Women In Business

In 1995, none of the Fortune 500 companies had a single women CEO among them. As a classic commercial once penned, “you’ve come a long way baby.”

 

Fast forward to January 2015… And there are now 25 women CEO’s who are at the leadership helm of Fortune 500 companies. In fact, according to the latest research by the women’s leadership group “The Club”, as of January 2015 women account for 51.4% of management and professional occupations.

 

Since the dawn of the twenty first century, women have been at the forefront of entrepreneurial business launches. This clearly accounts for the fact that there are currently 10.6 million business enterprises that have 50% (or higher) ownership by women.

 

A study conducted by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman (http:// blogs.forbes.com/jackzenger) in 2011 found that women were seen as better leaders “…at every level, more women were rated by their peers, their bosses, their direct reports, and their other associates as better overall leaders than their male counterparts – and the higher the level, the wider the gap grows.”

 

Additionally, there are other studies that find that companies with a higher representation of women in their management ranks have higher employee productivity and are more “profitable”.

 

From the stand point of personal experience, I have observed that there appears to be a far greater interest on the part of women in acquiring formal leadership development training. Moreover, women tend to immerse themselves in the leadership training more earnestly, while coming to the workshops more prepared.

 

When I observe women in business today, there is a great deal of focus on women empowering other women, especially in the form of mentoring, business groups and networking. Women seem more willing to openly share the keys for their success. I find this willingness to be a remarkable leadership trait that is enabling women leaders to pull other women up by their bootstraps and equip them to join the leadership ranks as well.

 

As a woman colleague stated to me several years ago, in order for her to achieve the level of success that she desired, she had to juggle three full time jobs… her career, her family and her home.

 

There is an old adage which says that “necessity is the mother of invention”. Just perhaps, it was my colleagues three full time responsibilities that served to sharpen her time management, setting priorities, communication, problem solving and decision making skills among others.

 

The other key attribute that I have also observed in women leaders is their ability to strike a more appropriate degree of “work-life” balance.

 

At a both a personal and professional level, I have a great deal of respect and empathy for women is business. Given my profession, this would be most understandable. However, it comes from a deeper awareness in that I have a permanently disabled wife and adult son which has caused me as well to juggle those same three full time responsibilities of career, family and home.

 

All of the available research continues to confirm that we now live in a time where women are fast becoming the most talented and respected leaders in their organizations. They garner more respect and cooperation, build better teams and are more adept in assessing the talent and resources that are required to achieve their organization’s goals.

 

As your valued resource partner, we stand ready to assist your organization, its leadership and your people to… Learn more… Do more… Become more.

Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC

How To Deal With Emotionally Charged Situations

As a leader, it is essential for you to have highly developed people skills, especially when it comes to dealing with “emotionally” charged situations.

 

In today’s pressure laden workplace, tension, stress and emotions lie at the heart of virtually every situation. Interactions in the Boardroom and management meetings have become as heated as the Friday night fights. When leaders allow their tempers to flare and their emotions to influence their actions, the outcomes are certain to send a negative ripple surging throughout the organization.

You need only recall former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford barreling over a City Councilor during a city council meeting or the recent Parliament brawls in Turkey, Ukraine and Britain’s House of Commons – To be soberly reminded of the impacts of humanity’s negative potential, even at the highest levels of leadership. When emotions run high, leadership will all too often falter, thereby impacting performance, productivity and morale. 

The circumstance which I am referring to, serves as the basis for what the authors of the NY Times bestseller refer to as “Crucial Conversations”. As you have experienced, crucial conversations occur in personal life and business on a regular basis. These interactions range from conflict resolution, providing constructive criticism, policy and procedure, compensation, task assignments and differences of opinion, to name a few examples.

It is important to understand that there are three specific components that comprise crucial conversations, which consist of:

            ● The “stakes” are high (there is much at risk).

            ● Emotions run high (are emotionally charged).

            ● Opinions differ widely (lack of consensus).

In most situations, as can be readily understood, these crucial conversations and subsequent behaviors don’t usually fare well. Crucial conversations typically have a pronounced negative affect on personal well-being, organizational well-being and that of everyone else involved.

The unfortunate reality is that you find yourself in this type of conversational scenario on a regular basis. The salient question for you to answer as a leader is… “How can I remain in control of my emotions, while diffusing these crucial conversations?

