CEO #2
70% – Allocated to strategy, acquisitions, and market development.
30% – Dedicated to employee engagement and managing the board of directors.

CEO #3
50% – Development and implementation of strategy.
50% – Dedicated to people/HR/Structure and process.

How are you spending your time as the President and/or CEO? These stats above are very similar to what some of our great leaders are doing at Presidents of Enterprising Organizations.

Warren Jestin, Chief Economist, Scotiabank suggested that the US economy is stalling and will continue to stall over the next 18 months. The Canadian economy with 2 percent growth won’t be far behind. In the emerging market the story has changed from previous years except with perhaps slower growth – but the key word there is growth. If you’re in the commodities business (oil and metals) this suggests a positive outlook especially for Canada. If we co-relate this to our PEO Session last week with Na Lui on China; China’s government is committed to maintaining the construction era for at least another 3 years – to build you require natural resources. In terms of inflation in North America – don’t expect anything exciting in 2011 and 2012! I gathered from Warren that there is a potential downside in the equity market and the Canadian Dollar will remain close to par. No clear answers of where to put your cash … possible ideas to continue to think about how your organizations can be selling into those emerging markets.

Sherry Cooper, Chief Economist BMO suggested that we are in the 3rd year of a recession and the US housing market continues to be a dominant factor in this. If we think about housing as a massive employer in the US and one of the largest components of household wealth – the puzzle begins to take shape. With households feeling the pinch of declining values, and unemployment being at high levels it becomes virtually impossible for the US consumer to really begin to spend their disposable dollars. Putting some political light on this you begin to understand the dilemma that Obama faces – he is very likely to be a 1 term President. He is constrained by two sides: (i) spending and do we drive the deficit even higher but at least stimulate some growth or (ii) do we hold back with stimulus and let the American people continue to suffer a slow return to growth? Sherry added another interesting piece to the puzzle – the psychological element. How many young people are holding back on purchasing homes at this time with the belief that the market will fall further. Is the media allowing us to fuel this psyche? There has to be an upswing in the consumer psychology for there to be any uptick or momentum out of this recession. Big Alert – we are once again seeing big layoffs in the US (Bank of America)…add that to the above.

Craig Wright, Chief Economist of RBC put it simply – “we’ve experienced a decade of excess now followed by a decade of stress”. Unfortunately that statement almost sounds fair! The debt has moved from the private to the public space. We’ve actually been quite successful at prolonging the problem or pushing it out. Sooner or later there will need to be a restructuring and the real question becomes whether the governments (European and US) have the ability to stop shooting themselves in the foot with their decision making process.

Avery Shenfeld, CIBC World Markets tried to address the question of where should we be putting our money. Unfortunately he didn’t really leave me with the confidence that the answer is before my eyes. Short term interest rates are going nowhere for the next couple of years, long term yields on bonds aren’t great and the equity market is in turmoil. The opportunities in Canada – maybe REITS….more likely cash until the dust settles. I must add unfortunately that is my opinion, but it also appears to be the consensus of many organizations and households as the stockpile the cash.

Derek Burleton, VP and Deputy Chief Economist at TD seemed to summarize it all above. In fact this is one of the few times I’ve seen 5 Economist’s agree on so many points. 1) The overall risk to the economy is the Political Risk. We’ve run out of opportunities for the Federal Reserve to bail anyone out here. There are too many structural issues we currently face as we’ve been spending our future generation’s dollars; (2) there is a risk of a short term pause and we are one shock away from a technical recession. Essentially if you really listen to all the Economists…we don’t need the technicality we are in a recession in the US; (3) Europe has an engine that has faltered. The status quo is not working and something needs to be done. The politicians need to be brave enough to begin a restructuring without destroying the global economy; (4) the emerging market will continue to grow but at a slower pace over the next few years. Canada should outperform the US with the continued global demand of Natural Resources.

On September 20th we will have David Rosenberg, Chief Economist and Strategist, Gluskin Sheff & Associates present to our senior executives and their guests. David is one of the Top Economists in the country – it’s a session you won’t want to miss. If you’d like to be part of that session please call Jenny Nicholson @ 416-637-0299 ext. 202 or register at http://peo.net/events.html .

