You’re almost to the elevator to head down to the company cafeteria and pick up a café latte when you see her coming. There she is, Ms. Bully, head of the Quality Circle department at your prestigious organization. You recognize this leader because you’ve heard many times about the way she mistreats employees in her department. A few of your employees have even confided that they hear buzz that some of her staff is thinking of pursuing legal action because of the environment she’s created. At first, you find it hard to believe, given the results the department promotes in the company newsletter. However, just yesterday, you observed the behavior first hand as she openly reprimanded and callously demeaned a fellow male employee in a cross-functional team meeting and then later blasted the high-performing employee in a group email when distributing meeting minutes. Deep down, you empathized for your fellow management colleague and team members. You know the behavior was inappropriate and that it contradicts the “values” that are often touted by the organization and undoubtedly it needs to be addressed.

As you keep walking toward the elevator, your heart begins beating faster and a knot in your stomach takes hold. Your mind starts racing and you wonder if you should just avoid her for now given the priorities on your plate and pressing deadlines today or take a different route altogether and stay clear of her path. The thought of brushing it off as yesterday being another bad day for Ms. Bully also crosses your mind? At that moment standing inside the elevator she asks, “Going down?” You take a deep breath and step into the elevator. Now what?

If you’re a leader in the 21st Century you know what to do: Model integrity, be respectful, and embrace accountability. For leaders in the 21st Century that means taking responsibility of their management role as Cultural Steward. Taking the steps necessary to foster a work environment based on trust, expand collaborative partnerships and speed innovation in order to strengthen the organization’s Workforce Portfolio, improve employee morale and overall performance.

21st Century Leaders also maintain a high standard of confidentiality, respect and urgency in addressing these situations. They hold a broad view of the organization, are clear on their Cultural Steward role and duty in providing a safe (physically and psychologically healthy) workplace. They recognize that failing to have these conversations costs more in the long run and accept that failure is not an option. They do the hard work and develop the capacity to connect at a deeper level and courageously confront inappropriate behavior demonstrating credible leadership. Investing externally in executive coaching to help them develop this capacity has become more common, since many well-intended HR departments lack time and resources to offer this level of service to leaders. 21st Century Leaders also ensure understanding of the organization’s Harassment, Workplace Bullying, and Code of Conduct policies as well as the Employee Disciplinary Process. They appropriately engage Human Resources respecting the investigative process and prepare to take it to a higher compliance level if it is necessary.

For aspiring leaders and workers who observe this inappropriate behavior it means taking responsibility and breaking the silence. It takes courage to confront inappropriate behavior against the forces of darkness. However, the issue never gets solved by remaining silent and gets worse if they succumb to toxic behavior. Understand your organization’s Code of Conduct, Harassment Confidentiality and Workplace Bullying Policies and identified reporting procedures. Seek an external coach if it provides emotional support and/or expertise needed in helping you manage through the process. Address your experiences with appropriate parties as outlined in your organization’s Code of Conduct or Workplace Policies and/or the Ethics Compliance Officer.

So the next time you find yourself in an elevator, a meeting (face-to-face or virtually) with Ms. or Mr. Bully, do as 21st Century Leaders do to practice courageous leadership by taking responsibility. And remember, addressing Ms. or Mr. Bully isn’t just for elevators or in meetings, the following tips can be useful any place within your organization that inappropriate and disrespectful behavior is being displayed. Here are a few tips to help you overcome the fear and move closer to healthier outcomes:

Identify and clarify the behavior or attitude you want to confront
and the key points you need to make. Prepare a rough draft if
necessary, and practice it. Identify what’s at the core of the
issue with this individual.

Determine the current impact. What impact is this behavior or
attitude having currently? Ask yourself what you feel when this
occurs?

Clarify why this issue is important. What might the scenario
become six months? Or one year from now if nothing changes
regarding this issue? What is at stake for the employee,
department, organization, customer, or Board of Directors?

Have you contributed in any way to the problem? Are there any ways
in which you, or your team may have contributed to the situation?
If so, acknowledge it. If you’ve honestly assessed and are clean,
then move on to the next tip.

Ask yourself what you wish to resolve of this behavior or
attitude. And describe what the ideal outcome might be. If you
were to imagine that this was no longer an issue, it’s resolved,
completely, what difference would that make?

