Leadership Credo

 One of my classes this semester - Demystifying Organizational Culture, taught by Peter Meola - recently required us to go through a "Leadership Credo" exercise and present our credos to the class. While I admit the process seemed a bit corny at the outset, I ended up deeply impressed by my classmates' thoughtful results.The basics of our exercise:

1. Leadership Lifeline 

      a. Identify 4-7 defining moments in your life
      b. What leadership lessons did you learn from those moments? What core principles did they create for your desired leadership style?
      c. Give a few examples of practical applications of the above - what worked? What didn't?

2. Leadership Credo
     a. Describe what you stand for as a leader (in one sentence or less)
     b. What is your firm's Winning Proposition? (i.e., what is your mission that sets you apart from everyone else?)
    c. What are your key priorities? (i.e. what goals do you have in order to achieve your winning proposition?)
     d. What are your instrumental behaviors? (i.e. what do you require of your employees/ colleagues in order to achieve the key priorities?)

Below is my credo - edited slightly to remove specifics on my company... as Dragnet would say, names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Seek adventure, pack lightly, and bring a pencil.

This may not sound like typical career advice. It may not even sound like typical mountaineering advice. But it is my leadership credo.

What does this mean and why does it matter? Our department is a non-traditional one. Customer acquisition, stockholder demands, and regulatory requirements are all meaningless terms for us. We serve a single family, and our mission is to solve their financial needs before they are even aware of them.  

Our battle is therefore not against competitors but against our own complacency, and to successfully advise the family we must be proactive with our advice, accurate yet agile with our methods, and creative in our approach towards developing passionate employees.  

People rarely consider accountants to be adventurous. Our field’s stereotype is someone who plays it safe, hides in their cubicle, and – above all – avoids at all costs engaging with other human beings. This is not us, and this cannot be us. But what does it mean to seek adventure in an industry typically defined by tradition and static rules?

The word vacation to me used to mean a week of sitting comatose on a beach, enjoying a novel while listening to the hypnotic sound of waves hitting the sand. Then I married a Navy veteran with aspirations of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, the world’s second highest peak. The notion of using boots, camelback water systems, and Cliff Bars to facilitate vacation was a foreign one to me, but I was willing to first try San Gorgonio, a training climb in Southern California. With a trail of 20 miles and an ascension of 6,000 feet, the elevation climb alone would be the equivalent to climbing the stairs of the empire state building seven times.  Such a trail can’t be taken lightly. Every item going into your pack must be carefully considered – needs vs. wants assessed, extraneous weight eliminated. Every ounce of unnecessary baggage would weigh down each and every step we took on the trail.  Even our goal had to be considered.  Why? – you ask.  Shouldn’t the goal be obvious – reaching the summit?

Despite what inspirational posters or sports books tell you, reaching the top is not always the bottom line. You must temper your desire to bag the summit with an acknowledgement of the unexpected. We very well might not reach the top, through uncontrollable factors. Altitude sickness. Lightning storms. A twisted ankle. Our defined end-goal was to enjoy good company, remember humility in the face of untamed nature, and endure the physical challenges: which would hopefully, but not necessarily, end up with us reaching the summit.

What does my journey mean for this company? I am tempted to offer a variety of inspiring platitudes about endurance, believing in yourself, or somehow comparing the euphoria we felt as we experienced the sweeping views from Gorgonio’s peak to the elation of a job well done. But I won’t do that. I’ll instead share what I believe mattered most that day: writing in pencil.

We made plans. We were prepared. But we were also willing to change course at the blink of an eye and to embrace adventure as the willingness to change a destination point as the journey threw challenges towards us.

So too must we embrace this idea as a department. The temptation we face is to accept our processes and goals because they are simply there. Familiar and comforting, if at times monotonous, our customs wrap us in a false sense of success. Without the pressures of external customers or regulatory deadlines, we could easily continue just as we are without being fired. But we would fail in our mission of providing proactive, unparalleled service to the family.

This desire to serve the family can only thrive in our desire to blend financial accuracy with management flexibility; to constantly reassess how our goals are serving (or failing to serve) them, and to be willing to erase failing efforts and redraw new plans. A sense of adventure will serve us well as we look to be flexible and proactive with a thirst for the next challenge, in whatever form it might take. 

This means that no idea will be shot down because it is different. We will not let ourselves be weighed down with unnecessary baggage. Therefore no process will be kept unless we can explain why it is needed – and why there is no better way to accomplish it.  

Finally, keeping ourselves motivated towards flexibility and excellence will only occur if we can invest in our personal interests both inside and outside of the workplace. We cannot expect one another to be passionate about our jobs if the firm is not also passionate about developing us as complete citizens. Therefore our department will offer [specific volunteer/training initiatives].