4 Management Meetings that Enable a Winning Culture

1. The Daily Meeting – Translating priorities into action.

These meetings are difficult to co-ordinate with teams that travel; however they are quick, no more than 5 minutes, and create an understanding among the team about the key priorities for the day and their importance to the organization.

We find these meetings highly successful at driving accountability and identifying any weaknesses on the team before they become a problem. Think about using these meetings lower down in the or-ganization, especially with those employees who are critical to your execution with the customers.

The Format:

• No Chairs – everyone stands.
• Same place same time every day.
• Each team member reports on their day’s activi-ties
• No cancellations – even if only 2 people are there.
• Members can call in as an alternative

2. Weekly Tactical Meeting (the management team) – Focusing on tactical issues of immediate concern

These meetings are looking for resolution of issues and reinforcement of clarity. As management we are looking to identify and overcome the obstacles that we maybe facing in the week ahead.

Time Required: 45 to 90 Minutes (depending on fre-quency)

The Format:

• No Prep – A real time agenda developed during the first 15 minutes of the meeting following everyone’s update noted below.
• 5 Minutes/Person; Mentioning of 2 – 3 Priorities for the week
• The opportunity – to identify potential redundan-cies, gaps, or other issue that require immediate attention.
• Routine reporting of critical information or met-rics: revenue, expenses, customer satisfaction, inventory etc… THE DASHBOARD.
• Do not get into Long-Term Strategic Issues. This meeting is not the time to talk about strategic issues – we are here to deal with issues and op-portunities. We are concentrating on Short Term Tactical fixes.
• Everyone must be in attendance (live or virtual)

3. The Monthly (Quarterly) Strategic Meeting

This meeting is the time to wrestle with, analyze, debate and decide upon critical issues (only a few) that will affect the long term business in fundamen-tal ways.

Time Required: 2 – 4 hours The Format:

• Avoid putting too many items on the agenda.
• Make sure you schedule enough time.
• Preparation is required ahead of time.
• You’ve identified the key issues and challenges at the weekly meetings – you’ve pushed them to the monthly meetings. Do the prep work for a strong conversation.
• Your Role as the CEO/Leader – Mine for the con-flict and don’t let anyone take it personal.

4. The Annual Offsite Review (Specifically discussed for the Executive Team)

These offsite reviews are critical at providing the executive team with an opportunity to regularly step away from the daily, weekly, even monthly issues that pre-occupy their attention so they can review the business in a more holistic, long term manner.

Time Required: 1 – 2 Days

• The Format (some more common ideas, but we
• tailor to the needs of our clients):
• Comprehensive Strategy Review and a reassess-ment of the strategic direction.
• Great opportunity to review the strategy map.
• eam Review – regularly assessing themselves and their behaviours as a team, identifying trends that may not be serving the organization.
• What do we need to start, stop and continue do-ing (ongoing conversation)
• Personnel Review – High Potentials across depart-ments and how do we manage and retain them.
• Competitive and Industry Review
• Market analysis (how we play and where we play – The Game Board)

Ensuring Success:

• Do not overburden and over structuring the meetings. Keep it to a tight schedule and avoid the lengthy informational sermons. We are here to talk about the state of the organization not review white papers.
• Get out of the office but avoid the boondoggle by having them at exotic locations that require ex-tensive travel. We are outside of the office to avoid the distractions.
• Avoid inviting outsiders (other stakeholders/board members, employees) it affects the team dynamic. We are interested in conflict.
• Consider using an outside facilitator someone who is trusted by the team, understands the or-ganizations business and is driven to help the team accomplish its objectives rather their own. This allows the team to concentrate on the op-portunities and issues while having another set of eyes and ears present.

The above is a compilation of Patrick Lencioni’s book Death by Meetings and our experience at PEO.

The following is a 10-point CFO owner’s manual to aid in creating a more effective CEO.

