Lots of Enemies? Make Friends With The Press.

Part Five of a series on Ethical Leadership — many more to come. Have I lost my mind? Honestly — the idea of making the press your friend is obscene!

Hear me out — there is a logic to my madness.

When my team coaches businesses on the inner workings of their business, we ask them to develop a Mastermind group. A group that includes a tax accountant and an attorney. Why? In addition to the visionary participants (marketing/sales), as a business owner you need trusted individuals who will tell you the truth — and don't have an agenda — because they stick to the FACTS.

Now I will lay all my cards on the table — certain parts of the press are unreliable, sneaky, and downright corrupt (like all areas of business). But there are certain areas of the press who are ethical, forthright, and just. Reporters who stick to the facts and tell it like it is — whether it is good or bad news. Finally, reporters who are in it to report the NEWS and not just get the juicy story.

Those are the people that you sidle-up to and make friends. Why?

Because they are ethical. And they will keep you on the straight and narrow. It is always refreshing to surround yourself with people that will not only massage your ego, but trusted advisers who will tell you the truth AND let you know when you venture into unethical territory.

Now let's be honest — you don't have to tell them everything. But if you get a trusted editor or publisher that you meet for lunch on a regular basis, you can be assured that they will tell you what's on their mind.

And that my friends, is worth its weight in GOLD.

Passing Of A True Genius: Norman Borlaug.

Agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in combating world hunger and saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday in Texas, a Texas A&M University spokeswoman said. He was 95. By Matt Curry & Betsy Blaney at The Huffington Post

Borlaug died Saturday night at his home in Dallas from complications of cancer, school spokeswoman Kathleen Phillips said. Phillips said Borlaug's granddaughter told her about his death. Borlaug was a distinguished professor at the university in College Station.

The Nobel committee honored Borlaug in 1970 for his contributions to high-yield crop varieties and bringing other agricultural innovations to the developing world. Many experts credit Borlaug with averting global famine during the second half of the 20th century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives.

Thanks to Borlaug, world food production more than doubled between 1960 and 1990. In Pakistan and India, two of the nations that benefited most from the new crop varieties, grain yields more than quadrupled over the period.

"Norman E. Borlaug saved more lives than any man in human history," said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program. "His heart was as big as his brilliant mind, but it was his passion and compassion that moved the world."

Equal parts scientist and humanitarian, the Iowa-born Borlaug realized improved crop varieties were just part of the answer, and pressed governments for farmer-friendly economic policies and improved infrastructure to make markets accessible. A 2006 book about Borlaug is titled "The Man Who Fed the World."

"He has probably done more and is known by fewer people than anybody that has done that much," said Dr. Ed Runge, retired head of Texas A&M University's Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and a close friend who persuaded Borlaug teach at the school. "He made the world a better place – a much better place. He had people helping him, but he was the driving force."

Borlaug began the work that led to his Nobel in Mexico at the end of World War II. There he used innovative breeding techniques to produce disease-resistant varieties of wheat that produced much more grain than traditional strains.

Harvey McKay: How To Negotiate!

I love Harvey McKay. From one of his first books, Swim with the Sharks, I saw a real professional who was not shy about revealing his tried and true business secrets. He is a one-of-a-kind leader! By Harvey McKay

I got a phone call from a Fortune 500 CEO one week whom I had never met. After decades of begging the government to relax their regulatory grip and let his industry experience the joys of competition, his wish had been granted—and his bottom line had plummeted. He wanted me to talk to his top executives for two hours and zero in on negotiating strategies.

A bit overwhelmed, I said, "I'm very flattered but, frankly, I don't know if I can talk for two hours on negotiating." Then I realized I was actually negotiating with myself. As my brain finally reconnected, I cut myself off. "Well, let me sleep on it and I'll get back to you."

Later that evening, I began to write down some of my negotiating experiences and saw that my problem was going to be holding the speech down to two hours. I'd already brushed up against the first and second laws of negotiating that morning in my conversation with the CEO:

1. Never accept any proposal immediately, no matter how good it sounds.
2. Never negotiate with yourself. You'll furnish the other side with ammunition they might never have gotten themselves. Don't raise a bid or lower an offer without first getting a response.

Here are some more negotiating rules and insights:

• Never cut a deal with someone who has to "go back and get the boss's approval." That gives the other side two bites of the apple to your one. They can take any deal you are willing to make and renegotiate it.
• If you can't say yes, it's no. Just because a deal can be done, doesn't mean it should be done. no one ever went broke saying "no" too often.
• Just because it may look nonnegotiable, doesn't mean it is. Take that beautifully printed "standard contract" you've just been handed. Many a smart negotiator has been able to name a term and gets away with it by making it appear to be chiseled in granite, when they will deal if their bluff is called.
• Do your homework before you deal. Learn as much as you can about the other side. Instincts are no match for information.
• Rehearse. Practice. Get someone to play the other side. Then switch roles. Instincts are no match for preparation.
• Beware the late dealer. Feigning indifference or casually disregarding timetables is often just a negotiator's way of trying to make you believe he/she doesn't care if you make the deal or not.
• Be nice, but if you can't be nice, go away and let someone else do the deal. You'll blow it.
• A deal can always be made when both parties see their own benefit in making it.
• A dream is a bargain no matter what you pay for it. Set the scene. Tell the tale. Generate excitement. Help the other side visualize the benefits, and they'll sell themselves.
• Don't discuss your business where it can be overheard by others. Almost as many deals have gone down in elevators as elevators have gone down.
• Watch the game films. Top players in any game, including negotiating, debrief themselves immediately after every major session. They always keep a book on themselves and the other side.
• No one is going to show you their hole card. You have to figure out what they really want. Clue: Since the given reason is never the real reason, you can eliminate the given reason.
• Always let the other side talk first. Their first offer could surprise you and be better than you ever expected.
• You must be fully prepared to lose a great deal in order to make a great deal!
• "Make every bargain clear and plain, that none may afterwards complain." - Greek Proverb

Successful Startups: The Method Company.

A series highlighting successful startups - big and small. Enjoy! By Margaret Heffernan at Reader's Digest.

Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry were having dinner with their new investors. The 27-year-old entrepreneurs had finally gotten a million dollars in venture capital to kick-start their company, but it came with stiff financial targets. It turned out this was the least of their problems that night. "We were passing our credit cards under the table to each other," Ryan recalls, "but none of them worked, because we had maxed them out. Eventually, we persuaded the restaurant owner we were good for the money."

