In This Issue:
PROFILE:
Laurie Good
Each month we will profile someone in the business, non-profit or government sector who has shown superior leadership or management skills. If you know someone who should be profiled, please send the person's name, title, organization and contact information to edgeline.
NAME: Laurie Good
TITLE VP of Finance
COMPANY: Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation, Steamboat
Springs, CO
Laurie balances a challenging job with community and recreational activities. She is active in her community's Economic Development Council, art council and PTA. She loves camping, hiking and skiing.
What is most exciting about your current role?
The variety of lines of business to know and manage. The ski business is like a mini-mall: we run restaurants, retail shops, a Four Star Hotel, a large Call Center, a 120-unit apartment complex for employee housing, and of course, the ski resort. There is so much opportunity to learn new things and never a dull moment.
What is your biggest challenge?
Employee recruitment and retention. The ski business is a niche market. It is difficult to find employees with industry experience, so you must train them yourselves. The Gen Y employee wants to move up and move on quickly. Competition within a small, rural town for top employees is fierce.
Briefly describe an experience that taught you a lot about leadership or management.
I recall the first time I was promoted into a second-level manager position, managing managers rather than managing individuals. I felt like a fish out of water. My past success was based on my own hands-on, generated results. It was difficult for me to take satisfaction in providing direction, establishing a vision, setting goals. Those things seemed intangible and not as productive or valuable as getting a task done. Then after a year, I looked back and saw all that my team had accomplished. It hit me -- someone had to spend the time and effort looking forward to what we could be and champion change, otherwise we would have just been doing the same old, same old. There is huge value in having a vision and executing it.
What two or three traits or qualities will leaders need to be successful in the future?
An age-old trait: Good listening skills. Also, share wisdom; bring up the team around you.
What personal strengths have led to your own success?
I'm curious, and an independent thinker. I display high energy and commitment to the task. I'm willing to challenge the status quo, and offer opinions, ideas and solutions.
What are three tips you would offer to aspiring managers and leaders?
One, it all starts with confidence in yourself. Two, learn from everyone you can. Three, be mindful when speaking, be present when listening.
LAURIE GOOD
Born: St. Petersburg, FL, in 1962.
Education: Master's in finance, University of Colorado; bachelor's in accounting, Idaho State University.
Also worked at: Qwest, Nextel, StorageTek, Arthur Andersen & Co.
Family: Husband, Roger; daughter, Erica; two cats, a hamster and a fish.
Favorite quote: "We don't live in a world of reality, we live in a world of perceptions."Gerald J. Simmons
Favorite book: "The Da Vinci Code," by Dan Brown
Movie you found inspirational on the topic of leadership: "We are Marshall" offers a good example of creativity, ingenuity, and working beyond one's comfort zone.
Management Tip
When anticipating a difficult conversation with a subordinate, peer or boss, decide what outcome you're seeking and create a script for yourself. It will increase your confidence and guide the discussion. Jot down key points you want to cover. Review the sequence and verbiage of what you've written. Edit the script, with attention to emotional language, likely responses from the other person and diversity issues in play. Prepare yourself with the script but don't memorize it. Bring it along as a back-up reference but avoid reading or talking from it.
-Jacqui Love Marshall
Setting
goals for 2007?
Here's a roadmap for success
Good managers know that the path to achievement begins with a strong set of goals. For many organizations, though, the goals process seems to break down during the year. At the end, the results seem mushy, diluted, unsatisfying.
Here are common things that go wrong in a goals process—and thoughts about how to fix them:
1. We have goals, but they are the wrong ones. The leadership team has misread the competitive landscape, the needs of the marketplace or the capacity of the organization to deliver results. Early in the year, it is clear the company already is off plan and in the hole. To minimize the chances of this occurring, you need a goal-setting process that is rigorous about asking the right questions, and provides answers that are honest and realistic. In his book "Winning," Jack Welch provides a common-sense set of those fundamental questions: What does the playing field look like now? What is the competition up to? What have we been doing? What's around the corner? What's the winning move? To which I would add: Does this goal produce value for the customer? Even with a good process, the landscape might change. Build into the process periodic checkpoints that allow you to look at key business indicators and change the strategy, if necessary.
