The Hero’s Farewell: What Happens When CEOs Retire

 

Issue No. 212 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (March 22, 2011) highlights a fascinating look at four types of CEO retirement transitions: monarchs, generals, ambassadors and governors. And this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.

4 Types of CEO Retirement Transitions

In my Management Buckets workshops, I talk about the four levels of mastering the 20 critical competencies (buckets):
   --Level 1: I don’t know what I don’t know.
   --Level 2: I know what I don’t know.
   --Level 3: I have an action plan to address what I know I don’t know.
   --Level 4: I can coach and mentor others. I can teach the course!

So feeling pretty smug that I’ve been around the block once or twice, I was startled to realize that I was back at Level 1 regarding what happens when CEOs retire. Wow. I learned a lot from this book—and, like all great books, I found immediate value in attaching a memorable label to four kinds of CEO retirement. Recommended to me by Paul McKaughan (a “retired/ambassador” CEO), I’ve already recommended this book to more than 20 other CEOs.

First published in 1988 by Harvard prof Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the book is part history, part expose and part therapy.  “This is a book,” he begins, “about how the management succession process involving chief executive officers of major corporations is affected by the heroic view that CEOs have of themselves.  Some plan carefully and choose wisely who will succeed them. Others fight the process and must be forced out in what can be traumatic episodes for the CEOs and the organizations.”

Painstakingly researched (five years and 50 personal interviews), the book describes four types of CEO retirement transitions:
   --The Monarch’s Departure. “Monarchs leave their thrones only through their death, ill health, or as with [Boston Consulting Group’s Bruce] Henderson, a palace revolt.”
   --The General’s Departure. “Although as with monarchs, the leader’s heroic mission is important to generals, it is not as important as are their needs for a heroic identity.  The generals’ greatest barrier to exit is their identification with heroic stature.  They treasure the respect and recognition they have earned, and in leaving high office, they leave behind a great deal of their self-worth.”
   --The Ambassador’s Departure. “Ambassadors, like generals, also remain within their firms after retirement. Unlike the generals, however, the ambassadors do not seek to return to top office positions. They work to support rather than to subvert their successors. Guided by an inner sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, the ambassadors are not searching for more battles to further prove their heroic valor.”
   --The Governor’s Departure. “In contrast to the open-ended reign of the monarch, the general’s eager return to office, or the ambassador’s maintaining of advisory status, the retiring governor-like business leader usually leaves office for a completely new activity.  The governors have long had extensive interests outside their firms.  Retirement for them is often merely a career change as they turn to purse outside interests. After they disengage from their firms, their careers do not fade into the sunset.  Any new activities tend to be leadership roles and not solely board memberships.”

There’s more. All interesting, even fascinating, at this insider’s glimpse into decades of boardroom transitions—not all pretty!  Along the journey, Sonnenfeld’s color commentary informs and teaches.  What does it take for CEOs to give up the “psychological perks” of the office? He quotes another Harvard prof’s advice to an incoming CEO: “The first step in a mess like this is to reduce chaos to disorder.” A brilliant one-liner.

While the ambassador style seems the most God-honoring, the author points out that some of his ambassador subjects weren’t exactly humble.  Another insight: Withthrop Knowlton, Harper & Row, “cautioned that the chief executive’s natural tendency to close his or her administration in a ‘blaze of glory often leads them to become increasingly drawn inward…to work harder on corporate problems in the last year or two.’ He suggested that chief executives should instead be encouraged to join other boards for exposure to other exit patterns and to broaden their interests and identities.”

Here’s my surprising recommendation: read this in your 40s and 50s—don’t wait until you’re in your 60s.  There is great insight on both the way up and the way out of the organization.   

To order this book from Amazon, click on this title: The Hero’s Farewell: What Happens When CEOs Retire by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 
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1) According to Irving Shapiro of Du Pont, “The first function of a new CEO is to provide for his succession.”  Why might it be important for a brand new CEO, or for that matter, any leader or manager, to plan for his or her succession?