In the eight years since that embarrassing moment, Ryan and Lowry have built Method into the world's largest eco-friendly cleaning brand. Their green products use natural ingredients like corn, coconut oil, and palm oil and are packed in attractive, recyclable containers. In the process, the two changed the perception of green home-care products—and the industry too.

Ryan and Lowry had been friends since high school, but it wasn't until after college that they hit on the idea of a home-care-products company. "We were shocked to learn how toxic cleaning products were," says Ryan. Why couldn't they create green products that would be just as stylish, fragrant, and environmentally pure as Aveda's skin- and hair-care lines?

When Ryan's mom heard about the plan, she stared at him blankly: "I've never even seen you clean your room!" Undeterred, Lowry, the chemical engineer, experimented with nontoxic ways to clean, while Ryan, the ad guy, focused on marketing. In February 2001, they mixed their first four cleaning sprays and convinced the managers of 20 independent grocers to try them. Once they had their approval, they tapped friends and family and pooled their savings to come up with $90,000 in seed money.

From the start, "Go big or go home" was their mantra. Their first financing—that $1 million—was due to be signed on September 11, 2001. By the time they got it, two months later, says Ryan, "we had $16 in the bank and personally owed $300,000."

Snagging a national retailer proved just as tricky. The friends set their sights on Target, known for its trendy, affordable merchandise. "But Target didn't like the product or the brand," recalls Ryan. "We thought the deal was dead, but then a new senior buyer saw that even though we weren't selling big volumes, we were profitable, just on a smaller scale." They won over Target, but their first bottles of dish soap, shaped like bowling pins, leaked all over the shelves (intrigued shoppers removed the caps for a whiff and left them off). The partners got the mess cleaned up and redesigned the containers.

When they launched their triple-concentrated detergent, they ditched the huge boxes that were the industry norm. "We made it easier to handle, less cumbersome, and better for the environment," says Ryan. "Now almost all detergents are concentrated."

Consumers were hooked on the natural ingredients and exotic scents like ginger, yuzu, lychee, and ylang-ylang. Today, the partners sell 130 products in more than 8,000 stores, and revenues are "north of $100 million." Such hyper-growth has at times stressed the men's friendship. "Eric and I agree on 'what' but never on 'how,'" says Lowry. "Because we are willing to challenge each other, we come up with interesting and smarter solutions. There's a little bit of fire and ice between us."

Q. You launched in the middle of the 2001 recession. How did you pull that off? A. Eric Ryan: To be successful, you have to reinvent some thing, or a process, or have a point of differentiation. A recession forces you to sharpen that differ- entiation. Our customers instantly understood our products. They got the whole style and substance thing.

Q. What do you say to someone starting a business? A. Adam Lowry: Understand with great clarity what creates value for your consumer, and don't be afraid to deliver.

Q. Do you worry when companies copy you? A. ER: No, because part of our mission is to make competitors follow us. We get copied all the time, so we've created an organization that is good at changing.

Q. What's your favorite product? A. ER and AL: Whichever one we've just launched!

Q. Are you pro-clean or anti-chemical? A. ER: We're both sailors, so we are very sensitive to changes in the environment. Green has always been core to our beliefs.

Q. Could anyone do what you two have done? A. AL: Entrepreneurship is one third luck, one third effort, and one third willingness—or naïveté—to take a risk. Not everyone would put in the effort or take the risks we've taken.

Q. Do you clean your own homes? A. ER: I have a cleaning service, but the simplest way to a cleaner home is just not to bring so much crap into it. Take your shoes off! AL: I do most of the cleaning, but my wife helps too. I don't freak out about every speck of dirt. I care more about keeping things uncluttered.

Q. Is money important? A. AL: I have a three-month-old daughter I want to put through college. I live in a 1,200-square-foot apartment, and I have a mortgage, so money isn't unimportant. But it is lower on my list of priorities. What I get from Method is a great sense of fulfillment, and that's far more important.

How to Go on the Offensive with Facebook.

I love Guy Kawasaki — his thinking is light years ahead of his contemporaries. I hope you enjoy his latest piece on Facebook - read, absorb, and act!

By Guy Kawasaki at Alltop

A friend of mine conducted this informal poll about what a person should do if she were asked to show a male interviewer her Facebook page. Only 12% said they would agree. Thirty-three percent said they would walk out of the interview or refuse. Fifty-five percent said they would ask why and then decide.

It’s time to “face” two facts: First, most organizations are either already looking at candidates’ Facebook profiles, or they are going to start soon. Second, people who are worth hiring either have a social-networking profile on some service or will soon—indeed, recruiters may already think that a candidate who doesn’t have a profile is hiding something, disconnected, or clueless.

Given these two developments, the defensive advice that experts are pedaling to “be careful what you put on your Facebook profile because recruiters may look at it” is ass-backwards. Instead, you should assume that organizations are checking you out (in fact, I blogged about a more efficient way to do this here) and use this to your advantage.

That is, rather than cleanse profiles in order to escape rejection, enlightened candidates will use Facebook profiles to market themselves—perhaps even asking to show their Facebook profiles in interviews. Think about what companies are looking for: bright, diligent, honest, well-rounded, socially-responsible, green, and connected people. Now imagine that you were giving a tour of your Facebook profile to a recruiter. Would you be able to make these kinds of statements?

“This is my graduation picture. I completed a four-year program on time while working full time." “This is one of my favorite professors. I took ABC from him (where ABC is a subject area relevant to the job).” “This is a photo essay of when I traveled throughout China. I was totally blown away by the entrepreneurial spirit of the Chinese, and I made many friendships that will help me in your position.” “Here’s when my hockey/soccer/basketball/whatever team won the championship. I learned so much about hard work, discipline, and team play because of sports.” “Here’s a bunch of my friends hanging out with me (this picture should contain people of multiple genders, ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations) right before we went on a mission to build schools in Guatemala.” “This is the day that I got my iPhone/iTablet/iWhatever—I have to admit that I’m an early-adopter of technology.” Even better: “This is a picture of how I use what this company makes.” “Here’s when I went to Demo/TechCrunch50/World Economic Forum/G8/whatever in order to learn about what’s happening in the industry.” “This is the tweetup/meetup/faceup/whatever that I coordinated to help people network better.” "Here’s where I volunteered to work at SXSW so that I could attend all the sessions for free. This is the most amazing conference—have you ever been to it?" “Here’s when I met Robert Scoble/Mike Arrington/Charlene Li/Jeremiah Owyang/Chris Anderson/Steve Rubel/Ariana Huffington/Steve Ballmer/Steve Jobs/GRAMEEMBANK/David Pogue/Walt Mossberg/whoever.”

