The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Canada’

“I say that presidents of companies should be kicked out every five years or changed because we are only good in one or two areas not five or six or the full breadth of what a CEO does and I continue to believe that. There should be far more turnover of leadership in companies than there are today because people get stale,” says Kevin Shea. Part Two of this interview is packed with advice based on years of experience in the communications sector. After reading Kevin’s interview here are of few of my takeaways, what are your?

1. Listen and hear
2. Find and work with others who complement your skills
3. Going against the grain can have huge payoffs
4. Don’t give up on your dreams just because others tell you that you’ll fail
5. Interact with people from all age groups

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I was born in Montreal, and my family moved to Los Angeles when I was nine months old, and I’d like to say it was because I was having difficulty with two languages. My parents moved back to Canada, to Toronto when I was about 10. I grew up in Toronto and was involved as an actor when I was a kid and was always connected to the broadcasting television business. I knew that was the business that I wanted to get into. I went to York University and studied history, I’m not sure why I did that. After university I started my career in the cable industry.

Many years later I am now running my own company SheaChez Inc., have been for the past five years. I get involved in various start-up companies where I assist them with CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) licensing applications, which is a role I did with Sirius Satellite Radio. And I sit on a variety of different boards of private companies and I am chairman of what’s called the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC).

What’s a typical day like for you?

There is no typical day, because I’m self-employed, and as I said I do a lot of board work, my days are a mix of visiting companies I am involved with trying to set up strategic partnerships between companies that I know and companies that I’m involved with, lobbying government on various things and then working on a host of different projects. Quite honestly the overall content of what I do is somewhat similar but my days are dramatically different.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

Because there is so much diversity in what I do, what I mean by that is, I’m on the board of Cookie Jar Entertainment for example, which is an animation company and they are involved in what I call the conventional broadcast production business, but I’m also involved in a lot of new media companies and just diversity alone keeps me very interested. I work with entrepreneurs from the age of 20 to 70. In the old broadcasting business there are still a lot of legends and in the new media business there a lot of young, smart people.

If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I’ve thought of that before, and in many respects I’ve been very lucky. I’ve had some fabulous jobs and I’ve had the privilege of starting and running YTV the kid’s network for seven or eight years. I was at GlobalTV in its best years, Atlantis before it was Alliance Atlantis where we launched Life Network. That was great grounding for me, but there was always a bit of entrepreneur in me that wanted me to do my own thing. Having the benefit of working in large corporations most of my career has now allowed me to take that and help companies along the way, which has been a real benefit.

What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

I think the most profound discovery is how dramatically changed the broadcasting and communications sector is becoming. It is literally changing every day, and for many it’s very difficult to keep up with. It’s dramatically altered almost every aspect of the broad communications sector whether that’s newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. I mean it’s in a real state of flux. Even advertising is going through its own dramatic changes as it tries to keep up and understand all the change, and in the mean time consumers are very quick adapters, particularly Canadian consumers and they just want more, more, more. I guess the other profound discovery is that we’ve almost moved back 40 years sort of pre-cable and pre-online where the expectation is you buy the device, for example a TV, you put up an antenna and everything is free, and today’s consumer is also expecting everything online to be free and we both know that free isn’t going to pay for it, so that’s a discovery. It’s the reality of today.

What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?

I don’t know if there has been a single advance, but I think that for all of us, and when I say us I mean those who grew up in the traditional, conventional broadcasting business, understanding the impact that these new distribution technology advances are like night and day and is still very much a struggle for a lot of executives to figure out where this business is going. Today I spend the bulk of my time and effort in the new media business not the old media business and it’s been a dramatic shift. It’s not well understood and we don’t know with certainty where it’s going.

What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

1. Keeping current, particularly as someone who is a consultant and advisor you have to know what’s going on, so I find myself spending more time with younger people because they have a better handle on where things are going
2. We saw last year what impact the economy had on investments and in Canada the sources of investments in new start-ups in the communications business is difficult, there aren’t a lot of people investing in that.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

My big break came when Phil Lind at Rogers hired me to come in and run Cable Satellite Network way back when, and put me into Rogers a much bigger company than I was with in a leadership role. He remains both a close business associate and key mentor of mine. When I moved around in Rogers, Colin Watson who was my boss was an incredibly supportive and smart guy, so I would say it was a big break getting into Rogers at that time

Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

In my early days at Rogers when I was running this organization called Cable Satellite Network, and this was before we had specialty networks in Canada, the only thing we had was live coverage of the House of Commons, no Toronto Sports Network (TSN) or Newsworld. I had worked on a couple of applications for TV Ontario (TVO), one was called Galaxy to start a national children’s channel. This was before YTV and we kept being turned down by the CRTC and it was very disheartening because it seemed like such an obvious thing because we had TV Ontario that was a core strategic partner which was the first time that a broadcast and cable company had come together, which was my doing because I was the one who put that partnership together. I learned that we were before our time. The CRTC had no policies, they have never licensed a specialty channel, and the moment they licensed TSN and MuchMusic, which were the first two and they weren’t specialty channels back then, they were paid TV channels that almost went bankrupt and changed to specialty. It was when we all realized that it was time to put together a kid’s specialty channel and YTV was born. Now YTV was a controversial license because it had cable companies as shareholders and producers as shareholders, we didn’t have a broadcaster. TVO didn’t participate this time. I learned that you have to wait in this country [Canada] until they are ready, and secondly you have to be patient, and don’t stop because someone says no doesn’t mean that you go away forever. It took us six years to get an YTV license. It was called something different in different applications but in the end it was worth it.

