Q: what advice have you given others that you wish you had taken yourself?

Advice is easy, but experience is better, Separate from my association duties, I sit on the board of an academic institution. When personnel problems arise, I am a vocal advocate for performance plans because they forecast expectations and hold both parties accountable. That said, it has been a challenge in my own office to give staff an incentive to complete them each year. So many day-to-day things claim our focus. The plans are eventually completed, but it is a struggle for all of us each year.

Patricia Aiken-O'Neill President and CEO, Eye Bank Association of America, Washington, D.C.; [e-mail]

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Before accepting a chief staff executive position, ask lots of questions. Ask to speak with the association's attorney, auditors, and investment managers. Spend time with the outgoing executive, and meet with some staff to ascertain morale issues and divisions within the organization. While this advice may sound simple and matter of fact, you want to [unearth] as few skeletons as possible during your watch as chief staff executive.

Carmine M. Valente, CAE CEO, American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, Laurel, Maryland; [e-mail]

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I was a miserable role model. While telling staff to "work smart, let off steam, and take time off now and then," I stuck to a wicked pace--working late, on weekends, and over holidays. When I realized that the staff was suffering burnout because they were following my bad example, I knew I had to develop better work habits.

Reclaiming some personal downtime and routinely reserving time at staff meetings to discuss vacation and holiday schedules has convinced our would-be workaholics that time off to recharge isn't just OK, it's good for business.

Sammi Soutar, CAE President, Able Management Solutions, Inc., Columbus, Ohio; [e-mail]

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Take time to smell the flowers. We get so caught up in the daily craziness that we forget to enjoy our accomplishments. We work so hard to ensure that our members and staff are appreciated, but we don't take enough time to pat ourselves on the back for helping them get to the spotlight.

While it may seem a small thing to some, leaving the office for lunch (or something like it) for even 30 minutes each day keeps me saner in the afternoon. Better yet, going to lunch with an upbeat member and letting him or her share great ideas with me gets me energized to keep on keeping on.

And closing my door for 15 minutes of daydreaming has helped produce some of my best ideas. I don't do it nearly often enough, but play that game. "If money were no object, I'd ...", or "If time were no object, I'd ...", or better yet, "If I had zillions of volunteers, I'd ...." You'll be amazed at how you'll figure out how to get to some of those goals.

Helen B. Carter, CAE CEO, Williamson County Association of Realtors, Franklin, Tennessee; [e-mail]

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My advice would be to make sure your members are capable and ready to take advantage of the offerings you make available. As a retail trade association, we have access to cutting-edge technologies and are able to take a leadership position in training people to use these new systems.

If I had taken my own advice in 1996, we would not have created the Desktop Marketplace of Virginia, an e-commerce site with proprietary encrypted software. We were ready for online retail transactions way ahead of anyone else, but our staff wound up spending 98 percent of their time explaining to our members what the Internet was all about and only 2 percent of their time actually selling the site. Today all of our members are on the Internet, and the Desktop Marketplace of Virginia is only a reminder that being first isn't always the best strategy if your members aren't ready to follow your lead.

William H. Baxter, CAE President and CEO, Retail Merchants Association of Greater Richmond, Virginia; [e-mail]

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