Leadership Best Practices - Jay Holstine CEO peer group discussion

Leadership Excellence – is the objective of Jay Holstine’s CEO peer group workshop Becoming a more effective leader was the emphasis of the Dallas CEO group chaired by Jay Holstine. “New research, insights and expert analyses of success factors were the center of discussion at our CEO workshop. Turnover is costly. You don’t want your company to be the 1 out of 3 companies having to replace a leader, and suffer shareholder market loss. It’s imperative to know the leader traits that create success and lead to the best performance in the CEO role,” said Jay Holstine. “Leading business and economic schools’ research reveal that the stereotype of the strong, confident, out-going, white, male candidate is not the best target, despite the historic trends of these inclinations. For one example, introverts are actually more likely to surpass hiring expectations. Education pedigree was another surprise: there was no correlation of an education from an elite school resulting in a superior performance: few of the actual top performers had ivy-league-educations, and some of the high-level performers did not even graduate from college,” Holstine mentioned. “The best news is that there are some valuable essential traits and success factors that boards can target in selecting the best leader,” Holstine added. Decisive - providing timely, concise decisions “You don’t always have all the information you need, in typical business decision-making scenarios, but high-performing CEOs still make decisions earlier, quicker, and with conviction,” Holstine shared. “One of our members said that the pursuit of the perfection often gets in the way of important action,” Holstine said. “The question to ask is if this waiting for new or remaining information outweighs the potential damage of delay. Basically, not making a decision is simply decision-by-default,” Holstine added. “While most decisions can be undone if necessary, lack of direction, and lack of confidence can weigh a company down,” Holstine said. “Interestingly, among leaders who were let go because of decision making, the vast majority of reason was for indecisiveness, rather than for making a bad call,” Holstine added. Managing conflict with adept confidence “Successful CEOs are not averse to conflict. They garner internal support by instilling confidence that they will lead the team to success, even if that entails contention. The avid leader understands that business is not without some disagreements, and they are comfortable dealing with conflict. They listen, and give those involved a voice, but not necessarily a vote. While consensus can good, it can turn into the lowest common denominator. Strong CEOs are not spending their time counting votes and worrying about being popular. Getting everyone on board: Skilled and Intuitive communicators are able to engage stakeholders. “One of the most critical skills is getting everyone on board. Our CEO group agreed that strong performers have an intuition for the priorities and needs of their stakeholders, as well as the needs of potential detractors,” Holstine said. “They address those concerns, and illustrate the value of the program, so that they can bring potential detractors back into the project. The best leaders are able to win over detractors by highlighting their importance to the process,” Holstine shared. Non-verbal Communication: “The best leaders monitor and finetune their demeanor and body language. They are aware of the unintended communication of expressions, posture, or gestures that might contradict their intentions. They understand that calm composure is essential in good leadership,” Holstine said. Open and adaptable “Pragmatism is critical to success. Our CEO membership knows that business environments can change on a dime,” Holstine said. “Everyone agreed that looking out for the unforeseen challenges, is critical to success,” Holstine said. “Adapting quickly to new challenges is also important. We found that the best CEOs are always seeking out fresh information from a variety of networks and different sources. They are looking for trends and signs of potential change, in order to take advantage of new opportunities,” Holstine shared. Always Learning and Growing “Our group acknowledges that temporary setbacks are a part of changing course. High performers see missteps as opportunities to learn and grow. It’s not failure if you realize a setback as part of growth and learning, and adjust your approach to accomplish it next time,” Holstine said. Consistent Delivery of Results “Adaptability and growth are key factors of success, but research and our members agree that boards want a CEO who knows how to run a business well. The proven, predictable performer, delivering steady results, with reliable follow-through, is more valuable to the company’s long term viability than a rockstar leader with some exciting ideas and erratic actions,” Holstine said. Organizational Excellence “Great leaders also thrive on organization, strategic planning, and team building. Successful new CEOs set realistic expectations by digesting plans, budgets, and understanding markets and customers and employees. Upgrading talent and getting the right team in place quickly is critical to a new CEO’s success,” Holstine added. “Our workshop concluded with the concept that leadership success is not based on inborn traits or high pedigrees of education. The most successful CEOs are those who are more versatile, diverse, open-minded, growth oriented, and confident. They are smart communicators, and very adept at engaging stakeholders and winning over detractors. They know how to handle conflict. They’re decisive, they know how to run a company, and they enjoy leading,” Holstine said.

