I’m a Lean Practitioner, so let’s just get to the point… a CEO must strive for “Impact” and not achieving goals. I boil it down to this simple approach, but be ready for your world to be turned upside down. The CEO’s Compass and the North-West point “Performance” will guide you towards Impact. 

• Trust
• Innovate
• Performance

Now, I know you’ve read every leadership book that hits the Amazon Best Seller List and you could probably teach each of these concepts, but let me propose something new to get you to “Think Differently” than most experts.

Trust: 

We talk about building trust, earning trust, trusting others as a way to create high performance teams and my conversation with David Hancock of Morgan James Publishing also talks about trusting yourself and the process.  When Dave and I spoke on Episode 117 of The Drop in CEO podcast where we talked about Trusting “himself” to be a best selling author and Trusting the “timing” of when he was to finally achieve success. Sometimes we muscle past these important elements when these are really the leading indicators of ultimate success. 

Trust yourself – starting from a place of “Self-Trust” is necessary before you can create Trust for your team. Do you believe you have the skills and resources that you can lead your team, with a heavy emphasis on “belief”. If not, don’t move onto the next TIP

Trust timing –  often something we think we can control, but until opportunity meets up with careful preparation, you really can’t control the timing. Trust that the right “time” will show up when it’s ready. 

Balancing the reality that “Trusting yourself” is in your control while “Trusting timing” is not in your control and you can accept this, will you see your ability to impact others to achieve high Performance

Innovate: 

My upcoming conversation with Rochelle Smith of the Daily Social Club on Episode 118 of The Drop in CEO Podcast, we discuss how to pivot her business in Covid and still serve her clients. Rochelle took the high road, gathered her team and found innovative ways via technology to not only provide the social services for her clients, but also engage care-givers in the process.  

Through unplanned innovation, the impact of her business actually grew in the face of crisis. Given this is an example where her business benefited, wouldn’t it be a better model for CEO’s to be constantly innovating to be prepared for when crisis may strike?

Do you include innovation as part of your planned conversations with individuals, teams and your business?

A quick story about myself, I would often get low marks for innovation in my career, but lacked the guidance to know what did innovation look like? Later in my career, when I innovated and tried new things, it was not met with support; simply “that’s nice” and cautioned to make sure I achieved the goals. 

Which leader are you? Heads down to the troops or is it part of daily conversations? You may be missing out to create a culture of innovation and when faced with a crisis, your team does not have the capability to respond. 

Performance: 

In my book to be released later this year, The CEO’s Compass – Getting You Back on Track, I speak about performance, but not in the typical context you would expect. Often we discuss “High Performance Teams” and the dynamic of support & accountability to each other. I get that, but I think there is something missing from creating an “event” vs. a systemic process to align all people up and down the organization towards an outcome. 

As a leader, we have to assure that Purpose and the Strategy to achieve the purpose is understood at the Business, Team and Individual Level. Then at each level, we have to align the Purpose to each individual’s work and how it is connected. During that process, we need to be able to assess the Capability of the people to support the Strategy and where there are gaps, develop those skills.

Case in point – if we say our purpose is to be the supplier of choice through building trusting relationships, that sounds nice, but do your people have those skills at each level? If at the business level, only Customer Service and Sales have the customer relationship skills, but your internal functions have poor customer skills, we’ve not addressed the capability to support your strategy. So Performance needs to be thought about as a system to assure Capabilty exists and where there are gaps, close the gaps. Where purpose is not defined in connection with a job function, close that gap as well. 

I find when we address systemic gaps in Connection & Capability, the Performance comes and we can toss the playbook on building “High Performance Teams”, because it comes with the Performance System you created. 

Now that I have your attention, I want you to pause and reflect and ask yourself these questions:

• Do I Trust myself and the timing to have an “IMPACT” on this organization?
• Do I give myself and the team to Innovate as a daily process and support the development of that capability?
• Do I really focus on the systemic elements of Performance as a daily practice focused on aligning each individual’s contribution to the purpose and closing gaps as part of internal business development?

If you answered “Yes” to all of these questions, you’re on your way to creating an organization that will have “Impact.”

If you answered “No,” let’s have a conversation to see how The CEO’s Compass can get you back on track. 