2. Goals? We have goals? Top executives, perhaps, know the goals, but someone has forgotten to tell everyone else in the organization. As a result, the company's initiatives fail to meet their mark. The winning move here is to communicate the goals repeatedly over multiple platforms until everyone is sick of hearing about them. Only then can you be sure they have fully entered employees' consciousness. Use meetings, e-mails, posters, contests, bonuses—whatever it takes. The CEO and his/her team should include mention of the company's top objectives every time they speak in a business setting. Also, help employees tie the goals to their own jobs. Have each employee write down what they will do specifically to help the organization meet the objectives. Include some of the key measures in the performance review process.
3. The goals aren't SMART enough. SMART, of course, means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. A lack of rigor in this area leads to mushy results. For each key goal of your organization, write a sentence that describes how it meets the SMART criteria. Decide on the key measurement by answering, "How will we know if we are being successful?" And put together a simple timeline for achieving each goal.
4. The goals aren't aligned across the organization. Once goals are set, it becomes management's responsibility to make sure the right people are implementing the goal, with the right resources and training. Policies and procedures are adjusted accordingly. Also, the goals in one division cannot run counter to something another division is doing. Designate someone examine each goal and ensure that implementation is effective across the organization.
5. Too many goals. By definition, setting a goal
means you have determined that achieving a certain objective is more
important than achieving some others. I worked in an organization that
at one point had "must goals"—18 to 20 of them. The average human
being can only focus on perhaps three things at a time. You might be
able to focus the organization on five goals. Any more than that pretty
much guarantees that none of your goals will be executed fully. Even
with just five goals, push yourself to identify just one that is the
most critical for the organization to accomplish. If you hit that one
out of the park by the end of the year, you probably will have moved
the organization forward.
WOMAN TALK: Finding the voice of leadership
By Dinah Eng
Vocal coach Arthur Joseph says a woman's voice is her identity, telling the world who she is, how she feels about herself, and whether she is a leader or not.
Joseph, a consultant to Hollywood celebrities and corporate executives, links vocal presentation skills with career advancement, and emphasizes that everything stems from having a clear vision of one's inner self.
"Voice is power, and when we own our voice, we own our power," says Joseph, the author of "Vocal Power: Harnessing the Power Within." "A strong woman is often emblazoned with a scarlet B on her chest, and unconsciously, it often results in refraining from claiming her power because of what others will think."
He notes that women who have attained leadership positions often have voices that can become strident and one-dimensional in delivery and nuance. The pitch is higher, the pace is faster, and the impression this leaves is not always one of authority and self-confidence.
Arthur advises women leaders to think about what they want their brand and persona to be, and to strategize about how to present themselves.
"What do you want to embody?" he says. "Practice before important talks, like job interviews and presentations. Record conversations like staff meetings and telephone conference calls. Use it like game film, like an athlete watching a performance. Listen, and understand why you speak the way you do."
One of the most common visual devices used by leaders in large group talks are PowerPoint presentations, says Joseph, who notes that the visuals will not prop up poor verbal skills.
"One of the biggest mistakes is repeating what's on the slide, so the audience is not listening to you, but is reading what is on the screen," Joseph says. "Often, the speaker's pitch goes too high because she's trying to reach the back of the house, and the voice loses authority. Most presenters read text that's information-based. Good presenters are storytellers who paint better visual pictures to evoke particular emotions with their words, pitch and tempo."
Joseph's clients have included actors like Pierce Brosnan and Angelina Jolie, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and executives for companies ranging from Ernst & Young to Hunt Wesson Foods. He teaches clients through workshops, private coaching, and online courses (www.vocalawareness.com).
"The voice of a leader is respectful and authentic," Joseph says.
"A leader has a responsibility to not talk at, but talk with people.
Vocal awareness teaches you to embody who you are, not just in a performance
situation, but in your whole life."
MANAGING DIVERSITY: The dangers of judging a book by its cover
By Jacqui Love Marshall
In anticipation of the much-advertised film starring Will Smith and his own son, I picked up a copy of "In Pursuit of Happyness," the book on which the movie is based. It is a personal memoir by Chris Gardner, a once-homeless father who now runs his own successful brokerage firm.
With all the childhood hardships and adult challenges Gardner faced, I can't say the book was a delight to read. But it was a refreshing reminder of how little we know about the early life experiences of the people around us who appear to have lived a privileged life—and how quick we are to define a person by their temporary circumstances.
