“Leadership balance”… no small challenge in challenging times!

 

 

As I sit down and write my first essay for 2021, I am sharing an idea that I am facing personally…. the difficult and always changing “balancing act” of being a leader.  It’s interesting (and pretty wonderful) after 35+ years in business to still be learning new lessons, facing new challenges, and growing as a leader.  I took some time over the holidays to reflect on leading a wonderful organization in the face of Covid and the various business challenges we are facing today. A central theme in my self-assessment was how challenging it was to keep a sense of  “balance” in my leadership approach in 2020.  Lets take a few minutes and review a few thoughts on “Leadership balance” across situations/times (not just through the lens of 2020) and think about a few ideas that might be helpful broadly.

 

Steering/ Sailing

 

I will assume for now that all the readers of this essay have driven a car, sailed a boat, or ridden a bike in their lifetimes.  Imagine one of those moments and think about “steering” that car/boat/bike from one point to another.  The reality of any of those situations is that you CAN’T just point to your destination and be done with the task, you are ALWAYS ADJUSTING your direction, a little left or right, port or starboard to account for turns in the road, waves on the lake, wind direction and intensity, etc.  In order to reach one’s destination, you have to always adjust your steering… we are always adjusting our direction to be successful!  It's the same in leading an organization, we need to always adjust our approach, always “correct” a bit if we “over-steer” and always compensate for the changing environment to adjust our steering!

 

 

 

Objective/Subjective

 

I am a person and a leader that always looks for the data/metrics/stats in many situations.  I hold onto the “science” of a situation, whether that relates to Covid vaccination results/ testing protocols, or when I recently bought new tires for our car and dove into the test review metrics, I usually start by digging into the “objective” data of any situation.  This past year has taught me new lessons on the need to “balance” that “objective” orientation with a renewed focus on the “subjective” side of things.  When I casually ask one of my team members on a private call/zoom “how they are doing,” I need to be REALLY READY to fully hear them and their responses.  At times over the past 10 months, I have heard responses to that question that have included family members passing, the inability to be with a sick child in the hospital, personal fear having just received a positive Covid test, and the list goes on…. the responses have been heartfelt, poignant and intense, often superseding any of the business challenges of the moment.  Leaders must find a balance between the objective business metrics of the moment and the subjective emotional state of the team, and me that balancing act has been really hard this past year.  I have no panacea or easy leadership “buzzword” that is easy to follow on this one, but just start by recognizing an old idea that you “manage project and lead people,” and as such, we as leaders need to come to that moment focusing on the well-being of our people first!

 

EQ/IQ

 

Finally I want to comment on the need/requirement of leaders in these challenging times to be strong with their intellect (IQ) AND their emotional intelligence (EQ) to be successful.  Once again it's a balance, but neither side can overwhelm the whole!  A successful leader needs to use all of his/her brainpower, and all of his/her “heartpower,” to handle the challenges we are facing today.  I have found it too easy to focus more on the IQ side, thus being out of “balance” with the EQ needs of the company and the team.  Work with a friend/coach /mentor to help you find the strength and the “balance” to bring both sides of “Intelligence” to bear in your work everyday!

 

As I said at the start, this has been a very challenging year on so many fronts, and a year full of learning and growth certainly for me.  I am working on this idea of “Leadership Balance,” and I hope you can find ways to bring this idea to life in your worlds as we dive into the hope/optimism & challenges of 2021!

 

Postscript: One reflection I wanted to share in this essay is how hard it is to be a “balanced leader” when you aren’t feeling very balanced as an individual.  2020 has been incredibly hard and stressful for the entire world, and I for one didn't FEEL very “balanced” as the year came to an end.  Work was stressful, family dynamics in the context of Covid were challenging, sleep was hard to find, and the list goes on….. all adding to the barriers of being a “balanced leader.” We need to both give ourselves the room to acknowledge those challenges and take actions to find ways to add (not subtract) personal balance in our lives.   

Jane's Yum Yum Yams!

 

Over the past 11+ years since I started posting essays on this blog, I have often shared favorite family recipes as we head into the holiday season.  If you dig around, you will find recipes for MaMa's buttermilk yeast biscuits, her "Corn Oysters," Aunt Lorraine's Jelly Tarts and my grandmother "Kuni's Chocolate Cake."  This December, with 2020 coming to an anxious, painful, challenging ( and maybe with a touch of emerging hope for vaccinations in early 2021,) I wanted to keep tradition alive with a favorite recipe from Jennie's mother Jane.... the famous "Yum Yum Yams!"

Jane passed away almost 10 years ago, and we all miss her dearly.  I enjoyed cooking with Jane, and specifically enjoyed the Christmas dinners we made for the family over the years.  This year, I plan on replicating all of her dishes/recipes for our Christmas dinner and went looking for the old "Yum Yum Yam" recipe.  After a little digging I found the original, food stained recipe card ( the messy splatter on the card is a sign of well-used love for sure!) and I share it for all to try.