The CEO’s Compass is designed to provide you 8 compass points that you can go into to steer the ship back on track. This week, my ship was in a complete fog due to my 2nd COVID Vaccine and while it appeared to be wasted time, it’s probably the greatest time to help me to get back on track. In the process, I’ve learned 3 things that will help The CEO who is also navigating through the “Fog”

Sitting on my couch knowing I took the day off to simply “be”, I felt so unproductive short of clearing out email, organizing my calendar and filing. It was during this time of such brain fog and lacking complete creativity to start something new, came great clarity in what was “off track” and a message for the CEO.

Purpose via Strong Messaging

I took the time to go through a video of a recent coaching session and while I appeared to be on track, my coach said my messaging was still not of the quality and consistency I needed. I saw myself struggling with the concept as I’d been putting in so much effort, but as an outsider, they said it was not conveying strongly enough my business and how I serve my ideal client. When I look back on this session, the fog started to clear up for me; despite effort, the message was still not coming through strong. The CEO’s Compass has been my navigation tool to get me back on track in times gone by and I needed to dust it off to help myself now. Only then could I begin to service the clients who could use my support. 

And so I ask you, does your company’s messaging transcend throughout the organization. If you kicked the boxes and spoke to your support staff, would the long term vision or purpose of the company ring loudly? If not, what kind of message is being conveyed directly or indirectly through the behavior of your team? And despite all the marketing and PR to convey your messaging to your customers, it may not be coming through via your front line workers. 

Now, I’m not a brand messaging expert by no means, but when it comes to articulating “Purpose”, the compass point right next to your true north “Peace of Mind” may be critical via rolling up your sleeves and getting purpose and messaging rooted deep into your culture. 

Performance via Prioritization

Clearing out my email and getting myself ready to offload some of my “administrative” tasks to a virtual assistant was a priority for me up until I entered the “Vaccine Fog”. But as I was clearing away the email, the file transfer activities and deadlines to create more content, I realized my priorities were broken. I’ve been in this place before thinking I needed more help when my decision logic and as a result my “Performance” was not on track. I’d put so much effort into my content & marketing creation efforts, I lost sight of my business development goals and needed to steer the ship more in that direction. Sales & Marketing feeds the top line growth and to achieve “Peace of Mind”, I needed to prioritize those efforts.

In the CEO’s case, I’ve seen your people rewarded for getting the order out the door, managing through that audit and high fiving when they whittled down the inventory backlog. All activity based work that needs to get done and your people feel good for surviving to tell their story. But is the right priority? Sure we need to do these things as part of operational work, but do your people understand what it takes to focus on work that will enable you to reach the outcome of your business; moving customer relationships from transactional to partnership. Do they understand that time spent in personal development is an investment in the future leadership and maturity of the people? What activities do you need to engage in that make the business unique and interesting vs. seen as a commodity?

Unless people spend time creating a roadmap to move the needle from A to B where 5-10% of each day should be focused on this work, you’re never going to create a mature and scalable business. When your people don’t lead their own roadmap towards a greater purpose or outcome and their performance is purely judged on transactional work, you clearly don’t have a performance focused workforce. 

Pride as a source of Creative Energy

While navigating my enduring “Fog”, I also started to feel a sense of loss; did I have to give up my creative passions in favor of steering my ship’s focus on Purpose and Performance? I love the creative outlet of writing and podcasting as a way of connecting with people and creating meaningful relationships. It is that creativity that is part of my DNA and what makes me unique for both myself and others who encounter my work or create a relationship. As I reflected on a potential loss in my work, I quickly mustered up the courage to know that I still need to maintain my relationship with my “Pride” and find ways that serve my business and clients vs. being an energy drain. It is for that, the content & conversations I will have going forward need to serve the “Purpose” of my clients now and the ones I haven’t met yet. By maintaining what I’m so proud of with a minor course correction, I should be able to achieve true north or “Peace of Mind”.

When I think about you, the CEO, I often think about someone who is “Dropped in” to a new situation and needs to quickly assess your landscape and make the best decisions to move it through rapid transformation. The thing sometimes that is missed is you may have all the technical resources and processes already available from the ocean you just acquired. It’s about spending time with the people to understand their unique qualities and harness that creative energy to get back on track. There is plenty of time to enhance, improve and make more cost effective, but critical now is to work with what you have now in order to build trust in the people to follow your leadership and to maintain their confidence they can still contribute to the greater purpose.

