Ginny Wilson-Peters' Blog
Our University of Iowa MBA Leadership and Personal Development class was honored to hear from guest speaker Jim Israel last weekend. Jim is the President of John Deere Worldwide Financial Services Division. He shared his guidance for developing yourself, as a person and as a leader.
Jim Israel, President of John Deere Worldwide Financial Services Division, speaking with Univeristy of Iowa MBA students
1. Get out of your comfort zone. Your success will be how effective you can rally your team. “To be a good leader you don’t have to be an expert. I see myself as the offensive line clearing the way for others to run and pass the ball.”
If you ever get the opportunity to do something new, do it. “If we make 100% of our decisions right, then we’re not making enough decisions—or taking enough risks.”
2. If you have a chance to do a global assignment, do it. The world is a lot more similar than it is different. Our customers and dealers have very similar desires and concerns. It is also great to see the United States through another country’s lens.
3. Set a clear vision for your organization. Jim talked about the power of aligning his division around a common vision. But creating that vision is only the first step. Then you have to motivate, align and inspire the organization. “And motivation isn’t about pom-poms. I have seen some soft-spoken leaders drive people to do great things.” (Jim also joked that he, however, isn’t one of the soft-spoken ones.)
4. Stay true to your own style. Do what your passionate about And have fun! “Going to work shouldn’t be drudgery. If you don’t go to work everyday excited about what you do, go somewhere else.”
5. Do things the right way. And make sure your “say-do” ration is 100%. “It is equally important how you accomplish something as what you accomplish. ”
6. Communicate, communicate, communicate. You can’t over-communicate. You have to say things over and over. And people need different kinds of communication. “You also owe it to your people to talk about the bad news. People are afraid of what they don’t know. “ He talked about the credit crisis in 2008 and how they spent a great deal of time in straight talk with their people. Also, one of the most important parts of communication is listening. “Our greatest ideas come from people closest to our customers.”
7. Focus on developing talent. “The most important thing I do is get the right people in the right chairs.” Identify people who have potential and keep providing them with challenges. Stretch your high potential people. And remember for yourself not to focus on pay. “If you’re moving around alot, you’re going to be at the bottom of the pay grade a lot. Your pay will catch up with you. ”
8. Strive for work-life balance. Not only your own but for your people. “It used to be a badge of honor how many hours you worked.” But there are a lot of things in life you’ll never have the opportunity to get back. Work is a marathon, not a sprint. Take care of yourself, emotionally and physically. “I invite my grandkids to come and have lunch with me at work every couple of months.”
9. Give back to your community. Pay it forward.
Thanks Jim for these words and much more. And for providing a role model of authentic leadership for our class.
Posted in Balance, Communication, Global Leaders, Leadership Advice, Listening, MBA Class, Teams, Vision | No Comments »
Whether you call it work-life, or life-work, balance, the challenge remains the same: how do we juggle the priorities in life, especially when everything comes to us at once (and isn’t that usually how it happens)? Following is the prologue to an MBA student reflective paper submitted this summer. The student requested permission to submit the paper late. I told her that she could certainly take responsibility for making the choice whether to submit it late or not, however I reminded her that a late paper would receive a ten percent penalty. You will read about her choice.
“I’m turning in this paper late. Between class on Monday and my flight on Thursday, all three objects out of that life box came flying at me. The golf balls were work: My company announced second quarter earnings this week, and the hard golf balls were flying at me fast and furious all week. The marshmallows were family: I needed a baptism gift for my niece/soon to be God-daughter, and my husband asked me to visit him on RAGBRAI in Ottumwa “on my way” to the airport in Des Moines. Ottumwa is not on the way to Des Moines and a visit there would double my travel time and occupy my afternoon on a work day, and yet the marshmallow was thrown. The tennis ball was this paper. The metaphor fits because class is my extra-curricular, it’s fun for me, and it’s good for me just like physical exercise.
With so many objects flying at me, I thought about the inside-out approach you discussed in class and about the Warren Bennis quote in True North, “We have to be aware that we swing back and forth. It is choices all the time, not balance.” I connected with my intentions to help our company flourish and to be the best wife and aunt I can be, and I therefore chose to catch the golf balls and marshmallows. That meant the tennis ball dropped. I hope you don’t see it as any disrespect to you or the class. I knew I would eventually pick the ball up and try my best to serve an ace. But in the meantime, I was proud of myself for choosing to successfully catch the two things most important at that particular time. Had I tried to catch all three reactively, I likely would have failed across the board. Instead, I have a beautiful gift wrapped inside my suitcase, spent a great afternoon with my husband that I know he needed and appreciated, and the tennis ball now has my full, albeit tardy, attention.”
