The Marathon Model

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The Marathon Model 26.2 Milestones to Superior Leadership Running is an individual sport. Or is it? Leaders have followers. Or do they? During the course of my research to uncover the quintessential leadership model, I realized that the key qualities defining superior leaders happen along a continuum of milestones, that, when followed and aligned effectively as a system (Bradach, 1996), produced remarkable results. Developing into a leader is not unlike growing a business or running a marathon - “It’s a lot of small ball. There is no grand slam. It’s all consistency.” (Aplin, 2012) Some people are just born to run, possessing an innate predisposition for leadership success. But no runner, regardless of whether they are running a course or running a boardroom, can do it without personally deciding to gear up, train, and run the race. It was this appreciation of consistent, deliberate actions, combined with resounding commonalities between top business leaders, that led to the development of the following 26.2 key milestones to success in leadership. “Building a successful business is a lot of small ball. There is no grand slam. It’s all consistency.” -Arch Aplin, Buc-ee’s Gear Up. Having the right gear, the right plan and the right team in place will start you off right on the road to success. Stages: Train. Don’t expect to be in it for the long haul without proactive training. This means seeking mentors, studying, learning the business, and practicing. 1 2 Run the Race. Once you have entered the race, smart decisions and efficiency are key. Your practice should be paying off while your skills manifest naturally. 3 Leadership By Cynthia Huchingson

Transcript of The Marathon Model

Page 1: The Marathon Model

The Marathon Model

26.2 Milestones to Superior Leadership

Running is an individual sport. Or is it? Leaders have followers. Or do they? During the course of my research to uncover the quintessential leadership model, I realized that the key qualities defining superior leaders happen along a continuum of milestones, that, when followed and aligned effectively as a system (Bradach, 1996), produced remarkable results. Developing into a leader is not unlike growing a business or running a marathon - “It’s a lot of small ball. There is no grand slam. It’s all consistency.” (Aplin, 2012) Some people are just born to run, possessing an innate predisposition for leadership success. But no runner, regardless of whether they are running a course or running a boardroom, can do it without personally deciding to gear up, train, and run the race. It was this appreciation of consistent, deliberate actions, combined with resounding commonalities between top business leaders, that led to the development of the following 26.2 key milestones to success in leadership.

“Building a successful business is a lot of small ball. There is no grand slam. It’s all consistency.” -Arch Aplin, Buc-ee’s

Gear Up.

Having the right gear, the

right plan and the right team

in place will start you off right

on the road to success.

Stages:

Train.

Don’t expect to be in it for

the long haul without

proactive training. This

means seeking mentors,

studying, learning the

business, and practicing.

1

2

Run the Race.

Once you have entered the

race, smart decisions and

efficiency are key. Your

practice should be paying off

while your skills manifest

naturally.

3

Leadership

By Cynthia Huchingson

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“If you’re not prepared for the first 5 miles, you might as well not even lace up your shoes.” -Cynthia Huchingson

“Gearing up in any company is about making sure you are prepared

foundationally for the course ahead and whatever it brings.”

-Cynthia Huchingson

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From acquiring the right gear to putting together a team to help you along with way, the following 5 milestones are an essential start…

Mile 1.

Know what you are good at – both personally and professionally. Know what your company is good at. Everyone has innate talents that, combined with care and cultivation, predispose them to success within a specific arena. It’s not typically hard to tell who should be the line backer and who is better suited for marathon running. Companies work much the same way. Swedish psychologist Dr. K. Anders Ericcson purported a theory suggesting that it takes 10,000 hours of targeted, progressive practice to become an expert at something. (Ericcson) This equates to approximately 5 years working within a full time job or 10 years practicing a skill for 3 hours per day.

Considering this philosophy, companies run a high risk when they don’t have a plan in place to develop, protect, and keep their experts – or a plan to ensure that the appropriate

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level of expertise is assigned to each strategic department or initiative. Knowing your strengths allows you to know just how many balls you are prepared to juggle at once.

Although Arch Aplin, founder of Buc-ee’s admits that “It’s dangerous if you try to be everything to everybody”, every one of the entrepreneurs I interviewed had a propensity for wanting to do everything, and, similar to Bob Johnson of Honeywell, were so obsessed with their work that they “pretty much worked non-stop. They sleep with their phone next the bed and when they have a thought, they act upon it. Their executive team learns to check their phones and respond as quickly as possible to the entrepreneurs needs.” (Yemen & Clawson, 2006) Entrepreneurs just have these fast twitch muscles that tell them “Oh, this looks good, do this.” Then, “gosh, this is a terrible system. I can come up with something to fix this. Here you go. Let’s do this.” To “You know, I think it would be fun to do this. I’m going to do it.” It was fascinating to contrast the entrepreneur interviews with the manager interviews; one would think I was speaking to two entirely different species of human.

