How To Evaluate And Create An Enviable Executive Inner Circle

Imagine you have an incredible opportunity to sell your company or take a promotion. Who would you call for advice?

I hope two or three names immediately popped into your head. Now ask yourself, would those people immediately take or return your call? Would they be willing to provide you candid feedback, acting with your best interests at heart? Have you stayed in touch with them recently so they know all the context about your business and your life?

The number of those questions you answered with a wholehearted yes reveals how strong your inner circle is. It is not unusual for a CEO or executive to be so absorbed in his company, his team, building products, and servicing customers that he lets his inner circle fall down the list of priorities. If yours needs attention, schedule time into your calendar today to reinvigorate your relationships so when that opportunity presents itself and you need advice, your call will be quickly returned.

Andrea Leigh, General Manager at Amazon, says, “I always seek out truth-tellers for my inner circle. At Amazon, I selected two leaders who were in the painful-but-so-helpful category of leaders. The feedback was brutal at times, but one member of my inner circle was so sharp and insightful that I knew I would get the truth and helpful guidance.”

When I work with CEOs and Board members I ask them whether their inner-circle is full of their aspirational peers. Not people who helped you ten years ago, not people you overtook in the success trajectory, but people you feel lucky to get their brainpower on your business and your life.

Successful marathon runners use a pacemaker to guide them to match their pace to their target so they can beat their personal best time. Thoughtfully Ruthless leaders know they need pacemakers in their connections so they don’t slow down at the most opportune times. Who are your pacemakers? How strong are those connections? What will you do today to ensure you’ll have the candid and insightful support you need when you need it most?

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

Is Your Team Dancing In The Same Direction?

“The line dancing lesson will start in five minutes.”

That’s the announcement that was made while out at dinner with an executive team mid way through running their Digital Transformation Strategy retreat last week. 

Watching line dancing is hypnotic, and these dancers were experts. I enthusiastically joined the CFO and CIO on the dance floor ready and willing to learn. 

It seemed that the teacher suddenly sped up her pace and complexity as soon as we stepped on the dance floor. 

For the next 20 minutes, she shouted confusing phrases like applejack, anklerock, and fan kick. I spent most of the time moving right when everyone was moving left and facing the back of the room when everyone else was facing forward. So I quickly left the dance floor. 

It was a sharp reminder for me about how it feels to be at the bottom rung of the learning ladder. I hadn’t mastered it as quickly as I hoped and I wished the teacher would slow down. I wanted to practice the steps to the music, not learn more steps, and I ultimately just gave up. 

What changes are you trying to drive in your organization and are you paying attention to who’s dancing in time to your tune?

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

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How To Become Imperturbable And Keep Your Energy Focused

The decision you fully expected the board to approve just got blocked. How would you react? Or what if your top employee just quit? What then? Do you brush it off and move on or excessively wallow?
It isn’t just at work.

I was flying back from speaking at a conference and the wi-fi wasn’t working on our Virgin America flight. We are in a giant metal tube hurtling around the world drinking and eating pretty decent food using plastic airplane shaped salt and pepper shakers. Yet two passengers decided to create havoc because there was no wi-fi. One was red in the cheeks, physically agitated, looking like he may simply pop like an overinflated balloon, and his seat mate was trying to rally everyone around her to complain too, when it was completely out of our control. They both made a choice. They chose to let a minor inconvenience suck away all of their energy when instead they could have admired the view, read, slept, or watched a movie.
 
Unexpected disappointments are bound to come, but the way you react and what you show on the outside affects your own energy and the energy of those around you. The speed with which you can brush off disappointments and setbacks and then refocus will determine how fast you achieve what you set out to do. The key is found in having a strong protective barrier—like solar panels on a roof collecting the excess energy and deflecting the heat—so you stay cool and in control. I call this your Imperturbable Barrier. How strong is yours?
 
I used to work with a leader who was obsessed with reading online reviews and community forums. In the games industry, this can be a full-time job in and of itself, but he liked to stay connected with the customers who played our products, so he would read them continuously. If he had just read them and moved on with his day, it would have been fine. But if there was a negative comment about a new game or a demo that had been released, it would knock him off course for hours, sometimes days. He didn’t know how to observe, listen, and decide whether he was going to act or ignore the feedback. Instead he would wallow in it and get riled up, until I helped him become more imperturbable.
 
Many of the executives I advise call me when they anticipate a potential meeting or conversation that may provoke them. Just this morning alone I have helped one prepare for a pitch for an acquisition he expects to be a hard sell to the board, another to prepare for giving disappointing promotion news, and another on how to influence an executive peer who is typically antagonistic when hearing his strategy proposals.

Often just writing down how you are feeling can be enough to process your emotions and move on. Pay attention to how you are feeling and why. Be specific and describe the event, what the trigger was, and how you were feeling. Also, try fast forwarding and ask yourself: Will this be important to me in three months? In twelve? Doing so may give you necessary perspective.
 
The way you react to the unexpected can have powerful consequences. What can you do today to strengthen your Imperturbable Barrier? 

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val