One more way greedy leadership hurts the bottom line

TIME magazine reports that Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries is getting paid $4 million to NOT use the company plane for personal reasons.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1982247,00.html?xid=rss-nation-yahoo

TIME magazine:

"Through the Great Recession, few brands struggled as much as Abercrombie & Fitch, the company that sells preppy, casual clothes to teens and young adults. While other retailers were slashing prices to attract consumers, the company was still pushing $90 pants, and stuck to its "aspirational" marketing campaigns featuring half-naked models. The tone-deaf strategy backfired: in 2009, the company netted just $254,000, essentially running at breakeven, compared to a $273 million profit in 2008 (and a $476 million take during the heady days of 2007). Same-store sales were off 23% last year; between the beginning of 2008 and the end of 2009, Abercrombie's stock price fell 56%. While the stock is up 41% in 2010, and same-store sales have ticked up during the current retail rebound, Abercrombie & Fitch is still buried in a deep hole.

So it would make good business sense — or at least just require common sense — for Abercrombie & Fitch chairman and CEO Mike Jeffries, who in 2008 received $71.8 million in total compensation, according to research firm the Corporate Library, to plow some money back into his company. After all, CEOs around the country have taken drastic pay and perk cuts to better fit the tenor of these tough times. For the good of Abercrombie shareholders, and the company's battered image, Jeffries, named one of the five Highest Paid Worst Performers of 2008 by the Corporate Library (his 2009 compensation has yet to be disclosed), is one guy who could use some scaling back."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1982247,00.html?xid=rss-nation-yahoo#ixzz0lMaa0MgE


... just one more way CEO greed hurts the bottom line. Just as I pointed out in LEADING PEOPLE THE BLACK BELT WAY.

Leadership Book on College

Yesterday I wrote about public libraries carrying my books. Last night I received an email from a reader who purchased my book LEADING PEOPLE THE BLACK BELT WAY: CONQUERING THE FIVE CORE PROBLEMS FACING LEADERS TODAY at the bookstore at the University of California-Berkeley.

Looking for a Motivational Leadership Speaker?

Want your organization to learn more about tomorrow's leadership strategies today? Are you looking for a motivational keynote speaker for a leadership event in 2009?

Timothy H. Warneka, author of LEADING PEOPLE THE BLACK BELT WAY: CONQUERING THE FIVE CORE PROBLEMS FACING LEADERS TODAY and THE WAY OF LEADING PEOPLE: UNLOCKING YOUR INTEGERAL LEADERSHIP SKILLS WITH THE TAO TE CHING is an nationally recognized leadership expert and an in-demand speaker. An expert on Emotionally Intelligent leadership as well as the interconnection of spirituality and leadership, Timothy H. Warneka is an experienced inspirational speaker who provides powerful leadership insights to:

* Business leaders;
* Health care leaders;
* Life Coaches;
* Leadership Coaches;
* Tomorrow’s leaders at colleges and universities.
* Retreat Centers

Drawing on the power of Emotional Intelligence, Mr. Warneka will show your audience cutting-edge leadership science in ways that are entertaining and fun. Mr. Warneka speaks at:

* Professional conferences;
* Organizational conventions;
* Staff Development days;
* Team Retreats.

Timothy H. Warneka can customize the presentation your organization needs … anywhere from a 30 minute motivational speech to multiple days of in-depth leadership training.

Contact Mr. Warneka today by calling 440.944.4746

Leadership in Economic Crisis: Seven Steps

I've had several clients contact me about the psychological implications to the current economic crisis. Many leaders want to know how to handle this crisis in an emotionally intelligent way.

My advice?

Treat this crisis the same as any other crisis.

Leaders need to:

1. Keep calm.
2. Breathe.
3. Think clearly.
4. Get support for yourself.
5. Gather consensus.
6. Don't rush decisions.
7. Act decisively once decisions are made.

Keynote Speaking in California

Hi all!

