Archive for the ‘Role of a Leader’ Category
When an Entrepreneur Becomes a CEO
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009[Originally posted Nov. 9, 2009 on the Huffington Post]
Why are entrepreneurs loved and CEO’s hated? It’s a bit of irony that has not been lost on me this past week as a bunch of cyber-strangers weighed in on their perception of me based upon a photo. Is this a crazy entrepreneur or a CEO who has lost his mind and proper bearings?
Back in June, the Rasmussen Reports released a survey of Americans’ favorable vs unfavorable ratings of various professions. At the top of the list with almost no negativity were small business owners and entrepreneurs. Religious leaders were a fair percentage back, but still near the top. Bankers were evenly loved and hated, while journalists, lawyers, and stockbrokers started to make up the bottom of the list. But, in the valley of the despised were CEO’s and Members of Congress. Three times as many people give these two professions negative ratings as compared to the positives.
So, what happens when you start out as an entrepreneur but grow into being a CEO due to the success of your company? Is Steve Jobs an entrepreneur or a CEO? How about Richard Branson? So much of it has to do with how you show up – are you still yourself or have you become the empty, shifty “suit”? Well, I started my company almost two dozen years ago as sort of an artist entrepreneur and I’ve been getting “atta boys” along the way. Yet, when I showed up in the Nevada desert to enjoy a few days of artistic utopia at Burning Man, had a few pics taken of me, and then posted them on my Facebook account, the question of whether I was a wacky entrepreneur or a father figure CEO made me a cause celeb the past few days. Take a look at the blog I wrote for BNET and the nearly 150 comments that arose from this topical question of how much of a CEO’s personal life should we be exposed to?
http://www.bnet.com/2403-13058_23-358555.html
What’s most fascinating is to read that those who championed my right to be myself saw me as a grown-up entrepreneur, but those who thought I’d crossed the line by posting my Burning Man photos to my private Facebook account saw me as the CEO who had a certain decorum of professionalism that I needed to maintain (even though, frankly, that sterile decorum may be one of the reasons why Americans score CEO’s so low). One of those who counseled me on being a little more professional writes as if he were a self-hating CEO, “As much as you may not enjoy it, being a CEO brings with it the serious responsibilities of being a parental role model.” Clearly, this parental thing ain’t working based upon the Rasmussen results. More encouraging were the comments like “I am glad to see someone can be successful and not turn into a soulless robot” or “how refreshing it is to see a CEO who is also a human.”
One common comment was that I should separate my friends from my business associates on my Facebook page and only let my friends into that part of my site that might have photos like this. I don’t know what century they’re living in, but many of us – especially those who work long hours in business – find that some of our closest friends are those we connect with during our business day. This work/life frappe has created a blended experience in which it’s harder than ever to compartmentalize. Thank God….we may put a few shrinks out of business, but we’re likely to be a whole lot happier. Public image should equal private reality.
Ironically, my first book’s subtitle was “Daring to be Yourself in Business,” and I’m seeing how vital that is in the age of transparency. With the internet and social networks taking a more prominent place in our lives, being true to yourself (and everyone else) is almost a requirement. In fact, I’d suggest that the Rasmussen poll is really a litmus test for authenticity. The more people see the participants in the profession as authentic, the more heroic they become in the eyes of the public. Authenticity is where the culture is headed. It’s an evolutionary process (coincidentally, the theme of this last year’s Burning Man was “Evolution”). And, I’m still just figuring out my evolutionary process of gravitating from being an entrepreneur to being a CEO. Yet, this experience has just reinforced a powerful lesson. Maybe the role model CEO I’m supposed to be isn’t the traditional icon that people don’t like and don’t trust, but it’s the CHO: the Chief Human Officer. That’s really the conundrum a modern age role model CEO must solve: how can we be human and be a CEO at the same time?
Dear Barack
Sunday, May 11th, 2008Dear Barack,
It isn’t easy being a transformational leader, is it? Congratulations on what looks to be a victory for the Democratic nomination, but let’s look at the last four months (which must have seemed like four years) and see what lessons we have learned about transformational leadership.