1. CFOs (or controllers) need to become a star, an “A” performer in the organization, both as an individual and team member. At the outset, this wins the CEO’s respect. But it also establishes your own presence as someone who exceeds the expectations of not only the CEO but also the senior leadership team. In addition, your own direct reports, other employees and of course the stakeholders benefit, too.

2. Understand the CEO’s job as well as your own. Think of CEO as meaning “Chief Energy Officer.” Their core responsibility—Job #1—is to mobilize, focus, inspire and regularly renew the energy of those they lead. Great leaders serve—their employees, and their peers.

3. Here’s what the CEOs should be doing if they are real leaders: Creating and delivering winning strategies, constantly adjusting for the current and future environments. This involves evaluating macro and micro information while contemplating the organization’s opportunities and overcoming barriers to growth and performance.

4. Note that a big part of the happy CEO’s job is “evaluating macro and micro information.” And where might that information come from? Of course, that other executive who puts the C, as in cash, back in the C-Suite. But are you providing just information, as in data, or is it Information—which helps the organization’s leader really think about the organization’s future.

5. The responsible CFO reporting directly to the CEO must also think about the future. Ask yourself how much time you are spending assessing what the future economic environment might mean to the organization. In part, this is to anticipate and enhance the leader’s thoughts but also to avoid only looking in the perpetual rear view mirror of financial reporting.

6. The rear view mirror is a trap. It’s an unfortunate tendency of those who create the reports. They are about the past, a historical record. The most valuable view is toward the future because something can be done about it. Be the person who helps the organization—do something; accomplish something positive by looking ahead.

7. After the future, the next part of allowing your CEO to win best in show is to provide relevant information to your peers. Relevant information helps them execute better, improving their initiatives—and their results. All of which enables the organization to move toward its most important strategic goals and objectives.

8. Life as a corporate leader, which includes CFOs and controllers, often involves much introspection, like it or not. To be really effective (and supportive of your CEO), think long and hard about how you interact with your senior leadership team. Are you a barrier to decision-making, or an accelerator for execution? Are you a catalyst to new ideas or are you the first to end the discussions before they begin? Can you really sit still for more than 30 seconds to listen to what is being said before you respond? Try it and see…

9. When it comes to your own team, answer these questions: are you driving collaboration? Are you challenging your people to exceed themselves and regularly rewarding and recognizing and rewarding their accomplishments? How often do you resort to negative emotions to motivate others for short-term performance? Are you leading by word and example? Are you fostering honest, two-way conversations throughout the organization? Finally, are you regularly offering simple, inspiring messages?

10. Go get the book Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott (Berkley Books, New York). It will change your corporate and possibly personal life. It will help you get issues on the table and teach you how to avoid making it personal without letting ‘fierce’ topics be pushed aside. These are conversations that need to happen for the organization’s greater good; but make sure they are directly related to the stated goals and objectives. They get to the root cause and that’s what is important. Otherwise, execution is impeded. If you do this, you will get to the result you were seeking.

In conclusion, to be a better CFO, and hence be a better member of the CEO’s team, step outside the financial arena and engage in information gathering in other strategic business areas. Display a willingness to broaden your skill set. Continue to develop financial acumen but never allow it to block your ability to think outside of the box strategically. This also extends to exploring outside the organization to learn how other CFOs and controllers care for and help show their CEO’s best qualities to the most important judges of all, consumers and shareholders.

Part I

by Leon Goren, CA

President, Presidents of Enterprising Organizations

As Rick Spence wrote in the National Post: “As a result, PEO is delving further into the internal culture-development business than most of its competitors. Last year, it launched its first Executive Team Leadership Program, which combines 360-degree survey tools with one-on-one coaching, as well as the development of internal executive forums within members’ own organization to ensure that the chief executives become — and more importantly, stay — more consistently positive, collaborative and effective. ‘This is magic. It’s life changing,’ Leon Goren says.”

