CEO development lies at the heart of my practice. In any human endeavor, leadership is the means by which a business propels itself forward. CEO development lies at the heart of effective business leadership. 

I like to illustrate the CEO development process with an example from the realm of flight – the constant-speed propeller. Imagine a propeller with three blades, if you will: One blade is the workforce, one blade is the leadership team, and one blade is the CEO.

An ordinary fixed-pitch propeller is not very efficient in converting an aircraft engine’s power into thrust to propel the aircraft forward. Fixed-pitch propellers can have efficiencies as low as 50% at times. With a constant-speed propeller, gearing in the hub of the propeller and controls in the cockpit allow the pitch of the blades to be continually adjusted. This enables optimal performance during takeoff, climb, cruise, descent … and emergencies. Constant-speed propellers can achieve efficiencies as high as 85% – converting 85% of the power plant horsepower into forward thrust … propelling the aircraft and its passengers into the future.

How efficient is the typical business organization in converting its resources into thrust to propel the enterprise into the future? Is the CEO able to continually adjust the pitch of the three blades – workforce, leadership team, and CEO – to optimize thrust?

A closely related question to the core question – “How efficient is the typical business organization in converting its resources into thrust?” – is “What are those resources that create thrust?”

Quite simply, the horsepower to move an organization forward comes from its talent, its focus, its energy, its time, its opportunities, its processes, its creativity and ability to innovate, as well as its financial resources. Harnessing and optimizing those resources is the critical role of leadership … and that is why continual learning at the highest levels of the organization – combined with effective CEO development – is so absolutely necessary to long-term organizational success.

Here is the catch: Most “business propellers” are probably operating at 50% efficiency – or less – when they could be achieving 85% efficiency.  And here is the challenge.  Many business executives engage in a subtle self-deception caused by isolation and insulation

So, let’s cut through the bubble of isolation and insulation that surrounds executives by asking some hard questions:

 How effective are you at propelling yourself and your business into the future?

• How effective are you personally in harnessing your resources and converting them into thrust?
  • In personal development?
  • In your professional life?
  • In business development?

A final thought: The thorough self-reflection, careful preflight planning, and deliberate personal action that results from executive coaching will effectively harness your resources to propel you and your business into the future.

Copyright ©2014 by Executive Management Systems, Inc.

Dickinson State University partners with the Strom Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to offer a series of executive breakfast briefings. Outstanding leaders from throughout the region discuss their  insights on leadership best practices.

This article introduces three speakers from the March 2014 Strom Executive Briefing Series: Dean Gorder, Joe Rothschiller and Mel Nelson.

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Dean Gorder, Executive Director of the North Dakota Trade Office

Gorder brings to his position at the Trade Office extensive business experience in manufacturing, agriculture, aviation and education. Funded by the state and private businesses and headquartered in Fargo, the North Dakota Trade Office is a private-public partnership dedicated to expanding North Dakota’s global business footprint through education, research, advocacy and expertise.

Gorder’s job takes him around the world. In January alone he was in Ghana, Indonesia, Singapore and China. To trade internationally, according to Gorder, countries have to have two things: Need and disposable income. Gorder told the group, South Africa is a country that is on the move as economies there are getting stronger.

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Joe Rothschiller, COO and President of Steffes Corporation

In addition to his position with Steffes, Rothschiller has served as chair of the board of the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce. Steffes Corporation has developed manufacturing solutions for a number of industries and is recognized for being an innovative company that provides outstanding quality. The company employs 285 people and its sales have increased by 400 percent in the past four years.

Rothschiller addressed the topic: What makes one person’s role in the organization different from another’s and how that difference can be measured within an organization, across an industry and in different countries. Rothschiller illustrated the leadership model that Steffes has used with great success.

Mel Nelson, President and CEO, Executive Management Systems

Executive Management Systems provides organizational development for private and public organizations, emphasizing executive succession planning, leadership, individual and organizational development, responsibilities of governance and coaching emerging talent. Nelson has 30 years of corporate leadership experience in the telecommunications and electric energy industries.

