Mr. Rogers is a Public Television Icon. The PBS television show Mr. Rogers Neighborhood has been on television since the late sixties and is still a centerpiece of early childhood edutainment. Todays video is Fred Rogers testimony before a Senate committee to secure funding for PBS. The man who I remember playing with puppets, changing his shoes and singing songs was an emotionally adept visionary with a great passion for educating children via television. Went you watch this video, you see that passion and belief are the energy that fuel great accomplishment; a person living their dream can = millions benefiting.

A recent article in Fortune revealed that, These days it’s a chief of staff, a top-level adviser who’s part confidant, part gatekeeper, and part all-around strategic consultant. Small and mid-size company CEO’s need not envy their large global counterparts.

For the last two years I have performed that role for the CEO of Signature Community Investment Group/Signature Community Management. Part trusted advisor, part coach and part strategist, working with the CEO and the Senior Leadership, we have transformed a company that was top heavy and unfocused, non-communicative, and burning cash; to a leaner, more scalable, change focused and much more vibrant company, which operates at 30% less overhead than it did just last year.

How did we do it? While there isn’t a silver bullet solution, in a nutshell, daily management huddles, weekly strategy meetings with Senior Management and the CEO; setting goals and executing everyday with urgency. We have quarterly strategy sessions and use the One Page Strategic Plan. We got everyone involved in the change process (Kotter’s 8 Steps); asked everyone for their ideas, 125+ people and had 50% of the company executing on sub-teams to make this happen. As the CEO, a guy who operates with true urgency says, “now, we are never going to stop changing.”

Coach Colton

http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/19/news/companies/ceo_chief_of_staff.fortune/index.htm

Apple After Jobs from Portfolio.com

Key points from the article: Clock builders devote themselves to creating a system that can keep going no matter who is in charge. Sam Walton of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was like that. So was Charles Coffin, the first president of General Electric Co. And Intel’s Grove. The founders of the United States were clock builders.

Time tellers tend to be CEO’s whom everyone in the company looks to for answers; they can tell the time, but no one else can. And since the CEO is so good at this, no one below him or her bothers to learn how. So once the time teller leaves, the company is left ill-equipped and can descend into mediocrity or even chaos.`

What are you building? A company (division/organization) that will endure and thrive after your tenure or a company dependent on your constant time telling? While the later makes you indispensable, it’s difficult to sustain even while you are there.

It turns out that “good to great” CEO’s are dually competent in working through two types of challenges. They are savvy in reacting to their current business environment. Second, “good to great” CEO’s intentionally shape their business for a desired future. They shape their business by guiding processes, not by controlling them. A leader with a compelling vision (yes the dreaded vision thing) is prepared to guide well. Control is an illusion, enduring leaders wield influence. Control is the “crack cocaine” of management. An addiction that leads to no where great. Nor can the mortal person sustain control for very long. (Unless, of course you are one of the few people that Robert Caro has featured in a several hundred page book.) A vision frees your people to act, while you help them remove barriers to their and your success. Let go of control. Build a clock with your team, teach them how work it and they will always know what time it is.

Click Below to read the full article at Portfolio.com.

http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2009/02/11/Analysis-of-Jobs-Leave-of-Absence

Saw this on a blog post and could not resist sharing with everyone. Not only a great message, but also a great image to have up on the wall as a reminder to not be complacent!

Find it here: http://www.typcut.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Areyouhappy_a2_web_1024.jpg