2) CEOs who stayed on as ambassadors and wise elder statesmen, according to the author, often were safe havens for conversations with other corporate officers.  They also encouraged the new CEO because the CEO job can be a lonely one.  What might be some of the up-sides and down-sides of a retiring CEO becoming an ambassador?

BONUS! For 12 more resources on succession planning, see my review of Lost in Transition.
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14 Questions Board Members Must Ask
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit

One of the big ideas in the Board Bucket, Chapter 14, in Mastering the Management Buckets is to get the right board members on the board bus—and then ensure they ask themselves tough questions.

I’ve worked with boards that use Ram Charan’s excellent book, Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask.  Effective boards will want to use this book at an annual board retreat—or address one or two questions per board meeting over the next year or more.  The book can also be read topically, based on your current hot issues. I started with Question 13: How Do We Stop From Micromanaging?  All 14 have zinger qualities to them. My favorites, based on my board consulting work, include:
   --Question 11: How Can Executive Sessions Help the Board Own Up?
   --Question 12: How Can Our Board Self-Evaluation Improve Our Functioning and Our Output?
   --Question 2: Are We Addressing the Risks That Could Send Our Company Over the Cliff?
   --Question 4: Are We Well Prepared to Name Our Next CEO?
   --Question 5: Does Our Board Really Own the Company’s Strategy?

Check out this book and other resources in the Board Bucket.

MORE RESOURCES:

• BLOG: Pails in Comparison
• SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews
• JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon 
• WEBSITE: Management Buckets
• BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations
• PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts 

NOTICE! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this blogsite you are on now (John Pearson's Buckets Blog).

15 Minutes Including Q&A

  

Issue No. 216 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (May 15, 2011) features a very, very simple method for making memorable presentations: “Problem—Solution. Challenge—Response. Question—Answer.”  Oh…and do all of that in just 15 minutes! Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Your Face Out of Park! Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, once asked reporters at a press conference, “Does anyone have any questions for the answers I’ve prepared?” Q&A is often the easiest part of making presentations—but even that can drone on and on unless you read this week’s book. Most leaders and managers must regularly give interesting talks, inspire the team in staff meetings, deliver visionary board reports, represent the organization to groups and churches—and often with audiences more interested in their iPhones than in the boring presentation. Truth be told—our presentations stink. Sunday morning at eleven isn’t much better. So when is the last time you worked on your presentation skills and when is the last time a book changed your mind—and your behavior? How about last month?  I read 15 Minutes Including Q&A on my flight to Dallas—and immediately changed my approach to a workshop I led the next day at the Christian Leadership Alliance national conference.  Subtitled, “A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations,” author Joey Asher has struck gold with his Golden Rule of Presenting, “Present unto others as you would have them present unto you.” Asher recommends you build every talk with this formula: 15 minutes max, with seven minutes for content and eight minutes for Q&A.  And…if some inconsiderate jerk in your audience asks a question, don’t you dare respond, “Let’s put that question in the parking lot and I’ll get to it later.”  Answer the question when it’s asked! Why? It’s about the audience—it’s not about you. (Now there’s a new thought!) That’s pretty much it: five steps in seven minutes including the hook (30 seconds), the preview (30 seconds), the body (three points and a story in five minutes) the recap (30 seconds) and a call to action (30 seconds).  Then allow the natural flow of Q&A during your presentation—and wrap it all up in 15 minutes. Impossible you say? “…it’s not that hard if you keep a simple principle in mind. Your goal isn’t to tell everything you did [or know]. It’s to help your listeners with their lives.” Begin with “the hook.” Asher writes, “Start by putting your finger on the business issue that your audience cares most about. A good way to arrive at your hook is to think, ‘If I were to ask my audience what worried them most about the topic I’m going to talk about, what would they say?’” “The hook often starts with the following phrase, ‘I understand that you are concerned about…’” Your three points should be like bumper stickers: short and memorable, supported by stories. “Great speakers use lots of stories.” Q&A is “presentation duct tape.” says Asher, “It fixes everything.” Twenty-five short chapters.  Twenty-five “I can do that!” insights, including chapter 19, “Facial Energy That Connects.” Did you know that you’re capable of making 3,000 different and meaningful facial expressions? (Do 10 right now!)  “Take your face out of park,” Asher admonishers.  And while you’re at it, exaggerate your gestures. “The gesture bone is connected to the voice bone.” This is a brilliant book for brushing up your boring talks. Use it to coach and mentor your team, your kids and your grandkids—and your pastor! To order from Amazon, click on the title for 15 Minutes Including Q&A: A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations, by Joey Asher. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Asher says “great speakers use lots of stories.” Share a story you still remember from a speaker you heard more than a year ago. 2) An even simpler method for a talk, says the author, is to begin, “If I were you, I would ask three questions about this topic.” He adds, “Then write the three questions on a flip chart. Answer the questions. Then stop.” Why might this method work? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Payroll Systems Thinking Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit One of the big ideas in the Systems Bucket, Chapter 18, in Mastering the Management Buckets is to train your team in tickler tracking. Payroll is one of those repeating tasks that must be flawless.  The same devotion to details that you require for on-time paychecks can also be routine throughout your organization. Creating a systematic process for repeating tasks is part of systems thinking. To train your team in tickler tracking, begin by urging them to think about their daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually repeating tasks. Getting tasks down on paper is the first step. For more help—and a simple format—visit the Systems Buckets webpage for more resources, including The "D.W.M.Q.A.T. Form" for Repeatable Tasks.    MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts  ECFA Blog on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Read John's blog post, "The Cardinal Sin Is Dullness." NOTICE! Issues No. 1 to 657 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (2006 to 2025), previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this blogsite you are on now (John Pearson's Buckets Blog).

