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.

As time passes and we transition through life’s stages, we all inevitably ask ourselves the big question. Are we being successful?  What is success anyway? How can success in the work place be matched with personal relationships and family?

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with a group of amazing women about success and all its intricacies.  The venue was a breakfast for Women in Leadership and Technology sponsored by the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners. I hoped that when I finished that some of them would be moved to join a peer environment after the talk. In addition to a strong trade group like the Channel Partners, women especially should consider a peer environment like Presidents of Enterprising Organizations (PEO); it is the last channel on the dial of career success. Most leadership groups like PEO welcome executives who are looking to develop as leaders.

Success can mean, according to the dictionary, a level of social status and the achievement of an objective/goal. It is the opposite of failure.  Success does not necessarily equate with happiness. But shouldn’t it be the ultimate measure of success?

My career for the last 25 years has been a voyage of transitions, risks and rewards.  I’ve been in sales and marketing roles at IBM, Compaq, HP and T4G. At HP I started as a product manager and worked my way up to heading up the Corporate Printer division. I travelled a lot; I was running a $43 million dollar business unit.  I had two children at the time and life was good….In fact it felt great.   During the pregnancy with my third, travel was getting harder and I started wanting more time with my children.  I was torn every morning. So I left, gave up the title, the salary and the perks and moved my family to Costa Rica for a year.

The Costa Rica year had its ups and downs….we felt isolated, completely lucky at others, we  got bored at times…We had some amazing adventures, some long days…I don’t think I had had such unstructured time since childhood but there were days that stretched on……   It was a personal education for all of us.

Upon returning I came across PEO’s president, Leon Goren. PEO, a membership organization, I jumped at a chance to work with the organization and have been working as an Executive Advisor for four years now.  I work with the VP level of executive.   It has been extremely gratifying to see some of my VP’s step into the CEO shoes or decide they are not willing to take that on. My work is all about exploring what success means in its broadest and best sense.

What I have learned through this experience is that we all have a right to define our success in very personal terms.  You have to ask yourself: Did the last week or month of my life feel like how I want to be living my life? Am I doing what I really want to do with my life? Success that lasts is all about aligning meaning, thought, and action.

I mentioned the following pathways that one can use to explore success:

• Create your own vision of success
• Be mindful of how you spend your time – time is finite
• Be grateful – for yourself and those around you
• Health – stress can cut years from your life

Success comes from exploring all of life’s potential from the context of your best self. As Mark Twain said so memorably: “Years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do .. than by the ones you did do.”

The successful people who attended that breakfast were certainly aligned with that truth; all had achieved a great deal. But even more than economic success, they were participants in their community. Clearly, they understood that networking outside your organization – through charities, associations and panels was life and career-enhancing. It was wonderful to share my story and experiences with them.

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.

For the first time in Toronto business history, PEO Founder Mark Rivers CEO’s John Wilson and YPO’s Shaun Francis appeared on the same platform and squared off before nearly 300 Toronto business leaders at the Empire Club. Arlene Dickenson of CBC’s Dragon’s Den, moderated the session, which covered ‘What it takes to be a successful chief executive in today’s economy’—but so much more was discussed.

Rivers led off with a memorable comment, “The opportunity is to see the opportunity,” explaining that “the best leaders thrive in every economy.” He added that business models need to be refined for future success: “What people were trained for may not meet today’s needs.”

The idea of managing ‘in turbulent times’ intrigued the other peer group leaders, with both speaking to the need for ‘courage’ and ‘constant vigilance.’ “Resiliency is the key,” noted Wilson. “Entrepreneurs need to bounce back with optimism. It’s Time to be real and ask ‘what makes it tick’ and what are the metrics?”

Rivers also told Empire Club attendees to understand that “There is little risk in transparency.”

“Never underestimate how smart employees are,” he said. “They are relying on you to do what you say and lead the way out. They don’t necessarily expect you to generate the way–but lead them there.”

Rivers pointed out his concerns with too many businesses focusing on what they do wrong, and not what they succeed at and how to make that better. “It’s time to align the intuitive with the business does each day. There should be no separation between people and their cultural values and how the business operates. It’s when values become separated from work life that businesses lose their edge.”

There were numerous questions from Ms. Dickinson as well as the audience but one of the more intriguing ones was whether Mark believed that it was time for more female leaders. He drew a contrast between the female relational and male pyramidical idea but stated this in his experience, companies could be equally well run no matter who lead them. “It’s just a different style,” he told the Empire Club.

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.