I've been busy these past couple of days, presenting a keynote address in Long Beach, California. (I'm typing this at LAX as I wait for my flight home.)

I spoke to a group called the California County Information Services Directors Association (CCISSDA). The title of my speech was:

Collaborative IT Leadership: Are You Pushing, Pulling or Actually Leading People?


Great group of people ... and Long Beach is a beautiful city. I'm hoping to vlog a bit more when I get the chance.

My brother Patrick Warneka ... a professional photographer ... came along to shoot photos. Here's one of me from the night of our arrival.

Personal learnings from this trip? Breathe, stay flexible and listen carefully.

Is Dilbert Right?

I'll confess: I love Scott Adams' Dilbert cartoon. So much what Scott reflects in his cartoon are truths that I see on a daily basis in organizations. Sometimes Scott Adams's humor is so right on target that I wonder if he had a camera hidden in the organization I was at.

In his newest book, "Dilbert's Guide to the Rest of Your Life: Dispatches from Cubliceland," a quote that stood out for me is found on page 53:

"If you steal a little bit of money,
you are a criminal.
If you steal a lot of money,
you're a leader."

In these days after companies such as Enron, WorldCom, so many people believe this to be true about leaders.

Prove them wrong. Discover the Black Belt Way.

Looking for a Keynote Speaker for 2008?

Planning a conference, retreat or annual event in 2008?

You know that selecting your keynote speaker is the most important part.

If you are planning an event for 2008, then you should consider leadership expert Timothy H. Warneka.

Every keynote Mr. Warneka presents is carefully created drawing from recent advances in Adult Learning strategies, Emotional Intelligence and principles from the revolutionary non-violent martial art of Aikido. Mr. Warneka's highly interactive approach will keep your participants engaged in the exact material you want covered!

An experienced keynote presenter, some of Mr. Warneka's most often requested keynotes include:

* Leading People the Black Belt Way

* Developing the Integral Organization

* Powerful Productivity Through Coaching

* Five Black Belt Strategies for Leading Diversity

* The Emotionally Intelligent Leader

* Three Secrets of Black Belt Leaders

Don't see the topic you're looking for? Email Mr. Warneka directly or call him at 440.944.4746 and find out how easy it is to have a customized keynote topic created just for your organization!
Mr. Warneka's 2008 calendar is filling up! Be sure to book him ... before it's too late!

To download Mr. Warneka's Keynote Speaker sheet and to learn more about how you can bring Mr. Warneka to your next event, please visit here.

You can contact Mr. Warneka by calling 440.944.4746 or by emailing him at:

TWarneka [at] blackbeltconsultants [dot] com.

Interesting Documentaries

If you're like me, you're always interesting in learning more about something. Here's an interesting site for watching video documentaries:

http://www.freedocumentaries.org/

Have fun!

Lonely employees, Emotional Engagement, and the Bottom Line

A new article entitled "Genes Get Lonely Too" from Newsweek by Sarah Kliff reports the growing body of research that demonstrates that the experience of loneliness can cause people to become ill.

Importantly, the research shows that it is not only the actual state of being lonely, but the perception of being lonely can also trigger illness. The article states ...

" ... loneliness actually changes how the body functions at a molecular level. The research links feelings of social isolation to an alteration in the activity of specific genes—ones that put lonely people at higher risk for serious disease. And the study, published in the current issue of Genome Biology, also points to the startling fact that it is the perception of loneliness that triggers the adverse health conditions, independent of how much social interaction an individual actually has. Even someone with hundreds of “friends” on Facebook or at the office might think of herself as a lonely person."

So why is this study important for leaders? A simple syllogism:


Employees who are emotionally engaged work are not lonely.
Lonely employees are more likely to become ill, negatively impacting the bottom line.

Therefore, one way to improve the bottom line is for leaders to increase the emotional engagement of their employees.

How do leaders increase emotional engagement?