His recent book, Building Bridges: Today’s decisions—gateway to your future, is about personal leadership that is anchored in strong values and supported by strong interpersonal relationships.

What are the characteristics that you believe every leader should possess?

Dean Gorder:  “Characteristics of leaders include courage, intellect, honesty, commitment and the ability to delegate. Leaders need to empower those around them and let go.”

Joe Rothschiller:  “Leaders need to identify their core values. Integrity, trust, safety, respect and teamwork are mine. Leaders must live and breathe these values every day.”

Mel Nelson: “Trustworthiness, integrity and character. Dishonesty, broken promises and narcissism destroy trust. Everything of value is built on trust.”

What is the biggest challenge facing leaders today?

DG:  “Simply the sheer amount of data. There is an incredible amount of data out there, but it is useless until you turn it into information.”

JR:  “Staying on top of their game. My favorite quote is ‘Leaders never stop trying to be qualified for their job.’ All leaders need to sharpen the saw.”

MN:  “For 21^st century leaders, it is living a life of integrity.”

What are the most important decisions you make as a leader of your organization?

DG:  “The most important decisions I make are two-fold: 1) What is my vision as a leader and how do I look just over the horizon while keeping a focus on points well into the future? 2) Who to hire and retain? It’s important to remember that diversity brings great benefits.”

JR:  “Most of my decisions focus around our strategic plan and succession planning.”

MN: “In calibrating your compass, what to use as your own ‘True North.’”

What is one mistake you witness leaders making more frequently than others?

DG: “Not listening.”

JR:  “They are afraid to hire someone smarter than they are and they are afraid to give up control in order to grow more manageably and profitably.”

MN:  “The biggest mistake leaders make is thinking that it is all about them. Also, emerging leaders need to know that the test comes first and the lesson after—life is different from school that way.”

What is the one behavior or trait that you have seen derail more leaders’ careers?

DG:  “Arrogance. It manifests itself in many ways. It may mean not taking other’s advice or the way that you view yourself.”

JR:  “Being a Type One leader or ‘what’s in it for me?’  If you talk and act like it is all about you, then you are dead in the water as a leader.”

MN:  “Hubris—that bubble of pride. The sense that they, as leaders, are untouchable. People forget that leadership is a privilege and they need to keep learning every day.”

Can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Maybe someone who has been a mentor to you? Why and how did this person impact your life?

JR: “Four mentors come to mind: Bob Stranik, a local business leader who has passed away, kept me focused on the basics of business—don’t get caught up in the wild stuff. Dennis Johnson, whose introvert style of leadership and visionary outlook to challenges I admire greatly. Paul Steffes, who helped me keep family in focus at a young age. And finally, my father, who I admired as a business person since early on in my life.”

MN: “My parents, my wife and my children. The payback is incredible when you invest your life in your kids.”

What are a few resources you would recommend to someone looking to gain insight into becoming a better leader?

DG:  “Read The Economist. It is as good as it gets and it is published in Europe, so it has a world view. I also read FastCompany—the editors and writers are very forward looking.”

JR:  “Read the book Good To Great by Jim Collins. Join a leadership group like Vistage International. In other words, network with leaders you admire and read about leadership any time you can.”

MN:  “Because integrity and humility are among the keys to success, I would recommend reading Integrity: The courage to meet the demands of reality by Henry Cloud and Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership by John Dickson.

What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?

DG:  “I turn to a quote by Jack Welch, ‘Before you become a leader it’s all about growing yourself. After you become a leader, it’s all about growing others.’ Attach yourself to a good mentor—someone that is solid and someone that you can trust. Build a strong network of peers, people in similar positions outside of your company.”

JR:  “Be patient and listen more than you speak, even if you think you have the answer. Network and learn as much as you can from the wisdom of great leaders. Never stop learning; read and educate yourself every day.”

MN: “Commit to life-long learning and take a look in the mirror every day. Call it a ‘check up from the neck up.’”

