George Fink: I Tip My Hat to You

Posted on by Keith Merron

I sat next to a well-dressed older gentleman on the plane the other day. For quite a while he and I exchanged pleasantries, nothing more than the typical, “do you mind getting up so I can go to the rest room,” kind of exchange.

And then, about half way through the trip he struck up a conversation. It was a memorable one for it gave me a glimpse into what I believe is the wave of future of conscious leadership. Paradoxically, it’s a blast from the past where more leaders were pure in heart and intent.

The gentleman in question was George Fink, the Chairman and CEO of the Bonterra Energy Corporation, a company that primarily produces oil. Its assets consist mainly of concentrated, stable and underdeveloped properties across western Canada, where large quantities of oil reserves still exist; a long reserve life and low-risk drilling locations. Bonterra is the third largest operator in the Pembina Cardium region, one of the world’s largest and prolific oil fields and the largest reservoir in Canada.

George has been at the helm since it’s inception in 1998. He enjoys being the CEO, but not for reasons most might suspect. In contrast to the typical “I like the power” kind of reason that causes many CEOs to become CEOs, George’s sole focus is on developing people. He sees his role as a privilege, a way of contributing to his employees and returning spectacularly steady and reliable returns to its shareholders, of which all employees are members.

I found myself marveling at this man, not just for what he’s accomplished, but more importantly about his way of being. When I asked him why he wasn’t sitting in first class among the other wealthier people, he said to me that it’s not his custom. Coach is “just fine for me,” he said in his amiable Canadian accent, even though I thought his old bones might prefer a little more room. In musing further on the subject, he said, “As executives we don’t expect anything more than what we provide for others.”

In a world where CEOs seem much like celebrities, he shies away from the spotlight and also anything that might put attention on himself. “I’m just a human being doing my best to help out,” seemed to be his attitude. George spoke confidently, yet without self-aggrandizement. If anything, he was quite understated. It was a quality I have grown accustomed to appreciating in some great leaders. It seems that the best leaders I know have this rare combination of solidity or certainty, and humility.

As we talked further, I found myself reflecting a bit on this combination and have since done some more. The way I see it, the qualities of certainty and humility are often seen as opposites, and yet paradoxically, in the most conscious of leaders I know, they live comfortably together. They certainly did so with George. He didn’t tout his own horn in any way. Instead, he seemed happy to ask questions of me, as if he was a sponge, seeking to learn from my work. He even went so far as to request we talk again, in hopes that he might gain some wisdom from my work. “I have so much to learn,” he said more than once, “and I really don’t know much about a lot of things.”

Here was an extraordinarily accomplished man, who has been a CEO for over 40 years, talking like a young man who is just starting out on his journey of leadership and learning. It reminded me of the old Buddhist story of the scholar who sat with a Buddhist master to seek wisdom. The scholar regaled the master with his knowledge of Buddhism. The master listened and as he poured tea for the scholar, he let the tea overflow and spill from the cup. When the scholar exclaimed, “What are you doing!?,” the master replied, “Your brain, like this cup, is too full. You must empty it and approach this work with your mind open before I can teach you anything.” This is the essence of the Buddhist mind — to explore with the child’s mind of deep curiosity.

George embodies this attitude beautifully and without an ounce of self-deprecation. Humility was all over this man, but at the same time, so too was his sense of certainty. He spoke confidently and with quiet self-assured tones about why his company was so successful and his role within it. He believed strongly that success comes from steady progress and not reaching for the stars. In contrast to the typical audacious goals, dreams and visions

I hear from charismatic CEOs, his was a deliberate path toward success, born out of a solid foundation of understanding, a commitment to share the fruits of the company’s success with all employees, bar none, and a belief that anything is possible with determination, hard work, and collaboration. Whether or not this man was true to his word, was beyond my ken for it was just a passing conversation on a plane, but he struck me in his tone and kind manner as a man of his word. He had no need to prove anything to me, or anyone else for that matter.

George’s self effaced assuredness is in stark contrast to the tendency of so many charismatic leaders to be so self-focused. It appears that the drive to become a CEO, so laden with the need for power and influence, also results in a high tendency to be self-focused. It’s understandable. Often people choose to be leaders because of a deeply felt need to be seen and recognized. From this place, they enjoy and even crave the spotlight.

