Leadership

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Leadership Tagged Articles

Teambuilding - are we mixing our metaphors?
This article looks at possible teambuilding methods and how appropriate (or not) they might be in terms of the unconscius messages they are sending!

9 Ideas to Reduce Cliques at Work

My thesis is that cliques at work have some helpful components, but they often do more harm than good by being exclusive elements in the culture. Top performance in any organization requires the best effort of the entire team, and when parts of the group are fragmented into insular cells, all kinds or gremlins creep into the structure. In the extreme, cliques can be hurtful to the mission of an orgnaization. But cliques are as natural as pancakes for breakfast. They form spontaneously and have their own unwritten bylaws that serve the members very well. How can leaders reduce the negative impact of cliques? Here are 9 ideas that can help reduce the problem.

Idiot! Why do you think that way...what's wrong with you?!
I was in a discussion last night about common sense and the popular statement was made: "People should have more of it". I would argue that there is no such thing.

Productive Conflict in Leadership Teams
Productive conflict in leadership teams is essential if they want to be high performing. This has to come from a basis of trust, understanding and honesty. The Leader needs to role model the right behaviours for this to happen.

Don't you just love a little mischief?
Your brain is a complex prediction machine and is always constructing possible futures you might encounter to keep your body out of harms way. In the last 100 years, the day to day danger to your body has almost been eliminated.

Recovery or No Recovery? That is the Question.
James Dicks examines the discrepancies of what economists are telling us about a possible technical economic recovery and what the American public is actually experiencing.

Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal - Step 7 Initial Meeting
Now that you have an overview of the Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal system the question is "How do I get started?" This article will guide you through that process.

ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE THROUGH TOTAL COMMITMENT
Excellence is an excellent word and excellent companies strive for achieving it. Many factors contribute to the excellence of companies chief among them is employeeâ€™s commitment. Without commitment no company can think of achieving excellence. Commitment is rather a key ingredient for improving quality and productivity, reducing defects, increasing profitability and decreasing costs.

Do women have different leadership qualities than men?
Research is not conclusive on the subject. Traditionally however, leadership is broken down into archetypes that you may identify with: it is said that male leadership qualities are those that focus on getting things done, taking charge and acting systematically, while female leadership qualities are those that focus on creating conditions for life. How can women contribute?

Do you have it in you? - Embracing new forms of Leadership
Which are the qualities of an all-embracing leadership style? How can you be at the same time dynamic, confident and enthusiastic? I recently came across a list of leadership qualities that I consider the cornerstones of an all-embracing leadership model.

The Seven Inherent Growth Steps for Every Leader

As part of my ongoing commitment to personal development, I attended a seminar over the weekend where the speaker talked about the seven inherent growth steps every leader must take. I have made a firm commitment to follow these steps as I develop as a leader within the network and online marketing industry. I’d like to share these seven growth steps of leadership with you, and ask if you are already incorporating these steps as a leader.

21 Undisputed Rules for a Leader of the 21st Century
Working with organizations for the last two decades across the globe, I have derived 21 undisputed qualities of a leader (not a manager). Sharing with community of at least 42 countries I have learn that leadership is everything (not managerial effectiveness). A leader can be a manager but a manager cannot be a leader.

Executive and Leadership Coaching is Here to Stay
Coaching in business, corporations, government and non profits are here to stay. It's not a fad, coaches don't fix people, they evolve people into their levels of excellence and positively impact the organizations they're leading. What makes a corporate executive want to get a coach? They want to be better.

The Path of Least Resistance
Avoidance is not the best growth strategy.

4 Mantras of Leadership
4 Mantras of Leadership by Dr. Shailesh Thaker

5 Caveats to the "Open Door" Policy
Most organizations have an "Open Door" policy to protect employees from bully supervisors. The idea is to make it safe to bring a problem to a higher level of management. The method can be helpful, but I have found it to be fraught with problems. This paper describes five of the most significant problems with the "Open Door" Policy and suggests a simple antidote.

What Does Leadership Mean?
Leadership means having a responsibility that you choose to own for yourself. It’s not responsibility someone else gave to you it’s a responsibility you chose to give yourself. Once you choose to be responsible you in turn become a leader. Leadership is about being able to create more leadership

Do You Play the Executive Whack-a-Mole Game?

Are you so busy solving problems and reacting to crises that you do not have time to develop the culture in your organization? If so, you are trapped in a whack-a-mole game. To get out, you need to carve out time to work with your group on improving the environment. Benefits - (1) reduce interpersonal conflicts - fewer problems for you to solve, (2) create more empowered employees - more willing hands to resolve issues, (3) lower stress and burn out.

4 Common Denominators of High Performing Teams
There are four common denominators of high performing teams. When these elements are present, teams are almost guaranteed to be efficient and rewarding for the members. The elements are: Common goals, Trust, Good Leadership, and a Good Charter. If your team has these four elements, chances are you are enjoying the benefits of working on a high performance team.

Define Leadership - The Missing Key Success Factor in Change Management
How you define and exercise leadership in the present climate will be a significant determinant in your organisation's fortunes - and especially in the context of change management. But so often in change management situations the emphasis is on the process and the management of the situation and not the leadership...

Toxic Leadership and Change Management - How to Spot it, Deal With it and Avoid it
Toxic leadership is all about the abuse of power and its destructiveness. In change management terms, having anyone in a leadership or a management position in your organisation who displays these characteristics is like a poison that needs to be identified and eradicated at the earliest opportunity. There are a number of defenses to toxic leadership...

Reinforce Candor to Build Trust: Transparency

Trust is the key ingredient missing in most organizations, particularly in these draconian times. The ability to build trust is most impacted by a leader’s habit of reinforcing candor – which means making people glad when they bring up inconsistencies in the leader’s actions. Most leaders punish people for surfacing difficult issues. In the process they extinguish trust and transparency, which further cripples worker motivation. Learn how to change your behaviors to allow consistent trust building interfaces with people.

12 Do's and Don't for Effective Online Communication
We communicate more online now than verbally. In many situations, people send signals that are not consistent with their intentions. Unfortunately, while the rules of excellent e-mail communication are common sense, they are not common practice. These simple 12 rules will allow you to prevent most problems when communicating online.

Improve the Effectiveness of Your Meetings

Here are five tips to improve your meetings. 1. Reduce griping and venting. The leader of the meeting can allow people to vent, but not have it become a debilitating whirlpool. 2. Use the agenda wisely. Know when to follow the script and when to rip it up. 3. Summarize the discussion frequently. This prevents an endless cycle of people in violent agreement. 4. Agree to disagree. Use the rule of three to cut off acromony without hurting people’s feelings. 5. Manage the time efficiently. Make sure people feel the value in the meeting time.

9 Tips to Improve Trust in Virtual Teams
We work in virtual teams more now than ever before. Many people spend most of the career working with people in high pressure situations, yet they have not ever physically met. Here are 9 tips that can improve the effectiveness of virtual teams.

Ubiquitous Reinforcement
Great leaders know that reinforcement is the most powerful way to improve motivation. This article highlights four frequent errors in trying to reinforce people along with the antidotes. It also covers the need for reinforcement to be for the entire culture, not just for leaders to use.

Avoiding Playing Favorites

We all know the issue of playing favorites is one of the most deadly trust busters in an organization. The conundrum is that every leader really does have favorites and uses these people more than the not-so-favored people for certain tasks. If you are a leader and deny this, check your reality meter – you may be out of gas. Given this problem, how can a leader go about running the most efficient organization and still beat the debilitating stigma of playing favorites? The answer lies in doing 4 things that are outlined in this article.

Anti-Hubris Pixie Dust

We have all run into a narcissist leader somewhere along the way. This “Bull in a china shop” leader goes around all day creating damage – often with no congnition of it. There are two issues here. If you are a leader, how can you tell the extent to which your hubris is taking you in a direction at cross purposes to your intent? If you work in an environment where there is one or more narcissistic leaders, how can you improve conditions for yourself and your co-workers? These questions are so common that most people deal with some form of the dilemma every single day at work, yet despite years of effort and suffering, no relief is in sight. I believe there is a shaping process that can actually serve as a tranquilizer in the melee, but the application must be done with great skill to be effective.

Authentic Leadership
In organizations, our success as leaders is measured by the degree to which we’ve mastered the external environment and delivered results in the form of revenues, profits, new product breakthroughs, cost savings, or market share increases.

Leadership Myth #1 - Great Leaders Are More Intelligent

Many people believe great leaders are more intelligent than poor leaders. There are so many examples that debunk this theory that it is hard to pick just a few. Raw intelligence is not correlated with outstanding leadership characteristics. In fact, if you drew a correlation line showing IQ on one axis and success as a leader on the other, it would not be a straight line. There is a maximum point beyond which higher IQ is actually a predictor of lower success as a leader.

Leadership Myth #2 - Great Leaders Work Harder
Many people believe great leadership requires a person to be the hardest working person in the organization. That is simply not the case. In fact, Great leaders are often less work-a-holic type people than is commonly thought.

Leadership Myth #3 - Great Leaders have a College Education
To be a great leader, does one need a college education? No, that is not a prerequisite for leadership, but the weight of evidence is that better educated people do make better leaders. This article explains the apparent paradox.

Leadership Myth #4 - Great Leaders are Expert at Playing Politics
The issue of when and how to play politics makes an interesting study. While we all want to avoid the Machiavellian type of behavior associated with manipulative politics, like it or not we are in a sea of political thought every day. We better get used to it and learn how to navigate well in it.

Leadership Myth #5 - Great Leaders Have Large Egos
We all know egotistical leaders. We run into them all the time. But is having a large ego a requirement for leadership. I think not. Here are some reasons.

Leadership Truth #1 - Great Leaders Operate from a Set of Values
Values are the underpinning of everything we do. Great leaders have a concrete set of values that they operate from on a daily basis. Where do these values come from?

Leadership Truth #2 - Great Leaders Live Their Vision
Great leaders are congruent. They live their vision all the time. Consistency is a trait most great leaders have in abundance. Why is this trait so important?

Leadership Truth #3 - Great Leaders are Passionate
Not only are great leaders passionate people, but they have an uncanny ability to infect others with their passion. That is how the gusto in their soul gets translated to the rank and file. Let's explore how this is done.

Leadership Truth #4 - Great Leaders Value Transparency
Transparency in an organization means not holding things back from people.In so many organizations people know there is information being denied them that they really ought to know. This is devastating to morale.

Leadership Truth #5 - Great Leaders Have High Emotional Intelligence
Simply stated, Emotional Intelligence is the ability to work with people at all levels. The degree of success of an individual in this world is much more closely aligned with the level of Emotional Intelligence than IQ.

Leadership Truth #6 - Great Leaders Never Stop Learning
When we stop learning, it is time to call the undertaker. At birth, we are given one body and roughly 80 years - that is what we have. All of life is a series of learning opportunities. Great leaders are like sponges trying to absorb lessons in life, even in the most difficult of times.

Leadership Truth #7 - Great Leaders Believe Work is Play
Have you ever noticed that the best leaders actually have fun at work? It really is allowed to create an environment where the good times outnumber the bad times. There are some gifted leaders who have discovered this concept.

Am I a Leader?
What makes a person a leader? What distinguishes a "good" leader from a "bad" leader? Can anyone become a leader or do you need particular characteristics and behaviours? This article considers these questions and makes some suggestions about who a "leader" really is.

Leadership Truth #8 - Great Leaders Do Not Overly Worry about Popularity
While everybody likes to be popular, great leaders understand their primary goal is to balance the needs of all stakeholders at the same time. This inevitably leads to some stakeholders being unhappy with certain decisions. How do leaders deal with the fact that they are unpopular for some portion of the time?

Leadership Truth #9 - Great Leaders Foster Great Followership
For centuries, most of the focus has been on leaders and leadership. There is a new trend over the past decade to also focus on great followership. We are all leaders and followers for some portion of the time. This article compares and contrasts these two roles.

Leadership Truth #10 - Great Leaders Make Large Trust Deposits
The level of trust between any two individuals is like a bank account. There is a balance, and we make continual deposits and withdrawals. Great leaders look for the opportunities to make large deposits in the trust account with people.

Leadership Truth #11 - Great Leaders Do Better in a Crisis
A hallmark of great leadership is that these people do better when there is a crisis. They are more prepared going in and have a way of navigating during a crisis that instinctively finds the best path through chaos. How do they accomplish this?

Leadership Truth #12 - Great Leaders Develop Others
The highest calling for any leader is to develop other leaders. But great leaders do more than that, they focus on the development of everyone in the organization. This is the way they tap the true potential of the entire population. Great leaders continually invest in improving the capability of people.

Teams and Kindergarten
When we were in Kindergarten we learned some rules to be successful in class and on the playground. It is astounding that people in work groups often forget these basic rules in their activities. Let's get back to basics.

Reducing Conflict between Peers is an Art
Conflict within organizations is a constant problem. It deflects energy away from the vision and causes wasted energy. Conflict between peers is particularly hard to eliminate because the individuals see the world from different perspectives. This article offers several tips to reduce conflict between peers.

Ten Hallmarks of a High Trust Organization

We tend to think of trust in one dimension, but there are several different ways trust plays out in organizations. My favorite definition of trust is that when I trust someone, it means I believe he or she will always do what is thought to be in my best interest (even if I do not particularly appreciate it at the time). We can contrast some dimensions of trust by considering what it is like to work in an organization with high trust versus one with low trust on several dimensions

Downsizing Dynamics
When companies are forced to downsize, it is an unpleasant time for everyone. Unfortunately many organizations make the process much worse than necessary. This article explores the problems and gives an antidote.

Reinforce Candor or Speak Truth to Power?
My Trust model highlights Reinforcing Candor as the most powerful tool to build trust in organizations. Some people might think this is the same as Speaking Truth to Power, but it is really very different.

Deming on Leadership
Here is an interesting personal story of a run-in I had with Deming several years ago that had a profound impact on my understanding of leadership.

Avoid Garbage-Plate E-Mails
Less is more in e-mail communication. If a note cannot be read and internalized in 15-30 seconds, there is little chance it wil be effective at communicating the intended message. Granted, some messages do need to be longer, but it is a good idea to keep them as short as you can, and try to not have the text go "over the horizon" because the reader has no idea how long the note is if you do.

