In every company, there is a constant evolution of change and development. New ideas, new approaches, and new emerging leaders. Emerging leaders are the future of companies. They are the ones facing the future head-on, and challenging the company to determine if the organization is ready.

As a member of the C-Suite and executive leadership team, how do you spot these rising stars and harness their skills and ideas? What signs can you watch for to know who has senior leadership potential?

 

10 Signs

1. Value Quality Work in Every Task

Getting the job done is not a tactical task for an emerging leader. Getting the job done right and achieving the tasks objectives and moving the company forward is more important than just getting it done. If getting the job done does not get the desired results, then the task should be reassessed and adjusted to achieve the goals; hence the task has a purpose that should be fulfilled.

2. Decisive

Make a decision and choose a direction. Emerging leaders know what they want and they make choices that align with their needs and future ambitions. They do not live on a teeter-totter in decision making. They have clarity with their direction and can, therefore, make choices for how to achieve their goals.

3. Fearless

No fear of stepping into new territory and going beyond their comfort zone. Emerging leaders fear a lack of movement more than they fear the what-ifs of moving into the unknown. They look beyond the obstacles and they see what could be.

4. Self – Directed

Create projects and actions to accomplish goals. They do not require substantial details and directions to accomplish their goals. They thrive in environments where there are vision and goals but are given the autonomy to create their way.

5. Desire to be Challenged in their Work

Emerging leaders are not comfortable being too comfortable. They are not interested in riding the wave of auto-pilot, as they experience boredom and restlessness. They have an internal desire to grow, develop, and make an impact. To do all this, they must be challenged and push boundaries to move themselves and their role forward. Emerging leaders get energized and motivated by projects and initiatives where they can learn and grow.   

6. Want Input and Feedback on their Performance

Emerging leaders want to know how they’re doing. They request feedback and are quick to modify their behavior in response. With a desire to continuously improve, emerging leaders seek out input on their performance and on their work.

7. Adaptable

Will shift and change as needed, or as the situation requires. If something is working, great – if something is not, they will question it and make a change. Their desire for growth and development puts them into a mindset of possibility, which leads to great adaptability when needed.

8. Make Offers

Emerging leaders pay attention to their surroundings and make offers when they see opportunities. They are not afraid to take the lead on projects and initiatives, and often volunteer to join or lead.  They present ideas that provide solutions that put people into action.

9. Agents of Change & Disruptors

Open to embracing change when it’s needed. Emerging leaders are about growth and development, which often means questioning and challenging the status quo when something is not working or when they see the possibility for another, more effective way. They are agents of change and disruptors.

They would like to discard the phrase “this is how we’ve always done it”. Emerging leaders do not believe that the past must dictate the future. They offer insights and new approaches, and they are not afraid to rock the boat.

10. Pay Attention to the Marketplace

They look beyond the company to the industry at large. Industries shift and evolve to make room for new technologies, approaches to business, and new products. Emerging leaders are paying attention to the bigger conversation happening to see what is trending and changing in the external environment. They have an intentional listening strategy, where they are paying attention to the bigger picture.

 

Leadership Challenge:

How many Emerging Leaders can you spot in your organization?

Now design a development plan for each of them to support your company’s future!

For leaders who are striving to differentiate their business by providing extraordinary experiences, this book is a must read!

The book provides quality insights about how to design “Defining Moments” that are the foundation of delivering an extraordinary experience.

The book defines a “Defining Moment” as a short experience that is both memorable and meaningful with four elements:

1. Elevation: a moment where you feel delight and awe
2. Insight: a moment of clarity and awareness
3. Pride: a moment of achievement or courage
4. Connection: a moment of social bonding with others

This book is packed with great examples of ways that organizations can design and harness “The Power of Moments” to WOW!! your staff and your clients.

In the book, Chip and Dan outline the importance of designing “Moments of Celebration” for staff when key milestones such as promotions, new business, or finding unique solutions to issues occur. Celebrations provide an opportunity for the company to bond and connect over wins and accomplishments.

Awareness of the importance of recognizing these moments are often part of what makes a great leader, great. Taking the time to appreciate your staff for key milestones being achieved provides the foundation for deepening relationships of trust. These moments show the human side of leadership and tell your staff that you truly care about them.

The Power of Moments

 

Challenge:

Where can you create “Defining Moments” within your organization?

 

It’s lonely at the top. Everyone says it because it can be very true.

You’re in a position of power, with everyone below you looking to you for guidance and direction. It is understandable that, according to a survey by RHR International, half of all CEOs report feeling lonely in their roles. In this group, 61% believe isolation hinders their performance. With over half of CEOs believing that isolation leads to lower performance, it makes you wonder why more CEOs don’t reach out for support.