1. First, we need to give some credit to James MacGregor Burns who long ago wrote the book Leadership and described two kinds of leaders: “transactional” and “transforming.” He wrote, “The relations of most leaders and followers are transactional – leaders approach followers with an eye to exchanging one thing for another…Transforming leadership, while more complex, is more potent. The transforming leader recognizes an existing need or demand of a potential follower. But, beyond that, the transforming leader looks for potential motives in followers, seeks to satisfy higher needs, and engages the full person of the follower. The result of transforming leadership is a relationship of mutual stimulation and elevation that converts followers into leaders and may convert leaders into moral agents.” It’s almost like a transactional leader is leading from the bottom of the pyramid while the transformational leader (I prefer “transformational” to “transforming”) is leading from the top. No doubt, while most political pundits haven’t read my book PEAK, I do believe they would acknowledge that your chief political adversary, Hillary Clinton, has run her campaign as a transactional leader with her very tangible, policy-driven, and practical approach to solving problems. In fact, one of the chief knocks on Hillary has been her inability to inspire or help people see the bigger picture and, at times, her tendency to focus on the fear-driven survival needs of the electorate.
2. Many of the things that Burns has written apply to your campaign: the “complex” but “potent” message, the fact that you recognized the “higher needs” in your followers – the desire for a new kind of politics that stands above the past political pollution, and the “Yes, we can” message that “converts follower into leaders” and has helped convert you into a “moral agent.” You are a different kind of leader: one who asks us to “be all we can be” if I can be so bold as to steal a phrase from Maslow and the US Army. JFK used to talk about a rising tide lifting all boats and that’s the kind of feeling many Americans experience when they hear you speak, read your books, or really take a moment to understand your truly American Dream of a life story. We are living in a time when my fellow countrymen and women are looking for the kind of change that a transformational leader can offer. It’s a new century. It’s a delicate and small world. We don’t fit into the demographic boxes that made sense in 1958. Fifty years later, America is waking up to the fact that other countries around the world are passing us by as we live in splendid isolation on this big island we call the US of A. Your diverse history from Kenya to Indonesia, from Kansas to Hawaii speaks to the future, not the past, and the only way you will win the election in November is if you help America see the necessity of transforming ourselves to succeed in the future as opposed to just wallow in our glorification of the past.
3. You will be painted as the “American Dreamer,” a nice enough fellow but someone different enough to not understand the issues of the common man. You will be seen as a Harvard-educated elitist who can give a great speech, but who doesn’t know how to get his hands dirty to make things work. You will be vilified as a “snake oil salesman” with your slick and polished manner and you will be cast as the “other,” not really one of us. When they hit you with this kind of rhetoric, just remember two things: remind them that our greatest leaders were different and that the world isn’t what it used to be. Lincoln, that greatest of Presidents from your state of Illinois, was different. He wasn’t a transactional leader making deals in backrooms. He helped America see that we were on a path toward ruin if we didn’t unify. Kennedy was different. He was elected President when Catholics were considered to be lower class and not fit to be the supreme leaders of the land. He reminded us to reach for greater things whether it’s putting a man on the moon or having the courage to stand up to the Soviets. Reagan was different. He was an actor–and a not too impressive one. But, whether you liked his politics or not, his transformational message took us from the ugly 70’s to the confident 80’s with his “morning in America” perspective and his “tear down this wall” speeches to the Soviets. Our best Presidents have been transformational in their ability to unite us and help us individually and as a country “be all that we can be.” You are also the perfect messenger of the message: the world has changed and we need to change with it. Our American empire will crumble like the Romans if we don’t adapt and see that our leadership needs to be future-oriented and visionary as opposed to being wedded to the past. Be bold and transformative with your policy proposals whether it be in the area of energy independence, educational reform, or helping us to regain America’s status as a trusted and respected ally to our foreign friends around the world.
4. Whether in business or politics, transformational leaders need to surround themselves with practical, solutions-driven operators who know how to “make the trains run on time.” Choose a Vice President who can be a Chief Operating Officer, someone who can take your vision and make it actionable. To show that you truly mean to unify the country, choose a few members of your cabinet that are independent-minded Republicans who can give you the kind of 360 degree perspective that our current President has so sorely been lacking. Be specific about your policy goals and deadlines as the greatest risk you have is being perceived as the ethereal monk on the mountain who gets high breathing the air but hasn’t provided for the basic survival needs of himself and his people. Find a few Presidential potholes to fix. As a transformational leader, just remember that your greatest gift is in helping us see the sense of “oneness” that we have at our core and that you so eloquently speak of and exhibit on the campaign trail. Our greatest leaders help us see what we couldn’t envision on our own.