Just what does this mean? Why did Rick Spence, in his nationally circulated column extensively covering PEO, ask, “Are you really a good leader?” In a follow up story, he answers his own question, prompted by a reader:

“Leadership is basically about taking time to make sure that everyone on the team knows where the group is going, and what they can do better to help it achieve its goals sooner. It’s all about two-way communication: explaining what you want your people to do, listening to their questions, comments and ideas, and giving them the consistent feedback they need in order to understand what they have to do to succeed in the organization.”

Leadership, however, is something many can describe but very few can execute. It’s one of the reasons exaggerated praise lasts in history for such politically inspired leaders as Churchill, JFK, Trudeau or Reagan. Or how business legends like Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Lou Gerstner or Thomas Watson persist in modern memory.

Leadership today

But when we look at leadership today, there is something missing. The stakes are higher; the demands are greater. When Spence says that “PEO is delving further into the internal development business than most of its competitors,” he is correct but also touches on something profound. Delving further, going deeper means that the upside is that much higher – the trajectory of advanced leadership is far above previous practices. It’s the meaning of the success we all seek. A well directed organization is a successful one, providing personal and economic benefits for its leader.

In the original peer environment model, learning occurs in safe, confidential sessions. What peers tell each other and their advisors is taken at face value and believed, which it should be. But with the evolution of our methodology, as part of our Executive Team Leadership (ETL) program, we are actually participating in activities at corporations to view interactions between leaders and their management teams. This includes ‘internal executive forums,’ as Spence describes–offsite PEOs within companies.

Onsite observation is a key expansion of our five-tier methodology, ensuring we accelerate leaders along straight trajectories toward defining their organizations’ goals and objectives. We are not forgetting the importance of peer-to peer teams; we are simply surrounding them with further processes to keep leaders on their path towards fulfilling lifetime aspirations – and that of their organization.

PEO being onsite provides members with helpful and insightful counsel like no other activity we’ve engaged in ever before. It’s like Reality TV—the camera digs deep. What you say is one thing; what someone else observes you saying is something else again. Imagine if you described an encounter with your spouse as you remembered it and compare that with filmed record or even the feedback provided by a facilitator. Compare that further with the commentary a trusted advisor can give you about what is really happening in your organization. He sees the faces, the expressions, the reactions you cannot see.

You receive these kinds of insights:

• Feedback concerning your own impact on the team (impossible to discern otherwise)
• How the team perceives your leadership style, based on body language and a multitude of other perceptions invisible to the leader
• The advantages of a second set of eyes and a trained mind focusing on these crucial issues

At first, it could seem intrusive or even scary, almost as if it’s Survivor or Donald Trump’s The Apprentice. But it’s not: it’s the fastest path toward improved executive leadership, which is another word for achieving success. The deeper the better.

President, Presidents of Enterprising Organizations

I am very excited about our new partnership with AchieveBlue Corporation. In the past 18 months, we have worked more and more closely, culminating in our significant announcement this week to create the Executive Team Leadership Program. It will offer a sustainable strategy for renewed growth after the recession’s psychological fallout.

What’s important about the new partnership with Mona Mitchell and AchieveBlue is that it’s focused on intense personal assessment and behavioural change, beginning with the leadership team and extending through the organization. To be quite frank, top executives easily master Strategy and Finance but struggle with understanding the potential impact on their organization of their leadership behaviours and attitudes. They clearly don’t teach you that in business schools, even with case study and group methodologies.

By combining PEO and AchieveBlue’s core competencies, we’ve developed a program that combines external peer-to-peer mentoring, one-on-one coaching, psychometric tools and internal executive advisory forums so that leadership teams can achieve what may be impossible on their own — sustainable leadership excellence resulting in breakthrough corporate performance. I couldn’t agree more with Mona’s statement in our announcement: “The last few years have seen many corporate leaders under siege,” she noted. “They have been focused on survival, with little time for introspection.”

I have been fortunate to sit in on more than 20 executive team meetings over the past four months, listening to and watching interactions as groups try and move organizations forward.  I’ve seen a lot of conventional thinking, heads down, micro managing and an absence of real constructive conversation.  More importantly, I’ve seen almost no patience with spending the time to really listen to each other and consider alternatives before moving forward.