You don’t need to get all Forest Gump, but you get the point. Some folks might make the case that I’m missing the point of Facebook: It’s supposed to be one’s personal, “let my hair down,” silly world. Yes, you will lose some cred with your friends for selling out. Welcome to the real world—here you have to make tradeoffs all the time.

For a while, people who work Facebook like this will stand out from the crowd. Then recruiters will figure out that you’re playing them. Still, I would look at it this way: “At least this candidate is clever enough to work the system.”

The irony is that if enough people start doing this, recruiters may tire of looking at Facebook profiles, and then you can go back to showing pictures of when you barfed your brains out at a party while wearing no clothes.

09 • 09 • 09

The Beatles are the defining group of my generation and I might daresay — many generations. Today marks a date where they will release all of their music in a remastered state AND expand their presence into younger generations via a RockBand video game offering (there are also hints of their catalogue appearing on iTunes - so stay tuned!). If you don't know it already - when it comes to marketing - The Beatles are the BEST.

I remember the first time I heard them - I was five years old in my brother's room. On the turntable was Meet The Beatles and "It Won't Be Long" was blasting out of one single speaker on the floor (that's 60's high fidelity for you - Heathkit by the way!).

I instantly fell in love. My older brothers allowed me to stay in their room and listen to the whole album before I was again banished back to my room forever.

The funny thing is that as time goes on, other bands that I LOVED just fade away - U2, REM, Jethro Tull, The Partridge Family, etc. Their music still has meaning to me — unfortunately I just don't listen to their albums anymore.

But I still have the entire Beatles catalogue on my iPhone. There is something compelling, enjoyable, and fun about their music. I listen to it ALL the time.

Go figure.

So I will be asking for the entire remastered Beatles catalog for Christmas. And Santa, I've been a good boy.

P.S. What's your favorite Beatles' song and album?

Losing Your Compass? Try Simple Philosophy.

Part Four of a series on Ethical Leadership — many more to come. "The higher the buildings, the lower the morals." - Noel Coward

In the past three parts of this series, I've endeavored to lay out ways for leaders to strengthen their ethics and how to apply it to their leadership style. Some are hard and some are easy. This is an easy one:

Get Philosophy into your life.

It could take many forms - religion, classes, books, people, etc. But a strong dose of philosphical study in your life will allow you to become more grounded and keep you thinking about past, present, and future ethical positions. Some suggestions:

1. Religion - If you are at all religious, hit a church, synagogue, or organization to reacquaint yourself with the ethical and moral teachings of that religion. It's not taxing, doesn't cost a lot of money, and you surround yourself with a lot of people who believe the same way you do. And when you hit an ethical pothole in the road, you can lean on them to send you on the straight and narrow once again.
2. Books - Read! There are thousands of philosophers out there. If you like the classics, dive into them. If you like the moderns, there are many to choose from. I especially love the ethical textbooks from college - they present differing points of view of an ethical choice - and they really make you think (email me for a list of great texts - richgee@richgee.com).
3. Speakers - Go to one of their meetings. Listen and see how you can begin to incorporate some of their teachings into your life. The worse that can happen is that you don't agree with their position - you can then walk out.

By taking this first step, it allows you to always have an 'ethical rudder' on your life - it will guide you in your business and personal life.

Book Review: The Management Myth: Why the "Experts" Keep Getting it Wrong - By Matthew Stewart

"How can so many who know so little make so much by telling other people how to do the jobs they are paid to know how to do?" The answer to this question, posed by a professor of author Matthew Stewart, is basically the entire volume of The Management Myth, itself. This darkly funny, brutally detailed look at the management consultant class manages to unveil nonsense and presumptions of everyone involved in corporate life in America, from current gurus like Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence) to modern-day Fortune 500 company heads to the worshipped founders of business schools and management theory.

By SusanG at DailyKos. The Management Myth: Why the "Experts" Keep Getting it Wrong - By Matthew Stewart - Hardcover, 352 pages - W.W. Norton & Co., New York - $27.95

Along with the money has come a whole lot of admiration for the great leaders of the corporate world. University leaders, philanthropists, hospital administrators, and politicians promise to manage their fiefdoms like CEOs manage their companies .... When Jesus is compared with a CEO, it is Jesus who is thought to gain by the comparison. Whether the problem is a soul in search of salvation, a relationship on the rocks, or a superpower in trouble, according to the received wisdom the answer is to turn it into a private corporation and then manage it like a CEO.

Stewart's personal story exemplifies the ludicrousness of the consultant trade in a nutshell. Armed with no business experience or even a record of academic business classes--but a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Oxford!--he interviewed on a lark for a consultant position, urged on by a friend with about as much business experience as Stewart who'd struck gold with a firm with a top-tier firm.

Luckily for readers, Stewart was hired ... and spent years on the front lines taking notes like an embed in the consultant industry, rising from a low-level (but highly compensated) hire to founding partner of a spin-off firm, a company that (ironically) ended badly in a tangle of lawsuits and textbook examples of bad management practices.

Alternating tales of his own personal rise and disillusionment with the industry with historical background on how business education and business management became its own field in the first place, Stewart's keen eye and biting insight provide a work that is both entertaining and informative. And the book's timing couldn't be better; as outsiders look in on Wall Street and wonder how so many supposedly brilliant financiers could have been so wrong, Stewart's look at the underbelly of CEO's and their parasitic class of consultants provides several clues as to how the current economic crisis came about.

If any political party funded political science departments in the way that corporations fund the business schools, we would naturally consider their research to be little more than propaganda.