12 Rules for Success
Several years ago I generated a list of my own personal rules for success. It was originally 10 items which I called “Whipple’s 10 Commandments for success.” I later added a couple more to make it an even dozen.

Little Known Leadership Tip
When leaders transition to a new position, they often make a critical error of being too outspoken about possible improvements based on the environment in their presious position. This can undermine relationships dramaticlly at the very time when it is critical to be building good will with the new team.

Using Time Wisely
We all have the same amount of time each day. Some leaders seem to get a lot more done with less stress on themselves and everyone else. Others, seem to always be running around at Mach 7 with their hair on fire but getting less true work accomplished. What is the trick to getting more done?

Defining Success

We all want to be successful in life. Success has meaning to us in a very personal way. Some people long for financial freedom to be able to live out their lives in relaxation with enough money to pay the bills. Other people define success in terms of power, they want to have a large span of control. Still others think being successful means having excellent personal relationships and love in their lives. there is another definition of success that is provided by two very learned men.

12 Dimensions of Culture Rarely Seen in MBA Books

Most business textbooks define the culture of a company in terms of things like: 1.Physical structure 2.Language and symbols 3.Rituals, ceremonies, gossip, and jokes 4.Stories, legends, and heroes 5.Beliefs 6.Values and norms 7.Assumptions I believe all these things are important parts of the culture, but I believe there are several even more important things that are not on this list. What is your opinion? My view would include things like whether there is an environment of trust and several other key ingredients.

Writing Challenging E-mails

We have all been there at some point. We need to communicate on a delicate issue, and e-mail is the only method possible because the other person is unavailable for any other type of communication. The situation can be a CTO (Career Threatening Opportunity). First of all you will be putting snesitive material in writing in a medium where there is no chance to fully erase it. Second, time is usually short in these circumstances, so there is not a lot of opportunity for detailed analysis. Finally, the subject matter gives you the feeling that you are walking on eggs.

2 Ways to Avoid Being Micromanaged

Most of us have complained about this well-known situation at some point. What steps do you take to avoid the problem? My personal view is that if you can accomplish the following two things, the chances of being excessively micromanaged are significantly reduced. 1) Be credible. Do excellent work and anticipate questions that might come up. Do your homework well and take preventive actions before being asked. 2) Over Communicate. If you get to the boss before he or she gets to you, then the potential to be micromanaged goes down.

Leading Change Initiatives
We are all aware that the pace of change continues to increase exponentially. Our frenetic world makes the need for effective change a matter of survival. Why is it that most change initiatives in organizations are impotent? My own favorite 9 prerequisites for successful change are outlined in this article.

7 Times It Is Important to MicroManage
I am a macro-manager. I like to lead leaders, so I try to paint the big picture for a team and release team members to do their work carrying out the mission of an organization in his or her own way.

Are You a Credible Leader?

Credibility is important in any leadership position. If a leader desires followers to willfully work with passion to reach an established vision, then he or she must be trusted. Credible leaders have followers that share the organization’s values and work hard to achieve them. When a person’s leadership is not credible, followers are less likely to be team players and will be disloyal to the organization.

Leading from a Position of Fear or Security

Leaders, do you lead from a place of fear or a place of security? In my experience, leaders typically tend to lead from one or the other. The leader dominated by fear is afraid of failing, fears that people are out for his or her position, or struggles to delegate and trust others (including God). The leader dominated by a sense of security trusts his or her abilities, is confident in his or her position and has faith in other people (including God)

5 Tips for Managing Strong Willed People
Have you ever tried to lead someone who didn’t want to be led? The same children that were labeled “strong-willed” by their parents often grow up to be strong-willed adults. Perhaps you know one…perhaps you are one. (I know one personally…me!)

Building Your Organization Around Strength of People
Is your strategy built around your organization’s people strengths?

The Delicate Balance Between Yes and No
As a leader, I prefer to say yes. I love when our staff comes to me with a proposal for a new ministry or a new expenditure and I can simply say, “Yes, go for it!” I love being the guy who gets to encourage another person’s big dream. I am not a fan of micro managing. Saying yes allows me to empower others to do their work well.

4 Reasons Change is Difficult
Change is necessary if organizations want to continue to improve and grow, but change instantly raising resistance from some people. Change requires a certain amount of faith. Faith is much easier to believe, and even to preach, than it ever is to live by.

The Best Leaders Don't Have All the Answers
The Best Leaders Don't Have All the Answers

Shotgun Vs. Rifle Approach
Too often we shot gun versus rifle our day. When we try to accomplish too many tasks in one day, we are seldom effective at very many of them. The more scattered your plans, the less effective you will appear and appearance most likely will mirror reality. With the shotgun approach, a person tends to run from activity to activity quickly, but never really accomplishing any one project well.

Managing Your Style

Many of us have taken the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and also the DiSC Profile. We have sat in seminars or corporate training sessions designed to help us understand our "style" and how our "type" relates to the rest of the world. These insights are helpful at understanding ourselves and how we can improve relations with other people. I believe style needs to be considered more as a dynamic process - not static. For that we should think about the possibility of actively managing our style.

10 Commandments to Reduce Gossip
Gossip and rumors about people are hurtful to relationships and organizational effectiveness. Here are 10 commandments that can reduce this problem in your environment.

Who is Your Worst Critic?

Most of us do not have to look far to find our own worst critic. We just need to look in the mirror. Even though it is not good for our physical or spiritual health, we all tend to dwell on what we need to do better. There is an antidote to the malaise, and it is easier that we think. All we need to do is re-train our minds to avoid dwelling on our deficiencies. Easier said than done? Not really. There are three simple steps you can take that will alter your self perception if you have the will to do them.

5 Management Mistakes in Using Data
Deming taught us that many managers make things worse rather than better by the way they react to data. I would like to hear your opinions on whether you see this in your organization. Here are just 5 reasons why managers use data inappropriately.

4 Tips To Improve the Morning Meeting
Many organizations have a short morning meeting every day to accomplish multiple objectives. In some cases these meetings are highly successful: in others they actually make things worse.

Three Little Words
There are three little words that have a lot to do with building trust in an organization. At first you will think these three words actually lead to the destruction of trust, but in the hands of a great leader, these words can become the most compelling force for growing trust. The words are: I am right.

Are You an ‘IN’ or ‘OUT’ Leader?
Leadership is both 'IN' and 'OUT'. A motivational leader not only guides people in the organisation but also take care and inspire the individuals who indirectly influence the growth factor of the organisation from outside.

Autograph Your Work With Excellence
People should understand the difference between job and work. Job satisfaction is an outdated idea. Work satisfaction is a truly possible thought. You must know what you are doing. Leaders always know what they are doing and what they don't.

Culture and Motivation

You have probably asked yourself, ¡§How do people become motivated to perform at peak levels over a sustained period of time?¡¨ Perhaps you found yourself coming up with incentive programs that reward based on money, vacations, or perhaps merchandise in an effort to motivate your employees. The reality is, motivation comes from within each of us is not generated by picnics or T-shirts. As a leader, do not seek to motivate your employees; rather, focus on building a culture of trust where individuals make the choice to become motivated.

Good Peer Realtions Enable Leadership Transitions
Despite rigorous selection criteria and intense training, Michael, an employee reporting to you, is not working out. His attitude and personal habits are fine, but you have invested heavily in his development but have come to the realization he will be better off as an individual contributor rather than a leader.

Ideas for Political Survival
There is an old saying “Too soon old – too late smart.” During my long career in a large organization, I somehow managed to do some pretty bonehead things politically. I will never be someone who is politically brilliant because I am far too outspoken. But I have learned some things and want to pass on an idea to others.

Merger Downsizing

The following example shows how downsizing after a merger can become a huge morale problem for the surviving organization as well as the organization being taken over. Most mergers are done to improve economies of scale and reduce costs by combining similar functions in the two previously independent organizations. This is a tempting ploy when looking at how an organization can survive the increasingly competitive world market. Beware!

Punished by Rewards
The following review is taken from a pivotal article by Alfie Kohn in 1993. The paper can be ordered from Harvard Business Review (Sept. 1993). I will also provide my own comments on each point and offer some additional materials that amplify Mr. Kohn’s point of view.

Organization Development Techniques

OD is short for Organization Development. This is not a new term. Behavioral scientists have been writing about Organization Development for over 30 years. The science has evolved into many different approaches all aimed at the same objective: to enable massive improvements in organizational performance through specific and planned interventions. I have been involved with dozens of OD efforts over the past decades. Some of these have resulted in the desired improvement. Some have not. Let’s review four major types of OD interventions (there are others, but they are usually variations or combinations of these four):

The Power of Admitting Mistakes

One of the most powerful opportunities for any leader to build trust is to publicly admit mistakes. The source of that power is that it is so rare for leaders to stand up in front of a group and say something like this: “I called you here today to admit that I made a serious blunder yesterday. It was not intentional, as I will explain. Nevertheless, I failed to do the best thing for our group. I sincerely apologize for this and call on all of us to help mend the damage quickly. Without being defensive, let me just explain what happened…”

Tips for Improving Motivation

The concept of motivation is one of the most misunderstood terms in the leadership lexicon. Reason: Most leaders either never learned or have forgotten the nature of motivation, so they try to achieve it using ineffective tools. This white paper focuses on the learning from Herzberg’s Two Factor theory and why those concepts can be translated into helpful guidelines that create the opportunity for higher levels of motivation.

Tips to Improve Team Culture

The culture of a team governs its effectiveness. Most teams have a culture that allows adequate performance despite many unfortunate outbreaks of tension and sometimes childish behavior. It is unfortunate that more teams do not experience the exhilaration of working in a supportive culture that produces excellent results. The methods of building teams into high performing units are well documented, but most teams do not go through the rigor required to get to that level. This paper blends well known processes with horse sense born of experience that will allow any team to perform better.

Write Colorful E-Mails
We can all improve the quality of our e-mails if we take a little time to think about how we word them. Painting "word pictures" can be a great way to improve this mode of communication, and it is not as hard as we might think.

WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL MODEL FOR THE YEAR 2010?
Leaders always plan their year in advance and they visualize the time in advance. They also design their strategy and decide to move forward according to strategy. So , plan and plan in advance and move forward. Remember, time passed never returns in the life.

LEADERSHIP: ART & SKILL OF LISTENING
Leader always listen, listen and listen. They use the words for the action and delegation and execution.They are passionate listeners and direct the team to achieve the common goal.Active listening is a skill and it should be acquire by the leader. Leader has to understand his people and to understand the people , you must listen them.

How People Will Remember Me at My Work Place?
Leadership in silence sounds more. Do some extraordinary thing at work place that after leaving your work still people will remember you. It can be innovative ideas, excellent service, talent, helping peers and so on. Create a difference for yourself and be remembered by your colleagues even after you leave.

8 Signs of a Positive Leader
How do we know when we're following a true leader instead of a sensationalist?

Jesus Christ, A Great Leader To Lead Us From Darkness To Divine Light
A world leader Jesus Christ has evolved us from the sorrows of this earth to real joy and happiness. He has shown us the path to divine peace and serenity. He has led us from darkness to divine light. So, let us celebrate this special day, when Son of God Jesus Christ was born, as our enlightenment day and remove the darkness from our life.

Feet Look To The Ground And Eyes Look To The Sky

Life is never a yesterday, it is always tomorrow. Even when everything is lost, does not matter, because tomorrow is not lost. A leader is a dealer of hope. Trust me, the biggest hurdle in the race of life is yourself only if we have pessimistic attitude. Leaders are internal driven and full of confident for making things happen. They believe in excellence and excel their talent to accomplish set goals. They believe in realistic world and keep burning desires inside.

Hierarchy of Reputation
A bad reputation does not provide the same opportunities as a good one. Being known expands market visibility, power, performance and more. But how do you move from where you are to a higher level?

Leadership Assessment #1 – In vs. Out Ratio

There are hundreds of leadership assessments. The content and quality of these assessments vary greatly. You can spend a lot of time and money taking surveys to tell you the quality of your leadership. There are a few leading indicators that can be used to give a pretty good picture of the overall quality of your leadership. These are not good for diagnosing problems or specifying corrective action, but they can tell you where you stand quickly. Here is one of my favorite measures. I call it the "In Versus Out" Ratio.

Leadership Assessment #2 – Level of Trust

There are hundreds of assessments for leaders. The content and quality of these assessments vary greatly. You can spend a lot of time and money taking surveys to tell you the quality of your leadership. There are a few leading indicators that can be used to give a pretty good picture of the overall quality of your leadership. These are not good for diagnosing problems or specifying corrective action, but they can tell you where you stand quickly. Here is one of my favorite measures. It is the level of trust within the organization.

Leadership Assessment #3 – Growth & Development

Leadership Assessment #4 – Lack of Fear

Leadership Assessment #5 – How People Treat Each Other

Leadership Assessment #6 – Builds an Inclusive Culture

Leadership Assessment #7 – Connects Well with People

Leadership Assessment #8 – Firm but Fair

Leadership Assessment #9 – Admits Mistakes

Leadership Assessment #10 – Lead by Example

Leadership Assessment #11 – Demonstrate Integrity

Leadership Assessment #12 – Listen Deeply

Leadership Assessment #13 – Negotiate Well

Leadership Assessment #14 – Emulate Level 5 Leaders

Leadership Assessment #15 – Make Good Decisions

Leadership Assessment #16 – Build a Reinforcing Culture

Leadership Assessment #17 – Optimize Communication

Leadership Assessment #18 – Handle Crises Well

Leadership Assessment #19 – Generates Passion

Leadership Assessment #20 – Lowers Credibility Gap

Leadership Assessment #21 – Build a SAFE Environment

Leadership Assessment #22 – Leaders are Enablers

Leadership Assessment #23 – Leaders Create Winners

...and a healthy, happy and prosperous new year!
We – unlike our parents and Grandparents – will not be rewarded or honored for our hard work; but will be valued only by our knowledge and ability to design more effective and efficient strategies, tactics, and practices for ourselves, our employers or our businesses

Leadership-Its in Everyone of Us!
This time of the holidays before we are headed into a new fiscal year let us not forget to try and plant our feet firmly on the ground because 2010 will be a great year on the Internet for many leaders.