So, yes, the paper was submitted late and was docked the ten percent. However, it was also an excellent paper. And to be honest, I was THRILLED that the student made the choice she made.
Posted in Balance, MBA Class | 3 Comments »
“When we are seen by the heart we are seen for who we are. We are valued in our uniqueness by those who are able to see us in this way and we become able to know and value ourselves” Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom
A campfire in the center. A camp counselor playing a guitar. Counselors with names like Birch and Patches and Froggie. And a circle of girls belting out their favorite songs. Sitting in circle at Girl Scout camp is among my favorite childhood memories (yes, even better than the Girl Scout cookies). Many times we would march to the campfire and begin with a ritual to remind us of the sacred space we were entering.
My early memories of campfires were perhaps the seeds of my passion for sitting in circle with other women. Circles are certainly not unique to Girl Scout camp; women and men have been sitting in circle for centuries prior to my experience.
I will admit though that after my Girl Scout years, I went for many years without experiencing the positive support and energy of a circle of women. I grew up as the only girl in a family with three older brothers. In my twenties and early thirties I didn’t appreciate the value of connecting closely with other women. About ten years ago a friend gave me a book called “Circle of Stones: A Woman’s Journey to Herself” by Judith Duerk. It is a book about the power of women coming together in a circle. “How might your life have been different if there had been a place for you, a place for you to go to be with your mother, with your sisters and your aunts, with your grandmothers, and the great- and great-great-grandmothers, a place of women to go, to be, to return to, as woman? How might your life be different?”
Reading Circle of Stones re-ignited my earlier passion for circles. And I took action. Even before I left my previous job to start this company, I began inviting women to sit together monthly. Intuitively I knew that we were to sit in circles. Our first circles met in my living room and we created our own rules for coming together. Many of those early rules are in place today—and they are consistent with the guidelines put forth by others for creating circle as a sacred space. When we moved into my current office space, we continued to pull the chairs together and sit in circle. Building code doesn’t allow for a campfire at the center but we do have a place in the center with something representing each of the four elements: earth, fire, water and air.
Over the years I have had the privilege of creating leadership circles for hundreds of men and women. Why do people continue their commitment to these circles? Because the circle is a place where we can listen and learn and grow. Sarah, a woman in one of our leadership groups said the monthly meetings were “a place to breathe”. Another woman last week said the women’s leadership group is the one day a month that she most looks forward to coming to work.
If you’re not part of a circle right now, I encourage you to find one or create your own. Some websites and books to provide guidance are:
http://www.turningtooneanother.net/
The Millionth Circle by Jean Shinoda Bolin
Sacred Circles: A Guide To Creating Your Own Women’s Spirituality Group by Robin Deen Carnes and Sally Craig
Posted in Balance, Women in Leadership | No Comments »
“Balance is an engineering term that means you put the little weights on each side, and if you’re really a good person, you’ll come out equal. We have to be aware that we swing back and forth. It is choices all the time, not balance.” (Warren Bennis)
Work-life balance is an ongoing conversation we’re having in the MBA Leadership class I’m teaching right now. The students are working full-time and taking courses at nights and/or weekends. Ages range from mid twenties to mid forties, with the majority in their late twenties and thirties.
The topic of balance came up the first evening as our guest speaker shared his life story with great candor. At the end, one of the students commented, “I’m hearing stories from you and other CEOs about gaining success in your careers, but I’m concerned about whether it is truly possible to achieve professional success without undue sacrifice to our families.” And so the conversation began.
Following are three excerpts from the first reflective papers written by the students this week about the perceived struggle between balance and success:
Male student #1: “While I feel excited about the prospect of participating in any organization in a bigger & more strategic role, I also get a feeling that I will have to give up a significant part of my personal life to be able to succeed in that level. When I shared these thoughts with my group, I was pleasantly surprised to hear from everyone a similar willingness to stay lower in the organization as long as they are able to have more time with their families. As I’ve come to understand that leadership could be demonstrated at any position and at any time in my life, I am also starting to think – what if I am able to figure out who I really am and what I would really want to do, will I be able to, as True North explains, find the right role within an organization or even create an organization where I could be a better leader?”
Female Student #2: “It is scary to think that the majority of leaders/managers that I have heard speak, or those I have interacted with have only made it to where they are currently by sacrificing their home lives. I know that it was mentioned in class that there has been those who have succeeded at maintaining a balance, and learning more about their experiences and lives would be very interesting and I believe insightful. I just don’t want to be the one that ends up in the upper management/leadership position speaking in front of a group and have to be the one that is looking back at the work/life balance aspect of my career and stating once again that to get where I am today I had to sacrifice the home life.”
