What are you thankful for? I am thankful for the opportunity to share my musings with a community committed to growing as leaders. Today I want to explore what it means to be outstanding. So, what is the genesis of outstanding performance? This is a common topic of discussion during many executive coaching sessions. Leaders often look for ways to promote outstanding performance in those they lead. This usually involves leaders trying to understand what distinguishes truly outstanding work from the rest. It also usually involves a desire to understand the spark that leads to outstanding performance. Several weeks ago, I had the honor to be the keynote speaker at the Virginia Jaycees Outstanding Young Virginians Dinner. This event is modeled after the U.S. Jaycees Outstanding Young Americans Award, and both have a long history of celebrating the accomplishments of extraordinary young people.
Last Tuesday, I was working at the polls, and I met a young father who had his son in tow. I remember doing the same thing when my children were little. This father believed that voting was important, and he wanted his son to understand that and to see him taking part in the electoral process. We talked for several minutes, and he said he had to get back to work. He was a restaurant manager, and he wanted to see if anyone who wanted to vote had done so prior to the polls closing. I commented on how great it is for organizations to recognize the importance of voting and give their employees time to exercise this precious right. He laughed and said, “It’s not a corporate policy. It’s mine.” He said he really didn’t have the authority to do things like that, but he felt it was important enough to bend the rules. His rationale made sense to me. All of his employees live within a few miles of the restaurant, and he asked them to vote before or after the lunch /dinner rushes. This act of civic engagement cost him almost nothing, but it meant a lot to his employees.
Thank goodness for the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Without it, parking might have become the next financial bubble to rock America. Last week I received an email from Parkmobile. They provide the service that allows consumers to use their smart phones to pay for parking at cities across America, rather than feeding parking meters. The email informed subscribers that the transaction fee they charge was increasing by nearly 40%, and the reason for this increase was… Wait for it. You guessed it – Dodd Frank. This law, which was intended to reign in Wall Street and prevent another financial crisis, has ensured that evil and greedy parkers around the country don’t bring down our economy with their reckless behavior.
Much of my work as an executive coach focuses on helping my clients deal with things that are broken, flawed, or just don’t work. This may be relationships, business processes, behaviors, etc. As human beings, we like it when things work, and we find ourselves unsettled when they don’t. Our natural reaction to things that don’t work is to fix them as quickly as possible. Now that I have stated the obvious, so what?
Several months ago, one of my executive leadership coaching clients started our session by venting his frustration about the state of politics in America. It is easy to share his frustration. As a resident of one of the “battleground” states in the upcoming election, I am overwhelmed by the volume of commercials and deeply disturbed by their universal lack of civility. Although I shared his feelings in general, I found myself surprised by the overarching conclusion he had drawn about the problem’s root cause. He stated emphatically, “The problem is principles!” When I asked him to elaborate, he said that he felt that in the name of principled leadership, politicians have become rigid and inflexible. “They are unwilling to cooperate, collaborate, or compromise.”
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Testimonials
Ph.D., Director, Gilliam Center for Free Enterprise and Ethical Leadership and Professor, Management Department, College of Business, James Madison University
Ph.D., Director, Gilliam Center for Free Enterprise and Ethical Leadership and Professor, Management Department, College of Business, James Madison University
President, AAISP – DC
P.Eng., President ACT Canada
President, Arneson Leadership Consulting
(Steve was named one of the country's Top 100 thought leaders on leadership in 2008, 2009 and 2010, and one of the Top 25 leadership coaches in America for 2008, 2009 and 2010 by Leadership Excellence magazine. )
Former Governor and Senator, Commonwealth of Virginia
EVP and CFO, Intersections, Inc.
(USN ret.), former POW
President, Financial Services, Capital One
CEO, Korea Exchange Bank
formerly management columnist at the FT, now Visiting Professor at the Cass Business School, London, and director of strategy at Edelman in the UK
former Commanding Officer, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, CVN-69, and recipient of the John Paul Jones 'Inspirational Leadership Award' from the Navy League of the US.
Professor Emeritus, Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia
Co-author Anytime Coaching: Unleashing Employee Performance Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins Carey Graduate School of Business
Bishop Emeritus of Richmond
Professor Emeritus, Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia.
Head Coach, Butler University Men’s Basketball Team
Managing Director, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management
Author of Be Your Own Coach, and On Becoming a Leadership Coach, and creator of the Georgetown University Leadership Coaching Program