I overheard a business conversation last week at a little oceanfront, locals-only, surfer hangout at Wrightsville Beach that got me thinking. I've been involved with management and leadership for the past 20 years and am always interested in learning more and better ways of doing things. I believe being a leader is an organic process that begins when you decide it begins and ends when you die. You read, experience, question, challenge, fail, get up, and continue to move forward. Being humble enough to accept you’ll never know everything and living
as a constant student is not easy, but it’s a wonderful way to live. Each time I visit my friend Jeff Scheffer, CEO of Stanley Furniture, I peek at the stack of books on his desk he’s reading and digesting. So, I perked up when the women began discussing their company, of which one was an SVP or C-level.
I was semi-quietly munching on a fish taco (hard shell, not soft and dumbly covered in Sriracha so I was also trying to stop the burning) and overheard a woman in a gray, chalk-stripe business suit (closer to my age than the 20-something crowd also having fish tacos) tell her companion the following [paraphrased because I could only hear some of the conversation over the crunching of the taco shells, nursing my burnt tongue, and The Connell's wailing from the speakers: "I want to make [company name] a place where we are constantly challenging the way we do things. A place where we consistently innovate and do something new. But, I'm worried about how we achieve that. How do we continue to focus on our customers and the process at the same time?"
Great question (and great fish taco--best I've had since my days working in San Diego.) For some reason, perhaps due to an email I received from him last week, I thought of my friend Paul Harris. Paul is a partner in a boutique law firm in D.C. where he migrated from Raytheon and before that the Bush Admin's first term as Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General. When I met him, though, he was a young lawyer in Charlottesville, Va. running for Virginia's House of Delegates. I jumped in to help. We sat on my front porch each evening with cigars and Bourbon discussing big issues, planning the campaign and deciding to try a new strategy: Paul would never mention his opponent's name and he wouldn't say even one negative thing during the entire campaign--which included negative ads that the Richmond consultants were already warning us we “had” to do or we’d lose.
One thing I quickly noticed about Paul as journalists pounced on him and his opponent got his shots in at debates and joint appearances. Instead of the larger issue, broader questions we’d discussed on my front porch, they were tossing out obscure and micro-subject questions: How Chinese apple imports were affecting growers in Rockingham Co., or a new connector parkway cutting through the countryside of the city and county. Paul amazed me (and the electorate) with his answers. Instead of acting like he knew anything about the apple growers in Rockingham, he stripped that away and went straight to the principle of the issue. Should we protect American products from cheap foreign imports? Time and again he got to the root—the principle—of the issue and gave his response based on his stand on the principle. It was a breath of fresh air and it showed in the results: he won the primary against a ferret-like opponent with 73 percent of the vote and the general election by 66 percent. Paul became the first black Republican elected to Virginia’s General Assembly since Reconstruction. I think it was the conviction with which he answered questioned that made the difference.
I wanted to put down my fish taco (but I just could not because it was soooo good) and tell the woman behind me that perhaps that was the way she could consistently challenge the status quo and maintain her foundation at the same time. She could balance her objectives by continuously innovating, changing, adapting, moving forward AND remain true to her company’s ethos by keeping their principles at the front of every choice she made. Stripping a
way the superfluous details and using the principle to guide you as you kick down walls and go into the unknown.
She could take the advice of Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “A great part of courage is the courage of having done the things before.”
as a constant student is not easy, but it’s a wonderful way to live. Each time I visit my friend Jeff Scheffer, CEO of Stanley Furniture, I peek at the stack of books on his desk he’s reading and digesting. So, I perked up when the women began discussing their company, of which one was an SVP or C-level.I was semi-quietly munching on a fish taco (hard shell, not soft and dumbly covered in Sriracha so I was also trying to stop the burning) and overheard a woman in a gray, chalk-stripe business suit (closer to my age than the 20-something crowd also having fish tacos) tell her companion the following [paraphrased because I could only hear some of the conversation over the crunching of the taco shells, nursing my burnt tongue, and The Connell's wailing from the speakers: "I want to make [company name] a place where we are constantly challenging the way we do things. A place where we consistently innovate and do something new. But, I'm worried about how we achieve that. How do we continue to focus on our customers and the process at the same time?"
Great question (and great fish taco--best I've had since my days working in San Diego.) For some reason, perhaps due to an email I received from him last week, I thought of my friend Paul Harris. Paul is a partner in a boutique law firm in D.C. where he migrated from Raytheon and before that the Bush Admin's first term as Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General. When I met him, though, he was a young lawyer in Charlottesville, Va. running for Virginia's House of Delegates. I jumped in to help. We sat on my front porch each evening with cigars and Bourbon discussing big issues, planning the campaign and deciding to try a new strategy: Paul would never mention his opponent's name and he wouldn't say even one negative thing during the entire campaign--which included negative ads that the Richmond consultants were already warning us we “had” to do or we’d lose.
One thing I quickly noticed about Paul as journalists pounced on him and his opponent got his shots in at debates and joint appearances. Instead of the larger issue, broader questions we’d discussed on my front porch, they were tossing out obscure and micro-subject questions: How Chinese apple imports were affecting growers in Rockingham Co., or a new connector parkway cutting through the countryside of the city and county. Paul amazed me (and the electorate) with his answers. Instead of acting like he knew anything about the apple growers in Rockingham, he stripped that away and went straight to the principle of the issue. Should we protect American products from cheap foreign imports? Time and again he got to the root—the principle—of the issue and gave his response based on his stand on the principle. It was a breath of fresh air and it showed in the results: he won the primary against a ferret-like opponent with 73 percent of the vote and the general election by 66 percent. Paul became the first black Republican elected to Virginia’s General Assembly since Reconstruction. I think it was the conviction with which he answered questioned that made the difference.
I wanted to put down my fish taco (but I just could not because it was soooo good) and tell the woman behind me that perhaps that was the way she could consistently challenge the status quo and maintain her foundation at the same time. She could balance her objectives by continuously innovating, changing, adapting, moving forward AND remain true to her company’s ethos by keeping their principles at the front of every choice she made. Stripping a
way the superfluous details and using the principle to guide you as you kick down walls and go into the unknown.She could take the advice of Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “A great part of courage is the courage of having done the things before.”
I wanted to stick around and maybe talk with them--perhaps share my supreme knowledge and professional advice--but I'd licked the sun and had to run away like a baby to find something to quench the fire. Oh, in case you try this, Corona--very cold Corona--works best;-)
8 comments:
I love fish tacos and this blog!!
Dale, I am surprised you didn't mention the book Blue Ocean Strategy. It's the answer to her question. Red oceans are ones in which companies compete with each other. When a company forgets about competiting and creates its own market it's a blue ocean. I think your thoughts about keeping your foundational principles AND finding a blue ocean that make for hyper-successful companies. (of course I we discussed this last week, and you turned me onto the book...Mike;-)
Do company's or the people who run them have principles these days?
Who puts Sriracha on fish tacos???
Does Dale ever sleep. All I ever read here is about a book he's read or currently reading. When does he get any work done:-0
I read Blue Ocean Strategy and thought it was a nice idea but not anything to base a company strategy. So what if Wii and Circue du Soleil use it, I couldn't figure out how my company could use it.
HEY! Cut Dale some slack! I've got a stack of the books he's recommended on my desk and I'm loving learning all this stuff. I find something that helps everyday. Especially the Linked book by the Hungarian mathematician he told us about months ago. I'm diggin that one and have foudn ten ways to use in in sales.
Paul Harris will be governor of Virginia one day--and none too soon!!!!
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