In November 2017, two prominent CEOS in Alberta took their lives due to the pressures of overwhelming levels of stress that caused them to feel hopeless and powerless in their future.

As a CEO, it is a given that you will feel alone and at times be alone; this is the nature of being at the top of the heap. You are constantly stepping into the unknown and taking others into the unknown while playing a big game. You are guiding the vision, ensuring workability, and managing the high-stakes emotions that come with the stress of uncertainty and the what-ifs of big impactful decisions.

Your isolation begs the need for structures and practices to be developed and built into your world – the C-Suite world. Structures and practices provide a support system the C-Suite can depend on and trust when there is no one else who can relate or understand.

Creating a space and network for unfiltered, unbiased, and very real conversation is vital in the C-Suite.

Being perceived as weak, incompetent, or lacking in confidence for the future are all reasons why many C-Suite leaders keep concerns, issues, and problems to themselves. Bottling this all up internally creates a breeding ground for the development of unhealthy and sometimes detrimental coping mechanisms such as drinking, drugs, extramarital affairs, and unethical behavior, all triggered from the feeling of being alone with no one to turn to when things get tough.

Having external advisors is important for a sounding board to get real, unbiased feedback outside of the CEO bubble of appeasement.  External advisors provide a space where you can say, “I’m scared”, “I feel alone”, “I don’t know what to do”, without the risk of the perception of looking like a failure or being incompetent.

Structures such as a Psychologist, leadership or business coach, advisors (external to the company and preferably another industry), exercise routines, and mental practices for internal clarity are all healthy coping mechanisms for the stress inherent to the C-Suite.

Without structures in place, it is easy to fall into unhealthy coping mechanisms that have undesirable consequences.

Healthy Support Structures:

• Leadership/business coach
• Psychologist
• Mental practices (meditation, visualization)
• Exercise routine
• Self-reflection
• 3^rd party advisors (fellow colleagues who understand your role and who provide a safe place to be vulnerable and open. No judgment and confidentiality).

As a CEO you are playing a big game and committed to taking your team into the unknown where uncertainty is everywhere. It is important to be clear about your vision (where you are taking your team), understand and know how to manage your emotions (ability to manage and handle stress and uncertainty in a healthy way), maintain daily practices (to keep you grounded), and create support structures to ensure workability (people, processes, practices, tools) for a successful future.

 

Some resources:

How to Deal With Loneliness

How to Fight Isolation

As we begin 2018, now is a great time to review or create your Corporate Listening Strategy.

CEOs shape the listening in their organization.

Here are some questions for you to think about this week:

• What can you hear in your organization?
• What conversations are happening?
• What are you listening for? Is there workability, gaps, results?

Taking time to sit down and answer these questions honestly could make a world of difference in your business

What is real learning? As children, we are taught in classrooms through books and lectures, then expected to obtain the skills taught and apply them to our lives and our jobs.

While traditional learning may lead to increased knowledge and new skills, it does not usually lead to changes in behaviors, mindsets, and new ways of doing things (innovation). It is through real-life, on-the-court experiences that real learning truly occurs; learning that has the power to reshape organizations and individuals.

 

We have moved from a learning paradigm of:

(Read Information – Acquire Knowledge – Apply Knowledge) To (On the Court Experiences – Reflection on Experiences – Apply Lessons Learned)

While there is value to acquiring knowledge and new skills, on-the-court learning experiences tend to have a stronger and more lasting impact on new behaviors and new mindset because you have first-hand experience.

 

What does Real Learning on the court look like?

1. It is messy, painful, unpredictable and joyful

Real learning is just that – it is real and emotional. Everyone always says that they learned the most from their biggest mistakes. When things don’t go the way you had intended, that’s when you tend to see the gaps and what’s missing. Many leaders do not properly prepare their teams and their organizations for transitions and changes that occur within the organization; therefore, uncontrolled chaos ensues. Change by its very nature is disruptive and chaotic. It is important to understand the challenges that will be present and communicate how to deal with them and provide support structures.

2. Being Open

Be open to seeing beyond any irritation, tension or conflict to see what the breakdown (conflict, tension) is disclosing/revealing. Rather than dwelling on what’s wrong and who’s to blame, try asking yourself a simple question – what is missing – a conversation, skill, commitment, support structure?

• I am open to not knowing (willing to receive feedback)
• I am open to an inquiry (reflection, considering a different way, being challenged)
• I am open to a possibility (new ways of thinking and being)

3. Willing to Let Go

What am I willing to let go of so I can focus on what really moves the business forward?

