Zane Safrit

Can You Solve Your Culture Conflict?

The USDA is the same organization that designates what food is officially organic and how much untreated animal manure is too much for our open waterways. Well, to date, they haven't cried Uncle or Stop or issue standards on how much is too much; we'll keep waiting.

That's quite a range. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote:

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

But, can it be said that the FDA has a first-rate intelligence when it accommodates two opposing principles: approving food as 100% organic while allowing twice as much untreated manure to enter the open waterway from the CAFO’d hogs in one Iowa county as the sewage from the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. (Iowa has 99 counties.) Link.

While an first-rate intelligence can hold two opposing thoughts, can a consumer embrace the USDA as a trusted source for food safety?

What's all this got to do with your business?

• Where's your culture conflict?
• Where is your culture's bi-polar duality expressed in a dysfunctional manner in the markeplace?
• Where do you say one thing, on your website, and execute another in your rules and tactics?
• Where in your employee engagement do you say 'we love you' or 'you're the most important part of our success 'and then silence or ignore their suggestions or needs?

As a leader you're very likely insulated by org chart and careers from this cognitive dissonance of your company's culture conflict. It happens; it's not personal. We all are constantly re-defining ourselves as we move through life. And since companies are people, too, my friend, companies are re-defining their brand, their culture, their identity.

Joss Whedon* offered this insight at a recent commencement address he gave:

You have, which is a rare thing, that ability and the responsibility to listen to the dissent in yourself, to at least give it the floor, because it is the key — not only to consciousness, but to real growth. To accept duality is to earn identity. And identity is something that you are constantly earning. It is not just who you are. It is a process that you must be active in.

This contradiction, and this tension … it never goes away. And if you think that achieving something, if you think that solving something, if you think a career or a relationship will quiet that voice, it will not.

Every company at one time was personal. Very personal. Every company was built on relationships. And then bureaucracy and rules, departments and titles, creeped in. ( Some of those rules and titles may prefer to handle dissent with a different approach. Rule it out, discourage it, punish its advocates. Ask GM how that approach worked.)

Now you may not even know the name of your most recent hire. It may be months or years since you spoke to a customer, one on one. That's very different than reading a report, even if it's a report of their collective or individual Net Promoter Scores.That's very different than considering personas, too.

That's where the culture conflict arises. In that process, that transition, from a culture of relationships, of knowing and experiencing, of passion, of looking in the eye honesty to one of distanced and nuanced reports, of territories and postures, saying what is thought to be right....for some other audience, for some other reason...you (the corporate and personal 'you') stopped listening to the dissent, to the dissenters and disruptors in yourself (corporate and personal selves).

Somewhere along the line the USDA lost sight of its purpose to protect our  food supply. Its big now. Vast and anonymous. Reports and procedures and unknown decision-makers for unknown, unspoken stakeholders. No one's listening to...dissent. Sound familiar?

What if Tom Vilsack, the head of the USDA and former Governor of Iowa, stopped reading reports and making speeches to Chambers of Commerce, left his/her smart phone turned off. What if he went out to a grocery store and met with the ultimate customer of the USDA: shoppers. Families and kids, grandparent and parents. What if he asked them:

• Do you feel safer?
• Are we helping you make better choices for the health of your family?
• What can we do better?

But for you, what if you walked out of your office, sat on a park bench and called a customer?

• What if you asked the three questions of the Net Promoter Score? Then you could hear the customer's voice as they answered?

What if you just asked them:

• How do we make your life better, easier, simpler, happier?
• Do we?
• What can we do better?

Now. What if you did that with your employees? I don't mean just your direct reports. I mean the newest hire. What if you sat down and asked that person:

• What do you hope to achieve here?
• What could you achieve?
• What would you need to achieve that?
• What stands in your way?
• Where's our culture conflict? Where's the gap between our promise and our delivery?

What if you made this a regular habit? Walked outside that box you've created.

What if you began to reconcile your company's culture now with what it had been, back when it was exciting and fun and crazy and you were growing?

What if?

How to improve leadership productivity via @Resultsdotcom

Stephen Lynch, COO of Results.com, wrote another excellent post today. It's titled: How to Improve Leadership Productivity.

As I read it, I nodded my head, smiled and said Yep...yep...bam...spot-on. Read it and see what happens. I'll entice you with my favorite snippet. It's a favorite for its timeliness today.

Avoid wasting time with unecessary meetings.

• If you are running the meeting, ask yourself – do you really need to have this meeting at all?
• If you are invited to a meeting, ask yourself – do you really need to attend, or is it a better use of your time to review a copy of the meeting notes afterwards? (This decision can be a catalyst to improve the quality of note taking and decision making in your absence)
• Only invite those who absolutely need to be at a meeting to discuss the topics in question. If you are presenting an issue to your manager, make sure you are not “reverse delegating” (see below).
• Create an agenda to define the purpose of the meeting, and the specific topics to be discussed
• Prioritize the agenda so the most important issues are dealt with first
• Send the agenda out with a reasonable notice period so people can come prepared and ready to contribute
• Make a clear decision as to what the next action step is for each agenda item – even if you only solve 1 issue on the agenda
• Capture each task in Business Execution Software - to make sure it gets done by the due date

 

Who Is the 11th Thinker Executives Should Listen To?

via www.businessinsider.com

Here is a list of 10 Thinkers that Executives Actually Listen To.

Each thinker on that list is a great one, and a great presenter.

And CEOs, etal, should regularly and repeatedly open your vision to these broader strategic concepts...futures and have your vision broadened by those as far-seeing and brilliant and articulate and far-seeing as this list of 10...

But at the same time, you should...remember that right next to you or down the hall is an expert who sees very clearly how their/your organization brings meaning or doesn't or how it could bring meaning...and how they could participate to expand that meaning and profit for you and for them and their career.

Add one to the list.

NUMBER 11: Your organization members, your colleagues, your co-workers, your team members, your employees. Those who sit beside you every day thinking about how to get their job done, reach their goals, serve their customers, find some meaning...they're pretty good thinkers, too. And it's their thinking, every day, every hour of every day they strive to bring success to their organization that makes it a success and creates a platform where those other 10 thinkers can add meaning.

 

2 Questions, Really

Tom Rieger, author of Breaking the Fear Barrier: How Destroys Companies from the Inside Out and What to Do About It, was a guest on the radio show last year. About two-thirds of the way through our conversation, he talked about 2 questions he uses in his consulting practice.

He asked each prospective client these questions prior to the start of a formal agreement. If the client answered yes to both, then their relationship could move forward.

The two questions were:

1. Is everything on the table? Or tell us what it isn't.
2. Are you ready to look at yourself in the mirror?

I loved those questions. I loved how he phrased the first question. Hard to wiggle out of that one, isn't it?

The proverbial ding! went off, It was a two-prong ding, maybe a ding-dong, like a doorbell with good news knocking.

• The ding came from wishing I had asked these same questions in the past with client prospects.
• The dong came when I realized I could do that now, moving forward.

Tom's two questions, our conversation, hung around. It would revisit me when I would be out running. Two questions. So simple. Save so much time.

The other day, also out on a run, I realized at this point why that conversation kept hanging around, ringing in my head in quieter moments. Those two questions apply to all of our relationships.

1. Is everything on the table? Or tell me what it isn't.
2. Are we ready to look at ourselves in the mirror?

Trust me here, I'm not saying I can answer yes to these two questions in every situation. I certainly haven't in the past, always to my detriment. I understand that now.

But I am saying...whether we're frontline employees, part-time help, C-Suite executives, in school, out of work, ...these are two questions that determine our success. Environments where we can answer yes to them....are environments where we can be successful. Matter of fact, that's the only environment where we can be successful.

That's all. I mean, it's just two questions.

Have a great week.

* You can read notes from that portion of our conversation here.

* You can listen to our full conversation here.

Interview with Richard B. Sanford: Author of Success by Design, Part Two

Richard B. Sanford launched eleven successful small enterprises over a 40+ year career, creating 11 successful companies during that time.

He joined the show recently to talk about how he accomplished this and his new book: SUCCESS BY DESIGN: How to Create Ever-Increasing Income, Profit & Wealth in the World of Small Business.

You can listen here.

You can read Part One of our conversation here.

In his book, Richard compiled what principles, steps, tip and practices brought him this success over 40 years. His book shows the reader how to think and use "SIMPLIFIED STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLANNING" to generate ever increasing income, profits and wealth in the world of small business.

One of the reasons I love your book is you wrote

There are many things out of our control. Customer Service is not one of them.

Dumb question, but it seems no one answers it well: why do so many companies either ignore customer service or control it by minimizing it?

They don’t have a strategic plan. And, in the strategic plan you address an objective about how are we going to treat the people who buy from us, the people we want to buy from us.

How will we consider them?

Why is it important to nurture them and in nurturing them does service play animportant part? Yes.

How will we define our service?

So, in reading these annual reports, it’s so interesting to read them not only in bug business, stock company’s annual reports but in small business. Look at the cars and trucks driving around the advertisements and they talk about service. And most, usually, it’s a joke.

“We’re the best in the valley!”

These big fat claims that are all subjective and not objective. You can’t evaluate them. how do you hold a business accountable, if you’re the customer and you’re buying pool services, which I did this week. And I needed a new pool service company because the company I’m using isn’t getting the job done. And so, I looked at the ads and I finally made a selection.

And I asked them how do you rate your service. And they said:

“Well, we give the best.”

“ I don’t know what best means. Could you define it for me? “

Several of the company stumbled all over themselves. They couldn’t define it. I want an objective statement.

About 25 years ago, I started working on that. I was preparing some sales and marketing materials about our service, which was incredibly outstanding. Finally, I came to the conclusion that you have to make the service statement quantifiable, so it can be measured by the customer. And I came up with a 3-part statement on our service.

And that reflected on my strategic plan about how I would manage effective service in the company. And it worked like magic. And I share that in my book as well. I give it to the world.

That’s such a great answer, especially the quantifiable answer. I see the same stock stuff of world class customer service.

Yeah, how can you hold them accountable for doing that? You say:

“You didn’t give me world-class customer service!”

“Well, what do you mean...?”

“It’s your statement. Define it for me.”

“I don’t know how to do it.”

“ What value is it?”

And right there is an integrity issue.

Your next step is the Action Plan and the Action Planning Process. What are the 5 steps with the Action Planning Process?

Well, first of all, that would be skipping over the next step in strategic planning. It goes Mission to Purpose and then doing your research and development and establishing objectives. And I establish objectives in the 5 or 6 or 7 areas of business function.

What will finance and accounting objective be, our personnel objectives be, our sales objectives be, our marketing and promotions objectives be, our manufacturing process objectives be?

Because in each of those functions of your business needs a values statement or objective. For instance, Finance and Accounting. An objective is:

“Never spend more than we take in.”

Sound pretty simple?

Pretty straight forward.

Secondly:

“Never fail to report every penny of income.”

Why is that important? Well, if you fail to report a penny of income you are defrauding the government. And there’s some pretty severe penalties for that.

Now, on the expense side, Thurgood Marshall - a Supreme Court Justice - wrote a treatise on the fact that you take every business expense you can then you can argue with the IRS is legitimate or not. And that is not breaking the law.

You report every penny of revenue otherwise there are serious penalties for defrauding the government.

And there are others. So, you set up these objectives.

And once you have your objectives then you say, the question comes:

“How will we do it?”

And there in lies your strategies and action plans.

Listening to you talk about the need to report every penny of income, there’s an adage that if you’re going to defraud the IRS on that level then you are likely to defraud your self or your partners on another level.

Exactly. It’s a value.

And that’s going to manifest into defrauding your employees, your customers, your investors.

I had to laugh when you pointed out what I overlooked. I tend to be impulsive and quickly assess what needs to be done and just jump ahead to the action plan.

Yeah. Most entrepreneurs do that.

“Let’s get in there and do some action.”

“Ok. What kind of action? How are you going to measure it? What do you do if it doesn’t work? ”

So, once you have your values in place, your values of business, meaning your objectives, in each of those elements then you can measure your action plan. That starts with a strategy, that’s followed up by the tasks and tactics and the timelines and who’s going to do that.

You have a strateguy. And that is to say Expand our marketing budget and reach this new market. That’s a strategy.

Well, what’s the task involved? Well, Charlie needs to sit down and create some new sales material. And then we need to decide which advertising medium we’re going to use. And what frequency and how will we measure it? And once that’s done, we let the contract. And, our timeline to complete this is 3.5 weeks by this date. And Charlie’s involved in making this happen.

There’s one unit of strategic action. And you write it down.

Well, why do you do that? Because next week you have a business meeting with your leaders or managers and you ask Charlie:

“What’s our progress? Show me.”

Simple.

Does that mean you always make your timelines? No. But at least you know you have to adjust them.

If you have a timeline then everyone can organize and prioritize their day to stay up with it.

Exactly. It stays in the entrepreneur’s head. And then you have people say

“Well, I didn’t know you had to have it done by March 1st. It will take longer than that.”

Then there’s always the discussion of why isn’t it done?

If you lock up the ideas in the entrepreneur’s head and don’t write it down, how can you expect anyone to perform? It gives manager’s confidence. Yeah, it puts them under pressure, but we’re all under pressure. But it gives them exactly what’s expected of them. And then if you have a personnel problem, then you can go back to your plan and ask what our objectives in the human resources area?

"Well, Number One is that we respect each employee.
We expect each employee to respect the responsibilities of the job.
Number three, failure to do so then we are obligated to help them find a job where they can perform, either inside or outside the company."

Where in your 40 years of business experience, where does this process usually break down?

One area where this process breaks down is when an entrepreneur is frightened to share their ideas and their plans for fear that someone is going to steal them and go into competition with them.

