Association Leadership - May/June 2008 - (Page 27)

Case Study President I’d just completed a trade article titled ÒThe Six Characteristics of a Successful ContractorÓ when Rissa Potter invited me to participate in this fun exercise. So I jumped at the chance because my creative juices were still ßowing. Just as a cat is limited to nine lives, I was limited to Doug McMurry nine letters corresponding to AGC San Antonio the word president. I quickly Chapter consulted a couple of coworkers and we concluded an association executive P Professional must have at least that many R Responsible skills to be successful. For E Enthusiastic example, we could have S Sincere I Intelligent easily presented plenty of D Dependable characteristics that started E Engaged with p, but we profess a N Nimble preference for professional. T Task-oriented Besides, the predictable political-savvy is implied in engaged and intelligent. Regarding the other skills, the selected words would likely be common in any such skill-set scenario. However, nimble and task-oriented are probably less conventional and require a little explanation. Being CEO is a lot like being a campaign manager in a heated political race. To win, one must be agile and quick in a changing environment. Similarly, itÕs important to set priorities and stay on message. Therefore, the successful executive is the one who masters his tasks and remains focused on the larger strategic plan. Was it cheating or smart to make a list of all possible choices I could think of, then cull the list based on the mix? ThatÕs what I did, and thatÕs what I think a good association CEO has to be Ð able to sort through a lot of good information and cull out for use that which is Òright time, right approach.Ó The skill set to run a Kathleen Quill, CAE, CBA business and the skill set to run a National Association of stakeholder-owned organization Credit Management are oh so close, but not a match. Association CEOs need more soft and consensus building skills and P Parliamentarian a willingness to persuade rather R Resilient than give orders. And honestly, E Ethical donÕt you have to be more than S Servant a little bit nuts to do this as a I Innovative livelihood? My mother keeps asking D Dynamic E Expert me when I will have a job that she N Nuts can easily describe to her friends T Trustworthy (doctor, lawyer, teacher, nurse, etc.). Twenty-Þve years later, she is still waiting! The hardest letter? ÒD.Ó Nothing seemed to Þt! ÒIÓ was also tough, with so many great word choicesÉ Inspiring, Intelligent, Idealistic, Intuitive. I confess. When I was Þnished, I asked Þve key staffers to do the same exercise. Did we get the same answers? No, no, no, no and no! They ascribed qualities to the job that never occurred to me! Examples: P Prepared for anything R Reputable E Engaging S Salesperson I Interesting D Determined E Encouraging N Negotiator T Tolerant A whole new set! ◆ May/June 2008 | Association LEADERSHIP 27

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Association Leadership - May/June 2008

Association Leadership - May/June 2008 Contents President’s Column Homepage 60-Second Solutions Cover Feature: Associations As a Profession Positivity: Key to Retaining Young Talent Perspectives Association Case Study TSAE Annual Conference TSAE's Newest CAEs New Members Community Spotlight Grand Membership Campaign Committee Thank-yous Austin Dallas/Fort Worth Index to Advertisers Advertiser.com The Lighter Side of Associations- New Feature

Association Leadership - May/June 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.