I’d like to blame the economic environment for this behaviour but the world is moving forward and we are experiencing growth once again in this country.  As leaders, it’s time that we pick our heads out of the sand and start thinking creatively once again — with inspiration and engagement. To change an organization and design it for success, the executive team and leader must be the first to change. Everyone learns from how others behave!

Executive effectiveness is unquestionably more than a short-­term fix. The environment it thrives in is vital and this is an unparalleled paradigm shift. While there are many good 360-degree programs, the PEO/AchieveBlue approach is uniquely different.  We help participants develop an action plan linking leadership development to corporate strategy. The emphasis then becomes coaching through to execution, the often missing last mile in business strategy.

If you’ve ever thought of what the peer environment can do for you, ask not again. This is the time to give me a call personally–416-335-5884 ext 308. Email: lgoren@PEO.net. It is most likely the most important call you will make all year.

Today I had a Eureka moment.  Driving to an appointment, I was listening to Spark on CBC and they interviewed a professor in California at Berkley who explained it perfectly:  Her name is Charlan Nemeth and you can find the details in the “Twitter Strangers” article here.

In the experiment De Nemeth conducted, teams of two were brought in to a room and given a set of cards to grade according to colour and brightness.   The first participant would grade a card with an initial, like B for blue and on a scale of 1-5, where 1 was drab and dull.  The second participant was a confederate of the experiment and would do the same.  Every one of the cards was clearly blue so the participants would really just grade the card according to intensity of colour.  The twist is that confederate would grade the card as green even though their answer was clearly incorrect.

So the experiment progresses and the participants fall into two groups.   In the first group the legitimate participant would be told that the majority of people graded the colour as blue and they were therefore part of the majority.  The second group would be told that they were the minority because most of the people saw green.  Interesting so far, but then the real experiment began.  The legitimate participants were asked to do a word association.  The professor would say the word BLUE seven times and each time the participant would say the first thing that came to mind.

The group that was part of the “majority” chose common and predictable associations at first, like blue sky or blue sea and became more creative near the end of the associations.  Conversely, the people who believed they were in the minority offered more creative associations from the beginning, like blue Smurf or blue jeans.  The professor’s conclusion was that exposure to different ideas and opinions, even if the ideas were clearly differing or incorrect, stretched the individual’s imagination.  She suggested that surrounding yourself with like-minded people may be comfortable and easy but is not necessarily a key to success.

Someone on the PEO team will interview every candidate before we can offer them a position in an Advisory Team.  During each initial discussion we tell people who are interested in the PEO services that our network is made up of like-minded people but that the conversations are facilitated in a safe environment and often result in incredible breakthroughs.  This result would seemingly contrast with the Berkley experiment but in reality it doesn’t.   The similarities among our clientele are simple.  Our executives are interested in challenging themselves, stretching their abilities and growing their business.  In some cases this is all they have in common.  Among our network we have musicians, scientists, athletes, writers, accountants, lawyers and the list goes on and on.  Add to that a spectrum of industries ranging from matchmaking to auto parts to art supplies and there is no way to tell which direction a conversation will take and the endless solutions we can find to any problem.  The final commonality is experience and business acumen of the collective whole and something ignited when all of these factors are combined.  I’ve seen it myself and it is truly difficult to put into words.  Today I learned to articulate it a little differently.

Vision, Strategy and Execution…what needs to happen within an organization to ensure its people are enabled — and capable of executing?  Why does most execution fail? Execution’s problems have yet to be resolved successfully in North America because synergies between Vision, Strategy and Execution remain a primary business challenge.

At PEO, we’ve heard hundreds of leaders describe this fundamental problem with comments like, “We’ve been executing our strategic objectives with mediocre performance.”   Or: “We’ve been lucky with the economic environment – until 2 years ago.” It’s so puzzling: one executive  said:   “There have been no real breakthroughs in our performance even though we’ve hired the smartest people and our vision is timeless and reflects what we want to be.”

