Patti Cotton

Executive Coach & Career Strategist

decision making

How a Silent Marauder Might Be Threatening Your Business Future

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How a Silent Marauder Might Be Threatening Your Business Future
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Sandra was a first-generation business owner. She worked hard for more than 25 years to build a solid company that served customers well.

This was a business that would provide for her family financially, both now and in future.

Or so she thought.

But a business marauder suddenly appeared in the form of new technology that threatened to put Sandra’s company out of business.

Her hard work and her future could be wiped out in the next 36 months unless she took some quick and powerful action.

Sandra was frozen. Her ways of leading and doing were solid – but they were limited, confined to running the business the way she knew how, to what had worked up to this point.

Unless Sandra acquired agility in her leadership, she would not be able to move forward. She could become part of the 90% of executives who currently find themselves and their business obsolete.

If you are an executive or business owner, I can guarantee that technology and other marketplace changes will affect how you lead. You may have a shelf life of just up to approximately 36 months if you don’t have the agility required to work with change. This is about how long it takes before we experience the spiral that results from not shifting with change.

And this happens a lot with excellent leadership.

You are successful for a period of many years, and then suddenly, changes emerge that demand an agility from you and a way of operating that are foreign to your context. These changes and challenges leave you bewildered. You become frozen and overwhelmed, or you dig in your heels and insist on leading in the same way you always have.

You can’t tough this one out. Change is not going to go away.

Sandra had led well. Her company had been a solid contender in the marketplace.

But she was in trouble now. She called me because she couldn’t seem to move forward as she faced this new development.

Having shown herself smart, capable, and competent during her entire tenure, she agreed that the competition was real, but she couldn’t seem to muster the higher gear required to begin wrestling with new structures and processes. She hoped her company product would still be greatly loved by her loyal clients, and wondered if the business simply accelerated some tried-and-true strategies with more sales staff, if she could help the company remain viable.

She couldn’t. The changes Sandra would need to make in order to remain viable demanded a new approach – and an agility to make it happen.

When we met, Sandra pulled out a drawer and showed me several unused strategic plans. She admitted that she had never been able to take the time to figure out how to practically apply any of them. It seemed like there was never enough time, and fulfilling customer orders took precedent over all else. She said that this had served well enough in the past, but she now knew that she needed to take some sort of action fast, in order to save the business from crumbling.

Sandra exhibited what I see in a lot of seasoned leaders.

When one has led for many years, she can become accustomed to focusing on what is working well, and forget to check the horizon for what is coming ahead.

Changing conditions in the marketplace, in the economy, in politics, and in disruptive technology (and more!) can dictate that a leader pay attention. Many, however, just dig their heels in to work harder at doing the same thing, rather than to evaluate strategies and approaches that will best support these changes. This can quickly result in trouble spotted too late.

Sandra was certainly in trouble, admitting that she might need to do differently, but that she didn’t know where to start. It was clear that she not only needed a quick medium-term plan to respond to the looming competition, but that she would also need to develop more behavioral agility in order to flex and adapt to needed transitions and change.

Sandra asked if I wanted to see the strategic plans stored in her office. The latest one was dated two years prior.

“That’s too old,” I said. “These days, you want to revisit and update your strategic plan every year. Changes are coming too rapidly for an older plan to support the future.”

We got busy and went through a quick strategic planning process to accommodate the next 36 months. This plan would need to be clear, concise, and it would need to be actionable. I didn’t want this one to sit in a drawer.

Once we had the 36-month plan in place, Sandra and I worked on a medium-term action plan designed to meet the impending competition.

We were on a tight timeline to stay out in front. With coaching, Sandra was able to develop the necessary agility to execute the plan well.

Those in charge find they operate best if they have someone to help them with this. Tackling a new plan requires not only focus and buy-in from all involved, it also often demands that we operate in new and novel ways to support the future.

This is agility – the one thing that will keep us current in our leadership.

Leadership agility is “the ability to take effective action in complex, rapidly changing conditions. Only 10% have mastered the level of agility needed for consistent effectiveness in our turbulent era of global competition.” (Joiner and Josephs, Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change).

It follows that agility is necessary in company teams and in the entire enterprise, as well.

Acquiring agility demands not only new or improved direction and actions, it also asks that we develop the necessary mental and emotional capacity to implement these actions.

This is why 90% of those in leadership fail. As rapid change and complexity continues to emerge, a lot of very fine business owners and other executives fold. It isn’t from a lack of desire – it’s from a lack of understanding how to meet change effectively and to make the personal leadership shifts necessary to do so.