Stage 1: Gear Up

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Entrepreneurs, Executives

Leaders

Dr. Rajiv Dahiya, President & CEO of Oncology San Antonio,

The Urology & Prostate Institute, and founder of a number of

independent tech start-ups, perhaps said it best when he

summarized the difference between entrepreneurs,

executives and leaders:

“Every entrepreneur is highly dependent on his executive

team. These people not only ground you,

but they often are the ones who find a

way to say and communicate everything

that’s in your head – and then they take

your thoughts and make things happen.

They regularly represent you, speak for you - nearly

everything they do is a reflection on you. You’ve got to

have an incredible amount of trust in these people. There is

a difference, though, between executives and leaders. I’ve

met a lot of executives, successful executives. You need

executives - they know their stuff and they protect your

business. Leaders, though, they are different – they are the

ones who surprise you. Leaders have this innate ability to

jump out of the car and start pushing you out of the ditch

before you even realize you’re in the ditch.” (Dahiya, 2012)

That’s the difference.

“Leaders have this innate ability to jump out of the car and start pushing their team out of the ditch before they even realize they’re in the ditch.”

-Dr. Rajiv Dahiya

&

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“Human nature dictates everything.”

-Dr. George Smith,

Humana

Mile 2.

Know who your customer is and develop

every system around that customer.

When you put new rules in place or new

departments in place, make sure you

remember why you are doing it. Ask

yourself: Who is the customer and how

does this help the customer at the end of

the day? “In any business decision,

make sure you ask: ‘What would a

human do?’, because human nature

dictates everything.” (Smith, 2012) Begin

by assessing the customer’s needs and

develop everything around that. Re-

assess those needs on a periodic basis to

make sure you don’t get off track. “The

customer doesn’t care about the

complex scheduling issues surrounding a

closed pump at the gas station – they just

want to fill up their car.” (Hollowell)

Hollowell’s sentiments permeated the

thoughts of nearly all leaders I

interviewed - non-leaders want to tell you

why they couldn’t make something

happen, leaders figure out a way to

make it happen and keep the excuses

out of it. “Everything leads back to the

client and it’s much easier if you start this

in the beginning. When our staff has this

end customer in mind at all times,

everything is easier because they ‘get it’.

The staff then ends up helping you drive

the client/customer experience – they

want to make the statements clearer,

respond to inquiries better and faster,

and give better service because they

understand what it’s all about.” (Bomar,

2012)

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Mile 3.

“Understand that people are your competitive advantage.”

- (O'Reilly & Pfeffer, 1995)

Put the right team in place. This mantra applies regardless of whether you are a start-up with two employees or a huge corporation with thousands, whether making decisions for an entire entity or for a single division. When you are hiring, know the type of person that you need to hire in order to reach your goals. There are transferable positions (like accounting, manufacturing and HR) where skill sets can transfer from industry to industry, and non-transferable positions where it is advantageous to have long term, or even life long employees. For these people, ensure your recruiting, development, and reward programs are designed to encourage longevity. “Within a complex environment, it can take years to learn everything you need to know to make good decisions on behalf of the company from a high level perspective. Until you learn all of the divisions and all of the pieces you can’t move up. It’s not the norm anymore to keep employees for life, but for certain key roles it really makes sense - you have to hire the most talented people, cultivate from within, and create an infrastructure of support and advancement for them so that they feel good about working for the company and never want to leave.” (Heinz, 2012)

At Wells Fargo Financial Advisors, they identified three key types of people needed within their organization that I felt were, for the most part, globally applicable– those who help to grow it, those who run it, and those who protect it.

Those who grow it…

Business cultivators are sales-driven, intrinsically motivated individuals who provide the lifeblood of growth to the organization. There is rare occasion to ever place anyone other than an “A Player” in this critical position. The structure of the organization and the systems must articulate with this role to ensure that these people are properly motivated to continuously produce top results. “John Deere hires A+ or A- players almost 100% of the time and then we let them compete with each other to move up, so that at the end of the year when our staff has their performance reviews, ‘normal’ performance tends to be higher than ‘super’ performance in other companies. We only recruit the best people so that we can establish a new normal. Managers are constantly telling employees: “If there is a job out there you want, you can’t be #2.” It is the employee’s job to make sure they have prepared themselves to be the best candidate for the next job they want to have. It is my job, or the manager’s job, to ensure they have the ability to access the training and anything else they need to make that happen. This gets us out of the business of training someone to do a job and into the business of results.” (Heinz, 2012)