Maximize Discretionary Effort
Each of us has a vast storehouse of “discretionary” effort that we either give or withhold on a daily basis. Let’s examine the factors that govern why some people freely choose to give a lot more of their discretionary effort to their organization while others, equally qualified, habitually hold back most of their potential.

Incredible Speed
Here are a couple true stories that illustrate how an organization can shrink months of effort into hours if the motivation is there. The interesting thing is that the people involved really loved the challenge and rose to the occasion.

The Power of Good Measures
Most organizations have a TQM (Total Quality Management) Program. It is the quality of the measures in this effort that will determine the success or failure of it. Here is a short paper I wrote on some interesting aspects of measures.

Organization Structure
Here is a lecture I wrote for a graduate class on Management. It discusses some interesting points about organization structure and how it can impact performance.

What Does Leadership Mean

This is not a easy topic to narrow down. Because of the world that we live in has demanded so much from those who are leaders. That What Does Leadership Mean simply will not fit into one definition or category. A trait of leadership is to be the eternal student that is ravenous in their approach to always adding to their knowledge base under the pretense that the more you know the better you can serve.

Some Dangers of PERT Charts

Many companies use PERT charts to track the progress of projects. These charts show the major milestones in complex projects and develop a “critical path” through the ones that must not slip or the entire project suffers. Depending on your job, you may be exposed to these. They are used extensively in military projects and large construction projects. The more sweeping and complex a project is, the more useful a network representation can be. There are some precautions that I will describe here.

Concepts of TQM and Lean

I have lived and worked through many of the phases of the Quality Revolution and have personally studied with many of the legendary Quality Gurus, like Deming, Juran, and Joiner. Often the articles and books on TQM (Total Quality Management) portray the world as an ideal place and describe theories in ways that are neat and tidy. The real world is a messier place, and the theories need to be integrated in that environment so they will actually work.

Understanding E-Body Language

Online communication is so much a part of everyday life that we normally take it for granted until the power goes out. Many of us view e-mail the same as face-to-face communication; we just type information as if we were chatting with someone in the lunchroom – potentially a big mistake. If you are like most leaders, you lived through the transition from a face to face world to a mostly online world with little training. That can lead to some problems that are unnecessary. In this article I describe some of the opportunities.

Project Planning and Risk Assessment

This article will describe two central issues in project management. Successful projects are built on good plans: unsuccessful ones are often caused by faulty plans. The ability to visualize risk factors and react appropriately is the basis for triumphant success, like the first manned lunar landing, or colossal failure like 9/11. This article looks under the hood of the planning and risk management processes.

To Socialize or Not
I am often asked by students if it is a good or bad idea for a leader to socialize with subordinates outside of work. There are a lot of tradeoffs, and this is a complex question. I break down the variables in this article.

Politics and Leadership...The Contradiction of Purpose!

It is the rare supervisor that we also call our leader. Someone who inspires us beyond our own perceived capability is not typical. In today's "self-focused" work environment, employees are drawn to a leader that seems to inspire a "larger" purpose. Maybe this phenomenon is rooted in a generation of Americans that has an entitled view of the world...they are owed something because of their very existence. Or, maybe our own need to make things better for our children has caused them to expect so much as young adults. It really doesn't matter as things are as they are and the reality of truth is what we must ponder this holiday season.

Is Mediocrity Contagious? Is it spreading faster than the flu?
What is happening to our next generation of leaders? Have we become a nation that inspires mediocrity? Are we going through a metamorphosis and don't realize it? Do we really believe excellence comes without effort? Are we all getting infected with the mediocrity disease?

Why DO Idiots Eat Their Young? And, Is it a Bad thing?
If we compare the typical "idiot" in business to the starving family patriarch in the cruelest of winters, interesting parallels start to surface. Consider the challenge of feeding a family to the typical business leader that must financially feed his or her team. Imagine the bad winter as analogous to the challenging business climate and the story starts to sizzle.

Leadership and Service

Customer or client service directly reflects the culture that exists in an organisation. This culture is largely determined and maintained by the leadership the organisation provides. Over some 7 years Douglas Long has proved that the right sort of customer satisfaction assessment - that driven by the customer not the supplier - can be used to improve profitability. In this article Doug Long uses an actual experience with a major computer supplier in order to illustrate the need for good customer service and good leadership. He provides some pointers on how this is done.

What is the Role of a Leader in an Organization?
Leadership is not just working in the present situation or environment by leading towards a path. Leadership symbolizes purpose, value and to look to the future. Leaders need to put investments not only for profit purpose but also for the welfare of the society.

Can Simply Being Nice Save You Money?

It occurred to me (at the tax office of all places) that simply being nice to others really does save us money. This morning while paying taxes, I was pleasant and took the time to be nice and two ladies really did everything in their power to save me some money. As I then drove to my office, I pondered the application of "simply being nice" to a more general business application. Can we as leaders role model being nice and teach our employees to be the same way? Can being nice impact our bottom line? Do we sometimes neglect the very people that mean success or failure in the game of business?

E-mail Tip #1 - Use the Right Mode of Communication

Most leaders communicate more through e-mail than face to face with their people. It is a common practice to view e-mail as just a natural progression of communication not much different from conversation. This is a huge mistake. There are many ways e-mail communication needs to be handled differently to get the intended message across. This first tip may sound like common knowledge. Unfortunately it is not common practice. This will be the case for all of the tips I will give.

E-mail Tip #2 - E-mail is Not a Conversation

Most leaders communicate more through e-mail than face to face with their people. It is a common practice to view e-mail as just a natural progression of communication not much different from conversation. This is a huge mistake. There are many ways e-mail communication needs to be handled differently to get the intended message across. Even though writing or reading an e-mail feels very much like having a conversation, it really is not. Many people fail to understand the ramifications of this observation.

E-mail Tip #3 - Less is More in E-mails
Most leaders communicate more through e-mail than face to face with their people. Many managers feel the use of e-mail is a license to dump out huge quantities of information expecting the workers to absorb and follow all instructions cleverly hidden in volumes of text. Too bad: it does not work that way.

THINK BEYOND WHAT YOU SEE
You need to always dream big and achieve your dreams. This is only possible when you think beyond what you see and try to catch it. Always remember that vision is ageless and timeless so possess it.

TIME TO DEMONSTRATE LEADERSHIP IN TOUGH AND CHALLENGING TIMES
Leadership is always demonstration not definition is what Dr. Shailesh Thaker shares in his leadership 2020 program. Leadership is not just talking and discussing but in real sense it demonstration. It is to show real nerves in tough times and emerge out as a successful leader in the most challenging times.

WILLINGNESS TO DESTROY IS THE ESSENCE OF LEADERSHIP
Leaders are ready to do whatever comes on their way. Quitting is very easy. Destroying too is very easy. However, coming back is very tough and hard job. Once you come back and rise up, you will reach to newer heights. And, this is what leader do. They are ready to destroy and also rise up from the massive failure.

ONE STEP IN TOMORROW’S JOURNEY
People have to spare some moments of a day for tomorrow, everyday. Be clear about your future, be passionate, and be confident for the tomorrow. Leaders always focus on tomorrow and thrust us to be one step ahead.

REWARD SUCCESS AND FAILURE EQUALLY
Success and Failure are two sides of a coin. We need to accept them equally. Failure is nothing but a feedback of your actions. So, never get disappointed when you fail but accept it as a stepping stone for your success.

SUCCESS NEVER COMES OVER NIGHT
Success is the hard earned asset of a person. It just never comes by chance or over night. Lots of hard work, perseverance and involvement helps an individual to gain success.

E-mail Tip #5 - First Sentence Sets the Tone of a Note
The first few words of a note have more impact than meets the eye. It is important to start off a note on the right foot because otherwise your reader may have an incorrect frame of mind when reading the entire note.

YOU ARE NOT BROKEN - YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE FIXED
If you believe you are broken you are. But, if you do not allow such feelings to creep inside you then you are never broken. It is our mentality that breaks us down. Be firm in your thinking and you will find that you do not require anything to be fixed.

Life is 10% Reaction & 90% Action
Most of the time, we are governed by people. People drive us. In fact, we should drive our selves. Most of the people react to action. Thus, we make ourselves sad. So, it is better that pay attention to our actions rather than reacting and spoiling our relations. Therefore, always remember that Life is 10% reaction and 90% action.

E-mail Tip #6 - E-mails are Permanent Documents
In the hubub of everyday interfaces, we often forget how dangerous e-mails can be because of their permanance. If we write something, we better be prepared to defend it for all time. Here are some tips that can help protect you.

Isolation is fatal
We assert that prosperity is a natural tribal phenomenon, while isolation is simply fatal in more ways than one. Disastrous to your health, mood and appetite. Cataclysmic to your prosperity. In fact, if you intend to be really wealthy, you are going to require more help than you can imagine.

The Four Magic Business Bullets – Strategy, Intellectual Capital, Innovation, Implementation
When a serious attempt is made to transform any organization, the return on investment in the building and linking of strategies to accomplish the mission and vision of the organization will be substantial. Strategic thinking and planning will allow the organization to both sustain itself and grow. Strategy is where the rubber meets the road. Great strategies begin with solid leadership!

E-Mail Tip #7 - Accomplish your Objective
It is amazing how many e-mails miss the mark and cause reactions in the reader that the writer did not intend. How can you prevent this from happening to you. Te secret lies in clarifying your objective before you compose your notes. It takes very little time and will improve the quality of your communication immensely.

E-Mail Tip #8 - Write Notes Only When You Are Yourself
We all know it is unwise to write an e-mail when we are angry, yet all of us are guilty of doing exactly that from time to time. This article contains a case study on what can happen and three different methods you can use to protect yourself.

E-Mail Tip #9 - Don't Hide Behind the Screen
Some people communicate things in e-mails that they would be reluctant to do in person. In effect, they hide behind the screen for protection. This strategy usually backfires for some percentage of notes written with this problem. This article contains an analysis of this problem and suggestions to prevent it.

E-mail Tip #10 - Visualize the Person
You can really improve your online communication by visualizing the recipient of a note as you type. It will help you relate to the individual better in the words you choose. This article describes some techniques that can help the process of visualization.

E-Mail Tip #11 - Create a Set of Rules for Your Organization
It is amazing how some organizations live in a perpetual state of e-mail overload when there is a very simple way out? This article suggests each group create a set of rules to use. My experience is that doing this can cut the volume of notes from 30% to 50% very quickly. Wouldn't your group benefit from all that extra time?

The Transactional Nature of Trust
I have studied Trust for several decades, and I have come to believe that trust is transactional in nature. That is, trust is like a bank account where we have a balance and make deposits and withdrawals constantly. This article highlights some ideas about the transactional nature of trust.

Two Organizational States
In this article I contrast two extreme organizational states: one with very low trust, and one with very high trust. The contrast is stark. Most organizations operate somewhere between these two extremes.

Identifying a Better State for Your Organization
In this article I identify the start of the strategic process. The first element is to realize there is a better existence for your organization. Ultimately this leads to a vision of the future, but I will save that process for another article.

Clarifying Your Values

Every enterprise should be guided by a concrete set of values. These ahould be very visible and tangible. Unfortunately, mny organizations have not clarified their values. This leads to numerous problms in running the organization because there is no moral or ethical compass. Clarifying values takes time and energy, but it is time well spent. In this article I outline a specific process to do this critical work.

Creating a Brilliant Vision
If your organization does not have a compelling Vision, it is going nowhere. A solid vision of the future is the most important ingredient in any strategic process, yet often organizations just throw out a vision statement as a kind of placeholder to guide action. That is a crime. This article contains a solid process for creating an organizational vision that is brilliant.

Do We Really Need a Mission Statement?

Many organizations confuse the concept of a vision statement with a mission statement. They might say, "Our mission is to become the world leader in windows." Well, that is reallly a vision statement, not a mission statement. A vision statement is always about the future, while a mission statement is all about what we are trying to do today. It is very important to know that. This article will clarify a process to obtain a good mission statement.

Documenting Expected Behaviors
In creating a Strategic Framework, many organizations forget to include a documented set of expected behaviors. This is actually a critical step to do well. This article walks through a porcess of documenting behaviors. It is not rocket science, but it must be done.

Developing a Strategic Plan
Developing a specific Strategic Plan is fundamental to organizational progress. Once an organization has a concrete set of values, a vision, a mission, and a set of behaviors, it is time to document the strategic plan with tactics. This article gives a brief outline of the process.

Drawbacks of Leadership Evaluations
Leadership assessmants are ubiquitous, but there are several issues that need to be considered or the process will be flawed. This article highlights some of the problems with leadership assessments and offers antidotes and a refreshing new perspective on the qualities of leadership that are really important.

Be Open to New Ideas
It is easy to say "be open to new ideas" and most of us believe we have an open mind. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are all stuck with an enormous array of paradigms that limit our ability to see the possibiliies. To be really open minded is a skill that takes a lot of effort to develop. This article may help you see things from a different perspective.

Don't Put People Off
Most meetings are intense affairs where it is important to stay on the topic at hand. When an individual comes up with an idea or concern that is not spot on the agend, often leaders will dismiss the input as a distraction. That can be a big mistake. This article looks at how to deal with distractions in a way that actually builds rather than destroys trust.

Reinforce People Who Challenge
A key leadership skill is to be able to reinforce people who challenge you. This is prticularly hard to do if the challenge is made in public. This article will provide some interesting dimensions on this issue and offer some advice.

Follow Up on Commitments
When I ask people how they define Trust, usually the first definition that comes forward is whether the person does as he says. It is the old "Walk the Talk" expression that is so overused, but so vital just the same. This article offers some thoughts and tips on effective follow up.

Bilateral Trust
Many leaders tend to forget that trust needs to be bilateral to really work. They need to trust people if people are going to trust them. This article puts some perspective on this idea and offers some concrete suggestions.

