Jay Chalmers


Let's Take
A Walk.


What I learned from Jay Chalmers:

Jay Chalmers chairs a Vistage Group made up of Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, CEO's, Presidents and Leaders of companies in San Diego, California. He gets to talk to lads and lassies that have achieved something noteworthy - They've built companies, helped pay mortgages and put food on the table of thousands of employees.

His job is to connect these people with timely, stimulating and productive business concepts and offer himself as counsel. Challenging counsel for people that have every reason to be pretty full of themselves. You think tempremental teenagers, slick salespeople and sedentary secretaries are difficult? Wake up people - that's kindergarten compared to this crowd.

Up until they meet Jay these people have done pretty well without having him on the bus. As the wise man said " I love learning- I just don't like to be taught". We all want to learn - kind of...

Jay Chalmers frequently brings up a little habit I have:

Whenever I need to have a focused "gut level" talk with an associate or employee my modus operandi is "Let's take a Walk". We walk outside around the building or down the street, have a chat and, hopefully, clarity and understanding occurs.

Jay Chalmers does his own "Lets take a Walk" very effectively and he doesn't even need to leave his seat. Some people respond, some don't, but they certainly get clarity. He questions, connects concepts and stimulates action items. Jay gets to the heart of the matter insightfully and honestly - there is no agenda other than "let's explore possible solutions together". Jay is a solution seeking kind of guy.

What's the purpose of the "Let's take a Walk" that Jay ribs me about? Honest, Open, Straightforward and often Brutal Communication. It's a "What are you trying to accomplish?" combined with a "I'm a resource - here's some tools - now it's up to you to take action" kind of talk. Always followed with the unspoken reminder and subtle challenge of - I will be interested to see what actions you take.

Jay Chalmers is the kind of guy I respect - You know why? Because "Let's take a Walk" gets harder the more accomplished and successful a person is. There's more stuff going on in the background - more variables - more options - more personal best practices and less qualified people to give counsel to these people. If the insight is not high value and focused it can quickly become the equivalent of giving change to the guy with the "Will Work for Food" sign around his neck. A charitable donation, or good deed for the day given to someone who drinks it and says thank you but that's about it.

"Let's take a Walk" doesn't work very well if there is not a connection and you're not respected - It's merely a voice mail never returned.

So why do I respect Jay? Because as you get further along in this thing we call life you notice that the majority of people tune in to the old "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest" message. The sycophants, lemmings and agenda driven cater their responses to what you want to hear. It's rare that you find altruistic objectivity - it's rare that you hear unvarnished versions of the truth accompanied with credible counsel.

The trick is to find a few good men (and women) that give you that very brutal honesty and take a walk with them on a regular basis. Easier said than done - there are so very few that, respectfully, measure up to the standard. When we're brutally honest with ourselves there's not a lot of people we truly like and even less that we respect.

Lot's of people leave voice mails - very few are worth returning.
Take a walk with Jay Chalmers - his voice mail is worth returning.

Let's Take a Walk

That's what I learned from Jay Chalmers

Reach Jay through Vistage International





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