The failure was Galaxy and the lesson is, do not give up and sometimes you are a bit premature.

What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

Maybe not going out on my own earlier and starting my own cable networks. There is nothing that I can really point to be honest.

What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

I was at Global TV and had been there for six or seven years as president, they had just bought the newspapers, whether I had a premonition, I realized that this acquisition of the newspaper was going to dramatically change how the company was going to be in the future. I thought about this for a few weeks, talked to a few friends and associates, and to resign from a big job at that point to go and do my own thing was one of the biggest decisions that I`d ever made. And you leave from having assistants, flying all over, all sorts of expenses being covered, stock options, to do your own thing is a big decision. I look back and say thank God I did it for a lot of reasons, given unfortunately what has happened to CanWest today, and I’m not saying that I predicted it. I look back and say I did the right thing even though I didn’t have all that information at the time.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

1. Being born since it wouldn’t matter otherwise
2. Having four great sisters who are my best friends and I mean that, and they have been very influential in my life
3. Having two wonderful children

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Starting YTV. I look back at my career and it took a long time to get the license, everybody said it would be a failure and would be off the air and bankrupt in six months and when I left after seven years it was probably one of the most progressive cable networks in the country.

How did mentors influence your life?

In many ways, and I seek out mentors and they continue to advise me. Somebody told me when I was young that you cannot be an expert in everything, you just can’t, and to concentrate more on your strength than your weaknesses and fill the gaps with people around you that actually complement your areas of weakness. I know where I am good and not so good so I’m always conscious of this advice. I say that presidents of companies should be kicked out every five years or changed because we are only good in one or two areas not five or six or the full breadth of what a CEO does and I continue to believe that. There should be far more turnover of leadership in companies than there are today because people get stale.

What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Make sure that one of your capacity is the capacity to listen because most times people do not listen to what you’re trying to advance because the only thing they have on their mind is what they are trying to advance, and you can tell that there are certain people who are not listening. And it’s almost as if you have to say, ‘hang on a second, I want to make sure that it’s not that you just understand this, but I want to make sure that you are hearing it.’ That’s been valuable personal advice in terms of dealing with people because at the end of the day a company is only as good as the people are.

Which resources (books, movies, training etc.) did your mentors recommend to you?

Everybody has their latest favourite book. It provides them with intelligence or a clue from an operating standpoint that they didn’t have before to see the world in a different way so if I read everyone of those books I`d never be able to leave the house, so I do a lot of scan reading.

As an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Keep an eye out for, and try to follow the capacity in which the individual has been able to implement change. I come back to where we started this conversation, and that is unless you can adapt really quickly in this day and age to change, and fully understand that change is happening all around you, so today’s best leaders are those who can actually implement change and that’s not easy because to implement change you have to have buy in, understanding and a collective will and good folks are the ones that today have that capacity and that`s something we all need.

What are your thoughts on this interview? What was expected and what was unexpected?  What are 10 takeaways? How can you apply this information? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentorand subscribe (top on the right side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

On Wednesday and Thursday we present an interview with Duke Redbird, First Nations Ojibwe Elder. It is my intention to bring to you a diversity of interviews so that we may all learn and grow. It’s amazing how much we can learn from others if we are open. Interviewees who are different from us can direct our thinking in new directions. For example, when talking about disappointments in life, Duke says that if the glass is half-full he simply gets a smaller glass, so now that glass is full. I wouldn’t have thought of that. We are socialized to choose between half-full and half-empty so it doesn’t occur to us that we can add another choice and that is to get a smaller vessel. What are your thoughts?

Tell me a little bit about yourself. Tell me a little bit about your company and where the idea for your business came from?

I am a First Nations Ojibwe Elder from Saugeen, a small reserve located in Ontario. I was born in 1939 so I’m 70 years old and will be 71 in March. I lived my entire life between the sacred and the profane, and I see the sacred as anything that has been created by the creator and nature, and the profane as anything that has been created by human beings. So when I am in the sacred I try not to profane it, and when I am in the profane, like I am today, I try to bring something sacred to it, so that’s my rule and prime directive.

What’s a typical day like for you?

I mentor faculty and students at the Ontario College of Art and Design, I am also a mentor for students at the University of Toronto, I am doing a totem impact project at York University, and I work on my film and television projects.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

Motivation is just waking up in the morning and realizing that you are alive and have things to do. We are here for a purpose and we have to fulfill that function whatever we find it to be. It is sort of like Joseph Campbell says about following your bliss.

If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I would never have touched alcohol or cigarettes in my youth. In my youth, holding your liquor and smoking appeared to be social badges of maturity. Though I quit drinking 25 years ago, and I no longer smoke, those were very poor choices. I wish I had had a mentor to steer me in another direction.