Those who run it…

Individuals who ‘run’ the company have to become systems thinkers who are operationally aware of the myriad internal and external customers within an organization. The roles of each of the interconnected parts and personalities running each of those roles become extremely important for optimal efficiency. Individuals in operations need to be able to step back and see the organization from a birds-eye view, and then understand each zoomed in division and be close enough to each of those groups to effect positive change. John Margo, retired executive from Exxon Mobile believes strongly that “within operations lies the key to a companies success.” This is where opportunities are uncovered – from understanding the end customer and the ‘system’ in place to provide an exceptional experience for that customer, to uncovering opportunities for strategic alliances - it all happens in operations. “Operations people who can create an exceptional customer experience understand well who and what drives their bottom line. At the end of the day, it’s all about your customer, no matter how you define customer. Further, customers with phenomenal experiences only help motivate, support, and help the sales drivers of the organization. When these items articulate - sales, operations and the customer experience, the company is ready for the next level of strategic development.” (Bomar, 2012)

Those who protect it…

Corporate ‘protectors’ are the insurance policy on your business and its assets. Protectors need to be ‘masters’ in their field and typically hold roles in accounting, billing, finance, HR, legal or compliance. Keeping clean, exact accounting records, ensuring the organization is properly insured and protecting and following all laws relevant to both the industry and the country in which you operate is essential. You can scarcely open a newspaper today without reading about the repercussions a company is facing because of the failure to have appropriate corporate protectors – within the Chicago Park District, an operation with a $400 million annual budget, the lack of simple accounting payment policies and general ledger expense codes created a system of huge inefficiencies without the ability to create or monitor departmental budgets, pinpoint cost overruns or report meaningful data to stakeholders. (Clawson, 1996) Although accounting is a tedious process, developing a system of transparent and exacting processes is essential within this department.

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Mile 4.

Create the Vision

Make sure you know where you are going and the route. If you can’t explain your vision, no one else will be able to either. Regardless of the size of your company, both your internal and your external customers need to know your vision. Even in a small company, something as simple as a video to welcome people to the company and explain your ‘reason for being’ will go a long way and save a lot of time. (Bomar, 2012)

When launching a new division, department or new strategy, you always need to go back to Mile 3 and re-create that vision. In 2009, Ron Heinz, Manager of Dealer Technical Relations for Worldwide Crop Harvesting Equipment for John Deere, together with five of his counterparts with the same title but different product group (hay, crop care, harvesting equipment, turf, and utility) were tasked with the job of taking John Deere’s U.S. ‘help desk’ concept global – across 40 countries, 15 new sites, and 7 languages. The challenge was that the U.S. system had developed one call center at a time over the course of about 20 years; launching this globally would be a paradigm shift for both employees and customers alike. When asked about the keys to the team’s success, Ron confided:

“Communication was key. In the beginning, the six of us had a conference call every week for two hours and we met face to face every month. These were initially just a series of planning meetings to get our thoughts aligned as a first step to spell out as many options and possibilities as we could think of. This gave us perspective regarding locations, languages, where people were going to sit, personalities - things we wouldn’t have come up with as holistically as individuals. After we amalgamated the data, we figured out how to get everyone to work together most effectively. Then we started travelling and started meeting the people who would actually be affected by the change. We put together a video showing all of the options we considered and the steps we took to uncover and synthesize those options. Before showing them our actual suggestions, we asked for their feedback. Subsequently, we continued the video, showing them our ideas for ‘best concept’ and asked for their feedback again. We asked them how well the concept fit within their needs and wrote down all requests for change. We did this with all 15 groups and then the six of us re-convened in a face to face meeting, shared what we learned, and modified the plan accordingly.

We then created the final proposal that we took to leadership, which had to include not only the ‘big picture’ plan, but the implementation plan to include locations, capital budget requirements, goals, how we were going to measure our performance, and which of leaderships original goals for the project we were going to meet, exceed or fail to meet. Once we got our approval, we set about implementing. This meant that that six of us teamed up in pairs, went back to each of the 15 locations and told them the final plan. We then rolled out the plan according to which of the new sites was most ready, next most ready, or a long way from being ready. Each location had some unique factors so we then had to explain to each location how they would be similar to the other locations, how they would be different, and why. We couldn’t stop here, though, because things weren’t just going to change for the employees, they were going to change for the customer too, who in this case were the dealers. So we set up a series of dealer meetings to prepare them for what was going to be different than before, both in terms of service and performance, and went through a similar process with them.” (Heinz, 2012)

Creating the vision is inextricably tied to communicating – internally, externally, up, down, and across the chain. If you miss one key person in your communication, you could be missing the key link to success.