I wish for you a safe and healthy holiday, looking to better days ahead in 2021.  Enjoy Jane's Yum Yum Yams and I hope it can become a tradition for you and your family for years to come!

While the recipe card above is awesome, the following is a typed out version for possibly easier/cleaner translation:

Jane's Yum Yum Yams

Ingredients (Yams):

·       1 ½ cup sweet potatoes (canned)

·       1 cup sugar

·       2 small eggs

·       ½ teaspoon cinnamon

·       ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

·       1/4  teaspoon salt

·       ½ cup scalded milk

Mix well in electric mixer, pour into battered baking dish, mix topping ingredients and spread over potato mixture.

 Bake at 325 degrees for 35 min.

 

Ingredients (Topping):

·       1 cup broken pecans

·       1 cup brown sugar

·       ¾ stick of butter (oleo)

·       1/3 cup four (preferably self rising)

The trail back from Yellow Mountain…. A lesson for a new year with Covid !

 

 

 

The Yellow Mountain Hike in the mountains just north of Highlands N.C. is a real “ass kicker!”  It’s an out and back hike, with the halfway point being a fire tower built by the C.C.C in the 1930’s on the top of Yellow Mountain (not quite 6000 ft. above sea level.)  The hike is about 10 miles in total, with more than 7000 ft. of elevation change (up and down several mountains from the trailhead to the fire tower,) and is at the edge of my physical capability. It typically takes me close to seven hours to accomplish the feat…. and for me it is truly no small feat to achieve!

 

The picture above is of one of the trail signs that are about ½ way out to the fire tower, at a crossing in the trail.  Since it’s an out and back hike, we pass this sign early in the day and then again on our way back, about when we have done ¾ of the hike with only ¼ to go!!  The problem with the sign’s specific location is that its on Goat’s Knob, one of the most challenging parts of the hike and on the return route the sign hits as you are making your way UP Goat’s Knob in a steep and difficult stretch.  Every time I have done this hike, I know that while I am getting close to making it back to the trailhead, with only ¼ of the trail to endure, the path ahead will be steep, challenging and very difficult…. the end was near but challenging miles lay ahead.

 

It’s with that spirit that I see us today, as we are facing the end of 2020 and the “trail” ahead for vaccinations in 2021.  We can see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel… with hopefully millions vaccinated by April or May, and a wide percentage of the population covered by the end of summer.  The hope and excitement is palatable but still difficult “miles” lie ahead in our path.  The next few weeks and months are extremely dangerous and challenging and we are not “out of the woods” by any means, we are merely about at the Yellow Mtn. sign on our way back home.

 

I learned on my second Yellow Mountain hike (the first was successful but pretty messy…. more on that another time) that by taking frequent breaks, having enough water and food to sustain myself, I could make it back feeling winded and tired, but healthy and successful.  In that same spirit, I am looking for ways right now to apply those lessons to our current challenges with Covid.  How can I slow down, use good planning, focus on health and safety protocols and most importantly remember that there are really challenging miles ahead and to ensure to prepare well for those challenges.

 

As much as I desperately want this to be over, and to get back to travelling and seeing family and friends like we did before March 2020, those days aren’t here yet!  We all need to stay patient, vigilant and as careful as we can be… with plenty of water and food for the rest of the proverbial hike, so we can all find our way back from the Fire Tower on Yellow Mountain and back to our homes safely with our families and friends in 2021…. we are at the “sign” on the way back but not finished the hard journey yet!  

Stay safe and healthy over the next few months and we all can find our way to vaccinations in 2021 and a return to more normal times with our families, friends and communities.

 

    

It's very hard this year, but "start with Gratitude"

This is a note I sent out to my team at Bolthouse Farms, and I wanted to share it more broadly....

I just wanted to send out a note before the Thanksgiving holiday this week.  This year is unlike all others for me ( and I think for all of us) as we head toward this day of thanksgiving….. this year has been so hard, so challenging, so painful, and so long, that I for one am having a hard time being very thankful; it’s in that spirit, not in some “hallmark card” moment, but in the midst of all of our challenges and pain that  I share these thoughts and reflections.  

 

Maybe 10-15 years ago I had the chance to see The Dalai Lama live at Canon chapel  on the campus of Emory University.  The setting matters since it was where Jennie and I were married ( by her Father,) where both Bryson and Marie were baptized and where we attended the funerals for both Jennie’s mom and sister… certainly a sacred space for our family!  It was there that the Dalai Lama, with a number of monks, held a “service” of sorts that included all sorts of Tibetan Buddhist rituals and comments from The Dalai Lama.   While I was struck by how “cheery and jovial” he was ( often chuckling/laughing) one comment he shared has stuck with me over the years…. that being to “always start with gratitude.” 