Many increase emotional engagement by reading my books, Leading People the Black Belt Way and/or The Way of Leading People

BOTTOM LINE: Lonely employees (read: emotionally disengaged employees) are a symptom of serious problems in your organization. Effective leaders improve their bottom line by increasing the emotional engagement of their employees.

Bellowing Dinosaurs: The Perils of Listening to Academic Advice

College people are smart, so college professors are even smarter, right?

Not always.

Today's world is moving fast (you know this), and many tenured academics have not been in the workforce for 10, 20 or even 30 years. Insulated (and often isolated), these educational professionals have the job security of tenure have very little incentive to change the status quo. In fact, it is often best for them to protect the status quo, because that is what will keep students headed in their direction, keeping them employeed.

Tenure is killing today's academic world. But that's a discussion for another time.

With the rotting infrastructure that tenure can create, more often than not the voice of academia is the voice of the dinosaur, who, like Tyrannosaurus Rex in the movie Jurassic Park, would bellow loudly at anything that threatened the status quo.

Like newspaper reporting.

My brother (and co-author of a new book) Patrick just alerted me to an article on Yahoo News about James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the two-year-old Web site pasadenanow.com in Pasedena, California who is outsourcing stories to reporters in India.

Entrepreneurs, as many of you know, are a hearty breed who need to be flexible and adaptive ... everything that academics are not.

Mr. Macpherson, our entrepreneurial hero in this tale is reported as saying (all quotes are from the article, which was written by AP writers Justin Pritchard and Matthew Rosenberg):

"I think it could be a significant way to increase the quality of journalism on the local level without the expense that is a major problem for local publications," said the 51-year-old Pasadena native. "Whether you're at a desk in Pasadena or a desk in Mumbai, you're still just a phone call or e-mail away from the interview."

Amen, Mr. Macpherson! Good for you for recognizing the reality of the global community in which we live!

Now, let's look at what the dinosaurs say:

"Nobody in their right mind would trust the reporting of people who not only don't know the institutions but aren't even there to witness the events and nuances," said Bryce Nelson, a University of Southern California journalism professor and Pasadena resident. "This is a truly sad picture of what American journalism could become."

Spoken like someone who has known an institution for far too long. These days, most employees, including reporters, stay at their jobs these days for less than 5 years. So where are the nuances?

Let's continue...

"It is a shaky business proposition as well, said Uday Karmarkar, a UCLA professor of technology and strategy who outsources copy editing and graphics work to Indian businesses. If the goal is sophisticated reporting, he said, Macpherson could end up spending more time editing than the labor savings are worth."

Why? Professor Karmarkar seems to be implying that Indian reporters are not capable of sophisticated writing. Rather elitist, no? There are no reporters in India who can write? Um....does Professor Karmarkar understand we're living in a global village?

I say, "GO, James Macpherson! Bully for you for being willing to innovate!"

Bottom Line: The next time you read about an academic pontificating--especially when said blathering has to do with the cutting-edge of business development--beware. Remember that many tenured faculty are little more than bellowing dinosaurs: low on practical marketplace experience and high on protecting the status quo. Listen to what they have to say, but take it with a LARGE helping of salt.

Science Confirms Human Relatedness

The media must have missed this one in its strident attempts to catalog the latest Paris Hilton escapades....

A very important story for all leaders appeared in the March 2006 issue of National Geographic (okay, I'm writing this in May, 2007 ... I'm a bit behind in my reading. :-).....

In an article called "The Greatest Journey," National Geographic research James Shreeve states:

"Scientists now calculate that all living humans are related to a single woman who lived roughly 150,000 years ago in Africa, a "mitochondrial Eve." She was not the only woman alive at the time, but if geneticists are right, all of humanity is linked to Eve through an unbroken chain of mothers." (p. 62).

This is ground-breaking, earth-shattering information. Each and every one of us -- every single human you pass today -- is related. The taxi cab driver who drove you to the airport is a distant cousin. The CEO's secretary is a long-lost aunt.