As stressed by the authors of Crucial Conversations, it is necessary to be crystal clear about what is important in each given situation. This can best be accomplished by first determining what is “important” to you as an individual and as a leader. They suggest that you begin this process by answering the following questions:

            ● What do I really want for “myself”?

            ● What do I really want for “others”?

            ● What do I really want for the “relationship”?

After you have honestly arrived at answers for these three questions, take a few more moments to answer this final question:

            ● How would I choose to behave if I really wanted these outcomes?

 

Authentic leaders learn how to use this process to bridle their emotions for the greater good of all parties. Their ability to generate positive responses to these questions, helps them to reframe their attitudes about crucial conversations while taking personal responsibility for how they were initially feeling and reacting. Resultantly, calmer mindsets ensued which provided a more constructive foundation on which to engage the conversation.

A leader’s ability to become better grounded and appropriately focused, ultimately sets a more positive tone for the crucial conversation which thereby assists other participants to also engage with a more positive and expective approach.

The development of right attitudes, self-discipline and effective communication are essential competencies for leaders who want to remain in control of their emotions while handling and diffusing crucial conversations.

As your valued resource partner, we can readily assist your organization, its leadership and your people with the developmental training and processes that will help them to… Learn more… Do more… Become more.

Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC

Redefining Your Perspective

What exactly is it that you absolutely must (without fail) do today? An important report? Your presentation for this afternoon’s management meeting? Or perhaps a project deadline?

 

Like yourself, your people are also focusing on the things that they are responsible for, that as well must be completed today. They sweat the deadlines and potential consequences, just as you do, should they not measure up on this given day.

When you were growing up, your parents advised you repeatedly to “do it now”. The companion piece of advice that they also provided was “don’t put off till tomorrow, what you can do today”. More than likely, you have as well passed these words of wisdom along to your own children.

Throughout the years and course of your life, you have been repetitively taught to live and function in the here and now. I have no doubt that at some point one or more of your teachers told you to stop day dreaming, stay in the present and focus on your schoolwork. Moreover, the act of having been singled out in front of your classmates may have served to make you feel rather embarrassed.

The scenarios which have just been described have created a powerful set of habits and feelings that continue to influence your behavior to this very day. As a direct result of these patterns of influence, you and your people have been conditioned to engage in localized thinking and perspective.

Your predominant focus is that of being “short” term (local). In other words, you are primarily focused on what has to done and accomplished today, while being secondarily focused on what must be addressed in the next several days. i.e. Project deadline today… important meeting tomorrow morning… Johnny’s soccer game tomorrow evening and your mom’s surprise birthday party on Saturday.   

Much like your daily work tasks, you can only tackle so many at one time. Given the hectic pace of life and work, you and your people are typically so focused on everything that literally has to happen in the “now”, that it becomes increasingly more difficult to contemplate the “future”.

The inability of people in mass to think long term has become the new normal. This is precisely why according to “Investors Insight” that only 11% of the Baby Boomer generation are financially prepared for retirement. It is also why only 3% of people actually have real goals. In business, many once heralded household names no longer exist in the marketplace because they failed to see the big picture and the need to think long term. They ultimately failed due to their own short sightedness.

What I am attempting to call your attention to is the critical need for you, your people and your organization to shift to what astronaut and Colonel Ron Garan has come to call the “Orbital Perspective”. While logging 71 million miles aboard the International Space Station, he was awe stuck first by the view of earth from space, then secondarily by the fact that he was orbiting the planet below in an amazing feat of engineering that was the result of 15 nationalities successfully collaborating on earth and then in space.

For Colonel Garan, the opportunity to gaze from outer space, brought the earth down to size and diversity into a new perspective… that human beings need to apply the same spirit of collaboration and creativity to their everyday lives and work down here on the planet’s surface.

It is only when we stop to lift our heads, hands and hearts from our immediate tasks that we will be able to envision what opportunities lie in front of us, rather than what rests on our work bench and at our feet. We must first take time to look up, if we are ever going to truly see our potential future.

As Colonel Garan relished his crystal clear vision from space, the longer he observed, the more details of earth came into focus. While you may be earth bound, you can still experience something quite similar. Quite possibly, you have done this years ago and the experience has dimmed a bit over time.