This underbelly of leadership has been explored a great deal of late and the phrase “The Narcissistic Leader” certainly has gotten plenty of attention. I see it all the time in my work. And yet, in my research on remarkable leaders, the best leaders have a strong inner compass while at the same time having an outer focus on the needs of the whole.

This is what I saw in George Fink, and I want to honor all leaders like him. George Fink, I tip my hat to you! You show us the type of leadership, that in my estimation, great leaders are meant to be.

The Leadership Chain

Posted on by Keith Merron

My purpose for writing this on-going column about conscious leadership is nothing less than to promote a shift in the thoughts and mindsets of leaders; ensuring organizations are run more effectively. By that I mean that organization becomes more fluid and productive in the long run, and that it contributes to a healthy, sustainable planet (socially as well as environmentally).

The shift requires that leaders fully understand a simple yet profound chain of logic, that if embraced to the full extent of its meaning, points to the type of leadership that will make a difference in organizational life and more importantly, on the planet. It’s based on a huge and growing amount of research around each element of the leadership chain. Each piece of research cannot stand on its own, and yet the totality of the research is both profound and compelling.

It tells us there is, irrefutably, a direct linkage between a leader’s mindset and an organization and its results. It tells us, in effect, that the leader casts a wide shadow – she leaves an enormous impact in her wake, whether she is aware of it or not. In other words, the quality of the culture is a reflection of the consciousness of the leader. It is the leader’s shadow reflecting back the best and worst of whom he or she is as a leader. This means that the attitudes, beliefs, personalities and inner paradigms that the leaders hold will inevitably show up in the organization and its culture and ultimately shape its dynamics. You can see it in almost all organizations.

Steve Jobs was brash, bold and creative and so, too, is Apple. Bill Gates is brilliantly strategic and aggressive and so, too, is Microsoft. Herb Kelleher is quite playful while his COO, Colleen Barrett, is quite organized; Southwest Airlines is a rare combination of the two. The chain of logic is simply this. What you want as a leader is extraordinary and sustainable results. While many factors contribute to this outcome such as market timing, strategy, product excellence, operational efficiency, the quality of people you hire, and luck, the biggest factor that contributes to your long term results is the quality of your culture.

And while many different factors contribute to your culture such as geography, history, the industry in which you reside, etc., by far, the single greatest factor that contributes to your organizations culture is your leadership behavior and that of your leadership team. In fact, research shows unequivocally that as much as 50% of an organization’s culture is directly a result of the quality of the leadership of that organization.

Without a doubt the environment affects one’s behavior, as does good old fashioned training and know-how, yet the biggest factor affecting a leader’s behavior is his or her mindset — beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, and ways of seeing and being. As a consultant to businesses, I’ve been asked by leaders to fix some part of their organization. “Those folks aren’t working hard enough,” or “they’re confused,” or “we just don’t hire the right people.” They might say to me, for example, “Keith, I’m troubled by how so many people don’t take initiative. Would you help me create an organization guided by a greater sense of personal responsibility?”

What they often don’t understand is that the dynamics they seek to change are a reflection of their own leadership patterns — more often than not toward a command-and-control style of management where their micromanagement tendencies snuff the life force out of the very culture they want to change. They create organizations centered on themselves and wonder why people don’t take more initiative.

Or consider the charismatic leader filled with vision and wonderful ideas:   underneath the organization’s brilliant marketing machine is a culture of scattered initiatives where so much falls through the cracks and a lack of coordination runs rampant. Simply put, it’s the mindset of the leader that profoundly affects the culture and ultimately its results, for good or for bad.

Take a moment to consider a problem you might have in your organization. Be sure to pick a problem that appears to be impervious to change. Now consider how this problem may be a reflection of you. In other words, look in the mirror and ask yourself, how do my leadership traits and I cause this? What don’t I see that may cause this problem? If nothing comes to mind, ask some trusted members of your team. You know, the ones who’re not afraid to tell you the truth about you!