The Talent Masters

 

Issue No. 209 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Feb. 22, 2011) highlights a new book on what it takes to be a talent manager. It’s a fascinating look inside GE.  Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Talent With No Buzzwords The first sentence of this week’s book sets the pace for perpetual gut checks on almost every other page: “If businesses managed their money as carelessly as they manage their people, most would be bankrupt.” Bill Conaty, former senior vice president of General Electric, and Ram Charan, co-author of Execution (and other books I’ve reviewed here), have delivered a highly helpful book, packed with practicality far beyond the no-brainer subtitle, “Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers.” I’ve never met CEOs and senior leaders who dispute the priority and importance of people in their organizations. But I do find serious people-related dysfunction in many organizations. There are ample strategic plans, but few people plans—intentionality about growing people and succession. It’s hard, but rewarding work. The Talent Masters describes the GE system of people development:    --“Only one competency lasts. It is the ability to create a steady, self-renewing stream of leaders.”    --“One reason hardheaded managers disdain the ‘soft stuff’ is that it so often reflects soft thinking.”    --“An exercise in a course at Wharton’s advanced management program exposes the futility of buzzword descriptors. The instructor at a recent session asked the participants to explain Steve Job’s distinguishing talent.” Just one caveat: do it without using buzzwords. (The six pages on “Calibrating Steve Jobs” is, literally, worth the price of the book—it will change your thinking forever on what the co-authors call “searching for the specifics” in talent.)    --“Talent masters assess and express what each person is in reality, not against some predetermined checklist.”    --Addressing the seven principles of the talent masters, they write, “The HR function will only be as strong as the CEO wants it to be, and if the CEO doesn’t have high expectations for it, HR will remain second tier.”    --“In a fast-changing business, the person who is right for a job today may be wrong in a year or even six months.”    --“…being a talent master is a total leadership job, rather than the sole province of human resources.” Here’s another gut check: “At the top [of GE], especially, there are no strangers. The CEO and senior vice president of HR know the top six hundred people in the company intimately—their families, their hobbies, their likes and dislikes, their skills, strengths, psychological tendencies, and development needs.  These six hundred executives have become almost a family.” This under-the-covers look at GE’s annual planning process is revealing. From January to June they’re looking at people.  From July to October, they address strategy, and in November it’s all wrapped together into operations and budget.  Core values (like a culture of forthrightness and candor) ooze out continuously. Really…there are just too many highlights in this jam-packed toolbox.  You’ll learn about their foundational “Session C” approach, including this: “They’re not afraid to confront the reality that everyone makes mistakes; the worst mistake is the failure to remedy those already made.” Another insight: the balance between “hammers” and “softies.” Every leadership team needs both. One more: GE regularly categorizes their top people talent into three groups: Top Talent, Highly Valued, and Less Effective. I gotta stop—and I haven’t even mentioned the Talent Mastery Tool Kit, more than 40 pages of resources, including:    --12 critical true or false questions on “Does your company have the culture of a talent master?”    --The how-to’s of mastering talent (selecting, developing, assessing, and recognizing and retaining leaders)    --A 9-box grid (3 boxes across, 3 down) to categorize your people. The 3 across the top: High Potential, Moderate Potential, Topped Out    --“Guidelines for Your Next Talent Review” and much, much more To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers, by Bill Conaty and Ram Charan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) On the “Lessons Learned” summary page, the authors write, “Think of shortcomings first as development needs rather than fatal flaws.”  How does our organization think about shortcomings? 2) Under the 12 “Leadership Pitfalls,” they list “not developing your own succession plan.”  How effective are we—at all levels—at seamless succession?  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Extravagantly Generous Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit One of the big ideas for nonprofit Christian organizations and churches in the Donor Bucket, Chapter 11, in Mastering the Management Buckets is to challenge donors to be “extravagantly generous.” So how does your organization’s fundraising practices measure up against this imperative from the Apostle Paul? “Tell those rich in this world's wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they'll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.” (I Timothy 6:17-19, The Message) For more ideas and resources on giving and generosity, visit the Donor Bucket.     MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts  ECFA Blog on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Read John's blog post, "Board Member Giving Commitments That Stick." NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog.

