Collaboration Trumps Competition

When I thought about a headline before writing this post, the first thing that popped into my head was what you see here, “Collaboration Trumps Competition.” I didn’t connect it to the presidential election at first and yet it’s fitting. So here we go. Regardless of whether you’re a Trump or Clinton supporter, the tenor of the campaign itself has sunk to new depths. Yet when it’s all over, we’ll be reading about the importance of healing and uniting the country. Ironically, the same media that fueled the fire and aggravated the wounds will start handing out medical supplies.

The problem is this: The deeper the wound, the longer it takes to heal – the more likely it will leave a scar. The lower we go, the tougher it is to climb out of the hole. The harder is it to trust one another again. The tougher it is to make the transition from fighting against each other to fighting for one another. Regardless of who prevails in the election, we may be headed for one of the toughest recovery periods since the Civil War.

At present, we’re a nation suffering from boiling frog syndrome. Consider this, in 1948 Harry Truman campaigned against what was dubbed the “Do Nothing Congress” – a body that eventually passed 906 bills. Compare that to the 112th Congress (283), the 113th (296), and the current collection of legislators (228), with just a few months to go before the clock runs out. Acrimony has bred distrust and revealed the worst of partisan politics. Now, it’s become acceptable to get elected to Congress and come back virtually empty handed every two years as long as you hold true to your hard and fast positions. It happened without most of us realizing how dangerously hot the water has become.

Something has got to change – fast! 2017 should be the start of asking our legislators (and leaders at all levels from every branch of government) to work and play well with others, so we can move our country forward instead of staying mired in the kind of gridlock that holds a country hostage. To be fair, however, we all have a role to play in making this possible. As I pointed out in my last post about the Connections exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, everything is connected. We not only have to ask more of our political leaders, we have to ask for better behavior by media and business leaders as well. That starts with us.

If the media cared more about their viewers than beating their competitors, then maybe (just maybe), they would stop covering wackos setting their hair on fire and start celebrating meaningful collaboration and compromise. Today, collaboration breeds political casualties – winners and losers, leaders who “caved to the other side.” As long as everything remains a zero-sum game and those who put the country first continue to be vilified by the press, we’ll all be the biggest loser. Compromise is not a four-letter word. We have the power to send a message to our media and change the climate so that our elected officials can get back to the business of governing.

Speaking of business, effective collaboration requires trust, and business leaders could set a better example. The recent Wells Fargo scandal is just one among the latest breaches of the public trust in industries ranging from finance to pharmaceutical to automotive, etc. Companies who respect their customers and hold true to their values (all the time) are companies worth supporting.

I wrote a piece recently specific to business leaders at Shaping the Odds titled Five Reasons 2017 Will Be the Year of the Peer. Reason #6 is we have no choice. As trust among institutions of all kinds remains low, we’ll have to rely on one another more than ever if we’re going to turn the tide. Alone, fighting the current seems impossible. Together, however, we are powerful beyond measure. Collaboration trumps competition any day of the week. Since we’re all in the same boat, it’s time to start rowing together and prepare for the Year of the Peer!

*Image from wealthmanagement.com

HBR Takes On Why Leadership Training Fails

In the October issue of Harvard Business Review, Michael Beer, Magnus Finnström and Derek Schrader wrote a piece titled Why Leadership Training Fails — and What to Do About It. I’d like to share the comment I left on HBR’s site and expand upon it a bit.

I really enjoyed the article! It offers solid evidence for a phenomenon I first described in 2011 as Trickle-Down Leadernomics: “Episodic training designed to stimulate positive behavioral changes, aimed to help executives be better leaders who inspire commitment rather than mere compliance, resulting in a more productive work environment and happier employees who, ultimately, will improve the company’s bottom-line somewhere down the road.”

Doesn’t sound very promising when you put it that way, does it? That’s because, as you all pointed out so eloquently, it isn’t.

Trickle-Down Leadernomics isn’t just troublesome because of the “trickle-down” part; worse yet, it tends to function as a linear process rather than a reinforcing one. Meaning, if you can’t really measure the impact of the executive development program to the organization, it won’t serve to inspire future investments in learning. And without a mechanism to implement learning, such as the cross-functional work teams that were used by MEPD, it will never become evident in the organization in a meaningful way.

With myriad challenges facing today’s leaders, it will take more than gravity to assure that the substantial investments being made in leadership development are positively impacting the bottom line. The problem has to be addressed horizontally, rather than vertically. This is where I believe cross-functional teams of peers working together is at least one good answer. Thanks for shining a bright light on this important topic!

The real challenge here is that executives attend leadership training programs, acquire a few new tools, learn some interesting concepts, and within a few weeks’ time, they’re back to the same old, pre-training behaviors. This happens largely because there is no mechanism for integrating what they’ve learned into their day-to-day lives. By the time, they catch up on everything they missed while they were out of the office, they get caught up in just keep their heads above water.

To be fair, our expectations may be a tad unrealistic, but until we stop treating leadership learning as a separate activity, it will never take hold. By using a more integrated approach, like the cross-functional work teams described in the article, executives can enlist the support of their peers as they work to implement and perfect better ways of leading.

John Dewey once wrote, “There is no such thing as educational value in the abstract.” So if you want to become a better leader, adopting and perfecting new behaviors will take more than participating in a training exercise. You’ll need a peer support mechanism to make it all stick. It’s among the 5 reasons 2017 will be the Year of the Peer! If you want to read about the other four, check out my article at Shaping the Odds. Thanks!

Image from HBR.org

The Intersection of Mindfulness & Peer Advantage

Yesterday, I embarked on a four mile hike in Crested Butte, CO (one of my favorite spots on the planet) to enjoy the fall aspens and a magnificent panorama that lacked any of the traffic or the stop lights of southern California. To paint a more complete picture, I spent part of my hike listening to Earth, Wind & Fire’s greatest hits through my ear buds. I haven’t listened to that “album” in years, and I can’t for the life of me tell you why I selected it, but I felt transported.

It reminded me of how, as a kid, when I listened to music, I was always fascinated by the harmonies and instruments playing in the background – it’s what, for me at least, gives music its richness. I thought about why I always loved bands like Earth, Wind & Fire, Miami Sound Machine, and Chicago (yes, I’m dating myself). The words can be poetic and the melodies are catchy, but the arrangements are pure genius.

I enjoyed my time alone yesterday. Nothing else in the world mattered. I was living in the moment, enjoying sights and sounds that rendered anything else completely irrelevant. It was my personal brand of mindfulness. As I sit here now, I’m contemplating what I’ll call the intersection of mindfulness and peer advantage. If I am more mindful, will I experience peer advantage more fully for myself and create more value for others? Based on a piece I read recently by Dr. Melanie Greenberg in Psychology Today, I would have to say, “Yes, of course!” Her article speaks to nine essential qualities for mindfulness including being fully present, openness to experience, non-judgment, and connection, to name a few. Turns out that her nine qualities align perfectly with the five factors required for experiencing peer advantage for yourself and others.

Next month, I will participate in a mindfulness workshop delivered by Amy Sandler. (I’m really looking forward to it.) My guess is that Amy will reinforce the idea that being more mindful as an individual will only make me a stronger peer – that being truly mindful and being connected more deeply with others gives life its richness, too. Can’t wait to tell you all about it!

A New CEO World For Entrepreneurs

Imagine being the founder of what you believe will be the next great company. You’re in the embryonic stages of forming your organization. You know you’re headed down a long and lonely road, and a potentially rewarding one, assuming you don’t screw it up! Now consider what it would be like to be approached by a major player who leads peer advisory groups for CEOs and business leaders in your area.

At first you might conclude, “Excellent, this is exactly what I need!” You salivate at the prospect of meeting with your peers on a regular basis in a forum where you can talk about your toughest challenges and greatest opportunities. You’ve read just enough to know how well these groups tend to help people become better leaders and grow their companies. But then you find out how much it costs and how much time it will consume. (Turns out this is the stage where both cash and time can be really tight). What’s more, because of your unpredictable travel schedule, you know before you start that your participation at locally-based monthly meetings may be unreliable at best. It’s a situation that could be bad for you and unfair to the group. Oh boy. Now what?

Turns out Miguel Dias has something to show you. Recently, CEO World launched its new website. Miguel’s peer advantage solution not only tackles the issues of time, money and participation, it offers you access to other CEOs around the world who will give you an all new perspective to help you think and act more globally.

CEO World assembles and professionally facilitates mastermind groups specifically for entrepreneurs and leaders of early stage companies. The groups are comprised of 6-8 people just like you (and yet not exactly like you at all) who meet online once a month for two jam-packed hours, including 30-minutes with a guest CEO who has been where you want to go. You not only get the kind of help you need, but it’s offered at a fraction of the cost, in two-hour sessions (versus a half-day or full-day), and can be accessed from wherever you may be traveling (assuming you have a decent internet connection).

So does CEO World deliver something that Vistage, EO, Renaissance, TAB, or YPO doesn’t? The answer is, yes and no. CEO World is a different model, delivered on a different platform, and designed to meet the needs and requirements of an entirely different demographic. CEO World opens up the world of peer advantage to those who otherwise might find it difficult, if not impossible, to access and makes it work for them. That’s CEO World’s killer app! Over time, the market will decide for itself whether this is a gateway drug for traditional, in-person groups or a stand-alone alternative that meets their specific needs on an ongoing basis. My guess is that leaders will be attracted to both options in greater numbers.

That said, CEO World is not a competitor to the big guys, so much as a companion. If they all play their cards right, you’ll see what 1 + 1 = 3 really looks like! If your organization leads CEO mastermind or peer advisory groups and you’re delivering true peer advantage to your members, tell me about it. I’m more than happy to spread the word about what you’re doing. Why not create a new world for everyone!

If You Want to Go Fast, Go Together!

Last week, my friend Phil and I drove to Petco Park for the third game of the three game series between the Boston Red Sox and the San Diego Padres. We live in San Diego, but we both grew up in the Boston area. If you know anything about Red Sox fans, you know we are always Sox fans, no matter where we live, and as you might have guessed, we attended all three games. In case you had any doubts, Red Sox Nation is real.

But I digress… so as we were driving to the game from Del Mar to downtown, traffic was at a standstill and showing no signs of loosening up. With two of us in the car, however, this afforded us the opportunity to drive in the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane. We could simply get out of the lanes where everyone was driving alone and bypass all the traffic. Which we did.

HOV lanes have been around in the US since the 70’s. Since I’m always on the lookout for peer advantage metaphors, it occurred to me that the African proverb that appears at the open of The Power of Peers: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” had to have been written prior to 1969 because we were going much faster together than any of the drivers going it alone.

As we sailed by hundreds of cars, we estimated that we saved at least 40 minutes getting to the game. For us, it was the difference between making it on time and showing up in the third inning. Turns out that together, you can go far and fast. Think about that the next time you hesitate to collaborate with someone for fear it will slow you down. It’s more likely that you’ll discover a new road – the one less traveled.

*Image from washingtontimes.com

Peer Advantage & The Opposite Strategy

Remember the Seinfeld episode when George Costanza employed his “opposite strategy?” Meaning, if he did the opposite of what he thought he should do, life would work out better. Earlier this week, I talked about the four ways we engage our peers. We typically connect, network, optimize, and accelerate – in pretty much that order. CEOs, however, should adopt Costanza’s “opposite strategy.”

While most business leaders, generally speaking, connect more than they network. They also tend to network more than they optimize and optimize more than they accelerate. (And for most, they don’t accelerate at all). CEOs, whose time is extremely valuable, should take a page from George and invest their peer engagement activities in the opposite order. CEOs should accelerate first, then optimize, network, and connect.

Why? Because CEOs should invest their time, where they get the most value. It’s essential that they get out of their company and industry silos to engage in rich conversations with a diverse group of fellow CEOs who truly empathize with the magnitude of their responsibility. Ask any high-performing CEO in a group. Your peers will broaden and deepen your knowledge and help you lead your organization more effectively.

Next, optimize. Take what you learn from your CEO group— your ideas and your understanding about how high-performing groups collaborate—and show your people how to lead groups that optimize inside your organization. Networking involves purposeful interaction with select individuals who can help you and your organization grow. What you gain from accelerating and optimizing will help you be an even more purposeful and more successful networker. Finally, stay connected. Connecting will help extend your reach and provide you with an additional knowledge channel for both intentional and collateral learning.

If it’s good enough for George Costanza… I’m just sayin’!

*Image from screenrant.com

Carol Tometsko's Greatest Discovery

Using our new P–E–E–R method for telling peer advantage stories, read Carol Tometsko’s story and consider sharing yours using the same outline and maximum of 500 words. This story is fewer than 400 words! To review the guidelines for submitting stories, click here!

Preface

Carol Tometsko is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Litron Laboratories, which she co-founded in 1976 with her late husband Dr. Andrew M. Tometsko. Starting this company was her husband’s dream. Fast forward eighteen years, and their company, Litron Laboratories, was still in business, largely because they were extremely successful in obtaining government grants. Then, in 1994 when Carol was at the airport, she received a call that Andrew had passed away. She went back to the lab to find two employees who were as grief stricken as she was, and it was in that moment that she decided to continue to run the business. At this point in her life, Carol was still wearing a scientist’s hat and was not necessarily a business person, and while she considered hiring outside leadership to take the helm, she did not.

Expectation

In 1997, Tom Merkel, a personal friend of Carol’s, suggested she join a Vistage CEO peer advisory group. In 1995, Litron began developing and selling genetic toxicology kits, but Carol understood that she couldn’t build a company based on that approach alone. Carol said, “We had to get involved in new areas, in exploring new genetic toxicology areas. That’s where we were sort of stumped.” She was looking for a group of CEOs she could talk to about her business.

Experience

Little did she know the impact the group would have on what would become the re-imagining of her company. Carol said that it was her group members who taught her the word “collaboration.” Up until that time, her world pitted scientist against scientist in a race for who would arrive at the answer first, so she found the idea expressed by her fellow CEOs of collaborating with other scientists somewhat frightening (because of her prior university experience) but an intriguing idea for scaling the business. It took CEOs outside of her industry sector to help her see this.

Results

Under Carol’s leadership, Litron has transformed from an organization once dependent on government grants into an international technology company, which as of 2015, provided support to laboratories in 37 countries. Carol did so by stepping outside her company (and the world of science) to make one of her greatest discoveries – the value of peer advantage. Carol is still a member of her group today.

Tell Us Your Peer Advantage Story

Tell us how peer advantage worked for you by submitting your story to leobottary.com, using the P–E–E–R method. Give us the background we need in the Preface. Tell us about your Expectations, either when you joined your group or when you brought an issue or new opportunity to your group and then share your actual Experience. (For example, you may have planned to ask your peers for their thoughts on your choosing between solution A & B, only to discover you had more options than you realized). Then reveal the Results – it’s that simple.

Feel free to identify your group as a (for example) CEO World Mastermind Group, Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) Forum, Renaissance Executive Forum, The Alternative Board (TAB), Tiger 21, True North Group, Vistage Group, Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) Forum, etc. As a member, sharing your story for this site means you’re granting me permission to post and promote it publicly. If you lead a group and wish to submit a member story, I will assume you’ve received the member’s permission or that you’ve used pseudonyms to ensure confidentiality. Either way, please indicate that with your submission or it will not be eligible for posting.

I’ll be adding stories myself as well, so if you’re a group leader or group member, tell us how you experienced peer advantage by completing the form below or by emailing your story to me directly at leo@leobottary.com. Stories should be 500 words max! (The story below contains fewer than 400 words).

Here’s a sample story for your review.

Now It’s Your Turn!

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Peer Advantage – An Obvious Choice

Will peer advantage gain traction? Can it be as common to the business lexicon someday as Emotional Intelligence is today? The short answer is “yes.” Why? Because CEOs need peer advantage every bit as much as the cavemen needed the wheel. In a recent conversation with Miguel Dias, Founder and CEO of CEO World, he reminded me of the cartoon of the cavemen ignoring their peer’s offer to make their lives easier. While this cartoon is a “slightly altered” version of the original, it illustrates an important point.

It’s what every CEO peer advisory group leader must feel like when he or she reaches out to a CEO with a solution to a problem that too many CEOs don’t realize they have. And if most CEOs took just a minute from being “too busy,” they could be reminded that who you surround yourself with matters and, because it matters, CEOs and business leaders can help each other in ways they just won’t find anywhere else. In this fast-changing, complex world of ours, none of us should try to go it alone.

In the book, The Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth & Success, Vistage Chair Bob Dabic said that participating openly in a peer advisory group involves fighting off a caveman mentality and its 10,000 years of human conditioning. Today, too few people avail themselves of the myriad benefits of enlisting the support of their peers. Fortunately, the wheel became an everyday part of our lives. Sooner rather than later, so will peer advantage.

Taking Peer Advantage On The Road

When I discovered this image of the hitchhiker, I saw it as a metaphor for my new venture to take peer advantage on the road. It’s a twist on the African proverb, I guess: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, you’ll get there faster if someone gives you a ride.” None of us does it alone, and unless we all give each other a lift from time to time, we’re not likely to get very far and we certainly won’t get there fast.

Peer advantage is what CEOs and business leaders experience when they are more selective, strategic, and structured about how they engage their peers. It works because who you surround yourself with matters and, because of this, CEOs and business leaders can help each other in ways they just won’t find anywhere else. Despite how well it works though, not nearly enough of them engage their peers effectively. In a 2013 study at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, the data revealed that nearly two-thirds of CEOs don’t receive outside leadership advice. It also says that nearly all want it. So let’s show them how to get it!

On August 7th, I announced the expansion of the thought leadership initiative I started during my six-year tenure at Vistage Worldwide. My plan is to share “the boundless benefits of peer advantage” with business leaders across the globe. Why? Because of the difference I’ve seen it make in the lives of countless CEOs and business owners and, in turn, how they have helped their employees, families, and communities in the process. I simply want to call attention to what is undeniably effective and share it with the millions of leaders who are currently going it alone.

To do that, I’m going to need lots of rides along the way, and I’ll need you to give others a lift as well so we can spread the word together and reap the rewards peer advantage affords our society. Thanks to all of you who have hired me as a speaker, read my blog posts, listened to my podcasts, and shared the power of peer advantage on social media. There’s much more work to do. If you get a moment, have a look at the complete announcement and let me know what you think! As always, thanks for reading. Ideas welcome!

*Image from Huffingtonpost.com