Trust vs Walking on Eggs
The contrast between a high trust organization and a more typical group is so stark. I wanted to write an additional article on the topic. I call this one Trust vs Walking on Eggs because the comparison really works for me. See what you think.

10 Organisational predictions for 2010
Working with the trends we have observed in 2009 and the continuing harsh reality in the business world, we have predicted the top 10 key issues for organisations in 2010

Importance of Culture and Communication in Leadership
What importance does culture and communication play in effective leadership?

Dysfunction Begets Dysfunction
The daily function of your team is not an accident. Team dynamics are a direct consequence of action or inaction by leadership. Too many leaders ignore team problems with the hope that they will improve over time. Unfortunately, the problem only gets worse and everyone suffers as a result.

Should we encourage mistakes on our team?
Are honest mistakes allowed on your team? Do people fear failing to the point that they become paralyzed at decision time? Are mistakes treated as opportunities for development?

What Happened to Forgiveness?
The strange thing about forgiveness...we are selective about "who" gets it. Why do we forgive some and not others? Why are some people on "the list" forever while others seem to be forgiven quickly?

Help! My Team is Broken... You are not alone
What does communication, or lack there-of, cost your company each year? How many people on your team, at the moment you are reading this email, are doing a task that in some way will have to be reworked or redone? Funny, we always seem to have time to do things "right" the second time around.

Is My Boss an Idiot? Clues you may have an IDIOT for a boss...
The truth is...we have all had idiots for bosses. For some of us that pain is a present reality and for others it is a painful memory. Unfortunately the disease is more prevalent in our society than we like to admit.

Fearless Leadership
You'll learn: • The four elements of fearless leadership • How to build trust and respect in leadership What builds morale and motivation • The secret of continually selling your company to your company in team meetings

Taking Leadership On Adequacy By Following Up
Adequate is a term that should be reserved for streets, sewers, mops and fast-food restaurants. Yet, we dream: “If we could just have adequate schools … if only.” Nevertheless, it is good to have the “adequacy studies” to confirm for us (and others) what we knew and hoped for.

Trust, Belief and Faith
Trust, Belief and Faith are the inevitable part of life and essential characters to be followed to make a meaningful life. These three precious values help humanity to sustain even in the worst conditions and make humankind to survive.

Effective Steps to Become a Leader
Becoming a leader is difficult in itself. Hence, becoming an effective leader is a hurdling task. Aside from meeting up that qualification, there are other factors that must be considered to achieve productive results when leading a team. An effective leader is one that is able to analyze the situation at hand. Good leaders know when their leadership is required and when it is not.

Becoming a Motivational Leader
To become motivational leader, you need to create a big vision, set high standards, face your own fears, be realistic about your situation, accept responsibility, take vigorous action, strive for excellence, action exercises and follow all these rules to be a great motivational leader.

Life is Marathon
Life is like a marathon. It goes on and on until we die. It never stops. Each day is to be lived uniquely for creating everlasting impressions on this planet, on family, on work place, on friends and society.

Managers and Leaders: Are They Synonyms?
A manager is the person in charge of commanding and running a business or a project. Leadership deals with the interpersonal relations. Managing means planning, developing and organizing. In the contemporary society leadership qualities along with managing abilities are a must.

Love The Work You Do
Love the work you do. The work you do should be your passion. This will only get you o success. When you love your work it will be not like a burden but your it will like your passion. And, this will surely take you to newer heights.

How To Be a Champion in Life
Person is a real champion when he never gives up. Success comes to him who faces the challenges of life and overcome all the hurdles of life without giving up. If you want to be number one or just the best that you can then start following the five strategies that will help you become a champion at whatever you choose to pursue in life.

10 Steps To Replacing Leaders

If you want an organization to grow you must develop leaders. Success or failure of an organization rises and falls on leadership. I believe it is equally true that the degree of success an organization can attain is directly proportional to its leadership potential. Those can be scary words, because it means that we must constantly be finding new leaders if we intend to continue to grow as an organization.

6 Ways To Win In the Game of Life

Most winners are built through brokenness. The greatest leaders have failed many times. Before inventing the light bulb, Thomas Edison failed a thousand times. Babe Ruth had 714 home runs and 1,330 strikeouts. Abraham Lincoln was said to have failed so many times, in business, in his love life, in politics but finally became one of the greatest President of the United States. Allow failure to be your friend.

Evaluating Your Vision Planning
So, here are some of the tough questions I’m asking myself. While at this point these are personal questions I am processing, yesterday I shared these with our staff for their input and to spur their thoughts in similar directions. I welcome your input if you have questions or thoughts that would be good for us to consider or if you have insight for a church at our stage of its life-cycle.

Can The Founder Ever Leave The Company He or She Founded?
Companies are launching into their niche faster than ever before. The information age and technology allows for growth at a pace unknown in previous generations. Much of that growth is a direct reflection on the personality and passions of the founder who is seen in the public as the chief representative of the company. I’m not sure this has always been the case.

Leadership Today

I read lots of business magazines and blogs. I find it helps me with my own management skills. I also believe the Bible teaches us some great leadership principles. Unless you have lived under a rock then you know that today’s workplace is changing. The “new” generation of workers is more value-centered. Through my conversation with business leaders, what I have read and what I have personally observed this new generation of workers love time at home more than time in the office. They value a company that cares for the environment. They want benefits as well as pay. Fairness and honesty in the way they are treated is of utmost importance to them. They want immediate responsibility and authority in their area. They want to dress comfortably and they don’t expect to do what they are doing forever. Finally, they want to enjoy what t

Leadership Inspiration
It has always amazed me to see someone I’m supposed to be leading get their inspiration and even direction at times from someone other than me. Those type things will happen throughout your career. It’s only natural.

Bad Leadership

Honestly, looking back over my life, I have had periods of time where I followed bad leadership. I complained inwardly; I may have even voiced my opposition to others, but I continued to follow and for the most part did nothing to change the situation until I left the organization. In the meantime, not only did the organization suffer, but it wasted my time and energy and ultimately kept me from pursuing my own dreams and goals or from realizing my own potential as a leader.

5 Steps to Take When You've Offended Someone
5 Steps to Take When You've Offended Someone

Identifying Potential Leaders
I want in on that ability. I think God is seeing that potential in our church today, but He often uses me and leaders like me to find them.

Leadership or Friendship or Both
I believe I can say from my parent’s generation that there was almost a “hands-off” approach between the leader in a company and the employees; and most employees seemed to want the separation. I also know when I first entered the world of management this atmosphere was still in place. I’ve watched it gradually change over the years.

3 Basic Needs of a Healthy Organization

Someone shared an article with me by Raymond P. Rood entitled “How Then Should Organizations Live”. In the article Rood makes the point that every organization has three basic needs. They are growth, maintenance, and development. For an organization to thrive it must do all three well. Yesterday at our all day staff retreat we expanded our thoughts on these three needs as they relate to the life of our church and each individual area in which we serve.

10 Things I Hate In Leadership
There are some things in leadership that drive me bananas. Maybe you have your own list, but this is mine. Here are 10 things I hate (or don’t like very much) in leading or following people:

Making Companies Thrive Today
I’m an observer and I read a lot. Why would a pastor care about such things? Frankly, some days I miss the business world and so thinking about it keeps me connected. Plus, much of my ministry is to people who live in this world every day, so keeping up with it makes me a better minister to them.

Information Demanded

Today’s “information age” workforces, especially those who have entered within the last ten years, want to be a part of something that has lasting value. In order to insure this value is met, they feel a need to understand why they are doing what they are asked to do. They want to feel they can contribute to shaping the company’s path. They want to participate in the planning of the organizations future.

LEADERSHIP IS ALWAYS “WE” and “TEAM”
We are not able to digest success and sustain success. Most of the people, I have found that they fumble after becoming a successful person. Most of the time, they forget their team and people around them. Believing in a team and appreciating team is a rock-climbing task.

What the Vision Does?
Vision is a tool for orienting our energies and effort around which we really are. But, when we obsess about whether or not our vision is being achieved, we confused the animating force behind our being with an idea created by our mind.

LEADERSHIP IS NATURE
Leadership is happening not doing. Itâ€™s just happen.It is always with least effort. Something you have to do or keep on doing without love is not a leadership. Let us believe nature = happening . Leadership is making things happen, instead of doing. Nature and all elements of nature are showing to all of us how they works in the universe. Have we ever seen an effort in nature?

Acting Like Adults
It is not uncommon to hear someone say, "People at work act like children most of the time." This is because in the pressure cooker of the working world, the behaviors of people get on each other's nerves, and they tend to regress back to the kind of playground rules that kept society in order when they were children. this does not wear well in an adult atmosphere, so what can we do about it?

LEADERSHIP IS INSIDE-OUTSIDE
A potential leader requires solid knowledge that comes only from inside and he should have competency to complete the things internally. The whole earth is following the principle of ‘Inside-Outside’. Competency is also created inside and bringing it outside up to 100 per cent is leadership. Leadership is always performance, never position and always regardless of power.

5 Incredible Leadership Qualities
Leaders have to possess some inevitable equalities that makes them different from the ordinary folks. Leaders have to nurture certain qualities in order to enhance their leadership abilities.

Two Fundamental Traits of Leaders Who Stand Out
Most of the people I hang out with are continually striving to become better leaders. This article focuses on two of the most essential traits of successful leaders

Make Your 2010 Goals Work
A key element that pushes some forward to success and holds so many back.

Are We Entitled?

What exactly are we entitled to in life? Can a sense of entitlement create mediocrity in people? Is entitlement a good thing? Dictionary.com defines "entitle" as... to give (a person or thing) a title, right, or claim to something. As a parent of two boys, I am always examining and learning (as if I were never a child or a teenager) what really motivates positive activities and what promotes the less value-added ways to burn time in our lives. It is amazing how the purity of childhood is such a micro chasm for life as adults.

Do you do things every day that amaze you?
I very much enjoyed a seminar recently with a colleague Paul Dunn who is known internationally as ‘the wizard of wow’. I also love getting emails from Paul who often signs off with “be sure to keep on doing things that amaze you.” In this article are 5 ways you can do things everyday that will amaze you.

Are Business Games worth the money?
Business Games are booming in organisations today. So what are they and why should we use them?

CHANGE IS TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT
Change is always temporary. It cannot be permanent. We need to accept change because it is always good for our own development.

Vision, Management And Motivation
The job of a leader is to constantly improve standards and levels of productivity. And the only way to achieve that is to motivate people to perform their best at all times. A good leader essentially needs to be a motivator. He should be able to consistently inspire his team to strive for quality and excellence in their work.

On the Lighter Side

What a tough year. I am sure most of you are glad it is over. The recession has had an impact on every one of us. But, now is the time to look back and be grateful; grateful for who you are and who you want to become. December, unlike years of the past was very busy for me. This is only because in prior years I always took the month of December off. This year due to the tough economy that just didn't seem like a good option. So, I spent time in Cleveland, Dallas, Tampa and Montreal. I froze in Cleveland & Montreal, didn't take a coat to Dallas and should have and I went to Tampa during Florida's coldest temperatures in years. Over the holidays Tracy and I visited friends in South Carolina and got to see a calf born on a cattle ranch and took our dog to the ocean. (It was way to cold to even consider swimming.)

Dealing with Difficult Employees
Managing people is never easy, and some employees make it even more difficult. These challenging employees can try your patience and take a lot of your time and energy. It requires skillful management to turn these employees around and make them into productive workers.

An Organic Leader Used Power Versus Force

"If only there was more time to get more done," has become as common and familiar a conversation as talking about the weather. There is an endless string of "to do's" without even having time to celebrate what has been accomplished. Acknowledgment of deeds well done is often overlooked. There are deadlines causing the deadening of senses, contracting potential and poor self care. Freedom from overwhelm is leading with power and not force.

Authentic Leadership

As an authentic leader you are an effective leader. Leadership is founded on character and intent but before this is possible you must know yourself more thoroughly than anyone else does. For you to become more effective with others, you first must become more effective with yourself. Before you focus on finding the right partner, seek to be the right partner. You must commit to being genuine, to be authentic, to be unafraid to know yourself and let others see you that way..

Criticism: An Opportunity to Develop Personality

Criticism; people think that it is worst thing that they have to face. But, make it a practice and learn to listen to such type of criticism and build the habit of taking notes of such type of criticism. The core thing is not to take such type of criticism to heart in a destructive manner but on the contrary, involve your soul in this criticism and make full use of the criticism. Take it entirely to your soul and try to make some constructive suggestions and apply it in your lifestyle and let it be a part of your ethics.

INNER BALANCE
Inner balance is most important compare to outer balance. Aim to balance mind, body and emotions with spirit. Life is a blessing of God to live. So, unwind and forget about the troubles of the day and week, and enjoy every gentle nurturing. Inner engineering brings you happiness to leave aside all the tensions at the door. Experience the balance inside yourself by suggestive therapy.

Lone Wolf Leaders Just Don't Get It

Success today is created by caring about more than profitability and growth. Growth and profitability are created by employees. Trust and respect for employees is paramount to creating success. However, when discussing success, especially in today's economic turbulent times, I often ask clients exactly what is it that makes them different than their competitors? The answers are wide ranging and include things like: • World class service • Exceptional new product introduction • Technology • Experience • Our Chinese connection • Our design capabilities • Our Pricing • Operational excellence • One - Stop - Shop • Our logistics system • Locations • Our size All these things are good. In fact some of them may even be classified as "Core Competencies". However, the answers I receive to that question are often disheartening.

Assume Best Intent
We can reduce conflict between individuals by establishing ground rules for behavior and holding people accountable for living up to their intended actions. One interesting and helpful rule is to always give the other person the benefit of the doubt when something does not seem right. I call it "assuming best intent." This paper describes how important this little rule can be in an organization.

What Puts Success in Succession?
Succession planning is vital to the long term survival of any organization. Unfortunately many companies do a poor job of succession at various levels. This paper outlines some of the key issues and gives several checklists that can help make these processes work better.

Communication Skill Areas
Effective communication is critical for building trust. This paper is about the skills required to interpret incoming communication without ambiguity. I address this from the point of view of the leader, but the concepts are applicable to all people in the organization.