Nonprofit Sustainability

 

Issue No. 257 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Sept. 30, 2012) introduces a brilliant matrix on nonprofit sustainability—and I predict you will use it at your next staff or board meeting. BONUS! View the video summary (8 min.) at John Pearson's Buckets Blog. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit the Results Bucket to download Worksheet #1.2 (LOL!). Money Trees, Stars, Hearts, and Stop Signs I was privileged to serve 30 years as a nonprofit CEO.  Over those years, I’ve collected my favorite one-liners on nonprofit sustainability: --One of my favorite profs, especially gifted in one-liners (and magic tricks), often chuckled, “We’re nonprofit, but we didn’t plan it that way.” --“Nonprofit is a tax designation, not a management philosophy.” --I’ve listened to thousands of staff members whine: “Yeah, but are we a ministry or a business?” (Their answer is in their question and the way they intone that nasty B-word.) My response: that’s the wrong question. Scripture doesn’t create the negative dichotomy between business and ministry. The better question is: “Whatever tax code we use to serve others, will we be sustainable and God-honoring over the long-term?”  --Jesus taught us in Luke 14:28-30, “Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn’t first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: ‘He started something he couldn’t finish.’” (The Message) So with that introduction, it brings us today to a resource-rich book, Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability. The three co-authors deliver the perfect PowerPoint slide on page 25—and then build their case across all 173 pages. It’s part Nonprofit 101 and part Harvard Business School. Getting to nonprofit sustainability involves three steps:    --The Matrix Map Analysis    --Decision Making    --The Sustainable Nonprofit Business Model Here’s the Matrix Map: “The Dual Bottom Line” matrix map addresses mission impact and financial sustainability—with four easy-to-remember icons: Stars: High Mission Impact, High Profitability Hearts: High Mission Impact, Low Profitability Money Tree: Low Mission Impact, High Profitability Stop Sign: Low Mission Impact, Low Profitability Pop Quiz! Assemble your team and draw the Dual Bottom Line Matrix Map on your flipchart or whiteboard—and then plot every program, service and product you provide into one of the four quadrants. Your Results: Stars: If you have an abundance of stars, way to go! Hearts: Here you’re leading with your heart—and that may be appropriate—but if you’re too heavy here, you’ll need more oomph in the Money Tree quadrant. Money Tree: If you have some “cash cows” (to mix metaphors), terrific. Maybe you can make adjustments and increase mission impact. Stop Sign: This is a no-brainer. Fix these programs or stop doing them. As I often prod you, delegate your reading. Several people on your staff and your board must read this book—and review it at your next staff or board meeting. It will be on my year-end Top-10 list. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability, by Jeanne Bell, Jan Masaoka and Steve Zimmerman.    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Many organizations put inappropriate time and budget into lagging programs and services, rather than using the authors’ “invest and grow” strategy for “Stars.” Are we investing and growing in our Stars—or trying to resuscitate one or more dead horses?  2) When is the last time we held up a “Stop Sign” to a program, product or service. If it were up to you, what would we stop doing immediately—and cut our mounting losses? (Resource: share the “Dismount” worksheet from my Results Bucket webpage: “Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.”) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Start Your Don’t-Do List Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit One of the big ideas in Chapter 16, The Delegation Bucket, in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is start your Don’t-Do List.   The first president of the United States Steel Corporation was Charles Schwab (not the stock guy).  He asked a consultant, Ivy Lee, for help on becoming a more effective executive. “Show me a way to get more things done.  If it works, I’ll pay anything within reason.”   Lee introduced Schwab to the To-Do list and suggested that Schwab limit each day’s list to no more than six tasks.  He should start with the most important task and then not go to the second priority until the first one is done.   This remarkably simple—almost obvious—management tool revolutionized Schwab’s work.  So he sent Lee a check for $10,000.    The Don't-Do List will prove to be just as revolutionary. It's very simple: For 90 days, keep a list on your desk or computer of what you will STOP doing. (My friend Tony Danhelka calls this "selective neglect.") You must rigorously prune your To-Do List every day, every week and every month. You can't keep up—the conveyor belt is hurling work at you faster than the famous chocolate factory scene on I Love Lucy.   For help, click here to download the template, "My Don't-Do List," from the Delegation Bucket webpage.      MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog. Read Lesson 23, "Focus on Impact and Sustainability," from the book Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, by Dan Busby and John Peason. Read this blog at ECFA Governance of Christ-centered organizations.

7 Seconds to Success

 