Male student #3: “I consider myself an extremely ambitious professional and my goal is to climb the company ladder as high as I can so I can influence the direction of an organization. That being said, I look at the life of a VP and above and aside from the prestige and financial compensation, there are very large downsides. There seems to be no way to adequately balance work and the demands of a family.”
In my years of teaching and consulting, I have yet to find a good answer to the question of work-life balance. I have concluded it is very much a personal choice. And making that choice requires a strong sense of who we are and a commitment to staying grounded.
In the book, “True North” Bill George and Peter Sims offer the following insight.
Finding Time for Yourself. It does not matter what you do, as long as you establish a routine that enables you to manage the stress in your life and gives you time to think clearly about life, work, and your personal issues.
Spiritual and Religious Practices. Understanding our role in the world by asking questions like “What is the meaning and purpose of my life?” or “Why am I here?” is the most personal and profound area of our leadership development.
What does it mean to live your life with integrity? Real integrity results from integrating all aspects of your life so that you are true to yourself in all settings. Think of your life like a house, with a bedroom for your personal life, a study for your professional life, a family room for your family, and a living room to share with your friends. Can you knock down the walls between those rooms and be the same person in each of them?
See also their website at http://www.truenorthleaders.com/ for more discussion and reflective questions.
“It that REALLY possible?” Two different coaching sessions led to two very similar conversations. In the course of discussing a job change I replied this back to a client, “So, what I’m hearing is that you want to be in a job where you feel energized and the work truly feeds your soul.” The reply was a hesitant question, “Yes, but is that really possible?”
The second client is in the process of taking on a new leadership role in the organization. “For the first time in years, I am truly excited about the work I’m doing. I found myself wondering if it is really possible to love the work we’re doing AND get paid for it.”
Two people with the same question: “Is it really possible to find work that allows us to use feel energized while using our strengths?” My answer is an absolute YES, it is not only possible to be doing work that feeds our hearts and souls, but it’s what life is about.
My heart aches when I hear people talk about staying in jobs that are not fulfilling. Some might say that the tough economy makes for a difficult time to truly work in your passion. I say the opposite. Why not take these times to truly get clarity about what is important for you? What do you look forward to doing every day? Do you tap into your strengths every day at work?
Research by the Gallop Institute and Marcus Buckingham says that 51% of people say that they feel an emotional high at work “about once a week.” The key is identifying your strengths and putting them to work every day. Here are the four indicators that you’re working in the arena of your strengths:
When you do it, you feel effective.
Before you do it, you look forward to it.
While you do it, you feel inquisitive and focused.
After you’ve done it, you feel fulfilled authentic.
(The above is from “Go Put Your Strengths to Work” by Marcus Buckingham. For more about the strengths work, go to http://www.strengthsfinder.com )
“Ma’am, most people at least slow down a bit when they pass me.” Those were the first words out of the mouth of the highway patrol officer. His next were, “I clocked you at 79 in a 65 mph zone. Can I have your license, please?”
Erin and I were driving in my new car from the Quad Cities to Iowa City for a conference. We were chatting and I was enjoying the ride—so much so that I neglected to slow down when the speed limit changed. And, as the officer pointed out, I even went flying by him without really even noticing he was there. I imagine that was what iced the cake to ensure that he’d be writing a ticket instead of a warning.
As for me, I offered no resistance. Erin gave it a shot when she smiled and said lightly, “Yeah, this is a new car for her; I guess she just hasn’t gotten a feel for it yet.” (Nice try Erin, thank you.) No resistance—and not really any anger on my part. I had been speeding and I got caught. Not much argument to it.
“Everything that is coming into your life; you’re attracting” (The Secret by Rhonda Byrne). And since I wholeheartedly agree with that statement, I asked myself how I had attracted a speeding ticket into my life. No, I wasn’t thinking “Boy, I hope I get a speeding ticket” or “Boy, I hope I don’t get a speeding ticket.” This was at a much deeper level. A good friend offered her perspective when she suggested that maybe I had been operating on overdrive for quite awhile and I unconsciously attracted someone into my life to give me a wake-up call and slow me down.” Yes indeed—that was it!
You see, the law of attraction isn’t just about creating what we want in the future. It is also about our willingness to stop at look at the way life is showing up for us and asking, “Hmm, what am I unconsciously doing that is creating these results?” And if you can’t answer that question yourself then find a good friend like I did to help you with the answer.
Posted in Balance | 1 Comment »