Do You Know Your Breakeven
It is critical that all business know their breakeven point and it is even more critical today.

Listen to Your Employees
If you do not listen to your employees, you are probably making a major mistake.

Manage Your Sales Force
Many CEO's/owners do not feel that they understand the sales process, so they hire salespeople and do not manage them. They just tell them, "Don't just stand there, sell something". Does this ever work? Probably not. Do not fall for the old idea that you must be a sales expert to manage the sales process.

Not Enough Meetings
Not enough meetings. What a dumb statement.

Performance Appraisals
All organizations should have formal performance appraisals. The following is a guide for a good appraisal system.

Communicating on the Shop Floor
This paper is about some tips to enhance communication with people on the shop floor. These interfaces are critical for leaders as they define how the workers react to the leader.

The Need for Strategic Planning
Every company should have a strategic plan, no matter what the size. In fact, it is often more important for small firms as they tend to lose focus very easily.

Communicating with Large Groups of Employees
Some leaders have a knack for communicting with large groups of employees well and others stink at it. In this paper I outline some of the variables in this equation and offer many tips for improving your skills in this area.

Too Much Inventory
Critically managing all your inventory is critical to long term success. You may be surprised at what I classify as inventory.

Topgrading
How do I chose the best employees?

Manage the Rumors
Rumors are a daunting challenge for any organization. Wherever there are people, there is an issue of reality. One of the largest schisms between management and workers is the issue of accurate information. Rumors deflect energy from the vision and values. This paper discusses the origin of rumors and some antidotes to this common problem.

WHAT IS A COMMON QUALITY AMONG SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE?
Successful people have qualities in common. But, one thing in common in all these successful people is that they have experienced significant failures in life or in their work but they have learned from their failures.

WE MUST TAKE ACTIONS IN ORDER TO BECOME WHO WE DESIRE TO BE
What we are, totally depends on us. It does not depend on others. Life never creates anything for us. We have to create something in life. It is only possible if we decide to make ourselves move first.

Why Bother With Distributed Leadership?
There are many ways to measure alignment. But you can only achieve alignment across the board through distributed leadership. Implementing such strategies develops leadership in each unit of your operation and at different levels of your organization. You actually end up empowering employees to act and give them the knowledge about what must be done.

Legends
When corporate legends live long - we don't always prosper.

Leading People Through Change
These are trying times for us all, and none of us should underestimate the anxiety that exists, nor the stagnating inertia it creates. As I have said before, the companies that recognise this and help their employees get through the cycle as quickly as possible will be the ones who come through the current crisis fastest and strongest.

Solving the Problem or Finding the Guilty

We have developed into a blaming society. Mom blames the older siblings when problems arise in the household. Teacher finds someone to blame when things go out of control in the class room. Management and unions blame each other. Political parties use blame in the extreme, and it is disruptive, subordinating national goals under political aims. Which describes your leadership: Do you actively search for solutions to problems or do you spend your energy searching for the parties to blame?

Three Factors of Leadership Motivation
Many leaders fail to motivate people to achieve results because those leaders misconstrue the concept and applications of motivation. To understand motivation and apply it daily, let's understand its three critical factors. Know these factors and put them into action to greatly enhance your abilities to lead for results.

Boost Your Leadership Skills
Leadership is always important in an organisation. Leadership skills are very important as it helps not only you to grow but also helps your organisation to grow.

Selfish Leadership
If you are in a leadership position and guilty of this: don't tell anyone and CHANGE!

A Leader is Born Every Minute...?
Are leaders born or developed? Leadership is not for the lazy. It comes from having a want and a deep desire to excel and bring others along with them.

Extreme Productivity Tools - mind blowing tips
All leaders know that capturing their day in the most productive way is the only way they will reach their goals. They are extremely focused, and have a strategy to their madness. Here are 5 tips and how we apply these extreme techniques to our life.

Neuroscience and leadership

Many of us are increasingly frustrated by the fact that today's problems were often caused by solutions that were provided yesterday – solutions which, with the benefit of hindsight, were patently inappropriate or inadequate. Mostly these are caused by people operating out of less than optimal worldviews coupled with a primarily ‘red zone’ area of brain control. In this article Douglas Long explores the issue of worldviews as developed by Clare Graves and couples this with some basic neuroleadership concepts

Papering over the cracks
If "cracked eggs don't hatch", simply papering over the cracks isn't going to change things. All too often organisations go for the quick fix - dealing with the immediate rather than the underlying causes of problems. In this article Doug Long argues for a leadership approach to getting desired results.

Five Myths about Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management is a common business phrase that is often misunderstood. Here is a short article that dispels the myths around it and demonstrates what it really is.

What Leadership Behaviors Do You Value The Highest?

“Leading business success requires something even harder to gain than great ideas; it requires followers, collaborators, allies and other supporters”. This statement comes from researchers at Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts in the Babson Executive Education Program. They did a survey in November 2005, of what people want to see in their business leaders. The results were ranked by the importance of specific leadership behaviors people want in those who lead them. And all survey participants were themselves business leaders/executives.

Top Ten Ways Delegating Makes Your Business More Successful

Most sole proprietors and solo entrepreneurs go in to business for themselves because they love what they do. They have honed their craft to become an expert. They excel at what they do and put their total energy, commitment and passion into making the business succeed. But at some point (hopefully sooner rather than later) they realize they can’t do it all themselves and they need a team around them to further the growth and success of their enterprise. Here are ten ideas that may help you delegate effectively so your business will flourish.

Operations Plans
Why should small companies have an operations plan?

Performance Measurements (KPI's)
Every company must have Key Performance Indicators that they use the manage their company.

The Balance of Managing
How many small business owners say they don't have time to manage? They must do it themselves.

Put On Your Listening Hat
We have always had problems with people hearing but not listening. I believe with the electronic world, we are getting worse rather than better. This article focuses on a way to make sure the other party is focused on understanding your message.

How Much Eye Contact
Eye Contact is a fascinating thing. We know it is important for good communication, but too much of it can be very distracting. What are the techniques for establishing the right level of eye contact? This article focuses on this fascinating subject (no pun intended).

Leadership Strength and Courage
Everyone knows that leaders need to be strong and courageous. But what do those buzz words mean for the real world? What are the dimensions of strength, and how does a leader develop them? This article discusses these questions.

A Framework for Making Tough Calls
All leaders have to make difficult judgment calls routinely. The best leaders operate from a specific framework, so their calls are fair and balanced. This article describes a typical framework for making those difficult calls.

Keeping a Positive Outlook
The best leaders are able to weather most storms and keep a positive outlook. This is a challenge as some of the pressures can be staggering. This article deals with the subject of outlook and how leaders can hone this trait.

Developing a Passion for Performance
In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins characterized two common denominators of Level 5 leaders. One was humility and the second was a passion for performance. This article deals with the passion aspect of leadership and gives some tips for how to generate more of it.

The four Stages of Change
Change is inevitable, and many people fear change. Not too many leaders view change as a specific process that can be managed. This article gives a four step model for making change in organizations.

Essential Steps to Making Successful Change
Since change is actually a process, it is important to break down the process into logical steps. This article considers several of the more important steps to successful change.

Thinking Like an Owner
Many people fail to keep the mindset of an owner of the business. In doing so, they suffer political damage. This article gives some tips on how to improve your performance by thinking like an owner of the business.

Empowerment and Other "Programs"
Be careful when management wants to do another "program." Short term bursts of energy may be well intended, but they actually sap the energy of an organization. This paper describes the pitfalls and gives some antidotes.

Working Between Layers
I view an organization as a stack of overlapping layers. Good leaders instinctively know how to work effectively in between the layers so they are credible in both directions. That takes a special skill. This article outlines some of the leadership dynamics between organizational layers.

Designing the Organization
Often how an organization is set up determines its effectiveness. When leaders do a reorganization, sometimes they are not thoughtful enough about what they are trying to accomplish. The result is a mess. This article discusses some aspects of organizational design.

Job Redesign
There are huge books devoted to the subject of job redesign. This short article deals with some aspects of redesigning jobs for a more empowered team structure.

Reorganization People Placement
If you are going through a reorganization soon, pay special attention to the placement of people in the new order. It is critical for your success. This article gives some tips to remember when selecting people to fill slots in a reorganized entity.

Leadership Transitions
There are some interesting dynamics when leaders transition to new positions. These times are awkward, and often the organization suffers for a while until the new leader is fully up to speed. This article contains some things to think about when moving leaders to new slots.

Adjusting to a New Leader
When a new leader takes over an organization, all kinds of things chaange immediately. There is a process going on, but sometimes it is hard to see it. This article discusses some of the dynamics going on in most leadership transitions.

Organizational Flexibility
Static organizations are not healthy ones. The flip side is that too much turmoil is hard on people. In deciding how much change to introduce, leaders must consider several factors. This article outlines some important ideas on flexibility.

Removing Ineffective Leaders
One area where leaders struggle is removing ineffective underlings. This is a highly unpleasant aspect of the job, but it is vital to the health of the organiztion. This article shares some tips on how to accomplish the removal and reposition of leaders.

Creating Winners
A key leadership function is to create an organization where people feel like winners. This is not really that difficult to do even in the most oppressive environments. This article outlines some techniques you might find helpful at creating a winning organization.

Valuing Diversity
Much has been written about the topic of diversity. This article deals with my views on the topic in terms of why and how to achieve a culture that values diversity.

Solving Problems
Learning how to resolve problems efficiently is a skill some organizations need to study. We are surrounded by problems that wear different masks. How we react to these not only governs the quality of our working lives, but also determines how effective and profitable our organizations are. This paper deals with some tips on problem solving in the real world.

Having Fun at Work
Where is it written that to be productive a work environment must be oppressive? Nowhere! In fact, the best organizations are ones where there is a lot of enjoyment and just plain fun. The top 100 companies to work for in the US have all figured it out. This article discusses some of the dynamics of fun in the workplace.

Training People in an Empowered Organization
As organizations move to engage more employees in the business and empower them to take on more responsibility, there is a need for good training. This article outlines some key points to consider when training employees in an empowered organization.

Growing Other Leaders
The best leaders understand and accept their mandate to grow other leaders. The reason there are not more excellent leaders in this world is that there are not enough good mentors. This article discusses growing leaders and the concept of mentorship.

LEADERS REDEFINE SUCCESS
Be an inner driven leader. Never let yourself down what ever the situation comes. Set your own resolutions and work upon it. You will definitely get success.

Ten Tips for Everyday Leadership
Leadership is an aspiration. To be a leader is a mark of merit - not just a job title. Leaders are all around us. They move people; they bind people together; they inspire people to go beyond the known horizon. We should all aspire to develop our leadership every day.

The Spirit of Leadership
You can boost your leadership skills and hence your career by understanding this one thing that most leaders miss: great leadership incorporates a spiritual dimension.

How to Hire the Right Person for the Right Job

Part of good leadership requires skill in the hiring process. Good leaders know that retention of productive employees affects the bottom line as well as morale and growth. Recruiting, training and then terminating someone are never desirable. There are many good candidates you could hire. However, even though they may have certain desirable skills, they may not be right for the job at hand. The key is not just to hire the right person, but to hire the right person for the right job.Taking the time to make the correct hire in the first place is worth all of the effort it takes. The right person in the right job will be productive for years to come. The right person in the wrong job will cause problems, waste time, and expense and send you back to square one again.

Building A Great Team: The Greater The Delay The Greater The Damage
The building of a great team starts with developing great leadership or a great coaching staff - a staff that gets rewarded for building a great, high performance team. One of the most important aspects of management is to hire, train and retain the best talent possible. The longer an organization delays this process of developing a solid staff, the greater will be the damage to the organization.

Top Leaders Tell Their Secrets – Are You Listening?
I’ve found many jewels buried in the inserts and pullout sections of my favorite magazines. Yet these same resources cannot be researched after the fact because they are not indexed as part of the publication.

Beating Your Own Best
Leadership is not just directing others and leading others. Leadership is not just holding position, it is creating position. Leadership is to break down your position and creating a new one for the world to applaud you. Leadership means beating your own best.

Building your Leadership Culture for Today’s Business Climate
What is your Organizational Culture? What does "Organizational Culture" have to do with leadership culture?” Do your top executives set the tempo and culture of your organization?

Leaders Need to Lead – Now is the Time
Business reality is derived from the performance of your sales force, your profit and loss statement, employee morale, and messaging from your company’s leadership. Despite how long it takes to emerge from this perfect storm of economic issues it is my firm belief that it will be the focused and resolute effort of your company leaders who will make the unique difference.

How To Build Wealthy Home Business Secrets Revealed

It is really possible that you can start from humble beginnings and become wealthy almost overnight. In fact scores of people are included in the millionaires club, while a few dozens move up to the big boys billionaires club every year. You can build a wealthy home business if you have the qualities that are essential for success. So whether you wish to earn six figure incomes, have multiple streams of income or residual income then the list of required attributes in building a wealthy home business can be group into five broad areas namely: desire, choosing the right business for you, attitude, marketing and leadership.

Changing My Game
Have you ditched an old recipe and found a new way to cook up your success?

E R R Your Way to Negotiating Excellence

Negotiating is the ultimate challenge for any entrepreneur. Being good at it is essential for success. You don't have to be a shark to succeed. The dolphin approach is better. The difference is one of style. While sharks try to intimidate, dolphins genuinely enjoy people. They are confident, assertive and don't try to manipulate their opponents with negotiating ploys and gambits. Learn the ERR principles of negotiating and you may never need any others. When you apply these 3 principles you'll become a more successful negotiator and gain the respect of your opponents in the process.

10 Simple People Skills To Successful Management
Getting the best from your people is vital if you are to make the best progress in your business or organisation. Much comes from the way you interact personally and there are just ten key actions to take to build great, fulfilling and productive relationships...

10 Steps When You Need Help in Your Business
You start off alone. Be it as a solo business owner or a manager looking after a part of a larger business. It gets busier, you get distracted from what you want to do, because there's only one of you and you've only got one pair of hands.

