A Colonial Retreat with CEOs

We've discovered the perfect recipe for a CEO retreat. It involves four inches of rain, tri-cornered hats and 40 association executives ready to wrestle with big questions.

Earlier this week, I spent two days with a small group of CEOs and leaders from some of Virginia's best associations -- as well as some private industry leaders -- at the Virginia Society of Association Executive's annual CEO Retreat at the Williamsburg Inn in Colonial Williamsburg. A steady, and sometimes torrential, rainfall kept everyone focused on the discussions at hand. And the colonial setting made conversations about revolution feel entirely appropriate.

The idea of blowing up small things -- governance structures, approaches to leadership, programs, membership dues -- came up throughout our time together.

Which made me wonder why so many organizations are reluctant to carve out time to analyze, deconstruct and rebuild key parts of what they do. Everyone in the room intuitively understood the organizational evolution from start-up to growth to maturity to decline -- and the critical importance of reevaluating and reviving before you hit the peak of the S-curve. (Or blowing things up and starting anew.) It's lighting the proverbial fuse that makes people nervous.

As conversations continued, I was heartened to hear a shift in thinking as the ideas began to move toward commitments:

  • To explore dramatic reductions in the size of boards to increase organizational agility
  • To eliminate oversized events and replace them with more topical and targeted programming
  • To ignite new leadership opportunities for employees and members
  • To focus on member value at both an emotional and practical level

It's not easy running an association in 2014. Technology, economics, demographics and other critical factors have made everyone's work a little more challenging. Associations have the added struggle of being seen as a "nice to have" for many individuals and organizations who didn't question the value of their membership a generation ago.

It puts the burden squarely on association executives to continue asking important questions about value and relevance -- and periodically getting out of the conversational vacuum to explore change with their peers. Or, heaven forbid, with their members.

FEED Me, SeyMORE.

Wednesday, August 27th I met at FeedMore in Richmond with other like-minded young professionals. HYPE (Helping Young Professionals Engage) sponsored a lunch time event where we listened as Douglas Pick, CEO of FeedMore Richmond, and Dominic Barrett, Director of Shalom Farms, discuss food, healthy food and how to get good, healthy food to those who need it. It was an enlightening event. 

FeedMore

First off, FeedMore Richmond is an all compassing group containing Meals on Wheels, the Food Bank, and the Community Kitchen, where they prepare all the meals in house. They provide food to thirty-five counties and five cities, all the way into North Carolina. Their goal is clear: empower lives and provide a healthy community through collaboration and leadership. This is very necessary. According to Barrett 75% of children need assisted lunch programs.

At Shalom Farms they work hard to battle local hunger. Through their volunteer farm, located in Goochland, they help produce food for the local food bank and work with Bon Secours on food prescription programs. Anyone can volunteer to help, with a friend or group. After the talk and tour I am motivated to volunteer to help the ongoing battle against hunger, but most of all I am brightened by the love, consideration, and passion that encapsulates everyone that knows the need and does not falter to help.

The FeedMore food bank that we toured.

The FeedMore food bank that we toured.

Not an Oxymoron: Outgoing Introverts

Our friend Trey Hartt, Head Development Dude at local non-profit ART 180, recently shared a link to this article: "19 Struggles of Having an Outgoing Personality But Actually Being Introverted."

We love this for a couple of reasons: It accurately describes about half of the Floricane team (in my opinion, at least!), and it highlights the fact that a huge number of us feel like we fall somewhere in between extreme introversion and extreme extraversion. It's not all black and white, folks.

It's no secret we value self-awareness here at Floricane, which is why we offer Insights® Discovery introductory workshops every few months. It's definitely our most popular public workshop. Sign up for the September 11th full-day session, and see what the fuss is all about!

Photos from SHOP CLASS 2014!

[Photography by Ansel Olsen]

SHOP CLASS RVA was revived this past August, and three new (free!) one-time-only classes were offered at the Marvin Lang Building and Studio Two Three. John and I were two of the organizers this year, along with Lauren Boynton, Peter Fraser, Ansel Olsen, and Lauren Stewart. We had a blast!

Click through the gallery to see photos from the entire 2014 series, including:

The Glorification of Busy

Glorification of Busy Floricane

I saw this quote floating through the internet a few months back, and it's stuck with me ever since. The quote, by Guy Kawasaki, is from this HuffPo article promoting Arianna Huffington's book Thrive. Guy says the two main metrics for success in our society are money and power, which can lead to a culture of over-worked, over-stressed, and downright busy people. A third metric, according to Arianna Huffington, should be to thrive-- taking care of yourself, slowing down, and not letting your entire world revolve around work.

“There’s no place on your resume to put ‘I said no to [some great opportunity] so I could cook dinner with my girlfriend in the evenings.’”

