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc.

Read more about the failure of the framers to confront slavery effectively in the constitution in Conventional Wisdom: How Today’s Leader Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers.

Rabbit Chases Tiger – Good News?

2011-02-03T10:31:00.000-05:00

Today the Year of the Rabbit dawns on the Lunar New Year. What will it bring? For those born in one of the Rabbit’s years if should be a quiet time for developing relations and propitious for starting a new business. For the rest of us, those who follow the lunar zodiac predict a calmer year with things running at a much slower pace.

"The Rabbit is one of the most gracious personalities of the zodiac…It'll be a time to nurture relationships at the many social events that will happen this year.” At least that’s what Laura Lau, co-author with her mother, Theodora Lau, of the best-selling The Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes, tells us. She believes the Tiger delivered on its reputation of unpredictability and lots of major disruptions. Many people report being happy to see the Rabbit chase the terrible Tiger out of the neighborhood.

But what does all this portend for you as a leader or business owner?

I happened to have been in Singapore as the Year of the Tiger dawned, blogged about it, and showed a clip of the Tiger making his way through the airport with much noise and excitement. That won’t be the case with the quiet and conservative Rabbit.

Lately there’s been a call for greater civility in our political discourse and that’s definitely a Rabbit-oriented wish. Whether it happens or not is another story – perhaps as fanciful as belief in mythical beasts.

However, in the world of business and work, a call for greater civility might not be so far fetched. When I entered the corporate world I was struck by the constant use of war analogies tossed off without much heed for what the words really implied. Early in my management career my boss handed me The Art of War and insisted I take it to heart and use it as an important supplement to my penchant for Drucker and Deming. Over the years I’ve come to see that in successful businesses with progressive leadership, the Rabbit rules over the Tiger.

Why? Because to get anything done in an organization with 2 people or 2 million, you must have cooperation. The old cliché, Together Everyone Achieves More, happens to be correct. When the Constitutional framers were hammering out their plan for the new nation, they had to cooperate; despite the fact the 55 delegates had strong opposing views. When John Zumwalt, CEO at PBS&J came to believe the company should reflect the communities in which it had offices, he needed the entire workforce to take on the mission. He didn’t set quotas or impose a program. He talked about the mission to everyone and enlisted their cooperation. In a few years the national engineering firm was being recognized and receiving awards for its diversity.

5 Actions to Usher in the Year of the Rabbit and Chase the Tiger

Stop the War Chatter – Record your next meeting. How often do war-related terms crop up? How often do you shoot down an idea; praise a straight shooter; develop a killer app? Ever hear the expression, As a man thinketh...? We don’t even hear the subtle messages we put out every day and reinforce in our own minds.

Stop Thinking the Competition is the Enemy – Our competitors are not our enemies. When I first started my business I was getting advice from a more experienced business owner. She bragged about how she had driven her major competitor out of business. I wasn’t impressed then or now. Why spend all that energy destroying someone else? Has airline or banking service improved with all the gobbling up of the competition? Personally, I want strong competitors. They keep me on my toes, innovating, and improving.

Start being Likable – Machiavelli helped spread the idea leaders should be feared rather than loved. Why do we associate likability with weak leadership? Joe Caccavo, the absolutely best boss I ever had, was loved and admired by his team. He was also tough and demanded our best from us. He took us to task when it was necessary. He was fair, patient, and supportive. He wanted to see each of us succeed and did everything he could to make that possible. We would have followed him anywhere and did more than any of us believed possible.

Start Looking for Synergy – I joined a new mastermind group recently. All of us are involved in the professional speaking business but none of us see one another as competitors. Instead we are all working together to help one another be more successful. Ideas and insights flow. We share our challenges and fears. The group dynamic creates a heady mix of inspiration, innovation, and tough love.

Start Caring for those you Disagree with – When we demonize those we disagree with, we stop having a dialogue; we stop learning; we stop understanding the complexity of our world. Corporate politics are just as nasty as the government-related kind. Enormous losses accrue to every organization when the politics become toxic and anti-productive. When Michael Howe took over Arby’s, he turned the chain around by leading a cultural revolution. It was certainly not easy but his efforts created a people-focused positive culture that doubled cash flow and grew revenue dramatically in a few years.

So give it some thought. Could you be more successful pursuing positive relationships and embracing your inner Rabbit and chasing out a little of your inner Tiger? I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly going to give it a go…It’s a New Year, so why not a new approach? Especially when it’s proved so successful as a business strategy.

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© Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc

Want to know more about the leaders in today’s blog and others who have transformed their organizational cultures to improve bottom- and top- line results? Check out Conventional Wisdom: How Today’s Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers.

Thank you Jefferson and Madison for Religious Freedom

2011-01-16T18:00:00.000-05:00

Imagine my surprise. It was a chill December day as I drove through rural South Carolina on my way home from a visit with my sister. As I flipped around the radio dial I found some easy-listening jazz and settled back to enjoy the winter landscape flying by my window. Now here’s the surprising part. When the commercial break arrived, I found I was listening to WLGI, a 50,000 watt radio station in Williamsburg County, S.C…but not just any small station…This was run by a local Bahá’i community institute. Bahá’i in the rural south?
My reaction in finding the radio station was, “Only in America!” I immediately fired off a text message to a Bahá’i friend in Brussels. Then I reflected a little more…The Bahá’i are persecuted, excluded, and murdered in their native Iran and have been since the 19th century. Here in the U.S. about 130,000 Bahá’i live and worship freely.

Then I reflected a little more…Only a few short months ago the TV was full of reports of a Florida preacher who threatened to burn a Koran and bitter opponents of an Islamic Center in lower Manhattan taking to the streets.

All these reflections and more bring me to the importance of today. On January 16, 1786 the Virginia legislature adopted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. In 1993, the U.S. Congress commemorated this historic occasion by establishing National Religious Freedom Day.

Thomas Jefferson wrote the historic legislation but it took his friend, James Madison, to push it through the state legislature, opposed all the way by Patrick Henry. The immediate impact was to disestablish the Anglican Church as the official state church and stop laws persecuting other religions.

During the hot debates over the Statute, which would deprive the Anglican church of state tax revenues, representatives tried to limit the coverage to Christians. Madison successfully stopped the effort. Jefferson wrote he was delighted the move "was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, the infidel of every denomination."

The essence of the statute is clear: "all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." Original intent is crystal clear in these and many statements by Madison, Jefferson, and others.

Later, when Madison took up his duties in the first U.S. Congress, his first duty was to draft a set of amendments to the new Constitution he helped create. The first of these comes down to us as the First Amendment, establishing religious freedom and separation of church and state. Madison drew on the Virginia Statue and his life-long devotion to freedom of conscience.

So celebrate Religious Freedom Day, by the dictates of your own conscience, not just today, but every day. Whether you embrace a particular religion, no religion or something in between, the spirit of this day belongs to you.

The Bahá’i belief of our universal family living in peace sure brings that message home.

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© Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc. http://www.advantageleadership.com/

If you’re unfamiliar with the Bahá’i Faith, it was founded in 1852 by a Persian nobleman while imprisoned in Teheran for his religious beliefs. Bahá'u'lláh, a monotheist, believed all humans are part of the same family and ultimately believe in the same god. He emphasized the importance of the messages and messengers of all religions, and living a moral, ethical, peaceful life while serving other. (Learn more at http://www.bahai.org/)

Jefferson included authorship of the Virginia Statute and the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the University of Virginia as the 3 accomplishments to be placed on his grave stone.

Pitch out those New Year’s Resolutions…NOW!

2011-01-04T14:38:00.000-05:00

That’s right – dump the list…and the guilt that always follows when you don’t follow through. Sure, I know it’s important to make a plan. After all, strategic planning is a main focus of my business. I encourage people to make a plan and follow it. But that’s a very different scenario from our annual flirtation with resolutions.

Most plans and all resolutions are very light on methodical follow through.

When it comes to planning, less is more – fewer goals, fewer tactics. When Dolly Parton was asked about plastic surgery, she retorted,

“Honey, you’ve gotta nip it, tuck it, suck it or chuck it!”

Of course you need some goals; high-level descriptions of results you want. In business the Balanced Scorecard approach suggests goals in only 4 areas; financial, customers, employees, and processes. (Robert Kaplan & David Norton)

But even a limited number of goals won’t get you the results you need. For each goal, set at least one objective; a concrete description of results to accomplish a goal. Make sure they are SMART; Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time Related.

But goals and objectives don’t float out of the air. Their purpose is to fulfill a mission; what you are trying to do or be and for whom. The mission and your detailed plan are the basis for daily decision making and action.

Once all of these elements are in place, you can figure out how to achieve each objective, what activities or tasks you will perform. Most people start at this tactical level without all the detail in between. You can end up with a to-do list that keeps you busy…but…Busyness is not good business.

OK, full disclosure: My own plan in 2010 had too many goals and objectives. I didn’t accomplish some of them. But I had a plan, tracked my progress, and made adjustments along the way. The result was a very successful year. As I finish my plan for the new year, I’m following my own advice. I’m on a goals diet.

One of those few goals is to make more planning and process resources available. I’ve already accomplished my first objective; convert a 30-day email mini-course coaching program on strategic planning into a very accessible e-book. It’s now available on Amazon Kindle…

30 Days to Creating a Strategic Plan that Gets Results is packed with the coaching advice I’ve given my successful clients; practical, proven tips, techniques, and strategies that get results and help you face the inevitable challenges of implementing a plan in a dynamic environment.

What’s in it for you?

Increased results from your efforts significantly.
Be more productive and effective.
Show vastly improved financial performance.
Fulfill your core mission with greater impact and less wasted activity.
Engage employees fully to accomplish defined goals.
Delight customers, consumers, constituents or clients who recognize you as the best source for products or services.
Do more with less in any economic environment.

Invest in yourself and your work for a prosperous and happy year. Get the results you want with no resolutions, no guilt, and no wasted effort.

Enjoy your success…Enjoy your results.

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Available on Amazon:
30 Days to Building a Strategic Plan that Gets Results (Kindle eBook)
Success Planning: A 'How-To' Guide for Strategic Planning (Soft cover manual)
Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers (Hard cover business book)

Visit My Author Page on Amazon

http://www.advantageleadership.com/

http://www.conventionalwisdomcenter.com/

WATTS HUMPHREY -- A Giant Passes from the Scene

2010-11-04T22:36:00.000-04:00

This is a sad day for everyone who has been engaged at any level in the wonderful world of software. Watts Humphrey, who just died at 83, pioneered the development of many of the processes that assure and ensure software quality. He is probably best known as the father of the Capability Maturity Model -- an approach that has had more impact than any other. Watts understood all along that IT and software engineering aren't about technology; they are about people and processes making technology a tool for solving problems.

His official obit from his long-time base in the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University (http://tinyurl.com/2vffpgt) is headed: Watts Humphrey Succeeded in Changing the World of Software Engineering. "Changing the world of anything is an outrageous commitment," Humphrey said in an interview in early 2010, discussing his decision to come to the SEI. "I knew I couldn't do it alone, and I wanted to be in an environment where I could work with folks and do that."

As the pioneering innovator behind several important software development processes, Watts Humphrey more than met his promise to change the World of software engineering. His contributions go well beyond methodology and the many awards and accolades he received. For decades, his work inspired software engineers and his colleagues and friends worldwide. (Jared Cohon, president, Carnegie Mellon University.)

But Watts' legacy is not just for us techie types -- in fact, what made him so successful in "changing the world" was his strategic leadership, that is the ongoing focus of this blog. Watts embodied the qualities that any leader in any field can adopt.

Vision: After years of pioneering work at IBM as a leader of a mammoth, global software engineering group, Watts saw with great clarity what needed to be done to move developing software solutions to business problems from a black art to an engineering discipline. He believed in the power of harnessing technology in a disciplined way.

Translate vision to reality: Watts was not one of these leaders who float along at 30,000 feet on his visionary quest but whose feet never touch the ground. He could turn his vision into practical processes that gave individuals a clear road map to daily practice.

Inspiration: Because Watts' vision was so clear and because he could translate it into reality, he inspired generations of folks in the software field by making us want to implement his ideas. His style was easy going but compelling. I still have handwritten notes from the many times I heard him speak and lead seminars -- and I still pull them out and use them in my work.

Caring: At the end of any keynote, presenters like Watts are always mobbed by enthusiastic people. Some busy themselves with packing up their notes and computer, distractedly hand out a few cards, and slip away. Others believe they have a captive audience to continue pontificating or shamelessly trying to drum up consulting gigs. Watts was different. He talked with each person, no matter how new to the field and naive, as if he or she were the only person in the room. He shared. He was warm and encouraging. No matter how long the line, he was patient and engaged.

Commitment: His commitment to changing the world of software engineering was authentic and not grandiose. Many in the field believe they have the keys to better software solutions and don't mind telling you how great they are, how wrong others are, and how following them will get you to the promised land of zero defects. Watts simply told stories about how real people had succeeded in putting processes in place to improve results. His commitment was to the people that toil away in Cube Land day after day, trying to support their organizations with technology; the Dilberts of the world. Watts’ commitment was not to aggrandizing himself.

Great Management: Long before the Gallup organization published First Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently (FBAR,) Watts wrote a little volume called Managing Technical Professionals. In it he lays out how to adapt and adopt our understanding of human psychology to bring out great performance in people. FBAR simply confirmed with extensive data what Watts had learned from his experience as a manager and leader. Whether you manage technical or non-technical people, it is still one of the best handbooks for day-to-day working with people. (Of course FBAR is a necessary resource too.)

So whether you're a techie who was touched directly or indirectly by Watts and his breakthroughs or whether you're just trying to be a good manager and leader, spend a little time investigating and learning from this giant...he did change the world for the better...and the world is a little diminished today with his passing. Luckily we can all access and learn from his legacy which will be with us a long time.

Farewell, Watts. We will miss you and we will never forget you and what you have done for us.

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(C) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc.
Author: Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers

Strike up the band for leadership

2010-09-22T18:27:00.000-04:00

Learning from great leaders including the US founding fathers is the constant theme of this blog. Today, I want to depart and tell you about a close-to-home example that everyone could learn from.

My husband plays clarinet in a community band. It's a mixed group of professional musicians, many of them retired, students, people who only began to play an instrument recently, and those who have played for decades. The average age of the players is probably around 70. From September to June they play a 2-hour concert once a month in a local community center to an enthusiastic audience. They specialize in marches and show tunes.

For the last few years my father-in-law and I sit in the audience and enjoy the show, tapping our feet to the peppy pieces and singing along to familiar songs. It's pleasant and we have a good time. But...the music isn't always that good. Often in the past it lacked a certain energy...a certain polish.

This past Sunday the band blew our socks off and played for 2 1/2 hours and had us all applauding and begging for more. People were out of their seats and very excited.

So what was different? Well, the band had a new conductor. That was the only difference...and what a difference it was.

Energy and Focus: The new conductor, although a few years older than the previous one, had a spring in his step, a smile on his face, and an energetic conducting style. It wasn't flamboyant but it was active. Great leaders do that. They exude energy and focus. In fact, new research underway at MIT is measuring this to demonstrate the difference between the merely adequate and the great leader.
Engagement: As the new conductor put the band through its paces, he made eye contact with different sections, subtly bringing them in, building their sound or lowering their volume. He engaged with individuals and sections to bring out the best in them. Great leaders do that. When they are talking with you, you are the only person in the room. Your own energy level increases and your performance moves toward your true capabilities.
Highlighting Achievement and Talent: The new director composed a program with the usual marches and show tunes but with a twist. Each one highlighted a particular section -- the brass, the winds, the drums, etc. Each tune gave a whole section the opportunity to strut their stuff and shine in front of the audience. He also had several pieces that featured individual members up front soloing and demonstrating their unique talents. Leaders are proud of the talents of their teams and want them to shine. Great leaders don't have to be the center of attention or the best at everything.
Making the best with what you have: The community band has a diversity of talent. Some members aren't very good while a few are outstanding musicians. But what makes such a band possible is that everyone is there because they want to be. They enjoy playing music whether they are particularly good at it or not. The former band leader used to spend a lot of time fussing at people, trying to get them to play better. The new director talks about the music with them -- its meaning, origin, and subtleties. Leaders do that naturally. They get everyone focused on a goal -- in this case, playing a particular piece of music as well as possible. They have a clear mission -- bring enjoyment to the community through their music making. He keeps them focused on the goal and mission -- they do their best on their own to meet those.
Challenge the Team to Excel: The former conductor would always include at least one or two 'serious' pieces -- usually a little slow (even draggy.) All they managed to do was highlight the lack of talent in some players when the tempo slowed and individual instruments were harder to hide in the ensemble. The new conductor had a different approach that both challenged the players and, again, got the best out of them. First, he lengthened the program by about 20 minutes, adding more pieces. Second, he had one more challenging piece, still in the genre the band does best. The band was a little apprehensive but they came through with flying colors -- or rather soaring sound. Their energy was a little lower by the end but still higher than all of last season. Leaders help their teams build on their strengths and remind people of the confidence they have in them.

