LCP 2020 Brochure

In my role I get to have lots of conversations with leaders, and over the last few weeks it is clear that there is often a huge gap between making a decision and implementing it. Inherently, I think most leaders know this to be true when it comes to driving their businesses forward to greater success and managing the tension between strategy and execution. It is amazing, however, how many decisions never actually get over the line! What would it take for you to change that today? If you’re a CEO feeling overwhelmed (by missing targets, loss of business, losing key staff) and feeling increasingly disconnected from your team, what one decision can you do that will bring some relief? As a senior executive feeling the pressure to perform and work long hours, what is the one decision that will show your family that you don’t have to sacrifice your most important relationships to achieve success? If you’re the leader of a business unit, what is one decision you can do today that will contribute to breaking down the silos that constantly frustrate your organization’s goals? One conversation, for example, could prove to be a catalyst for greater things. As a business owner, what is the one decision you need to do today that you have been putting off that has the potential to help your business get to the next level? As a leader in your organization, what is the one decision you can do that will positively influence the attitude and energy of your team? Yesterday, I started with one decision and decided that I could do more. Lots of flights and time away from home (and the office!) is not sustainable for long. So, what decisions did I do? I got up and had coffee with my wife before she went to work, followed by driving my daughter to where she needed to be to catch the bus for school. After dropping her off, I went for a 7km walk before arriving at the office and having a much more productive day than I imagined. While my decisions won’t work for everyone, think of the ones that can work for you! What is the one decision you can do that will transform your day? You may be surprised.

In the 2018 LCP Global Leadership Survey, we asked 134 Board Chairs, CEOs, executives and senior leaders to respond to a short survey exploring their thoughts on this topic. Apart from my own leadership experiences in seeing the importance of this relationship over the last 25 years, I have extensively researched this topic since 2010 and am still amazed that many do not believe there is a link between character and performance. There is often an interesting psychology behind this, hidden by the economic justification for expediency in delivering short-term results without regard for the damage this can do to the credibility and performance of a brand over time. For now, I merely want to highlight some of the preliminary insights from our analysis. From the eighty respondents, 95 percent agreed that there is a link between the integrity of the leadership team and the success of the business. 5 percent disagreed.  We next asked them how they would describe this link? The three most dominant themes describing this link were: Great values don’t guarantee immediate success. However, there was acknowledgement that the best people thrive in an environment where there is a commitment to strong values. In the short-term it affects the recruitment and retention of great talent; longer-term, the relationship between values and success becomes more pronounced. People want to do business with organizations and people they can trust — trust is the currency through which a business can succeed, and it is clearly much more than a mere transaction. Closely related to the above, there was a clear belief that business success should be measured beyond monetary value. What's the bottom-line? Building resilient character is an indispensable quality for any business, and without it, many corporate collapses and leadership failures provide evidence of how catastrophic the results can be. Here at LCP Global we are passionate about putting character high on the agenda for businesses that want to achieve great results without having to compromise their integrity. Building Resilient Character is one of the 5 Leadership Anchors™ LCP Global presents as part of a systematic and strategic approach to increasing leadership capacity.