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Mile 5.

Develop a structure that makes sense and revisit it when it stops making sense.

“When a company is smaller, processes tend to create themselves more naturally. I’ve found that when a company or division gets close to that 100 person mark, however, systems development becomes much more important.” (Dahiya, 2012) Although many critics argue that leaders like former Appex CEO Shikhar Ghosh changed corporate structure too frequently, most executives whom I interviewed concur, “When a company or division has grown 50%, it’s time to change.” (Appex, 2011)

Your organization structure can really help you build in efficiencies around the necessary experts whom you need to run the company. It’s a great way to give the business ‘cultivators’ the freedom and support they need to drive the company while providing the

“In 2005”, explains Trip Bomar, Managing Director, Market Manager - North Texas Market, Wells Fargo Advisors, “Wells Fargo executives decided to restructure the entire broker dealer network. In the past all of the brokerage firms were run with individual branch offices. Branch managers reported to a regional director who reported to the broker dealer. Each branch was an autonomous business unit, basically a mini company operating inside of the larger brand name. When all of the mergers happened over the years, the branch system became too large for a regional president to manage or oversee all of the individual branches under their control. We thus hired an outside consulting firm who came in and analyzed all of the work that branch managers were

doing in their individual branches. The outcome of that study was that

branch managers were spending the majority of their time running or protecting the branches and little to no time growing the branch. We knew we needed to re-establish a model that would get us back into the business of growing the business. With the new ‘hub’ model, ‘markets’ were created within the regional structure to oversee the individual branches. The markets would then centralize the operations, compliance and administrative divisions, taking this work off of the branch managers so that they could spend their time growing the business and supporting the needs of their financial advisors.” Bomar was the executive chosen to pilot this new model. There were several

naysayers who feared that adding a layer of management was going to make communication more challenging and the company less efficient, but Bomar saw the advantages the new system could create and took them to their fullest advantage. Co-locating the operations, compliance and administrative staff allowed Bomar to streamline the team of 33 individuals, often operating as ‘jack of all trades’ in the local offices, to 14 ‘experts’. “While your business it still relatively small, most staff members need to be cross-trained. As you grow, however, there becomes an advantage to having experts. If you can restructure to take advantage then of your experts (by locating them centrally so that they can help answer questions from multiple locations that are likely similar), you have created efficiency and a level of expertise that you couldn’t otherwise achieve with a pod structure. The hub system allowed us to put experts where they needed to be. This gave us a huge advantage because the branch offices could then call and get an answer within minutes to a question that would normally take them hours or days to resolve through their former channels.” Bomar and his team of 14 ‘experts’ handle 11 branch offices, 250 financial advisors, 80 support staff, and $125 million in annual revenue. The hub model was subsequently launched to 100 other markets within Wells Fargo Financial Advisors and is now the most commonly seen organizational structure within the broker dealer industry. “Most importantly,” Bomar muses, “is that our financial advisors and branch managers are back to doing what they do best - building the business.”

“It takes 10,000 hours to become an expert.”

-Dr. Anders Ericcson

Protect your experts and set them up to share their knowledge.

Structure your organization.

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Stage 2: Train

“Leaders always need to think about developing skills in new areas.” -John Margo, Creole Petroleum

“Don’t pigeonhole yourself into knowledge from just within your own industry – you will limit your growth.” -Dr. George Smith, Humana

The path to leadership doesn’t

happen overnight. Similarly,

neither does the destination. You

don’t arrive at work one day to a

t-shirt on your desk that says

“LEADER”. More than likely,

leadership roles of increasing

complexity will present themselves

over the course of you career. As

you take on new these new

projects and roles, it’s imperative to

use each experience as an

opportunity to learn, grow, and

become a stronger leader.

If you are asking yourself, How do I

become the next Bill Braxton or

Bob Johnson in terms of my ability

to turn companies around and

achieve repeatedly solid results,

here’s what it takes.

The milestones in this section

represent the most commonly

resounded themes from business

leader after business leader.

Learn.

Always be learning something

new and practicing a new

skillset. “Don’t pigeonhole

yourself into knowledge from

just within your own industry –

you will limit your growth.“

(Smith, 2012)

Listen.

Listen to customers, listen to

employees, and listen to

other leaders. Then act.

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Identify.