By the end of the concert my 96 year old companion was jumping for joy. "I can't believe how good they sound. They were terrific." And they were. Same players, same audience, same instruments, same sort of music, same hall -- Leadership -- a good band leader -- made all the difference.

His transformation of the band reminded me of a quote from Dr. W. Edwards Deming about work and leadership:

Why are we here? We are here to come alive...to have joy in our work.

The band leader brought joy to his players, the audience, and to himself. Strike up the band for your own leadership.

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For more about learning from great leaders, check out Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers, available at http://www.conventionalwisdomcenter.com/

Learn more about how Rebecca and her team can help you develop your own strategic leadership and that of your team at http://www.advantageleadership.com/

Happy Unity Day

2010-09-16T17:45:00.000-04:00

I sign the US Constitution

SEPTEMBER 17, 1787 -- That's the real birthday of the UNITED States! We may celebrate July 4 (1776) when we declared our independence from Great Britain but after the Revolution we were united in name only. By 1787 the States were squabbling with one another, blocking any meaningful legislation in the Congress established under the Articles of Confederation, and refusing to pay into any national fund. Each state issued its own (worthless) currency and inflation was destroying the income of farmers. That of course led to foreclosures and Captain Shays, a farmer and former army officer, mustered his fellow farmers to close down the courts and then marched on the state armory before being stopped by the Massachusetts militia. Britain, France, and Spain were plotting to pick off individual states while European creditors threatened to cut off all credit to the new country because of unpaid war debts. No, it was not a happy time. A few years after the hard-won revolution, the UN-united states faced dissolution.

James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin conspired to call what we know today as the Constitutional Convention. Fifty-five delegates from 12 of the 13 states met through four hot, muggy months, from May to September, in the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall.) They hammered out a new Constitution using James Madison's draft as a jumping off point. They argued, postured, debated, and speechified. They were sometimes grumpy and occasionally even rude to one another. They caucused, cajoled, and compromised. (They also partied, went on excursions, dashed home to attend to business, and complained bitterly about the hard conditions in boarding houses and lack of money to pay for food and lodging.)

In the end, 40 men signed the document on September 17, 1787. We owe them a big debt. Once the Constitution was ratified in the states and the government was established with its three branches and a bicameral legislature, the states were no longer sovereign. That's right. Many states had considered themselves sovereign prior to this. Without the unity that was established with the Constitution, the likelihood that the new nation would have survived is quite slim.

Today we many argue about the amount of authority that should rest in the states and the federal government, and the framers left it a little vague in places. The fact is we are one united nation. So September 17 should be a big celebration for each American. And maybe its OK that it hasn't become another day to skip work, watch fireworks, and barbecue. Instead, why not take a little time to read the document itself. http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html Find out what it really says. It's quite short, even with the amendments. And, maybe just thank little Jemmy Madison and the boyz for persisting in their quest for a "more perfect Union."

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Richard Brookhiser has written an excellent profile of James Madison recently. Check it out

http://tinyurl.com/3856hym

Want to know more about the Constitutional Convention and how it functioned as a strategic planning session? Check it out: http://www.ConventionalWisdomCenter.com

Brits Burn White House TODAY!

2010-08-24T15:09:00.000-04:00

Yes, the British did burn the White House on this day (August 24) in 1814...just thought I'd throw in a screeching headline because they are all the rage as the media cover big events. What was going on back in 1814? Why were the British so mad? Probably they were retaliating for the U.S. burning public buildings in York (Toronto) Canada...all part of the War of 1812.

The soldiers added insult to injury by eating the food set out on the dining room table and sarcastically drank to "Jemmy's health" with his fine wines in crystal glasses...then burned the house, capitol, and assorted other official buildings.

It was a bitter day in U.S. history after several humiliating defeats in the war. President Madison was not at home to great his unwelcome guests but was on horseback in the field with his army. He was the last Commander in Chief to actually take part in a battle. It was all the more surprising because of his frail physique.

Of course, Madison is not known for his military prowess. He has no eponymously named buildings in Washington, his face does not stare out from Mt. Rushmore, nor does he grace any money. But we should be thinking about James Madison today, on the anniversary of the burning of his official residence because of his pivotal role in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They are his monument.

What would Madison make of the current roiling debates about building an Islamic Center in New York City? There are several clues -- more than that, well established facts. Here's a brief entry from Wikipedia that summarizes those facts.

As a young lawyer, Madison defended Baptist preachers arrested for preaching without a license from the established Anglican Church. In addition, he worked with the preacher Elijah Craig on constitutional guarantees for religious liberty in Virginia.[10] Working on such cases helped form his ideas about religious freedom. Madison served in the Virginia state legislature (1776–79) and became known as a protégé of Thomas Jefferson. He attained prominence in Virginia politics, helping to draft the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. It disestablished the Church of England and disclaimed any power of state compulsion in religious matters. He excluded Patrick Henry's plan to compel citizens to pay for a congregation of their own choice.

Madison's cousin, the Right Reverend James Madison (1749–1812), became president of the College of William & Mary in 1777. Working closely with Madison and Jefferson, Bishop Madison helped lead the College through the difficult changes involving separation from both Great Britain and the Church of England.

Madison wrote widely about the issue of freedom of conscience and religion. Unlike Jefferson and Franklin for example, he was a religious person and a member of the Episcopal faith. During the fight to ratify the new Constitution, many opponents demanded the addition of a bill of rights. Madison, at first opposed such a list as both unnecessary and inadequate but was eventually convinced that it was important to gain support for the Constitution. He digested the hundreds of proposed amendments down to a manageable few and shepherded them through the first Congress to become the first 10 amendments, the Bill of Rights. He crafted the first amendment based on the Virginia statute (written by Thomas Jefferson) that he got through the Virginia legislature.

Madison paid a price for opposing the powerful Henry on the religious freedom issue and winning the Constitution ratification debate in Virginia. Henry blocked his appointment as a Senator and supported powerful candidates against him in his congressional district. Madison prevailed.

As he did with the Baptists and other so called dissenting faiths in Virginia, he stood for absolute freedom of religion. When he helped dismantle the official religion of Virginia (his own Episcopal Church) he made it clear what the original intent of the First Amendment was.

The demagoguery that has replaced debate of the issue of the Sufi mosque would have disturbed Madison greatly. The religious hatred, intolerance, and lies that have circulated and not been refuted by so-called responsible politicians would have made him physically ill. There is no way of knowing what position Madison would have taken on the location of the center. But we do know what he said on the freedom to practice ones religion and the absolute separation of church and state.

196 years ago, our capitol was in flames and our president was leading an army to defend our country and the Constitution and Bill of Rights he helped author. I think Jemmy's advice to those who support and oppose the building of the mosque might have been the following:

read your history -- including the Constitution and Bill of Rights
dial back the rhetoric and emotion -- discussion and dialogue work where demagoguery doesn't
remember why we were fighting 200 years ago...

The world is watching -- will we actually uphold the separation of church and state, the freedom of religion and the freedom to assemble, and the great promise of pursuing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

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(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc.
Author: Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers http://www.conventionalwisdomcenter.com/

Don't know much about historeeee...

2010-07-19T21:45:00.000-04:00

You may not remember the old pop song with that refrain but it could be the theme song of way too many people. My sister called the other night and told me about a meeting she went to in her town. The discussion got pretty hot and heavy and one woman pulled out her pocket-sized copy of the Constitution and waved it around as she made her points, disagreeing with whatever was being said.

Now my sister is not the shy retiring type that I am - ;-) - and so she asked her, "Did you actually read the Constitution?" "Well, no...but I know what it says..." and went on with her harangue, misquoting and mangling the document -- rhetorically not physically.

To my sister and me, it was a reminder us of being dragged off to tent revivals by our grammaw where various lay preachers would thump the good book, tell us what it said, and threaten us if we doubted them.

The problem with the thumpers is that in the words of the founding fathers, the constitution, or the bible or other holy books, you can cherry pick phrases that agree with your beliefs and ignore those that don't. If your audience doesn't know any better and hasn't studied the details themselves, you can say just about anything. Psychologist know that if the idea is repeated often enough, you will come to believe if, even when faced with hard facts to the contrary.

Here's an example from a letter to USA Today (7/1/10) from a writer commenting on the passing of Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia.

Our Founding Fathers did not intend congressional positions to be life-long ones. They felt that it was the duty of our leaders to give of their time and manage their states temporarily, and that this was in the best interests of their constituents...

We have senators...[who] have become professional politicians.

He goes on to support term limits AND age limits.

There are many good arguments for and against term limits...but how the founding fathers "felt" is not among them. There were among the founders those who saw it as their duty (or privilege) to serve in government for a while and then return to private life. George Washington is a good example.

But not all the "fathers" followed that path nor believed it was the best path. Three examples from three different political philosophies come to mind. Patrick Henry was one of the most powerful professional politicians in Virginia and served in a variety of positions in the state including the governorship. He was a strong "states rights" defender and foe of the new federal Constitution because it removed the absolute power of the states.

John Adams started out as a lawyer but was soon drawn into the Continental Congress and became a professional politician, serving as a representative in the Continental Congress, and as a diplomat in France and England. With the establishment of the new federal government he became Vice President and then President. He was a Federalist and only left office when defeated by Jefferson in the election of 1800.

James Madison beginning in his mid-twenties was only out of public office for a couple of years. He served in county and state legislatures, the Continental Congress, worked with Alexander Hamilton and Ben Franklin to engineer the Constitutional Convention, served in the new Congress, was Secretary of State under Jefferson, and finally served as a two-term president. Although starting out with a strong nationalist/federalist bent, he moved away from this by Washington's second term and worked along side Jefferson to found the Republican Party (which later morphed into the Democratic Party.)

My point is that the letter writer didn't know some basic history, which he could have discovered in a history book, on the web, or (in the olden days) in school. But that seems too hard. I recently set my Google Alerts to look for references to the Founding Fathers -- everybody adopts them to prove their points. I'm on a quest to confront ignorance with facts.

The founding fathers were as complex, complicated, and conniving as any modern politician or leader. They were humans. They had their points of greatness and their follies. We should admire them, not because we can find some words they uttered that fit our political views but because of what they did, sometimes in spite of themselves, to create a system of government that works and is self-correcting through the will of the people.

Before you adopt their words to prove yourself right, read the entire body of their work. Learn what books they were reading and what philosophers influenced their thinking. Know what was going on in the wider world and in their world.

Learn a little more about historeeeee....

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Want to know a little more about historeee and contemporary leaders? Check out Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers. Available on Amazon.

Want to read a couple of chapters first? Send an email to Rebecca@AdvantageLeadership.com with "Chapters" in the subject line.

Proclaim Liberty July 8, 1776 & 2010

2010-07-08T10:09:00.000-04:00

Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof ...thus begins the inscription of one of the America's favorite icons. Visiting the bell again a few months ago I was struck by all the languages and cultures that were swirling around the bell in its museum across from Independence Hall. As I snapped this picture, I realized what an important symbol this is, whether the many myths about it are true or not.

On July 8, 1776, so the story goes, the bell which hung in the tower you can see in the background, rang out for the first time to summon the people to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. Imagine yourself standing there in front of what was then the Pennsylvania State House...it was hazy, hot, and humid...they you heard those inspiring words for the first time...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Even when we're not living up to them, this is the essence of who we want and strive to be.

The insurgents who had been meeting as the Continental Congress had signed this declaration and were officially in rebellion against the established government. This wasn't some lame manifesto with more slogans than substance. The signers were committing treason and were ready to put it all on the line...Listen to how they closed it:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

In the end, it really doesn't matter whether the bell was actually hanging in the crumbling tower...What does matter is that both the signers and the people knew that they were declaring LIBERTY. At that moment, every person in the colonies had to make a choice...were they with the rebels or with the King? For many, this was a wrenching choice and it tore many families apart. Ben Franklin's own son sided with the British and they never spoke again.

If you haven't read the Declaration since high school, take a look and read it today, hearing it fresh for the first time...read it to your kids and grandkids...suggest your friends read it. http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/index.htm

As you do, let those words sink in...all men are created equal...Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Whether you're a Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, Tea Partier, Green Partier, something else or nothing...Ask yourself a few of questions:

Are you really Behaving as if all people are created equal?
Are you really Behaving honorably?
Are you really Behaving as if Liberty for everyone is what it's all about?

The Declaration's signers left us many traditions and, as I wrote in my last blog, one was for contentious debate. What I want to suggest is that we don't need to venerate that tradition. If we're really being faithful to our best traditions -- our ideals -- our guiding values -- then we'll recognize that the Declaration is for all of us, no matter what our political persuasion; that those who believe differently from us have the LIBERTY to do so; that when we demonize our opposition and claim a 100% lock on the truth, we are violating the sacred trust the founders passed down to us.

Enjoy the 234th anniversary of that first reading of the Declaration -- enjoy reading it again yourself -- and treat your fellow humans a little better.
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(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc.
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Want to know more about the founders and framers and how we can apply their positive and negative lessons today? Half off sale continues to celebrate all of the important anniversaries linked to the Declaration and the creating and ratifying of the U.S. Constitution. Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers at 50% off is available ONLY on this HIDDEN web page. This is a limited offer so get your copy today. If you'd rather buy it on Amazon and miss out on this offer, click on over.

Feudin', Fightin' & Fussin' on the Fourth

2010-07-04T13:24:00.001-04:00

I'm sick of it! Right Wingers, Left Wingers, and No Wingers...Get your facts straight...or I'll call down the wrath of Founding Fathers Past!

Got your attention? Here's what set me off on this beautiful 4th of July holiday...everybody trying to appropriate our founding fathers and mothers for their own purposes...Prove your point with logic, facts, and reason or get off the stage. (See my special offer at the end.)

What folks say: Politics are more divisive than ever...there was a time when we used to disagree without being disagreeable...viciousness in opposing parties is something new...let's bring back civility...

Folks, here's the fact...we have never been a country of sedate, soothing debate. Our founding fathers and mothers were brilliant and courageous but when it came to politics, it was no holds barred. The point was (as it still is) to prevail. They didn't cuss as much, but they were not above sexual innuendo, lying, or character assassination when it came to political opponents.

Ron Chernow (author of the excellent biography, Alexander Hamilton) wrote a delightful article in the Wall Street Journal. It starts,

Americans lament the partisan venom of today's politics, but for sheer verbal savagery, the country's founders were in a league of their own.

Chernow points out, "Despite their erudition, integrity, and philosophical genius, the founders were fiery men who expressed their beliefs with unusual vehemence." They didn't stop at criticizing one another’s politics; their barbs were often personal.

John Adams called Hamilton the "bastard son of a Scotch peddler," while James Callender exposed Hamilton's affair with his friend’s wife. Newspaper man Samuel Adams, seen as a great patriot in his own day and ours, was not above the fray. "Truth was his first victim...To radicalize the populace Adams had adopted a total disregard for it. In his writings he employed slanderous lies, unvarnished propaganda, and rabble-rousing rhetoric. He whipped the people of Massachusetts and many other colonies into an anti-British fury."

The favored form of political trash talk was the pamphlet and newspaper column, written under classical Roman pseudonyms or derived from clever puns. They hammered away at one another with great relish and no restraints. They would have embraced Tweeting and Blogging as great inventions and set out with glee to rip one another apart.