Back to Sandra: I’m happy to report that after we rolled up our sleeves and quickly got going, she was feeling confident about her direction, her company’s future, and her ability to meet it successfully. We hit some bumps as she expanded her agility, but we laughed a lot and she grew exponentially, setting up the company to meet the future successfully.

Sandra noted that not only was the process rewarding and energizing, she also enjoyed less stress – a great bonus. She decided to invite me to help coach her team and other key players in agility, at that point, as part of her succession planning.

How strong is your leadership agility? Are you able to survey the landscape, identify potential threats and opportunities, come up with a strong plan of action, and effectuate this well?

Ten Character Indicators

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Ten Character Indicators
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“How you do one thing is how you do everything.” ~ Madeline Albright

Thirty years ago, a business owner named Dave found himself in a critical position. A key employee had been found embezzling, and the company faced a $1 Mil shortfall. To Dave’s business, this was the difference between surviving and sinking.

After examining his options, he felt the only thing he could do was to sell the business or find a partner who would invest money to help stabilize the company. As luck would have it, he found a man named Ed who owned quite a few businesses similar to his, and who was willing to become a partner with Dave to save the enterprise’s future.

One day, as they were finalizing terms of the partnership, Dave and Ed went to lunch.

During the meal, something happened that should have tipped Dave off about Ed’s character. But he ignored it. He was desperate for funds and reasoned that the incident had nothing to do with how Ed would conduct himself in business. And because he chose to ignore this incident, it wound up quietly hurting Dave for the next 30 years.

What was the tip-off to Ed’s character during that fateful lunch?

When it was time to settle the $48 food bill, Ed offered to pay. The server brought change from Ed’s two $20 bills and the men left for their cars. As Dan and Ed stepped into the parking lot, Ed chuckled as he folded his money into his wallet.

“That gal needs to pay more attention,” Ed said. “Instead of giving me $2 change, she gave me a $1 bill and one of my $20 bills.”

“Ed – that’s obviously a mistake on her part! You’re going to return it, right?” asked Dan.

“Are you kidding?” said Ed. “If someone is going to be that careless, it’s money for me and a good lesson for them.”

Dave felt terrible. He went home and wrote an apology letter to the restaurant. Without disclosing who the offender was, he enclosed a $20 bill as repayment.

The next week, Dave and Ed signed partnership papers. Ed contributed the agreed-upon cash infusion to the business and thus saved it. He brought in a managing administrator to manage the company as agreed. Over the next 30 years, Dave enjoyed residual income from the business without having to manage it, and Ed’s appointed administrator operated as per Ed’s directives.

One day, Ed fell terminally ill, and Dave was called in by a key executive to talk about the future of the company and the partnership interests. As Dave and the executive went over opportunities, it slowly came to light that the business was charging Dave a disproportionately higher amount for expenses in facilities, upkeep, and business development for 30 years. The amount of money that should come to him as profit was staggering. Dave felt physically sick. These funds could have made a great difference to him and his family over the 3 decades that had passed, but he was now a weary 87-year-old widower with little energy left to fight the battle.

It was then that he thought back to that first lunch with Ed and heard his words, “If someone is going to be that careless, it’s money for me and a good lesson for them.”

The fact is, character does matter. Madeline Albright’s quote “How you do one thing is how you do everything,” rings true.

Now, most of you reading here will quickly say that you would have given back the $20 on the spot. I am confident that you would have done so. But no matter how honest you are, might there be other areas in your personal conduct or ways of doing that need fine-tuning?

Character does matter.

Here is a list of 10 common character flaws that have significant repercussions in life and work.

  1. Are you punctual and thus respectful of others and your time together, or are you perpetually late, signaling to others that they are just “not that important”?
  2. Do you respect good boundaries with others, or do you tend to blur the lines to the point where you become entangled in problems that aren’t yours?
  3. Are you careful as you commit to others, or do you tend to overpromise and under-deliver or default?
  4. Do you seek always to understand first, or are you prone to snap judgments before you investigate fully?
  5. Are you respectfully honest when asked for feedback, or do you gloss over the truth as you seek to please others?
  6. Are you open to constructive criticism, or do you take a defensive stance as you find excuses for the behavior in question?
  7. Do you seek to reconcile or release undesirable stress in healthy ways, or do you tend to carry resentment around like a boulder, compromising your relationships (and your health)?
  8. Are you quick to support others when they are a topic of gossip, or do you jump on the injurious bandwagon with the crowd?
  9. Are you respectful of what’s yours and what is company property, or do you find yourself taking home a few pens or empty file folders for your own use, because you tell yourself “it really doesn’t matter.”
  10. Do you operate from a place of generosity, or do you race to get that proverbial front parking spot before the other person does?