By Leon Goren, CA

President, Presidents of Enterprising Organizations (PEO)

Chasing money is no longer the best way to preserve a business’ future. To stay in the game, business competitors must also stay ahead of the game — by making ideas their top priority. Innovation is as equally valuable as profits, and investors are interested in the best ideas.

Consider the CBC’s Dragon’s Den, where entrepreneurs are constantly trying to convince a panel of hypercritical venture capitalists to invest in their products/ideas. The major downfall for entrepreneurs pitching the Dragons is when they don’t fully understand the true innovation, and worth, of their product. For example, two entrepreneurs pitched a line of toques that were unique and creative, attracting impressive profits through local trade shows. They assumed profits would continue to rise – but the panel saw the idea as a fad. They didn’t convince the Dragons that the idea was strong enough to sustain the business. They focused on the profit potential not the attractive marketing concept.

Too many entrepreneurs focus on where the money will come from and not the idea—that is a major barrier to finding capital. This often is a paradox business leaders reveal in peer to peer meetings such as those at the Presidents of Enterprising Organizations (PEO); they want to be innovative and yet finding capital is a constant nagging presence. Innovation takes real discipline.

Staying Innovative

Attracting capital in today’s unpredictable economy isn’t easy and neither is developing new products; there is a constant influx of new competitive technologies, evolving modes of communication, and investors’ demand for transparency, information and answers. Even so, businesses must be constantly inventing and evolving as part of daily operations – that is their first priority. Profits should not be the hurdle; they simply reflect operational efficiency –and efficiency leads to growth.

Consider the explosive, global social media phenomenon. With Dell and Ford as benchmark users, Twitter and Facebook offer companies new and innovative interactions with consumers. However, according to a recent Econsultancy study, 40% of businesses who understand the benefits of using social media– say they just can’t find room in their budgets. This is non-productive thinking.

New ideas are how businesses thrive. The most enticing ideas are ones that intend to disrupt and improve; ideas that bring real change to our activities. Undoubtedly, Facebook and Twitter have changed the way the world does business. The Nielson Company study shows that year after year the average user has increased time spent on social media sites by a whopping 368%. More than anything else investors want to be inspired – an inspired investor opens his chequebook much more readily. Imagine the chequebooks opening for Twitter, which still has negligible revenue.

But great ideas aren’t enough; investors are also interested in the business leaders behind the proposal; they want entrepreneurs who are not only rich in modern intelligence, but who are passionately committed to move their ideas through the development life cycle. From Donald Trump to Kleiner Perkins, every venture capitalist says: “I want to see the passion. I want to see the commitment.” After the recession, most people want to feel like a new day is dawning – that there are forward-thinking leaders ready to take us into the future.

Revisiting the two successful toque entrepreneurs from Dragon’s Den, we can understand why investors are looking for a leader. Had they developed a real plan for sustainability of their product, a chance to implement innovation in the future, the panel may not have considered their product a “fad.” They didn’t pay attention to the primary leadership role: determining where the future will be and guiding the organization toward it.  Potential investors have an unerring sixth sense for locating leaders with a vision of the next five years in a business’s life.

Smaller businesses may never get over obsessing with the source of dollars. By constantly developing financing plans, innovation suffers and they never make it around the corner. The money is there — even if it doesn’t seem like it. It’s really true: obtaining capital should be the last obstacle on the course.  Top business competitors gain capital every single time through an innovative concept and an inspiring plan to develop it.

Part II: To attract investors, how do you execute?

In order to be constantly innovative, you need to stay in the know. Know your company, know your competitors and your goals, and know what’s new in business.

Search online. The Internet is undoubtedly the most recent, and most extensive resource in helping you find your answers. Look for what’s new in business and review case studies of companies that have tested new innovations. Do that constantly so you are not blindsided, especially in whatever Dragon’s Den you may be pitching.

Consider joining a network of business leaders like PEO. With a diverse range of industry leaders, PEO members are there to guide your ideas to success. They too are constantly searching for innovation – and have seen other innovators at work, knowing the obstacles others have overcome and how they’ve done it.

The business world is constantly changing, as we struggle to keep up, we must continue to look forward. This almost seems ironic, how can we look forward – when we are so far behind? It’s just 2010, business as unusual.

It’s a question business leaders often struggle to define: what really is success? The great humanitarian Albert Schweitzer defined it best by saying that success is not “the key to happiness.”