Let's begin, then, at the beginning, as Stewart does: with the origins of the business schools and the business of advising business itself. For many years, capitalists like Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan managed somehow to create empires without paying theorists or obtaining MBA's, but that all changed when the first efficiency expert, Charles Frederick Taylor, did some very unscientific scientific studies and became if not the first, at least the most renowned (and pompous), advisor to businesses. "With this time-wasting stopwatch rituals and other grossly inefficient sacraments to the god of production," Stewart writes, "Taylor embodied the subtle madness of a new and profoundly unbalanced religion of practicality." But Taylor gave the "profession" a genesis and a scientific aura, despite the fact that later examinations of his "studies" proved them to be inaccurate and ... well, fudged. No matter. A "profession" of management and business consultancy was born, taken up and promulgated by Taylor's successors.

Medicine is a profession not on account of research in molecular biology but because it has licensing requirements, standards commissions, and policing mechanisms for controlling malpractice. The "profession" of business management as Donham and Mayo conceived it has none of these features. It merely exhorts good behavior on the basis of putatively "scientific" findings.

It's not that Stewart objects to quantification and analysis in a knee-jerk humanities/philosopher fashion. In its place, he acknowledges, statistics and projections can help chart a course and can turn up problem areas in need of attention. He also understands the place and role of leadership in organizations, even as he despairs of the "professionalization" of it.

But the modern idea of management is right enough to be dangerously wrong and it has led us seriously astray. It has sent us on a mistaken quest to seek scientific answers to unscientific questions. It offers pretended technological solutions to what are, at bottom, moral and political problems. It conjures an illusion--easily explained--about the nature and value of management expertise. It induces us to devote formative years to training in subjects that do not exist. It favors a naive view of the sources of mismanagement. Above all, it contributes to a misunderstanding about the sources of our prosperity, leading us to neglect the social, moral, and political infrastructure on which our well-being depends.

Not only does fetishization of ill-founded management theory threaten that non-corporate infrastructure to which he refers, it also often doesn't even make sense in a business context. "'Pure' analysis," he claims, "in most business situations tends to be conservative rather than creative. It implicitly favors optimizing the existing business rather than building a new one."

Still, there is a certain constructive role that outsiders can play in the modern corporation, if they keep the scope of their mission in mind. Often consultants can serve as hatchet men (or women, but usually men), for example. Or they can become the conduit of communication from one department to another in a poorly structured organization. Or ... they can just pull strategy out of the air sometimes, just to get things moving.

But overall, the business of advising business is a charade, one Stewart likens at one point to the introduction of a virus into an imperfect but moderately functioning organism. Sure, every corporation could probably use a wee bit of objective analysis, but the road to succumbing to a fatal parasitical malady usually begins with picking up an advisor on one project and then four years down the line having an entire staff of consultants in every department, sucking the life out of organizations, mandating lay-offs of employees even as the ranks of the contracted consultants swells.

And some of the modern strains of hyped business practice can be downright alarming on close examination. "Strategic planning," for example, uses projection and top-command control tactics that look an awful lot like Soviet Russia-era five-year plans, and can wind up creating the same kind of sullen, drag-footed compliance and stifling of innovation in the modern multinational corporation.

And most of the best business practices come down to common sense, anyway, Stewart maintains. After living the advising life and bailing on it, he's embarked now on a new writing career that's refreshing, bold and valuable. In The Management Myth, Stewart not only bites the hand that fed him--he cuts it off, chews it up, spits it out and examines its anatomy so that those unfamiliar with the practices of that invisible hand can benefit from knowledge of its previously invisible ways. Out of these shadows emerges the credo of the consultant--and the corporate--class:

Hire the smartest people in the room, the theory goes, and they'll figure out on their own how to extract money from the other people unlucky enough to be caught in the same room.

Try Kindle for iPhone. It Will Change Your Life.

I have been reading books for over 42 years. I LOVE them. Biographies, business, novels, mysteries, scifi, horror, comedy . . . anything. I scare people with the amount of books (and the associated bookcases) that I own.

A number of months ago, I downloaded the iPhone version of the Amazon Kindle just to see how it works and if I would actually read a book on a small screen. Well, after a few months, I have 10 books on my iPhone and there is no end in sight.

The best feature of the iPhone Kindle (IMHO) is the ability to download a single chapter of the book to see if you like it or if it is actually lives up to its hype. Be wary — this is an addictive way to get you to try the book. I've bought all of my books this way.

Readability is not an issue. I know . . . I know — you're afraid of the small form factor. But don't worry. Remember when you went from Hardcover to Paperback? You lost 1/2 the size. The Kindle's form factor is 1/2 the size again - but you get to enlarge or decrease the size of the type, have a black, white or sepia background and read horizontally or vertically. Oh — did I add that it is back-lit? You can read in bed or in low light conditions.

The verdict? I read faster, can bookmark pages/ideas quicker, and carry my current library of books wherever I go. Not in my briefcase, backpack or purse — on my PHONE.

And it's free - you only pay (on average) $9.99 for the book (where the same physical book on Amazon might run you $20-$30).

Try it - you might like love it.

Staying in the Game With Help on the Sidelines.

A great WSJ article by Sarah Needleman, who has interviewed me a number of times — Enjoy! Executive coaches report steady demand for their services despite the recession. Individual and corporate clients say the one-on-one counseling is critical for career success, especially during tough economic times.

Coaches typically are hired by companies, at $300 an hour or more, to hone the management or communication skills of senior leaders and rising stars. Even with the recession, many coaches say some companies are retaining their services to help them get lean and efficient. Coaches also said they are seeing an increase in individuals hiring coaches on their own.

Eric Chaffin, a 38-year-old partner at law firm Bernstein Liebhard LLP in New York, has paid coach Dee Soder out of his own pocket on a retainer since 2003, and has no plans to stop. "In a down economy, it's particularly important to have someone on your side," he said. "Instead of 10 client opportunities this year, there might be five. You have to make each one count."

Mr. Chaffin said Dr. Soder, founder of the CEO Perspective Group, an assessment and advisory firm in New York, helps him with tough career and practice decisions. For example, in 2003, she helped him weigh job offers from private firms after his four-year stint as a federal prosecutor. He chose a law firm that represents plaintiffs in consumer and shareholder cases because he and Dr. Soder thought it fit well with his blue-collar family background. Last year, he shifted to another plaintiffs' firm, Bernstein Liebhard. Recently Dr. Soder advised him on how to work with clients who are hurting because of the recession. Mr. Chaffin said Dr. Soder gives him a different perspective than business associates. "Most lawyers think alike," he said. "She's helped me understand some of the characteristics of my clients and their motivations."