This information is revolutionary because science has now confirmed what most World Wisdon Traditions have been saying for years ... that we are all part of the same family, or, as Mr. Shreeve states in his article, "Increasingly refined DNA studies have confirmed this opening chapter of our story over and over: All the various shaped and shaded people of Earth trace their ancestry to African hunter-gatherers." (p. 62)

So, you might ask, what difference does this make for leaders? I'll suggest that the difference is enormous, because it brings up this very important question:

Now that you know everyone on the planet is related to you, will you treat people the same way you did before?

Think about it.

Leading the Earth...

On my Healing Katrina blog, I discussed an article about global warming. You can read it here.

Bottom Line: Great leaders take the Earth and future generations into account when they make leadership decisions. Poor leaders do not. It's that simple.

Leaders and Maps

In November 2007, the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History will be presenting what promises to be a spectacular cartography exhibit entitled "Maps: Finding Our Place in the World."

As reported by Yahoo News, the exhibition promises to focus on how maps reflect the reality of the mapmaker.

As the article quotes:

'"Any map," said exhibit curator Robert W. Karrow Jr., the Newberry's curator of maps, "even a modern map, even the most scientifically rigorous modern map, comes packed with a whole bundle of cultural propositions that regulate how it's going to look."'

Why is this important for leaders?

Whether you are leading a team of explorers across the Polar Ice caps or managing a team of lawyers in New York City, every leader needs to be aware of their own 'cultural propositions'--which I called worldviews in Leading People the Black Belt Way. These worldviews can be particularly damaging to organizations when leaders use them without examining them.

As a leader, how aware are you of your 'cultural propositions'?

The fate of your organization may rest of your answer.

A must-read book for every leader!

I'm very excited! Dr. Riane Eisler, an author who's work has profoundly influenced my own, just announced a new book entitled The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics. I've even had the priviledge of speaking to her and I've found her to be warm, caring and deeply committed to making this world a better place.

Based on what I've read about Dr. Eisler's book, it's sure to be important reading for every leader.

The Real Wealth of Nations is available on Amazon and through other booksellers right now.

Here's the announcement about The Real Wealth of Nations:



FOR RELEASE APRIL 16, 2007:
BESTSELLING AUTHOR RIANE EISLER INTRODUCES THE REAL WEALTH OF NATIONS: CREATING A CARING ECONOMICS

Los Angeles--April 16, 2007-- Dr. Riane Eisler first captured world attention with her bestselling book, The Chalice and the Blade. With her new book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics (Berrett-Koehler Publishers; ISBN-13: 9781576753880, $24.95, April 2007), she offers a new way of thinking by transforming "the dismal science of economics" into a practical plan for solving global warming, poverty, and terrorism. Hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as "a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking," by business guru Peter Senge as "desperately needed," and by Gloria Steinem as "revolutionary,' The Real Wealth of Nations proposes a "caring economics" that is more cost-effective, humane, and sustainable.

"My work has been moving more and more toward practical solutions," said Eisler. "Present economic systems, both capitalist and socialist, aren't solving our problems - from chronic poverty and environmental devastation, to the loss of good jobs in the US and the stress put on families by the absence of decent parental leave. We have to start with basics: that the real wealth of nations isn't financial; it's the contributions of people and nature."

The Real Wealth of Nations details a new strategy for an economic system that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work: the life-sustaining work of caring and caregiving whether it's done in the home or the workplace. Eisler cites powerful statistics regarding the real value of the unpaid work in households. A 2004 Swiss government survey reported the value of this work at 162 billion Euros or 190 billion dollars (US) - 70 percent of Switzerland's reported gross domestic product. Salary.com estimated that a fair wage for a typical stay-at-home parent would be $134,471 (US) a year. But while this is compelling, Eisler says that there is much more that we have to pay attention to. In The Real Wealth of Nations, Eisler provides examples of how the current economic system in the US is achieving negative results: In its 2004 Global Competitiveness Report, the World Economic Forum found that the US trailed the much smaller Finland in economic competitiveness, which Eisler shows is largely due to the fact that Nordic nations, where women have higher status, invest in their human capital, starting in early childhood and the US does not. According to a 2006 CIA report, the US ranked 42nd in child mortality, behind Cuba and many other poorer nations because money is allocated for prisons, weapons, and wars, and not healthcare, childcare, and other caring activities.