Our family backgrounds, personal histories and life experiences shape our views of people and the world. Those views influence our attitudes and behaviors about others. We also possess a natural human reaction —to assess and draw conclusions within seconds of general observation —and most of the time it serves us well. But, sometimes, our quick-to-size-up instincts can create blind spots or feed into our own personal biases.
For example, if you're into traditional dress, you might find braids inappropriate, or think a young person's inexpensive and easily-crumpled garb doesn't match with the work environment. If I happen to know that an interviewee relied on public transportation to get to the interview, I might make presumptions about the person's ability to achieve. It might never occur to us that a candidate sold his car to support a seriously ill parent or that she braids hair on weekends to pay off college loans.
One of the poignant scenes in the book (and movie) occurs when the newly-homeless author has to show up at a long-awaited job interview wearing borrowed sneakers, pants and a paint-splattered jacket, but with no shirt or tie. Gardner is being interviewed for a stockbroker's training program and the outcome is critical to him being able to support himself and his young son. Under normal conditions, Gardner would have been given a cursory interview and never called back. But, lucky for Gardner, the hiring manager saw something of merit in him, despite the absence of a freshly-ironed shirt and tie. He looked beyond the unusual interview outfit and saw honesty, perseverance, intelligence, creativity and resilience from defeat.
Later, the brokerage head discovers that Gardner has shown up at the firm for 40 consecutive days to increase his chances for the training program and had scored "off the charts" in his screening exam. In the end, he pushed past his inclination to judge Gardner merely on his unfortunate temporary status (and probably some of his own pre-conceived notions) to consider him based on his character and potential to excel and bring new business into the firm. Not only did Gardner not disappoint; he exceeded all expectations. If our deeper instincts are on target, we can find someone whose potential for success far exceeds the temporary circumstances they are in when we meet them.
As a human resources professional and diversity specialist, the book and movie made me want to remind managers, despite our best training and experience, to look beyond a candidate's sometimes less-than-ideal personal presentation and evaluate him/her on skill, intelligence, drive and long-term potential for success in the job.
BOOK NOOK
State
of Denial: Bush at War, Part IIIBy Bob Woodward
Simon & Schuster, 2006
This highly readable narrative is destined as an important political and historical document, but it is also an instructive account on failures of management and leadership that could just as easily occur in business as they have in government. The top leader who is afraid to change course midstream during a time of crisis, even when it is clear the course is disastrous? The brilliant but bullying department head who has silenced dissent—at a cost to the organization? The focus on one "truth" without fully examining alternatives? Yes, think Bush, Rumsfeld, WMDs—but also think about lessons that can be applied in your organization. Woodward, the Washington Post's investigative icon, brings you directly into the administration's conference rooms, surrounding the most visible faces of the administration with an array of interesting behind-the-scenes actors. The biggest challenge is keeping track of them all.
- Larry Olmstead
ETHICS DILEMMA: Praise those who question your expenses
Jerry Ceppos
will answer questions about ethical issues every month. Along with two
others, he received the first Ethics in Journalism Award of the Society
of Professional Journalists. Write Jerry at jceppos@aol.com. Tell him if you don't want
your name used.
Q. My administrative assistant periodically asks me questions about my expense account. As the boss, should I put up with that?
A. Assuming he or she is polite, you should not only put up with it but take two additional steps:
1. Say a little prayer of thanks.
2. Tell the assistant how much you appreciate the questions.
Here's why:
In the old days, expenses seemed pretty straightforward. Get a paper receipt for your $2.50 breakfast at the airport and turn it in for reimbursement. Today things aren't so simple. Company and personal credit cards are easy to confuse. Once, seconds after I made a big personal purchase of a computer, I realized that I had used the company card. The store couldn't figure out how to cancel the transaction. Fortunately, I had caught my mistake and immediately wrote a check to the company. If I hadn't, I hope that my assistant would have caught the error. Online purchases can be confused, too, if you use, say, Amazon for both personal and corporate purchases. What you DON'T want is to be questioned by auditors about your expenses. What you DO want is for your assistant to catch mistakes first. Be sure to remember to say thanks for the questions. It's sometimes uncomfortable to question your boss—but absolutely essential.
Leading Edge Associates is a consulting firm engaged in management training, organizational change, succession planning, executive coaching, diversity and media.