Executive coaches say they're being hired by more individuals like Mr. Chaffin, a trend that has helped offset tighter budgets at some corporate clients. Dr. Soder says the number of her clients who are individuals paying on their own has nearly doubled since November. Wendy Alfus-Rothman, founder of Wenroth Consulting Inc., a New York executive-coaching firm, said more individuals are scheduling monthly, rather than quarterly, sessions.

A 2007 study commissioned by the International Coach Federation pegged annual revenue world-wide for the industry, which includes life, career and executive coaches, at $1.5 billion, with about half the study's 5,415 respondents in the U.S. Of the respondents, 58% reported executive coaching as their specialty.

Coaches say many companies still use their services to retain top talent and support senior leaders while coping with smaller staffs and recession-starved budgets. Amber Romine, director in global human capital at consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC's Washington, D.C., office, said she fields a steady stream of requests from clients looking for referrals to executive coaches. Gene Morrissy, a management psychologist at RHR International, said demand in the executive-coaching practice of the Wood Dale, Ill., organizational-development firm is up 10% from a year ago.

Denver telecommunications provider Wide Open West Inc. in January canceled merit raises for this year and suspended company matching contributions to employee 401(k) plans. But this year the company will spend $25,000, about what it spends every year, on coaching for three managers. "Our fundamental belief is you have to develop your greatest assets, which are your people," said Colleen Abdoulah, chief executive.

Humana Inc., a Louisville, Ky., health insurer, also is protecting its coaching program. Humana this year will spend between $17,000 and $30,000 for six months of sessions for each of about 50 senior employees, said Jeff Nally, who heads the firm's executive-coaching initiative. The meetings cover areas such as how to build an executive presence, communicate ideas and influence others. "Even in a recession, developing talent in key roles is still important," said Mr. Nally.

Still, Humana is trying to trim coaching costs, which totaled about $25,000 to $50,000 in past years. The company now encourages participants to conduct more counseling sessions by phone, which saves money on coaches' travel fees. And rather than hire outsiders to assess coaching needs, senior executives and human-resources leaders conduct assessments of more junior employees, which cuts the length of engagements by an average of three months.

Some small-business owners use coaches as sounding boards. Nancy A. May, president and chief executive of BoardBench Cos. LLC, a four-employee advisory firm in Norwalk, Conn., pays her own way to meet periodically with Dr. Soder. Ms. May says she relies on Dr. Soder for honest advice."You wouldn't go to somebody junior and say, 'I've screwed up, what do I do?' she says.

Ms. May, 50, began working with Dr. Soder about a year ago on ways to improve her interactions with clients, among other issues. Sessions are held over the phone, and occasionally in person, twice a month for up to an hour. "At times I have a big personality and the enthusiasm can sometimes be off-putting to somebody who's more of an introvert," says Ms. May. "My coach is working with me to manage that based on the personalities of other CEOs or board people I might be working with."

Ms. May says she has noticed changes, particularly "how people are stopping and listening, and being drawn into a conversation with me a little differently."

Paula M. Zwiren, president of Allied Title LLC, a small title-insurance firm in Flanders, N.J., said she was inspired to seek coaching after attending a seminar led by a group of women business leaders. Ms. Zwiren, 33, meets quarterly with Dr. Alfus-Rothman for about two hours. "An executive coach helps you identify things that help you be in control of your destiny," she said.

Ms. Zwiren said Dr. Alfus-Rothman, whom she pays about $3,000 a year, has improved her communications skills. "You have to be very direct at the executive level, very concrete," she says. "She helps me with my power of persuasion."

Executives and senior professionals interested in executive coaching should research prospective coaches carefully because the industry isn't regulated, said Kay Cannon, a past president of the coaching federation and an executive coach in Lexington, Ky. "You want to make sure the individual has some kind of coach-specific training," she says. For example, many ICF members are certified as master, professional or associate coaches, which means they've undergone between 60 and 200 hours of training.

Ms. Cannon also recommends asking for referrals to past clients and getting a sense of whether you have chemistry with a coach before agreeing to a long-term commitment.

CEOs - Attract The Best Board Candidates.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for boards to attract outstanding board candidates. Candidates are reluctant to consider opportunities because of the increased time demands of board membership as well as the increased time demands of the candidate's own positions. This is especially problematic because the need for board members, and especially outstanding ones, has never been greater. By Peter G. Spanberger at Directors and Boards. When companies become an "employer of choice" they are in an enviable position of much more easily attracting the best and the brightest. Boards can work in the same direction to become a "board of choice" and reap the benefits of more easily attracting outstanding board candidates. What steps can a board take to accomplish this?

If a candidate is outstanding he or she will have done a thorough analysis of the caliber of the board under consideration. A board needs to have already done such an analysis and understand what makes it a board of choice. This self-knowledge forms the basis for selling an outstanding candidate on the desirability of the board.

Boards often underestimate their positive attributes and find self-analysis difficult to do. Once done, however, this self-analysis can provide each current board member with a deeper understanding of the board's strengths and positive attributes. This has obvious benefits for the current board members and makes it easier for a candidate to discover these attributes. It also gives the board ammunition with which to "sell" outstanding candidates. The analysis will also reveal shortcomings that can then be addressed.

When boards do such an analysis they typically find that the positive attributes run the gamut from obvious to more subtle. Some of the obvious board attributes involve compensation and reasonable time demands. An analysis can reveal the degree to which the board makes it easy for members to do their jobs. Are board members provided with the needed information in a timely manner? Another obvious component involves the right amount of support in terms of travel, accommodations, etc. These are necessary, but not sufficient, attributes for attracting outstanding candidates.

More sophisticated boards take their analysis to a deeper level and focus on some of the more subtle components that would make a board attractive. They recognize that outstanding candidates will assume that the obvious components are present. Outstanding candidates will focus on some of the more subtle dimensions. Strong candidates will consider the prestige and competency of the current board members. They will ask themselves how much pride they will have in being a member of this particular board.

Are the other board members people from whom this outstanding candidate can learn? Is the process of the board characterized by acrimony rather than harmonious and constructive discussion? Does diplomacy and respect permeate the boardroom? Is the board a place where challenging issues and intellectual stimulation occur? These are some of the more subtle attributes that outstanding candidates require and "boards of choice" must manifest.