“Happiness is the key to success,” Schweitzer added. “If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

But for business leaders, especially those who seek enhanced mutual growth and success in a safe environment such as PEO, this question takes many different formats. One of the most prominent ones is addressed as follows:

“Am I where I want to be?”

When this is considered, the next question often is: “Am I excited any more? Where’s my passion?”

Sometimes, for those in a peer environment, success is about control—with ambitious people constantly moving up and up from a position with little responsibility to one with more ability to direct others.

Sally Thompson, a PEO member and VP with the engineering firm Halsall Associates Ltd., says that in the first part of a career, even future leaders must spend time “obtaining other people’s approval.”

“Your success is based on carrying out those tasks successfully, according to someone else’s guidelines,” Thompson said. “Sometimes they have ill defined boundaries but they still have to be completed in a way that the senior person sees as successful.”

Changed mid-life picture…character building

Thompson added that this picture changes in mid-life, with enhanced responsibility and with what some might describe as success. “A lack of clarity develops as you move forward in your career. All of a sudden there is no one to turn to for confirmation that you’ve done a good job.”

Success is really about “character building,” Thompson told me. “First you build your reputation, then your character. After that, success is about how you relate to people with that character.”

For Steve Ewing, VP, tgo consulting, the peer environment process produced remarkable changes in his outlook. “I used to have a one- to six-month view of life and now it’s more strategic, with a two- to 10-year focus.”

Now I am more productive

“I was a workaholic, with no time to myself. Now I am more productive, with much more balance. I’m able to participate in things. I invest in myself weekly, monthly, yearly. I coach my sons’ hockey. That’s what I call success.”

“PEO is a proven model and it made me realize how to help our best people—and myself –reach our potential.  I used to be the busiest man on earth. Others didn’t have the same anxiety and stress. I didn’t know any better. But now in a long-term planning environment, I have realized my potential.”

As we often say in our peer groups, it is lonely at the top. PEO (as it did with Sally and Steve) provides objective peers — someone in your corner — providing an unbiased push in the right direction.

From my interactions within PEO groups, Steve and Sally’s comments are a microcosm of the protracted struggle to enhance and sustain professional success. It’s also a moving target, a changed concept. What once was clear—title, position, compensation—no longer defines individuality—it’s individuality that defines success and not vice versa. When you are giving accolades instead of getting them, finding your footing is much more difficult. No matter how sure-footed you may be, you still need a guide and the best one available is right here in Toronto and it’s called PEO.

With the Beatles Rock Band video game firmly ensconced in the world’s living rooms, their CDs remastered and plans for John Lennon’s 70^th birthday celebration growing worldwide, John, Paul, George and Ringo are more prominent and successful than ever.

An important reason the Beatles were so adored and attracted worldwide attention long after breaking up is that they represent four distinct human archetypes that have significant relevance to work teams. They can provide practical insight into leading organizations.

The Beatles HR Test

If you ask employees who their favorite Beatle is, they will almost respond with a psychologically revealing answer. Here is what those answers reveal.

The John Lennon Manager

Men will almost universally pick John as their favourite Beatle; he is the alpha male and group founder. But the difficult part to figure out is whether the response is trustworthy or not. It’s very projective. A man who picks John may in fact be the organization’s troublemaker. He wants management to see him as John but maybe he isn’t. It’s up to the insightful manager to figure out whether all the Lennon-like bravado is for real or for show.

Every company needs a “Paul”

Women overwhelmingly select Paul as their favourite. Identifying with Paul is a good sign. Paul made people happy with tuneful melodies. You want that in an organization. Someone who will work hard and think of the customer—they like love songs. That’s what organizations are about anyway—getting things done, hopefully strategically, but at least on time and on budget.

The wild cards—George and Ringo.

Those who identify with George and Ringo are vital parts of an organization’s success. In the back behind the drum kit Ringo the timekeeper tosses off a forgettable song or two, but holds the organization together. Isn’t that what is absolutely necessary in the accounting department or in administrative functions? Your timekeeper/administrator need to be reminded that without them, there would be no organization.

Understanding George’s style

Both men and women pick the quiet and unappreciated George as a favourite for similar reasons. Somewhere in your organization, there is a George (and not the one in Seinfeld) seething away. He feels ignored and belittled. It’s up to the insightful leader to cultivate these personalities. They might come with difficulties—as George was also mystical—but they can also be devastatingly influential, even though they are introspective and the CEO might wonder why you are wasting time on the person who never speaks up.

