“To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.” Winston Churchill

Good morning,

I trust everyone enjoyed the weekend and are gearing up for an exciting week ahead. For those of us who are parents here in Ontario, I hope the shift back to online learning is seamless and smooth and hopefully we can find ways to enjoy the moments with the kids at home for what is hopefully a short stay.

Be prepared for your moments

Through our lives, we are all in search of those miracle moments…..that moment when we realize “success”. The moments when we understand our purpose, the moments that give our lives meaning.

We are drawn to these moments because we want to know the secret. We want to know the ingredient that we are missing. The ingredient that makes the recipe.

The problem is … there is no one miracle moment. If you want to understand success, you can’t focus on what’s visible. The results are simply one more step in a long chain of steps that led to that moment and for us….for all of us, the best we can do in anticipation of those moments is to be prepared.

“In order to win you must be prepared to lose sometime. And leave one or two cards showing” Van Morrison

If we are the secret ingredient, if we are in control of our own journey and the CEO of our own lives….how do we prepare ourselves and ensure we have the mindset for success? In the book CEO Excellence, by McKinsey partners Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra, they identify timeless mindsets and practices that make the difference. Back by years of research of top CEO’s globally, the culmination of what they found leads to the fact that these leaders help others to achieve things they never imagined they’d be able to. Through their research they determined that there are six mindsets that differentiated the best leaders of the twenty-first century from the rest.

Yes, I’m suggesting that you are a CEO.

Even if you are not the CEO of your organization, you are a leader within your family enterprise! You are equivalent to the world’s leading CEO’s and, just as they can, you are able to adopt mindsets that enable you to navigate the dominant features of their environment….new competition, disruptive change, digitization, pressing social and environmental issues, or economic meltdowns, with wild success.

The Six Leadership Mindsets

Setting the Direction Vision: reframe what success means. “The best leaders often dig back into a company’s (families) history to find out what originally made it successful and then take that central idea and expand it in ways that open up new opportunities.” They add, “What matters to them is to have a clear and simply articulated North Star for the company (family) that redefines success, influences decisions, and inspires people to act in desired ways.”

Alignment

Culture Management: understanding your culture and align the culture: reshape the environment, make it personal, make it meaningful, and measure what matters.

Mobilizing Through Leaders

The best leaders and less concerned about what their leaders (families) do together and more concerned about how their leaders (family) work together.

Engaging the Board

The best leaders help their board chair, or advisors, run the board so that the directors can help the leadership run the business or family enterprise.

Connecting with Stakeholders

Social Purpose: be sure your organization or family has a powerful reason for why they exist.

Managing Personal Effectiveness

Leading yourself is essential to be physically and psychologically fit, and managing your time and energy involves keeping a tight but loose schedule, compartmentalizing, infusing energy into your routine, and tailoring your support staff to your needs.

My perspective on the research it that these same mindsets apply to us all, as leaders within our family, within our professions and within our community. Your role as a leader is that you need to realize that you’re only one person, and there’s an advantage to being a generalist. You’re not always going to be the smartest in the room, but you can give good advice, facilitate, and encourage people to their best, show a consistency of character, be authentic, maintain perspective, and stay grounded and you will be prepared for all of your moments.

“Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. So it's like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You'd better be prepared for ….the only unique situation that's going to be left” David Bowie

Be well and enjoy the moments

Derek