Issue No. 262 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Dec. 8, 2012) highlights a new tool for relating to the four distinct social styles on your team: Thinkers, Tellers, Touchers, and Talkers.  And don’t miss the link in this issue to the six short humorous videos detailing how all four styles celebrate Christmas.  Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Ready-Aim-Aim-Aim-Aim Syndrome If you’re a long-time reader, you know I embrace “The 3 Powerful S’s” because to ignore the synergistic impact of Strengths, Spiritual Gifts, and Social Styles is to ignore the amazing creativity and uniqueness of the people we live with, work with, worship with, and yes, cringe with. So when a new quick-reading tool on social styles appears, I’m all over it.  Written in the popular novelette/story format, this week’s tool (just 143 pages) can be read in about 90 minutes.    Forget the 16 grids and confusing letter combinations of Myers-Briggs (ENTJ, INTJ, etc.).  Skip the four animals system (“I can’t remember—am I a collie, a muskrat or a hippo?”)  Don’t waste time on the personality color systems, unless everyone in your circle is a color zealot (and they’re not).   If you want to effectively relate to people, literally in an instant, then order 7 Seconds to Success. It’s a fast read and co-authors Bob Phillips and Gary Coffey have a new, easy-to-remember slant:    •Analyticals are Thinkers    •Amiables are Touchers    •Drivers are Tellers    •Expressives are Talkers   The Four T’s are descriptive and memorable and the story builds the case for understanding these styles—and why it’s so important that you do. (Heads up all spouses, leaders, pastors, account reps, fundraisers, teachers, trainers, volunteer coordinators, CEOs, managers—and those who must “manage” their managers.)   The authors remind us that there are three key factors in effective communication:    •Content (7%)    •Tone of Voice (38%)    •Nonverbal Behavior (55%)   “It’s easy to get into sloppy habits when it comes to dealing with customers, clients and prospects. We need to become more alert in reading the people we meet. Lord Chesterfield said, ‘Look in the face of the person to whom you are speaking if you wish to know his real sentiments, for he can command his words more easily than his countenance.”   And this zinger: “When it comes to our own behavior, we judge ourselves by our motivations. When it comes to other people’s behavior, we judge them by their actions and words.”   You can recognize styles—in an instant—by observing pace and priority. Two pairs have the same priority:    •Thinkers and Tellers focus on tasks.    •Touchers and Talkers focus on relationships.   Two pairs have the same pace:    •Thinkers and Touchers tend to be slower-paced.    •Tellers and Talkers tend to be faster-paced.   Where’s the conflict? Yikes! Two pairs have nothing in common:    •Thinkers and Talkers: huge potential for conflict!    •Touchers and Tellers: neither pace nor priority in common.   Can you really read a person’s style—and make them comfortable—in just seven seconds? Yes. I’ve been a student of social styles for more than 30 years—and the authors are correct. You can relate to people in an instant, and by doing so, you’ll advance the relationship by leveraging (not manipulating) a person’s style.   