Perspective for Leaders

In this Issue:

1. FINAL REMINDER:? Business Growth CEO Conference
2. Difference from “Being In Charge”and “Taking Care of those In Charge”
3. Civics Lesson: ?A Country Tougher than The Times
4. C-Level Trends?for 2025
5. Belinda Mulroney’s Multiple?Fortunes
6. WFH or RTO:?A Case Study
7. Econ Recon

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VISTAGE ONLINE BUSINESS GROWTH CEO CONFERENCE

Friday, November 8, 9 am CST

Build a High-Value Business

Creating a thriving business requires a solid foundation, a clear strategic plan and a focus on elements that increase your company’s value.

Featured Speakers include:

• Marc Emmer , President at Optimize Inc., Business?Risk and Trends for 2025 and Beyond.?
• Lisa Bodell, Founder and CEO of FutureThink, Leading Simplicity – A Roadmap.?

The day also includes Breakouts and time for Expert One-on-Ones (exclusive, no-commitment meetings with industry experts).?

Non-Member Registration: The event is open to non-members C-Level Executives, business owners and direct reports to a CEO with an interest in Vistage membership.??Please reach out to me?at?[email protected]?for a Guest Voucher Code that non-members will need to register.

Leadership: A Great Personal Sacrifice

Two words that are used interchangeably are leadership and manager. Unfortunately, many people in business are taught to manage but not to lead. Simon Sinek in a short video suggests that understanding the difference?“comes at great personal sacrifice.”?If you call yourself a leader, have you made that sacrifice??Do you even know what it is??

If you have 6 minutes and 21 seconds, Sinek provides some welcome clarity regarding?the difference between manager and a leader and the need for perspective and empathy.

Civics Lesson:? A Country Tougher than The Times

It’s Election Week.

One citizen who has seen the presidency close up is WSJ Columnist Peggy Noonan who served as a speech writer for President Ronald Reagan. In a recent column, she steps above the fray and reminds us that American has always been tougher than the times that challenge us.

She quotes social psychologist Jonathan Haidt (who has recently opened our eyes about the dangers of smart phones to our young people)?“It’s always been wrong to bet against America, and it’s probably wrong now…What has changed is that technology has amplified extremists on left and right…All this has created “a political optical illusion.” We are better and steadier than we think.”

So go vote, if you haven’t already, and?remember that your neighbors are still your fellow Americans and don’t worry. As Noonan says, The U.S. Can Take a Tough Election.

By the way, if the election has you stressed out, check out this short video by Vistage Colorado member?Dr. Carl Clark?who offers some creative ways to think about, and cope with election anxiety and how to constructively interact with friends and family who have differing views.

C-Level Trends for 2025

Many of C-Level executives who read this newsletter are beginning planning and budgeting for 2025. The real problem in planning is that we know the inside of our company better than the outside. The world, society and markets all represent forces that impact the factors of supply and demand for our business (remember how Covid impacted supply chains and wildly impacted demand for goods and services?). It’s the water we swim in and it’s not under our control.?

But we can identify trends and manage to them. As he has in years past, Vistage Speaker Marc Emmer , whose firm specializes in strategic planning, has begun his Trends 2025 series with his first installment Ecological Trends for 2025 and Beyond.?(This series is available to non- members as well.)

More trends from Emmer will be available in the coming weeks. Thanks, Mark, for your service to our community.

Note: ?Emmer is also a featured speaker at our virtual Business Growth Conference this Friday, November 8.?See the first article above in this week’s newsletter for details and how to register. Also open to non-members.

WFH or RTO: A Case Study

A number of large companies have recently announced that employees who’ve been working from home (WFH) must return to office (RTO) to varying degrees:

• Amazon: Amazon has announced that employees are required to return to the office five days a week starting January 20252.
• Starbucks: Starbucks mandates that employees work in the office three days a week.
• Disney: Disney requires employees to be in the office four days a week.
• JPMorgan: JPMorgan employees are required to report to the office at least three times a week.
• Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs has also implemented a full return-to-office mandate.

Before long, it will be your turn to set a longer-term policy, if you’ve not already done so!

CEOs struggle with this from a culture, morale and hiring perspective as many workers have become very resistant, not always without reason, to giving up the benefits of working from home. Before you make this increasingly important decision, check out this executive summary of one company’s hybrid “A/B Testing” on this question. The company, Trip.com, had half the employees work from home 3 days per week and the other half a full five day week.

Their findings may help you when you have to make a decision on hybrid work. Read more in the researchers’ summary article in HBR: ?One Company A/B Tested Hybrid Work. Here’s What They Found.

Belinda Mulroney’s Multiple Fortunes

Entrepreneurs often impact not only markets but are key players in the development of the cities, states and even countries in which they live.?A remarkable but mostly forgotten example of this is Irish Immigrant Belinda Mulroney whose story as a serial entrepreneur in early Alaska deserves your attention.

A short article profiling her concludes that “it wasn’t luck that made Belinda Mulrooney rich; it was her unerring ability to anticipate what people would most need…Mulrooney landed in Dawson in April 1897, one of the first entrepreneurs on the scene…tossing her one remaining coin in the river for luck, announcing with breezy confidence: “I’ll start clean.”"

Mulroney made and lost several fortunes but also had a lasting influence on early?“gold rush” Alaska. You probably have never heard of her, but after you read her short bio, you’ll have a better appreciation for what entrepreneurship really is.?

Learn about?The Enterprising Woman Who Built—and Lost, and Rebuilt—a Booming Empire During the Klondike Gold Rush.

Econ Recon

Two Big Events this week: The election and the next Fed rate cut. ITR’s Taylor St. Germain won’t forecast the election, but has some thoughts on the rate cut and what’s ahead for the economy in 2025 in ITR’s latest?Fed Watch.

A One-off report?:? The latest employment report was the weakest since the pandemic...but there’s a reason for it. And the unemployment rate is still holding steady at a low 4.1%. Economist Brian Wesbury offers a one-page executive summary of the?October Employment report.

Thanks for continuing to read the Make A Difference (MAD) newsletter. Please share with your colleagues or team members. Wishing you a productive week.

Sue Tinnish, PhD,?Vistage Chair, Facilitator, & Executive Coach

Find me easily at: 847.404.7325, [email protected], Twitter:?@STinnish, LinkedIn: www.dhirubhai.net/in/suetinnish, Website: https://vistage.com/chairs/sue.tinnish