Identify your leaders, future

leaders, and potential

leaders. Develop systems to

motivate them, grow their

talents, and keep them.

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Network.

Build relationships up, down,

and across the chain. Stay in

communication with those

people you network with.

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Communicate.

Very few people are

consistent, effective

communicators. Take time to

become an expert at this.

Communicate up the chain,

down the chain, across the

chain, and outside the chain.

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“The skills required to conquer adversity are often similar to those that create great leaders.” -Dr. Rajiv Dahiya

Mile 11.

Conquer Adversity.

I love asking people about their childhood as I uncover some of the funniest and most remarkable stories I have ever heard. Moreover, a common theme nearly always makes its way to the surface - Nearly every ‘great’ leader has overcome some pretty significant obstacles. From Bob Johnson’s ADD & OCD challenges (Yemen & Clawson, 2006); to Dahiya’s admission to being “awkward” as a child (Dahiya, 2012); to Joan Kors, (fashion designer Michael Kors mother and the NY Giants first female NFL player) reminiscing over her mothers heartache over her desire to play football (Kors, 2004), leaders become adept at accommodating quickly and positively to adversity and failure alike.

“The skills required to conquer adversity are often similar to those that create great leaders,” said Dahiya over coffee at Starbucks early one Saturday morning. “There are some people you can just take and throw them up in a ceiling fan…they fly around a few times and come down with a smile on their face. These people will make great leaders” (Dahiya, 2012) – they’ve either overcome something nearly insurmountable or had simply amazing parenting; likely a combination of both.

Gustavo Zubizarreta, owner of multiple manufacturing and import/export businesses in Venezuela, discussed how it took him 11 years to finish college. Family and friends pressured him about his inability to focus on school, but, “in the interim, I was learning so much outside of the classroom,” he says, “that I was able to actually make more money in school that most people make once they graduate. If I was still young enough to not stick out, I may still be there!” he muses. “Being a relatively unpopular child gave me a desire to figure out how to really excel in business and create power through strategic negotiations.

Mile 13.

Trim the Fat.

Keeping on inefficient or negative

employees will hurt the entire team.

Morris Massey suggests that by age

10, people have developed the

basic values that shape their

behavior. When a person appears

to be hanging on to “imprinted”

values that are not relevant in the

present situation and are, in fact,

harmful to the company, it is unlikely

that a manager will be able to

change that behavior. (Clawson J.

G., 2001) In these situations, it is wise

to eliminate underperforming or

excessively negative staff.

It further drove me to success in businesses that were less flattering than those my friends were in. There’s no glamour in the diaper business, but it sure is fun to see the look on people’s face when I tell them that’s what I do!” (Zubizarreta, 2012)

Mile 12.

Get Feedback.

Openly communicate and listen to your people. Ask for input. Don’t give too much direction. Instead ask, “What do you think we should do about this situation? Instead of asking brief questions, ask your staff to explain the whole process. If you pick apart what they do day-to-day this will likely be taken wrong. (Heinz, 2012)

Create internal committees regularly who are the ‘recipients’ of other sides of the business. Ask, “If you were in operations, how would you do it differently? If you were in customer service, how would you do it differently? If you were in production, how would you do it differently?” (Bomar, 2012)

Not all employees will be willing to give feedback at first. Create a safe environment for them to do so, and reward responses, even if they are incorrect. (Heinz, 2012) Your front line staff will likely be aware of potential problems before you are, if you can train them to identify problems early on and come up with potential solutions to resolve them, the system will begin to run itself. This is how a culture of service begins.

At Zappos, top management was highly effective at creating a culture of service by empowering CLT Members (call center staff) to “wow” customers. They did this by encouraging the CLT team to stay on the phone with the customer as long as necessary, connect with them personally and find a way to troubleshoot their problem, no matter what it was. (Frei, Ely, & Winig, 2011)

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Mile 14.

“Being effective is much better than being right.

Arriving early and leaving late is not the key. Be there at the right time and do the right things without wasting time or spending time, money, and other valuable resources on the wrong problem.” (Margo, 2012)

Dr. John Burrows, Director of the University of Texas at Austin eMBA program and Professor of Leadership, teaches students “how to get things done through others”. (Burrows, 2012) An effective leader is both personally efficient as well as effective at motivating and empowering others to achieve superior results – through personal style to systems deve- lopment, shared val- ues, structure, strategy, skills, & staffing. (Bradach, 1996)

Mile 15.

Every day, ask yourself: “What did I do to produce another barrel of oil today?”

(Margo, 2012) “What did my team do?”