As difficult and painful as it might be, all leaders would benefit from looking in the mirror when they feel frustrated with their organization, the results or its counterproductive patterns. This is what conscious leaders do. This column, The Conscious Leader, is dedicated to stories, ideas, research and insights to pique the imagination and help cultivate the great leader inside.

In this column, I will share what I know and what I believe to be true about remarkable leadership. Having worked with well over 350 companies and leaders of all types, and having coached literally hundreds of top level executives, I seek to share the stories and observations I encounter along the way. All this is done in the interest of supporting an ongoing examination of the most important variable to your organization’s success, or lack thereof — YOU!

 

The Growth Agenda Of The Future is: Good, Grow, Gain

Posted on by Will Marre

The popular and currently accepted MBA-approach view of business is as a stockholder wealth-creating machine.

MBA PowerPoints reveal a business logic mindset of Gain, Grow, Good. This business logic directs leaders to first think of a way to make money (Gain), then use a more-with-less business model to grow profitable revenue (Grow), and if there’s anything left over – to do some well-publicized, social responsibility (Good).

This is, in fact, the pattern of the old version of the American Dream. Start a business, create a monopoly to get really rich, and then retire as a philanthropist. This was Andrew Carnegies’ and Bill Gates’ pattern. It’s no longer relevant. This “gain first” approach to business no longer works because it kills daring motivation. In fact, a gain first business model creates risk averse cultures that become rigid, silo’d, and bureaucratic.

Trying to build fortresses around business models is a failed idea. The revolutionary forces of technology that have created a new reality in which all information is available to anyone, anywhere (think Google and mobile phones) has changed everything. Now any competitive advantage derived from a gain first mindset evaporates in months by competitors whose employees and consultants are as smart as yours (or even smarter).

The answer to this dilemma is found in the second new success factor. Think Good, Grow, Gain. It means that you, as a leader, begin with asking how much good you can do for people using the assets you have. No, this isn’t a not-for-profit agenda. In fact, it’s the growth agenda of the future. Creating unexpected value grows new demand and benchmark-breaking gains.

That’s exactly what the leaders we most admire are doing. Yet, this “do good first” thinking is such a foreign idea to the trained business mind that I’ve had to come up with a thinking model to jolt some new ideas. It looks like this: When I help retrain leaders’ minds to escape the prison of business-as-usual I teach them a process of answering questions about how they might first use their assets to create unique, innovative offerings that help customers experience a better life through one or more of these six sources of unique value above.

Once you’ve opened your mind to this model, you’ll begin to see how superbrands create consumer insistence (where customers accept no substitutes) and how they generate powerful attractive energy. Brands like Disney, Apple, Nike, and Starbucks inspire us with products and experiences while equally famous brands like Microsoft, HP, Denny’s, and Six Flags inspire only yawns. Just as Google, Harvard, and Oprah create mental energy by making people feel smarter and more capable, Yahoo, University of Phoenix, and Jerry Springer are well known but not for “good” reasons.

As I take leaders through the exercise of discovering the six ways of adding value, I see the light go on in their eyes; that making a difference is the surest way to make money in this constantly disruptive economy. I often see them blow open the cage of old, failed thinking and release their leaders’ personal sense of “unfinished business.” You see, our unfinished business is our personal TRUE work.

The work that most of us never get around to. The work we are designed to do and that our higher selves desire. Work that doesn’t just make us richer but also better. Once leaders understand their best path to personal success is the path that creates genuine value for humanity, their practical idealism kicks in and a new level of courage and conviction takes hold. Yet, even then, after a core mindshift to value-added leadership is set alight, leaders find it difficult to sustain escape-velocity.

The gravity of old ways of thinking and the pressure of short-term investors slows down, and even stops, real change. To boost the energy needed to change, I’ve developed a third step. It’s a revolutionary 21-day brain boot camp based on a set of very short and easy daily habits, designed to literally rewire a leader’s brain to tap their natural strengths and create value-added solutions to tough challenges.