We are a Family Office: we serve a family, but we also strive to in some ways become a group of adopted siblings. Willing to embrace one another’s interests and to develop each other professionally, but with the underlying understanding that our commitment to providing the family with unparalleled financial management means that we will seek adventure, pack lightly, and write in pencil.

Jim 'n Nicks... ish Biscuits

Jim 'n Nicks is a southern BBQ staple - we enjoyed their wares while visiting family in Alabama, and what perhaps lives most famously in our memories is the Cheese Biscuit. Yes, so delicious that it earns its own capitalization.


Of course, JnN doesn't publish a recipe, but dedicated fans have been trying recipes to approximate the Cheesy Deliciousness. I tried out one of the recipes, with my own tweaks, and they came out quite tastily. While they could still use some tweaks to achieve full JnN glory, they were a tasty stand-alone muffin... and (as always for my recipes) met the required rubric for being pretty easy.

Somehow, it tastes like there is corn in the muffin even though it's not an ingredient. This is one of the great muffin mysteries of all time, but perhaps a chemistry-pro reader can offer advice here.

Jim 'n Nicks-ish Cheese Muffins:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour (the online base recipe recommended self-rising flour, but I refuse to buy new ingredients just for one recipe so I used normal flour and it turned out fine)
• 3/4 cup sugar (the recipe called for 1 cup but that seemed like a lot so I cut if down. If you want to go healthier, cut this further to 1/2cup... or better yet, don't eat these muffins at all).
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (sharp, freshly shredded if possibly. I had non-sharp, pre-shredded in the fridge so I used that. Oh well.)
• 3/4 cup buttermilk (while I usually encourage cheating around weird ingredients, don't cheat on this one - the buttermilk is part of the magic.)
• 2 medium eggs, beaten well (this is flexible - I tried one batch using 1 large egg and one batch using 2 large eggs and they tasted pretty similar, so go with whatever speaks to you.)
• 4 tablespoons butter (the recipe calls for softened butter which you mix in... I preferred using cold butter, cut into small pieces and mixing it into the flour until it was like course crumbs... this makes scones flakier, so I thought it might do the same for muffins... or maybe its just my chemistry superstition?)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 12-muffin pan (or you can make these as mini-muffins, just cut down baking time a bit).

Take all the dry ingredients mix them together. Mix in butter (either soft butter, or work in cold butter until mix looks crumbly). Add cheddar cheese and stir. Beat eggs with vanilla and buttermilk. Add mixed wet ingredients to dry and mix LIGHTLY, just until mixed. Over-mixing is bad. Very bad.


Bake ~11 mins, or until muffins are golden-ish. Enjoy! These are great as a side with BBQ, burgers, or even breakfast.

Presidential Traverse: Mt. Washington

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
           Shakespeare, As You Like It, (II.i.1–17)

Over Memorial Day weekend, my husband and I returned to the White Mountain area of New Hampshire where we snowshoed in February. Returning was a completely different experience – it was a luxury not to be worried about freezing food/water/skin and sleeping in 4 layers of clothing, though the trails were obviously much more crowded, eliminating some of the serene peacefulness we experienced during the winter. The trip was also a reunion for us; 5 of the 9 of us were snowshoe trip alumni.

Mizpah Hut

The worst part of the trip is always the drive, but we packed up with everyone in a 15-passenger van by 7am Saturday morning and trucked along on the 7-hour drive north. Arriving in the afternoon, we hiked for ~2.5 hours up a 1,900 ft. elevation gain on the Crawford Path to stay at the Mizpah Spring Hut, one of the many huts owned and operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Sunday night would find us at a different hut – Joe Dodge Lodge – so we packed everything into our packs Sunday morning loaded up on water, and headed out by 8am for a crazy-full day of hiking. 

The poetry of the earth is never dead.  ~John Keats 

We took the Webster Cliff Trail & Crawford Path trails to summit Mount Eisenhower (4,780 feet), Mount Franklin (5,001 feet) and Mount Monroe (5,372 feet). After stopping for a brief lunch break at Lake of the Clouds, we pressed on to summit Mt. Washington, the tallest peak in the Northeast at 6,288 ft.

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.  ~John Muir

I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.  ~Henry David Thoreau

The Mt. Washington summit is also accessible via car, so it was a bit strange to go from hiking in the wilderness to a summit with gift shops, a cafeteria, and hordes of tourists. The views were spectacular, though; apparently we enjoyed one of only a few clear days Mt. Washington has all year.

Mt.Washington View (and Parking Lot)

Mt. Washington is famous for having some of the most volatile weather in the world, and holds the world record in wind speed (231mph, recorded in 1934). The trails to/from the mountain are deceptively exhausting. While the hike was “only” about 12 miles, it took us a full 12 hours as much of the trails were piles of rocks/boulders. Particularly on the descent via the Lionhead trail, you had to think about every step you took, and steep/slippery sections of the trail could mean serious injury if you stepped carelessly.