Living in a mindset of excellence and redefining your relationship to mistakes.

• From a mindset of Perfection – Mistakes = failure (major breakdown)
• From a mindset of Excellence – Mistakes = stepping stones to move forward (new learning)

When you have a mindset where mistakes are simply part of the process and expected, you can view them as opportunities to learn more and growth rather than get frustrated by them.

Top 5 Reasons the C-Suite Struggles to “Let Go”

• Fear – Worrying about what might happen
• Habits – Old ways of leading – command and control vs inspire and enroll
• Emotions – Anger vs choose to be curious – what is this experience showing me about myself that I don’t want to look at?
• Narrow-Mindedness – Being right or a need to be right
• Status/Position – My point of view/my opinion matters most

4. Willing to take Risks and Embrace Risk

Be courageous in conversations and actions to support a new future possibility. The future belongs to those who say and do what others are too scared to say and do; those who take bold actions will create the future by moving forward.

5. Willing to be Vulnerable

As a leader, especially in the C-Suite, speaking to your fears and uncertainties can feel quite intimidating, but vulnerability is where real power in the boardroom lies. Being able to say “I am afraid/scared” or “I don’t know how to handle the situation” opens the door for support and your team to provide ideas and insights for solving challenges.

6. Embrace Breakdowns to Create Breakthroughs

Breakdowns are formed from the frustration that comes from not getting the results desired. When the desired results are not achieved, an environment of tension, conflict, miscommunication, blame and irritation become present and lead to high emotions and less constructive conversation. When you embrace a breakdown (rather than let it tear you down) and see it as a learning opportunity, you can deflate the high emotions and energy, and find your way to a breakthrough by taking Responsibility for your part in the breakdown, being curious rather than angry (asking what’s missing), and being courageous through conversations of action that lead to action.

7. Embrace 1^st Person Learning

There are 3 types of learning: 3^rd person (obtaining knowledge), 2^nd person (direct experience) and 1^st person (on-the -court experiences).

First person learning is real learning; where you reflect on “on-the-court” experiences and capture lessons learned to move forward. You embrace raw learning when you are “living and experiencing” the learning.

8. Embrace Being in a Learning Community

Learning in a community means to learn with and around others. When you embrace a learning community, you are embracing open dialogue, being open to new ideas and thoughts, being held accountable, being challenged, and hearing and responding to others’ opinions

When you embrace “real learning” you are embracing the opportunity for real change.

 “I can’t tell you how many business leaders I meet, how many organizations I visit, that espouse the virtues of innovation and creativity. Yet so many of these same leaders and organizations live in fear of mistakes, missteps and disappointments – which is why they have so little innovation and creativity. If you’re not prepared to fail, you’re not prepared to learn.”

“There is no learning without failing, there are no successes without setback.”

• Harvard Business Review – “How Coca-Cola, Netflix, and Amazon Learn from Failure” by Bill Taylor

 

Leadership Challenge:

Ask your team for some real feedback on your leadership and the leadership of the organization and be open to the real learning that comes from the discussion.

 

When leaders embrace paradoxes, greatness follows.

Great leaders need a malleable mindset that can embrace paradoxes in thinking. Over the past year I have experienced many paradoxes throughout the growth and development of my own team, and seen them with many clients.

The balance between humility and going-it-alone confidence is an area of struggle for many C-Suite leaders. The insatiable belief that the C-Suite “have to know it all” leads many leaders to the idea that there is no middle ground between group contributions and making independent decisions. The more the Awesome Journey teams grows, the more I see the value and distinction between the two and how each benefits the company.

Innovation and operational excellence is another area commonly seen as one or the other. How does a company foster and encourage an innovative culture while still maintaining operational excellence in day to day operations?

An excellent example of a CEO who has embraced paradoxes through the mindset of “And/Both” is Suzanne West, as seen her in her TEDx talk “The Power of AND”

In the Harvard Business Review article, “Both/And” Leadership, it speaks to paradoxical leadership requiring managing today while preparing for tomorrow, maintaining boundaries versus the need to cross them in the quest for innovation, and how to create real value while also keeping shareholders happy through monetary means. The ability to align and connect separate opposing forces is how companies create a culture of and/both (opens possibilities) versus either/or (closing the potential for possibilities).

Common Paradoxes:

Leadership Challenge:

Which leadership paradoxes do you embrace and which ones could you embrace to continue your leadership journey?

Innovation is a powerful, but often overused word and concept. Every company strives for innovation, but few truly understand how to create a culture that drives it.

In my 20 plus years of experience with industry-leading companies and leaders, I have found that innovation does not just happen, it is intentionally designed and nurtured to grow in a company. Innovation requires intentionality and design.