On a clear night well after dark, go to a place where there are no outside lights to distract your vision. The look upward to the stars. Just relax, enjoy the view and be patient with yourself for a while. What you will soon discover is, that the longer you look, the more stars you will see and the brighter they will become. Such is the essence of your future, if you choose to see it.

Afterwards, simply know that this same principle works universally and that it will work for you, just as it did for Colonel Garan. Then adapt an Orbital Perspective to your life, your work, your people and your organization. Start looking up at the “Big Picture”, as well as focusing on a long term view of a new and brighter future. 

As your organization and people cease thinking locally and begin the process of thinking Orbital (globally), your collaborative efforts will lead you to share Colonel Garan’s belief that “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth, only crewmates.”

For we are all here for the same reason and we all share a common purpose.

As your valued resource partner, we can readily assist your organization, its leadership and your people to… Learn more… Do more… Become more. 

Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC

Potential, Pinocchio and Truth

At this point in time and considering how often it has been shown, you have undoubtedly seen the Geico commercial which portrays Pinocchio as a bad motivational speaker.

 

As someone who is a motivational speaker, I would hate to begin my presentation with such a stereotypical cliché. With no pun intended, Pinocchio clearly points out what an abstract expression “potential” really is.

Moreover, the concept of potential is highly interpretive. How do you personally define potential? Is your definition for other people such as your children or those who you lead professionally conform to the same definition that you hold for your own self-potential? How does your organization define potential when it comes to its employees?

As you can see, there is no clear line in the sand when it comes to exactly what potential is. The concept of human potential is subjectively (and often unrealistically) linked to human expectation. This is often typified by employers who exhibit the corporate attitude “what can you do for me today?”. Then, there are overbearing parents who continually pressure their child to become a doctor or lawyer… because that is what the parent wants for the child.

While I can tell you first hand that throughout my life, other people saw my capabilities (potential) long before I did. Unfortunately, many of these people kept harping at me that “I wasn’t working up to my potential”. The problem with this approach was that it didn’t help me in any way to understand what this mystical potential was, let alone help me to utilize it. Rather than making me want to reach higher and work harder, in reality it made me feel inferior while sending a clear message that “I simply didn’t measure up”.

Thank the good Lord above… that He put some other people in my path along the road of life who not only saw my capabilities, they took the time to point them out to me and then proceeded to mentor me in learning how to develop them. While I could elaborate in further detail, those are stories for another day.

What I want to focus on in present time is the need to clarify what potential is. Confucius observed that “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”  

Winston Churchill believed that “Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking your potential”.

While these observations indicate that your will coupled with your continuous effort will help you discover what your potential is -- I have come to comprehend and to teach that your actual potential is simply your “capacity and need to do something better”. 

The reality is that every individual and every organization have the ability to better utilize their talents, abilities, skills, resources and assets to improve some aspect of their everyday performance.

Therefore, you, your people and your organization are already equipped (have the capacity) to make significant improvements (do something better) in actual performance. What remains for individuals and organizations to determine is where is it that you specifically “need” to improve.

What is the most important thing (top priority) that you need to change or improve? What skills and abilities do your people have that your organization needs that to help them use more often, more effectively and more successfully?

When you view the issue of potential from this perspective, there is far more clarity about what your potential is (what are you capable of doing better), where your potential lies (what skills, talents & abilities are on board and already available) and how to harness such potential (what is your most important need).

Making improvements to individual and organization performance along with identifying and tapping into your potential is a “process”.

As your valued resource partner, we can readily assist your organization, its leadership and your people with the processes that will enable them to… Learn more… Do more… Become more.

Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC

My Door Is Always Open

When most people stop to consider what qualities and attributes contribute to someone being a good leader, they generally cite qualities such as honesty, integrity and trustworthiness.

 

Aside from these particular personal attributes, it is also common perspective that good leaders must be effective problem solvers, decision makers and communicators.

While many leaders actually embody these qualities and attributes, their leadership potential is often thwarted due to an absence of another essential leadership element that is all too often overlooked.

This important element is “accessibility”. As you think back over your working years, just how many of your various leaders professed to have an “open door” policy, yet somehow they never happened to be available when their people needed them?

When individuals who have been placed in leadership roles declare that “my door is always open” and then fail to be accessible to those who they are charged with the responsibility of leading – They are ultimately doing a huge disservice to their people, their organization and their own career.