If you’re in the already-convinced circle of social style evangelists, you’ll still benefit with one more tool. I’ve counted at least a dozen more insights (and PowerPoint slides) I’ve gleaned from just one quick read:   Advice for Thinkers: “Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality of a good leader.” Don’t fall victim to what T. Boone Pickens calls, the “ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome. You must be willing to fire.”   Who are the Talkers? Bob Hope, Jay Leno, Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, Donald Duck, and the apostle Peter. “If a Talker’s house was on fire, he would say, ‘Since the house is on fire, let’s warm ourselves.’ They’re very charismatic, friendly and enthusiastic.”    What annoys Tellers? Boredom, details, excuses, indecisiveness, small talk, and taking orders. (The book has the master list of annoyances for all four styles.)   What do Touchers value? Approval, coaching, comfort, compassion, friendliness, kindness, loyalty and peacefulness. (Each style has a very distinct list of what they value.)   I’ve reviewed other social styles books previously, including two by prolific writer Bob Phillips (11 million books in print). If you’re new to social styles, start with this latest one. Just go to Amazon and click on the title for 7 Seconds to Success: How to Effectively Relate to People in an Instant, by Gary Coffey and Bob Phillips.   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) The authors say you can relate to the four social styles by remembering the 4 P’s. “With Thinkers, be precise. With Tellers, be practical, With Touchers, be personal. With Talkers, be positive.”  List three people you work with (including your boss or board chair) and identify their style—and how, by being versatile with your style, you will bless them and make them more effective. 2) Tracom Group, “the creator of Social Style®,” features the “Social Style Tip of the Day” on their website. For your staff Christmas gathering this month, select one of the six short videos showing how each Style might behave during the holiday season. Then ask, “Which style makes the best party planner—and why?” ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Meetings for the 4 Social Styles Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit One of the big ideas in Chapter 20, The Meetings Bucket, in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is to plan meetings with all four social styles in mind:      --Drivers (Tellers) prefer shorter, get-to-the-point meetings. Give each Driver a crystal clear “To-Do” at the end of each meeting.    --Amiables (Touchers) are disappointed when meetings ignore relational issues—and there is no time to get better acquainted with the people next to them.    --Expressives (Talkers) are motivated in meetings when there is a focus on the future—and there’s fun, humor and EXCITING topics!    --Analyticals (Thinkers) appreciate advance agendas, information, time to reflect, and a well-organized meeting process.   When you plan a meeting solely around your own style, you’ll disappoint and alienate 75 percent of your participants. Instead, become a student of the people in your room and engage all four styles. Good luck at your next meeting!    Read Chapter 7 (The People Bucket) and Chapter 20 (The Meetings Bucket) for more details and check out the resources on the Meetings Bucket webpage, including Resource #20.4, “My Annual Professional Development Plan (PDP)” template.       MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog. ECFA Blog on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post, "Impending Deterioration."