What that does is severely limit an entrepreneur’s ability to grow. And I discuss that in the book. Planning meetings where the entrepreneur finally has to say:

You know, if I treat my people right and I reward them for success, I’m not greedy, probably 75-80% of them will stay with me. And those that don’t often become the 80% that fail if they try to go into competition because they don’t pay the price. They’re the short-cutters. Not all of them...

I helped develop managers and several of them I helped go into competition with me in slightly different markets because I wanted the reputation in the company that

“ Work for Dick Sanford and his company. They do a great job, they do it right. They grow. He’s tough as nails sometimes; he expects performance. But boy I sure like making the money and the security of the job. “

That’s the kind of reputation I want.

And that’s another objective I want to have in human resources. We want to create an environment where we’re the best place to work. So, then, talent comes to you. Your employees recommend people to you. We never had a shortage of talent. And if we had a misplaced person, not at the clerical or primary function level, but in the supervisor level...not everybody is capable of performing at the supervisory and management level.

Who’s fault is that? Is that the person’s responsibility because they wanted more responsibility and money? No. It was my fault or one of my executive’s fault.

So, what are we going to do to help this person. Turn ‘em out into the community so they can hate us and say bad things about us? No, no. You call the manager in and ask them:

" Are you happy? Are you happy where you’re at? Because you’re not achieving..."

And they’ll blame everybody else but themselves but finally they’ll come:

“No, I’m not happy. It doesn’t fit here. ”

And you say:

“Well, what can we do? Can we change the job, the responsibilities, maybe outside the company?

They’ll say:

“Oh. You’re trying to fire me.”

“No. Not at all. If you need a job that we can’t fulfill in the company then start looking. I’ll pay. Go look. And we’ll give you a good recommendation.”

And it worked!

So simple. So clear.

I like your Chapter Six. Introducing Your Strategic Action Plan. And in bold you wrote:

You Cannot Do it ALL!

That's a big challenge sometimes for entrepreneurs. Letting go, letting others.

You can’t do it all. You become tired and stressed. Make bad decisions.

Run off the good talent.

Exactly.

He’ll say:

“Dammit. He won’t let me do it. I’ve got a better idea.”

Well, better ideas come out in the strategic planning, in the process. I show them how to do that. HOW. How to think. How to plan. How to execute. And that’s what’s missing out in the marketplace.

That’s what I’ve seen in my research. SUCCESS by DESIGN is the only entrepreneur book on how to do it that’s available.

Chapter 7 is all about the important of reviewing results. This next question may seem like a dumb question, but what’s the importance of frequent reviews?

A lot of our citizens in this country are church-going members. Possibly, you, yourself are.

Why do you go every week? Why do you hear the dogma every week? Why do you say The Lord’s Prayer every week? Why is that?

Why do we pledge allegiance in school frequently? Why do we sing the Star Spangled Banner?

Why?

To remind us of who we are, and where we are, and what we’re doing. Which means just saying it once, let’s say you have a strategic planning meeting and you’re woriking on the mission and you create the mission for a profit-making company I recommend - create ever-increasing wealth- why would we repeat it?

Because you forget it!

Ok, we’re going into strategic planning session. Let’s recite the mission.

Oh, we’ve done it.

No. Let’s recite the mission so the thinking that came up with it can be evaluated.

You come up with an idea...is that going to increase our income? No? Well, then we just don’t do it.

Or, we create increasing income but it won’t create any profit; it creates losses. Oh. So that’s the acid test right up front, isn’t it?

So, you repeat it and repeat it and you have them repeat it to their staff.

But you can’t ever let up or bad stuff comes in and blind-sides you.

I’ve had that happen. Things come in the back door and before we know it we’re losing money.

How did that happen?

Well, we never measured it against our mission. It just wasn’t designed to do that. What a stupid mistake! Not stupid, we’re all human.

Why do you tell people you love them? We need to be reminded every single day, the older you get. Why? You don’t want to forget and you don’t want them to forget.

Calvin Coolidge’s advice on persistence I value:

Persistence. Every day in every way, persevere.

Same way with your values, with your strategic plan. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Polish, improve. Repeat.

**********

Part Three of this conversation will be published Tuesday, November 22.

Tom Rieger: What Are You Reading?

Tom Rieger, author of Breaking the Fear Barrier: How Destroys Companies from the Inside Out and What to Do About It, joined the show recently.

Tom's an excellent author and a leader. So, I asked him:

Leaders are readers. Jim Rohn said that. I'm just smart enough to quote him. You're a leader. What are you reading?

And he answered:

If someone is interested in the concepts of the book then there’s a few things I’d certainly suggest to them from my list.

There’s a book out there called Advances in Behavioral Economics. If you are interested in what really drives people’s decision-making then I strongly encourage you to pick it up. It’s a collection of academic papers so it might not be for everybody. But I find it fascinating and I read it over and over again.

There’s a book called And the Wolf Finally Came: The Decline and Fall of the American Steel Industry by John Hoerr ....which I think is an absolute great example of everything I talk about in the book as it related to the steel industry and Pittsburgh in the ’80’s.

You know, I was at Carnegie-Mellon, basically while all this was happening. The book is written very objectively and you can see how these entitlements and this fear of loss on both sides of the aisle; it’s not just a labor issue, it’s not just an industry or management issue, it was all three of those things. And how this all began, everyone trying to do the right thing. And this whole thing came crashing down and it’s a good example of just how much damage this kind of thing can do.

Now that the book is finally done and I can start reading again...there’re a few books on my reading list. I’ve heard there’s good book called Tribal Leadership by ....One person who reviewed the book said it’s a book I absolutely have to read.

Fantastic. I love the list of books and it helps me expand my reading list.

Want more from Tom Rieger?

• Follow him on Twitter.

• You can listen to our conversation here

• You can read the interview here:
  • Part One
  • Part Two
  • Part Three

President Obama: 3 Things To Break The Fear Barrier

Tom Rieger, author of Breaking the Fear Barrier: How Destroys Companies from the Inside Out and What to Do About It, joined the show recently.

• You can listen to our conversation here

You can read the interview here:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three

From Tom's profile page at Gallup:

Mr. Rieger is a Senior Practice Expert for Gallup, has pioneered the study and science of organizational barriers. Rieger is an expert in applying behavioral economic principles to uncover how complex systems self-destruct -- and how to correct those problems. Through this work, he has become a recognized leader in developing methods and frameworks to identify and remove barriers to organizational and societal success.

Rieger joined Gallup in 1994. In addition to his work as the leader and chief architect of Gallup's consulting on organizational barriers, he is an expert in international research and polling methods and developing and applying statistical models to complex organizational issues.

Tom's book is imminently readable and includes imminently doable tips and steps you can take within your own organization to reverse this rising tide of fear that only serves to threaten your organization's sustainability. He's pulled the company's global research across a dozen countries spanning six continents to identify the "fear barrier" and to show how and why fear destroys companies. The book explains how to transform a fear-plagued organization into one that is courageous and unstoppable.

Fear seems to grip our country right now, particularly in businesses and jobs and the economy. So, it made sense to ask him how can we address this problem. I asked him:

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. It's not that big a leap. Fear is an emotional response to a perceived, often imaginary, threat. Let's imagine President Obama is on line two in your office. He’s on vacation, but he’s listening in. He leaves you a message.

Tom, he says. This is President Obama. I think our national conversation is dominated by fear and its manifestations. What are three things we as a nation can do to break the fear barrier? Can you come up to the White House or over to Martha’s Vineyard and share your thoughts?

What do you say to him?

He answered:

Well, first of all I’d say:

“Yeah I would love that opportunity to come. I’m essentially a patriot at heart so anything I can do to help my country I’d love to do."

But to answer that question...

First I’d say we need a mission to rally around. We need a place to plant a flag in the ground and stand behind. You look back at the ’60’s and the space race. Look at what happened in this country. You had industry of all different types and people all around all working together trying to achieve something important.

The side benefits of that were huge. If you look at the innovations and the manufacturing, especially in the world of micro-processing and computers. But, the sleeping giant needs to be awoken; it needs to be focused on accomplishing something. This country can accomplish absolutely incredible things when it’s aligned with and around something and we’re all on the same page.

That’s number one.

Secondly, I think we need to shift the paradigm. We need to start thinking about:

“Well, how can we remove the barriers that exist to job creation. “

Every job you create creates more and more people paying into the system rather than draining it. When that happens you have a lower deficit, you have a more prosperous nation, without having to just focus on who’s giving up what to whom. And that, I think, is what leads us to the 3rd thing.

There’s way too much focus on that. We gotta stop acting like a couple of dogs fighting over a bone trying to think about well who’s going to have to give up something. If you look at the whole concept of fear of loss, there’s some great work by a Nobel Prize winner named Daniel Kahneman that showed there’s twice as much pain with loss than trying to gain. What that means is people will fight twice as hard to avoid a loss even if that means forgoing a gain because there’s so much pain in that perception. If all we focus on is what we’re giving up and nothing else, then that fear of loss, I guarantee you will lead to barriers and those barriers will bring any hope of progress right down to a screeching halt.

So, if we can align around the mission, focus on removing barriers to job creation, both for private companies and public sector, and then stop focusing so much on who has to give up and what and instead on what we can achieve together, then I think we can actually make some progress here.

 Want more from Tom Reiger?

Follow him on Twitter.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

 

Notes from Tom Rieger - Author of Breaking the Fear Barrier: Part 3

Tom Rieger, author of Breaking the Fear Barrier: How Destroys Companies from the Inside Out and What to Do About It, joined the show recently.

Tom's book is imminently readable and includes imminently doable tips and steps you can take within your own organization to reverse this rising tide of fear that only serves to threaten your organization's sustainability. He's pulled the company's global research across a dozen countries spanning six continents to identify the "fear barrier" and to show how and why fear destroys companies. The book explains how to transform a fear-plagued organization into one that is courageous and unstoppable.

Mr. Rieger is a Senior Practice Expert for Gallup, has pioneered the study and science of organizational barriers. Rieger is an expert in applying behavioral economic principles to uncover how complex systems self-destruct -- and how to correct those problems. Through this work, he has become a recognized leader in developing methods and frameworks to identify and remove barriers to organizational and societal success.

• You can listen to our conversation here.

• You can read Part One of our interview here.

• You can read Part Two of our interview here.

We can see signs in the news every hour that fear and its manifestations are in abundance these days. Fear and then perceived threats and then anger and then fighting....

I'm an art major. I'm not a brain scientist. But some earlier guests on this show have talked about the role of the amygdala or the reptile brain in handling fear, perceiving threats and reacting to them. The whole fight or flight response syndrome.

Sure.

Your solution addresses fear from the outside. Behavior changes. Are there steps we can take to not feed our reptilian brain, the amygdala, basically deny it food and water?

Well, there’s two thoughts here. First, we have to recognize that not all fear is bad. You need some in your organization to help people feel the pressure to conform and meet their goals. That’s healthy so long as it’s the right level and balance with rewards.

Mark Twain had a great quote. It goes:

Courage isn’t absence of fear. It’s mastery of fear.

Secondly, we need to recognize that people are essentially emotional decision-makers. That’s just who we are. There’s some great work by Joseph Ladeau from New York University, I believe, and others that looked at visceral effects and their influence in decision-making and Ladeau actually mapped people’s brains in how they made seemingly logical decisions.

All that being said...you know if you make things objective and you recognize that you are not going to be able to just make people no longer feel fear; that’s just impossible. But you make people see things objectively, you take the subjectivity out, then you will by definition start driving things more based on metrics and more based on the truth instead of subjective fears.

So those subjective metrics and policies, those have to be driven more by emotion. It’s unavoidable. But, objective metrics, especially if they are the right thing will be driven by performance.

One thing you gotta be aware of is a subjective metric that’s masquerading as an objective number. if you just put a number to something that’s inherently subjective, it’s still subjective. You really have to look at what is each group really producing and for whom and how is that benefiting the overall mission?

Great answer again. Thank you.

Sure.

I want to pursue this a moment. Early in your book you write about parochialism and the tendency for companies to focus, as they grow, more on process and less on outcomes. And I think this ties in with your point about using the right metrics and that are aligned with your core strategic goals. Some of this is driven by department managers who are unable to connect the dots. For me that reads these managers have not developed the skill to think, conceptualize, plan in a wholistic way. Would that be correct?

I think so; I think so.

You know, the probably Zane is those skills are just blatantly ignored. Managers are often made not necessarily based on management talent but as a reward. Being a manager is doing a different job. At the end of the day you have to realize that leadership positions shouldn’t be given out as trophies. They should be given out strategically. They should be given out based on who is based going to be able to serve that role and achieve your overall goal and mission.

Now, that said, there are certain concepts I talk about in the book about managing people’s reference points and expectations, where they line up or don’t, managing fear, balancing the different types of courage...personally I think should be required training for all managers.

Fantastic.

Social media and fear or social media and courage. What's social media's role in either building or breaking the fear barrier? Have you seen an example of either?

That’s a really interesting dynamic and a fascinating to watch develop. You could really go either way.

Social media, when you think about it, is a series of one-way communications. You really can’t talk back to an email or a tweet or a blog post. You could respond to it in another one-way.

But if you take a step out of the corporate world, let’s look at Arab Spring or even the 2008 election you can see how it can be used to bring people together around an idea, to break barriers that one person alone may feel powerless to do anything about. There is that upside.

But, on the other hand it could be used the other way. You use it to intimidate, you use it to bully, you do a broadcast nasty email to the world and you could do a lot of damage to a person’s reputation. And unfortunately that happens a lot. There’s not just bullying in schools but it’s happening in companies with those broadcast torpedo emails that go out.