Thomas Jefferson, whose stirring prose in the Declaration of Independence animates this 4th of July and embodies our most noble ideals, shrunk from doing his own dirty work. As the formation of our first parties heated up, (Hamilton headed the Federalists and Jefferson, the Republicans) he called on his buddy, Jemmy Madison, "'For God's sake, my dear Sir, take up your pen, select the most striking heresies, and cut him (Hamilton) to pieces in the face of the public.' When Madison rose to the challenge, he sneered in print that the only people who could read Hamilton's essays with pleasure were 'foreigners and degenerate citizens among us.'" Jefferson who applauded Callender's attacks on Hamilton was not so enthusiastic when Callender turned on him exposing his affair with "dusky Sally," his slave and half-sister of his deceased wife. (quote from Chernow)

In the records of debates in the Constitutional Convention and state ratifying conventions, the rhetoric escalates, with wild accusations flying that might make some of our media mavens of mayhem blush. Remember, this was an era when people would be called to the "field of honor" (challenged to a duel) for an implied slight. Calling someone a liar to his face was such a justification. Listen to this exchange during the debate over the power of large states and small. Gunning Bedford, a "fat, tempestuous delegated from Delaware" drags his bulk in front of the delegates and in a frenzied harangue spits out, "I do not, gentlemen, trust you. If you possess the power, the abuse of it could not be checked; and what then would prevent you from exercising it to our destruction?...Is it come to this, then, that the sword must decide this controversy, and the horrors of war must be added to the rest of our misfortunes?..Sooner than be ruined, there are foreign powers who will take us by the hand."

Madison, one of the most brilliant debaters and politicians of the era, summed it up, "If men were angles, no government would be necessary." The debates roiling the late 18th and early 19th century were fierce. Federalists and Republicans accused one another of treason. They could turn on former allies over night. Madison and Hamilton engineered the Constitution Convention and co-authored the Federalist Papers (with contributions from John Jay) in its defense. Madison pushed Hamilton's financial reforms through Congress. (He twisted enough arms behind the scenes to secure passage so he could argue and vote against it in public to maintain his constituents back home. Sound familiar yet?) After the new parties formed, Madison assailed his former ally, never missing a chance to paint him in ignoble terms.

I don't like the partisan bickering, shouting, and backbiting. AND I admire Hamilton, Jefferson, Adam, Madison, and the framers and founders. My gripe is about our lack of historical knowledge, our tendency to make stuff up, and the habit of partisans of every stripe to lie to defend their cause. Let's face the brutal facts -- ones we like and ones we don't -- and debate with a goal of coming to consensus or close to it.

That was Washington's great desire. He truly hated the partisan wrangling, the unbridled press, and the inability of people to rise above their passions. Though he occasionally fell victim to his own monumental temper, mostly he was that wise, impartial leader we all admire. So on this wonderful 4th of July, while we're barbecuing, watching fireworks, or hitting the mall, let’s ask ourselves this: Am I following along in our country's long tradition of bashing and demonizing those with whom I disagree, or am I trying to follow Washington's advice and have "restraint in tongue and pen?" If you are going to evoke the founders and framers, read some real history and get it right!

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Want to know more about the founders and framers and how we can apply their positive and negative lessons today? CLICK HERE: Half off – 4th of July sale – Conventional Wisdom: How Today’s Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers. Available ONLY on this HIDDEN web page. This is a limited offer so get your copy today. Rather buy it on Amazon (and miss out on this offer?)
® Rebecca Staton-Reinstein (all quotes fully cited in Conventional Wisdom except one about Sam Adams from Eric Burn’s Infamous Scribblers.

John Wooden: An Extraordinary Leader Departs

2010-06-07T09:40:00.000-04:00

John Wooden was an extraordinary leader. Every leader or aspiring one can learn from him. While most of the obituaries and tributes point out his phenomenal record as the coach of the UCLA men's basketball team and former players hail his profound influence on their lives, there was so much more to this man. He was the epitome of leadership under pressure. Sports fans will remember him sitting there through every game, pretty calm, that rolled up program in his hand. Whether the team was winning or losing, he seemed unflappable. In fact, one of the few times he ever seemed to lose his cool was when he believed the players were not giving the game everything they were capable of. Here's what Wooden had to say about losing and winning.

To me, success isn't outscoring someone, it's the peace of mind that comes from self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best. That's something each individual must determine for himself. You can fool others, but you can't fool yourself.

Many people are surprised to learn that in 27 years at UCLA, I never once talked about winning. Instead I would tell my players before games, 'When it's over, I want your head up. And there's only one way your head can be up, that's for you to know, not me, that you gave the best effort of which you're capable. If you do that, then the score doesn't really matter, although I have a feeling that if you do that, the score will be to your liking.' I honestly, deeply believe that in not stressing winning as such, we won more than we would have if I'd stressed outscoring opponents.

There's no great fun, satisfaction or joy derived from doing something that's easy. Failure is never fatal, but failure to change might be.

Your strength as an individual depends on, and will be in direct proportion to, how you react to both praise and criticism. If you become too concerned about either, the effect on you is certain to be adverse.

I always taught players that the main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team. It's amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.

I have often said, 'The mark of a true champion is to always perform near your own level of competency.' We were able to do that by never being satisfied with the past and always planning for what was to come. I believe that failure to prepare is preparing to fail. This constant focus on the future is one reason we continued staying near the top once we got there.

...I was as concerned with a player's character as I was with his ability.

While it may be possible to reach the top of one's profession on sheer ability, its impossible to stay there without hard work and character. One's character is what you really are. Your reputation is only what others think you are. I made a determined effort to evaluate character. I looked for young men who would play the game hard, but clean, and who would always be trying to improve themselves to help the team. Then if their ability warranted it, the championships would take care of themselves.

These simple but profound insights are applied by great leaders...the others whether in business, politics, government, of nonprofits or NGOs could change their direction and results immediately by following them. Wooden's record is a testament to the power of his leadership: no losing seasons in his 27 years, 10 national championships in 12 years - 7 in succession, world record for winning 88 games in a row. But sports records eventually fall. Leadership records do not, and applied leadership lessons can live forever. Are you ready to learn from Wooden? Do you have the character and ability and willingness to do the hard work? If so...

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Quotes originally from an ad in the Wall Street Journal in 1986 and reprinted in Dr. Deming: The American Who Taught the Japanese about Quality, Rafael Aguayo, Simon & Schuster, 1990

223 years -- good enough track record?

2010-05-27T08:18:00.018-04:00

223 years ago in May 1787, the U.S. Constitutional Convention opened on May 25 and began its debates. They were wrestling with how to form an effective republican government. They were responding to crises of huge proportions; a national legislature unable to act because of deep divisions, massive government debt, widespread foreclosures, foreign enemies prepared to strike, and extensive domestic strife.

Sound familiar?

On May 29, Edmund Randolph put forth the Virginia Plan -- authored by James Madison -- as an outline for the constitutional debates. Deliberations raged for four long months in the Philadelphia heat. At the end the produced the U.S. Constitution that was ratified the following year after extensive, rancorous debate in state ratifying conventions. This historic document is a strategic plan that has stood the test of time.

A few years ago, author David McCullough gave a speech at a leadership seminar entitled, "Knowing History and Knowing Who We Are." In it he quoted Daniel Boorstin, the late Librarian of Congress, saying 'trying to plan for the future without a sense of the past is like trying to plant cut flowers.' McCullough continued, "We're raising a lot of cut flowers and trying to plant them...One of the truths of history...is that nothing ever had to happen the way it happened...We just don't know how things are going to turn out for us, they [the revolutionary generation] didn't either...[John Adams in a letter to his wife wrote,] 'We can't guarantee success in this war, but we can do something better. We can deserve it.' Think how different that is from the attitude today when all that matters is success."

McCullough goes on to decry our lack of knowledge, much less understanding, of history and concludes, "History isn't just something that ought to be taught...or encouraged because it's going to make us a better citizen." [It will make us a better citizen, a more thoughtful and understanding human being, and will cause us to behave better.] History "should be taught for pleasure: The pleasure of history, like art or music or literature, consists of an expansion of the experience of being alive, which is what education is largely about."

What pleasure, guidance or understanding can you gain from the history of the making of the U.S. Constitution? What pragmatic lessons are there for your leadership efforts? According to many contemporary executives, there is a lot to learn. I interviewed 20 of them as well as poured over the records of the Constitutional Convention. I discovered the common strategic approaches of historic and modern leaders as they work to deserve success.

Here's what former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor had to say:

Thank you for sharing with me your new book Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers. Your research into the planning sessions of the Constitutional Convention and the struggles that our framers of the Constitution faced has been cleverly weaved into the strategies of modern business. I am pleased to have your book.

I have been persuaded to reopen a "secret" webpage for a limited time so you can take advantage of a special offer and improve your own performance and learn from these historic and modern mentors. I did it myself. The very process of writing the book was a major learning experience. The insights I gained and applied helped me survive the economic downturn and thrive now that things are improving. You can do the same.

Discover your own conventional wisdom... Click here for the special offer.

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Vote agin' 'em

2010-05-23T14:12:00.010-04:00

That was my Aunt Letha's advice when it came to the democratic process...As every election neared she repeated her maxim: "I never voted FOR anybody in my life...I always vote agin' 'em!" She'd love the Tea Party and all the anti-incumbent ballyhoo in the media. Despite the fact she had a nice government job with the IRS she had a rather jaded view of government officials at every level.

Like many people, she had her own way of enforcing term limits -- throw the bums out.

At this point many months before the November elections, that's what lots of folks are saying and doing in state primaries. And in a democratic republic that certainly beats violence, coups, and take overs. I just returned from Lagos, Nigeria. While I was there, the president died. There was a peaceful transition as the acting president was sworn in. Many people breathed a sigh of relief...There had been military take overs in the past and few peaceful transitions. In Thailand opposition to the incumbent precipitated violence and death so votin' agin' 'em seems a better solution.

But is it? Let's get a little historical perspective on the situation. I just spent some time in Philadelphia and had a chance to visit Independence Hall and wander through the historic district thinking about the Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitutional Convention, and the U.S. Constitution. It got me to thinking about being agin' 'em.

Of course the representatives that assembled in the 1770s and 80s were agin' taxation without representation, the Townsend Acts, Stamp Act, Intolerable Acts, and all the rest. They believed their rights as British citizens were being violated. Their protests did turn violent at times although it's easier to remember civil disobedience like the Boston Tea Party. Right from the beginning there were those who were ready to break with England and those who wanted to mend the growing rift. Tempers flared on both sides as the definition of patriot shifted until it solidified once war broke out. Yes, the revolutionary generation was agin' many things.

However, they were the first to understand that being agin' the British wasn't enough. They also had to be FOR something. What that something was for them was the ideal of a republic -- a government that represented the people and was agreed to by the people. When the 55 representatives showed up to represent 12 states (Rhode Island refused to come) in 1787 to write a new constitution, they were ready to define in detail what they were for. Gouverneur Morris, representing Pennsylvania, encapsulated their goals succinctly in the Preamble.

The success the framers had both in working to get the new constitution ratified and then to establish the new government was based on the fact that they stood on a solid platform of ideals, pragmatism, and political savvy.

James Madison, who played such a crucial role in the constitutional efforts was a career politician. From his first public office in his early twenties he served in representative body after representative body, seldom being out of office for any length of time. He eventually reached the executive branch serving as Secretary of State and then president for two terms...even though he presided over an unpopular war (1812.) He was an "insider" who sometimes voted with his next election in mind instead of the "greater good." Although generally thought of as a "conservative" by today's litmus tests he might be vilified, especially for his adamant views (and voting record) on the strict separation of church and state. His views and votes on slavery would also get him in hot water today. But at the end of the day, he believed, as did many of the founders, that public service, politics, was an honorable and necessary profession.

So as dearly as I loved my Aunt Letha, and she was a treasure, I have to respectfully disagree with her. In every election, I look at candidates of every stripe and try to figure out what they are standing for, what they will try to accomplish, and what ideals they will work to put into practice. Do they have the character and stamina of a Madison...if so, I'll vote for 'em.

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Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc. Author, Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers

A Spirit-ed Debate

2010-04-19T16:57:00.004-04:00

We've all heard and seen the headlines, "Spirit to charge $45 for carry-on luggage!" Lots of strum and drang. Some congressmen even want to "protect" us with new regulations. Wait a minute...what's going on?

Let's step back for a minute and take a more objective look at Ben Baldanza and his Spirit Airlines. (Let me make it clear. I'm NOT defending his decisions, just describing a few facts.) When Baldanza took over the South Florida based airline, he had a vision. He wanted to make Spirit and its home airport (Ft. Lauderdale/ Hollywood, FL) international. He had noticed the demographic shifts of people from various parts of Latin America moving north from the Miami area to the Ft. Lauderdale area. As he reasoned, "Why should they have to go all the way to Miami to fly back home?"

It's that sort of questioning that has marked Baldanza's thinking throughout his long career in the the airline business. He also made another important decision when he became CEO at Spirit. He realized that there were two basic models for an airline. At one end was Singapore Air with it's superb service, high-end amenities, and reputation for pampering everyone. At the other end of the spectrum was Ryan Air, a no-frills airline in the extreme. It competes on low fares with an a la carte system where you pay for everything you want.

Baldanza says that the problem with most airlines is that they try to live somewhere in the middle but don't deliver either great service or very low prices. So he decided to remold Spirit in the Ryan image. You get a fairly low fare (sometimes even a $9 special) and then pay for everything else...everything. OK. You know that going in so it's no surprise. As most airlines tried to survive the economic difficulties over the last few years, they also started adding on charges for basics (or what used to be considered basics) although not lowering their fares particularly.

So it comes as no surprise that Spirit will start charging for carry-ons that must go in the overhead bins with the fee based on whether you belong to a special membership or when and where you check in. The $45 is only for people who show up at the gate without paying for the bag ahead of time. Baldanza believes that this is all fair (no pun intended) because you only pay for the services you want. He thinks it will get some folks to check those bags and relieve the congestion getting on and off the plane. (We'll see...we'll also see if people will pay it or choose to fly another carrier. Ryan Air was forced to back off its plan to charge for use of the bathroom on short flights.)

But is Baldanza to be vilified? Not in my opinion. He made a business decision in line with his business model. The customers will determine if it's a good one or not. But there's more to Baldanza than this one decision. I had the privilege of getting to know him and profile him in my book on strategic leadership, Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers. The picture above is a classic Ben Baldanza moment. Just like his planes, his offices are no frills also -- a non-descript industrial building in an office park...no marble entrance hall, just a buzzer and no receptionist...no outrageous perks...just a plain utilitarian office. Why the vacuum cleaner? Because Baldanza uses it to keep his office tidy himself.

He meets with employees regularly, getting their ideas and feedback, gives out his email address and replies, and is generally considered an excellent leader and manager. As his assistant remarked out of the blue one day as I sat waiting for a meeting, "He's the best boss I've ever had!" Even the interviewer on a recent CNN interview spontaneously remarked that Baldanza seemed like a very likable guy he'd like to work for.

It's important to separate out the disagreement with Baldanza's business decision and understanding his business strategy and his track record as a good leader, visionary, and a "nice guy." If you don't like the extra charges, don't fly those airlines that have them.

Oh, and no matter which airline you fly, could I plead with you (as a minimalist, frequent business traveler) not to drag on all of your worldly possessions, overstuffed giant suitcases, and shopping bags crammed with stuff?

***** ***** *****

Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc. www.AdvantageLeadership.com Looking forward to your comments. And check out more about Baldanza in Conventional Wisdom.

Happy Belated Birthday, Mr. Jefferson!

2010-04-15T08:02:00.006-04:00

This week was the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, third president of the U.S., and founder of the University of Virginia. The latter is one of the achievements he was most proud of and wanted on his tombstone.

He conceived of the University as a very different place from the academic institutions of his day. One of his ideas was to create an "academical village." Today that same vision is driving another leader in the same direction.

George Hanbury, the new president of Nova Southeastern University arrived there after successful stints as city manager of cities that needed a major turn around. His record in Portsmouth, Virginia and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida are substantial and might have led a lesser leader to retire on his laurels. Not Dr. Hanbury.

This excerpt from Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers details some of Hanbury's achievements at Nova as COO as he worked to implement Jefferson's vision.

Hanbury rediscovered Jefferson's vision as he did his doctoral work at Florida Atlantic University and when he arrived at Nova in 1998 he was eager to bring it to reality. Jefferson's idea of the "academical village" was a place where academics and the real world could be brought together for students to benefit from both. He saw a place where students would have a practical as well as theoretical education, where commerce and study could blend.

"It takes a visionary to look at a 1970s shopping center and wasteland of abandoned parking lots and see a revolutionary new community combining commercial space, state-of-the-art research facilities, living and recreational space, and college class rooms. Yet that's what he saw...

