It made sense when Patrick Lencioni said it, and it made sense when I read it in The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team 20 years ago, but it still is not common business practice. Your executive leadership team – the CEO and your peers, must be your “team one”, not your division or your direct reports. Whew! >
On Friday, I attended a Vistage webinar featuring Patrick Lencioni, the writer of 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, The Ideal Team Player, and The Motive. Lencioni has a new assessment he has developed called “Working Genius“. It is a great tool for assessing the “right seat on the bus*” for your team members. Assessment requires communication with the team member: letting them know regularly whether they are performing to your expectations. Lencioni said one of the biggest failures of many leaders is that they “wuss out.” I burst out laughing.
2 days into 2022 and I have kept all my New Year resolutions so far. How ‘bout you? I’d say we are all having a healthy new year. Yay for us!! >
Two things came together in my decision to make a Key Lime Slab Pie today: 1. I’ve been eyeing the Key Limes dropped around my neighbors tree unused for the last week, and 2. I bought Paul a ceramic pie slab and rolling pin for Christmas. You are probably wondering if Paul was the real beneficiary of the gifts, and I must confess, I’ve been more excited about them than he is.
So, why talk about my baking today? In my Vistage groups this month, we all did an exercise for 2022 goal planning. We each wrote down goals for health, wealth, business and joy. Then we shared them in small groups. They will all be adding them to a group tracking sheet and we will check back quarterly to see how they are doing.
Of course they had thought out their business goals. And health is often a topic of conversation in New Year’s planning. The one most energizing to discuss was goals around joy. First off, identifying what brings joy in this moment of our lives. We all have some habits or at least activities that we enjoy. Cooking for me is a daily pleasure. Just washing and chopping vegetables for a salad makes me happy. Weird, huh? Since we set our goals I’ve been paying attention to what brings me small moments of joy and trying to increase them. It doesn’t hurt anyone else and makes me more fun to be around.
So while the pie crust is cooling down for my pie, I’m writing this blog which also gives me joy to write. For you, it might be playing or listening to music. Or playing video games or tennis. Do you notice the word “play” keeps coming up? If you have not already committed to goals for next year, please commit to joy and add play to what you will do in 2022. You won’t be the only one who benefits.
After 2 weeks in Egypt and Jordan, there is so much to talk about and so much to put into a context of understanding. In the face of artifacts over 5000 years old, one might ask: what gets remembered? >
On our first day in Cairo, the tour guide greeted us with an eye rolling cliche – people are people everywhere. He continued: we want you to get to know the people of Egypt, not just our amazing historical buildings. Our guide in Jordan echoed similar sentiments. >
Many CEO’s that I work with as a Vistage Chair have a different reality from the title they show on their business cards. I call it the CWO- Chief “Whack-a-Mole” Officer. >
Perhaps you have hear the phrase from Darwin of survival of the fittest. It was a paraphrase of his studies of animal behavior all over the world. Perhaps you have also heard the story of the 2 guys lost in the jungle who hear a tiger roar. The first guy says we better run faster than that tiger. The second guy turns to him and says ” I don’t have to run faster than the tiger, I just have to run faster than you.” >
There are many ways in which all of us are aging, but are you getting old? I didn’t think of myself as old before the pandemic when being over 65 became a dangerous health condition. I worked long hours. I skied hard. I felt good most of the time. As a Vistage Chair, I was constantly exposed to the latest trends in business and paid close attention to future trends. None of that has changed.
Have you struggled with the question of whether leaders are born or made? If you are in a leadership position, did you get there because you had the right last name, because you pushed hard for it, or because you were selected? Or maybe it is a combination of all of these. >