Always make sure you have the appropriate number of people selling the business. Your sales team should all be “A Players” (Huselid, Beatty, & Becker, 2005); there is no room for anything less. (Heinz,

2012) They should know your business like the back of their hand and be able to articulate it on a moment’s notice with

passion and conviction.

“Everything that anyone does within the organization needs to support those that build the business -

those who have the relationships with your customers.”

(Bomar, 2012)

Mile 16.

Motivate others.

“The most successful way to motivate your team is to spend time with them, get to know them, and lett them know how their specific role fits into the greater picture. (Smith, 2012) If we just tell them how to do their job, it become mechanical; you can’t get results from that. People want to know, they need to know, why there are here.” (Bomar, 2012) “You’ve got to treat your staff right no matter what industry you’re in. In healthcare, we want our staff to show compassion to our patients. We can’t expect that if we don’t show compassion and consideration to their particular needs as well.” (Johnston, 2012)

Mile 17.

Take advantage of technology.

Everything is easier with

technology. Although cha- nges in technology take time to

learn and implement, you cannot afford to stay in the dark ages. Training has

gotten significantly easier over the years because of technology – even small

companies can take advantage of this.

“It has been amazing to see the advancements possible in third world

countries because of technology; it is sad when countries in the U.S. who have it at

their fingertips don’t use it to its fullest extent.” (Zubizarreta, 2012)

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Stage 3: Run the Race

“You can’t be the leader if you’re always busy trying to run with someone else.” -Cynthia Huchingson

“Once you have begun the race, don’t take too long to make decisions.” -Dr. Rajiv Dahiya

Mile 18.

You can’t be the leader if you’re always busy trying to run with someone else. Leaders have to constantly push themselves outside of their comfort zone – whether that zone is within a particular set of people, a certain division, or a skill set. Leaders also understand that sometimes they need to slow down to help those behind them, or speed up to surpass those up ahead.

Leaders often find themselves chosen last for ‘teams’ within unknown groups, most often because, instead of attempting to create upfront alliances, they exhibit a genuine interest in getting to know all others and tranquility during the process. Fascinatingly, leaders tend to use politics and negotiation to their advantage much later in the “race”, when they are more familiar with the players; novices tend to use politics up front in order to “win” friends or gain a head start. Powerful leaders take time to understand the real parties involved, their associated strengths and weaknesses, and how value can be created through strategic alliances (Wheeler, 2000), leading them ultimately to greater success than novice runners.

Mile 19.

“Once you have begun the race, don’t take too long to make decisions.” (Dahiya, 2012)

If you “trained” appropriately, you will have prepared yourself with the knowledge, resources, structure and team to make good decisions. Don’t put off decisions that you can make today. Your team trusts you to make decisions on their behalf; if you vacillate or waste important time, you will be seen as sloppy, or worse yet – unprepared. Once you have entered the race, smart decisions and efficiency are key. Your practice should be paying off while your skills manifest themselves naturally.

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Mile 20.

In a long race, it’s important to choose the opportunities that yield the most visible and profitable outcomes. Inside a company, look for the divisions where most of the hiring takes place, typically this occurs in sales or operations. When joining a board, use the same philosophy – often the finance committee is key. Find a place where you can really make a difference and do so. (Johnston, Managing Partner, General Surcial Associates. Board Member, Methodist Healthcare Ministries., 2012) Sitting on a board is important, both for your career and for networking. If you don’t have one to sit on, create one that you are passionate about. “You can’t separate a business from its community.“ (Bomar, 2012)

Mile 21.

Remember that people are the ones who make the decisions. (Smith, 2012) When you are one of many, there are many more decisions made by “others”. When presenting to your staff, remember that they are the ones who will ultimately choose to act or not act in response to your ‘presentation’. If you don’t start with the staff, nothing means anything. (Bomar, 2012) Empower others. Without them, you will get stuck.

Mile 22.

Balancing your time between multiple initiatives isn’t nearly as hard within a systems-based approach where everything is aligned. Just like breathing and running, sales initiatives can fit hand-in-hand with charity initiatives and staff development goals.

As Trip Bomar says: “These are all one and the same; you can’t really separate charity work from developing and motivating staff from sales. Our business is sales, so our reputation and our ability to interact with clients are what drive sales. By using a client outreach program like the evening we reserved the Dallas Museum of Art and brought our clients out for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at the Paul Galtier exhibit, we were able to develop closer relationships with our clients and give them an experience, encouraging them to invest more, trust our advisors, and refer their friends. We gave a percentage of the proceeds from the event back to a charity and this too fit perfectly within the entire model. We’re all a community. It everything you do doesn’t drive back to whoever your client is, it’s not going to work. The true advantage is achieved when you do them all at once.” (Bomar, 2012)

Mile 23.