When we preserve the “Pride” of the people and the process that has made it successful until now, we maintain a strong foundation that is needed in order to build upon it and bring it through rapid change. Once everyone is on board because you paid respect to what they bring forward into the next journey, they’ll be there for you through the rough waters. When you get through the short term challenges, they will engage with you more willingly when it comes to investing time, money & resources for that business step change you were commissioned to do. 

So as I come out of my “Vaccine Fog” and gain clarity on how to steer my ship, I offer you a tool for you to determine if you are on track or do you need The CEO’s Compass to see you through your “Fog” and get you and your team back on track.

For my free assessment tool, email me and put “Get my CEO’s Compass Assessment Tool” in the subject and I’ll get it right over to you. ([email protected]) This will give you a sense if you’re on track or which Compass point you need to focus on. If you’d like to talk through the tool, let’s connect for a free 15 minute call.

Did you wake up one morning and realize you were ready to lead a successful company? Me either.

In fact, the more knowledgable I’ve become over the years, the more I realize that I’ve never been inherently ready for anything – and neither are your emerging leaders.

Leadership is a process, and at any given moment your skilled employees are on their own (very unique) journey to becoming the leader you need them to be. It’s up to you to recognize where they are in that journey and know how to support them. 

If leadership were a fire, it would start with a spark, then develop a slow burn and finally ignite into a flame that is unstoppable. If we break the process down into these phases, there are a few not so typical characteristics that you can look out for.

Type 1 – The Spark

Characteristics:

• They’re labeled as difficult.
• People roll their eyes when this individual speaks.
• People avoid speaking to them because they know it may be work they have to do.
• People come to you and complain about this person and they now become your problem.

What do you do? This is the time most leaders develop a performance improvement plan, hand the person off to HR or simply ignore them. 

In Practice:

I’m saddened to know countless people go unacknowledged because true leadership does not recognize the leaders of tomorrow. These people are restless. They have ideas about how things should be. They vocalize their thoughts that are often not popular only to be smothered by disinterest or avoidance because it may be work or things will change. 

Every new idea and change comes with effort, but I ask are you willing to listen and truly see the spark that person brings to your organization. Their ideas may be rough, but under your leadership you could refine the message and help the individual to position their thoughts and energy into a positive impact. 

I saw this person in my last consulting assignment, a highly talented food safety specialist. I worked with them to channel their energy into messages that spoke the language of business or that of the individual they were speaking to. I mentored them to speak more concisely about concepts. I taught them to find the best time / approach to communicating with people as everyone is different. I helped them to regain their confidence in their technical expertise as they found their way to more effectively communicate and to start to effect change. This person had a beautiful spark and I found a way to keep it shining bright. 

What do you do with this “difficult” person? Your role as a leader to see leadership before everyone else sees it and it starts with that person with a little spark. Don’t let others smother it.

Type 2 – The Slow Burn

Characteristics:

• They come to your office and start writing on your whiteboard a new approach to an existing problem.
• They’re so wrapped up in the concept and story telling, they appear lost in their world of trying to convince you of a new way.
• They’re frustrated with their current role and are not delivering yet they have time to share new ideas with you and are energized by it.

You appreciate the well thought out concept, but are distracted by the fact they’re not meeting their performance objectives. 

In Practice:

I saw this person in my office and I was exhilarated with a new way of thinking to help leaders get to a deeper level of thinking when it came to root cause analysis. As we tested the idea and then applied it to the real world crisis, we uncovered a major global system flaw in some ERP software where in the past, a band aid would have been applied in the past. This person was so energized by the work to a fault that some of their other responsibilities did falter a bit, but I’m thrilled this person found a new calling that could impact the business on a greater scale.

That person later resigned to a calling of being a plant manager at another company. When they handed in their resignation, they said the work would allow him to impact so many more people on a greater scale now that he had found his passion to teach and help others to solve problems. 

So I ask you what do you do? This “Slow Burn” can have a tremendous impact on your organization if you provide them the time and mentorship to revolutionize how you do business. I won’t lie to you, but it takes a lot of work to harness this immense potential into something that can create a lasting impact on the organization. It takes an open door policy to support them with monthly 1:1’s to help them to evolve their process and to something that raises them to a level of leadership that is no longer taxing to your energy, but something that creates energy. The question you need to ask yourself is are you willing to invest the time?  And if not you, with whom?