When I first came to Nova...it just seemed like a natural that what Jefferson was professing...[wanting] students to appreciate how theory was supportive of practice, and without practice, theory was no more than an exercise. Practice without theory would just remain stagnant and there would be no expansion.

I thought if we wrapped the buildings around the parking decks, and then made it an attractive area for people who want to live and work and do research and connect all that to a doctoral research university with high-speed connections to all other research universities in the state, you'd really have quite an economic engine."

So Jefferson's "academical village" is emerging in Davie, Florida, spurred on by Hanbury, whose vision is ever evolving and who, himself combines theory and practice quite neatly in building the university.

Happy birthday, Tom, your ideas are alive and well and continuing to evolve and see the light of day.

***** ***** *****

Want to apply the wisdom of the founding fathers such as Jefferson or contemporary leaders such as George Hanbury? Read Conventional Wisdom or contact me to discuss how their insights can be helpful to you and your business.

Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc.

Is Washington broken?

2010-03-22T16:44:00.005-04:00

Making sausage is yucky

The talking heads have been going on for some time about how broken our government is and how disgusted everyone is about watching the "sausage making." Maybe so...If you were watching C-SPAN (or one of the networks covering the health care debates and votes) last night, you got a glimpse of the "process," the "rules," the jawboning, and arm twisting. But is that really a demonstration of a broken system? Was there some halcyon day in the past with the two parties discussed issues calmly and rationally and then agreed without rancor?

Not really.

Back to the first big controversy

Travel back to the very first Congress...that's right...back to 1789. There were no parties yet. (They would arise in George Washington's second term.) However, there were "factions." Groups of representatives were beginning to congeal around specific issues representing the wide variety of opinions in the country. In fact, ratifying the Constitution and setting up the government had been widely debated and many states ratified by paper-thin margins. North Carolina and Rhode Island were still not on board. So the beginnings of our government were not all sweetness and light.

The first big issue to get the blood boiling was "assumption." The states and the Continental Congress had run up huge debts during the Revolutionary War and the European creditors were howling for their money and threatening to cut off all credit to the fledgling country. Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, had brought to Congress an extensive bill to create a financial system for the U.S. The plan was for the federal government to 'assume' the debt, set up a national bank, issue bonds, and establish what we would recognize as a modern financial system.

The push back and opposition were immediate and fierce. The details are not as important as the general principles that fire today's health care and other debates. What is the role of government? What is the balance of power between the states and the federal government? Big government or small?

Leading the opposition to Hamilton's plan was James Madison. Before the evolution of party leaders and whips, he had assumed those roles and was the principle leader in the House of Representatives charged with implementing President Washington's agenda. But when it came to assumption, Madison balked, and began to retreat from his former partner in writing the Federalist. The impasse was as heated and nasty as any we have seen lately. Remember there were no rules for the press so that papers and pamphlets contained anything and everything...more akin to our blogosphere than the modern press.

The deal is struck

One evening Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, invited Hamilton and Madison to an intimate little dinner party. Although they were all quite coy later about what transpired that evening, the results were soon apparent. Madison twisted enough arms to that assumption passed the house with a few votes to spare and he could vote against the bill and keep his seat with his anti-assumption constituents. Then he engineered the quid pro quo -- the vote to establish the new capitol on a parcel of land in northern Virginia not far from GW's home. (Hamilton worked behind the scenes to forestall New York and Pennsylvania who were vying for the honor.)

So there we are...the first Congress operated just like the present one...horse trading, arm bending, rule bending, backroom (dining room) deals. The vast majority of legislation is always a compromise of some sort. We are too diverse a country for it to be otherwise. Sometimes the deals are pretty despicable and sometimes relatively benign...but there are always deals.

The founders were enamoured with the Roman Republic and wanted to emulate it in many ways. But the Roman Senate was no gathering of saints any more than the state legislatures and Continental Congress where most of the new Representatives to the first Congress cut their political teeth.

Operating as designed

So, no, the U.S. government is not broken. It operates as designed with its checks and balances, backroom deals and public posturing. It's designed to come back to the center more or less and designed to be messy like all creative processes. Only dictatorships operate without the mess.

* * * * * * *

Read more about the founders and their leadership styles and processes...and meet modern leaders who use their same approaches. httl://www.ConventionalWisdomCenter.com and read Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers.

It's the Year of the Tiger...Dump those resolutions!

2010-02-15T09:26:00.007-05:00

It's officially the Year of the Tiger and a welcomed relief it is...

But before we look forward, let's look back for a moment. If you celebrate the western new year by making resolutions, you've probably broken or forgotten them by now. And it's just as well. Resolutions don't work...something you've already figured out for yourself. But why don't they work?

Resolutions are tactical. They are isolated bits of activity, unrelated to anything else.

Resolutions don't come with an action plan. They are usually a description of some result we want but are really just a wish.

Resolutions have no staying power. They arise from good intentions but are not tied to daily life.

If you really want to see results, you have to have a plan, a strategic plan, that's attached to your overall direction in life, your vision of the future, your path. In other words, planning for your life is just like planning in business. Vision --> Mission --> Goals --> Strategy --> Objectives --> Tactics/Actions --> RESULTS

George Washington comes to mind as a role model for life plans. As a young man, he decided to shape his character and become an admirable human being. He laid out a plan that he followed throughout his life. He set goals and had an action plan to reach those goals. He knew he wasn't a saint. For example, he had a legendary temper but he worked hard to not let it rip every time he was angered. As he matured, he realized that history would be watching and he amplified his efforts...all with a plan.

"I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn into precedent." He would agree with Ben Franklin, "One man of tolerable Abilities may work great Changes, and Accomplish great Affairs among Mankind, if he first forms a good Plan and...makes the Execution of that same Plan his sole Study and Business."

So throw out those resolutions, put together a plan worthy of yourself and this auspicious year. Be brave like the Tiger and plan for your success.

The Buck Stops Here

2009-11-16T11:24:00.003-05:00

I was just thinking about Harry Truman's immortal words as I was conducting a seminar for civilian managers at a military installation recently. Like all employees, they are held accountable for their results and like all supervisors, they are held accountable for the results of their teams. The definition of management is getting results through others.

The first rule of accountability is NO WHINING...or as my British daughter would say, NO WHINGING!

Because I fly so often, I'm especially affected by stories relating to air travel and several incidents over the last year bring home 'give-'em-hell' Harry's message.

Think about that plane load of people stranded for 9 hours on a plane on the tarmac and unable to go inside the terminal. Officials scrambled to tell us why they couldn't do anything about it -- it's not my fault; don't blame me -- was the sub-text of every statement.

Or what about the pilots who flew past Minneapolis -- each new whinge was more outrageous than the one before.

Or take a more tragic example, the crash outside Buffalo where the pilots failed to get enough rest and follow procedure and the airline executives refused any responsibility for underpaying pilots and skimping on training. It was a recipe for disaster but everyone looked for someone else to blame.

You can add your own favorite examples. The message is still the same. When I was interviewing executives for Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers, one of the things I wanted to know is how they handled mistakes. Every one of them had a similar response.

Acknowledge the mistake as soon as possible

Take responsibility -- even if you don't think it's your fault

Move quickly to fix the situation

Figure out what went wrong and act to prevent it in the future.

It's a simple formula. Yet it seems impossible for many people to follow. If you don't follow it, you cannot claim to be much of a manager or leader, no matter what your title. Back to Harry for what to do if you can't follow the formula:

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen...and stop whinging!

October is International Strategic Planning Month

2009-10-15T11:04:00.008-04:00

This month the planet is celebrating International Strategic Planning Month. Why not join in the celebration?

What does your own plan look like? Tattered around the edges? Way off projected revenue and profit? Forgotten in some dusty corner? Not updated since February?

Or maybe you're one of those successful people who has a plan and keeps it up-to-date. You use the plan to guide your work, adjust it as necessary, and use it as a living document. If so, you celebrate ISP every month.

I was on a TV interview show recently with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. He emphasized the need for executing the plan and adjusting the plan based on conditions on the ground. Now this is an important and even critical part of planning that too many people forget about.

Those of us who do create a strategic plan every year are often optimistic about what we can accomplish. We do the best job we can to analyze the environment in which we will be operating but none of us has a crystal ball...Stuff happens.

Unfortunately, too many folks drop the plan and start reacting to those unexpected events -- usually negative events -- and then we are into a downward spiral of firefighting.

When this year started, the ink on my plan was barely dry when the economic melt down hit me and my business hard. It was a scary couple of months -- disaster loomed and businesses were folding right and left. I was just as scared and worried as anyone else.

What I did was go back to the drawing board. I rewrote my plan, set new goals, devised new strategies, and set out on a new execution path. Everything I tried didn't work but some things did. As my friend the CEO said, "you can have the most elegant strategy, but when you hit the beach, it's execution that counts." Usually I'm not a big fan of war analogies in business but this is one of the times when the metaphor fit...and worked. I had to be more nimble, more creative, and more survival oriented than at any time in my business life.

The payoff? It's October and I'm still in business celebrating International Strategic Planning month. My plan? I just finished a new update that will take me through the second quarter of 2010. I may revise it a gain in 3 months -- the plan is only as good as the execution.

What about you? Have you made your plan for 2010? Now's a good time. Remember the old chestnut that's still floating around because it's true -- Fail to Plan -- Plan to Fail!

Want to know more about the Do's and Don'ts of Strategic Planning? Download it for free today. http://tinyurl.com/yfp6zfo

Plan is a 4-letter word!

2009-09-30T09:21:00.011-04:00

"Listen, Rebecca, nobody has time for this planning stuff in this economy. They just need to survive. Planning's for when things calm down."

That was the 'conventional wisdom' from a chum of mine recently. Well, I beg to differ -- I'm not being self serving -- so here's the 'evidence.'

The September 25 - October 1 edition of the South Florida Business Journal reported in two separate articles on local banks that are doing well because of their planning. We could all take a lesson from them.

Coral Gables, Florida is the home of Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust. Several years ago the bank, founded by Steve Hayworth in 1994, was acquired by Boston Private Financial Holdings. It has just been repurchased by Hayworth and a group of investors.

Hayworth said he moved to repurchase the bank because he felt it was in the best interests of his clients. The bank will stick to its business model.

"In this environment, I see an opportunity for an integrated private bank and wealth management," Hayworth said. "We are very focused on private banking and wealth advisory services for professionals and affluent families."

"The bank will stick to its business model." This is one of the keys to Gibraltar's success for many years, first as it prepared itself for acquisition, then as it prospered under the Boston company's auspices, and now as it strikes out on its own again. Steve Hayworth and Gibraltar were featured as a case study on the power of strategic planning and leadership in Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers. They attributed their phenomenal growth and doubling their assets in four years to the robust strategic plan they put together and FOLLOWED. In fact, they coined a telling phrase, "The Plan is the Boss." When other banks were faltering, going under, or just flailing about in an economic downturn, Gibraltar and Hayworth stuck with their plan and forged ahead.

In the same issue of SFBJ an unrelated story featured the Florida Shores -- Southeast Bank, founded by Steven Hickman in 2006 in Pompano Beach, Florida. Obviously this wasn't a great time to start a new bank and the bank and Hickman took a lot of flack for their slow initial growth. According to the Business Journal

Hickman said he wanted a manageable rate of growth that stuck to the bank's business plan. Because of that, Florida Shores has a relatively clean balance sheet.

"A lot of the banks that grew faster are paying the price now," he said. "We have good capital and plenty of money to lend."

"Manageable rate of growth that stuck to the bank's business plan." There's that pesky planning again! Hickman, in an email, was quick to give credit to his entire team for being the fastest-growing South Florida bank. But as was clear from the leadership philosophy he shared in Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers, Hickman had been an expert and booster of strategic planning since his early days in the banking business. He knew its power in helping keep any venture on track and successful over the long haul. The proof of the power of that approach is in his balance sheet.

Planning in tough times? Is it a must for survival? Think about the framers of the U.S. Constitution, also featured in Conventional Wisdom. The United States were hardly united. Europe had cut off our credit, inflation was rampant, and foreclosures were devastating the farm-based economy. The latter led directly to Shays' Rebellion where local farmers in Massachusetts closed down the bankruptcy courts and marched on the state arsenal. Foreign powers were perched on our borders just waiting to pick off the disintegrating states like road kill. In fact, the U.S. faced the most threatening crisis in its history, rivaled only by the winter of 1776-7, the Civil War, and the Great Depression. Tough times indeed!

So what was the response to this tough time? 55 men assembled in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to hammer out a strategic plan for the nation. That's right...a strategic plan...The Constitution. Want to know more? Check out Conventional Wisdom. Want to get through these tough times? Make a plan Stan and Fran! Create a strategic plan with short term actions that will move you toward your long-term goals. If you flail you fail. Or as that sage, business guru Yogi Berra said, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will do."

I don't know about you, but I'm following the lead of Hayworth, Hickman, and the framers.

George Who?

2009-09-21T15:51:00.010-04:00

You know the drill...Jay Leno stops people on the street and asks them simple questions and that's where the fun begins. Recently he stopped a nice young man and asked him to name some Founding Fathers. "Founding Fathers of what?" he asked rather belligerently. OK, maybe it was staged...but...

Only a quarter of high school students in a recent poll could identify the first president of the U.S. Few could list the 3 branches of government. Forget about any real understanding of our our system of government and how it works. The findings of the latest poll reflect many other more scientifically sound studies that show up year after year.

Thomas Jefferson sums it up best: If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or have some other affiliation, the lack of knowledge of our history and understanding of our government is frightening. It could foreshadow disaster.

What is to be done?

Develop an engaging curriculum at every level of eduction from elementary school through college; involve educators, parents, students, historians, and instructional designers

Train teachers at every level to become knowledgeable and involved; provide them with materials and support to develop lessons that capture students' interests

Bring history to life with field trips to local historical sites and visits to local government meetings; Every student should visit Washington, D.C. at least once during his or her 12 years in school

Focus less on standardized testing and more on involving students in recreating critical events from our history, debating the great issues, applying lessons to their own lives.

This will not be easy. Political debate will rage around the curriculum and determining the "correct" facts and their interpretation. But as the PBS series on the Civil War and the HBO series on John Adams have shown, when you present history in a compelling way, people will be involved and come away glad to have learned something about two crucial periods in our history that still have echos in the present.

When the John Adam series was first running on TV, Greg Swienton, CEO of Ryder System, would gather anyone who was interested to discuss the previous nights episode. These were lively ad hoc conversations. Imagine that in your busy work place. When was the last time you gathered to chat about history? When was the last time you talked with your kids or grandkids about history or took them to visit a historic site or city council meeting?

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

The Lions Sleep...

2009-08-29T04:51:00.003-04:00

The Lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy, has passed from the scene and both Democrats and Republicans, allies and opponents lionize his contributions of four decades plus service. All of them seem to agree that what made him such a legislative master was his ability to find common ground. On the Senate floor he might roar and attack but behind the scenes he was ready with a joke, a helping hand, and a genuine desire to work out a solution. At his wake earlier this evening, one of the speakers talked about his lack of pettiness or personal rancor.

What struck me about all of this were the parallels with my own favorite legislator, James Madison. Jemmy like Teddy mastered the art of being an effective legislator. From his mid-twenties on, he served in a series of legislative bodies and was seldom out of office. He started in the colonial Virginia House of Burgesses and moved through the independent Assembly and into the Continental Congress. His most important contribution was helping pass religious freedom legislation and to fight Patrick Henry’s favorite cause, state funding for religious institutions.

Madison is called the Father of the Constitution with good reason. He used the skills he had honed in the rough-and-tumble legislatures of the Revolution and post-Revolutionary period to make sure we built a more perfect union. Jemmy was one of the conspirators who brought the Constitutional Convention into existence. (Patrick Henry stayed home saying he smelled a rat!) He had done extensive homework and showed up early to meet the delegates, take their measure, and begin building relationships. He had a draft of a new constitution introduced as the Virginia Plan. He spoke on every issue, forcefully and often persuasively. He worked in committees and behind the scenes, looking for common ground, striking deals, and building consensus. He socialized and told great, if off-color stories, and seemed to be everywhere doing the one-on-one of good political organizing. In other words he was a great legislator.