Think about it: A nation of distrusters does not bode well for the nation. Trust is a key to our social fabric and our nation’s proud heritage. As we lose trust, consider the cost: Collaboration suffers. Innovation takes longer and it is weaker. The cost of distrust compounds over time with the cost of lost opportunities, wasted time, and impeded progress. In any endeavor where trust is in shortly supply, momentum is far more difficult and more costly to achieve. The probability of failure is higher.

What has caused our loss of trust? Is it cynicism – reflected in our 24/7 coverage of news, with a focus on the negative content and the negative headlines we put on and in our news stories? Is it our loss of a collective moral compass and a shared moral backbone? Is it a breakdown in our social fabric – family, community, and business? Is it a result of the widespread loss of jobs, of a livelihood and a shift from stability in employment to a widespread, cutthroat business mentality? Is it because of technology destroying face-time and the building of meaningful relationships? Is it because of our accelerated, frantic pace of life? Is it because of a lack of focus on the core values that have made our country great? Is it because we have lost our sense of history, and an awareness of the integrity-based conduct on which our forefathers built this nation? Is it because we have lost a deep commitment to seeking, speaking and living truth?

Probably, it is a combination of all of these factors …

So, what are you and I going to do about it?

A Simple Formula for Trust

We can focus on living our lives as role models of trust-builders. I interviewed Wendell D. Herman, Vice President & Senior Trust Administrator of Wells Fargo Wealth Management. Wendell has been in wealth management for 39 years and has not only in-depth experience in trust management … but he also has in-depth experience in building trust.

His formula for earning trust is simple:

• Consistent performance over time.
• Responsiveness.
• Build relationships.
• Be intentional.
• Set direction.
• Communicate.
• Listen.

Although it is a simple formula, it takes personal discipline and a deep personal commitment to execute it well.

He tells a story of one client who came to him with a considerable portfolio to manage. She told him there were three reasons she chose him: “You don’t attend the same church I do, you are not a relative, and you are not a friend … So I can fire you whenever I want to.” After five years, she said, “I can’t fire you. You are now my friend.”

Think about it. If Wendell’s formula were replicated on a wide scale, would we be a nation of distrust? Or of trust?

By Mel Nelson, CEO

Developing trust is a critical leadership role and skill – one that continues to fascinate me. In recent weeks I had two conversations with two accomplished leaders on how they establish trust. Both of these leaders are men I respect and have known for many years, one a superintendent of public schools, the other a military commander.

As you read on, consider how different their two leadership spheres are … yet how critical it is to have trust in both: public education and the military. You might ask yourself what you can adapt to your situation as a leader to develop trust.

The first leader is a man I got to know through my kids in their early school days – Dr. Jeff Schatz. As a teacher, coach, principal and now superintendent of the largest school district in our state – he is a man I have come to know and respect not only as a friend, but also as an accomplished community leader. In a recent conversation, I asked Jeff what five things he felt were critical for a leader to develop trust. He responded:

• A demonstrated ability to do the work
• Willingness to take on the difficult
• Continually building a vision
• “I do what I say [I will do]“
• Totally engaged in communication (listening, sorting, dialoguing, making every effort to be very perceptive)

This approach is very effective and can be employed in other settings as well. It underscores the principle of leadership by example.

The other leader is a man I got to know through my two eldest sons in their high school and college days – Brig. General Bob Summers (ret.). As a father, husband, military leader, and colleague – he also is a man I have come to know and respect. In a recent conversation, I asked Bob what five things he felt were critical for a leader to develop trust. He responded:

• Set the mission for the team
• Set the vision with the team
• Clarify the team’s values
• Set the goals with the team
• Once the mission, vision, values and goals have been set, “stomp on the first person that steps out of line”

In an environment where people’s lives are on the line, this is a very effective way to build trust. It establishes team alignment and accountability at the outset, and the expectation that you can depend on your teammates and trust them with your very life.