 He encouraged the crowd to 

 

·     “start every day…” 

·     “start every meal…”

·     “start every conversation…”

·     “start every walk…”

·     etc.

o  “with gratitude.”

 

I think back to that moment, so many years ago and find strength and inspiration thinking about this note today.  In the midst of rising covid cases and so many challenges facing our world, I am very thankful for my family, my sweet Jennie and our two wonderful kids, Bryson and Marie.  I am thankful to have the chance to work at Bolthouse Farms, and to work in a business that is trying hard to find ways to get more fruits and vegetables (go carrots!!) on family’s tables, and to work with a team of hardworking “Bolthouse People” that care so much and are so committed to our mission.  I am thankful to be healthy and capable to find ways to try to make tomorrow a bit better than yesterday…. and the list literally could go on for paragraphs….. I am actually thankful for so much!!

 

I wish all of you a very happy, healthy, safe and “grateful” thanksgiving holiday and I do sincerely hope that you can enjoy some well deserved time off this week with your family and friends as safely as possible!

 

The accelerating “Trajectory” of talent

 

 

 

The simplest way to start this essay is an old lesson, one that I learned years ago from some un-named boss or mentor, that is captured in the simple line….“Yesterday’s A+ is tomorrow’s B-!”  the idea being that in a business that is growing, thriving, and dynamically responding to a changing competitive landscape the exceptional performance that drove exceptional results last year will actually look pretty “un-exceptional” when faced with the expanded and accelerated results expected in years to come.

 

It’s always good to remind us what this “looks” like mathematically on the chart to the right. Y=mX+b is the age-old formula for the line and when “m” or the slope of the line is positive, we have a line showing positive growth….. whether it’s depicting net revenue, gross margin, or EBITDA, the “m” being positive and in growth mode is what’s key!

 

At the center of this concept is a belief that an organization, and the key individuals that make up that organization, needs to keep learning and growing their individual and team skills/capacities in order to generate expanding results expected in future fiscal quarters/years.  It also assumes that a stagnant organization, a group of individuals not building their skills and capacities over time won’t be able to generate and create growth oriented results for very long.

 

This “lesson” is very present for me in my current role at Bolthouse Farms.  As I mentioned in earlier essays, coming back to Bolthouse Farms has been an incredible opportunity to have a “2^ndchance to work on your legacy” and I am trying to take full advantage of that chance. In that spirit we have rebuilt the team and have accelerated the business dramatically over the past 16 months since we bought the company back from Campbell’s.  It is in this context that I am thinking so much about this idea about “trajectory.”

 

As our business grows and changes, so do the needs and demands that are required from our team. Getting the business stabilized and back on its feet was job #1 ….LAST YEAR …. but now our focus is on building a platform for growth for the years to come and to build an organizational strength and depth to drive and sustain that growth for years to come as well!

 

This is the crux of the idea that as a business changes and grows, so the demands on and the expectations of its key executives change and grow correspondingly. What’s really interesting ( and very challenging) is when the growth itself accelerates….. e.g., when a business grew 10% last quarter, 15% this quarter and is planning on growing 25 % next quarter the reality is that the business is not just growing, but the growth rate is actually growing.  For those math nerds reading this essay, we are talking about a curve with a positive derivative as seen in this chart ….

 

In these business circumstances, it is very important to work to stay active in building the skills and capacities of your team.  Insure that you have a team ( and that you are modeling) which is focused on delivering the required results today AND in building their abilities to drive much greater results in the future.  Being a leader who is both an active learner and an active teacher is a key element of this “equation” working well.  As a leader be open to show all the new things that you are learning and working on…. Be open with what you have to learn to be great next quarter/next year/ etc. Too many leaders think about this as some sort of weakness…. nothing could be further from the truth! Equally have a “teachable point of view” and be active and patient as a teacher to your direct reports and your team.  Leaders that can combine both of these traits ( active learner and active teacher)  are positioned well to build organizations that can accelerate their capabilities and thus drive accelerating growth!

 

"Hope", a dream and a wish!

It is rare for me to reference a dream in one of my posts, but with 200+ essays posted on this blog it was bound to happen. As I have referenced, Jennie and I have two wonderful, bright, generous and beautiful children ... Bryson and Marie. Bryson recently graduated from UCLA ( Go Bruins!!) and Marie is a second year at UCSB ( Go Gauchos!!) The dream I reference today featured Marie and the UCSB campus. In this very vivid dream, I was visiting Marie at school and we were walking up to an overlook to catch the sunset. For those of you who have never been on the University of California, Santa Barbara campus, it is set on the bluffs above the pacific and faces due west and has STUNNING sunsets from a number of spots across the campus. In my dream, we walked to a specific spot to watch the sunset, along with a large crowd of people, all heading to the same vista. As we got to the top of the bluff, Marie and I talked about how incredible it felt to be able to share the moment with a large group of "strangers," and not feel uncomfortable or unsafe because in my dream, the vaccine had been discovered and the world was vaccinated... the fear of covid was a memory! 