Top management doesn’t get John and Paul

There are those who management knows but don’t get—John—and those management gets but might not be comfortable with—Paul.  Yet they are the top talents. Management may ignore George and sometimes Ringo, but they do so at their own peril. The point is to put all four together in a team that works.

Even great talent needs managers

Each of these archetypes described portrayed team members with abundant talent—they might have become stars on their own. But they languished in Hamburg and Liverpool until encountering managers who understood how to direct them. In your organization, figure out who John and Paul are as they are the clear leaders and find the Georges and the Ringos (and learn how to deal with them). Then reshuffle the deck. Profits to follow.

This is the value of networking: you are not alone. You are in a room with representatives of companies like Sodexho, the international services giant; like Drake International, the global placement specialist. There was also Parker Canada, a giant in its field and Automodular, Aseco, Doxim and Insight One. In addition, represented were Green Blue Inc., Veracap Corporate Financial; AVW-Telav, Hubbel Canada, Deloitte and Thomas Cook. Where else could you find a group like that in one place?

If you have never heard Warren Jestin, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Scotiabank speak, please check his schedule. Insight after insight, speaking without a note. His mind and his fingers on the pulse of every aspect of business, virtually everywhere in the world. The conclusion?

Warren Jestin on the world today: Canada is better off than you’d think but the U.S. is not. China is China is China and that hasn’t changed. The new world economic axis comprises rapidly developing countries: China, India, Brazil. Those who pursue the familiar markets, the US, European Union, UK and even Japan, will not be rewarded. Those who figure out the developing world—language, culture, business, politics—will thrive. Who is the bigger auto manufacturer in China—none other than GM, the so-called North American failure.

Of course, it’s not all rosy, Jestin says. There is a demographic time bomb ticking among the Baby Boomers; health care co-pay arrangements might be the order of the day in Ontario.

The recovery will continue, then slow down. But unquestionably Canada is in recovery and, as a resource economy, will benefit from upswings everywhere. It’s good to be Canadian and it’s not just because of the Olympics.

As Mark Coetzee, president of Drake International, stated: “We are not recruiting the same way everyone did in the past. We are looking for disruptive innovators who are seeing ahead in this new international economy.”

Are you a disruptive innovator? Can you imagine being in a room like that with Warren Jestin and companies with blue chip worldwide names, or ones who do very well in this market? It’s not just a necessity, it’s a command performance for success.

Don’t miss Scotiabank’s Dr. Warren Jestin February 25, noon-3pm, Brookfield Place

Rarely in business does one come across a mind that’s so strong that you know absolutely that what he or she does is something you could never do yourself – and that the thought processes and experience are so worthwhile that you ‘d like to hear them again. Spending a morning at our Eye on the Executive session with Guy Beaudin, Ph.D., senior partner at RHR International, was one such event. Guy is a management psychologist whose ideas about executive hiring are far more advanced than anything most of us had heard in some time.

According to Dr. Beaudin, an assessment is much more than a gut feel about whether a person will fit into an organization—though a gut feel is useful as just one input part of amassing data. “It is not an assessment tool,” Dr. Beaudin told the group of PEO leaders, including representatives from such companies as Hubbell Canada, Skyway Wind Group, Cresa Partners, Junior Achievement of Canada and AVW-Telav.  Other leading PEO companies in attendance also included Umbra, HIROC, Sodexo, Stafflink Solutions, TGO Consulting and HDS Retail North America

In fact, Beaudin and his organization, RHR International, which operates worldwide, often put candidates through three-hour sessions that are only one part of the information-gathering process. Other inputs include:

• Social interactions
• Negotiations
• Phone calls
• Emails
• Casual conversations

In addition, strategic planning as it concerns recruiting is vitally important. “Business direction must be linked to the desired leadership behaviour,” Beaudin said, citing the most common evaluation mistakes presenting this outcome:

• Overconfidence
  • Business acumen  ≠ “Human” acumen
  • Oversimplification
    • “We’re all experts in human behaviour”
    • Over-reliance on incomplete measures
      • References / track record assessment method alone
      • Overlooking warning signals
        • Due to time pressures
        • Looking for “the good news”

“You don’t want to hire the ‘least-worst,’ Beaudin added, “But all too often that happens, especially when people do not understand their own filters and blind spots.”

One of the liveliest discussions during the meeting ensued when one member raised the subject of checking references another person volunteered that a recruiter had offered to do the checking. This produced a smile from Beaudin who reminded the group that recruiters had a vested interest in ‘selling the candidate.’ “Always call at least one reference yourself, even if you delegate the others to a trusted associate,” Beaudin added.