HOW TO BECOME A GREAT LEADER AND COACH
Coaching by a leader may appear to be time consuming, but look at it as a smart investment. One of the beauties of coaching and cultivating high quality talent is that it creates the momentum required to take your organization from good to great because it plays off and exploits the natural and learned talents, strengths, and competencies of everyone involved.

Leadership Is All About Building An Organization That Will Execut Objectives

As a leader you must set the pace and clearly communicate expectations. A leader must continually move the organization through change so it can both survive and grow. As a leader, you need to demonstrate the courage to tap into the strengths and creative potential of your people. You need to craft and build a dynamic culture of trust, respect, and innovation, supported by a sound business foundation and exploited through action oriented innovation and customer service.

Marter Your Game: Put a Shine on Your Leadership

As business owners, leaders and managers, we play a huge role in the collective health and wealth not only of our business, but of society. The quality of our leadership directly impacts the people in our organization and ultimately the financial results. The more successful we are personally, the more successful our organizations will be, increasing our ability to create greater abundance in society. Each of us has a choice about our ability to make a difference.

Traing; Less or More
The fourth Article in this series is focused on creating valuable learning opportunities. The previous article was Flexibility, The quality of a good leader. I am going to focus on, are you getting value from your investment in training?

It's in the Brain - leadership and social issues

It is now fairly well accepted that the brain has three quite clear areas from which to control our behaviour – the area closest to the brain stem (sometimes called ‘the reptilian brain”), the limbic area (sometimes called “the mammalian brain”), and the cortical area (sometimes called “the human brain”. There is hard data that shows where teachers engage with students, the students become more responsive to learning and they don’t want to “let the teacher down”. In turn this has an impact by reducing antisocial behaviour in the community around the school. There is also hard data that shows where employees are engaged with their work and with their co-workers, there is significant reduction in lateness, absenteeism, sickness, and abuse of trust.

Why Are Meetings One Hour Long?

The vast majority of meetings in the business world are scheduled for one hour. I think this is a paradigm we should challenge for several reasons. 1. Like an old habit, we just fall into the pattern without even thinking about it. 2. We lose track of those extremely valuable minutes within the hour format. We can do better than that. 3. The meeting itself is often inefficient as there is time to schmooze for the first 20 minutes or so, and most of the decisions occur in the final 10 minutes of a meeting. There are many techniques for squeezing more usable time from our daily schedule – and we really need them. Next time you schedule a meeting, try making it 50 minutes rather than an hour. It will emphasize the importance of the minutes and save time in the bargain.

Three Reasons Why Leaders and Managers Must Learn to Coach
Today’s business and entrepreneurial environment requires a different approach to leadership and management than ever before.

E-Mail Tip #12 - Avoid Posturing Preambles
Many e-mail writers start off with a phrase which is intended to protect them, but only really serves to annoy the reader. Be careful not to be guilty of this offense. This article offers some tips.

E-mail Tip #13 - Don't Take Cheap Shots
Because people exchanging e-mails are usually not in the same room (we cannot say this about texting!) often it seems safer to take a "cheap shot" that we would not take if the person was facing us. This is usually a big mistake. Recoginze this and avoid it in your e-mail communications.

E-Mail Tip #14 - Handling Over the Top People
Some e-mail exchanges go way overboard and spiral out of control. This paper contains a juicy example and the antidote to the problem.

E-Mail Tip #15 - Avoiding E-Grenade Battles
Childish online fights are common in most organizations. There is a simple cure for these battles. This paper describes some of the psychology between people having e-grenade battles and how to stop them from different perspectives.

E-Mail Tip #16 - The Online Power Struggle
We need to get good at reading between the lines in e-mail to extract the maximum information. This article is a case example where a power struggle is going on between two individuals.

E-Mail Tip #17 - Matching Words with Body Language
E-mail has a kind of Body Language, and if the words do not match the body language there is going to be confusion at best and open warfare at worst. This article shares an example of a mismatch between Body Language and words and gives an antidote.

E-Mail Tip #18 - Stress in Remote Teams
In a global environment, many people work in remote teams. E-mail exchanges between team members can cause great stress if we are not careful. This article gives a classic example of the problem and suggests a remedy.

E-Mail Tip #19 - Tone within Questions
The use of questions in e-mail is a good way to get information or lobby for your cause. There are many different types of questions and their use gets very specific. This article goes into the issue of questions in e-mail and how to make them work well for you.

E-Mail Tip #20 - Use Socratic Questions
The technique known as The Socratic Method is a powerful way to convince others of your point of view. It must be applied with skill to be effective. In e-mail, the socratic Method is often very helpful. This paper describes some examples and gives some rules for using this technique well.

Developing Your Leadership Skills
Leadership = Influence. The art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically. As human beings we all influence someone: parent to child, teacher to student, friend to friend, employer to employee, and coach to athlete. If you stop to think about it, the list is endless. Therefore, we are all capable of influencing others.

Passing the Leadership Torch
A corporate mentoring program is an effective part of succession planning: when employees feel good about what they are doing, when they are productive and satisfied with their positions they are in a better position to grow. As staff members are able to grow, they are able to take on more advanced roles, grow into upper level positions and continue passing the leadership torch.

Women in Leadership
Research has shown that there are three main traits of a leader: People skills, Professional Competence & Business Acumen. Women outperform men on People Skills. Business week called attention to these finding in its November 20, 2000 issue with a cover story titled, “As Leaders Women Rule”.

8 Ways to Help Others Succeed
The highest calling for any leader is to grow other leaders. Great leaders seek to help other people regardless of their position. When you think about it, helping other people succeed is the shortest route to your personal success. This article gives eight tips to think about if you are really interested in helping others succeed.

E-Mail Tip #22 Use the Vernacular with Caution
E-mail is considered by some to be an informal form of communication where we can relax and use the same street language we use face to face. This is dangerous. This aricle shines some light on reasons to avoid this behavior.

E-Mail Tip #23 - Avoid Using Off Color Remarks
Similar to using the vernacular, dirty jokes in e-mail can easily get out of control and peg you in a light that you would not appreciate. This article discusses the issue in depth and gives some antidotes.

E-Mail Tip #24 - Using Proper Etiquitte
Proper etiquitte in e-mails has been called "netiquette." This article contains a list of precautions that will be helpful to you. It was compiled by a friend of mine and used with her permission in one of my books.

E-mail Tip #25 - Watch for Changes in E-Body Language
There is a weath of information in between the lines in e-mails. This is a kind of body language. However, just as in physical body language, to be valid, one must look for changes in body language. This article explains why and how to interpret the changes.

E-mail Tip #26 - Keeping Things in Context
One of the real dangers of e-mail is how people can extract short snippits of information that, taken out of context, can distort your meaning. Here is an article that focuses on this aspect of e-mail and offers some suggestions.

E-Mail Tip #27 - Keep an Open Mind
If we prejudge the notes we read, it will reduce the effectiveness of communication. We need to approach all communication from a posture as neutral as possible. This is especially true with e-mail communication. This article gives some examples why this is the case.

The Changing Role of Leadership
The road ahead is unchartered and most people will be faced with tremendous change and an increasing feeling of losing control. Many will have to learn a new approach to dealing with life in the knowledge age. To a very large degree leaders will have to play strong new roles as coaches, mediators, mentors and team builders.

Keep Your Fire Stoked
In so many ways this fire can be compared to a marketing team of professionals. It is nice to sit and watch the fire, watch the flames flicker but soon if you only watch and don’t feed your fire it dies down. You start to feel the chill back in the air. You must get up and put on another log on the fire.

10 Tips for your Stop Doing List
A frequently overlooked opportunity is to create a "Stop Doing" list. Leaders should be especially mindful of this method of shaping priorities. This article shares some technology on how to create and manage a "stop doing" list.

E-Mail Tip #29 - Manage a Complainer's Need to Cavil
Some people just need to vent in e-mails. If you understand this and know how to manage it, you can avoid many of the battles that are so common in e-mail exchanges. This article offers some information on this aspect of online communication.

E-Mail Tip #30 - Avoiding Inappropriate Counterpoints
Online exchanges can become traps for rancor if we are not careful. It is easy to take something written the wrong way and fire back a snippy reply. Then, we are off to the races. If you watch the tone of your counterpoints, you can avoid many problems online. This article provides examples of the problem and suggests some antidotes.

E-Mail Tip #31 Make Your Point Clearly
A lot of the e-mail traffic cluttering up people's inboxes is a result of prior notes that gave the reader an incorrect understanding on what was meant. To avoid this, heed the ideas in this article.

E-Mail Tip #32 - Peer Pressure in E-Mail
Peer pressure and domination are evident in all forms of communication. In e-mail exchanges there are some particularly nasty things to avoid and some specific tips to prevent this type of thing. This article addresses this aspect of online communication.

E-Mail Tip #33 - Creating an Online Persona
There are all kinds of wierd things that go on in the cyber world. Many people create a kind of persona that is not really them. The game Second Life has this aspect as a central idea. Here is an article about what goes on when there is a second identitiy behind the actual person writing a note.

The MBTI Aspects of Communicating Online
We all have a personality style. Most of us know our MBTI Type. In communicating online it is helpful to remember the differences in Style as documented by the MBTI. This article gives specific information that will help.

E-Mail Tip #34 - Use Neuro-Linguistic Programming
The study of how people take in information is fascinating. This article highlights how some people communicate on predictable channels. It really can help improve the accuracy of communication online.

E-mail Tip #35 - Don't Communicate Through a Third Party
Some people try to get messages to other people through a third party. This practice is dangerous at best. You need to be direct in online communications to avoid all kinds of problems. This article explains the dynamics.

Coaching and Coach Training in the Workplace

• How the workplace is changing from authoritarian bosses and jobs for life towards self directed learning and portfolio careers. • How the Virgin Empire was built using a coaching culture • Case histories of the implementation of coaching and coach training in the workplace. • Some facts and figures about Return On Investment. • Why companies introduce coaching. • A look into the future.

The Role Of Leadership For Now And The Future

Leadership in the information age is based on the belief that the best way to achieve high performance, innovation, creativity and results, is to stress “individuality”… not conformity… by employing the full talents of all stakeholders – including their ideas, experiences and knowledge. What is required is a form of leadership that actually engages individual differences and sustains them in creative useful ways, rather than seeking their resolution through conflict, suppression or compromise.

Three Key Elements to Improving Leadership
Great leadership is the key to success. Great communication is the key to great leadership. Think of any great leader in modern time: Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr, and John F. Kennedy come to mind immediately. They were powerful leaders because they could inspire people to follow them. It was their ability to articulate their vision that made them successful in achieving their goals.

Systems for Business Growth

What Are Systems? Now, some people may think of "systems" as sets of technically sophisticated interacting parts, designed to accomplish some complex result (and, in some cases, they may be all of that) but in the vast majority of cases in business, systems can be simple, little things. For example, you might develop "systems" for answering the phone, handling emails or running meetings. So, one definition of a system might be: "A plan for achieving a desired end result in an efficient and certain way."You may develop a simple system for answering the phone so that you consistently create a positive impression. You might develop a more complex system for opening your office in the morning so that no time is wasted; the alarm is turned off (saving a call from the security firm); your "Open for Business" sign is switched on (saving you

Risk: Making the leap

As a collaborative team value, the ability to take calculated and well-reasoned risks is a foundation for building an effective organization with the capacity to learn about itself, to expand and grow. When fear is present, however, growth and forward momentum stagnate. This article looks at organizational behaviors and practices that both encourage and discourage an employee's willingness to take appropriate and well-reasoned risk. Risk is the fifth of six values that build collaboration in groups. Without risk being t6olerated at the cultural level, many organizations penalize people for thinking.

Leading Like TIGERS: A Successful Team Building Model
Teamwork thrives in a collaborative culture and tends to have problems in individualistic and internally competitive cultures. This article discusses a collaborative value system that supports an organizations vision, mission and core values through teamwork and the concept, "If we in, I win."

Leadership and Greed
Greed. Some call it an ugly green monster. And, it seems to be a topic we are hearing a lot about in the US news today. This article defines greed and differentiates between individualistic and collaborative work cultures and practices. It also gives you criteria for discerning leadership greed in your organization.

Move Yourself First

Leaders move themselves in the direction with speed. Now a day, speed is the way of living; if you are without speed, you are dead.Leaders are always initiative. They took the responsibility for making things happen. It is very difficult to become successful without initiative. Procrastination is the fertilizer that makes difficulties grows. How someone can achieve success with procrastination quality. Initiative is a tool of compass of the successful people.

Character: That Makes a Successful Leader
No one can live with pride under the sky and over the surface without the strong character to protect his life and to achieve final objective of the life. Leaders have strong characters to overcome every difficulty.

If You Do Not Conquer Self, You Will Be Conquered By Self
Travelling within and winning over yourself is the greatest victory. Discipline always shorts the distance between you and your accomplishment. Leaders always have to walk on discipline. What we are that discipline helps us to tap it and to put across the globe our potentiality. We cannot reach up to the fullest potential level without discipline.

Cross Training - The Miracle Cure?

When I watch those infomercials on TV that claim some new pill or tonic will cure most of our physical ailments, I don't bite. No matter how convincing the cliams are, I just believe there is nothing that can fix all or most ailments just by buying a bottle and popping the pills. Life does not work that way. Likewise in leadership there is no miracle cure, although building Trust comes pretty close in my mind. Another strong medicine for organizational ailments is cross training. This article describes some of the more important benefits of a great cross training process.

Top Earners and Leaders
Everyone wants to know the inner dealings of top producers. Many factors come into play and they are all valid and essential yet there are two that are personal and at times overlooked. They aren’t normally seen as part of the process but they are key items.

Using Visioning Activities to Lead to Future Success
It's easy to get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of your existence as a manager from day to day. Surviving even in the short-term can become a challenge - and that's on a good day! But what about making it better into the future? What can you see?

How to Get Respect from Others
Everyone wants respect but it can be an elusive pursuit for many. Learn important tips on how your behavior can make all the difference in how people treat you and how you lead. Leaders benefit by getting respect without stepping all over people.