Once the Constitution was finished he worked with Alexander Hamilton in a white heat of creativity to author the Federalist, one of the great political documents of all time, arguing persuasively for ratification. Of course he was elected to the Virginia ratifying convention and although he was very ill, probably as a result of his four months of non-stop work in the convention followed by months of work on Federalist, he faced down Patrick Henry’s bombast and dramatic attacks on the new Constitution. He worked his legislative skills to their limits and brought in a paper thin victory.

With the formation of a new Congress, there was a groundswell of support to appoint Madison to the Senate. But now political payback was at work. Patrick Henry blocked his nomination, still smarting from his most recent defeat and never forgiving him for the defeat of state support of religion. Although Henry also attempted to gerrymander his district later, Madison was elected to the House of Representatives every time he ran.

In the new Congress, Madison was in his element and served as Washington’s right-hand man, making sure his legislative agenda was realized. Madison first drafted and then engineered the passing of the Bill of Rights. But perhaps one of his most interesting feats was passing Hamilton’s financial legislation. Here we see a skilled legislator at work. Even though Madison was skeptical of the financial and monetary policy in the bill, he agreed to support it. He worked behind the scenes to line up enough votes so it could pass (and he could save face with constituents and vote against it.)

For most of his life, he was known to be a passionate supporter of republican values and government without being ideological, petty, or back biting. He did not hold grudges and worked to find common ground. But as Washington entered his second term, Madison teamed up with his best friend Thomas Jefferson and fell into the ideological trap as they worked to destroy Hamilton and form the first political party in the modern sense, the Republican Party which morphed into the Democratic Republican party which became the Democratic Party. (Note – the modern Republican party arose in the years before the Civil War.)

Once Jemmy went down this ideological trail, his effectiveness as a legislator declined. When he entered the Executive branch as Jefferson’s Secretary of State and later as President, he was out of his area of real expertise. The master legislator disappeared and the adequate, but not distinguished, executive took his place. In retirement, the gifted Madison returned, without rancor again, reconsidering earlier positions, and looking for common ground.

Perhaps Ted Kennedy’s most enduring legacy will be as a role model for accepting ones gifts, ones true talents, and building them into a lifetime of passionate service. Jemmy could have learned a few things from Teddy…and visa versa. At their best, both men showed us what legislators should be – people who get things done by looking for ways to compromise, to work together, to be collegial, and to eschew ideological and petty rancor, payback, and meanness. Jemmy and Teddy were lions many of today’s legislators should learn from…the lions are sleeping...but hopefully others will awaken...

(C) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein

Most people are about as happy as they decide to be

2009-08-07T07:09:00.003-04:00

What a great thought. I've carried this saying, attributed to Abraham Lincoln, around with me for 27 years. It jumped back into my mind yesterday when I read an article in USA Today discussing the latest research on happiness that came to the same conclusion.

At the same time, I was skimming though some articles in Training magazine reporting on a Deloitte study of executives and their attitudes about the economy and their companies. For the first time in a long time, there was a vast increase in those who thought things were going to turn around in the not-too-distant future. Doom and gloom were lifting. So they should be happy, right?

Buried in the report were some other findings however. The number-one focus of most of these executives -- note I did not say leaders -- was laying off more people. They were concerned about losing people once things turned around. In fact, the HR and leadership journals have been full of articles on retaining high-potential employees and grooming them for the future. So are these execs planning for how to keep these hi-pos once things loosen up? Most are not!

Studies show that Gen Xers and Millennials will jump ship as soon as new opportunities start to materialize. Wouldn't it make sense to plan for what's coming that will have a big impact on a company's ability to recover and grow again? Strategic leaders are planning. After all, they have that vision of the future and are planning how to get there. But their non-strategic counterparts are still mired in the present and the past.

Instead of planning how to take advantage of opportunities that are starting to arise, instead of actively growing the folks they'll need to be able to mobilize, instead of seizing the moment, they slashing staff, eliminating training, pushing everyone beyond their limits, and generally making themselves and everyone around them 'unhappy.'

Strategic leaders, not only think things are getting better, they're acting on their 'happiness.' They're investing in and nurturing their folks. They are planning and executing their plans to retain, engage, and develop the folks that will make their vision a reality. That's the difference between occupying a leadership title and being a leader. Strategic leaders are happy.

So I'm with Abe. Let's get happy!

Compromise -- good idea or bad idea?

2009-07-28T17:30:00.003-04:00

Whether in the board room, the Congress, or dinner table debate, at some point someone will suggest a compromise. Then what happens? Some folks believe you should stick to your 'principles' and never give an inch. Others just want the debate to end so they'll jump at the chance. Neither extreme leads to good decisions or even good compromises. The U.S. Congress is debating health care/insurance reform at the moment and we see both types of extreme behavior on both sides of the aisle. In the end, there will be some sort of legislation passed and it will be a compromise...that's the way the system is set up. In fact, it took a major compromise to set up Congress in the first place.

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was not that much different from today's Congress. It had a variety of opinions and special interests contending with one another. It had people who were adamant on many issues. Perhaps the most contentious debate was around representation --would it be equal numbers of representatives from each state or representation based on population. The smaller states wanted equal representation as they currently had in the Congress formed under the Articles of Confederation. They feared the power of the larger states and believed they would be gobbled up without equal voting power. The large states had been constantly frustrated by the ability of small states to stimmey legislation because representation did not rest on population. Both sides drew a line in the sand...or the dusty, musty floor of the Convention meeting room. This contintious issue threatened to derail the entire convention and people were ready to bring it to a close rather than give even an inch.

The arguments were bitter, lofty, extreme, and heart-felt. Virtually no one was neutral. Then on June 11, Roger Sherman (that stern looking gentleman above) put forward a motion. It was not accepted immediately and needed to go through more debate, but in the end, the Great Compromise, as it came to be called, would be accepted. The two houses of the new Congress would be selected differently. The upper House (Senate) would be based on equal representation for each state. The lower House (Representatives) would be chosen by population. It was not an easy compromise but it was 'great.' There was lots more discussion -- the devil is always in the details -- but the compromise stuck.

It's impossible to predict what might have happened had Sherman not stepped forward and had not the majority of votes finally gone for the Compromise. Many historians believe the Convention would have broken up and the fragile Union would have quickly disintegrated and been divided up by the European powers perched on the borders.

Almost exactly one year later the required ninth state ratified the new 'compromise' Constitution and the news was officially handed to Congress July 2, 1788. That compromise saved the Union because the delegates were able to back off a little from their 'principles' and see that survival of the country -- the greater good -- was more important.

So the question for each of us today, whether in our companies, nonprofit boards or government entities, is the same one that faced the framers. Is this the point to give up 100% of nothing to embrace 50% of something that will serve the greater good? This is never an easy question because it means we won't get everything, or even a lot, of what we want. Can we live with it? Can we support it so that we will make progress, if haultingly? For strategic leaders, like Sherman and James Madison, George Washington, Ben Franklin and others at the Convention, the answer was yes. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

Will your followers, staff or constituents be able to thank you for compromising for the greater good?

Hard heads for hard times

2009-07-14T18:20:00.006-04:00

It was one of those magical days in Paris, just around Bastille Day 2006. I was zooming around the streets with folks from a mastermind retreat on Segways. You've seen these contraptions -- they look like a scooter with out the back end. There is no motor - your body position keeps them going. Some folks find them great fun or at least useful. I wasn't so sure. But I was getting the hang of it and it was an adventure. Then some folks stepped right in front of me...did I mention there are no brakes? The machine stopped dead and the law of physics took over...in other works, I fell backwards and my head hit the pavement...luckily I was wearing a helmet. My companions rushed over but all that was hurt was my pride...it goeth before a fall, you know.

I was thinking about that Segway ride and that fall and my hard head. My mother always claimed I had a hard head. I've come to believe it's a good thing. In fact, as a small business owner, it may be one of my most important assets in these hard times.

These are not times for the faint-of-heart to be in business...there are tough decisions every day. Every aspect of the business must be examined while asking that simple strategic question: Is this going to help me accomplish my mission or will it move me away from it?

You see the question is NOT, "should I spend this money on X?" It's not even "will this give me return on investment?" And it's definitely not, "Where can I cut expenses more?"

In hard times, you must be hardheaded and ask a different set of questions: "Of all the things I could be spending my time and money on, which will move me toward accomplishing my goals?" "What are my priorities for success?" "What will I lay aside so my energies are focused on the most important things?"

Sure it's tough out there. Everyday we could hear some bad news...as predictable as the thunder storms that roll through here in South Florida almost every afternoon. Let the economic storms roll. This hardheaded business owner is taking a page from the Founding Fathers. They certainly faced hard times...there was a price on their heads...but they focused their energies on success. They envisioned a republic that had never existed before. They made it a reality. Their hardheaded determination helped inspire that first Bastille Day.

So remembering all that serves as a guide for today. When you fall off your plan, get up and go again. Create a different future and hardheadedly make it happen. Innovate. Invigorate. Instigate.

A sad day for strategic leaders

2009-06-09T13:30:00.009-04:00

Today I learned that Edward G. Novak passed away. Ed was an extraordinary person and a strategic leader. I first met him when he spoke at a software quality conference several years ago. He wasn't the first executive to speak at such a conference but he was the first to bring along his staff member who managed his projects. He featured her as a co-speaker and demonstrated not only his own qualities as a leader but his willingness to give public acknowledgement of the accomplishments of a so-called subordinate.

At the time he spoke, he was a Senior Vice President with Bank of America. He was a life-long banker with a reputation as someone who could engage employees and customers and still meet business goals. He built strong teams where ever he went. For many years he was a member of the Board of Trustees for the Baltimore Museum of Industry and also chaired that board. His leadership came through time and again as he helped this important preserver of Baltimore's rich heritage thrive even in tough times.

As an executive, Ed excelled at Hoshin planning and always looked for the best practices. When asked why he brought along his project manager to speak at the conference he replied, "I didn't know any better. I thought everybody teamed up." When I interviewed him for my book, Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers, I explored his ideas on team building. Here is what he said.

"My job is to deal with clients and work with our technology partners...I'm a banker. I don't know the technology side. I knew my weaknesses and knew I needed somebody who understood technology and could get our vision built. My value would be understanding our business. I saw, from day one, that it was a partnership. We would partner to be successful...It wasn't any stroke of brilliance. This was the only way I could think of going about it to be successful.

Novak's modesty aside, his way of partnering for success has become a best practice within the bank and is widely emulated."

Ed left us too soon but he leaves behind a legacy of great leadership, service to his community, and many warm friendships. Farwell friend.

World-Changing Anniversaries

2009-05-24T14:49:00.011-04:00

This week marks two world-changing anniversaries -- they will go unnoticed on your Outlook calendar or CNN's news crawl. You won't hear your favorite NPR or PBS commentator wax eloquent about these propitious days. The blogosphere and talk show hosts, left, right, and center, will not be foaming at the mouth about them...BUT...

On May 25, 1787, the U.S. Constitutional Convention officially opened in Philadelphia. Delegates from 12 of the 13 states were drifting in with different agendas and expectations. Some thought they were just going to spend a few weeks making some amendments to the existing Articles of Confederation that had governed the new nation for a handful of years. Some weren't sure what was going to happen but they knew something had to be done to get the country out of the crisis at hand. A few had come to defend the status quo and try to stop any changes from being passed. And then there was that core group of conspirators that were preparing to commit treason for the second time...but more about them later...

What was that crisis facing the U.S. in 1787? A few years after the hard-fought Revolution, the country was on the verge of collapse.

With no central currency or monetary policy, states printed their own worthless paper money, driving triple-digit inflation.
Inflation led to foreclosures on many farms in the largely agricultural nation.
Taking matters into their own hands and led by Revolutionary soldier Captain Shays, a gaggle of Massachusetts farmers closed down the courts that were taking their farms, and marched on the arsenal in Springfield, declaring a second revolution. Although they were routed by the state militia, Shays' Rebellion sent a shock wave through the country.
The British, Spanish, and French were circling like vultures waiting to pick apart the new nation like road kill.
Meanwhile the states were feuding with one another over boundaries, fishing and navigation rights, and trade. Several were preparing to go to war while others considered abandoning the fragile union and going it alone or allying with a foreign power.
And what of the Confederation Congress? It was impotent since it could not impose any legislation on the sovereign states and could only beg for money, which was seldom forthcoming. The Articles could not be amended unless all 13 states agreed and that seldom happened.

Back to those treasonous conspirators...James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, and a handful of others decided that the time had come to overthrow the Articles of Confederation and establish a new constitution that would have authority over the states. To this end they called the convention, connived to get Congress to approve the session, and enlisted George Washington to come as a representative from Virginia and provide the political cover they needed to create the new constitution.

Of course, the Convention, as one of its first acts, elected Washington to preside over the meeting. And this brings us to our second important date, May 29, 1787.

On this day, the conspirators tipped their hand to the shock of many of the delegates. Edmund Randolph, the Governor of Virginia and host of the Convention, rose to present his opening remarks on the crisis and then read out the Virginia Plan. Authored for the most part by James Madison, it laid out a radical proposal for a republican form of government with representation of the people in a tripartite organization of legislative, executive, and executive branches. These were designed to check and balance one another. This bombshell plan became the agenda for debate that lasted for another four months. But in the end, the Constitution that we know today was written and then ratified by enough states to go into effect.

As the Convention ebbed and flowed, the delegates used many of the techniques we recognize today as strategic planning. In my new book, Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers, 20 contemporary leaders describe how they use these same techniques.

Luda Kopeikina, CEO of Noventra, describes how she encourages debate and idea generation.
John Zumwalt describes how he uses a common mission to drive successful action at PBSJ just as that quintessential mission statement, the Constitution's Preamble, sets out our country's mission.
Howard Putnam, an early CEO at Southwest Airlines, used his planning session to set the floundering company on a new path and unite his team behind it.
Michael Howe describes his evolution as a strategic leader who decided to change the face of health care.
Alan Levine, now Secretary of Health and Hospitals for Louisiana, relates how he turned a county health care system into a world-class operation delivering high value to patients and lower costs to tax payers.

What can we learn from these remarkable anniversaries?

In times of crisis -- seek bold, break-through solutions -- reject the status quo and your comfort zone -- stick to your mission.

Check out the book for more tales of strategic leadership both at the Constitutional Convention and in today's successful organizations. http://ConventionalWisdomCenter.com/

To keep up with the latest news, sign up for the newly revamped Conventional Wisdom (Strategic Advantage) newsletter http://www.AdvantageLeadership.com/newsletter.html

Opportunity trumps cost cutting

2009-04-22T12:44:00.002-04:00

Folks, the word is in from some strategic leaders...Opportunity trumps cost cutting for companies that will succeed in this economic environment. Now this is not a new concept but you wouldn't know it if you only listen to the TV news, cable or network. Yes, it's tough out there and most companies don't have money to throw away, but, and it's a very big but...

Why am I saying this? Because in the last couple of weeks I've chaired two very different panels of people who are strategic leaders who all say the winning strategy is looking for the opportunities -- the top line, revenue generation through innovation and grabbing the vast opportunities that are out there, is where the winners are. You cannot cut your way to profitability or success.

Two weeks ago I chaired a panel of five of the executives I interviewed for my newly published book. (Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers.) They included Greg Swienton, CEO, Ryder System, Ben Baldanza, CEO, Spirit Airlines, George Hanbury, COO/EVP, Nova Southeastern University, John Stunson, City Manager, Oakland Park, Florida, and Evan Rees, former banking executive and fundraiser for the Boy Scouts and homeless. Today I chaired a panel of technology executives speaking at an international conference on software quality. They were Jason Kalich, General Manager, Relationship Experience Division, Microsoft, Mike Zanillo, CIO, WMS (gaming entertainment industry,) and Phil Beckman, VP of Research and Development/Products, SpringCM, (on-demand content management solutions.)

These executives from diverse industries, geographical regions, backgrounds, and areas of expertise ALL said the same thing. It's about opportunity. Do you hear that? Opportunity.

A few blog entries ago I reminded people about the Chinese ideogram for the word "Crisis" that contains the symbols for "Danger" AND "Opportunity." These folks all echoed the same understanding of the universe. We must acknowledge the danger and then focus our energies on the Opportunity. The framers of the U.S. Constitution and the entire revolutionary generation that we acknowledge as the founders of the U.S. understood this. They knew their lives were at stake -- the danger was physically hanging on the gallows or the nearest tree. Like the panelist they were not unrealistic in their assessment of the danger. But unlike the talking (empty?) heads on TV, they did not allow that to constrain their thinking and creativity. These leaders, ancient and modern, focused on opportunity, on finding new areas for success, of capturing the future and not miring themselves in the present or the past.

