Big Tails, Backpacks & Hell Freezin' Over
February At C-Level
So, Texas froze over. (that pic is my back yard)
 
I mean, damn… it was seriously cold. Here in Houston, temps dropped into single digits for multiple days – the last time that happened was around 1930.
 
Idiots everywhere. Buying up all the bread and milk, trying to drive on ice, the list of craziness is long and distinguished.
 
It was, as a former CEO of mine would say, a “proverbial shitshow.”
 
I’m hoping we got that out of our system now; two days after the Texas Snowmageddon, we were back to shorts and cigars on the deck.
Big News: The 2021 Survey of Senior leadership summary is available for download. Click it and get it!
 
This month’s issue includes a big honkin’ tail warning, and some leadership lessons learned (or taught) during our snowmageddon.
 
The February edition of At C-Level.
 
  1. That’s a Honkin’ Big Tail -- Be careful how you swing it
  2. When Crisis Turns to Chaos -- it separates leaders from managers
  3. The 2021 Survey of Senior leadership (SSL) summary is available to download!
 
We live in “interesting” times. Let us know if we can help in any way – we’re here for you.
Featured Articles
That's a Honkin' Big Tail!
-- Be careful how you swing it

By D. Kevin Berchelmann

A couple of years or so ago, I wrote an article about what you lose when you ascend into senior leadership (especially CXO-level). You may gain a lot – dinero, status, authority, new biz cards, etc. – but you also lose a few things. One of those things I wrote about was your ability to merely suggest.

You lose that right when you join the senior leader ranks, since your suggestions will almost always be implemented – much to your feigned shock. Your suggestions sound like, well, more than just suggestions. And even if they didn’t, it’s easy to draw a line between your suggestions and “I thought that’s what you wanted,” and making the boss happy is a small price to pay to get you out of my hair or off my ass.
 
Oops, did I say that last line out loud?
 
It’s true, though, that your suggestions sound less like spit-balling, brain-storming or thinking out loud, and more like “Here’s what you should do.” It just is – deal with it.
 
There’s also that big, honkin’ tail you lug around behind you.
When Crisis Turns to Chaos
-- It separates leaders from managers

By Kevin Ross

This is definitely not one of those academic treatises about the difference between leadership and management. I outright despise those.

Nor is it a “thought piece” similar to those written in the last year about leading and managing in and through a crisis. Lord knows we’ve had plenty of them crowding our inboxes.

Think back – just about a year ago, we were all facing a crisis of global proportions of which we had no control. We had to react and respond at the same time, and we were all taxed just to keep toilet paper in our bathrooms, not to mention our businesses running while keeping our workforce and our customers safe. For many businesses (if not most) managing our response to the crisis was more of a life-or-death issue for the company than it was for our people.
2021 SSL... The Results are in!

Triangle Performance LLC's 2021 Survey of Senior Leadership is ready for prime time! Well over 100 respondents, coupled with a pandemic and other utter craziness in our midst, and it’s not surprising that Anticipating Change, leading in a VUCA environment and Pandemic plans and responses all weighed heavily on our minds.

Please take a look at the summary, and I’d love to hear your thoughts, opinions, suggestions or ideas. Just shoot me an email at your convenience (you can simply “reply” to this newsletter).
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