Eisler provides in her book a structure for business leaders and politicians to transform our economic system into one that values human effort and nature and leads to improved levels of health and education among people of all socioeconomic strata, reduced employee turnover and absenteeism, environmental health, and greater productivity for businesses and our country. She provides hard evidence to show that companies with caring policies achieve a higher return on their investment for shareholders. For example, one study showed that offering employees childcare yielded a return on investment of 521 percent in four years.

Eisler, who as a child fled Austria with her family during Nazi occupation, has been on a lifelong quest to probe the human condition, examine the root causes of many of society's challenges, and provide solutions for them. Her other books include the award-winning The Power of Partnership and Tomorrow's Children, Sacred Pleasure, a reexamination of sexuality and spirituality, and Women, Men, and the Global Quality of Life, which documents the key role of the status of women in a nation's general quality of life.

Eisler holds degrees in sociology and law from the University of California, taught pioneering classes on women and the law at UCLA, and is a founding member of the General Evolution Research Group (GERG), a fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and World Business Academy, and a commissioner of the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality, along with the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and other spiritual leaders. She is co-founder of the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV), www.saiv.net and president of the Center for Partnership Studies, www.partnershipway.org, dedicated to research and education. She is also the author of over 200 essays for both popular and academic publications.

The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics will be available April 16 at major booksellers everywhere.

Cherry Blossoms & Leadership

I had a speaking job in Washington, D.C. this past week, so I took my family along. We spent the weekend with my kids (ages 12 and 9) touring the Mall. I saw the WWII monument for the first time, and was powerfully moved in showing my children the Vietnam Memorial and the Korean War memorial. At the Vietnam Memorial, a park ranger gave one of the best presentations I have ever heard in my life (and I give keynote speeches and train people for a living!). There was also a vet from Maine who shared a few stories about his time in Vietnam.

All in all, a very powerful experience. I was deeply moved by the many people who sacrificed their lives for a greater purpose.

After visiting the Mall, we walked over to the FDR memorial (and saw a few waning cherry blossoms!). The FDR memorial reminded me the powerful sweeping changes that a leader ... and a people ... can achieve when they set their hearts to it. In my lifetime, we've never seen such sweeping changes that FDR and others wrought ... and in my humble opinion, we need such sweeping changes now more than ever.

As a leader, what are you giving your life for? Most of us do not have the honor of laying our lives down for our country or our families, but many leaders have -- in their own quiet ways -- equally important impacts on the future generations.

As a leader, make sure you give your life for what matters to you most.

Living for the 70's....

When I consult with organization, sometimes the process requires me to interview various employees up and down the management chain.

I was recently consulting for a mid-size company, and as I walked around I consistently heard employees proudly say:

"We do things here the same way we did them 30 years ago!"

one variation even went:

"We do things the same way we've been doing them for years ... except that we have email now!"

(Honest. Someone actually said that.)

Um...............

See the problem?

Unless you're a maker of 70's fashion, doing things the same way you did them 30 years ago is a serious problem. Processes that are 3 decades old are not points of pride--they are red flags that something has been seriously missed.


BOTTOM LINE: Emotionally Intelligent leaders listen carefully for signs of stagnation in their organization. Stagnation means the same thing as "someone else will eat our lunch".

Harry Potter as Leader

To learn more about the leadership qualities of Harry Potter (and to read my predictions about "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", the final book in J.K. Rowling's best-selling series), visit my blog about Harry Potter here.