Over the years I have supported companies that are truly innovative and what I see is a culture where individuals feel safe to speak their mind, and an openness within the team to embrace tension and conflict and learn from it.

As companies make it safer for their staff to share their ideas and to learn from their mistakes, innovation will shine through. New ideas & insights will emerge creating an “Innovation Mindset” within the company.

In a great video called, Why Your Organization Isn’t Really Serious About Innovation, global innovation expert, Gary Hamel, speaks to the competitive advantages a company gains through innovation and the 3 key questions that all frontline staff need to answer to see how truly serious your company is about developing a “Culture of Innovation”.

Is your company serious about innovation? Ask these 3 key questions to your frontline staff:

1. Have you been given training on how to be a business innovator?

Frontline staff do not automatically know how to be innovators. Training and a listening strategy is needed to capture possibilities.

2. Do you have access to experimental funding?

Do frontline staff have access to time outside their daily responsibilities and money to experiment for innovation?

3. Is management held accountable for innovation by measurable metrics?

If you are serious about building a culture of innovation, there must be systems in place for tracking and measuring innovation within the organization.

 

Your Challenge:

Answer the 3 Gary Hamel questions to see how serious your company is about innovation. Determine a new conversation you could start with your staff to begin developing a “Culture of Innovation”?

What does being mentally tough mean? What is a mentally tough leader and why is it important to long-term success?

Mental toughness in business is the same as mental toughness in professional sports. You need to be able to manage the good, great and inspirational days with the bad, terrible or disastrous days – and not give up.

Leaders in the C- Suite are constantly faced with a variety of internal and external challenges that require the ability to access mental toughness with mindsets of perseverance and determination to support them as they lead their organizations through downturns, business growth and risk, team or client conflicts, and controlling the emotions and stress that come with negotiating a large strategic business deal.

When emotions are running high, you need to be able to bring yourself and your organization back to stable ground and find solutions to move forward.

 

Top 6 Practices to Being Mentally Tough:

Focus combined with a solid game plan and key measurables are great starting points for practicing the art of mental focus. When you have a plan and targets, you have something to focus on. As an athlete, when you are focused you can be very self-aware of what your body is telling you during training and live performances so you can make adjustments in the moment and not be distracted.

Be an observer (look, listen and sense) of your surroundings so you can learn to focus on what is important versus what is noise.

Self-Talk is a very powerful tool. Self-talk are the internal conversations you have with yourself all day and therefore the most powerful messages you receive. Self-talk, whether positive or negative, can highly affect your mindset and performance. Self-talk is the biggest influence on your mindset and perception of your world experiences.

Being aware of negative self-talk can help you to shift your mindset to positive self-talk.

Mental practices are used as a form of visualization practice. Mental practice involves creating images in your mind where you experience your performance before it is created. You imagine how it looks, feels, feels and tastes in the visualization

Developing a deep breathing practice is also a mental practice as it can increase your quality of attention/concentration.

Trust is very important in mental toughness. You need to trust your support team and be open to their feedback and their teachings. This creates trust within the team and allows for different perspectives and ideas to come to the surface. Trust that your training program and performance preparation has sufficiently prepared you for success; this breeds confidence in yourself and your process.

Plan for challenging scenarios to be present and create contingency plans so that you are mentally prepared to deal with them in the moment. This will help to alleviate unnecessary stress.

Embrace setbacks and learn to capture what the experience is teaching you. Learn to view all setbacks as an opportunity to learn, rather than a frustration. This practice will reduce stress and move you forward, rather than keeping you locked in the past.

For example, when a project is faced with many challenges, change your state of mind quickly by leveraging the Power of a Pause – 5 deep breathes and ask yourself this empowering question – “Is this a threat or opportunity”. This mindset shift will provide an opening for new thoughts ideas and solutions.

De-brief every performance by asking yourself:

• What went well?
• What do I need to improve?
• What do I need to stop doing?

Challenge your comfort zone by being bold and doing something that makes pushes your boundaries and takes you into new ways of being (new behaviors, new thoughts, new mindsets, new actions). Greatness tends to lie just outside of most people’s comfort zone. Be open and willing to explore new experiences and challenge your current mindsets.

Great leaders understand the power of mental toughness and when to access it. Professional athletes also rely on mental toughness to achieve their goals.

The #1 Secret to Success for 28 Medal – Olympic Champion Michael Phelps is Mental Strength

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=873NJ76wSeA

 

Leadership Challenge

Take 10 – 20 minutes and evaluate your leadership performance from the past 7 days and assess which of the 6 mental toughness practices you need to strengthen.