I look at it as a tool that could be used for good or a tool that could harm.

I like that you used the example of Arab Spring. I became fascinated as did many people. It seemed in a lot of respects, parallel to a certain degree, with some discussions going on in companies where as you describe one category of employees who are treated as prisoners with no resources or tools or time and random accountability measures. I thought the conversations, not to the same extreme, going on in some companies are about how to free up those employees to participate in creating a viable corporate economy.

Sure.

Yeah, these are all things you have to think about when you’re trying to deal with these problems.

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. It's not that big a leap. Fear is an emotional response to a perceived, often imaginary, threat. Let's imagine President Obama is on line two in your office. He’s on vacation, but he’s listening in. He leaves you a message.

Tom, he says. This is President Obama. I think our national conversation is dominated by fear and its manifestations. What are three things we as a nation can do to break the fear barrier? Can you come up to the White House or over to Martha’s Vineyard and share your thoughts?

What do you say to him?

Well, first of all I’d say:

“Yeah I would love that opportunity to come. I’m essentially a patriot at heart so anything I can do to help my country I’d love to do."

But to answer that question...

First I’d say we need a mission to rally around. We need a place to plant a flag in the ground and stand behind. You look back at the ’60’s and the space race. Look at what happened in this country. You had industry of all different types and people all around all working together trying to achieve something important.

The side benefits of that were huge. If you look at the innovations and the manufacturing, especially in the world of micro-processing and computers. But, the sleeping giant needs to be awoken; it needs to be focused on accomplishing something. This country can accomplish absolutely incredible things when it’s aligned with and around something and we’re all on the same page.

That’s number one.

Secondly, I think we need to shift the paradigm. We need to start thinking about:

“Well, how can we remove the barriers that exist to job creation."

Every job you create creates more and more people paying into the system rather than draining it. When that happens you have a lower deficit, you have a more prosperous nation, without having to just focus on who’s giving up what to whom. And that, I think, is what leads us to the 3rd thing.

There’s way too much focus on that. We gotta stop acting like a couple of dogs fighting over a bone trying to think about well who’s going to have to give up something. If you look at the whole concept of fear of loss, there’s some great work by a Nobel Prize winner named Daniel Kahneman that showed there’s twice as much pain with loss than trying to gain. What that means is people will fight twice as hard to avoid a loss even if that means forgoing a gain because there’s so much pain in that perception. If all we focus on is what we’re giving up and nothing else, then that fear of loss, I guarantee you will lead to barriers and those barriers will bring any hope of progress right down to a screeching halt.

So, if we can align around the mission, focus on removing barriers to job creation, both for private companies and public sector, and then stop focusing so much on who has to give up and what and instead on what we can achieve together, then I think we can actually make some progress here.

Excellent. Those are great examples and a great answer. I love that point you made about people will fight to avoid loss and they’ll cooperate, perhaps, around the idea of a shared gain.

But, the idea of a potential loss? They’ll fight like dogs over a shared bone.

Leaders are readers. Jim Rohn said that. I'm just smart enough to quote him. You're a leader. What are you reading?

If someone is interested in the concepts of the book then there’s a few things I’d certainly suggest to them from my list.

There’s a book out there called Advances in Behavioral Economics. If you are interested in what really drives people’s decision-making then I strongly encourage you to pick it up. It’s a collection of academic papers so it might not be for everybody. But I find it fascinating and I read it over and over again.

There’s a book called And the Wolf Finally Came: The Decline and Fall of the American Steel Industry by John Hoerr ....which I think is an absolute great example of everything I talk about in the book as it related to the steel industry and Pittsburgh in the ’80’s.

You know, I was at Carnegie-Mellon, basically while all this was happening. The book is written very objectively and you can see how these entitlements and this fear of loss on both sides of the aisle; it’s not just a labor issue, it’s not just an industry or management issue, it was all three of those things. And how this all began, everyone trying to do the right thing. And this whole thing came crashing down and it’s a good example of just how much damage this kind of thing can do.

Now that the book is finally done and I can start reading again...there’re a few books on my reading list. I’ve heard there’s good book called Tribal Leadership by ....One person who reviewed the book said it’s a book I absolutely have to read.

Fantastic. I love the list of books and it helps me expand my reading list.

You’ve written a great book. And I encourage everyone to go ahead and leave the show. Go buy it, read it, embrace it. Do some of the things listed in the book. Avoid some of the things described in the book that build barriers. We can start to chip away at this whole thing.

Can you leave us with one thought on Breaking the Fear Barrier?

Sure. The one thought I’d like to leave people with is this:

You may be sitting in your office looking out your window trying to think about how you can succeed, frustrated by all these seemingly impossible and impenetrable barriers that you are surrounded by. But you have to take a step back and remember that nowhere does it say:

On the 8th day God created barriers.

These are things that companies did to themselves. They did internally. They are things you did yourself.

But if they are things you did internally, guess what? They can be unpacked and dismantled internally. It won’t be easy. But it can be done.

It has to be very deliberate. People have to be willing to look in the mirror, as I said, and put things ln the table. But, these things aren’t impossible.

Certainly there are things you’re not going to able to fix. But I guarantee there are a whole lot of things that are.

Don’t let your fear crush your hopes and dreams. If you’re really deliberate about attacking these barriers you can achieve them.

That’s so great. I so appreciate you taking the time to come on the show. Congrats on being number one in those categories on the first day. I know it’s going to only stay there.

Next Guest

William Seidman, co-founder of Cerebyte which gives organizations the ability and, more importantly, the confidence to dramatically improve their performance. Their pioneering technology, based on the latest science of how people think and learn, enables them to quickly capture top performers' "secret sauce" and raise the performance of everyone else to that same high level. Their solution has been adopted by companies such as Intel, Tektronix, Hewlett-Packard, 3Com, and Collagen Aesthetics, Inc. as their corporate standard for developing and deploying best practices and other forms of organizational cultural change.

The scientific foundation underlying their solution enables Cerebyte to optimize organizational performance faster and more completely than was previously thought possible. Aligning with the latest research in positive deviance, fair process, neuroscience and mass customization, their solution makes it possible to quickly capture your top performers' expert knowledge, approach and values, and then systematically coach everyone else to apply those to their own work.

I’m looking to talk with Bill for several reasons. One you can see the nice tie-in with some of our last questions about brain functions, amygdala, and the abilities of organizational members to plan and organize in an wholistic manner.

But I liked the fact that Bill reached out to me on twitter. Not many founders use Twitter and even fewer use it to reach out directly and engage with others.

And, then I’ve found he’s a very clear thinker. Makes sense. That’s his business. But still it’s refreshing and I think his conversation will be refreshing for you also. Next Wednesday, August 31 at a special time: 1:00 PM Central.

(Jeez. August 31. Where did summer go?)

President Obama: 3 Steps to Create a Culture of Extraordinary Leaders

Rajeev Peshawaria was a guest on my radio show recently. You can listen here.

Rajeev Peshawaria is currently CEO of the ICLIF Leadership & Governance Centre based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which provides executive education and advisory services to organizations in Asia, Middle East and Africa. 

Prior to joining ICLIF in April 2010, Rajeev worked at AMEX, HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Coca-Cola where he headed headed Coca-Cola University and at Morgan Stanley, where he founded Morgan Stanley University.

We wanted to talk about his new book: Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders: The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader.

An exceptional leader is, he writes:

one who not only runs the company but creates a cadre of supporters who understand the company’s goals and missions and work to embody them every day.

Leadership, can neither be learned in a classroom, nor automatically acquired by accepting a big title or position of authority. Leadership needs to be discovered, and there is no shortcut to the discovery process.

I think President Obama faces all of those two paragraphs every day since he chose to run for President...back in that day. It made sense to ask Mr. Peshawaria for his ideas on how President Obama could create a culture of extraordinary leaders...

a cadre of supporters who understand [ our country's] goals and missions and work to embody them every day.

I asked him:

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. Let's imagine that our President Obama is calling you after this call.

Rajeev, he says, could you come to the WH or at least join a secure conference call with myself and Vice-President Joe Biden. We seem to be drowning here in DC from too many bosses and too few leaders. What are three things our country can do to create a culture of extraordinary leaders?

What would you tell him?

I thought his answer was beautiful in its clarity and how he picked up themes from other guests who have answered this same question:

Well, I think when he ran for President a couple of years ago he painted the picture of a better future. And that’s what won him the presidency.

Most of us related to his purpose and his values and voted for him. So, to continue to use the terminology from the book:

“We like the brain of his campaign and the promises he made.”

However, I think we’ve fallen just a little bit in the Bones and Nerve section. To take just one example, and this is just my view, many people liked his opposition to the Iraq War and that’s why he appealed to a lot of people. Now a lot of the same people are questioning his support for the struggle in Libya.

So, my humble advice would be to lead by example and stick to your values. It is impossible to say what are the three things the country can do to create a culture of leadership. In many ways America already has a culture of leadership. So, if Obama and Biden can re-articulate a vision and lead with values and keep the courage to do the right thing I think they will inspire a whole generation to do the same thing.

Let history judge their actions. For now, they should lead with values rather than their position of power.

Those would be my two cents.

Want more from Rajeev Peshawaria?

• Read his blog

• Follow him on Twitter

• Buy his book: Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders: The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader.

 **********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion.

We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

 

President Obama: Three Things We Can Do to Create Healthy Compromise

Elizabeth Doty joined the show recently. I hope you listen as we talk about her work with WorkLore and her inspiring and useable book: The Compromise Trap: How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul.

Elizabeth co-founded WorkLore which works with corporate clients in helping their leaders and teams make their missions real, increasing the engagement, integrity and alignment that make their work bigger than a game.

Compromise and how to do-it, what it entails, what happens in a democracy when you...do not understand its role has been a lively topic this summer and continues now.

It made sense to ask Elizabeth about what could we as a nation do to embrace healthy compromise. I asked her:

We’ve reached the imagination moment in our show. Let’s imagine for a moment, that your assistant waves frantically at you right now. You wave her off...can’t you see I’m on the phone style. But she persists. And she mouthes...It’s President Obama!

Sure enough President Obama has called. And when you speak to him he says:

Elizabeth, you’re spot on. Our nation is engulfed in an unhealthy compromise. We’ve struck too many faustian bargains. What can we do? What are three things we can do right now to transform our choices into healthy compromise?

What do you tell him?

She answered as you would expect anyone to answer who is as clear in her understanding of the answer as Elizabeth is. She answered:

The first one, that may surprise you, is an important stance for us and that’s to ask:

“How are you holding up? How you doing in the midst of all this?”

It’s such a comfort to know that there are leaders bearing up these responsibilities and dilemmas and we get to point out when they’re not doing it.

But that’s the problem. We need to share in the responsibility. And I appreciate the way Obama reframes the conversation to:

“We all have a shared interest in this. We need a budget together. "

That would be the first one, to offer support for him and all the other leaders who are bearing up under these things and stop projecting onto politicians the worst in human nature.

The 2nd is to encourage him and the rest of us to keep redefining the conversation to what do we want to create as a country. What is our worth-enough win as a country.

I’m hearing on both sides, the left and the right, a lot of similar values: personal responsibility, liberty and freedom. There are differences in how we get there.

But what is it we stand for, that is joint, that is that worthy enough win to create together.

And in particular, I would encourage him and the press to experiment in ways of reporting that talks in terms of that worthy-enough win and talks in terms of contributions from each side as opposed to vetting out which side should win. Cause that forces all the dialogue into a polarizing frame.

The last thing I would do is invite citizens to participate and weigh these tradeoffs instead of having to project them on to leaders. So that we have to face these very hard choices. We can point out to other people the very unhealthy compromises but when we deeper into the costs and the realities we’ll be much more aligned when we have to wrestle with these issues ourselves.

I’m very excited by the participative democracy movement that has us doing that, not just voting. Really chewing on budgets and priorities for city councils. We need more of that.

We need keep re-anchoring this conversation to these priorities. And then we can use data to get to the best ‘how’s’.

Good advice for us all as we face these tough choices and find the need to listen, to collaborate and to compromise in a healthy manner.

Want More from Elizabeth Doty?

Read her blog

Follow her on Twitter

Buy her book: The Compromise Trap: How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul.

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

Rajeev Peshawaria, What Are You Reading?

Rajeev Peshawaria was a guest on my radio show recently. You can listen here.

Rajeev Peshawaria is currently CEO of the ICLIF Leadership & Governance Centre based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which provides executive education and advisory services to organizations in Asia, Middle East and Africa.

 Prior to joining ICLIF in April 2010, Rajeev worked at AMEX, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola, and Morgan Stanley. He was Chief Learning Officer and Head of Talent Management at Morgan Stanley, where he founded Morgan Stanley University, a global earning and Chief Learning Officer of The Coca-Cola Company, where he created and headed Coca-Cola University.

We talked about his new book: Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders: The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader.

My reading list today includes fewer and fewer books from leadership experts. But, I made an exception for Mr. Peshawaria based on his journey of discovery with some of the world's leading organizations. And how well and with such clarity he shares the steps of this journey in his book. And by doing so, he points his readers in that same direction of discovery that will lead them towards being an exceptional leader.

It made sense to ask him, a leader, what he reads. So, I asked him:

Readers are leaders. That's a quote from Jim Rohn which I quote with every quest. You're a leader. What are you reading these days?

And, as you would expect, he answered with clarity and precision. I loved the range of his reading, too.

I just finished reading a great book called New York, The Novel by Edward Rutherford. I call it ‘unputdownable’. This work of narrative fiction takes the reader through a captivating journey of New York City. I simply loved it. Somebody, like me, who didn’t grow up in the United States this was very informative in a very very captivating way.