Have a heart.

If you are in a business that can be connected to on an emotional level, use that to your advantage. If you want your company to be around for a long time, you have to have a long-term strategy. These things don’t happen overnight. “At John Deere, we believe in creating customers for life, and multiple generations of customers within the same family. This is how our retail division spawned. Dad or Grandpa would buy a tractor, and then buy a hat or a toy for little Johnny. These things seemed small at the time, but they made a huge impact and articulated with our core value of having generations of customers from the same family. Further, these have all lead into our current strategy, which is to create zealous fans. That may seem a little bold for a tractor company, but we’re sure going to try.” (Heinz, 2012)

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Mile 24.

Know your own strength.

Individuals possess personal power, positional power, and relational power. From a personal perspective, winning in competitive environments takes energy and stamina, focus, a tolerance for conflict, expertise and self-confidence. Within this environment, superior charisma, linguistic ability and track record generate immense power, but have to be appropriately balanced with genuine sensitivity for others, flexibility, and a humble attitude. (McGinn & Lingo, 2001) When individuals can work to constantly improve their personal strengths while concomitantly using their position and network to form strategic alliances (Smith, 2012), they truly know their own strength and have the “potential to mobilize energy”. (McGinn & Lingo, 2001)

Mile 25.

Sometimes you are gong to lose people you don’t want to lose, especially during mergers and acquisitions. When you end up combining computer systems, policies, rules and personalities, sometimes something has to give. That being said, make sure you create your definition of success well before any mergers. Then think through each major department both individually and how they will fit into the whole and look at every angle – both from the top down and the bottom up. Look for best practices that you can share from all parties involved; although this is costly and takes longer, this is where the real value of the merger comes in. To integrate a company correctly, it will take about 3 years. If you do lose valuable people along the way, never burn bridges and always look back to see if there was anything you could have done differently.

Remember that “tiny errors” in a small company can be “huge errors” in a bigger company. Check and re-check your work. “One admin transposed one number in our phone number on a letter to our customers – thousands of customers got that letter and that number was sex line.” (anonymous) Watch everything you do.

Mile 26.

Thank your support system. Never forget that you didn’t do this alone. From mentors along the way to good bosses, support teams, good tennis shoes and a bit of serendipity, there were many people in your path. Never forget to let people know how much you appreciate them.

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Mile 26.1

Start thinking about your next race.

Mile 26.2

Keep your head up. You’re going to need to smile for the camera.

Cynthia Huchingson, 34, lives life with a passion for people, learning, and not being idle. She enjoys the thrill of any good challenge and lives life with a smile and an infectious laugh. As Development Director at Oncology San Antonio, she is responsible for executing the strategic vision provided by the CEO, overseeing the day-to-day operations of the company, and developing and implementing initiatives that satisfy challenging growth benchmarks while staying aligned with their ‘reason for being’ – the patient. When asked about her favorite part of the job, she replies: “Helping lost old people find their way to their ultimate destination. They tend to walk so slow I nearly always have the chance to glean a piece of valuable life advice from them as we travel, and they always know what the weather is going to be like tomorrow!” Although Cynthia insists that her blood runs Aggie maroon, she is proud to be pursuing her executive MBA at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. She is happily married to Brian Huchingson, and cannot wait to see what’s around the bend…

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Bibliography Aplin, A. (2012, November 2). Founder & CEO, Buc-ee's. (C. Huchingson, Interviewer)

Appex. (2011). Appex Corporation Case Analysis.

Bomar, T. (2012, November 16). Managing Director, Market Manager - North Texas Market, Wells Fargo Advisors. Managing Director, Wells Fargo Advisors. (C. Huchingson, Interviewer)

Bradach, J. (1996). Organizational Alignment: The 7-S Model. Harvard Business School. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Burrows, D. J. (2012). Director, University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business eMBA Program. (C. Huchingson, Interviewer)

Clawson, J. G. (2001). A Leader's Guide to Why People Behave the Way They Do. University of Virginia. Charlottesville: Darden Business Publishing.

Clawson, J. G. (1996). Chicago Park District. University of Virginia. Charlottesville: Darden Business Publishing.