From an employee’s perspective, when their leader tells them “if you need me for any reason, my door is always open to you”… While it may sound good, perhaps even reassuring to some degree, the vast majority of employees simply aren’t buying it based on their prior experiences.

The truth of the matter is that most employees are apprehensive about availing themselves of an open door scenario. Only in the most dire and urgent of situations will they actually consider approaching their leader. And even then, more so out of necessity than actual want to.

For the organization and the leader, the consequences are that you won’t know that there is a problem until such time as it has already become a “crisis”. The important questions, concerns, complaints and creative ideas that would have impacted your organization either positively or negatively… will simply never surface to see the light of day. 

The day to day reality of business at any level is that people have questions that require real answers, instructions that need clarification and problems that need solving. In like fashion, they also require general direction, support and encouragement.

However, when employees continuously find that their leaders are perpetually on the phone, in a meeting or out of the office – the rank and file is left in the daunting position of having to fend for itself. The results of which usually come at the expense of the organization.

While a quintessential function of leadership is that of dealing with challenges, especially people challenges – It is the very challenge of being an individual leader, that most leaders collectively struggle with.

The more successful that you and your organization become, the more exceeding are the demands for your “time”. Your finite amount of time on a daily basis is divided up between an ever increasing number of people and situations. Your prerequisite challenge is that to become an authentic leader, you must also truly be an available and accessible leader.

Leadership’s Catch-22 very much parallels Newton’s Law of Physics, where for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For when you as a leader devote your time to a particular person or situation, you are conversely taking time away from other people and circumstances that are concurrently competing for the finite amount of time you have to work with.

This is precisely why you must learn to become proactive as an accessible leader who clearly understands their need to be visible, accessible and involved with the people whom you lead.

Given that leadership is also about recognizing your priorities, make it your daily priority to visit with your employees, have meaningful two way communication with them and consequently learn firsthand what is really happening in this segment of your organization’s operation.

For when you do, not only will you truly be an accessible leader… you will be a highly respected leader that people willingly choose to follow.

As your valued resource partner, we can readily assist your organization, its leadership and your people to… Learn more… Do more… Become more.

 
Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC

In The Absence Of Integrity

One of the hallmark qualities of an authentic leader is his or her “integrity”. And when a leader violates their own integrity, they also violate the leadership role that they were responsible to fulfill, as well as violate the people who had come to trust them as their leader.

In the course of the past week, there have been two high profile circumstances of leadership integrity being violated in dramatic fashion. First came NBC Nightly News anchor and managing editor Brian Williams who was exposed for falsely embellishing his news reports. Next came the resignation of Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber amid a growing corruption scandal.

When hundreds of millions of American workers (just like those in your organization) arrive home at the end of their workday and turn on the evening news, their expectation is to not only catch up on the news of the day – It is also their expectation to receive the factual truth about what is happening in the world around them. For whatever reason yet unrevealed, Brian Williams decided to go down the road of something other than the factual truth.

As a society, we have come to live in a time when the integrity of leadership is constantly under the microscope and more often than not in doubt. Most people simply lack confidence and resultant trust in their civic leaders, business leaders, government leaders and even religious leaders.

The corruption scandal driven resignation of Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber comes on the heels of former Virginia Governor and once hopeful Presidential candidate Robert F. McDonnell having been sentenced to federal prison after being convicted along with his wife Maureen, the former First Lady of Virginia, on corruption charges.   

Even during the weeks leading up to the recent Super Bowl, issues of integrity swirled in the midst of professional football’s “inflate-gate”. The issue of leadership integrity being comprised is no longer an isolated circumstance now and then. Rather, it seems to be taking on epidemic proportions as stories of failed leadership integrity continue to surface week in and week out.

In view of today’s unprecedented breaches of leadership integrity on a global scale, it isn’t any wonder that people everywhere have become particularly suspect of their leadership in the workplace. Just like their evening news, when people show up at their employer’s place of business each day, they too “expect to receive the factual truth about what is happening in the workplace around them.”  

 

Like the hub of a wheel, integrity is what connects so many other vital aspects of leadership. And when integrity is lost, it causes an adverse cascade much like that of a domino effect. Without integrity, there is no respect. Without respect, there is no trust. Without trust, there is no credibility. Without credibility, there is no cooperation. I need not elaborate further.