I recommend it for anyone who likes narrative fiction and is interested in New York history.

And, I just started reading V.S. Naipul’s A Bend in the River. It’s set in Africa. I don’t have an opinion on it as I just began reading it.

If you were asking about leadership books, I’m a big fan of Bill George’s writing on leadership and Steve Kerr’s work on rewards.

So, those would be some of the one’s I would highlight.

I so appreciated his book, his interview, that answer...I couldn't help but follow with:

One of my biggest challenges I faced was finding each page of your book had enough for us to talk about for this hour. Thank you for that challenge and headache trying to condense your book into a one-hour conversation.

I’m an avid reader anyway. I read a lot of books for this show. I tend to not read very many leadership books; I find few as exemplary as yours.

Thank you for writing this book and hopefully inspiring many.

Want more from Rajeev Peshawaria?

• Read his blog

• Follow him on Twitter

• Buy his book: Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders: The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader.

Rajeev Peshawaria - Author of Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders

Rajeev Peshawaria is my guest tomorrow. We’re going to talk about his new book: Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders: The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader.

Rajeev shares his more than 20 years of discoveries for what an exceptional leader must discover, acquire and master.

An exceptional leader is, he writes:

one who not only runs the company but creates a cadre of supporters who understand the company’s goals and missions and work to embody them every day.

Leadership, can neither be learned in a classroom, nor automatically acquired by accepting a big title or position of authority. Leadership needs to be discovered, and there is no shortcut to the discovery process.

The book outlines the discovery process itself, offering steps for creating a leader who can tap into unlimited emotional energy, align the energy of a powerful few and galvanize the energy of the masses to create sustainable success.

My reading list today includes fewer and fewer books from leadership experts. But I made an exception for Mr. Peshawaria based on his journey of discovery with some of the world's leading organizations, as well as the steps he outlines in his book to point his readers in that same direction of discovery that will lead them towards being an exceptional leader.

Rajeev Peshawaria is currently CEO of the ICLIF Leadership & Governance Centre based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which provides executive education and advisory services to organizations in Asia, Middle East and Africa.

Prior to joining ICLIF in April 2010, Rajeev worked at AMEX, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola, and Morgan Stanley. He was Chief Learning Officer and Head of Talent Management at Morgan Stanley, where he founded Morgan Stanley University, a global earning and Chief Learning Officer of The Coca-Cola Company, where he created and headed Coca-Cola University.

Our conversation starts at 9:30 AM, Central time.

LISTENING OPTIONS

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5 Steps to Create Positive Plays & Make a Difference

Elizabeth Doty is the founder and CEO of WorkLore which works with corporate clients in helping their leaders and teams make their missions real, increasing the engagement, integrity and alignment that make their work bigger than a game.

They serve as allies and thought partners, bringing commitment, expertise and respect in helping their clients discover their breakthrough opportunities hidden in their business and community of stakeholders.

She recently completed The Compromise Trap: How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I found myself anxious to turn the page to find what new research or case-study or profile or, maybe most importantly, tips and tools and resources to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul. She always delivered.

She shared an hour of her time to talk about her book and her work. You can listen here.

In her book, Elizabeth talks about how address potential compromise traps where you could create positive plays and make a difference.

I asked her:

One of the many things I liked about your book was your emphasis on taking ownership on redefining-the-game and changing our roles from being victims to being leaders. What are some of those steps you call them Positive Plays, the moment you can make a difference.

And she answered:
 

Knowing you have these skills and you have 5 things you can do in these situations arms you and gives you confidence to stop and choose. Most people fall into the compromise situations thinking they can either play the game and go along or drop out and pay enormous consequences. When you realize it doesn’t even help the other side for you to do that, then you get into this:

“I can get creative here. I can try something different here because people aren’t seeing the real consequences of what’s going on here.”

Or

“I can’t deal with this situation here. I need to get creative here.”

And I identified 5 things that you can do in any situation. There are variations. You may want to practice. There are skills to build on. You’re not going to do them perfectly the first time.

But they give you options. And once you begin to think about your options you’re far out of the compromise trap and you’re more likely to make a well-considered compromise if you had to.

So the first one is Weigh It Out and Discover:

" Yes, this is a healthy compromise to best meet my values in the best possible way given my circumstances. "

So, weigh it out, consider the consequences, get over your ego and then take responsibility for how you do it. Be clear:

“I’ll do it this once. I need to do it for a month. I’ll miss my kids. But I’m not setting a precedent.”

The second one is Having Candid Conversations. It is amazing how many people ended up in jail because they were not willing to admit they had missed their target to their boss. Or an accountant brought down a whole savings and loan industry in the 80’s when he didn’t want to admit he’d made a mistake, inadvertently in a report. He intentionally misrepresented the results.

Skillful Influence. This is the biggest bucket. And it takes a lot of learning. But it’s asking:

“How can I make this system learn”.

The guy who was worried about the product launches I mentioned earlier, basically went to his boss and said:

“ I gotta ask, I think you must know, but how do you want to handle the consequences from these budget cutbacks.?”

And he got very creative with influencing the situation with data and offline conversations that represented a very sincere concern instead of being an employee griping.

The 4th one is Setting Positive Limits. That’s basically the ability to say “no”. One of the people I most admire and have learned the most from is co-author of Getting to Yes who also wrote The Power of a Positive No. I helped him with examples for that book. There are incredible number of examples of front line employees saying no that positively influenced many levels of leaders above them.

Finally, you need to Be Able to Exit. You always need to be ready to exit. But there are ways that can help a company avoid a mistake and maybe even get better because of the way you exit.

There are two parts to helping people learn as part of the skillful influence. One is that we individually have these blind spots that we talked about earlier. We don’t see stuff; we want things to be a certain way.

But also, what we’re talking about here is combining intelligence. For knowledge work, and in particular the people on the frontline may know something more than the people above.

So, yes, you’re going to see the pointy end of the chisel that may not be clear to the other parts of the organization. You need to listen, too. But you are a part of having that become a part of the greater intelligence. Questioning that assumption that they know and just don’t care is one of the biggest shifts in our roles.

My 5 Steps:

1. Buy the book: The Compromise Trap: How to Thrive at Work Without Selling Your Soul.

2. Read it.

3. Practice these 5 steps.

4. Create positive plays.

5. Make a difference.

Thanks, Elizabeth.

Radio Guest: Steve Hamm - Co-author of Making the World Work Better

Steve Hamm has been a business journalist for over 30 years. He was senior writer in BusinessWeek's information technology section after serving in their Silicon Valley bureau and was then an associate editor in New York. Prior to BusinessWeek, Hamm was an editor and writer for PC Week, the San Jose MercuryNews, the New Haven Register, and other publications. Hamm is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.

And he now is a communication's strategist with IBM. It’s in that role that he joined with two other authors, Kevin Maney and Jeffrey M. O’Brien to write Making the World Work Better: The Ideas that Shaped a Century and a Company an examination of how IBM has contributed to the evolution of technology and the modern corporation over the past 100 years.

Imagine. A leading technology company that has survived and even thrived for over 100 years. And today IBM still remains a leader with its innovations in progressive workforce policies, new ideas of societal responsibility, global engagement, and the power of a deliberate creation of corporate culture.

It’s a fascinating story. And the story is told well by Steve and his co-authors. Here’s a 2-minute video from Steve on the book and how it is organized for maximum impact for the reader.

It’s a story that remains relevant and vital for businesses who aspire to surviving the next year, the next decade. Whether global giant or mom-and-pop, high-tech or not, IBM’s lessons of how to survive and thrive are ones any business can benefit from understanding.

We’ll talk about IBM’s legacy, its success at creating a corporate culture that can re-invent itself again and again over 100 years and still remain true to its founder’s mantra of “THINK”. We’ll also talk a bit about this project and its role in aligning and engaging IBM’s 400,000+ global employees with its culture.

Come join us:

LIVE

• Listen in streaming mode at this link

• Call 646-915-9212 (U.S.) from 9:30 AM Central to 10:30 AM Central

LATER

• Listen in streaming mode at this link

President Obama: 3 Tips to Become a Liquid Leader

Brad Szollose has over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience. That makes Brad no stranger to the Boardroom – during the Dot Com Era of the early 90′s, Brad co-founded K2 Design, Inc. which later raised over $7 million through private placement and an IPO. Brad’s tenure at K2 was explosive – the company experienced 425% growth for 5 straight years, expanded from 2 business partners to 4$26 million. and expanded to 60+ employees and offices worldwide.

Over the past 15 years, Brad observed a startling change in corporate America.augmented reality. This 24/7 connected, early adopter to anything technology driven has created a whole new divide, in which more and more young people are growing up as Digital Natives – comfortable using technology as their primary resource to do business – while the established older generation of Baby Boomers are using technology as their secondary resource.

And he authored a wonderful, inspiring, insightful response on this challenge of leadership today.

That book is Liquid Leadership: From Woodstock to Wikipedia - Multigenerational Management Ideas That Are Changing the Way We Run Things

He generously agreed to spend an hour talking about his book, his insights and his solutions. As a country we see a bit of turmoil among our institutions and the leadership models they embrace.

I asked him:

Ok, so now is the imagination part of the show. Let’s imagine...an email from President Obama awaits you. And it includes an invitation to the Oval Office...He’s read your book. President Obama wants you to help him become a more liquid leader. What are three things he can do before his next State of the Union address to be a more liquid leader?

And Brad answered:

He needs to realize he is about to go down in history as either the greatest president in our history or the worst.

One of the principles of liquid leadership is you have to tell the truth. Mr. President you have to stop trying to make everybody happy and tell the truth. The system needs to be upgraded and reinvented.

The 2nd thing is he has to tell people that the model we have been working with for the past 150 years doesn’t work. We can no longer work for the 20th century. We’re in the 21st century where things move much more dynamically. You can’t expect one group to pay for everybody.

The 3rd thing is he has to lead with strength and determination and the sense of re-invention; he has to wear it instead of giving it lip service. Now, we have to see the example. We’re waiting.

If things don’t change, then Gen-Y will be the first generation to march to Washington DC and opt out of social security. They will tell the President "it is a ponzi scheme. We are the first generation to say we don’t want anything to do with it."

What do you think?

**********

Some may say this is inappropriate.

This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.

I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.

I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis.  That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion. We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.

Want More from Brad Szollose?

• Read transcripts of our conversation here.

• Listen to our conversation here.

• Read his blog.

• Follow him on Twitter.

• Buy his book.

Joan - Koerber Walker, CEO of Arizona BioIndustry Association: Notes from Our Conversation

She was a guest on this show during the time she was founder of CORE Purpose which specialized in building solutions that enable its clients to focus more of their resources and energy on what they are passionate about and best at in a way that makes financial sense

Joan has recently been appointed as the CEO of the Arizona BioIndustry Association whose purpose is promoting the growth of Arizona bioscience companies. I don't know much about that organization except they made a very smart decision when they chose her to lead them.

Her past experience includes 2 years as the CEO of ASBA (the Arizona Small Business Association), service as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Small Business Association in Washington D.C., a member of the Executive Committee of the Industry Advisory Board for the Thomas and Joan Read Center at Texas A&M University, on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Technology Council and as Treasurer and Board Member for Ribomed Biotechnologies, Inc. in Carlsbad, California, and as an executive at Avnet, Inc, where over a 20 year span she held a wide variety of roles in sales, marketing, technology, public policy direction, and risk management solutions to business along the growth path. In 2004, she was recognized by the Stevie Awards, the "Oscar" for women entrepreneurs as one of the leading entrepreneurial women in the United States and again in 2007 as one of the nation's leading small business executives.

You can listen here.

Joan. Thanks for being on the show.

Thanks, Zane. It’s always great to be here with you.

Congratulations on this new challenge! When did you come on board with the Arizona BioIndustry Association as their CEO?

March 21 was my first day on the job. I don’t think I’ve stopped running since.

We talked about this briefly before the show and it’s not on the questions I sent you earlier, but what are you doing with CORE Purpose?

CORE Purpose, which was started in 2002, is continuing. The goal of CORE Purpose is to work with companies to address big challenges and create greater opportunities. We have wonderful team of collaborators which we work with there. And sometimes I think they’re perfectly happy for me to get out of the way so they can get some work done.

I’m curious about that. So many leaders, entrepreneurs, are unable to step out and let go, to let their members step up and pursue their passion, do their work, and get things done. Why were you so comfortable in taking that step?

The benefits that we have are that we practice what we preach. You have a clear vision and understand why you are business. You focus all your resources on that and you select great people. And, when you have great people on your team and have clear direction then you don’t have to be looking over their shoulder every day.

As Chairman of the Board I can step back, be available when they need me, but equally importantly I can let them do what they do because they do it so well. That’s always given me the flexibility. And the first time we experimented with that, 2006 to 2008, when I stepped out to lead the Arizona Small Business Administration, and this time to lead the Arizona BioIndustry Association which is crucially important to our state’s growth, it was a great opportunity and the group was very supportive of it.

I think the talk at the water-cooler was:

“Oh, good. She’s going to go let us do our thing while she goes and does hers.”

I think it’s fabulous testimony to your skills and what you would bring to your clients with CORE Purpose. You practice what you preach. You’re clear on it. You focus on it and you hire great people. Now, you stay out of the way.

The neat thing about CORE Purpose is we just hired some people. We had a collaborative team we had built of CEOs and leaders from around the country. They’re all leaders in their own right. They don’t need me to baby-sit them.

Fantastic. I’ve already started scribbling.

Tell us a little bit about the Arizona BioIndustry Association. When was it started? What's a standard member profile? Are they startups, global corporations, incubator-phase? How many members?