In all of these cases, the strategic objectives are set and aligned and most importantly the companies identified reasonable short-term goals to achieve three-year objectives.  Let us review our findings on what they have missed.

The two key assumptions for a CEO and a strong Executive Team is based on their own unique view, that is their vision/strategy/execution within their roles and responsibilities. The CEO’s responsibility is the organization’s future– reinforcing the vision, resetting when necessary, and creating a path to move on the journey   The CEO spends countless hours revisiting his vision – in fact great leaders ensure all decisions and communications align with their vision. In their communication, the vision should be continuously clear.  Nor must the ‘why,’ its rationale ever be forgotten.

Than and only then together, the CEO and Executive Team create the organization’s strategic objectives – really looking at what needs to be done to ensure everyone is continually marching towards the vision.   The team’s strategic objectives are typically relevant for three-five years and cannot be reached with the current people, reward systems and organizational structure. Like the CEO, the executive team is great at communicating to the organization – they are patient, understanding they must spend hours working on the objectives: the ‘why’ is never left out in the communication.   The goals/tactics are well defined and aligned to the strategic objectives.  They are short in duration, typically less than a year, and are constantly reviewed and adapted to continue moving towards strategic objectives.

Strong teams believe Superior Strategy, Execution and Corporate Performance are the result of certain conditions that must be present. These include teams taking on challenging goals and accountability to each other — and a receptivity to change incorporating a desire for innovation that produces high quality solutions. Leaders must also make decisions with significant collaboration by trusting one another and sharing constructively. That’s what excellent execution is all about.

PEO’s Findings based on first-hand experience

Most leaders believe executive teams and their organizational culture are working.  They carry out 360s, performance reviews and measure engagement.  They understand all the puzzle pieces and believe they’ve got it right. But when they perform poorly, they are slow to react and rarely consider whether they are still heading towards the timeless vision.  Something is amiss.

Here is an example:  the CEO determines the organization will build out the company geographically.  The VP of Strategy and the executive team spend hours determining the strategy and what immediate goals must be made over the next year.  Once completed they explain the strategy and actions to the employees – they take the necessary time – they even answer the questions…BUT…What happens? The employees go out and become what Roger Martin has called Choiceless Doers.   No options…just following orders.  Does that sound familiar? Avoidance sets in – why should anyone tell the boss that the strategy doesn’t make sense? Instead, it’s easier to keep heads down.  The result is to be expected – employees continually return to comfort zones – conventional thinking.  These attributes work counter to the identified ideal behaviours and attitudes.

We have learned in our continuing discussions with top executives at PEO: very few understand how to drive needed behavioural changes. Stating the desired attitudes comes easily, but not the road map. When was the last time you fully understood the outlooks driving your organization? When was the last time you examined the attitudes and performance within your executive team?

A 360 fails to accomplish this. It’s not performance related. Engagement scores also do not identify the barriers to improvement. The solution lies in effecting real change in the leader and his team’s behaviour. These ripple through the organization.  This time it’s about how the ‘why’ around strategy is communicated and what people believe it means to them.

Change must start from the top. Change must be collaborative but it begins in the C suite and filters its way down. No one else can do it.  What leaders do impacts 60% of an organization’s culture. It starts with the top group’s influence on the executive team. It must permeate every corner of the organization before it gets to those who must carry it out. That is the separation between vision, strategy and execution. Bring them closer together and there is success. Separate them and vision does not matter at all nor does strategy. To paraphrase that famous political war cry: it’s the execution, stupid. It’s the beginning, the middle and the end of vision and strategy.

By Leon Goren, CA

CA magazine recently published Leon Goren’s view of what it takes for CAs to become CEOs. Due to space limitations, only a summary could appear. This month, on the CA website, the full article appears. Here are some introductory paragraphs—for the full article, click the URL below:

For CAs, it’s only natural to wonder what it might take to become a CEO. But there’s no map for getting to the top. Chief executives rise through organizations in many roles and with a multitude of backgrounds. Former Xerox CEO Anne M. Mulcahy started off at the company with a degree in English and journalism and worked for 16 years as a sales rep before being named president in May 2000. McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner sailed right from the US Navy to a position as a restaurant manager trainee with no postsecondary education in between. And Cable & Wireless CEO Jim Marsh started at KPMG as an accountant.