This approach is also very effective – yet quite different – and can also be employed in other settings as well. Among other things, it underscores the principle that values are not values unless their violation is treated as a serious offense.

In conclusion, I would like to pose three questions:

• Is there wisdom in broadening your approach to developing trust?
• If so, which of these trust strategies might be useful to you?
• Which of these trust development strategies make you uncomfortable, yet may be exactly what you must do? 

Recently I had the opportunity to speak to a chapter of the FBI National Academy at their annual meeting. The audience was comprised of law enforcement executives and professionals who have completed an intensive ten-week program offered by the FBI to a very select group of law enforcement professionals.

The core values of the National Academy Associates are pretty straightforward: Knowledge. Courage. Integrity. Given these core values, a keynote address on the topic of “Integrity-Based Success” seemed very appropriate. The keynote drew heavily on the Building Bridges to the Future^® metaphor[1] and was followed by a three-hour workshop on emotional intelligence.

The keynote address zeroed in on the concept that integrity has to do with how well integrated we are in all areas of our lives, how well integrated our character is. We discussed the 4D Personal Leadership Model^© which combines EQ with TQ:

Sadly, as I watched that trust lived out, I was reminded of a story I had read shortly before that day. A father urged his young son to jump into his arms. When he jumped, his father let him fall, and said, “Let that be a lesson to you to never trust anyone.”

Even more sadly, recently I ran into a businessman whom I knew when he was a young boy growing up two doors down the street. As we visited over lunch, I sketched for him the business model BuildingBridges to the Future^® as a businessman he had never had a boss he could trust.

That father and those bosses were lacking in integrity. Without integrity, you cannot be trusted … nor will you trust.

Trust is a fundamental outcome in personal and business relationships, an outcome which results from a consistent pattern of integrity-driven behavior, an unswerving pattern of conduct over the long haul.

Integrity

In a day and age when we are surrounded by numerous examples of moral failure, a fundamental meltdown in the personal integrity of business leaders and politicians, it is refreshing to reflect on the basics, as noted in the values statement of the United States Air Force:

“Integrity is a character trait. It is the willingness to do what is right even when no one is looking. It is the moral compass, the inner voice, the voice of self-control and the basis for the trust imperative in today’s military. Integrity is the ability to hold together and properly regulate all of the elements of a personality. A person of integrity, for example, is capable of acting on conviction. A person of integrity can control impulses and appetites. But integrity also covers several other moral traits indispensable to national service (courage, honesty, responsibility, accountability, justice, openness, self respect, humility).”

The character trait of integrity also embraces honor. Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward in Launching a Leadership Revolution: Mastering the Five Levels of Influence point out that character and integrity, woven together, define honor. Jeff O’Leary, writing in The Centurion Principles defines honor as including “the virtues of integrity and honesty, self-denial, loyalty and a servant’s humility to those in authority above as well as a just and merciful heart to those below.”

Integrity is an asset that must be actively managed. It is not a constant. Integrity can be very quickly compromised if it is not given ongoing attention. “… we found that those rated high in integrity were also rated high on assertiveness … Those with high integrity were very effective at stepping forward and addressing difficult issues, confronting conflict, being direct, and facing up to difficult situations.”¹ Integrity takes a lifetime to build … and it can be lost in a heartbeat.

Trust

The very act of assertively, aggressively pursuing and managing one’s own integrity through personal behaviors is necessary to achieve trust relationships. This reality is captured in this graphic:

“Trust’s great value can be achieved only … where basic values are reinforced with concrete, measurable behavioral actions. Only then can organizations reach new heights in relationships.”²

Trustworthiness is a fundamental aspect of integrity. Webster defines trustworthy as “worthy of confidence, dependable, reliable.” Galford and Drapeau plumbed the depths of the concept of trustworthiness in their definition of trust:³

Please note that in this formula, trust is inversely proportional and business relationships, an outcome which results from a consistent pattern of integrity-driven behavior, an unswerving pattern of conduct over the long haul. Truly, trust and integrity are next of kin: trust is the offspring of integrity-driven behavior.