Think times are tough? It's a matter of perspective. Think again, it's the time of opportunity. Read my earlier blog on the manufacturer who captured the lawn flamingo market...or look at the origins of Microsoft or other great companies that took carpe deim literally -- seize the day!

April 1 is not a foolish day

2009-04-01T13:42:00.003-04:00

April 1 is an important day in American history, although few people know it. This is the anniversary of the first day the new Congress under the new Constitution met, had a quorum, and could conduct business. April 1, 1790. No foolin'...James Madison and the other delegates assembled to begin the business of putting the newly ratified Constitution into action. They began the business of ensuring the fragile union survived and grew strong.

This was no easy task. This was a new form of republican government. The delegates were serving two year terms in the newly established House of Representatives. They knew they would have some real power to get things done and to levy the necessary taxes to meet their obligations. Under the now-defunct Articles of Confederation, they were only able to beg the states to support initiatives with money. Now they represented specific geographical constituencies and each had a vote unlike the one vote per state under the Articles.

The crisis that brought on the Constitutional Convention and resulted in the new government was still raging; foreclosures, inflation, threatening foreign powers, creditors demanding payment for war debt, and more. The situation was not unlike today, although the country was more vulnerable than now.

As usual, James Madison had made a thorough study of the issues. He had the responsibility for seeing that George Washington's agenda made it through the new legislature. To gain ratification of the new Constitution, he had promised to bring a bill of rights into the amendment process. He would also have to see to it that the proposal for funding the debt and establishing a national bank would pass even though he had grave doubts about it. However, Alexander Hamilton, the new Secretary of the Treasury had convinced him it was a necessity to deal with their disastrous financial and credit situation.

Today's leaders face many of the same crises as the those in that first Congress. In fact the parallels are startling. They also face tough, even unpleasant choices. Several of the contemporary leaders profiled in my new book spoke at a seminar for local business people on March 27. They agreed with the premise that now is the time to focus on opportunity while doing what is necessary to get through the short term.

Greg Swienton, CEO of Ryder System, repeated his philosophy from his profile in the book. He has charged his team with looking for every alternative saving before letting an employee go. That means getting rid of things that make their lives more convenient or comfortable but do not actually contribute anything. He had already led the way by getting rid of the corporate jet when he became CEO.

Ben Baldanza, CEO of Spirit Airlines, was also on the panel and interviewed in the book. In a piece about him in the New York Times on Monday, the reporter was incredulous at his plain office in a nondescript office park. Baldanza was photographed with his own vacuum cleaner he uses to keep his office clean. But this is exactly the leadership image he is trying to set.

The key for all of the leaders on the panel is to focus on important isses with strong, decisive actions that are congruent with their larger mission.

So, no foolin'...take these leadership lessons to heart on this historic day.
(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein

Read more about these modern leaders and those of the early republic today -- Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers http://www.conventionalwisdomcenter.com/

The full panel included: Greg Swienton, CEO, Ryder System; Ben Baldanza, CEO, Spirit Airlines; John Stunson, City Manager, Oakland Park, Florida; George Hanbury, COO/EVP Nova Southeastern University; Evan Rees, former President, CNL Bank, now working full time to raise money for the Boy Scouts and the Partnership for the Homeless.

The panel presentation will be available soon on our website. http://www.advantageleadership.com/

Casting a longer shadow

2009-03-23T11:00:00.006-04:00

It seemed like an insignificant thing at the time. Jim, the CEO of a Midwestern printing company, decided to start drinking bottled water. He made no pronouncement and asked no one else to do the same. Six months later, every manager and supervisor was drinking bottled water and bottled water dispensers had been installed throughout the plant and offices.

What happened? It's a phenomenon known as 'Shadow of the Leader.' Put very simply, people unconsciously begin to act like, and even think like, the leader of the group. For many it is completely unconscious. The leader doesn't force it to happen (unless of course you're dealing with a dictator or megalomaniac or other negative leader.) But great leaders set out consciously to create an enduring culture.

The Shadow has great consequences for the organization. I've been looking at how this plays out in the way things get organized and then get done for almost 40 years. Back in the 1970s a new take on leadership and corporate culture started to emerge. This Shadow of the Leader concept was first studied in depth by Larry Senn in his 1970 dissertation. My own dissertation explored the same phenomenon in a grassroots, community organization. Later as a corporate officer, I went through training by the Senn Delaney company on applying Senn's insights. The idea had come full circle with me.

In my new book, I was back on the same quest -- not to look for trivial examples like drinking bottled water but to find examples that would be useful for every leader in today's new tough reality. Perhaps one of the best examples from the history I explored was George Washington.

Washington was not always an iconic leader. His early military career did not look too promising. But he had a characteristic that ultimately propelled him to the top. He determined to mold his own character into someone he and others could admire. So when he was appointed to head the Continental Army and wrest the country from the British empire, he was ready. He turned a rag tag bunch of farmers, merchants, and ne'er-do-wells into a disciplined fighting force.

But it was his peace-time leadership that illustrates the Shadow concept best. First, at the Constitutional Convention he was immediately and unanimously elected to serve as president of that historic session. Delegates watched his body language closely to see which ideas he favored. Although he never took part in the public debates, his views were well known and held great sway with the delegates. On the last day, when he finally spoke and suggested changing the number of voters for each congressional district, the assembly passed it without discussion.

There was never a doubt about who the first elected president of the Republic would be. In fact, there were a significant number of leaders who believed that he should be an elected king. But Washington was a believer in the republican cause of representative government and refused to turn his office into a throne. He understood his Shadow and thought long and hard about every decision from the most trivial to the most profound -- he knew history was watching.

When he stepped down after two terms, he established a precedent that held until the Roosevelt administration and was then codified in the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.

Washington cast a long Shadow of leadership that established a dignity about the office of the president. (Now lest you continue to see him as the stiff figure in paintings and statues, remember that he was a renowned dancer and enjoyed partnering the ladies in the most intricate and spirited dances of the day.)

Perhaps the most enduring part of his Shadow for leaders to be aware of today was his courage in the face of every danger -- not just in war. As the country was collapsing in 1787, he stepped forward to take part in the Constitutional Convention -- which gave it legitimacy and ensured others would join in. When he took on the presidency of the new republic, he had to invent it and reached out to trusted leaders for advice and counsel -- Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson. He was willing to face the crises of his day -- foreclosures, inflation, civil unrest, foreign threats, falling credit, piracy, and more. He was willing to invent a new form of government to save the country.

Leaders can learn a lot from walking in Washington's Shadow -- there's a lot of light there.

(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc.
Author: Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers www.ConventionalWisdomCenter.com

A Tweet is NOT Sweet

2009-02-28T10:48:00.003-05:00

-- Did you watch the President's address to Congress this week? If you watched the audience of Senators and Representatives closely you saw some of them thumbing away, tweeting to their followers.
-- And your point is?
-- That's just it. There are millions of folks out there who don't find this a problem. You see, millions of folks are delusional. There are two points in that delusion that hit a nerve with me.

First point: Despite those who claim otherwise, we do NOT multi-task. What the brain is actually doing is switching from task to task quickly so it seems to our conscious minds we're doing more than one thing at a time. Here's some proof for you -- if you drive and talk on the phone (even hands free) you have the same chance of crashing as if you were drunk or stoned.

Test it out for yourself -- no, I don't mean drink and drive -- I mean watch the news on your favorite channel. Have someone else in the room sitting with eyes closed just listening to the news. As the news goes on in the central panel, you start reading the crawl at the bottom of the page. If they have one of those places that marks the time or the stock ticker, watch that for a while. If they have one of those pop ups for another show, be sure to watch that. In other words, consciously watch the way you may do it every day. After about 15 minutes, compare notes with the 'listener' about the news stories in the central panel.

If your recall is as good as that of the listener, write and tell me. But it won't be.

Those folks who were tweeting during the president's presentation would not be able to pass a simple test and certainly missed the subtleties, the flow of concepts, the rhetorical flourishes, and body language subliminal signals.

Too bad. How can you make a political or intellectual judgement or analysis if you weren't fully present....Oh, you recorded it? Sorry, it ain't the same as being there.

Point two: What sort of narcissist are you to believe that your every stray thought must be communicated to the universe. And what sort of poverty of mind do you have if you follow some one's every stray thought?
Every one's mind strays, even during a compelling situation. But people with their brain cells functioning train themselves to focus on the important. Think of hero-pilot "Sully." What if he were busy tweeting his stray thoughts while trying to land an airliner in the Hudson River? No, "nothing like the aspect of being hanged in the morning to concentrate your mind."

The framers of the U.S. Constitution were not a lot different from most of us. They knew how easy it was to lose focus or be carried away by their own narcissistic impulses. When they put together their rules for the Convention in 1787, they made a special point of insisting that no one was to write notes, read a newspaper, or talk with his neighbor during their discussions. No multi-tasking allowed. Why? They were astute observers of human nature and knew we could not do it. Period. The End.

And look what they did as they tried to tame their human inclinations. They sat on wooden chairs in the Pennsylvania State House six days a week from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. with no formal breaks, no designer water bottles, no snacks, no working lunches, no coffee breaks, no tweeting, no phone calls, no ipods, no scrolling...They did this for 4 months in a stuffy, hot, humid room. They listened to everyone -- even the windbags. They focused, they argued, they went back over old territory and reexamined it, they postured, they made good and bad arguments, they pondered, they considered and reconsidered. They wrote a Constitution that has stood the test of time for over 200 years with few amendments.

They weren't perfect. They were very much like us. They understood how easy it is to lose focus, so they worked hard to do as good a job as they could, without giving in to their tendency to be distracted.

We sing the praises of the distracted, multi-tasking, type A personalities. Are we getting more done? Are we getting more important things done? Are we creating greater significance for our own lives, the lives of others or the planet?

One of the most successful leaders I interviewed for my new book, Greg Swienton, the CEO of Ryder System, talked to me about the importance of true balance in one's life. He talked about the discipline of making real time for family, faith, community, and refreshing the spirit.

We could all learn a lesson from Greg and the framers. Stop tweeting and start communicating. Stop tweeting and start listening. Stop tweeting and get a grip on your own place in the cosmos.
(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein

Read more about Greg Swienton and other contemporary and historic leaders in Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers. www.ConventionalWisdomCenter.com

I'm saving the flamingos

2009-02-20T17:07:00.003-05:00

Out in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania there are many manufacturing plants that are rollicking along as if there were no constant drumbeat of doom and gloom on TV. I visited two of them this week and it was a pleasant surprise. Both companies have added to their capacity and product diversity by buying up equipment from competitors who have given up. Both are looking for more and more creative ways to cut costs while they expand their offerings. Both are thriving.

One of these plants produces all sorts of gardening and lawn-related items; plant containers, hardware for window boxes, and numerous other things. But what really struck me were the flamingos. That's right, those neon pink birds you've seen perched in people's yards are alive and well. Those flamingos just might pull the company right through the recession and help keep profit rolling in.

The owner bought the injection molding equipment from a company that had shuttered its doors. He was confident that this was one item that he would not have to compete with China to produce cheaply in the U.S. You see, those flamingos are full of air, sort of like a hard plastic balloon. That makes them very bulky to ship in those giant containers you see on ships. You can't get enough in the container to make it profitable.

Now the owner is working on a new jig to be able to dip about 10 of those birds in the paint to get those cute little black and yellow beaks looking just right -- again saving money and time -- no more hand painting.

So what's my point? Pretty simple. As a friend of mine says, when everyone else is zigging, it's time for you to zag.

That's what the framers of the U.S. Constitution did in 1787 when they decided to save the Republic. Remember, at that time foreclosures were destroying farms and families, inflation was destroying every one's financial security, foreign countries were poised for invasion, the government was impotent...there were even pirates attacking our shipping off the cost of Africa.

Sound familiar? 222 years ago, our leaders were facing many of the same challenges as today. They 55 men who made up the Constitutional Convention had decided it was time to zag. Many so-called leaders in the 13 states didn't want to lose their political power and change the disastrous status quo. Even Patrick Henry refused to participate -- he said he smelled a rat!

So George Washington, James Madison, and others met, formulated a new Constitution, shepherded it through the ratification process, and then served in the new government. They took a bold new direction, they innovated, they refused to participate in the dyer predictions of the imminent downfall of America.

So, I'm following their lead and that of that innovative factory owner in Pennsylvania. How about you? What are you doing to zag and thrive in this economic climate?

I said to the factory owner, "I guess the flamingos will save you." "No," he said, "I'm saving the flamingos!"

(c)Rebecca Staton-Reinstein

Read more about this innovative plant owner in my new book, Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers. It's available now in a special pre-publication offer. www.ConventionalWisdomCenter.com

"I screwed up" or "Mistakes were made"...Your Choice

2009-02-04T17:40:00.003-05:00

The news programs ran the video loops endlessly this morning as President Obama took responsibility for nominating people who hadn't paid their taxes. Most of the commenters seemed genuinely surprised to hear a leader say that he had made a mistake. He went on to say he would take the consequences and act to rectify his mistakes going forward.

I wasn't particularly surprised. Not because of some partisan political position but because I’ve been interviewing a large number of executives over the last few years for my new book and they do the same thing. It may not be common for politicians to fess up but strategic leaders everywhere know it is the only way to handle inevitable mistakes.

Consider the alternatives – the ubiquitous "mistakes were made" or outright denial. In 2007, I blogged about that nasty, weaseling-out phrase and quoted from some of my interviewees on the importance of admitting mistakes. (http://conventionalwisdominstitute.blogspot.com/2007/10/mistakes-were-made.html) No need to comment on denial…

Now, in my new book, Conventional Wisdom: How Today’s Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress, I discuss in detail how even great leaders make big mistakes and, more importantly what they do when the mistake comes to light. These executives all told the same story, summed up in the words of one of them, "When you make a mistake, admit it, get out quickly, and fix it." Sound advice that many would do well to follow whether in public life, managing a department, or trying to lead a decent personal life.

Here is what I concluded in the book:

What Distinguishes Great Leaders?

* How does a leader handle the bad decision? Great leaders acknowledge their mistakes personally. They do not fall back on the passive “mistakes were made” formula. Instead, they say, "I made a mistake." They accept the consequences of that bad decision.

* What does a leader do? Great leaders take personal responsibility, usually without a lot of fanfare. They take the next right action, no matter what others say or do. They move quickly to fix their errors.

* How does a leader show his beliefs? Great leaders act on their beliefs and are courageous role models for their convictions.

* How does a leader use a mistake? Great leaders learn from their mistakes and act differently in the future. They discover the frames [psychological blinders] leading them to the bad decision in the first place. They get more diverse perspectives on their future decisions.

* How does a leader confront his or her frames? Great leaders understand their own perceptions of the situation can cloud their decision making. They seek other opinions. They recognize they are framed, and work to stand outside their own frames and doubt their own infallibility.

* How does a leader help others to admit and correct mistakes? Great leaders understand humans make mistakes. They encourage risk-taking and do not automatically punish mistakes. They make sure people have the opportunity to learn and grow from mistakes and confront their own limiting frames.

How do you stack up on the mistake-o-meter? As difficult as it is, do you admit you screwed up? Do you take full responsibility? Do you find the source of the mistake and correct it?
It's always so much easier to blame someone or something than to stand up and take your lumps. Little kids say, "I’m sorry," and hope that will make everything all better. But it doesn’t. Because the kid doesn’t have any PLAN to get better. As grown ups, as people who need to incorporate sound leadership into our lives, we have an obligation to admit, submit, and fix it.

(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein and Advantage Leadership, Inc.

Read some of the real-life examples of big screw-ups and what strategic leaders did to make it better. Go to http://www.ConventionalWisdomCenter.com and take advantage of special offers to get you copy of Conventional Wisdom: How Today’s Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers. Then send me your feedback to this special address: ConventionWisdom@cs.com

This is the first book to:
* tie the lessons from the U.S. Constitutional framers to contemporary leaders
* reveal new leadership secrets from George Washington)
* show you how to achieve the impossible by unleashing the Madison Factor
* show you how to get spectacular results using the practical strategic approaches used by the framers and modern executives.

One critic raved: "This is not a book; it’s a catalyst for strategic leadership." Get your copy today.