Good luck to you. You have a formidable and admirable opponent in John McCain who shares many of your qualities.
Wishing you all the best,
Chip Conley
Transformation isn’t Always Pretty
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008For those of you who’ve read PEAK, you’re familiar with the Transformation Pyramid, which slims down Maslow’s five level Hierarchy of Needs into an adaptable form with just three levels: SURVIVAL at the bottom, SUCCESS in the middle, and TRANSFORMATION at the top.
This Transformation Pyramid represents universal themes that are applicable to any organization’s relationships with their employees, customers, and investors. For example, the Sierra Club can attract meaning-seeking employees by focusing on the “transformational” peak of the employee pyramid, but if they don’t compensate these employees enough to pay their rent at home (their “survival” needs), they haven’t created a sustainable relationship.
On the other hand, most for-profit companies mistakenly think that the compensation package at the base of the employee pyramid is what creates loyalty and differentiation as an employer. They are wrong. Peak performing companies have much higher employee engagement and much lower turnover by helping their employees move their focus from money (what defines a “job”) to recognition (what defines a “career”) to meaning (what defines a “calling”).
The Transformation Pyramid is relevant to customers and investors, too, and it can be applicable to everything from how you approach your expectations of your family vacation to how you view the Presidential candidate choices. No doubt, Barack Obama is a transformational candidate (I’m a big fan), but Hillary Clinton has clearly suggested that his intangible, self-actualizing appeal is distracting from his potential lack of “in the trenches getting it done” management capabilities. In many ways, Americans see the choice of Barack as a peak-minded leader versus Hillary as the foundational, base of the pyramid manager. When we have the choice between inspiration versus perspiration, most of us will choose the former (unless we’re living in a time that’s full of fear…a bottom of the pyramid time).
Clearly I’m a transformation nut. But, let me say that transformation doesn’t come easily. I’ve been reminded of that in my own company this past year. Joie de Vivre Hotels is growing faster than it ever has. We will be launching or re-launching (after renovation) something like 14 unique boutique hotels over the next 16 months plus approximately a dozen restaurants. That’s quite an endeavor and about triple the growth path we’ve typically had in past years. During this time, many of us in the company have noticed that we are a little more stressed and, at times, overwhelmed with the variety of choices and decisions we need to make. We’ve all felt it. Our work climate surveys suggest it’s noticeable, especially with our 80 employees in our home office (fortunately, our on-property staff scores continue to be exceptionally high).
It was in preparation for a recent leadership class to our General Managers and Operations Managers that I came to realize we were “in the goo.” We are all familiar with the miraculous transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. That’s exactly where we are today. Here’s a passage from an online site that describes this transformation:
“The caterpillar knows something is going on as the transformation begins. ‘Imaginal cells,’ which are initially thought to be a virus or enemy, start to build up in the caterpillar’s body until such time that these imaginal cells overtake the caterpillar’s cells and the caterpillar creates a cocoon.
Some imaginal cells start changing into wing cells, some start changing into antenna cells, some start changing into digestive tract cells. They are no longer imaginal cells, but instead have become butterfly anatomy cells. In essence, the caterpillar disintegrates into a puddle of ooze. If we were to open the cocoon halfway through the process, we wouldn’t find a half-caterpillar, half-butterfly type creature, but a blob of goop.”
It’s hard to describe my company as a blob of goop, but having that evolutionary reference point has helped all of us understand that our situation is temporary (if this caterpillar to butterfly transformation is too revolutionary or graphic for you, consider the tadpole to the frog instead). We are in a cocoon and what will truly determine whether we properly exit as a beautiful, fluttering butterfly is what we do in this cocoon to use the “imaginal cells” of change in culture and processes to help us be strong enough to emerge from this transformation.
So, the next time you and your company are feeling “in the goo,” ask yourself, “Are you in the midst of a transformation? Or are you just spiraling downward in a kind of corporate quicksand?” If you’re lucky enough to be the former rather than the latter, take this opportunity in the cocoon to truly transform your organization into something exceptionally beautiful. It will be a lot of work, but it will be totally worth it!