The Arizona BioIndustry Association was started 4-5 years ago. But, before that, it was called a ‘cluster’. And a ‘cluster’ is a group of companies in a specific industry that comes together to collaborate, to share ideas and connect.

And as the industry began to grow it needed more than that. It needed training and education and a voice in the community.

And, so, the leaders of that organization said at the time they were ready to go to the next step. And they formed the Arizona BioIndustry Association which is affiliated with BIO which is the international organization which is in DC and started to take it to the next level, putting in infrastructure, adding leadership, creating a voice and a structure so that more good work could be done in the community and the industry could really start to focus on gaining critical mass and supporting not just the companies that are members but the people that are inside those companies.

So, as the industry is really taking off, and here in Arizona we have had some really tough times. The Arizona BioIndustry Association, which spans a broad contiuum of business from agribusiness to healthcare to pharmaceuticals and medical devices and lots of other things, that industry grew jobs by 7% in the state of Arizona in 2010 where the rest of the industries in the state saw a negative job growth of 10%.

When we look at what is going to be the key driver to move our state forward and diversify the economy, then BIO’s it.

This is really an exciting opportunity at a very exciting time.

Let me repeat what you just said:

The Arizona BioIndustry grew jobs 7% in Arizona in 2010. In 2010, the Arizona BioIndustry grew jobs by 7% while the rest of the state lost jobs by 10%.

I feel like we ought to just repeat this over and over. Maybe people will hear it. Maybe we can help them with the math, you know 7% increase vs 10% decrease...What are they doing right?

But, we’ll get to that.

Now, what’s a standard member profile? Are they startups, global corporations, incubators?

The neat thing about our Arizona BioIndustry and our membership is that they span that continuum. We have fabulous incubators like BioExcel which support new technologies which are spinning out of research facilities like TGen, the Translational Genomic Research Institute and our biotechnology research institute at our Class 1 resarch organizations like Bio5 at the University of Arizona and the Bio Design Institute at Arizona State University.

When those new technologies are coming out, they need support. And an organization like BIOExcel is there to help them. And our  Arizona BioIndustry Association, AZBio, we’re there to help bio excel with the connections and resources and the things that they need to do a better job.

And on the other side we have incredible anchor organizations, corporations that are globally known. We have incredible new startups. On top of that we have fabulous medical device companies, like MedTronic who just announced the new President, Chairman and and CEO is coming over from GE Medical.

We have global giants and the next global giants spinning out of research.

This is a very exciting place to be. This is where bio works, in Arizona.

Now, the accomplishment of AZBio members to grow jobs by 7% while overall jobs dropped by 10% is an accomplishment that stands alone for most industries. Is there a success from one member that is most representative of what Arizona BioIndustry can do for members?

I think what you’re going to see is are those small companies that really take off. We’re starting to see that with our emerging companies.

The other factor is the population and demographic and the changes you will see in healthcare. But, when we look at the changes we need to understand how to serve patients better and how to deliver patient care in the most cost-effective ways. And many of the new technologies, the things that are coming out, are just that. Better patient care, higher standards relative to the drugs and resources and research and medical devices helping in that way.

A lot of the growth in the jobs come from companies just like that.

BUT, there’s more to bio than just medicine. And that’s what most people don’t understand. Most people think when you say biotech that they are either going to pop it in their mouth or strap it to my body, right? But, the reality is that bio is so much broader than that.

And so, one member company I got to visit last week that just blew me away is the Algae BioSciences Corporation. A little bit town in northern Arizona called Holbrook. It took me 4 hours to drive from Phoenix, Arizona, to Holbrook, Arizona. The most gorgeous scenery you would ever imagine.

And when I got there I got to this huge flat plot of land wth this little company right in the middle of it. And there was this company with this state of the art greenhouse. And I’m thinking:

“I’m standing in the middle of the high desert. How could they grow algae here?”

But, the reality is that there is a unique geological structure there that you can’t find any other place in the US. And that is a 1000 foot deep salt plateau. And across that salt plateau runs underground springs and rivers creating a huge pool of absolutely pure salt water. And salt water is what we grow algae in. So, they are able to grow all different forms of algae that are pure and not contaminated by what is included in our above ground bodies of salt-water.

Think about the application for algae. I know it’s high in nutrients. You can take nutrients and convert it into fuel. You can take algae and convert it into vitamins, minerals and very important added elements important to the pharmaceutical industry. Think about some of the dangerous things that have been done in food science over the years. The dyes that have been added to foods may not be safe for us. And naturally occurring in nature are different food dyes which are different forms of algae.

This new corporation is going to be able to farm pure clean uncontaminated algae sources. The potential for that company is incredible. It’s going to change the basis of the employment base in rural Arizona but also in our centers in Maricopa county.

Think of the possibilities and opportunites that the company is going to create in the next couple of years.

That’s a great profile. That’s such an inspiring story I’m ready to cut off the show and go look at Holbrook, Arizona.

You know what? Bring your sleeping bag and we’ll go camping along the river up there. It has some of the most incredible vistas in the world.

You got it.

Now, you recently write a great post at your blog titled The Best Support is Bi-Directional. You wrote:

I need the help and support of others to get the job done. This week, at one of my many meetings, a fellow board member shared a thought that has really stayed with me. “We need to provide value BEFORE we ask for support.” As I have continued through my week, that message kept coming back to me.

What value will you provide your members or why should a bioscience company in Arizona join the Arizona BioIndustry Association?

The reason our members join AZBio is they understand what all of us learned along the way which is:

“You can’t do it alone.”

No one can do it all. No one can have access to every resource. When we come together to share resources and skills and ideas we grow faster.

And, faster is a theme is what our members hear from me as I talk to our members, our our communities, our state and our world. We need to move forward faster.

AZBio is putting the programs into place to enable that activity. What I mean by that is:

You need to have an environment where you can move forward faster. that means the right support from your government. So, we monitor, educate and inform in a bi-directional way. We’re talking to our members and we’re letting them know what’s happening in Washington and our state capital, Phoenix.
 

Equally important, we’re talking to our representatives on the local, national stage and helping them understand the importance of bio in our community and what that means if we’re going to grow. If we foster growth, growth fosters jobs, jobs grow the tax base and we dig our way out of this hole that we’re in. And as we go forward, it’s very important that there’s two-way communication. So, advocacy is one of our key value add propositions.

Another one is connection. Zane, you and I have run startups. It’s so easy. whether you’re in a big corporation and a small one to get so focused in on the big pile of stuff on your desk that you never move outside your office. And if you’re not outside your office, you’re not connecting.

One of the things that we’re doing in northern Arizona, central Arizona and southern Arizona is a series of educational workshops that we’ll be able to roll out so that members can come out and connect with each and get great education and take back to their businesses so that they can move forward.

That’s another reason why you want to be involved and engaged.

Sometimes you want to kick back and have a little fun. And, as you know, my great-great-grandfather, my grandfather and my father all used to be brewers. And so, I found that in Northern Arizona they held an event called Beer and Bio. I thought “Cool!” So, now we’re scheduling Beer and Bio events around the state, so that once a month, we can kick back maybe at a member’s location so that we can get a little tour or at a local establishment where we can connect together on a social setting. And when we do that we start to have conversations.

And when we do that I say to you:

“Hey, Zane. What’s up?”

And you tell me something cool then I can spread that to the next person and the next person. Who knows you might hear your story on BlogTalk Radio.

So, as we go forward, having these opportunities for members to connect either socially or from an educational perspective then the next thing we’re looking at is how to engage the community. I don’t have 2-300 employees. I have a very, very, small team. We need to multiplex our resources. The way we have done that is we’re establishing both committees, who roll up their sleeves and get things done, and councils who share ideas.

So, our committees are our marketing and events and government affairs committees. These are all groups of members who are coming together to help build a vision, then the plan and then execute on it.

On the other side of it, we need to have councils where we can go deeper into an organization and help them with the things they need internally to grow their businesses. Those are things like human resources, supply-chain, and benefits and other things that we use to build our businesses and investments. You can’t grow without capital.

Our HR Council, our Supply-Chain Council and our Investors Councils are really going to be focused on those facets of business where the purchasing person or the HR person or the finance person can get together with their peers and find the things for growing their businesses and moving forward faster.

With all that can you afford not to be involved with AZBio?

I love it. I love that last line: Can you afford not to be involved with AZBio? You’re a closer!

I am the closer! I’m the CEO.

With all the points you brought up that’s a great way to end that conversation.

My friend, Erika Andersen, coined a phrase and question in her book Being Strategic, I use in nearly all my interviews. The phrase is reasonable aspiration or hoped-for future. And her question is:

What is your reasonable aspiration or hoped-for future?

What is the reasonable aspiration or hoped-for future with the Arizona BioIndustry Association?

I think a very reasonable aspiration for AZBio is that we do a better job of unifying internal organization which is our state but also connecting to outside the state.

Bio is not real estate, ok? If you’re doing real estate, you’re really focused on that plot of land. If you’re doing a bio site, you’re ocused on the world because the world is yourcustomer.

Our reasonable aspiration is we form a unified group inside the state of arizona that allows us to take the message of what’s happening in Arizona to the rest of the world. We’re taking the first step in the last week of June. I’m going to be in DC at the BioIndustry Convention and by partnering with our Arizona Commerce Commission we have a beautiful 600 square foot pavillion which is showcasing what’s great with Arizona and Arizona Bioscience. So, that’s how we partner and collaborate internally to take our message externally.

It’s fulfilling our mission which is to be best in-class at home and spreading the word around the world.

Being the excellent CEO, leader and innovator that you are, this next question should be easy to answer. What are the metrics you'll use to measure your progress towards this goal?

Ok. So, when we look at our internal metrics and external metrics, one of the things we often forget is that you have to run a great organization internally before you can support others externally.

We have two sets of metrics. One set is internal metrics and that’s specifically looking at what are our membership numbers, what is our financial strengths, what are our retention numbers not just what we’re attracting but what we’re keeping.

When we look externally we’re looking at who are the companies that we help to grow. What are their metrics? What is the job growth? What is their installed base? How are we helping them reach critical mass. What new companies are we working with to help attract economic developers to bring here and keep here?

So, it’s a two-pronged thing.

1. How do I run my company?
   
2. What is the impact my company has on the world around us?

We measure it from both perspectives.

What is the biggest challenge facing the Arizona BioIndustry Association? As a non-profit, it's likely funding. But beyond that, what's the biggest challenge you face now?

I think the biggest challenge we have in our association is the same in many organizations. It’s trust.

And, when you look at a state like Arizona where we have a very large land mass it’s very different in northern Arizona than it is in central Arizona then it is in southern Arizona. So, there’s always that concern that one area is going to get more resources than another.

One of the things that we have to very sensitive to is we have to support all of our members. wherever they are in the state, equally, to make sure they’re getting all they need to move forward faster. We need to demonstrate that we can deliver that quality of service so that they can trust us.

Trust is not something people give you; it’s something that you earn. So, we have to earn the trust of our members because they’re trusting us with being their voice, their dollars and the investment of their time. Every hour that they spend with me is an hour they are not spending the lab or talking to a customer. So, that’s a really big investment and they need to trust us that there will be a return on that investment.

And, yes absolutely, money is always an issue. If we’re going to grow and offer more and more resources that’s going to take more and more money or more and more people. We have to figure out what we can do to earn that money in the same way that we earn that trust.

The days when industry associations or charities or business could go to an investor or sponsors or supporters....call them investors....the days when you could go to an invest or and say “Hey, I’ve got a great new idea; give me some money.” are over.

What we need to do is ask questions and listen to the answers.

• What is it that our partners need?
• Do they need help with their economic development efforts?
• Do they need help with working with the legislature?
• Do they need help in spreading the word that Arizona is a great place to locate, fast-start and grow your bioindustry company.

So, if that’s the case, then how can we provide services that we can get paid for that will allow us to number one grow what we offer these communities, but more important, fill a gap that that other partner or organization might need.

So, as we move forward, we really have to focus in that way.

That’s a great description and it’s surprising and illuminating to me that trust is your number one issue. But, as you’ve described it it’s clear why trust is so important.

The way you’ve outlined it is so clear in your presentation and how you will achieve it for all of your members is very nice.

I have what I think is a naive bias in favor of bioscience companies. It’s only reinforced when I hear that statistic:

• 7% job growth in a state with an overall job growth of negative 10% in the year 2010.

I hear that term and I think lots of smart and motivated people, gleaming offices, lots of cash, each company a bubbling font of ideas. Is that naive?

Oh yeah. Don’t get me wrong. Some of our global leaders have these beautiful facilities and fabulous resources. I encourage your listeners to Google the term BioDesign at Arizona State University and Bio5 at University of Arizona.

For most of us, Bio is an industry. And an industry is where you knuckle down and do hard work. Whether you’re toiling in a lab or working in a manufacturing facility or building the next healthcare services, in some of our leading research universities. Like you see on TV, it’s nuts all the time.

Yes, there are exciting breakthroughs all the time. But it takes investment and it takes talent and a community that understands how to attract that talent and keep it. That job growth is going to be continuing because there’s a demand for the products, services and technologies that are being developed by our bioscience innovators in multiple industries.

But at the same time it is hard work and if our investors aren’t paying attention and if we don’t attract global investment to supplement what our global investors can do the industry will not move forward as fast as we need to.

I want to respect your commitment to your member's confidentiality. On the other hand, I am incurably curious. Are their challenges for innovation, sustainable innovation, visibly different than their peers in say the manufacturing industry?

Now, remember there is manufacturing in bio.