A major leadership lesson that authentic leaders have emphatically learned at the hands of the former leaders who compromised and then subsequently lost their integrity is that… the “truth” matters. Ethics matter. The reason they matter is because whether your success manifests as tangible or intangible, success will always be substantive. Success in what every form it comes, is something of value, something to behold. Therefore, it must not only be “earned”, it must be earned fair and square. 

 

Simply stated, you can’t short cut, cheat or steal your way to success. That is precisely why there are patent and copyright laws. They protect the integrity of people, their work and their future accomplishments.

As President Dwight D. Eisenhower put it… “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army or in an office”.

In the absence of the highest degree of integrity, your organization will be absent of the prerequisite leadership that is necessary to fulfill its potential and that of its human resources.

As your premier training resource partner, we can readily assist in the development of your leadership, your people and their ability to … Learn more… Do more… Become more.

Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC

When Talent Walks Out The Door

Have you ever lost an employee that you didn’t want to lose or possibly couldn’t afford to lose?

For most organizations, the material costs of employee turnover are more than evident. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), its cost estimate for replacing a salaried employee is between six and nine months of that employee’s salary on average.

The SHRM cost estimate may actually fall at the lower end of loss scale, as other industry experts and economists state that replacing a talented employee can cost as much as two times their annual salary.

Regardless of where you exactly peg it, the replacement cost that occurs when talent walks out the door is huge. Moreover, the important caveat here is that this is only the “replacement” cost. While the material/financial costs of employee turnover are clearly substantial, there should be an equal and commensurate focus on the intangible cost to your organization from the ripple effect that talent loss permeates throughout the organization.

The ripple effect ever so subtlety makes it way to the shores that stretch from the boardroom to the boiler room. Executives begin asking… “What is causing our organization to keep losing such talented people, especially after the substantial investment that we have made in them.”  All the while, front line employees throughout the organization are asking “Why did John Smith suddenly decide to leave the organization?”

These are upfront questions that could be considered normal, reasonable and to some degree predictable. Of course, every organization has its culture and its internal grapevine. So before long, reasonable questions turn into rumors and speculation that ultimately lack substance.

Let’s be honest here… It’s no secret that employees in mass recognize the talents and abilities of their fellow peers. And when a talented individual chooses to jump ship, it is most assuredly going to raise the question “why”. However, the questioning process doesn’t stop there. Rather, it serves as the beginning of a series of questions, such as… “Did John Smith know something that we don’t know?” “Did John Smith get off a sinking ship before it actually sinks?” “Is our company in financial trouble and we don’t know it.” And… the beat goes on.

These are the kind of ripples that travel much more like a tsunami and their effect is just as destructive. For when attitudes become “infected”, many detrimental things can occur beginning with poor moral and declining productivity.

Given that human nature and human behavior are often quite predictable, the act of a hardworking and talented individual like John Smith suddenly leaving the company and catching his peers off guard is certainly bound to raise some red flags.

Unfortunately, it is also bound to create a very real sense of job insecurity, worry and anxiety. As I recently cited a few weeks back, 70% of American workers don’t feel secure in their job and with their company/organization.

In many cases with diligent-hardworking-talented people… organizations just like yours, don’t see the warning signs until the employee is sitting there smack in front of you informing you that they are leaving and there is nothing more that you or the organization can do to change their mind.

The reality of this scenario which plays out every business day is that all of the compliments, pats on the back, awards, raises and even promotions don’t in the end provide the true measure of what the employee has been longing for all along.

They don’t merely want to be appreciated for their talents, abilities and technical skills… because in the age of robotics, they perceive themselves to simply be one and nothing more in the eye of your organization. As stated earlier, human nature is highly predictable. Ever since their early childhood when these individuals were endlessly trying to gain their parent’s approval, the thing that they wanted most in life was to be “valued” as an “individual”.

Once your organization has been afforded an ample opportunity to measure up and subsequently failed to meet the employee’s litmus test of being truly valued… talent will walk straight out the door and never look back.

It’s important to remember that your organization’s culture and practices are a vivid reflection of your organizations leadership and its attitudes toward employees… And that your people are staring into that mirror 24/7.

As your valued resource partner, we can readily assist your organization, its leadership and your people to… Learn more… Do more… Become more.

Copyright © 2015 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC