THE FIGHT OF YOUR LIFE

MILLION DOLLAR LESSONS                      FOR TODAY’S LEADERS

    

Fellow Leader--

I love the month of June!  It marks the mid-point of our calendar year -- how are you doing 6-rounds into the year?  Many of you know, I am a big boxing fan, so for me it also represents a celebration of one of my favorite past-times -- The Florida Boxing Hall of Fame Weekend.  The weekend of events celebrates the greats of the sport and encourages young warriors.

So, this month's e-Mel is a throwback a good friend asked me to share -- one focused on lessons from the ring and how a leader can find him/herself TKO'd. 

Hope you enjoy a knockout month.
    

Here's a great fight film provides powerful lessons for leaders.

    “Instead of running from pain, 

   in boxing you step into it.” 

–F.X. Toole, Million Dollar Baby, 

7 Academy Award Nominations, 4 Oscars. 

Application:  What ‘pain’ have you been running from in your business?  You continue to run, but it’s still there!  What’s the issue you need to turnaround, face, and step into, head on?

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“You cannot call yourself an actor 

(or leader) if you’re not listening.”

– Morgan Freeman, on his role in Million Dollar Baby.

“Listening is everything.” 

– Hillary Swank

                                                                      

Application:  Do you believe listening is everything?  Do your actions support your belief?

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One of the peripheral characters in the movie, ‘Danger’ was a 100-pound weakling, misfit, lacking a firm grasp of reality; this individual had no/low skills, in fact ended up getting himself hurt badly, yet at the end there is a nice surprise... 

Application:  Do you have such peripheral characters in your organization?  Who’s the ‘Danger’ in your organization – they’re low skilled, lacking a grasp of reality, under-performing, yet have been allowed to malinger?  What steps will you take to address your ‘Danger’?

    Recently, one CEO quite indignantly shared,, “You think we’d invest in training and developing them!?”  He was referring to employees filling service roles within his Fortune 500 organization.  He continued, “Mel, it’s a low skill/low wage role.  It’s not critical.”  What this CEO failed to realize was it is this level of employee that has the most direct and profound interaction with his customers. 

    The point:  If you don’t want to invest in your ‘Dangers’, eliminate them from your team.  Remember the maxim, “We are only as strong as our weakest link.” 

    What significance do you think there is in the character’s name being ‘Danger’?  By not addressing the ‘Dangers’ in your organization, there’s a great cost in terms of time, dollars, and human resources.  So, who’s your ‘Danger’ and what are you going to do about it?

HOW CEO’S GET TKO’D

    It’s a common belief that CEOs get fired because of financial performance.  But that’s wrong, according to a study by Leadership IQ.  It found that 31% of CEOs get fired for mismanaging change, 28% for ignoring customers, 27% for tolerating low performers, 23% for denying reality, and 22% for too much talk and not enough action. 

    The 4-year study interviewed 1,087 board members from 286 public, private, business and health care organizations that fired, or otherwise forced out, their chief executive.

    Upon completing the 1,087 interviews, responses were compiled and distilled the most common answers to the open-ended question:  “So why did the CEO really get fired or forced out?”  The top five responses:

1. Mismanaging change (31%): Virtually every organization interviewed indicated they were undergoing, or had recently undergone, a change initiative.  However, half of board members said that their change initiative did not go well.  Most pointed to a failure on the CEOs part to properly motivate employees and managers, and more specifically, to adequately sell the need to change course.
2. Ignoring customers (28%):  Board members said their test for whether the CEO was sufficiently engaged in the business was the extent to which they evidenced intimate knowledge of customers, customer needs and developing trends. 
3. Tolerating low performers (27%):  Board members shared that when CEOs allowed an obvious low performer to linger (without any improvement or discipline) it destroyed the CEO’s credibility and made it politically difficult for them to hold others accountable. 
4. Denying Reality (23%):  When board members felt that they were closer to the market and customers than the CEO, the CEO was ousted.  Board members said they would rather have bad news and a plan to fix it, than they would no news or sugarcoated news.
5. Too much talk, not enough action (22%):  Walking the walk is more important than talking the talk.  Boards want tactical plans for the who, what, when and where, as well as evidence of implementation.