It draws on the full power of new research around personal, positive, well-being to incite permanent change. What’s most rewarding is that these habits light up unique passions and talents of leaders, who want to lead better, but also live fuller lives. As I talk to audiences and work with leaders who believe they have “unfinished business,” I only ever have to ask them to look at their past accomplishments and current work and ask themselves, “Is this the best I can do?”

Those who can imagine that there is more, are those who will change the future, by creating it. For me, releasing a leader’s mind and the desire to be extraordinary is the payoff. You see, I believe that business is the most powerful institutional force that can create the future we want for our children. Imagine a world of sustainable abundance led by value-adding leaders, who redefine winning as the positive difference that only they can make.

Just imagine.  

Are you doing the best you can do? What is your unfinished business?

 

From Financial Success to Significance

Posted on by Real Leaders

As leaders, many of us think that we’ve already succeeded in one or more aspects of our lives. And we have. Many of us have been blessed with the opportunity to create much financial success for ourselves and those around us. Yet, how many of us will be able to say that we’ve achieved significance when we look back on our lives? As you reflect on your life, what do you want to accomplish?

Have you achieved some life goals beyond financial success? Most of us have developed business plans but very few of us have life plans. Do you feel that you’ve succeeded in areas that are meaningful? Have you left the mark that you would have liked to, in a significant way? Beyond your children, what is your legacy? These might seem like a lot of questions, but asking them now, and setting life goals early in life, is much more empowering than saying on your death bed one day, “If only I’d done more with my life…” after all, we all know that we won’t be saying, “I wish I’d spent more time at the office.”

After many years of sharing ideas with fellow CEOs on life planning, and based on my own personal experiences, I’m convinced that the progression from financial success to an increased focus on significance strikes a true chord with many of us. We all have dreams and goals that are significant on a personal level.

Defining these as part of a life plan that gets revisited often is a process that can help make your dreams a reality, much the same as a business plan helps organizations stay focused. On a broader, global scale how do we, as business leaders, take our time, skills and talent and become real leaders – truly making a difference? Setting personal goals and giving back have been so compelling to me as a father, son, husband, philanthropist and businessman that when I founded my current (and last) company – STS Capital Partners, an international, strategic mergers and acquisitions firm – this was at the core of our mission; that is to help families and entrepreneurs on their path from Success To Significance.

I wanted to start an organization that would help position families directly with strategic investors, resulting in them having the flexibility and liquidity to work more on charitable and other missions; becoming catalysts for the creation of new philanthropic endeavours. There are many successful leaders and consultants available to help others create value and significance, whether it’s maximizing financial assets to enable funds to be channeled to family foundations and charitable causes, or simply accomplishing objectives that are more personal.

Imagine not having any regrets when you reach the end of your life. I have compiled my personal list of best practices on life planning over the years and compiled this into a presentation called Everyone Has Their Own Everest: What Is Yours?. The presentation is not about me, but rather about you. If you had all the time, money, freedom and energy in the world, what would you set as your stretch goals? Why not set them now?

You can achieve almost any goal if you actually re-program your subconscious mind by believing that you are limitless and you can achieve anything you want in life. When I established the goal of climbing the Seven Summits, I had never climbed a single mountain before – that didn’t stop me from setting an ambitious goal.

Doesn’t it seem a lot more prudent to ask the question “what if”, today, and in so doing expanding the view of your life to achieve these goals? Doing this now means you begin to act on them, rather than leaving them floating around as dreams. A practical way of making this happen is to spend a weekend, with your partner, making a list of everything you really want to do before you die. Put a five year deadline on achieving these goals, with a deadline in year four that sees your action plan ready for launch the following year.

This is how you will achieve your goals, and how my partner and myself made it to the top of Everest. It’s hard… but it’s also exciting, empowering and energizing. We have been so conditioned as humans to resist change and not stretch ourselves beyond our comfort zone that we forget what we are capable of. Integrating your life goals with solving some of the world’s problems around us is the next step for many of us.

Many charities and organizations that serve the less fortunate have huge mountains of their own to climb. Helping them reach their summits can often be an important step in creating a lasting legacy for yourself. Everyone has their own Everest, what’s yours?

Rob Follows is CEO and founder of STS Capital Partners.  www.stscapital.com