Such a self-analysis can be enriched by understanding the reasons why strong candidates are or are not interested in the board. It is essential that the recruiter or a nominating committee member go deeper in their discussions with candidates. Going deeper means not allowing the individual just to give it an obvious reason for turning down the opportunity but to get to some of these more subtle factors that influence their decision. Fundamentally the individual has to read between the lines of what the candidate is saying. This additional step can provide significant insights about perceptions of board functioning.

Similarly, if board members leave or when board members' tenure expires some type of exit interview can be revealing about the presence or absence of these subtle factors. It might also be revealing to interview board members who have been off the board for a few years in order to gain further understanding of the presence or absence of these factors that would be attractive to particularly strong board candidates.

Sophisticated boards take these types of steps in order to be a compelling board opportunity for outstanding candidates.

Just as companies work diligently to become an employer of choice, boards can do the same. For a board to become a board of choice it is necessary to engage in self-analysis and what makes it a compelling board opportunity. This analysis will deepen the understanding of current board members as well as be a selling point to prospective board members. When completed, the board will have positioned itself so that it can attract candidates of the caliber necessary in today's complex business environment.

Task Ninja: Form the Action Habit.

A lot of us get stuck in inaction — procrastinating, doing a lot of unimportant tasks to avoid the important stuff, worrying about failing or about being perfect, having a hard time starting, getting distracted, and so on. It’s time to start forming the Action Habit instead. Get all Ninja on your actions. By Leo Babauta at Zen Habits.

And it’s really not that hard if you focus on it for a little while. Like any other habit, start in small doses, little tasks, just short bursts, and then build on that momentum.

Some quick steps for forming the Action Habit:

1. Figure out your key actions. Focusing on the right actions is just as important as the doing. Don’t spend a lot of time in this step — just quickly decide your Top 3 actions for today.

2. Pick one key action, and visualize the outcome. How will it look when you’re done? Again, don’t spend a lot of time here — just form a quick picture in your mind.

3. Just start. Tell yourself, “Do it now!” Make it a mantra. Don’t mess around with tools, with distractions, with anything that will get in the way of doing this task. Strip away everything but the task, and get going!

4. Focus on the moment. Just be in this task, don’t worry about the future or what mistakes you might make or might have made before. Just focus on doing this task, as best you can. Immerse yourself in it.

5. Get to done. Complete the task. Feel good about it! Pat yourself on the back!

Now repeat with the next task. The more you practice this habit, the better you get. Do it in small doses, and keep practicing. You’ll fail sometimes. See the next section for how to deal with that. But don’t let failure stop you — just practice some more.

Barriers to the Action Habit: But what if you’re having trouble actually taking action? Some quick thoughts:

Don’t worry about perfect. Too often we want to create the perfect plan, but while it’s important to know where you’re going, it’s more important not to get stuck in the planning mode. And while it’s important to do your best, perfection isn’t necessary.

Stop fiddling. Are you messing around with your software or other tools? Are you playing with fonts and colors and other non-essential things? Stop! Get back to the task.

Remove distractions. Turn off the phone, email, IM, Twitter, etc. Shut off the world around you, and just focus on the doing.

Improve it later. Just do it now. You can make it better later. Writers call this the sh*tty first draft — and while it sounds bad, it’s actually a good thing. You’re getting it done, even if it’s sloppy.

Break it into smaller chunks. Sometimes the task is too intimidating. If the task takes more than an hour, start with a 30-minute chunk. If that’s too big, do just 10 minutes. If that’s too hard, do 5. If you have to, just do 1 minute, just to get going.

Stop thinking so much. Thinking is a good thing. Overthinking isn’t, and it gets in the way. Put aside all the thinking (analysis paralysis) and just do.

If you can’t do something … figure out why. Maybe you don’t have the tools. Maybe you don’t have the authority. Maybe you need something from someone else. Maybe you’re missing some key info.

Maybe you don’t know how to do something and need to read up on it, or be taught how. Maybe you just don’t want to do it, and you should drop it altogether. Figure out what the barrier is, and solve it.

Powerful Quotes I Love.

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple." - Dr. Seuss

The Shredding Of YOUR Workplace Is Happening NOW.

There's striking disagreement on the shape of the economic upturn – being touted are 'J', 'L', 'V', 'U', 'W' or even a 'saxophone shaped upturn', however what's sure is it's coming. With the upturn – welcome or not – is a complete shredding of the workplace rulebook!

By John Blackwell at Management Issues.

Today's workplace consists of finely balanced interdependencies between people, space, technologies, culture, and management practices. It demands HR professionals talk fluent real estate, real estate professionals talk fluent talent and collaboration, technologists talk fluent culture, and managers be fluent in trust, agility, and social connection.

Get it right and the workplace is a vibrant, inspiring place that motivates creativity, innovation, and untold performance levels. Get it wrong and it's dull and disenfranchising, with staff bored by the tedium.

This isn't some abstract theory – everyone reading this article will, at some point, have experienced a dull workplace and equally will have experienced a vibrant one.

The current economic turmoil has brought about a unique combination of factors that's not merely overturning workplace rules, it's completely shredding the rule book!

Prominent factors in this upheaval are:

1. Unemployment: In OECD countries, unemployment has risen from 6.8% in 2008 to today's 7.8%, and is projected to top 10% by 2010. While any unemployment is distressing, the impact on remaining staff is possibly more dramatic.

How drastic? Research suggests that half of staff have lost trust in their employer and almost as many - 46% - would leave at the earliest opportunity if they had the chance.

This distrust is rooted in staff eyeing ranks of empty desks and an assumption that they'll voluntarily "pick up the slack". Staff are also disenfranchised over the lottery approach to downsizing and the lack of visionary thinking about alternatives. When cost avoidance is today's corporate mantra, this discontent and churn could prove financially crippling.

2. A Shrinking Talent Pool: It's a myth that restructuring is creating a labour market awash with talent2. A shrinking talent pool: It's a myth that restructuring has created a labour market awash with talent. More than 60% of white-collar unemployed are turning their back on corporate life and investing redundancy monies in starting entrepreneurial businesses. Having walked away, this talent won't be returning corporate life.