When we look at taking an idea or a discovery out of a lab and moving it to commercialization, creating a product and then to innovation which is where it is globally accepted, the biggest challenge that bio faces is that it is a heavily regulated industry. As we are moving those things out, there are multiple stages of clinical trials and multiple approvals you have to get.

There are longer lead times with certain bio-science innovations than you might find if you’re launching the next Twitter. You don’t have the FDA breathing down your neck.

From that perspective, yes, there are more challenges. There’s a longer investment cycle. But it can have an incredibly large return.

There is a large educational process to understanding what it takes to move from discovery to commercialization to innovation. Part of our job is to help people understand that process and recognize the milestones along the way and celebrate each time they pass a milestone.

We’re starting to see certain things fast-tracked because of their global needs.

But there will always be a higher standard of quality that is applied, especially in those biosciences that effect human beings. There is going be a higher quality of care because of the importance of what it does. And, quite frankly, if I’m the person taking the drug or having the artificial knee or an artificial heart put in, when we look at those things it is very frustrating to have to jump through all these hoops. But we want to make sure these products are safe and secure and well-tested before we start applying them to human beings.

It may be too soon for this next question. But asking untimely questions has never been a fear of mine. I see the members of Arizona BioIndustry Association being like star performers. Extremely talented, accomplished, driven, demanding. That’s a huge asset.

But it presents a different challenge for you as the newly arrived CEO. Your job title might be more like a symphony conductor where the players are talented, expressive, and...demanding they be heard.

How will you turn the sweet sounds of those voices into a chorus of success both for them and the association?

I tend to look at it more as an amplifier. They’re already an incredibly chorus. AZBio already amplifies what they are doing.

My job is not to direct what they are doing. My job is to take what they are creating and make it available for a wider audience. As they tell us what they are doing, as they tell us what they need, as they share with us how they need to work with other people and collaborate or how they want to help...then our job is to take the wonderful thing that they are doing and amplify it.

Our job at AZBio is about them. Our job is to make sure more people know what they are doing and want to get involved.

That’s a great answer. Amplify it. They are lucky to have you!

Now, anytime anyone mentions innovation and leadership, they usually follow with a lament on our educational system. We're not teaching the students the right skills to think, to communicate, to collaborate all being the skills needed for tomorrow's companies. In fact, IBM's CEO was quoted as saying that in the next 10 years that 50% of their revenues will come from sources that don't exist now.

Do you agree about the disconnect between what's taught today and what's needed tomorrow?

Yes.

First of all, I want to say that our educators and teachers work so hard. And they truly do want to make a difference and they’re not in it for the money.

When we look at our emphasis on STEM today and STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Those are obviously when we talk about them at AZBio, we are focused on designing new products and discovering new things. Science, math, statistics, engineering, forecasting, economics. All of those things are critically important. We need to develop that.

But we need to make sure we do not overlook the other things that are equally important. The ability to share and communicate. The ability to put your ideas down in writing. The ability to solve problems creatively. These are not necessarily going to be solely in a STEM curriculum.

So, we need to find needs to be a balance not just to be able to discover but to be able to tell people you discovered it and then find a creative way to move from step 1 to step 2 to step 3 so you are truly innovating.

Part of it is that we need to as an organization, a community, a state and as a country we need to understand at the school level teach those foundations: critical thinking, communications. Yes science, technology, engineering and mathematics are critically important. But just as parents, we’re wrong if we abdicate learning to the educational system, we have to be involved too.

If you look at an industry the same thing applies. We have to create internship programs, have mentoring programs. We have to go into those schools and be part of the educational systems. Have a place where students can come meet the companies and get inspired. You can’t expect a teacher to do all of that.

Coming up in 2012, we have a pretty big party that we’re throwing in Arizona. On Valentine’s Day, 2012, Arizona is going to celebrate it’s 100 years of statehood. One of the things already in the works is listed on our website. There is going to be a big exposition that is working with our educational community talking about those fabulous things that are happening in our scientific community.

That’s fantastic.

We've reached the imagination moment in our show. Let's imagine President Obama has been listening. And he's calling you right now during the show.

Joan, he says on your answering machine.  May I call you Joan? Look, you and I both know our country needs some help in innovation. I'm locked inside the Beltway and I need to hear directly from innovation experts like you. What if you came up to the White House, met with Joe Biden and I, and talked about innovation. We'd like to hear your thoughts on three things our country can do right now to reverse this slide in our global innovation rankings. Could you do that?

What would you tell him?

If I was going to look at the three things we could do on a national or global level, as a country I would say that:

1. Let industry and the community be the focus for innovation and for the government to get out of the way. As we start looking for new opportunities we need a way to create clear pathways. Government needs to enable, not do. Just as a leader I need to enable, not do. The way government enables is to fully fund and support organizations like the national institute of health, the national cancer institute, the department of energy, who are taking dollars and allowing them to be applied into commercial and research applications so that the industry can move that forward. The industry is going to be able to do that much more effectively.

2. We have got to focus on protecting the innovations that we are creating. that means that the work that is being done at the USPTO, the US Patent and Trademark Office, needs to continue to be best-in-class organization on a global basis. Part of it is to stop raiding the coffers at the USPTO and putting their funds into the general funds. What happens is if we keep pulling resources out of the USPTO, then we don’t have the resources to move those patents forward faster. And if we’re not moving them forward faster then it is harder for those companies to get investment dollars. 47:40

3. Continue to focus on the key national resources we have that will inspire the next generation of innovators. You look at NASA. NASA is one of our crown jewels. There is a tremendous amount of work going on, not just in the biosciences, but in engineering and multiple areas that is happening at NASA. Taking the focus of science and technology and spreading that further around the world and to our young people, just to inspire them, as when I was a little girl. I grew up when we were in a race to put a man on the moon and bring him back safely by the end of that decade. We need another challenge like that. And that’s something that President Obama might want to think about issuing. And then fully funding it.

Leaders are readers. Jim Rohn says that. I just like it and use it here on this show. You're a leader, have been for over 20 years. What are you reading for fun or work?

What am I reading for fun and work?

These days I’m reading a lot online. I’m reading a number of blogs. I get up, as you know, Zane, every morning at 4 AM. And I have my Financial Times, my LA Times, my NY Times, my Arizona Republic, my business journal...all those are at my computer so that when I get up at 4 AM I can see what’s happening in my community, my state, my country and my world.

I’m reading a lot of motivation stuff, right now, as well as all of those medical journals and all of the other things that I need to really focus on.

Unfortunately, my book pile is starting to pile up right now.

As we move forward there are some great books on my bookshelf right now. I’m going to be pulling them out. Ken Blanchard’s books on Leadership. And Posner’s book on leadership. There’s a new one out by Steven Covey specifically on building trust in the organization that I need to pick up and read.

As we move forward I am always going to investigate to stay up on current events.

Right now, I’m really focusing on those areas and if you’re on top of it then you’re one step ahead of the competition.

Let’s say we talk in a year and I expect we will, maybe even in less than a year, what’s the one big thing you’re going to talk about with Arizona BioIndustry Assocation. One huge moment you expect to see.

Probably the huge moment that I expect to see when we’re having this conversation next year is we’re going to be talking more about growth and critical mass. As our industry continues to grow, it becomes a magnet. Like attracts like.

I’m looking forward to seeing our members and our state and our economy move forward faster. I think that’s what we’ll be talking about next year, just how far we’ve gone.

Love it. That is excellent. I’m really looking forward to seeing the progress you’ll have with the Arizona BioIndustry Association. I think it’s fabulous they chose you. I’m interested to see how you’ll lead it, amplify their voices and it sounds like a great opportunity for everyone.

If you can amplify 7% job growth then that will be fantastic.

From ’02 to ’09 our aggregate growth rate was 32%. It’s just that one year in 10 where it was 7%.

I hope the leaders in Arizona are listening. Here’s an industry that drives growth. Here’s a vehicle that drives growth in jobs, drives a tax base, that is sustainable for over a decade during some of the toughest economic times the world has seen. They’ve been able to sustain it. They’re at the edge o the springboard getting ready to launch another round of success.

Thank you. You know, the thing is, it all starts with conversations. Whether they reach out to me on Twitter at AZBioCEO or email me at JKW at azbio.org or call me with the number on the website, then thing that’s really, really important is that it all starts with a conversation. It’s not pushing information. It’s having that conversation. It’s asking questions and listening to the answers and figuring out how you can provide value around the answer you hear.

We all have that opportunity in our business whether you’re running a bioindustry association or a startup business or a Fortune 500 company. Hopefully, this conversation today will spark some new conversations and somebody that’s listening just might be part of that job growth in 2011.

Let’s go through all those sites where people can connect with you.

Probably, the easiest thing to do to connect with me is you’re trying to reach me at AZBio.

If you’re looking for me on Twitter I have lots of profiles. They focus on the things I do.

JoanKW
JKWinnovation
JKWGrowth
Leadership
COREpurpose

All along the way, if you Google Joan-Koerber Walker, you can come back to this radio show to find the correct spelling.

Thank you! I’m really looking forward to hearing your success this year and we get a chance to talk this time next year or sooner!

Thanks, Joan.

 

 

Jennifer Sertl! What Are You Reading?

Jennifer Sertl, founder and president of Agility3R, joined our radio show not too long ago. You can listen here. (You should, too. Very inspiring! )

From the website of Agility3R:

Over the past 12 years Jennifer's expertise and keen insights have dominated paradigm shifts in executive leadership, employee engagement and shareholder responsibility in both privately held and publicly traded corporations in the transportation, telecommunications and health care industries...

She recently co-authored with Koby Huberman an excellent book titled: Leadership, Strategy and the Soul: Resilience, Responsiveness and Reflection for a Global Economy. The book is the result of a 5 year journey that began when Jennifer and Koby co-author met at a conference in France in 2005.

All of this, makes her a leader.

So, I asked her:

You’re a leader. Jim Rohn wrote that Leaders are readers. In all your free time with this book, your consulting, your 3 children, occasional sleep...what are you reading?

And she answered:

I’m reading two books.

The 4 Loves, by CS Lewis’s. It’s about the 4 ways we live love.

Complex Adaptive Leadership by Nick Obolensky. He has some really rich case studies.

See? Love and leadership. Leaders live love in their work, their purpose and followers gather around leaders who live their love.

Jennifer, with her book and her work and her family, lives her love.

Paul R. Williams, What Are You Reading?

Paul R. Williams is founder of the American Institute for Innovation Excellence and author of The Innovation Manager's Playbook and The Innovation Manager's Desk Reference.

We talked about his leadership role in the field of innovation and how businesses of all sizes and persuasions can use the resources he's provided in his two books, his blog, Think for a Change and his recently founded organization American Institute for Innovation Excellence to create a sustainable culture of innovation that brings progress, growth and success for all of their stakeholders.

You can listen to his comments here.

Paul's clearly a leader. I asked him:

You’re a leader. Leaders are readers. Jim Rohn said that. I just quote him. And you’re avid reader, too. What are you reading in all your free time? Fiction or non.

I use some of the Christmas catching up on all that reading. And I have a vacation coming up and my Kindle’s loaded up.

The book I just finished reading that’s phenomenal is The Week that Changed Wall Street. It’s by Maria Bartiromo who’s the money honey on CNBC and it’s about all that went on and behind the scenes that weekend when Lehman fell and brought the world economy to its knees.

It’s amazing how just a few people can make bad decisions that effect billions of people.

I’m just starting another book called Company Town by Hardy Green. It’s a book that looks at the old company towns and utopian towns of industrialists like Hershey and Disney and Ford. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of building a town from scratch. It’s really a neat book.

The last one is called the Vault of Walt by Jim Korkis. There’s a lot of stories in here that have not been told. We talked about this the last time. Walt Disney is sorta my hero with innovation. Talk about a guy who dreamed big and made it happen. Any time I have chance to learn more about his life, I take.

See? There's that diversity of interests as reflected by a curious mind, a mind constantly reaching out and learning.

That makes sense for a leader in innovation. Innovation is about learning. It's about discovering. It's about seeing the world and its different possibilities.

You can read the notes from our conversation here.

Keep. Moving. Forward: Week 3 - Connections

Recently, I announced a weekly series of posts with 5 tips, tools and resources to help us entrepreneurs*...Keep.Moving.Forward. Here's week 3.

The theme this week is connect. Reach out and touch someone or call them or connect with them. And in some cases…don’t.

Use Social Media.

Look. One of the best ways to Keep.Moving.Forward is to stay connected with others. One of the easiest, most convenient, scalable, near-limitless tools to grow connections and stay connected is…social media. My favorite is Twitter. Others love Facebook. I also love Posterous. Find the one you love. Use the one you love. Connect with the ones you love. Find more connections to love. Keep.Moving.Forward

Connect In-Person.

Look, again. It’s easy when times are tough to hunker down in our caves and huddle around our electronic campfires. Go ahead and do it. But do it briefly. Do it long enough to heal the bruises. Then go out and network in person at Chamber events and meetups organized on social media, go to conferences. I’m planning on going to one next week: EntreFest.

Ask For Help.

Sure, it's tough. It's humbling. It's scary. There are control issues. Who wants to openly admit we have failed or need help lest we fail again....

But we all need someone's help, each other's help. Remember, contrary to press releases gushing claims...there are no 'self-made' successes; everyone’s needed help.

Ask your friends or a professional or a coach. They have been there, done that. And it's flattering to be asked.

Help Someone with Their Goals.

First, listen. That’s the biggest help. Be there to listen. Then ask if you can help. Then help. Find out what connects the two of you. Offer them help. Offer them a shoulder to lean on. Share your experts, your ideas, your questions.

Sever the ties that bind.