What’s the most important business (or other) discovery you’ve made in the past year?

The most important discovery that I made was to recognize the shift of consciousness that’s taking place around the planet, and it’s taking place with all the discourse that’s going on about developing more spiritual context to engage the world that we live in. It’s like a quantum leap has taken place in a new kind of reality. It’s no longer about money and power, it’s about self preservation, and romance is becoming integrated into those ideas.

What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?

Technologies are constantly improving. We are on the cusp of a whole new technological society, and it has to do with things like making a movie on your cell phone and being able to project in on a screen, 3-D on your laptop. Now we have floating keyboards and you don’t even need a keyboard in front of you, just a little projector projecting one on your table, or some empty space, and it works on your computer. Whenever we come up with a new technology we have no idea how it will affect us as human beings.

What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

Can’t think of any.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

There is nothing particularly unique about the service that I provide, except that I am engaged in broadcasting as an Arts and Entertainment reporter, and I act as a mentor elder and advisor to students.

What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

I think the fact that television is becoming planned and not as creative as it once was. I look at old programs, what we called the Golden Age of television and classical TV and things have gone downhill in terms of what we call infotainment, it’s information and entertainment combined, but it’s not real news.

Describe a major business (or other) challenge you had and how you resolved it.

Every decision that one makes is a challenge to get it right, and I saw most of the challenges that I faced on the basis of discovering whether they were wise decisions. I realize that the past is over, it’s gone and so one shouldn’t dwell on the past. You face a challenge based on the information you have at the moment, and then you try to solve it on the basis of wisdom, and how they might affect  your condition, your health, your attitude and personality, all those things.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

Most of what we consider to be civilized activities are nonsense, and so we have to make our way through a maze of bad decisions that people are making on our behalf.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Moses Znaimer gave me the opportunity to work in television, and York University gave me a lot of help when I went to university. I have had so many it’s from a series of people.

Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

To tell you the truth I cannot think of a big failure, nothing comes to mind.

What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

I cannot think of a disappointment. I would view something as a disappointment if I wanted to do something and was stopped. That hasn’t happened to me. I was having a discussion with Ron LeBlanc and he asked me if the glass was half full or half empty. When a glass is half full, I simply reduce the size of the glass, and it becomes  full so you do not become disappointed if you have that approach to life.

What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

A few years ago I decided to go and live in the North, and I actually bought a business in the Algonquin Park area. For all intents and purposes I made up my mind to live up there permanently, and one of the hardest decisions I had to make was when I realized that it was impossible, and that I would have to come back to the city [Toronto] to fulfill the obligations that I had, my art and my career, and so that was difficult.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Being born, being orphaned at nine months, and going through non-Native American foster homes as a child. These people were taking in orphaned children as a business and not for compassionate reasons. Going through that experience as a child, I realized that I was a commodity and not a person, and that I represented an income. These things defined my personality, character and how I approach life. Another event is when I chose to celebrate my culture and also get involved on social and political levels to establish a more equitable life for First Nations people.

What nuggets of wisdom have you gleaned from Duke’s interview? How might you apply his responses to your situation.

Keep the conversation flowing. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

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American thanksgiving is coming so much attention is on gratitude, but gratitude should be an every day thing, not just a day or week. In Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving in October. In Jamaica where I was born, the church celebrates harvest and they have Harvest Supper, which happened this past weekend. I try to express my gratitude each day, sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fall short, so I try to do it as life unfolds and things happen and that works for me. Here are seven things that I am grateful for.

Family: I am grateful to my family for loving me, even when I screw up and screw up badly. They may lecture me, which I do not like, but I know their hearts are in the right place so I listen and don’t have to agree, but I know that all is well.

Good Friends: I am grateful to true friend who keep me grounded, who give me the space when I need to grow or figure out things for myself.

Health: I am grateful for my health because when I am in good health I can do many things.

Another Day: Each day when I awake I realize that I have been given another day on this wonderful day to do something remarkable and I am eternally grateful even when I do not live each day as if it was my last.

Opportunities: I am grateful for the opportunities that present themselves in my life because they allow me to be remarkable, as well as of service to others.

Freedom: This is something that many take for granted, including myself because we live in a free state. In Jamaica they have a saying that you never know the use of a half until you lose it. This should be a reminder to us that we shouldn’t take what we have for granted.

Adversity: I am grateful for adversity – it took me a long time to figure this one out – because it brings tremendous opportunities. The past five years have been challenging ones for me, but I have grown so much, that I would never trade thge darkest period of my life for promises of sunnier days. I know myself so much better and I am also a better person. It’s a humbling feeling when things fall apart and the good thing you get to put it together again and this time you can use a different template or pattern. My writing has more depth because I been to the School of Hard Knocks.

I am sharing a piece of me with you, what are you thankful for? This is my entry to the 7 Things You Are Thankful For Group Writing Project 2009. Let’s keep the conversation flowing like a river, please comment. Also consider contributing to this Writing Project, what are 7 things that you are thankful for?