That said, everyone in the group eventually made it down to Joe Dodge Lodge. Most of the AMC huts are bare-bones: some have running water (drinking only, no showers), electricity for a couple hours at night only, and large shared rooms of bunk-style cots. They essentially provide shelter and cooking facilities so you can minimize your carried-in supplies. Joe Dodge Lodge, at the base of Mt. Washington, was accessible by highway and therefore had hot running water. Oh my. Having a hot shower at the end of the traverse was a ridiculously nice surprise.

The Intrepid Crew!

Monday morning we explored North Conway, a cute, touristy NH town, before driving back into the city. We were rather like a gimpy clown car on the way back; we would stop for bathroom breaks and 9 incredibly sore hikers would slowly pile out of the van, easing their way out one foot at a time, and stretching/limping towards the restrooms.

There is a season for everything, and while we missed a bit the soul-refreshing solitude of our February trip, we enjoyed the soul-warming friendliness of company on this trip. Chris and I are already plotting additional hikes for the summer - stay tuned.

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.  ~John Muir

The Hellhound of Wall Street & Franklin Delano Roosevelt

I read recently an excellent book by Michael Perino, “The Hellhound of Wall Street,” which recalls the 1933 investigation of Ferdinand Pecora into unscrupulous banking practices before the 1929 stock market crash.  The parallels to today are eerie: bankers hawking complicated securities, citizens losing money on investments, and government officials blaming the stock market crash on short sellers. The book was recommended to me by one of our investment managers, and I in turn recommend it to bankers and non-bankers alike.  

When I began work in the finance world in 2008, the sheer volume of daily stock market gains/losses made the numbers seem like mythical Monopoly money. At the time it seemed like an odd aberration, a truly unfortunate recession, but one that would likely straighten itself out within a year or two.

Today, four years and not much of a recovery later, the situation seems just as grim. The news focuses on Greece (and then Spain…and then Italy…and then…), slowing growth in China, an increasingly partisan and vicious Presidential election, a nearly 1,000 point fall in the Dow Jones in the last four months, and a Facebook IPO that seems riddled with irregularities.

And yet, what seems new and disastrous to us in fact has many parallels with the fears faced by Americans in the 1930s. Franklin Roosevelt’s 1933 inaugural address reminds us:

“Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for… Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.”

In reading Roosevelt’s speech compared to today’s media/politicians, our response to the recent downturn has been downright ridiculous. We are not taking responsibility for our actions that exacerbated the downturn – cheap access to borrow money, buying more house than we could afford, letting greed rule our business decisions. Instead we blame other people. If you’re a homeowner, blame the banker. If you’re a politician, blame the opposing party’s politicians (and the bankers). If you’re a banker, blame the politicians and the irresponsible homebuyers. ‘Round and ‘round the circle goes.

It is time for us to suck it up and take responsibility for our own personal slice of this crisis. “But,” you say, “I’m not in foreclosure on my home, not a banker, not a politician. This recession is not my fault.” Not so fast. A major contribution to our situation today has been the borrowing addiction of American consumers. In China, the personal savings rate is close to 50%. In the US, the rate hovers around 0% (and our government savings rate is, of course, wildly negative). We are an impulsive people, spending what we want in order to achieve the (high) living standard to which we feel entitled. But the deception is that our living standards don’t feel high to us, they feel normal. They are not normal. For much of the world, one room per family is normal. Not having a car is normal. Living day-to-day is normal.

Desiring more is not a bad thing; ambition to work towards improving living conditions for yourself and your children is not a bad thing. Allowing living standards to dictate your finances, rather than letting your finances dictate your living standard, however, is the paragon of developed world selfishness.

A good friend of ours explained that he gave away at least 10% of his income not just for religious (Christian) reasons, but because giving away 10% reminded him that “I control my money, my money doesn’t control me.” 

How in control are we of our finances, really? It boggles my mind how much the small purchases add up – lunch here, coffee there. I’ve found Mint.com to be particularly eye-opening; it’s a free financial website run by TurboTax which automatically tags your transactions and shows easy-to-follow charts of where your money goes every month. Gail Vaz-Oxlade, a Canadian financial consultant featured in several CNN-aired shows, also offers a variety of free budgeting tools online. She recommends the following monthly expense split on your net pay:

Housing (mortgage, utilities, maintenance) 35%

Transportation (i.e. car, gas, insurance, parking) 15%

Life (everything else – groceries, childcare, entertainment, cell phone, pets, clothing, etc.) 25%

Debt repayment 15%

Savings 10%

Where is our money going, really? And whom is in charge of whom?

Extended excerpts of FDR’s Inaugural Address:

First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1933)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

This is a day of national consecration. And I am certain that on this day my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

…

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and have abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

…

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live. Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.

…

Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order: there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments, so that there will be an end to speculation with other people's money; and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.

…

In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.