1 John H. Zenger & Joseph R. Folkman, The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders (New York: McGraw Hill, 2009) p. 178.

2 Paul R. Lawrence and Robert Porter Lynch, “Leadership and the Structure of Trust,”. The European Business Review, May-June 2011, p. 18.

3 Robert Galford and Anne Seibold Drapeau, The Trusted Leader (New York: Free Press, 2002).

Copyright 2013 Executive Management Systems, Inc.

Two of the features of the Mackinac Bridge which are visible from afar are the twin towers, reaching 525 feet from the waterline toward the heavens.

In Building Bridges to the Future®, a business model which uses this bridge as the fundamental metaphor to understand business, these towers represent relationships. The footings on which these towers are anchored are defined by personal integrity and personal awareness.

The towers and footings of the bridge support the suspension cables, which represent leadership in the metaphor.

Think about this for a minute … Leadership – to be effective – must be supported by strong relationships based on personal integrity and personal awareness.

Over the course of my career, I have found these three principles to be true:

• Principle #1: Strong and effective personal relationships are built on personal integrity and personal awareness (awareness of self and others, emotional intelligence);
• Principle #2: Personal integrity is the net sum of honesty and trustworthiness; and
• Principle #3: Personal awareness is the net sum of self-awareness + other-awareness

Let’s take a closer look at Principle #2. Webster defines “integrity” as: Firm adherence to a code of especially moral values.

For me, honesty and trustworthiness are the two primary twins that define integrity. Webster defines “trustworthy” as: Worthy of confidence, dependable, tried-and-true. “Honesty” can be defined as: Telling the truth. These two qualities are becoming scarce in all quarters in the 21st century … to our deep loss.

David Horsager (The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line) found that, in a study across all major industries, with 12,750 U.S. workers participating, “Companies with high trust levels generated total returns to shareholders at almost three times that of companies with low levels of trust.”

Stephen R. Covey, writing in the foreword to his son’s book, The Speed of Trust, compares trust to an aquifer that feeds innovation, collaboration, empowerment, in fact all strategic initiatives.

There are 41,000 miles of wire cable which have been “spun” into two 24½ inch-diameter cables to support the weight of the bridge spans – the road deck – and the traffic on the Mackinac Bridge. The coupling between the spans and the suspension cables is achieved through “suspender” cables, which are not visible from afar. But up close, it is very clear that they play a critical role in the function of the bridge.

These suspender cables are at the heart of the concept of Leadership that Connects.

While representing only 1,000 miles of steel wire in the bridge structure, where the suspension cables have 41,000 miles, it would be easy to overlook the importance of these gossamer-like connections which bind the operations and spans of the bridge to the suspension. Without this critical interaction and synergistic relationship between the suspension cables and suspender cables, the road deck will collapse. Which is more important: Suspension cables? Suspender cables? Both are equally important.

Leadership that Connects recognizes the need for critical interpersonal relationships, a strong unbroken linkage, to connect leadership with the front lines of a business enterprise. Where these interconnections permeate the organization, the linkage between leadership and bridge operations – the commerce, operations and lifeblood of the business – is strong.

Leadership that Connects reaches down from the lofty and heady heights of leadership to integrate the human element throughout the entire organization – from the customer to the board room.

The suspension cables that support the weight of the spans and traffic represent only 1% of the tonnage of the Mackinac Bridge. The suspender cables – at 1,000 miles – are approximately 2½% of the mass of the suspension cables … 0.025% of the mass of the bridge – only 25,000 tons of the 1,000,000 tons of components in the bridge, yet the suspension bridge spans and traffic will plunge into troubled waters without this critical element.

Leadership that Connects recognizes that what will never show up on the balance sheet or P&L statement – the strength of human relationships in an enterprise – will nevertheless have a very significant impact on the health and success of the enterprise.

Copyright © 2012 Executive Management Systems, Inc.