Clearly, these far-reaching changes to the traditional workplace demand precision metrics and a structured, scientific approach. Everyone involved must be 'on-board', and have a clear view of the 4 P's of change;

Purpose – why change, what's in it for me? Picture – what will it look like after the change? Plan – what's the timeline and what should I expect? Part – what's my part and what's expected of me?

Factor in a 17% decline in 'prime-age' labour (due to decreasing birth rate, increasing adult education, etc), this represents a notable shrinkage of an already rarefied talent market – something that the UK's Department for Work and Pensions is projecting won't return to 'normal' until 2020!

3. Virtual working: Staff are juggling a three-fold increase in project volumes since 2004, compounded by increased matrix working and the outsourcing of non-core activities, which is leading to an explosion in virtual working.

We've projected that, by 2010 staff will be spending just 5% of their day in the same place, on the project, at the same time as their colleagues. 95% of time will be spent working alone, at a different time, place, or on a different schedule.

Consequently, managers have a far looser understanding of their teams, and must rapidly learn how to migrate from command-control to mentoring, motivating, and coaching.

4. Unsustainable office utilisation: Prior to the economic downturn, office utilisation was typically hovering around 50%. One of the first casualties of the recession was corporate real estate values, which has dropped by more than 44%. At the same time, almost every organisation is being forced to – or taking the opportunity to – optimise headcount.

This has created the perennial conflict between dwindling occupancy and the inability to shift surplus real estate – a direct outcome being plummeting office utilisation of 20% or lower, and dispersed staff finding themselves forced into 'intra-office virtual working'.

This commonly leads to reduced business 'fluency'. Just consider, if you're more than four metres apart, the chance is you'll not know the other person in the office.

Shredding the workplace rulebook presents both formidable challenges and great opportunities. We're entering the 'era of interdependence'. A time when all business dimensions – HR, physical space, technologies, culture, and management practices – must work in harmony to deliver effective performance.

The recent Workplace of the Future report shed considerable insight to how organisations are responding to changing work practices. Of the 1,100 business leaders interviewed, 83% perceive significant change, however only 61% have successfully changed in the past, a gap that has trebled since 2006.

The report found that organisations financially out-performing their comparators are investing in radical interventions, broadly grouped into two areas – trust-based, and socially connected workplaces.

Trust-based workplaces allow staff complete temporal and spatial autonomy. Socially connected workplaces actively encourage staff to engage and collaborate with likeminded people far beyond traditional work boundaries. This significantly improves the response to weak signals – competitive and creative developments that might otherwise have been overlooked.

However, change needs to be tempered with caution – it mustn't be dismissed as merely 'engineering' processes or tasks, it's a complex problem of co-evolution at multiple levels (individuals, the community, the environment etc).

A mechanical approach is by its nature dehumanising, and you must remember you get out what you measure. If you set targets, staff will attempt to realise the targets at all costs, ignoring context or the unstated goals that the change was hoping to realise. An awful amount of resource can be wasted managing a measurement system rather than letting the workplace flourish. We all have a stake in addressing the current situation - organisation and individual alike – in creating a brighter, smarter, and more vibrant "workplace of the future". And all of us can take immediate steps to embracing this new order.

Facebook Postings Close Doors For Job Candidates.

More employers than ever are researching job candidates on sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter in order to find out more about their activities and character. And, it turns out, many candidates are doing a great job of showing their potential bosses poor communication skills, inappropriate pictures, and even how many workplace secrets they can leak. By Jacqui Cheng at arsTechnica.

Some of us had the luck of doing stupid things online before most employers knew what social networking was. (I'll admit it: in my early working days, I said some not-nice things online about some of the people I worked with.) These days, however, those looking for jobs have had many years to build up an unsavory history across the Internet, and employers now know how to do their homework. In fact, nearly half of the employers in the US now search for job candidates on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, according to survey results from CareerBuilder. The job-finding firm said that the numbers reflect a twofold increase over those who reported doing so in last year—45 percent in 2009 versus 22 percent in 2008—and cautioned that many employers choose not to hire based on information they find online.

Facebook was the most popular site for researching job candidates this year — no surprise there, since Facebook has exploded in popularity as of late. "Professional" networking site LinkedIn came in second at 26 percent, MySpace came in third at 21 percent, 11 percent read blogs, and seven percent followed candidates' updates on Twitter. Paranoid yet about any of your recent tweets?

If you're looking for a job, you probably should be. More than a third of survey respondents said that they found info that caused them not to hire the person applying for the job, including "provocative or inappropriate photographs," content related to drinking or using drugs, and finding postings that badmouthed previous employers, coworkers, or clients. Other candidates showed poor communication skills on their social networking profiles, made discriminatory comments, lied about their qualifications, or shared confidential information from a previous employer. The one that made us cringe? "16 percent dismissed a candidate for using text language such as GR8 (great) in an e-mail or job application."

On the other hand, some candidates are doing a good job of presenting their professional side when posting online. Half of those who screened candidates via their social networking profiles said that they got a good feel for the person's personality and fit within the organization. Other employers said that they found the profiles supported the candidates' professional qualifications or that they discovered how creative the candidate was. Solid communication skills, evidence of well-roundedness, and other people's good references (we assume this one came from LinkedIn) helped boost people's credentials, too.

For most of us, it seems like common sense not to talk trash on your Facebook wall or post drunk pictures where potential employers can see them, but people are still catching up to the idea that their future bosses are on the same sites as they are. Anecdotally, I have worked at many an office that has casually looked up interns and new employees online, only to find sides of them that were less than flattering (one intern publicly declared that our company's parent company could "f-ing suck it!" immediately after we offered her the job).

Some may argue that employers shouldn't use information they found through a little bit of online stalking (something we've heard in our forums)—after all, what someone does after hours is his or her own business. At the same time, it's hard to deny that discovering truly alarming information—such as leaked workplace secrets—would be good cause for choosing another candidate. These days, everyone hunting for a job needs to exercise some judgment on what to post online and who they let access it if they want to stay in future employers' good graces.

CMO to CEO: Insights & Advice From CEOs Who Have Made The Transition.

Little is written about the options available to CMOs to progress beyond their role as marketers and become key players at the executive committee level. At the Rich Gee Group, we frequently run into many C-Level executives who want to progress to the top rung and help them develop a strategy on what they should be doing to make themselves credible contenders for the CEO berth.