Can you think of others? What is the one area that you would like to work on that will make a difference to your life and to those around you?

How to Look Back in Order to Move Forward

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How to Look Back in Order to Move Forward
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This is the time of year when many of us are already planning for 2018, while seeing how to best juggle the upcoming holiday season. There are messages and markers everywhere that prompt us to do both, as much as most of us would just like to concentrate on the month at hand.

Signs of December celebrations are everywhere. It seems that the marketplace has jumped over Thanksgiving to light up stores with holiday decorations. People are busy scheduling social events and already feeling the edge of overwhelm that a packed calendar can bring during this season.

At the same time, the workplace is confirming budgets for 2018, prompting a hard look at targeting new goals and strategies.

So, if you are like me, you are receiving e-mail messages and calls to prepare not only for social events, but for client work deadlines that actually have to do with a running start to 2018.

Strategic planning and setting personal or professional goals for 2018, while seeing how to best manage the last two months of the year can be tough. Defining how you want next year to look can turn out to be a quick two-question process that can leave out some important self-reflection.

Here is what I mean: most of us will tend to scramble, by asking ourselves, “What did I not accomplish this year that I need to accomplish next year? What do I need to do differently in order to achieve this desired state or goal next year?”

I call this line of questioning “war zone thinking.”

This is a quick tactical assessment which is useful in times of war for quick action to avoid disaster. However, it also places us in a state of “high stress alert,” impelling you to operate from the “fight or flight” area of the brain.

Operating in this way is highly counter-productive for visioning and planning strategically for next year’s goals and aspirations, and here are three reasons why:

  1. From a mindset point of view, such a quick line of questioning can tend to make you feel as though you are behind, and not performing or accomplishing enough.

Beginning a planning process with the question, “What did I not accomplish?” intimates that you have failed in some way, and places you in a defensive posture that does not allow for best processing.

  1. Using the “fight or flight” area of the brain will keep you in a state of stress and throw up roadblocks to using your “executive brain.”

The latter is the part of the brain that allows your creativity to spring forth, your visionary abilities to rise, and use of your best critical and analytical thinking skills.

  1. Assessing where you are, where you need to be, and how to get there should begin by providing a snapshot of wins and celebrations.

You will want to remind yourself as to what has worked well and what you used to achieve this so that you have a top-of-mind picture of the strengths you may use for moving forward.

The following framework is a positive and useful kick-off to your own personal planning, or your professional strategic planning process at the individual, team, and organizational levels.

Looking Back to Move Forward

  1. What accomplishments and milestones have I reached this year? The past 3-5 years?
  2. How would I like to celebrate these?
  3. What personal strengths and skills did I use in order to reach these achievements?
  4. What adversities and unexpected challenges have occurred during this time?
  5. How did I push through or move past these?
  6. How would I like to acknowledge myself for moving past these adverse occurrences?
  7. As I think about next year, what will be important to celebrate and the end of December?
  8. What are the top 1-3 goals I want target to achieve?
  9. To what will I say “no” in order to say “yes” to these? What critical shifts and conversations will need to take place?
  10. What personal strengths and skills will I use to make these things happen?

Once you have thoughtfully reflected on or discussed the answers to these questions, you will be in a positive and energetic frame of mind to move through your strategic planning process for 2018.

How to Instantly Influence Others and Make a Difference

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How to Instantly Influence Others and Make a Difference
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“Be the change you want to see in the world.” ~ Gandhi

Recently, I worked with a group of new managers to help them make change at their company. Eager to learn and grow, people of all ages and backgrounds filled the room.

It was heartwarming to be with them and witness lot of candor, laughter, and strengthening bonds as they shared. These people were committed.

Here is one thing I never heard: a disparaging remark. I didn’t hear about a lack of resources or time. I never heard things like, “Oh, those Millennials/Boomers/Leadership/Others – I don’t know how to work with them.”

What I heard, instead, was a desire to make change. “How can I be at my very best? How can I grow in my leadership so I can make a bigger difference?”

Now, that’s a room full of people that anyone would be privileged to work with!

Here are the three questions I asked them in return. I shared that the answers to these questions are what would make or break their ability to influence and make a difference.

How are you doing in these three areas?

  1. Are you walking your talk?

Are there places in your leadership where you are preaching, but not practicing?

Maybe you are asking others to go the extra mile, produce more without overtime pay, take better care of themselves, produce top quality work on time – fill in the blank!

But you yourself secretly lack being able to meet success in that area. This is not uncommon – the very thing we want to see in ourselves is what we ask others to do well. If this is you, you are responsible for course-correcting this so that you are the change you want to see.