Type 3 – The Igniter

Characteristics:

• They’re your highest performers that make you feel comfortable and you look good because they are so good at their work.
• You don’t have to worry about them, therefore you don’t spend much time thinking about developing their career.

You give them a target performance review and when they ask you for feedback, you draw a blank and say you’ll give it some thought and get back to them. They shut the door on their way out and with that, you’ve forever lost your best performer. 

In Practice:

Your star performers who are highly aware of their performance are always seeking to improve are the ones you have to watch out for. Sure, they’re probably promotion material and top of mind for new projects, but they’re a smoldering fire waiting to Ignite. They’re either going to fall into a confidence deficit, start working themselves to the bone  thinking that will get them ahead or before you know it, they leave you and then you wonder why. 

Whether you realize it or not, they’ve already mentally left you and while they continue to do their work to the highest quality, they’ve been seeking support from other people. I know because they’re being mentored by myself. They’re in my Human Centric Leadership Academy, signed up to be a mentor through a professional organziation or are consuming my content on social media and the podcast. It’s only a matter of time, they ignite themselves into a new role or company and you never saw it coming. 

What should you do? I might propose the first step is to truly “see” these people vs. taking them for granted. They are your future leaders and by not supporting them, your investment will be lost by having to pick up what could later be poor performance or they leave the company. If you realize this is an opportunity, do you have the capacity to provide this to maintain your top performers? Do you need someone to partner with you? I challenge you to ask yourself these questions and if any of these are “yes”, I’d love to connect with you and start a conversation. 

It first starts with a conversation to discuss how you can keep the “spark”, the “slow burn” or the “igniter” people in your organization and protect your investments. Until we meet, promise yourself some time to “see” these people and see if you have a different view of their potential after reading this article. I suspect you have talent that is untapped and you can be the one to help them to leave a lasting impact.

Let’s talk! I’d love to support you in discovering your untapped talent on your team.-Deb

Have you ever felt like you were climbing rungs of ladder in your business, stepping up one-by-one only to look up a realize all you can see is more ladder?

We hit milestones every day, yet most of us are hesitant to share them with anyone. Maybe they feel insignificant, or maybe we’re not sure if it’s professional.

The truth is, if you have a good relationship with your customers, they want to celebrate your success with you.

It keeps you top of mind for future business.

It shows that through your growth, you’ll sustainability be there for them in the future.

It creates deeper connection because you simply care to share major milestones.

If you can’t communicate your successes, how can you be a champion of your clients’ brands?

I’d love for you to practice in the comments. I’ll go first!
– In 2019, Illumination Partners, LLC was formed, servicing clients internationally
– In 2020, we launched The Drop in CEO Podcast is releasing it’s 100th episode on February 26th, 2021
– In 2021, we’re releasing my new book, “The CEOs Compass – 8 points to getting you back on track”

Not ready to share in the comments? Let’s book a 30 minute call and see how we can communicate your milestones in a way that builds more meaningful relationships with your clients and network.

When my client said “Sign me up”, I had finally hit a turning point. The majority of my networking conversations left me feeling drained. I knew I showed up with value, but often those conversations would be a one and done.

Mid-career professionals were coming out of the woodwork through referrals and I would spend an hour with each listening intently to their story and reframe a value proposition that floored them every time. They were amazed. I thought for sure they would return as I provided them so much value, but that wasn’t the case.

I then realized after some soul searching there was nothing wrong with the value that I provided. I was hesitating to extend offers in the context of not wanting to be “salesy”. However, things started to change when I began seeing these conversations as opportunities to help others. If someone doesn’t take advantage of an opportunity, that has nothing to do with me. When I show up with an authentic desire to help, everything changes.

If you would like an opportunity to see how I can help guide you through rapid change, let’s book a chat!

I recently had a client reach out and ask me to provide a proposal for quality support services for a new company they were building.

Normally this would be cause for celebration.

I enjoy working with this client.

I love the work I do.

But despite the joy new business brings, I heard the unspoken distress in my clients’ request.