Keep.Moving.Forward means Keep.Leaving the Past….Behind. Way behind. Or one step behind. Sever the the ties that bind us to what and who may stand in our way. Bad habits, toxic attitudes, unproductive patterns ...they all serve as the foundation for your ongoing failures. They attract an audience of supporters who support you remaining on that foundation.

This is tough. It’s painful, sometimes. But, a relief when it’s done.

Being an entrepreneur, being alive, means pursuing our dreams. It means leaving the safe confines of home, work, routine. It is disruptive whether we lead or watch someone else.

And some prefer the absence of this confrontation. That is the confrontation of pursuing a life worth living vs....layering our lives with denials and distractions.

This point deserves a longer discussion. I’ll do that in a future post.

Happy Valentine’s Day. Keep.Moving.Forward.

**********

* Just a reminder: we're all entrepreneurs.

Our whole life is a series "of hurdles, challenges, setbacks, disappointments, screaming euphoria, comparable levels of despair, a thrilling ride....” And like business entrepreneurs we’re pushed and pulled to invent and re-invent ourselves each and every day...or suffer the same fate as businesses who refuse to change: close our eyes to the world.

And like entrepreneurs in the business world, sometimes we get stuck. Sometimes, we need a tip, a reminder, a flashlight, a life buoy...And in this economy, we all need all the help we can get.

I hope this helps.

Feel free to share your tips, resources or means you have found help you keep.moving.forward.

Disclaimer: I'm a work in process with each of these steps, especially that last one. I'm getting better at the 2nd one. I overlook them all at different times, I handle them or have handled them poorly at others....But I Keep.Moving.Forward. I think you can too, if you take one of them today.

Stefan Swanepoel, Author of Surviving Your Serengeti Conversation: Conversation Highlights

Stefan Swanepoel joined the show recently. Stefan is the author of Surviving Your Serengeti: 7 Skills to Master Business & Life.

For 2 million wildebeest of Africa, their Serengeti is a 1,000 mile-long migration filled with hunger, thirst, predators and exhaustion. The journey is so impressive, so dangerous and incomparably massive that is rated the #1 Natural Wonder of the World.

Stefan Swanepoel’s life has been a “Serengeti journey”—from his birth in Kenya to schooling in Hong Kong and South Africa eventually, running a New York-based global franchise network with 25,000 sales associates in 30 countries. In all he has served as president of seven companies and two non-profit organizations.

You can listen to our conversation here.

Thank you, Stefan, for joining the show. I loved your book!

Zane, good morning. It’s so wonderful to be on your show with all of your listeners today. Thank you very much for the chance to talk with your listeners.

You’re currently running a global enterprise now, right?

Well, we’re not quite global. We do a bunch of international consulting. I do have clients on a number of continents in addition to the US.

But, we are a company that does produce a very comprehensive annual analysis of the real estate industry, particularly the residential real estate where we have big companies that provide home-selling services to the buyers. These are companies that people would recognize their names if we were to mention them. But we do research for them and consult with them. We help them with their international expansion.

Why did you think that metaphor of the Serengeti would resonate with an urban, all-digital, all-the-time reader?

Wow. An urban, digital, reader.

We’re all on a journey every day in our lives whether we have adversities of challenges or burdens to overcome. We have our own struggles today.

When I was trying to write this fable, this metaphor, I was looking for something taht was going to big. I thought “Wow, we might not be a jungle animal. Maybe we are what you just described...this urban, digital, concrete jungle.” And we participate in our world. We carry with ourselves a mask; we hide our feelings.

Because we are so politically correct which is a part of being graceful and respectful of other people, we often do not say what we mean nor mean what we say.

If you look at the animals in the serengeti, they are who they are. They don’t have this mask or this different persona. And you can see more clearly their unique skills and talents.

I thought “Wow, isn’t it a good idea if we as the reader cut through the rubbish and focus on what are our strengths? What our weaknesses and who are are instinctively?” And the animal paradigm, the animal metaphor, showed it so clearly.

We’re not animals and I’m not saying we are animals.

But it highlights it so easily. And I could holler out to you “Hey, Zane are you crocodile or a giraffe?” And we could get into a meaningful business or life dicsussion without stepping on anybody’s toes.

You bring up this question of Which Animal Am I? I visited your website, and took the quiz to determine which animal am I.

Turns out I’m a mongoose.

We launched this quiz in early - December. We’ve had over 4000 take the quiz (5000 as of February 4.) The results are very balanced. Of course there are 7 skills. There is the:

• Enduring Wildebeest
• Strategic Lion
• Enterprising Crocodile
• Efficient Cheetah
• Gracious Giraffe
• Communicating Elephant
• Risk-Taking Mongoose

The three that are most widely at this time, and we have a 3rd party monitoring this test so its results are meaningful but by no means an in-depth analysis. But it seems the Enterprising Crocodile, the Gracious Giraffe and the communicating Elephant seem to be the three that more people tend to follow into.

You’re in a really unique category. Not many people are willing to take risks.

What inspired you to write Surviving Your Serengeti? What was the driving force behind this 5 year labor?

I’ve written 18 - 19 books. Writing a book for me is not the hard part. But all those books are technical in nature. My most recent book came out as recent as 2 weeks ago. So, this is an ongoing process.

I was looking for something I could say where could I put my absolute passion, a a parable. I don’t want to compare, but if you think of Andy Andrews or Bob Burg I was looking for a business parable that was bigger, something that was epic, something that was awe-inspiring, something that was large. And I thought, “wow the largest mammals is the elephant, the fastest animal is the cheetah, one of the oldest is the crocodile.

I looked at all of this and thought “Wow, you find them all in one place.” And then at the same you have the wildebeest which is one of the largest mammals and one of the largest migrations of mammals on the planet.

When I saw all of that together I thought “Wow. Here, I found a place on this planet where the story of Life is bigger than Life itself. It’s this big canvas that God created. It’s a really impressive landscape. Can I find in there a hidden message? ”

I went to the serengeti. I’ve been before. I’ve been on 20 safaris in my life. I got on a plane and went back to the serengeti with a new pair of eyes just to look at the serengeti with its wonderful awe-inspiring message of Nature.

When I went back, I found it. I spent two weeks on my own, with one ranger dedicated and I saw it.

I loved that you chose a business fable as your format. Why? Was that our original intention?

I think that technical books, which I’ve written so much, and academic books, which if you’re not in that space, are a tough reads; you have very little inclination to read a technical or academic book.

Yet, people tend to be fascinated by stories whether it’s Harry Potter stories or other stories. People love to read and be transported to somewhere else.

And looking at all the books and I’m a very avid reader, I was saying to myself “Which genre of books do I think will tell me that story, that message, and yet I can put purpose behind it?”

Of course, we’ve all read the many books by the Ken Blanchards of the world, the One-Minute Manager, and I said “That’s who I am.That’s the genre of books I enjoy personally the most. “

And I feel that if I can tell a good story, that if I can transfer you here in the US to Africa...if I can sketch for you a safari, I can really carry you out of your chair in the office environment and take you to this awesome awesome place then I can live out my dream and be a story - teller at heart.

I can tell you a story and take you on this journey with me in a pleasant, unthreatening way, whether you’re running a company or raising kids or you have aspirations to something else. I hope that I can communicate a message through my fable.

My friend Erika Andersen coined a great phrase in her book Being Strategic. It's reasonable aspiration or hoped-for future. What is your reasonable aspiration or hoped-for future with writing this book?

Two or three things pop to mind.

Tenacious persistency. People should be willing to continue on this journey of life. When we break our journey we sometimes give up so easily. We like to blame others: people or institutions or the government.

I’m not saying it can’t be sometimes involved in the problem. I’m saying we need to be tenacious in our desire to be successful.

And then if I could sneak in another one, but strategic efficiency. You have to be efficient in anything you do. Even in running this program, people may think you just talk, but I’m sure you spend hours preparing for this show. You have a plan. And once you have that plan you have to execute it efficiently. You have a timeline and you try to make your readers and listeners as satisfied as possible.

Tenacity, persistency, strategy, efficiency. And of course those are words in my book.

How will you know you're making progress? What metrics will you use?

Mine or your listeners? Again, a tough question. When one writes a book and it’s a parable for how one deal’s with life or challenges, I think when you see people write about it, blog about it, Facebook about it and they come back to you and they say that this book has had an impact on their lives, an imprint on their companies.

Maybe, I can give you a few examples. the book isn’t out yet, It’s available in March, 2011.

We had a few hundred galley copies made, set up by my publisher. I had a few made up to share just within my circle of influence. I picked 50 or so of my clients and I showed them a draft copy, which was an unfinished product, it has some typos. I said ‘Just read through it. Give me your take. Let me know what it is” But there are 3 or 4 stories shared and they’re on the Serengeti book website.

I can think of Sara Weise, a real-estate broker agent in the Austin, Texas area. She was so fascinated by the what animal am I quiz that she had her whole company take the quiz. And they all came up with different answers and they all took an afternoon off and sat down and chatted about it. What are the characteristics of your animal? How do you deal with challenges. They had this whole team building exercise and she posted it on the web. [Note: I can't find the link.]

I shared an advance copy with one person and it got shared with an entire company and they’re talking about it, how they could better understand themselves.

Another example which brought tears almost to my eyes is Tracey Reeves. She read the book, took the test, posted it on the web. She had a son, about 18 years old and apparently he does not read a lot of books. And I have kids in that age and they generally don’t read a lot of books. He picked up the book, took the test and found out he was a wildebeast. And she blogged on her website that that gave him more confidence and gave him a sense of encouragement and a sense of belonging. He now feels that the wildebeast is an animal that is very enduring and tenacious, will never give up, and even against all odds of hunger and predators, still goes through that journey. And her son is wlaking around with a new level of confidence. He still doesn’t know what he’s going to do with his life yet. But the book has made a huge impression on him to such an extent that he took our quiz, posted it on his Facebook page and had all the kids in his neighborhood take the quiz.

It’s those kinds of messages you get back that make you say “Wow! I’m really helping people change their lives.”

Who were you writing for? Describe the reader you had in mind while you wrote late at night over those 5 years.

The reader I had in mind. Probably those same persons that I believe the sage in the book, Zaccariah, is speaking to. I included in the book many subtle and hidden messages that if you don’t get it will be ok, but if you do it will give you added depth and meaning.

I have 4 different generations in the book. I have the senior generation, the baby boomer generation, of which I am one. I have Gen-x and Gen-y. So, whether you are a 50 or 60-year old. I have gentleman that’s retired, a gentleman who lost his job on Wall Street, a kid who works on a farm, a former Navy Retiree. A lot of time was spent to collect an eclectic group so that when Zacchariah tells them the meaning of life, the messages of the animals, the skills each animal has to survive and thrive, they each accept that story in a different way.

Who was I trying to reach? I’d say it’s all of those people. So, if you say “Stefan, you’re not focused.” So, probably more so the employee that is working for business today or the entrepreneur and is having a tough time with his job or his cash-flow which I know very well, too.

The struggles of corporate America, of the entrepreneur, who I have worked with every day. I’ve had my own company, 6 times I’ve owned as the major stockholder. Then I’ve also been the President of a publicly listed company. So, both sides.

That probably is the closest I was writing to. But, I’d love to believe that any person working or not, studying to become something or does not yet know who they would like to become.

You list seven skills ....to survive our serengeti. What are they? What's the most important one?

I’ll give them to not in importance, but in percentages. So far, of the 4000 people who have taken the test the most popular is the Enterprising Crocodile. That shows you how many entrepreneurs we have in this company, who work for themselves and have that desire and passion to be their own boss. That’s about 28% of the quiz-takers, so far.

At the same percentage is the Gracious Giraffe. That’s impressive. I didn’t think it was going to be that high for that animal. These are people who just have what it takes. Their word is their bond. They say what they mean. They really care about people around them. They care about society and are professional about how they interact with everyone.

The 3rd category is the Communicating Elephant. That might be effected by I have had a lot of real estate professionals take the test. And many are the Enterprising Crocodile, but also they are the Communicating Elephant. They have to be comfortable speaking with both in front of people, around people and get their message across as they are sales people.

The next 4 animals are very close. One is 9%. The other two are 8% and 7%.

The Strategic Lion, the person that is very focused in life. They have a plan or they create a to-do list or an action plan for his day or life. He knows what he wants to do.

The other one is probably the Efficient Cheetah. Very similar to the Strategic Lion. Here it’s not the long-term plan or I am mapping out my actions, but it’s everything I do I want to do in the quickest time possible. Don’t waste my time. I need to get through things. That’s the person you give the work to because the busiest person is the one who gets the work done, juggling many balls in the air. Then the one you refer to which is I think is a very special one. I deliberately put that one in.

The Risk-Taking Mongoose is an incredible animal. Yes, it might be small in size. But that’s why I put it in because of it’s size it is not scared to go against the King Cobra snake. It’s a great team player. It understand risks. It’s not risk averse. It doesn’t mean it will do anything. It means that it is calculating when it does something and is very efficient.

The last one, the main character in the story, the Enduring Wildebeast. It is not as big as the American bison, not as pretty. But it is tenacious. That animal has incredible endurance. Each year it crosses 1000 miles. It has cheetahs running and pullbing it down. It has lions stalking it. It has crocodiles eating it. Yet it has become the dominant species in the serengeti. It completely dominates to such an extent that there are 1.5 million animals and when they move each year it completel changes the landscape. All the other species depend on where the wildebeast is at any time.

Although many of them die during this journey, as we do in ours. We may not die but we have challenges and setbacks and we have to overcome them. And that’s what the wildebeast does.

This is a circle of life they run every year.

We need all 7 skills to be successful. Which one do you see people having mastered the least? How does that raise the risk for not surviving our serengeti?