The book will not be available on Amazon until May 25, the anniversary of the beginning of the Constitutional Convention. Get your copy today and take advantage of the prepublication offers. http://www.ConventionalWisdomCenter.com

Read a recent article on the importance of the Mission -- Be Careful What You Ask For: Getting the Mission Wrong
http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tappiaotc/issues/2008-12-03.html

Would George Washington approve of the Super Bowl?

2009-02-02T14:03:00.002-05:00

I don’t know about you but I was on the edge of my seat, enjoying my once-a-year treat of ribs, and rooting for the Cardinals while my husband cheered for the Steelers. I was on my feet screaming when Larry Fitzgerald dashed down the field leaving would-be tacklers in his wake. Then I sat stupefied, while my husband whooped as Santonio Holmes sailed through the air, caught the pass, and crashed out of bounds in a jumble with his tacklers. Anxious minutes, seeming like hours, ticked by. Were his toes on the turf of the end zone? Finally, the answer I didn’t want to hear. But it was a great game with lots of drama, some of the commercials were pure delights, and Springsteen is still The Boss.

But I wasn’t that happy at the end of that exciting game and it had nothing to do with who won or lost. (To tell the truth, I didn’t really care.) No, what alarmed me was the number of fouls and the general over-the-top rage and anger that some players displayed. Bad sportsmanship has become such a part of so many sports today that it goes by barely noticed by the bobble heads yammering about the plays and quoting obscure statistics.

But it shouldn’t. Of course, the players are emotional and of course, no one likes to make a mistake, feel a play was poorly called or lose the game. We are humans after all and react in some pretty predictable ways. But feelings, no matter how strong, positive or negative, do NOT have to be acted on; do not have to be translated into action. In fact, the grand-standing dances and gyrations some players insist on have become their ‘trademarks,’ simply fueling the notion that there’s no need to keep a lid on the id.

George Washington exemplified the ability to keep raging emotions in check. He is reported to have had a legendary temper but few people ever saw him let it rip. What was his secret? It started when he was a very young man; younger and less well educated than the professional football players on the field yesterday. He decided to mold his character himself; to set out self-consciously to become a person who was in his words, ‘restrained in tongue and pen.’

He did not simply bite his tongue or go home and throw beer cans at the TV in frustration. He worked to turn himself into a man of high character and self-discipline. Most of the time, he succeeded. This did not turn him into an up-tight party pooper. Not at all. He notes in his diaries his many social events. He loved to dance and drink tea with the ladies. He was a superb athlete and thought to be one of the best horsemen of his day.

But he would have been appalled at the displays of bad sportsmanship at the Super Bowl and most modern sporting events. He knew that it was possible to respond appropriately to adversity and not simply react in the heat of the moment. He faced disasters of greater magnitude than a game and most of the time emerged to demonstrate his strong character.

One of the CEOs I interviewed for my new book told me, “The higher you go, the less you can do. You don’t have a right to scream at people. You don’t have a right to behave badly.” Washington and the best contemporary leaders understand that. Legendary coach John Wooden, often paced the sideline during an exciting game but there were no histrionics, no screaming, no drama. He often carried a roll-up program in one hand and his expression was calm whether his team was winning or losing. One of the few reported times that he lost his equanimity was when he thought the players were not giving the best they were capable of.

Every leader can all learn from Washington and Wooden. We can willingly sacrifice the victory dance if it means leaving the tantrums behind. Now on to Super Bowl XLIV!

(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, author
Conventional Wisdom: How Today’s Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding FathersCheck out the special offers: http://ConventionalWisdomCenter.com

Is George Washington or James Madison one of your peeps?

2009-01-24T10:17:00.005-05:00

No, this is not a weird question. If you lead a team at any level of your organization, you should be on the look out for other potential leaders. If you’re a team member at any level of the organization, you should look at your own way of contributing. We have much to learn about successful team leadership and membership from George and Jemmy. Most of twenty executives and CEOs, interviewed for my new book on strategic leadership, chose George as a leader they admired from among the founding generation. Jemmy Madison emerged as an exemplary team member and leader. What can we learn from them?

George Washington --
--- was admired by his troops during the American Revolution, not because he was a nice guy – he was tough, insisted on discipline, and had a legendary temper. He was admired because the troops knew he cared about them, pleaded their case in the Continental Congress, and suffered hardships but never flinched in the face of the enemy.

--- became president in the midst of economic chaos, foreign plots to destroy the U.S., and internal political divisions. No one had ever been president of a republic covering so many people in such a large land mass. He had to invent the precedents from the most mundane to the most consequential.

--- could have been king – there were many who wanted to elect him king for life. Instead, he chose to serve two terms and then retire, just as he had when he resigned his commission at the end of the Revolution.

What does this teach us as leaders of teams from the executive suite to the shop floor?

The leader must:
* care about the team, share their situation, and fight for the team members’ success and recognition

* be creative, inventive, and make decisions based on vision and values

* know when to relinquish power and overcome the push of ego to hang on.

James Madison --
--- was the master of leading from behind, whether engineering the U.S. Constitutional Convention, drafting the outline for the Constitutional debates, or generating consensus behind the scenes.

--- articulated his case clearly and persuasively at every instance whether in the Constitutional Convention, the Virginia Constitutional ratifying convention or co-writing the The Federalist.

--- fought to pass the legislation that was necessary to establish the new republic as a strong nation – even when he was not 100% in support of the actions, such as authoring and championing the Bill of Rights or shepherding Alexander Hamilton’s financial plans through a reluctant Congress.

What does this teach us as team members from the executive suite to the shop floor?
* If you don’t take credit for everything, you can achieve more working to get the results the team and its leader need

* Learn to make clear and cogent contributions to every discussion – do your homework and share your insights

* Sometimes you must fight hard to accomplish something you don’t agree with 100% to further the results of the team and its leader.

Washington and Madison had a special relationship that developed over many years. George was the charismatic leader who wanted to build a strong republic. Jemmy was the brilliant thinker and politician who knew how to persuade people of the need for a robust republic and its institutions. They made a strong team to bring about the Constitution and to get the new government established.

But even their team didn’t last forever. As Washington’s first term was ending, his cabinet team that included Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson was breaking down. The enmity that developed between these two titans resulted in the formation of the first political parties in the U.S. – the Federalists led by Hamilton and the Republicans led by Jefferson. Once Madison opted for Jefferson’s team, the Washington-Madison team broke down.

You can learn a lot from Washington and Madison AND modern executives who are strategic leaders…Conventional Wisdom: How Today’s Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers examines how contemporary executives exercise strategic leadership, utilize their own Madison Factor, build effective teams, and deal with mistakes and tough decisions.

Learn more from the Constitutional framers and modern leaders. Get your copy of Conventional Wisdom today using the special pre-publication offer at http://www.conventionalwisdomcenter.com/.

Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc. http://www.AdvantageLeadership.com
Author, Conventional Wisdom http://www.conventionalwisdomcenter.com/

It’s opportunity time

2009-01-09T18:18:00.001-05:00

When the going gets tough…You know the rest of the cliché…but what does it mean to “get going?” One thing not to do is to spend too much time listening to the same bad news over and over…or spending too much time around the water cooler (or wherever people congregate these days) bemoaning the state of the global economy. This brings on that other cliché, “Misery loves company.” All we do is whip ourselves up into a greater state of panic.

I think there is another cliché that is much more useful. The Chinese ideogram for “Crisis” is made up of those for “Danger” and “Opportunity.” I’m not suggesting living in a dream world and ignoring the danger. I am suggesting that when it comes to macro-economics, we can’t do much so why waste energy and time yammering on about the dire state of things. In fact, successful people have always figured out that the way to deal with a crisis is to look at the “opportunity” side of the equation and put our energies there.

In 1787 in the U.S., the headlines would seem eerily like those in 2009 – Foreclosures ruin families…Inflation rises…Pirates disrupt shipping…violence increases…hostile countries waiting for collapse…congress deadlocked…
Just 4 years after the end of the American Revolution the country was collapsing and Britain, France, and Spain were circling the imminent road kill waiting to seize the tastiest morsels.

Luckily George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and 51 others decided to commit treason (technically) for the second time. They assembled in Philadelphia for 4 months in that long hot summer and hammered out the new Constitution.

They could have stayed home and watched their families suffer, their businesses fail, and the government flail about. Instead, they looked at the “Opportunity” side of the equation. They seized the opportunity to create a powerful plan for change…to put all of their ideas of republican government to work…to create a large republic from scratch…It hadn’t been done before…They were in new territory…Territory that was ripe with opportunity.

So whether you’re an individual and have just lost your job or an entrepreneur struggling to stay afloat or a large company or institution getting ready to make drastic budget cuts…Stop for a moment. What opportunities are there for you? What are you uniquely qualified to take advantage of? What is being overlooked by all the others who are focused on the danger?

Many years ago I worked for a big corporation that had a major downsizing…The folks who thrived in this crisis were those who took the opportunity to reexamine their lives, their values, and their goals and strike off in new directions. These are the non-victims…The choice is yours. You can take your role model from the framers and embrace opportunity or from those people the media dig up who are circling the drain, hopeless and helpless, and looking for a hand out. You don’t have to participate in the recession…it’s really optional…Opportunity calls.

George Washington: Still a role model

2008-12-31T10:17:00.002-05:00

Historical references pop up in the darnedest places. Today’s New York Times (Dec. 31, 2008) profiled the current crises facing Georgia’s president Mikheil Saakashvili and discussed the pressure on him to stand down from some of the power he had accumulated during his tenure.

“Last week, he announced a constitutional amendment that would lessen the president’s power over Parliament. Lately, he said, he is [more] attracted to the model of…George Washington, who, he said, ‘could have been a king, but instead chose to give up power, and become a democracy…It’s something I’m thinking about more and more,’ he said. ‘George Washington.’”

Powerful leaders, whether in government, private industry, or even the nonprofit world, could certainly benefit from thinking more about George Washington and his relation to power and leadership.

For those who may not remember it, George Washington, took on leadership roles from an early age. In the beginning, he wasn’t necessarily very good at it. But he learned from his experiences, from observing both strong and poor leaders, and from wide-ranging reading. He set himself on a self-directed path of improvement, with high standards and clear goals.

By the time he came before the Continental Congress to resign his commission at the end of the American Revolution, he had perfected a leadership style that won loyalty from his troops and admiration from the public. He was not without his critics, of course, who pointed out his all-too-human failings. But when George III heard that Washington had retired from his military command without seizing power in a military coup or allowing himself to be elected king, he remarked that he must be the greatest man in the world.

At the end of his second term as the elected president, not king, he walked away from power again, despite a faction that would have elected him king for life.

Washington presents many object lessons for modern leaders…not the least of which is knowing when to limit one’s own power. Dictators and dictatorial executives and managers are eventually toppled. True leaders know when it’s time to step back or even pass the torch.

Did the founding fathers support smaller government?

2008-12-20T13:22:00.004-05:00

Folks often want to find support for their contemporary views by citing our U.S. founding fathers, something like folks quoting from sacred writing. The problem is that the ‘fathers and mothers’ did not share a monolithic point of view as documented in their public and private writings.

I was struck by this recently when I read an otherwise thought-provoking opinion by Carly Fiorina in the Wall Street Journal December 12, 2008. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122904246460000265.html#printMode) It was entitled “Corporate Leadership and the Crisis: CEOs seeking bailouts should be willing to resign.”

Although I agree with much of what Ms. Fiorina said in her article, citing the Founding Fathers as supporting smaller government was off the mark historically.
In fact, the founders and framers of the U.S. Constitution had serious disagreements about the extent of government. And, some of them changed their views over the course of time. For example, when James Madison and Alexander Hamilton allied with others to call the Constitutional Convention of 1787, they both envisioned a strong national government to replace the supreme power of the states under the Articles of Confederation.

A few years after the Revolution, the weak confederation was collapsing under its own weight. Madison's statement on government applies as well today as it did over 200 years ago: "But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary."
Madison and Hamilton argued forcefully, writing as Publius in The Federalist, for the supremacy of the new national government. Hamilton would have gone further and abolished the states themselves according to his critics.

By Washington's second term as President, Madison had moved away from his more nationalist stand and allied with Thomas Jefferson to found a political party to tout the need to have more power in the states and to lobby for smaller national government. When Jefferson defeated John Adams in the 1800 election, he proclaimed a second Revolution and tried to undo as much of the Federalists' initiatives as possible.

As the parties morphed, evolved, disappeared, and sprang to life over our history, they all tried to claim the founders and framers as their own. The truth is somewhere else. The tension between the states and the federal government was built into the Constitution because the framers understood they could never get agreement on a perfect system.

The so-called Great Compromise of the convention was about how states would have power in the new system. The fault lines run directly from the convention to the civil war and on into today.

Essentially, we have agreed to disagree, just as the founders and framers did on how much power government should wield at each level, how big government should be, and how the checks and balances of a republican system should work.
Indeed, we are not angles and our system of government reflects accurately on our human nature.

Want to know more about what the founders and framers were really thinking and how it relates to contemporary strategic leadership questions? Conventional Wisdom: How Today’s Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers will be published by TobsusPress at the end of January 2009. Check out the website for pre-publication offers. http://www.advantageleadership.com/conventional-wisdom.html

Who is closer to Jefferson, Obama or McCain?

2008-07-07T21:00:00.003-04:00

A friend asked me this question: Who is closer to Thomas Jefferson, Obama or McCain?
A loaded question because I didn't want to favor one candidate or the other publicly.

But the question set me thinking.
Obama certainly has Jefferson's gift of language and eloquence. He shares his cool demeanor and laid-back elegance.

McCain has many positions that are closer to Jefferson such as smaller government and lower taxes. Jefferson hated to give speeches and preferred more intimate settings for discourse much like McCain.

On the other hand, if Jefferson were able to overcome his prejudices, he might enjoy sitting with Obama on his mountain top at Montecello discussing philosophy and ideas. If McCain were at that dinner party, they might swap war stories and Jefferson would recount his narrow escape from the British when they were in hot pursuit.

Of course ahistorical speculation is always fun...
But thinking about Jefferson and his ideas on government got me to thinking about the election of 1800. If you watched the HBO series on John Adams you may remember it was bitter and brutal. In fact, it ranks up there as one of the dirtiest campaigns in our history. We seem to think that we invented dirty tricks in more modern times but human nature being what it is, nasty elections are nothing new.

During George Washington's second term, Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State, began to form a faction that he called the Republicans. (Now before you get too confused, this party morphed into the Democratic Republicans and then into the Democratic Party. Today's Republican Party formed in the 1850s to oppose slavery and preserve the union, but that's another story.)

As Jefferson began organizing his party to take on John Adams and his Federalist Party he did it behind the scenes. He paid a journalist to start a newspaper to attack the Federalists (and put him on the State department payroll!) He fired up his buddy James Madison to go after his hated rival Alexander Hamilton and implored him to take out his pen and cut him to shreds.

So the election of 1800 was an unremitting mudslinging bar fight. If we think the media are biased today, go back and read the dueling broadsides, pamphlets and newspapers of 1800. When the dust settled Jefferson and Adams were tied and the whole thing was thrown into the House of Representatives. The House went through many, many ballots when one representative finally threw his vote to Jefferson.

Adams tried to pack the Supreme Court and make other midnight appointments before he lit out for home in the wee hours of the morning rather than have to see the power of the presidency pass to Jefferson.

They remained alienated for many years until a mutual friend got them to make up. For the years they had remaining, they renewed what had been a close friendship during the Revolution. They wrote a wonderful set of letters discussing everything from crop rotation to the fate of the nation. On July 4, exactly 50 years after the Continental Congress passed Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, they both died.

You just can't make this stuff up. History is so much bolder than fiction.

So the answer is a toss up...Both Obama and McCain are Jefferson's heirs because they both share his vision of a republic where everyone is equal and free to pursue life, liberty and happiness. So choose a candidate that fits your notion of what that means and vote...after all, it's citizen involvement that sustains a republic and that's what Jefferson and the rest of the founders wanted for us.

Vision is NOT a hallucination

2008-02-20T15:14:00.006-05:00

With the political season in high gear, there's a lot of talk about vision coming from all the candidates...and that's a good thing. We need to have a clear idea about where we're going before we set off in the wrong direction. But it's hard, in the middle of such contentious races, to talk about the candidates' visions without getting mired in their political views...