August 24th, Steve Heroux is speaking with Jay Holstine's CEO peer group

Steve Heroux will be speaking with our CEO peer group in an engaging workshop that will provide actionable items, solid takeaways, and effective strategies to start implementing in their business right away. They’ll learn: Three specific motivation styles that inspire salespeople to achieve excellence. Why having quotas is antiquated and will decrease sales results. Compensation & incentive plans to drive higher performance. How detaching from outcomes will lead to massive amounts of success. The four factors inside our Sales DNA responsible for our success or failure in sales. How to consistently find, recruit, hire, and retain top-level sales talent. Exactly how to get people to change by revealing the true cost of inaction. Experienced CEO, Coach, and Mentor, Jay Holstine An accomplished business leader, Jay Holstine serves as a Vistage Chair and CEO Peer Group advisor in Dallas, Texas. As a growth-oriented CEO, Jay brings pragmatic methods and incisive analysis to help CEOs improve their work-life balance, and transition from working-in-the business ,to working-on-the-business more effectively. A deep experience in operations, along with a foundation in consulting, and years of growing companies, is what enables Jay to coach management teams on successful business scaling. Jay wanted to build a Legacy of amazing people that can positively Impact our communities. An executive peer group is high performing, not an empty seat in the room, high trust in the room, where everyone pulls together with pooled perspectives and shared wisdom to help each other become better leaders, and more successful!

Michael Allosso brings improve to Jay Holstine's CEO peer group

Rather than offering a "band-aid" checklist for making an individual speak better, Allosso offers concrete suggestions and exercises designed to modify behavior and help the participant always be "you on your best day." Key issues include: appropriateness and method for demonstrating passion and energy generating enthusiasm, clarity, and persuasiveness while staying true to self charisma - can it be learned? team-leading and building the power of the spoken word and when not to speak tone of voice and body movement relaxation and concentration speed, agility, risk-taking, thinking "outside the box" Participants will be on their feet speaking and doing various exercises including those done by actors, re-structured to maximize relevance in the business world. All will receive immediate feedback so, by the end of the presentation, they will have a new set of tools to make each meeting, planned or spontaneous, with a group or one-on-one, more successful. Morale-boosting and team-building for heightened productivity will be emphasized. Participants will give each other feedback and, in turn, will receive feedback from Allosso regarding their style/delivery/tone. VISTAGE WORLDWIDE CHAIR, CEO PEER GROUP ADVISOR JAY HOLSTINE Building and empowering a high-achieving CEO Peer group that produces more effective leaders is Jay Holstine’s passion. Jay manages the CEO Peer group issue resolution sessions that surface root causes, pooled perspectives and shared wisdom. Jay Holstine currently serves as chair and CEO peer group advisor at Vistage Worldwide in Dallas, Texas. The CEO Peer group contains approximately 18 members from non-competing businesses that support each other to become better leaders. In addition to chairing the group’s monthly meetings, Jay provides each member with one-to-one sessions to discuss issues, opportunities and business strategy.

Inclusion Improves Productivity and Job Satisfaction - Jay Holstine workshop

Inclusion builds success -- Workplace culture was the topic of Jay Holstine’s CEO peer group discussion, as members shared their insights in creating an atmosphere of inclusion. “Navigating the pandemic’s effects on the workplace has been a major leadership challenge,” Holstine noted. “While each of our CEOs have a unique workforce, office structure, and specific interaction with the marketplace and larger supply chain, there are many common challenges and insights to share at our meetings,” Holstine said. “The evolving communications technologies were prominent topics at our most recent discussion, as well as new recruiting resources, meeting practices, and employee engagement and retention in a new landscape,” Holstine added. “One CEO member shared advice and resource options on bringing workers safely back to the physical offices, along with valuable tips and lessons learned,” Holstine mentioned. Helping business leaders navigate the pandemic’s effects on the workplace has been a major focus of Jay Holstine’s Dallas-based CEO peer group. Eighteen leaders from non-competing industries, gather regularly to hear expert speakers, share ideas and strategize with each other. A new work culture and climate “Leaders are more aware of a wider variety of societal issues that influence employee effectiveness, teamwork and retention,” Holstine said. “Strategies to improve employee inclusion, and work-life balance are more important now. Our industry experts are providing new data, resulting in lively discussions among our group,” Holstine added. “CEO members discussed ways to advance collaboration, emphasizing the right resources and support to enhance engagement and efficiency,” Holstine noted. “The way in which employee support is provided has shifted, and continues to evolve, just as we are communicating and supporting our customers in more updated and advanced ways,” Holstine said. Don’t over-engage “One of our members pointed out that the new hybrid workplace can sometimes produce a hyper-connectivity that leads to burnout,” Holstine said. “For many employees, the workplace has encroached into the home, the car, and sometimes all hours of life,” Holstine said. “Fine-tuning the right pace, and the right level of inclusion, (such as the number of teams employees are part of, and the size of each team,) is important to maintaining a successful mix of collaboration, individual productivity, and good work-life balance,” Holstine noted. “Another member shared an important point about the hybrid work environment: Be aware that ‘Access’ should not be the critical determinant in acquiring roles and responsibilities. Leaders will get better long term results from reviewing all potential candidates to assess who brings the right mix of skills and experience to the role under consideration, as opposed to who currently has more access the opportunity,” Holstine shared. “While discussing vital developments in work culture and identifying the best practices, is what we focused on in this workshop, in every meeting, our CEOs depend on the shared wisdom, expert research, practical experience and ideas, that help their companies succeed,” Holstine shared.