How to Motivate Under-Performing Personnel

It is no secret that the performance of personnel is the largest contributing factor to the long-term success of any organization. Managers may give direction, but in the end, it is the company’s staff that determines how well it executes. It is the staff that must respond to the threat of competition and the shifting interests of shareholders and consumers. Taking this into consideration, one of the greatest challenges facing managers is motivating their personnel to achieve outstanding performance. Whether you are a first-time or veteran manger, these simple strategies will serve as a primer to put you on the right track.

Five Reasons the War on Terrorism Will Never be Won with Foreign Invasions
Osama bin Laden and all al-Qaida leadership that aided in the 9/11 attacks should be vanquished. We can also protect our homeland from the next terrorist attack. But none of this requires America to invade a single foreign nation, and here are the five reasons why.

Building and Organizing a Virtual Team - Strategies that Work
Building and organizing a virtual team can be challenging at the best of times and more so when team members live internationally and possibly come from different cultures, but there are some common strategies that will make light work of it whatever the circumstances.

Five Leadership How-Tos for Recession Survival

We're in the midst of the worst economic crisis in decades, and many people in leadership positions haven't seen anything like it before. As an executive coach, I know that leaders often make decisions out of fear of what could happen instead of crafting a plan to ensure that everyone stays on track through the bad times. Surviving a recession can feel a bit like sailing without sails, so here are a few tips to help you stop, think and weather the crisis.

LEADER IS LIVING ON THE EDGE OF RISK
Leaders have to decide to go with speed, risk and courage instead of safety, slowly and caution. I have to face problems, challenges, may be hurt, embarrassed and even struggled through the tough time. So what, this would not stop me to take a risk. I would love to die on that way where I was living with a feeling of “DOING”. Life is doing not discussing.

The Power of a Willing Mind

According to the Gallup organization, only 30% of employees are fully engaged in their work. That means 70% are merely earning a paycheck. What does this untapped opportunity cost an organization? And, why are so many companies oblivious to this loss? Are they blind to the unrealized opportunity that is left on the table daily? What would this extra potential do for us as individuals, organizations and even countries? Imagine the impact of fully engaged workforce on the economy. Consider the productivity and profit that is simply there for the willing organization to take.

Four Levels of Coachability
Have you noticed that there is not a single top-level professional athlete that does not have a coach? It's obvious, isn't it? In order to become a champion - to excel - it is necessary to be coachable. But, did you know that there are four distinct levels of coachability? If you are a leader, you will want to know this.

The Five Powerful Practices
Leaders who are committed to living an extraordinary life, engage in extraordinary practices. These five practices will empower you to make a profound difference in your leadership, your effectiveness and your personal life.

Creating Breakthroughs in Business

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." - Albert Einstein We need to radically shift from doing more of the same expecting different results - that's insanity! We need to create a breakthrough which is fundamentally a function of two things. First, we must shift the mindset, and second, we must have a corresponding shift in behavior. One without the other never works!

The Power of Publishing for the Social Entrepreneur
Five solutions your book will provide: Define yourself as the leader. Recognize the pioneers of the field. Make your case. Gather the powerful network you need. Sell it: the book becomes part of your successful business.

Myopic Leaders?

Scanning the overall environment in which you are working to ascertain threats and opportunities. A mindset that is constantly trying to position the organisation in a place where it can deal with any threats and take advantage of any opportunities. A broad vision rather than leadership myopia. The constant need for a leader to be creating and sustaining an environment in which everyone can be successful.

A LITTLE EXTRA IS THE ESSENCE OF LEADERSHIP
No leader can achieve success by doing what is required. One has to put an extra value to his work to achieve excellence. Leaders are consistent and continuous performer. Legendary people never quit, once they decide to do it, they make sure that things are done. They have conquered quitting habit of an average people.

Leaders Never Say These 3 Things
You've heard the saying, "How you say something is just as important as what you say." There are 3 most commonly abused responses you should never use, if you ever wish to be perceived as a leader.

Why Dedication to Lifelong Learning is a Key to Success
Jim Rohn said it best that you should “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.” The most successful people in any industry will tell you that they spent a considerable amount of time honing their skills and working on their personal development.

Lead yourself first
In order to lead others we first must learn to lead ourselves!

Leading with Discernment
Leading others is not about giving an order and people robotically following. It's a complicated, neverending process which requires humility and discernment.

LEADERS: NOT THE PAST CONSCIOUS BUT FOCUS ON FUTURE
Put your first things first, everything more likely to fall into place. Our present thoughts, attitude and decision makes our tomorrow. Our tomorrow is a creation of our today. Leaders live in present and focus on tomorrow to accomplish decided goals.

RIGHT THINGS BUILD YOU FOR LIFE TIME
Leaders are known for their strong character. Character is not what you have but it is what you are. This has a strong value. People like character but when it goes to deed and actions, they differ. They compromise with the logic that this all is ideology not practical. One has to be practical not ideological.

Successful Leadership is a Lot Like Eating an Elephant
Leaders are often faced with overwhelming tasks that seem like trying to eat an elephant. The SECRET to leadership success in those instances is to apply "Kaizen" with "The Law of the Slight Edge!"

Things Leaders Do Part 3
There are five activities leaders do daily that are required to make businesses grow, this is the third of the five. These actions have been proven to be essential to the building and flourishing of any successful enterprise. There is no substitute for any one of them and they must be done daily.

Applying the Lessons Learned
James Dicks explains how he turns the mistakes he makes into future positive actions.

Changing Consumer Spending Habits
James Dicks examines the changing spending habits of the American consumer.

Create a Personal Financial Survival Plan
James Dicks examines the need to prepare for financial hardships ahead of time.

Finding a Fresh Path for the New Year
James Dicks reexamines what is important in light of the holidays and this past year's recession.

Leadership Traits of the USMC
James Dicks examines the importance of leadership development in today's business environment.

Lessons of Leadership
James Dicks discusses the importance of leadership traits in the business enviroment

Management and Leadership
James Dicks examines the differences between management and leadership

Why You Must Master Self-Discpline

How many times have you felt the urge to take a small break and watch TV while you are in the middle of writing an article? Or perhaps you’re in the middle of making your prospect calls, and suddenly you decide you want to chat with your friend about weekend plans without completing your other calls? I know it’s important to take breaks once in a while, and you should to recharge your batteries, but have you ever experienced taking a break, and suddenly that break turns into a few hours and you suddenly don’t want to do that task anymore? Most of us have been guilty at one point or another, but it’s important to complete income-producing tasks to put you closer to your goals. Out of all the skills, mastering self-discipline and focus is key to success.

Measures that Drive Wrong Behavior
It is a common problem that measures intended to halp an organization reach goals actually work to the disadvantage of the organization. That sounds illogical, but it happens all the time. This article describes three typical examples of this phenomenon.

Things Leaders Do Part 5
There are five activities leaders do daily that are required to make their business grow. These actions are proven to be essential to the building and flourishing of any successful enterprise. There is no substitute for any one of them and they must be done daily.

7 MYTHS OF LEADERSHIP
Leaders have to always prove themselves. They are consistently working hard to lead others successfully and make others glow under their influence. Though some leaders possess certain myths about leadership which has to removed for the bright phase of leadership.

Leadership and Fear
As entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders, how do you learn? Learning by experience is not necessarily bad – sometimes, however, it can be extremely costly. Is it something that you can always afford? People with their brain’s locus of control in the “Blue Zone” are prepared to learn from coaches and mentors as well as from experience.

LEADERSHIP IS FROM “WHAT WE ARE” TO “WHAT WE MAY BE”
Change is only going to remain constant. Change alone is eternal, perpetual and immortal. Life is never statuesque it is always in progress. The world is always in progress. Change starts when someone is observing the next step or thinking for a new world or moving forward. When you get aware with the change, you start following change and you totally change.

Follow Rule of Connectivity Not Competition

Entire universe follow the rule of connectivity. Now, business leaders start following the rule of connectivity in the business houses. Recently, Yahoo and Microsoft have followed the rule. Tata and Kores have also followed this rule. Internal competition breaks down the team spirit. Internal competition affects on the morale of the team. Home Management is the base on the rule of connectivity not on the rule of competition.

Joke or No Joke

I was having an online conversation in a class I am teaching about teams at work. The discussion was relative to having online messages misinterpreted. Clearly we have all experienced this uncomfortable situation more than once. I got so fascinated about this topic that I wrote a book on it a few years ago. One student brought up a situation that is common in person as well as online, but the damage done online is usually much larger. This is when a person tries to rib another person with a joke, but the meaning on the part of the receiver is taken literally. The writer is astonished when the reader takes umbrage at the barb. The writer says, “but I was only joking.” This article deals with this common situation

LISTEN UP LEADERS: The Frontline Makes Your Bottom Line
Does your staff treat customers badly even though your advertising claims you are #1 in customer service? Learn why it is critical to retain current customers and what you can do to improve customer service while managing your company reputation on-line and off.

How to be An Effective Leader in a Virtual Team
One of the major problems companies are facing is how to manage their workers. Most of them have this wrong belief that remote workers and workers at home are not as productive as an in house staffer.

7 Steps to Improve Your Virtual Leadership and Virtual Team Effectiveness
How can one achieve success in a team full of individuals with different points of view?

Passion, Plan and Profit by Christy Strauch
Having your own business is said to be a part of the "American Dream". Even in these tough economic times, many people are still working toward having their own business. Actually, I've read that a financial recession can be the perfect time to lose a fortune --- but also the perfect time to make a fortune. So, is this the time for you to get serious about starting your own business?

Heart of Marketing by Judith Sherven and Jim Sniechowski
Customer service and really good customer service seems to be a thing of the past in many businesses. When I was growing up - my grandfather reinforced the importance of stellar customer service to me and that lesson has served me very well of the last two decades. This book explains how to put "heart" back into our businesses and our marketing.

Women's Millionaire Club by Maureen G Mulvaney, MGM
Many people own home based businesses and in these tough economic times - many more people will launch home based businesses. Some people do very well with their own business - while others never make a decent living. What is the difference?

Moving Forward After Organizational Restructuring

Since the early 1980s, a wave of reorganization has emerged. The plight of displaced employees has received great attention, as evidenced by the many programs for helping them retrain, relocate, increase their employability and regain their emotional stability. Relief comes to an organization after restructuring when everyone assumes that the worst has passed. However, the readjustment process for the remaining employees may become a shocking experience for the organization.

Protect Your Success: Have Unfinished Business

The fastest way for an achiever to revert to mediocrity in any endeavor of their calling or profession, is to have no unfinished business. Competitive edge, continuous growth and success, are loosely tied to achieving established goals. The key is to turn yesterday's goals into today's routine, it is also the platform you need to set goals that are more challenging, the one that you never thought of yesterday. You must see and set yourself up for a life beyond today's goals.

Top Must Have Assets to be a Sought-After Leadership Speaker
What can you do to be a sought-after leadership speaker? Work hard on it! Are there some professional and personal attributes that you can develop to set yourself apart in a crowded field of speakers? Here are the major ones that can't be faked.

You Can Turn Information into Leadership and Career Success
During turbulent times, when seeking information on what to do next, the best answers for arriving at new possibilities require deeper questions. It is a time for reinventing the knowledge you have with creativity and vision.

When I Ask Your Opinion
It's not about only what you know or that your opinion is the best or only opinion; it's about how to integrate your knowledge and many opinions into a greater whole. There's a reason why you're heading up an organization, even if you run a solopreneurial business. What's it going to be? Playing nice or succeeding?

Recycling in the Office shows good Leadership
Many companies don't recognize the benefits of recycling, for improving the bottom line is often the motivating factor for implementing such programs; but it shouldn't be.

TOP 10 MISTAKES OF LEADERS
Usually, leaders make mistakes and think that they are right. Leaders have to understand the situation of their team members when they are leading them. Leaders need to set an example and lead with pride. There are top ten mistakes that usually leaders make.

First, Know Your Buffalo-Then Get the Right Spears!
You can never overcome a challenge, in your organization or in your personal endeavor that you have not identified. Using the wrong resources and/or strategies will not help overcome challenges, it could even make them worse.

6 Proven Ways to Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking

Cicero, renown world speaker and philosopher said, "I turn pale at the outset of a speech, and quake in every limb and in all my soul." Read Exodus to learn about Moses' fear of public speaking. John Dryden described his fear of public speaking this way, "Whenever I speak a cold sweat trickles down all over my limbs as if I were dissolving in water." I know how it feels to have running stomach, sleepless nights and disappointed audience.

Building Trust: The Ratchet Effect

I believe that building Trust works like winding up a ratchet. Trust is built by a series of actions or ratchet “clicks” that occur over time. But, like the ratchet used to pull in the sail on a large sailboat, when the pawl holding the ratchet from rotating backward becomes dislodged, the spool can spin back to zero quickly. If a leader has made a thousand deposits in the “Trust Account” with people, they can be wiped out by a single mega withdrawal that happens in a heartbeat. This article gives some more information on this analogy and suggests a method for inserting the pawl back in the teeth once a withdrawal has happened so the bulk of historical trust assets are retained.

What Do We Do Now?: Options for Allocating Scarce Resources When You Haven’t Planned Ahead

Although advance planning for resource allocation is the ideal scenario, many organizations found themselves caught short by the severe constraints imposed by the economic downturn. What are the alternatives when organizations are operating in crisis mode and there is no “Plan A?” Given the need to make decisions about how to curtail their operations immediately, there are two options that can help in the short-run: (1) increase inputs or (2) decrease outputs - each with several alternatives

Guidelines for Allocating Scarce Resources

Scarce resources are a fact of business life. In the wake of devastating budget cuts, furloughs, and/or layoffs, however, “normal” levels of scarcity have been exacerbated. The question for many organizations has become, “How do we move forward from here most effectively?” I recommend to my clients that they begin by identifying some crucial information that will guide their subsequent actions and decisions.

Can You Make a Good Living Being a Life Coach?

Running a coaching and consulting company dedicated to helping women achieve breakthrough in their lives and work, I meet thousands of folks each year who want to reinvent, many of whom are considering launching a coaching or consulting practice, or other small business of their own. They long to transition into coaching for solid reasons, and many come with great, top-level experience. This article will explain some points to consider if you are contemplating a career move to becoming a life coach.