As a population, and remember I have my citizenship, my family accepted our citizenship from a decade ago and I am truly proud to be a U.S. citizen...If I had to pick one, and think about the people I have worked with in the past and look at the results of the quiz, I would probably say the enduring wildebeast is the one we tend to not have. We tend to be self-centered sometimes. We tend to blame other people and give up and not pursue what our beliefs are, what our commitments are.

Now, of course there are many examples which I could cite where we have done the opposite. Nothing is mutually exclusive, black and white.

But if I could share with the listeners it’s don’t give up. I’m not saying be stubborn or arrogant and think you can do anything. But at the same time if you set your heart on something and you have a roadmap, don’t use any and every excuse to find a way from something. If you put your head down like a wildebeast and keep focused then you can in most cases be way more successful if you’re willing to endure.

We all have multiple skills. And a well-balanced person would have multiple skills or you would try and strive to have them.

But, of course, not every skill we have is not equally prominent. The book tries to illustrate which of these instinctive skills which would mean the most to everyone I think that we should say how do we work together as a team, if you have this one skill and I have this one, how do I understand and communicate with you because instinctively, if we were thrown into a new environment which one would we be? Because you can’t be all of them.

If you had to depend on one skill to survive and thrive in the serengeti... would you be the one running fast or the one with plan to have breakfast?

What is the one that if I had to depend on you, which one are you going to be so good and we would know that, so that I can depend on you and we can compliment the rest of a team with complimentary skills so we can have a better team, a better company or even a better country.

What are three things we can do to better master that wildebeast, bring out the endurance?

We have to instinctively know who we are. If we know who we are out of the 7, then by default we can determine what we are weakest at. If we are weakest at endurance then accept it. Don’t fight it. We aren’t all superman; we aren’t all perfect. Identify the skills you are not strong at. Accept that and see how you can improve on that with the skills of the others in your company.

If you want to say that is your weakest skill or your least strongest skill, I don’t care. But then try and see if you can improve on that. Find someone who is good on that skill. If I’m not a risk-taker, but you are then maybe if I befriend you and we work together then maybe we can learn from each other. If I’m averse to risk-taking then I might say no to something before I give it a second thought. But you might look at the same problem, then you’re already looking at how you’re going to solve the problem.

Ad by know that that’s how you think then I can learn from you. By learning which animal we are with the What Animal Am I quiz, a 3-4 minute quiz and as I said before I’m not trying to create a new strengths0finder or a meyers-brigg. This is a casual, informal, way for you to have fun and learn what skills instinctively drive us.

I recommend everyone go to the site. The survey was fun and quite useful and your description was quite accurate.

You've survived and thrived in multiple Serengetis. You've lived around the world. You’ve led 7 companies. Which of these 7 skills played the greatest role in your success?

I would say probably two. Probably number one would be Strategic Lion. You’ve gotta know where you want to go to. If you don’t know you won’t know if you get there. We’ve heard that said so many times by so many times.

Strategy. Have a plan not only for your life but break it into pieces for the rest of your life: your religion, your kids,. If you don’t have a roadmap then it is likely you will not get to where you want to.

I had a very specific plan. I was very fortunate to grow up in this diplomatic household. I learned 3-4 languages by the time I was 5. My father took me to 3-4 continents. I’ve been to 40 countries around the world. It gives you a broad-based understanding and respect for the different cultures and societies and languages around the world.

I think that balances me.

But at the same time, it confuses you as a young child. You’re not sure where home is. In one year I was speaking one language and one year later I was speaking Swahili at the age of 3 or 4. I don’t remember because at the age of 6 I was put in a school in Hong Kong and learning Chinese. What a jump is that?

And then by the age of 12 the put me in a Dutch/Afrikaaner school in South Africa and wanted me to learn to speak Afrikaan and Dutch.

The only way I could do this was to have plan. Where do I want to end up not just geographically? Where would you like to end up in life? What is it you want to do? And what are the steps you want to do to get there?

And then if I can I’ll sneak in the last one: Endurance. Once you have your map, don’t give up on it.

Which of the 7 offered the greatest challenge? What did you learn from solving that challenge?

Whew. Maybe efficiency. I think it’s one of the hardest skills. We think we are efficient.

But, I recognized it as a weakness two decades ago and I have taken a concerted effort to be more efficient. It’s trying to learn every day what am I going to do today and tomorrow and create a priority list of items, to try and rank them in importance.

I don’t really allow anyone to call me on my mobile phone. I think only 4-5 people have my mobile phone number. It’s not that I don’t want calls from people, or I’m important. It’s just that I’ve tried to training people that if you want to deal with me then you can leave a voicemail and I’ll respond in 24 - 48 hours. If you send me an email, a text, I’ll respond to you in a few minutes.

I found I can deal with people better, deal with more people, at my time and leisure with the time blocked and set aside. I can be more efficient. I like being able to focus on that task that will help me be more successful at that time.

Perfect! That segues nicely into our next question. Skill number 4 is Efficiency. And you write:

To accomplish this you must be constantly on the lookout for 'inefficiency' in the project, or process, or yourself by controlling sources of friction and distractions (email, phone calls, texts, web surfing, etc)

You touched on a couple of things you do now. What other steps do you take now with all your responsibilities?

How do you accomplish this in your life today?

I think we all have distractions in our lives. Some situations are more unique and special than anybody else’s. If you get a chance to speak with someone else you find that everybody carries with them their own struggles and burdens and ordeals. And yes, inefficiencies.

I would say it is trying to roadmap it out and prioritize it. Whether it’s a diary or an electronic list but having a very clear idea of a task list with a responsibility whether it’s you or a team member for when that project is completed.

We all know that saying:

“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

It’s that same principle. If you have a huge task that takes days or weeks or months, how do you prioritize that into small chunks and steps. And how do you deliberately set aside time each day. And, don’t allow the flickering Tweet or Facebook to interrupt. I tweet 50 times a day but not at the same time every day but I have a specific time slot every day.

There are times you should put those things down and concentrate on doing what needs to be done. If you’re on a conference call you can’t be tweeting and efficient. And the same with your family. There are times you need to put those things down and concentrate on the task at hand.

Skill number 5 is Grace. I imagine that in your journeys around the world you have captured some opportunities to both show and learn this skill. Do you have an experience that either taught you that skill or taught you it's importance?

You’ve probably picked the hardest one among all of them. There are few people who have read the book and see how do you be the Gracious Giraffe.

That is one thing very very often missing from society. Be it that we should be grateful for everything we have received, be it that we should act gracious with other people, be it that we should transpose that word in the business world to the word professional and say we should be professional and ethical in our dealings.

I’m not sure how you should imply that word. You can take the religious connotation, you can take the grateful connotation, the professional connotation. In my opinion they are all acceptable connotations.

How did I learn that skill? I would probably give credit to my father. He was a diplomat and I grew up in a diplomat household. He was always representing another entity whether it was a company or our family or in our case a country.

But, because you’re representing a country in a foreign place, he was always mingling with very important, influential people, and he was the window for the people he was meeting to the universe of the country he was representing.

He could never let his guard down. He could never not be gracious. Whether it was pride and joy or complexity and sorrow, he had to handle those opportunities with the utmost in grace.

That’s the environment I grew up with and it has stayed with me.

I think it is key.

How do you teach graciousness in your company?

Yeah, it’s tough to teach it in a company. I think it can be taught. I’ve seen it taught within companies. It takes time. It becomes a culture. It takes a mindset.

You don’t walk into a company and say “Guys, let’s be graceful.” It’s a philosophy. It become the very fiber of who you are. It’s not something you can learn in a book. You might pick one up and say “Oh I should be more graceful and then you are for a few minutes and then you forget about it.”

But, if you want to be as graceful as the giraffe in the way you treat people, respond to people, respect people...it’s got to go all the way through the company. It’s got to probably start at the top of the company. The company’s got to have heart. The founder has to have heart, has to have purpose and meaning. He has to understand he is not just chasing the dollar. Clearly the company has to always be making money, be successful.

By no means am I saying the one skillset replaces the other. They are complimentary in nature. If you want to a culture of grace it’s got to come from the top and it takes time.

One of the results we've seen in this recent economy is the result of companies failing to invest in upgrading the skills of their key stakeholder: employees.

You've been a very successful business leader. How did you bring these 7 skills to your employees and associates? Which one proved to be the most challenging to master by those in our organization? How did you address that?

We’re really getting to the heart of the matter. How can we be better humans and contribute better to our organizations? If you want to be an executive that I aspire to and yes I try to be these things but I also fail. If we aspire to be better, you’ve got to say that you care and then you’ve got to show it.

You’ve got to show it in your fiber.

You’ve got to say what you mean and then you’ve got to mean it.

You’ve got to show where we’re going and then you’ve got to get us there.

You’ve got to say what you’re going to be doing and then you’ve got to do it.

It’s again that seeing something through to fruition. Stephen Covey said:

“Walk your talk”.

Talk is easy; it’s cheap. We know so many around us and our leaders who will give us lip service and never make good on their promises. The leaders we remember, that we look back on as an icon, are leaders who do exactly what they say they are going to do.

Those are skills that will change an executive from a shallow, empty, person with rhetoric to an impressive leader who we’ll say “I will follow you through anywhere. Even if I have to cross the savannah where there are crocodiles, I’m going to follow you because I know that you mean what you say. And we’re going to run together as a team.”

That’s the definition of a successful business leader.

You list Communication as skill number 7. And I'm reading where communication and collaboration and creativity are skills in great demand in the future.

Will communication skills take a more pre-eminent role in the future? Or will endurance or risk-taking?

I’m not sure which one will become dominant. The elephant’s skills, I think so, will become critical.

There is so much media and white noise out there that communication is critical. It’s critical that the person who is sharing the message or parting the wisdom or giving the tasks or duties, make sure the people they are speaking to have complete clarity about your message. You message needs to triumph over any potential confusion and we’re shouting over this white noise and we think, I think, that you said, but I don’t know, I’m confused, I’m going on my own.

The person who needs to get the right message is not the person hearing the message, it’s the person giving the message. If I’m giving a message today then I need to organize my sentences and words that I have the highest probability that the person listening to it will get a good sense and balance of what I’m trying to get across. I agree with you that communication is absolutely key.

Let's talk about social media. Big, buzzy topic. One of its appeals is its ability to share knowledge. Well, share information. What role if any could social media play in developing these 7 skills?

I absolutely adore social media. As humans we’ve always been good at communication. We’ve done it in a different way, at a bar or sports game or a drive through or we’ve done it in a barbecue in the backyard. Social media is just a different place for us to get together. It’s a new vehicle. But it is still at the heart for those of us who like to talk to people and want to share.

And yes, I know social media started as "someone had breakfast this morning..." But you get to the stage where it’s very tiring and I don’t have the time to filter through all the thousands of people having coffee today.

But it is an opportunity to bond with my followers. I tweet all my own tweets. I have 3 accounts. Between the three of them I have 41,000 followers. My personal one I have 20,000 and this book has 10 or 11,000 followers. We try to talk about our focus every single day.

I try to respond to every single tweet or retweet about me or my book. So it’s not just a touchy-feely. It’s about connecting with these people, most of whom live in a city and town far away from where I am. This is a convenient and easy way to share with them.

I think that the platforms be that Facebook or Twitter of LinkedIn are going to grow and adapt to become a very very commonplace thing in the not too-distant future if they are not already there.

Which character are you in your book? Any other characters in the book that you encountered in your personal serengeti?

I’m not going to tell you! That’s a secret.

There are a few characters that I would like to be. I’ll share with you the three characters, but my publisher asked that I keep it a secret until the book is published. These are the three characters I would love to be.

I would love to be the enduring wildebeast.

I have a lot of respect for the Strategic Lion, not because it’s the king of jungle. But the roadmap idea we talked about has been key for me in my life.

You asked me what I think a lot of people don’t have a lot of and that would be the Efficient Cheetah. That’s a skill I would try to have more of.

I’m probably one of those three.

You're a leader. Leaders are readers, says Jim Rohn; I just quote him. What books are you reading?

It’s wonderful to get on a plane and go somewhere. Books are good for planes.

I would say that the book I just finished was Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose from Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. I’ll most likely be seeing him in March.

A book I have on my table is Getting Naked by Pat Lencioni. there’s a whole bunch of books by Lencioni. Getting Naked is the best business book on my table from him.

You posted a list of your top business fables from the last 20-some years. Which one was yours?

If I had to pick one I’d say Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson. He's written the most successful business fable of all time.

The author I look up to the most is probably Ken Blanchard. I remember him going back to almost my university years, the One-Minute Manager, 1983 if I remember correctly. I have a testimonial from him for my book. And it was so great to get that from someone I look up to so much.

I love The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma

I love Andy Andrews. His two most recent books are the Traveler’s Gift: 7 Decisions That Determine Personal Success and The Noticer.

A personal friend of mine, I’m meeting with this afternoon is Bob Burg. He wrote The Go-Giver and Go-Givers Sell More. And his book has been translated into a number of languages.

Leave us with a quote to help just Keep. Moving. Forward through our serengeti.

I would say that, something we can remember the book by. Nature has a lot to share. There’s a big message in Nature. And if you’re willing to listen, then any ordeal you may encounter, any struggle you might have, you already have the skill and God will give you the opportunity to hone your skill and prove your skill on any journey you do.

I wish your listener’s all the best.

Where can our listeners find you on the web?

The best place to find me on the web is at Serengeti Book.

I'm on Twitter at

Serengeti, for the book.

Swanepoel, for my personal account.

I write a blog every single day. I post on YouTube once a week; we have 20 videos up there.

And you can take the test, What Animal Am I?, at the site.

Next guests: Elizabeth Doty.