So here's something less controversial (except to New England Patriots fans.) After the Super Bowl cliff-hanging last quarter, the press talked to winning Giants' quarterback ELI MANNING, who was voted the Most Valuable Player. He talked about those last thrilling minutes when he threw the winning pass that won the game and described his thought process. "I was glad we were down by 4 points! If we were only down by 3, I'd have been tempted to go for a field goal. Being down by 4, I had to get a touchdown. I didn't have a choice. So I did."

Necessity forces us to translate a vision into reality.

That's what I think about when I talk about "vision." That almost calm determination. Manning believed he had no choice but to go for the winning touchdown. The founding fathers believed they had no choice but to go to world with Great Britain, the most powerful country in Europe. The framers of the Constitution believed they had no choice but to risk committing treason for the second time by overthrowing the Articles of Confederation and setting up a new republican form of government.

When I was interviewing CEOs and executives for my new book, everyone one of them told me something very similar. They looked down the road...they had a vision...they saw the future they want to create and they set about doing it.

A City Manager was called to city after city that had deteriorated. He looked at each one and saw a new city, vibrant and unique, waiting to escape from the urban decay. He shared that vision and city after city rose from the squallor and decay.

A banker looked out and saw a different approach to helping individuals who had accumulated great wealth look to their legacy. Knowing the predictive statistics that that fortune would begone within another generation, he fought back. He saw these peoples as wealth creators and their legacy families. He brought the entire family together to create a vision for their future and to create a plan and decision making process to protect that vision.

An executive, who had sold "tooth paste and sandwiches," was tapped to head a new healthcare delivery system of walk-in clinics co-located in other stores. He saw a chance to 'change healthcare' and is delivering on that promise, growing the business at a phenominal rate and being called on to advise industry leaders and the government.

A public servant took over an ailing healthcare system in a major urban area and in two years turned it from a problem-beset, crumbling system into a financially sound system with patient satisfaction soaring and people opting to use their services instead of going to private hospitals.

An engineer rose to CEO of a national engineering firm and set out to make it the "first billion dollar company with a culture!" He created a common vision for the seven merged companies that made it up and insisted that engineers become involved in the community as trusted advisors. Then with a simple statement, "Our offices ought to look like the communities they serve," he transformed the board, the staff and the company's vision for its future.

I could go on with these exciting examples. Each of the executives that I interviewed had thbe ability to turn vision into reality. They simply did not believe that it couldn't be done. As one executive told me, "I was too dumb to know any better!"

Stop a moment and think about the vision you have for yourself, your family, your company, your country. Vision is a powerful driver...It doesn't give you any choice but to succeed.

-- Rebecca Staton-Reinstein
Visit our website http://www.AdvantageLeadership.com/

5 Criteria to Look for in a Presidential Candidate

2008-01-15T15:19:00.000-05:00

It's what the British call the silly season -- elections -- or more precisely the Primaries. If you're like me you've watched debates, stump speeches and interviews. You may have visited websites and blogs and tried to figure out what each candidate is offering. It can still be confusing. When people tell pollsters that they made up their mind as they entered the voting booth, I cringe.

Deciding on a presidential candidate is a privilege of living in a democracy. Over the last few years as I've researched the early American republic and its leaders, I've discovered 5 criteria you should consider when choosing a candidate.

(WARNING: You will have to think and ponder. You will have to examine your own heart and values and beliefs. You may have to make some hard choices.)

1. The candidate must have a Vision -- a big picture of where they want to lead the nation. They must also be able to tell you what they want to see happen by the end of their four year term.

2. The candidate must be able to make that vision a reality. For some candidates this may be done through their experience and based on their track record. For others it may be based on their ability to inspire others to act through their positive persuasive powers.

3. The candidate must have the proven ability to grow, to change and to evolve. They should have demonstrated that they can continue to examine the facts and change their minds in a principled way, based on changes in circumstances. They must be able to admit both mistakes and evolving thinking.

4. The candidate must have "character." They should demonstrate their values in their actions.

5. The candidate must be willing to be the leader of the entire nation and all the people. To quote James Madison in Federalist 10: They are people "whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations."

Line your favorite candidates up against these criteria. Do they make it on all 5 criteria? Can you say that they make the grade 100%? If not, time to think some more.

Whoever your candidate is, show up and vote. There is an old adage that says people get the government they deserve. I don't necessarily agree with that but if you don't vote, you really can't complain. See you on Primary or Caucus day.

Be Careful What You Ask For: Getting the Mission Wrong

2008-01-10T14:54:00.000-05:00

Be Careful What You Ask For: Getting the Mission Wrong
Is your Mission statement leading you to new and greater accomplishments or down the road to perdition?

No, this is not a rhetorical question. Although everyone today is aware that they need a mission for their organization, just having one doesn't mean you will automatically be successful. In fact, many mission statements are simply meaningless. They've been wordsmithed by marketing types and vetted by the lawyers to a point where they no longer really say anything.

The mission should bind the individual to the organization. It should give him or her a clear statement of what the organization is all about. Then the person can make decisions and take actions by asking one simple strategic question:

Will this decision or action move me closer to or further from accomplishing my mission?

No firefighting. No knee-jerk reactions. No crisis management...or at least not as much!

The first step is to have a clear concise mission statement. It should be short and to the point. It should provide guidance for action.

Ritz Carleton Hotels stated in its credo: We are Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen. Every employee can view his or her work through this clear lens.

It's 2 AM and you're the desk clerk facing a disgruntled guest who just got in from a grueling trip. He's tired and cranky and taking it out on you. What do you do? In most hotels the rest of the story would not be pretty. At Ritz Carlton, the clerk goes through something like this in his or her head: 'I'm a gentle person and that guest is a gentle person having a very bad day. What can I do to help?' And then the clerk acts accordingly...the key word is 'act' not 'react.'

A couple of decades ago the city of Portsmouth, Virginia was down on its luck...but not completely out of luck. The City brought in a remarkable and talented City Manager who set a new -- simple -- mission for the city: ‘Clean City, Economic Development, and Customer Service.’ And then George Hanbury spread that mission and it's meaning to every official and employee.

The city turned around under Hanbury's leadership. Eighteen years later they invited him back for a special 'George Hanbury Day.' At the reception a man came up to him. "I'm sure you don't remember me but I drove a garbage truck when you became City Manager. I still remember that mission you gave us, 'Clean City, Economic Development, and Customer Service.' It changed everything."

That's the power of a good mission. It's transformational.

But there is a nasty little problem hiding under the surface in many mission statements. They can contain the seeds of their own destruction. And when you get it wrong and follow it successfully, you can destroy yourself. A major utility company presents an object lesson. The company decided to reinvent itself and implement a new quality philosophy. They stated their road map for action this way.

"During the next decade, we want to become the best managed electric utility in the United States and an excellent company overall, and be recognized as such."

On the surface it looks fine. It is striving to be well managed and excellent. These are admirable goals if a little vague. But the problem comes in the final part of the statement, 'be recognized as such.' At first it seems reasonable. Come up with a measurement that will demonstrate this excellence. Sounds OK. It helps counteract the vagueness.

Here's where things took a wrong turn. The CEO and his team decided that the 'recognition' would be winning the Deming Prize. This was the prestigious Japanese quality award named for the great guru of quality, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, who had been pivotal in helping Japanese industry recover after World War II. A special foreign division prize had just been announced. So the company decided to 'go for it.'

Now this in itself was not necessarily a bad thing. The prize required great rigor, dedication and leadership to be achieved. It would certainly be an important recognition of excellence. So far so good...

They set off on their excellence journey. Without meaning to or even noticing it, the mission shifted to emphasize the 'recognized as such' part of the mission. This happened slowly, imperceptibly despite a lot of good intentions and excellent improvement results that were well documented. As the prize itself slowly refocused people's efforts, a 'quality bureaucracy' materialized. As a former employee quipped, 'you couldn't plan lunch without doing a 7 step storyboard!'

The great day came and sure enough the company achieved its mission measurement -- the Deming Prize. It was a Pyrrhic victory.

First they were attacked in the local paper and then Public Service Commission got into the act. Who was going to pay for all of this? The rate-payers didn't want to foot the bill! This was despite the fact that the company made significant strides and reduced costs. There was that initial investment that people did not want to pay for. Later that year there was a freak storm and service was interrupted significantly. The howling media jumped all over the notion that the company was 'excellent' or 'well-managed.'

It wasn't long before the CEO was out of work and a memo was 'leaked' to the papers announcing the dismantling of the quality improvement program and its infrastructure.

What went wrong? That decision to add 'be recognized as such' led to choosing to win a prize and then to a distortion of the company's focus. No one meant it to happen. These were bright, experienced and well intentioned people. And the media weren't fair but by that time it was really too late. Chasing the prize (which Dr. Deming himself always criticized) did the damage long before the papers got into the act.

The point here is not to 'put down' the company. In fact, I was a great admirer of their efforts and accomplishments. I used much of their methodology to accomplish some great results. The point is to be very careful in constructing your mission. If you use it right, you will accomplish it, unintended consequences and all.

The mission requires regular scrutiny. Is it still leading us in the right direction? Is it as powerful in achieving results as those of the city of Portsmouth and Ritz Carlton Hotels? Have we slipped off the path without noticing it? Does every single person understand it, embrace it and use it every day? Are we on the happy path or the road to perdition?

There's a wonderful old country tune that the Carter Family used to sing:
Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side,Keep on the sunny side of life. It will help you on your way, It will help you every day,If you keep on the sunny side of life.

Keep your mission on the sunny side.

-- Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, Ph.D., President

Advantage Leadership, Inc.

http://www.advantageleadership.com/

* * * * *

Want to learn more about creating a strategic plan that gets robust results?

There are two easy ways to get our best selling book, Success Planning: A 'How-To' Guide for Strategic Planning. It is now used in hundreds of companies world wide and is part of the curriculum at one of the US military War Colleges.

(1) Buy it directly from our website: www.AdvantageLeadership.com/book.html Add on our unique 30-day e-mail mini-course on strategic planning for more practical tips and techniques.

(2) Buy it on Amazon: Search on Strategic Planning -- we are on one of the first few pages

* * * * *

Look for our new book, Conventional Wisdom How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform and Progress Like the Founding Fathers early in 2008 and read more about how leaders handle mistakes and much more.

Based on the US Constitutional Convention of 1787 and interviews with successful CEOs, this unique business book combines history and business. I examine the Convention as an example of typical strategic planning with all of its creativity and messiness. Spring forward to the present and see how today's CEOs use the same techniques to transform their companies and translate vision into reality. Learn from all of the leaders --what works in the real world so that you can improve your own abilities as a strategic leader.

You want to start planning when?

2007-11-22T04:37:00.000-05:00

Government Seeks Small Business to Supply Strategic Planning Services
...That headline in an email came to my attention immediately and I kept reading the Request For Proposal. It sounded more and more intriguing as I raced through the details. I stopped for a moment when it said the firm would need top security clearance. But I didn't think that would be a problem. After all, my book, Success Planning: A 'How-To' Guide for Strategic Planning, is used by one of the US military's war colleges...

So I kept on reading and thinking about what they were requesting and how my company fit all the requirements. They also wanted only small businesses to bid on the job. Finally I got to the last line where they let the cat out of the bag...or should I say Baghdad...That's right...the government is ready to do strategic planning in Iraq!

What? Did I read that right? Politics aside, folks, it's a little late...Shouldn't they have had a strategic plan before? But I promised I wasn't going to write about politics...

Wait a minute...Is it really so absurd to engage in serious strategic planning? Even now?

Maybe not...Stick with me. What about your own business or organization? Is everything going 100% the way you want? Are all your results moving in a positive direction? Are you facing some tough challenges or even disaster? Where do you need to be by this time next year? What changes do you need to make to assure your future?

You see, strategic planning can start any time. The key is to do a thorough and excruciatingly honest situational analysis of every aspect of your operation. Be sure to include a SWOT Analysis: What are your Internal Strengths and Weaknesses and what are your External Opportunities and Threats?

Prioritize these based on their levels of impact -- High, Medium or Low. Or, if you need more sophistication, you can assign numbers or weighting factors. Then decide which of your highest External Threats you need to have a contingency plan for and how you can leverage the highest External Opportunities.

As you go through your planning process and set your Goals and Objectives -- the descriptions of the results you want -- go back to your Internal Strengths and Weaknesses. Decide how you will use your Internal Strengths (especially your highest ones) to help you meet your Goals and Objectives. These will be specific tactics that you will execute. Then look at the Internal Weaknesses. Which of them (especially the highest ones) will have a negative effect on reaching your Goals and Objectives? Decide which specific tactics -- actions --
you will need to take to mitigate or minimize these Weaknesses.

Remember, many people remember to look at the 'worst case' and forget to look at the 'best' case to maximize their Internal Strengths. Now all you have to do is execute your plan!

So maybe it's a great idea for the government to start this sort of analysis and planning in Baghdad...Plus, it's a fabulous opportunity for some small business...

And, no, I will not be applying for the job...Facilitating planning sessions in a flack jacket is not my idea of following Dr. W. Edwards Deming's dictum to 'have joy in work!'

-- Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, Ph.D., President

Advantage Leadership, Inc.

http://www.advantageleadership.com/

* * * * *

Mistakes Were Made!

2007-10-20T11:20:00.000-04:00

Mistakes were made...Every time I hear that phrase I cringe...How about you?

Mistakes were made...so vague, so passive, so un-leader like. Yet, people keep using it. It screams out from the headlines and assaults our ears from the TV.

Mistakes were made... At first it looks like the leader is taking responsibility for the mistakes. But study the grammar more closely and another picture emerges.

Mistakes were made...What does it really mean? 'Mistakes' is the subject of this sentence in the passive voice. But the object of the sentence -- by whom -- is not stated. By whom? We don't know.

Mistakes were made...What the leader is really saying is, "OK, folks, we tried to hide the mistakes but now you've got the evidence. So we have to say something that sounds like we're on top of it and sounds like we're taking responsibility. It also buys us time to decide whom to sacrifice...whom to throw over the back of the troika to the wolves -- the press, the public, the employees. Maybe while they're gnawing on those bones, we can think of something else to divert their attention."

Mistakes were made indeed...The first mistake is that we made a bad decision. But then we compound it by ignoring it, covering it up, blaming someone else or taking actions that are incorrect. There is only one correct answer.

"I made a mistake. I take responsibility.

Here's what I'm doing to fix it.

Here is what I've learned.

Here's how I will apply that in the future.

I will take the consequences."

I've interviewed a wide variety of leaders for my new book on strategic leadership. I chose them because they had a track record for translating vision into reality and transforming their organizations. I asked each one what their worst business decision was and what they did about it. They all had similar reports. These are typical:

"There was a story in the newspapers about a major mistake we made. You can make excuses for it or you can be transparent about what happened. I walked the media through it and they accurately described it to the public. I hope other companies who read the story will learn from it. The key is to take an adverse incident like that and turn it into something that we can learn from so it doesn't happen again."

"Mistakes? I've made some doozies! The ones I've always regretted were the ones where I reacted and said something I didn't mean. I was confronted with an email I had sent. I learned a lot from by boss that day about what a great executive does. He told me to go immediately to everyone on the list and apologize. It was hard but I did it. I learned a lot from that."

How do you create that environment of responsibility for the entire company? Listen to another CEO:

"I want everyone to see our corporate values walking down the hall every day. Let's combine the mind and the heart and have a mission and a culture. They've heard so much about making money, budget and business plans. When we switched to emphasizing the mission, values and culture, the metrics followed and we went from single to double digit returns."

Nary a one of the CEOs I interviewed said 'mistakes were made' or any of its variants. Their message was clear. Real leadership, strategic leadership, is about taking responsibility every day for the decisions you make and living your values in your actions.

I heard a story on the news that brought it all home in a different context. A high school student's parents were suing a teacher and the school system. The student, who had a good record, made a decision to turn in a class project late. The teacher had made it plain that late projects would not be accepted so the student earned an 'F.' The student made the decision not to turn the project. Now the parents are suing for the 'trauma' their offspring 'suffered.'

Mistakes were made! What lesson is this young person learning? What lessons are we teaching our employees and colleagues...ourselves?

I have some advice: Let's ban that despicable phrase, 'Mistakes were made,' from the language. Let's take full responsibility for our bad decisions, learn from them AND take the consequences. Let's demonstrate our values 'walking down the hall.'

-- Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, Ph.D., President

Advantage Leadership, Inc.

http://www.advantageleadership.com/

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