It was an incredible sensation to feel the openness, the freedom, the optimism and the communal "beauty," newly freed from the fear and trauma of Covid-19! As I awoke from the dream, the sunset image clearly in my "minds-eye," I was deeply struck by the truth that someday (and hopefully/prayerfully "someday" soon) we WILL confirm a vaccine, we WILL work to have the world broadly vaccinated, and we WILL mix and mingle with others without the fear of today. We WILL have a bright tomorrow, not without its challenges, but without some of our most pressing CURRENT challenges. 

When I reference "Hope" in my title, it is the "hope" of that sunset moment in my dream, the "hope" of a brighter healthier tomorrow, the "hope" of a more peaceful world that we need to find a way to find in the dark days of today. No one knows when the vaccine will be discovered and scientifically validated, or when 7+ billion doses will be manufactured and successfully delivered to all citizens across the globe, but we do know that those days will come!

 In closing, I "wish" for all of you a chance to find your own UCSB "sunset moment!" I "wish" for all of you to have a chance to dream/see the future "post-covid" and imagine just a few of the blessing and beautiful gifts that future will offer to all of us!

Building "Community" Together

Building “Community” Together It was almost 20 years ago that I first got involved in the Atlanta Community Food Bank (ACFB) as a board member. I had volunteered with the organization before that time, and had gathered canned goods as part of food drives at work and at church, but in 2002 I was asked to join the board for the first time. ( I recently finished serving my second 6-year term on the board, and continue to be a big fan and supporter!) Back in 2002, I was asked to be part of a marketing committee by Bill Bolling, founder and long running Executive Director of the ACFB. Bill and I continue to work together today, as he has now retired from the Food Bank and I work with him as a board member of The Food Well Alliance, a non-profit focused on strengthening the local food system in metro Atlanta by supporting urban farmers, community gardens, farmers markets and other organizations involved in the local food movement. If interested, see more at www.foodwellalliance.org.

Back to the marketing committee! At that time, the ACFB was expanding its footprint and was involved in numerous side projects/initiatives and the marketing committee was asked to work on how to capture all the projects under a common “food bank umbrella” and develop a re-branding/re-naming approach that might help all of the initiatives make more sense to the supporters of the food bank. We dove into the project, worked with a local agency, and came up with a number of branding/naming/graphic ideas that would simplify the communication challenges and one of the recommendations that we came forward with was to drop the word “Community” from the organization’s name as a way to streamline/simplify things. I still remember the immediate and dramatic reaction from Bill Bolling when we showed him our ideas, with him exclaiming that the word “Community” was the ONLY word that could NEVER be dropped….. that we were at the food bank, using food as a tool to help our community…. especially the members of the community most in need….. that the food was not the objective, a stronger healthier community was the objective…. Community was the whole thing!

Community: noun,
• a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.
o "the scientific community"
• a group of people living together in one place, especially one practicing common ownership.
o "a community of nuns"
• a particular area or place considered together with its inhabitants.
o "a rural community"

While the marketing committee project didn't go too far , the lesson from that review has stayed with me for decades and has been growing on my mind over the past few months with the challenges and struggles facing so many of us across so many communities. Consider the challenges the entire world is facing from the Covid crisis, the struggle for racial justice and equality, the growing pervasive issues from accelerating climate change, the nightmare of gun violence in our country, and the list goes on! WE are facing an incredible set of challenges across the board and before we try to dive in and “fix” one of them we have to come back to the fundamental truth that WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER! We are part of one large COMMUNITY!

If we have learned anything in 2020 it is that our actions affect those around us and vice versa…. Whether it is someone not wearing a mask in a grocery store ( not good!) or one town/country spewing toxic emissions into the air and water that flows downstream to the neighboring town/country, we don't live in small isolated units…. we live in a world incredibly interconnected and what we do (or don't do) doesn’t just affect ourselves, it ALWAYS affects each other! Maybe its overly simplistic, but I am thinking back to Bill Bolling’s admonition a lot these days ( “Community: is the indispensible word!) and am thinking about how we can take action and work on “Building Community Together.”

Where ever you are, urban or rural and regardless of country (or political party) we can all chip in and find ways to help support and strengthen our communities broadly. Partly driven by the covid crisis, our food banks have never faced a time of greater need, our local support organizations have never been more stretched, look around you and find ways that you can help/support/strengthen ‘community” wherever you live….. the need is great and as a “community” we can accomplish great and needed things for OUR COMMUNITY, but only if we act as a “community!”