LFCE Faculty Profile:
John Venetch
"Street Smart" Instructor Shares Lessons for Success
By age 30, LFCE faculty member John Venetch was demonstrating the guts to run a 500 employee steel mill. Able to connect with people of all backgrounds, from hard laboring steel workers to executives, he thrived, climbing the management ranks to become a trusted internal management consultant.
Throughout his 30-year management, consulting and teaching career, Venetch has succeeded by honing his innate ability to connect with people and relentlessly pursuing a sincere desire to help others excel.
Venetch's no-nonsense approach to business coupled with proven expertise in living and teaching innovative leadership, organizational development and organizational change draws praise from his LFCE clients. Here, John Venetch shares three popular lessons for business success.
Lesson #1: Groups Are Collections of Unique Individuals
One lesson I'll never forget I learned very early in my career. Charged with conducting a team-building exercise in a steel mill, I stressed open communication. Confident I'd made a connection, I urged the group to share their thoughts. A burly steel worker rose and promptly accused his manager of reneging on promises, labeling him a liar. Following a colorful reply, the two men nearly came to blows – during a teambuilding session! What I learned that day is to never work with a group without doing your homework.
This is why LFCE succeeds where others may falter. LFCE encourages its faculty to learn about the client organization and the change the organization wants to accelerate through a leadership education program. By then connecting with individuals within the organization, we design programs that are highly responsive to specific goals, needs and issues. Rather than teach standard change management materials, for example, I work with each LFCE client to gain perspective and create collaborative programs that truly deliver a measurable impact on business results.
Lesson #2: Engage the Lead, Nurture the Middle, Support the Resisters
All organizations undergo strategic change. But change is personal. A new strategic initiative that is uneventful for one individual might cause another to buckle at the knees. The best illustration of a group's reaction to change is the classic bell curve. At one end, some individuals sail through change while those at the other end of the spectrum show extreme difficulty. Most individuals in the middle simply pause, adjust and adapt.
Many organizations focus on the resisters to change and leave the majority in the middle to fend for themselves. The more effective response, however, is to teach people to engage the early adapters in working to help those in the middle succeed. With respect to the few resisters to change, organizations must recognize that differing reactions will occur, identify counterproductive behaviors early on and create a supportive environment for all who may be struggling to adapt. We practice these effective approaches in the classroom so LFCE participants are ready to apply them to the actual change the organization wants to make.
Lesson #3: Never Forget the Importance of Being Gracious
While I didn't appreciate it at the time, I learned my most important business lessons from my father, a watchmaker who owned a jewelry store in New York. Above all, I value my father's example of being gracious to all individuals at all levels and backgrounds.
Graciousness is the quality that enables critical relationships to form, whether between allies or potential foes. In all one's dealings, strive to create the feeling among others that "you are someone we can work with and want to work with again." Never is this more needed then when an organization is moving a change forward.
Yet, it's critical to realize that true graciousness is not a business "strategy" to be used consciously to gain advantage. Rather, as my father exemplified every day of his life, to be gracious is simply "the way things are done." I try to live up to this ideal in my daily work and as an LFCE faculty member.
Making a difference truly lies at the center of John Venetch's heart. Reflecting on his favorite quote, "Leaders cast long shadows," Venetch urges all of us to make every effort to leave those with whom we come in contact better off for having known us.