Congratulations to STEP Energy for winning the E&Y Entrepreneurs of the Year Award in the Oil and Gas category for the prairie region, and Rosso Coffee for winning the ATB Small Business of the Year Award (Calgary Chamber of Commerce).

Awesome Journey is extremely proud to be the coaching partners of these exceptional companies and thrilled at their accomplishments.

These accomplishments display tremendous leadership and show the power of creating a leadership culture within an organization.

What is a leadership culture and what does it look like?

A leadership culture is a mindset within an organization that everyone, regardless of title and position is a leader and everyone has a role to play in the development and ultimate success of the company.

Leadership cultures emerge when an organization leverages their listening to co-create and connect with each other and their clients.

A leadership culture supports an organization’s way of being and can be seen through the following behaviors that lead to action.

• Being Accountable and holding others accountable (leads to trust)
• Ability to create quality agreements that lead to action (clear requests and promises)
• Being vulnerable and open, and able to embrace breakdowns as learning opportunities to get to breakthroughs that create quality learning (breakdowns come from tension or conflict)
• Transparent real feedback (open to improvements)
• Willing to challenge and be challenged (courageous)
• Embracing level 3 listening (listening to connect and co-create with others, not “fix”)

When leadership cultures are being lived, through intentional conversations, throughout the organization, there is a higher level of performance which sets the stage for providing a unique client experience that differentiates them in the marketplace.

 

---

 

Recent winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year Award in Oil and Gas Category for Prairie Region

“Not only are we very honored to be selected as a finalist and winner, we are humbled to be a second-time category recipient in the EY program,” said Steve Glanville, chief operating officer, and operations vice president. “STEP has experienced a tremendous amount of growth the last couple of years and we wouldn’t be where we are today without the passionate dedication from each of our professionals. They are the bedrock of our success and what drives us to be an energy services leader.”

– Steve Glanville, Chief Operating Officer & Operations Vice President

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recent winner of ATB Small Business of the Year Award (Calgary Chamber of Commerce) and Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40.

Last night we had the absolute pleasure of attending #SWBYYC as a team of 16 from Rosso. We were awarded the ATB Small Business of the Year and had the surreal feeling of walking onto the stage as a team of 16, infront of a room of inspiring entrepreneurs, visionaries, mentors, influencers and diplomats. We are so honored to have been selected as the Small Business of the Year and we promise not to disappoint you Calgary. Lets keep learning and growing together • A huge thanks to @calgarychamber @atbfinancial and @cityofcalgary for making it all possible. Also, to @3to2 and @2creativeco for always putting together the best visual imagery we could ever imagine. Cheers to you all, to our team at Rosso and seriously, thanks a million. #YYCyousoon

A post shared by Rosso Coffee Roasters (@rossocoffeeroasters) on Oct 20, 2017 at 9:47am PDT

I was recently in Toronto for a family visit, and on the way home I experienced a very cool leadership moment on my WestJet flight.

The flight attendant had just finished the Safety Presentation, then another person got on the microphone and introduced himself as Harry Taylor the CFO of WestJet. That got my attention! It is not typical for the CFO of a company to be on the front lines directly interacting with clients.

His comments went something like this,

“As a member of the executive team of WestJet, I would like to thank-you personally for choosing to fly with us at WestJet. I know that you have options and we really appreciate your choice to fly with us. I am seated in 11F if you would like to come by and say hello and give me any feedback about your experiences of flying with WestJet. I will also be working with the flight attendants to serve you on today’s flight, so please forgive me if I spill anything on you as I am a rookie, but the team on your flight today are true professionals, so trust me you are in good hands for this flight. Enjoy your flight!”

This was a great leadership moment. Having a member of the C-Suite from WestJet introduce himself, thank everyone on the flight for choosing to fly with WestJet, and then taking an active role in the front-line work activities of serving told me a lot about the culture and listening strategy at WestJet.

 

Here is what I experienced about the WestJet Culture:

Accountability to your colleagues and your clients for delivering an “Extraordinary Service Experience” to them.

Responsibility for seeking client feedback to continue to improve the “Client Experience”.

Deep Listening by seeking feedback from others about how you are supporting them.

Intentional about designing a listening strategy and generative conversations (action-oriented language) with clients by creating opportunities to be on the front lines.

Courageous by stepping into “The Unknown” to engage in possibility conversations with your clients for ideas to improve on the “Client Experience”.

Another great example of the WestJet Culture is shown in their “Christmas Miracle Video”. This was an extraordinary client experience!

 

Your Leadership Challenge:

How can you create an Extraordinary Client Experience in your organization?

What front line conversations can you put yourself into?