I haven't read the book, but I've been thinking about this idea a lot lately. Especially for young professionals like me (whoa, I've never called myself that before), staying busy is simply expected. There's no place on your resume to put "I said no to [some great opportunity] so I could cook dinner with my girlfriend in the evenings." Full-time work, professional associations, volunteer work, networking, clubs... We're sort of led to believe the more you can pack into your schedule, the better. At one point I even felt it was necessary to have a part-time job on top of my full-time job at Floricane. What was I thinking? 

I should put Downton Abbey GIFs in all of my blog posts from now on.

I should put Downton Abbey GIFs in all of my blog posts from now on.

Here's what I think is important: don't get so burned out being *busy* that you can't dedicate yourself fully to the important things. Maybe turn your phone off. Say "thanks, but no thanks" sometimes. And when you do say yes to extra commitments, make sure it's for something that you truly care about and to which you're happy to give your time and energy.

Side note: I recently decided to take an indefinite break from what was basically a full-time hobby (competitive roller derby), and while it was a tough decision to make, the time that it's freed up in my life has been the hugest gift (I actually get to see my girlfriend now! Hi, Samantha!).

Ice Cream Leadership (and other tips to create great employees)

A recent Inc.com piece describes 10 characteristics and behaviors of truly great employees – and what managers can do to enable or catalyze engagement by employees. Referencing Jim Collins’ seminal work, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't,” the piece is full of common sense. And hard work.

Finding that special employee who walks onto the job ready to dive in, learn and contribute is not easy. We’ve been working with several clients recently who realize the value of finding the right people the first time, and of supporting them from the get-go. Walking clients through the day-to-day activities of their key roles to craft clearer job descriptions; getting past the competencies and into discussions about attitudes; crafting developmental programs that help new employees grow – these are a few things we’ve done with our partners.

But I continue to point to our old friends at Gelati Celesti’s “Building A Great Culture” work as a simple, but powerful, model for finding, growing and keeping great people. They not only captured the characteristics of their best employees, but they also mapped out specific expectations every employee should have of the Gelati Celesti management team. The question owner Steve Rosser asked? “How do we treat every employee like gold?”

It’s a question each of us should ask more. Acting on the answers is equally important.

The Inc.com piece illustrates ten ways great employees show up, and great organizations support them:

  • If you want employees who are enthusiastic to learn about all areas of your organization, create opportunities for them to engage in and learn about all areas of the organization. Make it part of their schedule, and talk to them about what they’re learning.
  • If you want employees who treat the company like it is theirs, and make good decisions about resources, be more transparent about your financials – and explain how the business makes, and loses, money.
  • If you want employees who generate happiness as they go about their work, create an environment where they can express themselves – and encourage them to chase their dreams and passions.

The last item hits home – facilitate amazing bosses. Amazing employees help their managers grow. I see it every single day at Floricane. My employees, my teammates, make me want to run a better business, be a better boss, and contribute more to their success. Because they come to work with high standards, I want to do better work. As a result, we all do better work.

Cultivating New Leaders

Clarity and focus doesn’t always come.png

Organizations are in the midst of a “leadership drought” right now. The smart ones are starting to do a rain dance.

The leadership drought that we see with our clients and partners in the community is not just a question of demographics, but also one of development.

Starting with the recession in 2009, an ever-increasing wave of Baby Boomers began exiting our organizations. Initially, they were the unfortunate victims of corporate downsizing. More recently, as their retirement investments stabilized and their own clocks have started ticking more loudly, they are simply retiring.

In their wake, they are leaving our organizations with younger leaders who have less experience, less context and less confidence in their ability to lead. This is all happening at a time when our organizations have had significantly less capacity – time and money – to invest in the professional development of new managers and leaders.

Why does this matter? Because these young leaders are the emotional thermostat of your organization – we know that they have a 70-80% influence on the climate of their teams (and that climate has a 20-25% impact on the team’s results). If they are struggling, your organization will be struggling. 

That’s why we’re launching a series of new programs at Floricane this year:

  • The Leadership Circle: We’re excited to be able to launch our new program with two cohorts of leaders, who will come together monthly for facilitated, small group discussions led by our executive coaches. The Leadership Circle is designed for peer-to-peer exploration of challenges shared by leaders who often lack a place to turn inside their organizations to diagnose and discuss their work.

 

  • Management Series: Our new five-part workshop series will provide managers and supervisors with a core set of skills that are critical to their long-term success – effective communication, performance management, team assessment, giving and receiving feedback, and more. Each monthly session will be a deep dive into a critical management learning topic.

 

  • Custom Leadership Development Programs: In September, we’ll be start promoting a five-month leadership development program for emerging leaders in Chesterfield County. Designed with the team at the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce, the program will combine leadership development with a healthy dose of Chesterfield 101. We’re designing three similar programs for other clients to launch in 2015.