MACNY president pens book on “present-future” leadership

DeWITT — Randall Wolken always wanted to write a book, so he did.

The president of the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY) started with the book title, “Present-Future Leader: How to Thrive in Today’s Economy,” and worked from there, he says.

The e-book version went on sale in June. The hardcopy edition is due from the printer any day.

Across 33 chapters, Wolken draws on his experience with some of MACNY’s more than 330 member companies, as well as his experience as an officer in the U.S. Army.

Wolken contrasts a present-future leader to the past-present leaders from whom he learned. While some were amazing leaders, they relied on past lessons. “They know what works because they have lived it,” Wolken wrote early in the book.

“Present-Future Leaders are different from Past-Present Leaders in many significant ways. The biggest difference is that Present-Future leaders are always focused on how they are developing into the leaders they need to be and they are leading their organizations into an exciting, meaningful, and compelling future.”

To become such a leader, Wolken wrote: “Assess your current focus and activity. Is it primarily focused on what you did in the past? In what ways can you begin to do new activities that help you better implement the future starting today?”

At MACNY’s spacious headquarters in Widewaters Plaza in DeWitt, Wolken describes how his own efforts to get in shape led him to think about and read about what it takes to bring about change.

“Sixty to 90 percent of what I do every day is habit. Huge amounts of what I did yesterday, I did today,” he says. 

Harnessing that, he has aimed to bring about change by altering habits — 15-30 minutes of exercise daily and a daily weigh-in, for instance.

Once that new habit is intentionally created, “it takes no will power to do a habit.”

The daily weigh-in is vital, he says, because it is important to keep score. “The big aha moment is you’ve got to keep score,” he says. That carries over into his advice to would-be present-leaders.

“I had no idea how important scorecards were to creating the future until I started to use them to achieve what I wanted in my own life. Since then, I am obsessed with creating good scorecards and utilizing a scoring system for everything I do at home and at work. As far as habits, if you do not keep score you will not be able to change.”

Those looking to become future leaders don’t have to search too far to see what the future will look like. It’s in factories, offices, and elsewhere, he says. However, “it’s just not widely distributed.”

“For instance,” Wolken wrote, “there are self-driving cars. I just do not have one. But, I likely will — in the not too distant future. Another example, I do not order from a human when I go to Panera — I use an app in the store or on my phone. This is the future of most of the fast-food industry. Not everywhere yet — but likely in many places very soon. In MACNY member companies, robots are working alongside people — today. This will be the norm everywhere very soon.”

Wolken’s book arrives as Central New York businesses find themselves in an environment where workers are becoming harder to find — a situation he expects will last into the foreseeable future.

To make their businesses employers of choice among the limited supply of employees, present-future leaders need to understand that workers aren’t showing up just for the paycheck. They want an experience that is meaningful. They want to know the “why” behind the business.

“It is critical that you be explicit about your “why” and your company’s “why.” Millennials, and increasingly all generations, want to work for a company with a compelling purpose and mission,” Wolken wrote. “Present-Future Leaders have a compelling ‘why.’”

Mentioning millennials, Wolken does not hold with those who see that generation as somehow less work-ready than others. “People struggling the most with today’s economy are boomers,” he says, noting he’s a baby boomer.

The rapid changes that show no sign of abating are nothing new for millennials, he notes. “They’ve known nothing but change.” He says millennials are the people to whom he turns for help learning how to change.

Focusing regionally, Wolken believes the demand for skilled workers will remain strong in Central New York. While the crucial role of manufacturing in the area — once some 40 percent of the workforce — has diminished, he expects it will remain as vital as it is today. “We’re at the national average, 9-10 percent, which is where I think we’ll stay,” he says of the percentage of the region’s jobs that are in manufacturing.

Wolken quickly adds that the “decline” in manufacturing has been offset by growing productivity. “We’ve never made more product,” he says. That rising productivity has required all kinds of changes. 

That’s the reality he sees shaping the workplace present-future leaders will drive. “There are no safe jobs that aren’t changing,” he says. “This is not a blip on the radar screen.”