Taking Back Power Back Tips For Restoring Balance and Focus

Since my book published this Fall, I've been inundated by activity around launching it, publicizing it, and speaking about it. I enjoy much of this activity, as it involves marketing and promotion, which I'm comfortable with (it was my professional specialization in my corporate life, and also it fits my "socializer" personality). I also believe in the book's messages, so it's a joy to speak about it. But what I didn't realize was that, day by day, hour by hour, I began to feel less and less powerful, and more and more focused on "outer" events and accomplishments, and things beyond my control, rather than inward milestones.

Leadership is “Net Time” and “Net Results” not “Gross Time”
Leaders always forget the other issues apart from their professional life such as family, friends, relatives, health and other major life activities. Leaders need to learn the importance of these things in their life. Once these things are shattered, you will never get them back. So, enjoy your life with your family and friends while concentrating on net time rather than gross time.

COMMUNITY WEB, INTERVIEW, JOB AND TALENT
Today the greatest challenge in front of leaders is to find the right talent for their organisation. It has become quite difficult to get the best talent for their team. Leaders need to find ways in order to find the best and the right talent for their purposes.

From Me to We
The Prism Awards

Technology Professionals as Full Business Partners

In the last few months much has been written about IT Professionals expanding their business expertise in order to participate as full business partners in their respective organizations. Acquiring a basic understanding of other business disciplines such as finance, operations, marketing & sales, logistics and strategic planning have all been mentioned as advantageous credentials. Unfortunately simply acquiring knowledge is a good step forward but relatively inadequate if one cannot use that knowledge skillfully. This is where Leadership, the ability to gain wholehearted followers for a given course of action, is essential.

Leaders' Current Trend of Work
Leaders are always hard working. Their current language is result. They are result-oriented. They speak, drink, eat and sleep with results. They focus on efforts and work, leaving behind the intention after efforts.

Teaching Moments

It is not always easy to find a leader that will take time out of their busy schedule and truly mentor you. A good leader has gems of wisdom, unique techniques, and excellent skill sets that can always benefit a newbie in the business world. When you find this type of leader you would be wise to latch onto them and be coachable in every sense of the word and take advantage of every teaching moment.

Unions Complify Business
This article highlights some of the inefficiencies and costs that result from having a union operating between line workers and management. It represents a cost that we can no longer afford to bear.

Is Leadership Success 99% Failure?
During an interview, when asked the secret to his leadership success, Soichiro Honda, the founder of Honda Motor Company and one of the most respected business leaders in the world, responded that success is 99% failure.

LEADERSHIP IS HARD AND IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE ©
Almost All Greatness Was Born From Adversity. This brief action plan summary is how to become a better leader and re-enegize your key employees by reassessing the current strategy and tactics for market analyis and setting sales and / operational goals.

Polysyllabic Fog
If your organization has problems with people not following instructions, you need to read this article. It points out a habitual problem that can be costly to organizations in terms of lost productivity, waste, and even employee accidents.

Please Please Listen to Us
Leaders need to tap into the ideas of the people closest to the work. Unfortunately, due to hubris and a number of other factors, the ideas of shop floor people are given less attention than the ideas of higher level managers. This is a crime, as is discussed in this article.

How to Bring a Partner, Co-founder or COO into Your Business

According to Cisco's Innovators Forum guest blogger Bob Goedjen It's not unusual to realize that as a solo-preneur you've reached the end of your expertise and that you need to bring someone else into your business. Even if you have employees, there are times when a partner can share the load. But how do you find a partner, vet a partner, and protect yourself in such a critical relationship? I've asked our guest experts to give us their insights. We'll be featuring them over the following weeks. Here's what members of Silicon Valley SCORE had to say. ----

Tips to Help You Stand Up, Step Up and Play Big as a Leader
What would it be like to be among the top 3% of winners? The three per-centers at the top started with a dream of where they wanted to go and imagined winning. In the beginning their dream may have started on a small scale, but as time went on it grew larger and larger.

Be Inspired - From Rags to Riches Leadership
Where does leadership originate? What makes a good leader? There are a multitude of perspectives and definitions on the subject. What about the followers? Who are the followers of a leader? Are the followers obeying blindly out of fear or laziness when taking the easy road? Or are the followers being self-leaders within the circles in which they participate?

The 3 Biggest Myths of Entrepreneurial Leadership
Successful entrepreneurs are leaders who understand the myths of commonly accepted wisdom and temper them with the realities. Outlined in this article are 3 of the most common leadership myths that, if not clearly understood, could be barriers to success.

Yelling Telling and Selling
I saw an employee survey the other day where several employees referred to their supervisor’s style of giving instructions as “yelling.” It started me thinking about that word. This article compares the yelling style with telling and selling.

Develop a Tolerance for Risk
When trying to manage change, leaders often make a huge mistake by not telegraphing a tolerance for risk. This article digs into the issue of risk in making changes and suggests an antidote to this common problem.

Leadership with a Small "L"
There have been only a few great leaders in our lifetime. Leaders like Reagan, Churchill, Disney, and Welch to mention a few. They could never have risen to the hieghts they did without the many small "L" leaders that backed them up. It is from the pool of small "L" leaders that the great leaders emerge. Learn how to grow leaders from seed.

A Basic Technique to Influence Others
Did you know that the word "because" has a profound effect in the way you influence others?

Are you Managing Your Time or Managing Your Life?
Sometimes all it takes to enable us to better manage our time and accomplish our to-do lists is just adding a little "juice" to the mix.

Be Empowered Before Empowering Others
We all need to fuel our own tank, to ask for what we need from those around us so that we can feel inspired and empowered and be willing to support others as well.

Changing the Way You Think Can Empower You
What is the real meaning and purpose of self empowerment and why do you need to have it?

Different Influencing Styles
If you're a manager, is it important to develop different styles of behaviours and a wider range of approach? And how can this affect your performance as a manager now... and in the future? And does it matter?

Do Not Be Afraid to Take the Lead
When we think of leaders we have archetypal images of what we perceive a leader to be, but there are subtle ways to lead that empowers both you, as leader, and those with whom you interact.

Do your words promote or demote?
What we say and how we say it can have a powerful effect on other people. If you are a leader, what you say has an even more powerful influence... do your words promote or demote others?

How to Be a Source of Inspiration
To be a source of inspiration for others we must reflect a confident and positive image, but how we view ourselves colours the image we project.

How to Be an Empowered Leader in a Challenging Business Environment
With the economic uncertainties besetting most companies, an empowered leader is needed who can boldly face the challenges in an unpredictable and sometimes scary business environment. An outstanding business leader must not only be capable of being in charge of others, he should also learn how to be in charge of himself.

How to Influence Others to Reach Their Full Potential
A position does not make for a leader, having people that follow because they want to follow makes for an influential leader. Activate these six strategies to empower your people and you will find that you are a sought after leader, mentor and guide who not only positively impacts your organization but is influential in expanding the lives, confidence and abilities of the people you serve.

Put Accountability To Work In Your Organization
Accountability begins with engagement: a heightened emotional connection to your company that influences your employees to exert greater effort.

Reach your Destination with a New Set of Directions
We are all creatures of habit, but how can we expect different results if we keep doing things the same way? Sometimes we need to try a different direction and all it takes is a change of perspective.

Reciprocity to Motivate
Give what you'd like to get and use the law of reciprocity to successfully influence your personal and professional life.

The Art of Influencing and Empowering Others
A leader who wants to influence and empower others should inspire them with a great enthusiasm. You may not have been gifted with this kind of personality but you can still move people through your honest conviction.

The Bookend Process of Engagement
Winning people over takes more than using our charm; it takes influence... our personal power of influence... which is why I like to use 'book ends'!

Three steps to creating a Pay it Forward Environment
Imagine a world where we all empowered each other. Well all great ideas have to start somewhere with someone, and we can all do our part by not only empowering ourselves, but paying it forward and empowering others.

What's Leadership?
It is a natural instinct to want to be a leader yet so many people have no idea what is required to be one. As they climb the ladder of success they feel they are leaders and have the demeanor requiring being followed without earning it. Rank has it’s privilege but not in the hearts of men and so conformity is through duty.

What is the Secret of Success?
I have always wondered what was the secret of success, and it all made sense after listening to Earl Nightingale’s recording of the Strangest Secret. I’d like to share the main points of what he discussed, and encourage you to apply the secret of success in your life.

Coaching Staff is easy when you know what to say
Knowing what to say to staff in difficult moments is challenging but with a little guidance, almost any new manager can learn the simple coaching techniques that will set them up for success throughout their careers. Here is an example of how one coaching script, can turn things around.

How to be an Inspirational Leader in 3 Steps
"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." So said Warren Bennis, world renowned authority on leadership. Leaders must be inspired. If a leader is not then his followers won't be either. There are 3 vital steps you must take to translate your vision into reality that inspires others to follow.

10 Questions for Inspirational Leadership
There are ten very important keys for leaders to be very inspirational. If you follow these key factors you will definitely set an example of inspirational leadership.

PEOPLE FOCUSED - LEADERS FINISHED FIRST
Leaders who are people- and relationship centric are far more likely to display outstanding performance.The assumption that so-called "tough" leaders with a controlling and target-driven approach do better during tough economic times is simply not true, according to new research carried out in the UK

12 Questions for Leaders in the Year 2010
Now, 2010 is here, and in the earliest days of the economic recovery it's time to take the bull by the horns. Smart leaders will bypass the predictable New Year's resolutions and, instead, start the decade with 12 essential questions.

Leadership: Now More than Ever!
Winston Churchill is a hero of mine. Partly, I think, because he wasn't perfect. He was neither an obvious hero nor someone acknowledged early on to be the leader that he eventually became. He just put his head down, plowed through and never gave up. He was honest and hard-working, pragmatic and passionate. Sound like any small business owners you know?

Integrity is the Key for Followers
Of the many traits humanity has, integrity is probably the must sought after in others. We desire truth and honesty but also that it be rooted inside each individual and not just only as a front. This is so vital in leadership that it has caused the failure of many an endeavor.

Leadership: Best Practices for Unleashing Leadership Potential in Everyone

What makes a good leader? Are good leaders born or are they made? These are age old questions we have heard for many years and continue to ponder today. The leader of the 21st century does not necessarily resemble the leaders of the past. The characteristics, expectations, skills and competencies have changed over the decades. Leadership is a required competency of every successful manager and executive today. Business executives are recognizing that success is largely dependent on their ability to identify, develop and retain leaders within their organizations. The fact that these potential leaders can be found at all levels of an organization and within all disciplines, however, is not yet equally recognized. On-going talent assessment is a key part of building a pipeline and preparing your organization for the future.

Leadership - The Top 10 Competencies Spelled Out

Leadership skills and competencies are a requirement for most professionals in this competitive marketplace. The ability to bring out capabilities in others and realizing their utmost potential is one sure way of measuring your leadership capabilities. Every organization differs on the specific skill sets and competencies needed for success but there are many leadership competencies that are relevant in all cases.

Giving Feedback: do the old rules apply?

In today's world it is increasingly clear that respect has to be earned: it is not automatically given. In today's world it is increasingly clear that authority can quickly be lost if the person giving feedback makes a mistake - and the almost instant availability of information by phone or internet makes it almost certain that any such errors will be quickly discovered (and if the person giving feedback isn't respected or hasn't engaged with the people involved then the probability of someone actively seeking out errors is high.)

A Business Network Makes You Powerful – Article 5 of 8
With proper planning and strategy, you can populate your network with the right type of people in a reasonable amount of time. People who make the effort to constantly develop and nourish their networks will find that it is fun and rewarding. The following are 7 ways to build your network whether you are in sales or just want to further your career.

Remove Distractions to Ignite Sales Growth – Part 1

The most common thief of sales growth is distraction. Based on my experience, I estimate that on average, employees lose 40% of their time to distractions. This number ranges between 30% and 60%, depending on the company they work for, and can reach as high as 70%, depending on the individual. Distractions can be classified into two types: 1) leadership and organization; and 2) individual-specific. The leadership and organization distractions can be categorized into poor sales support, customer service mishaps, products that do not meet client needs, bad sales management, and poor communications. “Individual-specific” distractions refer to daily mental or situational conditions faced by the salesperson. Part I deals with leadership and organization because these have a more dramatic impact on growth than most companies realize

Leaders Can't Resist Change
There is no way we can expect a permanent position in any area of business. The marketplace moves with the winds and stops at nothing. We must always be ready to adjust our actions and abilities, as society deems necessary. It makes no difference the scope of our endeavor change will be inevitable.

Trust and Respect
Trust and respect appear to be so colsely linked that when you have one, the other is naturally always present. I do not think this is true. This article discusses these two concepts in enough depth to separate out the concepts into a hierarchy.

Keeping People in the Loop
On the surface, it seems like a simple matter to keep people in an organization informed of things they need to know. Unfortunately it is a conundrum that is rarely mastered, even by the most talented leaders. This article explores the issue of keeping people informed.

The Difference Between Managers and Leaders is A Lot & Not Much

Debate has long surrounded the topic of whether managers differ from leaders and vice versa, and if so, how. Meanwhile, the reason that we never seem able to settle on a single answer is because they are both different and the same simultaneously. What I mean by this is that managing requires getting work done. It’s the nitty gritty of the day-to-day - organizing people, logistics, communication, etc… and making sure that things run smoothly like how the moving parts of a machine work together to create a functional whole. Leading on the other hand is about inspiration, the epitome of ideals, having vision and being able to effectively communicate its tenets. Implicitly workplace leaders have followers. Managers don’t, not necessarily.

Vision is more than a destination
Vision in real leadership doesn't just means seeing where you want to go, but also seeing how you are going to make it happen. Seeing the process, the entire path, the things that you need to do to make it happen. The things you need to do to make that vision a reality. What you need to do to make it happen. What you need to do and the when, where and how.

Building Fires - What Leaders Do
Teaching, demonstrating and motivating through positive reinforcement are just a few of the examples of what leaders do to encourage the greatness in those they mentor. When properly done they can build followers into fiery leaders themselves. We can draw ma