They said “I need you to help us with our annual audit and provide quality support services…”

I heard, “Help me keep my business afloat after being devastated by the economic impact of COVID.”

Often consultants will rush to deliver a proposal for the requested service without understanding how the client truly needs to be served. That understanding starts with listening.

There are five steps to decoding what your client is really saying:
– Listen to their words
– Look at their body language
– Write down key words they say
– Connect the words to a common theme
– Reframe what you heard to confirm understanding

The next time you have a meeting with a new boss, a new team, a new client… how are you going to serve them?

Follow the 70/30 rule – 70% listening and 30% speaking. The result will be a more trusting relationship and a better result for the people you serve.

If you are struggling with this, Let’s book a call! We’ll figure it out together.

In 2017 at the University of Notre Dame, our team from Cincinnati Curling Club won the Silver Medal at Arena Nationals, losing by only one point to Oklahoma Curling Club. While my team was sad that we lost, I knew we were winners. It took five tries to achieve this goal, but it came only by competing with the best Arena Curlers in the country.

The first year I was the Skip (captain) of our team and I’m embarrassed to say we only won 1 of our 4 games.

The following years, we rebuilt the team with a more experienced Skip and I moved into the Lead (1st position) where my skills were exceptional and key to setting up a good strategy. We went to Nationals again with more confidence and skill, but it was another 3 years before we would make it to the semi-finals and take home the prize.

Are the people around you challenging you everyday to learn something new or push you out of your comfort zone?

If you want to keep company with some of the most amazing leaders, join us by subscribing to The Drop in CEO podcast for weekly free content.
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If you’re anything like me you had BIG ambitions for the new year. Now that we’re a few weeks in I’m starting to feel the weight of those ambitions and it’s getting uncomfortable. In fact, this is my new normal; being comfortable with being uncomfortable.

I’m writing a book as we speak, revising my website to clarify my offers, creating relationships that lead to business and also putting my health and well-being first. There is still a long list of things I’m not doing yet, and I haven’t found the skills or resources to help me. It worries me and sometimes keeps me up at night. However, being uncomfortable is what keeps you highly attuned to seeing the people in your network who can help you.

One example is monetization of my content that I put out for free. How do I curate it so my audience understands the value and the opportunity that lies behind the subscription? How do I share this opportunity in a way that is exciting and authentic? I’m trusting when the time is right, my guide will show up and we’ll get the work done. Getting comfortable with that trust is my new superpower, and it can be yours too.

What is one thing you are uncomfortable doing, but know if you do it, your path will be easier?

Starting a Podcast was uncomfortable, but I pushed the button and here we are almost 100 episodes later – check out The Drop in CEO Podcast!

I’m on the 4th round of building a website. It’s still not where I want it, but I trust that 80% is okay. Check out the website!

February of 2019, I posted my first video on Linkedin and was not sure if what I had to say mattered, but now I know it does!

Launching my FB page for Illumination Partners gets average traffic, but I still get comments from my community and that’s all that matters!

I’m still taking risks and I’m quite frankly unsure if I can get it all done, but one thing I know for sure… I believe in myself!

Have questions and don’t know where to get started? I offer a 30 minute free consultation... let’s talk!

-Deb Coviello

I asked for a raise and title change because I felt justified in the work I was already doing. To my surprise, I got what I asked for. The president said “so often we advocate for others and not for ourselves.” This leader recognized the courage to ask and I was rewarded.

However, not everything we ask for works out the way we expect. I was faced with an enormous quality issue that exceeded my capacity and capability within my team to resolve. I asked for help and the Cavalry came. Some people were not pleased that I revealed the vulnerability and it later led to my dismissal from the company.

Had I not asked for help, how many customers might have been affected by a poor quality product? The risk would have been far greater to others vs. the impact to one.

In the first story, I asked for something to benefit myself and I got it. In the second one I asked for help to assist others and I got what I asked for. Having left my company gives me the opportunity to do the work I love to do and inspire so many more than I had before.

Given your circumstances, will you ask for what you want and take the risk of being successful? Or will you stand on the sideline and forever wonder what could have been?

If you’re at a cross road and just shy of asking for what you want, let’s book a call

If you would like more inspiration & insights from my network of industry leaders, please catch The Drop in CEO Podcast and subscribe.

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