That said, a CA designation can definitely advance your prospects when the opportunity arises. A Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants study (see “C-suite CAs continue to deliver returns,” CAmagazine, June/July 2009, p. 7; www.camagazine.com/Csuite), notes that nearly 10% of CEOs and presidents of Report on Business 1000 companies were CAs. It says ROB companies with a CA at the helm also performed better on several key financial measures, including return on equity and return on capital. Naturally, financial expertise, professional conduct and the ability to work with the board of directors can be trump cards if you are looking to the top spot. (I actually went from working as a CA to being an entrepreneur to serving as president of an executive mentoring and coaching organization.)

Beyond financial savvy, what does it take to make the leap to the executive suite? First and foremost, it requires an understanding of what the position  involves. Here are the two key elements of the president/CEO’s role…For more click here: http://tiny.cc/jkjey.

At a recent PEO Executive Seminar at the championship Angus Glen Golf Club, PEO Founder Mark wowed the assembled members and guests with presentation of the value of Fierce Conversations.

Recently Mark and Leon Goren, PEO president, sat down to elaborate on the Fierce Conversations idea, originally suggested by Susan Scott’s best-selling book of the same name.  Here is the exchange:

Leon: What do you think is the most important point in starting to use Fierce Conversations?

Mark: Clearly it’s mastering the courage to interrogate reality. People don’t say what they are thinking. Companies and marriages derail temporarily or permanently because people don’t say what they are really thinking. No one really asks, no one really answers. What each of us believes to be true simply reflects our views about reality, each of us own a piece of the truth about what’s going on. Multiple competing realities exist simultaneously.

Leon: In my opinion, the person most accurately describing reality emerges as the leader, whether designated or not. But doing it without laying blame is important. Susan Scott suggests we converse and suspend judgment, where learning may be provoked

Mark: Next most important is to tackle tough challenges. You need the courage to bring to the surface and confront your toughest, most often recurring personal and professional issues.

Leon: Name the behavior that is causing the problem and the area the behavior is impacting. If you have multiple issues, ask what’s at the core and then select a specific example illustrating the behavior or situation to change. Clarify what is at stake

Mark: Another principle I live by is the following: “Be here and be prepared to be nowhere else.”

Leon: I like that one too. It expresses a basic human need. We share a universal longing to be known and to be loved. When our conversations with others disregard this core need, nothing changes. Only when we genuinely see the people important to us can we hope to succeed as agents for positive change.

Mark: We must transform the way we speak, the way we ask, the way we listen. How do we get past “How are you? I’m fine.” By really asking and really listening. By being with someone, even if only for a brief moment, prepared to be nowhere else. When we listen to someone beyond words for intent, clarity and character emerge. We need to listen this way to ourselves.

Leon: if there were one point about fierce conversations that people miss the most, what would it be?

Mark: Obey your instincts.  Susan Scott says that ‘Our radar works perfectly,’ and she is right. There are things our gut knows long before our intellect catches on. Every day, an intelligent agent is sending us messages. Do not trust just your instincts –obey them. Obeying your instincts requires that you listen to your own internal voice, acknowledge your internal reference point, rather than rush to embrace the myriad references and voices of others. There is value in paying fierce attention to our instincts, which are readily available to us 24/7. We need to listen for more than content. We need to listen for emotion and intent, as well.

Leon: how do you interpret: “Take responsibility for your own emotional wake?”

Mark: For a leader there is no trivial comment. Everything we say leaves an emotional wake – positive or negative. An emotional wake is what you remember after I’m gone. Since we have little control over how others will react, the most effective position to take is to focus on our own actions. If you are a leader, taking responsibility for your emotional wake requires that you have a stump speech. This must be powerful and brief.

Mark: Conversations are the work of a leader.

Leon: Success occurs one conversation at a time.