  1. Are you modeling to others by taking the first step?

Are you great at delegating work to others, but not as good at jumping in to roll up your own sleeves in times of stress?

I remember delegating very well during a huge event, and walking around at a tense moment to see how things were progressing. I looked across the room to see the company president unloading boxes with one of my reports. That was a humbling moment that shifted my understanding of true leadership.

  1. Are you taking ownership of how you contribute?

When was the last time you sat down with a colleague or report and asked the question, “How am I doing?”

This should be a regular conversation. “What can I do more of or less of, in order to do a better job of working with you?”

My clients report that this conversation has brought forward valuable information they might never have uncovered otherwise. “It has shifted the way I am able to work with others,” said one business owner. “We are a team now – not just a group of people in a room.” That’s a change!

As you look at these three areas, which one speaks most to you? What is the one shift you are committing to make so that you can influence others to a larger extent and make a greater difference?

How to Fall In Love with Metrics

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How to Fall In Love with Metrics
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I hear a lot of people talk about metrics and bench-marking as though this is beneath them.

“I’m a big picture person,” I hear people say. “I like to set vision and leave it to others to get into the weeds.”

That’s a mistake.

If you keep your eyes to the horizon without having the right dashboard with the right metrics to help you monitor your progress, you may get lost in the big picture.

My grandfather got lost like that because he didn’t like paying attention to details. And it almost killed him.

Grandpa was an enterprising young man. His father was an alcoholic and didn’t treat the family well. Because of this, Grandpa wound up caring for his siblings and blind mother at an early age. With only a third-grade education, his mind was so keen that he went on to invent some amazing things that you might recognize today (another story!).

But Grandpa always flew by the seat of his pants.

Now, this served him well as he grew up to build two multi-million dollar businesses in the 1920’s and 1930’s. But if you have read my column before, you may know that he also lost these two businesses because he found it easy to build a business and run it for awhile, but he couldn’t keep one going in the long run. And this was because he didn’t like to pay attention to details.

The losses were devastating.

After these severe losses, my grandmother then founded and grew a third business with Grandpa. This third business helped them to become very successful, and it not only kept the family afloat, but a lot of other young people had jobs and were able to attend school during the Great Depression because of the Cotton family business.

This success was because Grandma did pay attention to details, and partnering with Grandpa in this way worked well.

However, the story I want to share with you today is an earlier time before Grandpa learned his lesson – when he almost lost his life because he was set on the big picture and didn’t pay attention.

On the way to a huge goal, he neglected to monitor his progress to make sure he was on target to get there.

At the time this occurred, my father was 15 years old, and had just gotten his pilot’s license. Not to be outdone, Grandpa also took flying lessons. One day, Grandpa got into the two-seater and took off for a local town. It was a beautiful day. Big white puffy clouds and deep blue sky. He noticed a particularly large cloud and decided to play through it – emerging from this to enter such vast blue space can be exhilarating. And it was. He did it again with the next cloud. And the next.

After a few more of these and a lovely morning up in the air, he came out of one huge puff of white and suddenly noticed that he was over the ocean.

“I didn’t head for the ocean,” he thought. “Where am I?!” It was then that he looked down – to discover that he was almost out of fuel. He had traveled about an hour into the middle of nowhere (and over a body of water), and knew he would go down quickly if he didn’t find a safe place to land.

Banking steeply as he turned, he prayed that he could make it to some piece of land. What if he landed where no one could find him? What if he crashed? What if…

A few moments later, he miraculously made it back over land and spotted a small town with fields around it. Heading for the fields, he landed just in time before the final sputter of the engine.

Grandpa was shaken. He could have been swimming with fishes if he had continued to allow distraction to rule. And now, he didn’t even know where he was, or how he would get back home. And then, there was the question of the plane that wasn’t his. And so many other thoughts.

All because he hadn’t been monitoring the dashboard.

If he had, he would have seen whether he was on target. He would have been checking his magnetic direction indicator, which is a kind of compass, to make sure he was on course. He would have been watching the altimeter to see how high he was, and his airspeed indicator, so that he could gauge the speed at which he was covering ground.

In short, if Grandpa had been monitoring the dashboard as he enjoyed the view (because you can do both!), he would have known he was veering off course before he got lost. And he certainly would have seen the gas gauge.

A narrow escape and a big lesson.

Leading is like that. Think about it – a pilot has a big- picture view as he or she sits in the cockpit, but is surrounded by the dashboard with all the metrics, as well. The setup is so that the pilot can monitor while surveying the horizon.

The implication is rather obvious – someone leading needs to do both to arrive at the intended destination safely and well.

What does your dashboard look like in order for you to know you are on track?