Dahiya, D. R. (2012, November 4). President & CEO, Oncology San Antonio. (C. Huchingson, Interviewer)

Ericcson, D. K. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2012, from Florida State University: http://www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.exp.perf.html

Frei, F. X., Ely, R. J., & Winig, L. (2011). Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture. Harvard Business School. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Heinz, R. (2012, November 23). Manager of Dealer Technical Assistance for Worldwide Crop Harvesting Equipment at John Deere. (C. Huchingson, Interviewer)

Hollowell, J. (n.d.). Executive Vice President, Shell Oil. (C. Huchingson, Interviewer)

Huselid, M., Beatty, R., & Becker, B. (2005). "A Players" or "A Positions"? Harvard Business School. Harvard Business Review.

Johnston, D. J. (2012). Managing Partner, General Surcial Associates. Board Member, Methodist Healthcare Ministries. (C. Huchingson, Interviewer)

Johnston, D. J. (2012, 11). Partner, General Surgical Associates & Board Member, Methodist Healthcare Ministries. (C. Huchingson, Interviewer)

Kors, J. (2004). NY Giants 1st Female NFL Player, Michael Kors Mom. (C. Huchingson, Interviewer)

Kuvaev, D. (n.d.). Shutterstock. Retrieved from Shutterstock: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-652045p1.html?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Denis Kuvaev</a> / <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Shutterstock.com</a>

Margo, J. (2012, 10 15). Retired Director, Creole Petroleum Company, former Venezuela Division of Exxon Mobile. (C. Huchingson, Interviewer)

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Maxisport. (n.d.). Shutterstock - Race Day Photo. Retrieved 11 2012, from Shutterstock: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-224068p1.html?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Maxisport</a> / <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Shutterstock.com</a>

McGinn, K., & Lingo, E. L. (2001). Power and Influence: Achieving Your Objectives in Organizations. Harvard Business School. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing.

O'Reilly, C., & Pfeffer, J. (1995). Southwest Airlines: Using Human Resources for Competitive Advantage. Stanford University, Graduate School of Business. Palo Alto: Stanford University.

Smith, D. G. (2012, 11 27). President, Southwest Region, Senior Products Segment at Humana. (C. Huchingson, Interviewer)

Wheeler, M. (2000). Negotiation Analysis: An Introduction. Harvard Business School. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing.

Yemen, G., & Clawson, J. (2006). The Life and Career of a Divisional CEO: Bob Johnson at Honeywell. University of Virginia. Charlottesville: Darden Business Publishing.

Zubizarreta, G. (2012, 11 20). Founder & CEO - Venezuela Diaper Company, Sugar Import/Export Business. (C. Huchingson, Interviewer)

Notes on Interview Selection

The leaders in my interview sample were chosen for various reasons and through multiple avenues. I purposely chose leaders from different industries so that I could get a nice variation in both career paths and skill sets. I chose one interviewee from an international country in which I have the potential to do some business (Gustavo Zubizarret, Venezuela – diaper manufacturer), and I chose another from a different industry entirely (oil & gas) who spent a lot of time working around international politics in both Venezuela and Argentina (John Margo). I then chose a company in the financial services industry as I realized that, given the economic turmoil over the past several years, this industry has seen more mergers and acquisitions than any other and could likely share some best practices from those experience. Trip Bomar (Wells Fargo Advisors) did not disappoint – with the experience of at least six different mergers and name changes in 15 years, he added great insight into the mix. Ron Heinz, a lifelong employee of an American company with a long history in the U.S. and solid reputation (John Deere), was able to give insight into the value of developing both life-long employees and life-long customers. Additionally, he added great value when discussing the necessity of thorough and complete communication and processes for launching new divisions. Dr. Rajiv Dahiya is both a practicing physician and an entrepreneur – a true ‘visionary’. Further, he has this magnetic personality that people naturally just want to ‘follow’, so I found it intriguing to contrast his style with those of life-long company “execs”. Dr. Joe Johnston sits at the helm of the largest surgical practice in San Antonio. Over the past several years he has moved progressively into key leadership positions in the hospital systems, in the community, and on boards - positions with great power. That was kind of unusual for a physician, so I really just wanted to know how he did it. I was able to grab Aplin and Hollowell for a few brief questions after presentations they were doing elsewhere. They both provided fascinating insights even through our short discourse. And finally, Dr. George Smith is the president of a very large division within Humana. Coming from a company where 75% of profits are generated from the federal government, I knew his political guidance could prove invaluable. Further, reaching out to Dr. Smith was a first step in seeing what we as leaders can do to work together and change the face of an industry in crisis. And if you’re wondering about Joan Kors - her story about getting into the NFL is just amazing. Although I didn’t give much insight in this paper, I couldn’t resist adding her into the mix. My actual interview with her was back in 2004.