Spencer Stuart has a great report (click here for the PDF) that outlines each of the 10 ways to prepare for a role as a CEO:

1. Take on a general management role in an emerging market
2. Broaden your skill set at every opportunity
3. Gain experience in at least one non-marketing role
4. Get involved in as many mission-critical, non-marketing projects as you can
5. Demonstrate your credibility and track record as a commercial leader
6. Develop close working relationships with other functions
7. Work with the CFO to value the company’s brand assets
8. Hone your communication skills
9. Learn to make the tough decisions
10. Find a mentor who is already a CEO or in a general management position

It's a great read. Enjoy! - Rich

Do You Need An "Executive-Level" Health Program?

How well are you? How well will you be on the job? One overlooked benefit that many companies forget (yeah right) to offer is an executive health program for their top people. What is an executive health program? Well, one offered by The Mayo Clinic states:

The Mayo Clinic's Executive Health Program has combined medical expertise with efficiency to meet the needs of busy executives. The program offers a comprehensive examination with access to the full resources of Mayo's medical, surgical and laboratory facilities in a convenient one- to two-day period. (More days may be required if the executive requires additional subspecialty tests or examinations.)

A company's top executives must be healthy to be effective. An executive health program offers an efficient, cost-effective way to maximize a leader's health and reduce the chance of long-term leave related to disability, illness or health concerns. You usually meet with a battery of physicians who specialize in all areas of the human body.

Once they complete their analysis, the team meets together to discuss your overall health condition. They report, debate and diagnose any issues — at the end, your main physician provides a complete analysis for you with any treatments required.

Not surprisingly, many patients have been diagnosed with a previously unreported condition following a typical executive health exam.

These programs blend traditional diagnostic expertise with the latest in preventive medicine. Your evaluation is individualized according to your personal health needs and is strictly confidential. One physician, a specialist in internal and preventive medicine, will coordinate your care. Program centers are usually distributed across the nation for easy access.

Bottom line, these specialists have significant experience in interpreting test results and consulting with busy executives to ensure a thorough, comprehensive and efficient examination.

5 Stages of Grief When Looking For A Job.

Here's a fun list that I saw on Madatoms: Denial I've got plenty of money! I'll start looking next week!

Anger Craigslist and Monster sucks! I've got a college degree! Jobs should be looking for me!

Bargaining I'll just drive around looking for help wanted signs. I hear that Starbucks has health insurance!

Depression Why did I major in Communications? I have no useful skills.

Acceptance I didn't know I qualified for unemployment! I love this country!

Keeping Unscheduled Time.

I love the The Practice of Leadership blog - and George Ambler hits it out of the park with this topic on buffering time:

“Every leader should routinely keep a substantial portion of his or her time—I would say as much as 50 percent—unscheduled. … Only when you have substantial ’slop’ in your schedule—unscheduled time—will you have the space to reflect on what you are doing, learn from experience, and recover from your inevitable mistakes. Leaders without such free time end up tackling issues only when there is an immediate or visible problem. Managers’ typical response to my argument about free time is, ‘That’s all well and good, but there are things I have to do.’ Yet we waste so much time in unproductive activity—it takes an enormous effort on the part of the leader to keep free time for the truly important things.” – Dov Frohman

Making time to reflect and think is a critical leadership practice. In its simplest form, reflecting is just thinking about what happened. It’s the process of thinking about and examining what we’ve experienced, how we reacted and what changes we need to make to become more effective.

There are few people who make a conscious effort to learn from their experiences and fewer still learn from their mistakes. This is because reflection is not an automatic process for most people. Most of use make our way through life simply reacting to circumstances. To be effective leaders must make reflection a regular practice.

“Leaders like everyone else, are the sum of all their experiences, but, unlike others, they amount to more than the sum, because they make more of their experiences.” – Warren Bennis, Why Leaders Can’t Lead

A simple way to start the practice of reflection is by asking questions, questions about how we feel, about the results we are getting in our life, and what we can do differently to get different results. For example, find a quite place where you are not going to be disturbed then, take an issue that’s important to you, and ask yourself the following questions:

What happened? What was I trying to achieve? What went well and why? What didn’t go so well and why? How did it affect me? How did it affect others? What were the consequences (positive or negative) for myself and others? What could be done differently next time? Would this change improve the consequences?

“Reflection is asking the questions that provoke self-awareness” – Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader

As leaders much of our success is dependent on the way we think. Given this, it’s important that we schedule regular time-out to reflect on how we are behaving, how we are thinking about a situation and what adjustments we might need to make to improve our effectiveness. When was the last time you spent reflecting on an issue that is important to you?

Ethical Leadership — You Need A Mentor.

Part Two of a series on Ethical Leadership — many more to come.

"Mentor: Someone whose hindsight can become your foresight.”
- Unknown

Ethics is a balance. Simply put, a balance between good and evil and your relationship with each.

Leadership is a balance. Guiding and letting go is a balance in itself.

In every endeavor in life, balance comes to play and it helps to have something or someone to help you maintain (or regain) your balance when times are tough. This is where mentors come in.

Of course you can ask someone for temporary guidance — we all do that from time to time. Unfortunately, 'temporary mentors' usually don't know the full score, they are fishing in the shallow waters and cannot fully understand the depths of your dilemma, opportunity, or situation.

A long-term mentor can help you not only solve present issues, but keep your eye on your long-term goals. Talking with them on a regular basis can help you regain your balance, fly straight, and keep your head clear.

Pick a mentor - choose a past boss, one that is not steeped in company intrigue. One that seems to fly above the corporate radar and get things done without playing politics. They can either come from a past company or your current one — but be careful with current company mentors - choose wisely.

State frankly that you would like to have them be your mentor. That you'll take them out to lunch to bounce ideas off of them. Let them understand that your talks will be highly confidential in nature and that you appreciate their guidance.

Schedule regular meetings - usually monthly or quarterly, off-site. Come with a good idea of the topics that you would like to cover. In addition, always add the question: "What do you think my next step should be?" It will allow you both to move from tactical to strategic thinking.

Keep them informed of the results - this will help the mentor/mentee relationship stay healthy and focused.

A mentor can help you focus on what is REALLY important and see things you might have missed. They will keep you on the right track.

P.S. By the way, if you cannot find anyone who can be a good mentor for you, call me.