Develop an action plan. Do I understand the company’s policies?
Do I have an external support system or coach to ensure
objectivity? Am I making every attempt to avoid becoming a toxic
person? What action steps can I take to turn this around? Who
should be involved during the conversation? Might it require me
seeking alternative employment if nothing is addressed?

Commit to action. Lead from the front. Step up and stand your
values and have the necessary respectful conversations with the
appropriate leaders who are assigned by the company to investigate
it.

About the Author

About the author:
©Copyright. All rights reserved. Judy White, President, The Infusion Group™, LLC partnering with individuals, leaders and organizations by infusing the 20th Century Workplace and the 21st Century Work Force through values-based people practice consulting and professional coaching services. Visit: http://www.theinfusiongroupllc.com Join the Conversation: http://www.twitter.com/InfusionGrpLLC

Are there merits to formal reporting or is it just a waste of everyone’s time? When reporting is done for the sole purpose of reporting, it usually will become nothing more than a nuisance. It will become a waste of time and energy, not only for the people who have to write them, but also for those who have to read them. Eventually they stop being carefully read. Then, since they are no longer being carefully read, they will cease to become carefully written, and thus, lose their importance and often times are abandoned altogether. The typical argument against formal reporting is that it allows much more time to get the actual work done; and isn’t that what we’re all about anyway? Though on the surface this may appear to be rational, in the long run it will severely undermine your ability to perform up to management’s expectations. Formal reporting is a proven stopgap against all the things that stand in the way of success. They may seem tedious and unnecessary to some, but they are an important and useful tool in today’s fast paced business environment.

MONITOR YOUR WORK

Effective project reporting is an invaluable tool for keeping management up to date on what is happening in their departments and a great source of pertinent information for relaying progress to upper management. Not only does it create an opportunity to get hard facts, but it is a good means of keeping those facts at hand and in one convenient location. Reports facilitate the continuous monitoring of departmental workloads. This makes it much easier to assign new projects while balancing current work. By continually monitoring workloads you will have the ability to adjust staff and budgets accordingly. How can you tell what your budget concerns are if you do not have an accurate handle on the progress of your workload? These reports are an efficient means by which to judge the effectiveness of an individual as well, affording a simply way to discover dead ends, bottlenecks, and misdirection before they get to far out of bounds.

AVOID REINVENTING THE WHEEL

Formal status reports work as a log or record of past endeavors which is useful in several ways. It keeps us from reinventing the wheel by providing detailed documentation of the reasons something may not have succeeded or been applicable in the past. They are quite useful when you run across a problem that seems to have occurred before. You can go back over your notes and reports to determine what was previously attempted, both successfully and otherwise. I have worked places where the same ideas seemed to pop up every few years, (usually when a new manager is in place), I could then bring forward valid reasons for determining whether or not the project should be undertaken. Then you can check to see if circumstances have changed or if the controls are no longer in place. When reviewing a project that may not have been feasible previously, It allows us to save a significant amount of time by highlighting technology that did not exist before, but now just might make the project goals attainable. These reports are also a wonderful template for projects that are “similar to” work we have performed successfully in the past and, therefore, can be a great time saver as well as helping to prevent us from running into any of the brick walls or pitfalls we may have encountered earlier.

OPTIMIZE YOUR EFFORTS

Accountability is another practical use for formal reporting. I myself discovered a long time ago that we are really capable of doing much more than we thought we were. By pushing your employees forward they too will accomplish much more. If you give someone a month to do something that should take two weeks, it will take a month. Likewise, if you give someone a month to do two months worth of work they often will get about six weeks of work done. What would you rather see accomplished in a month; two weeks work or six weeks work? It is rather easy to say you have too much to do; it is quite another to prove it on paper. Some individuals need that little push now and then to keep them on track while others may need to be reined in from time to time. Requiring employees to keep a log of project events causes them to review project status and to develop contingencies. You really don’t want to wait until the project is at its deadline to find out that it is far from complete and worse yet, over budget. Similarly you shouldn’t wait until review time to admonish someone for past mistakes, when you can easily minimize or avoid that damage by promptly addressing them now. It is much wiser to slow the train before it jumps the track. This accountability allows us to keep those small or undesirable projects in the spotlight and progressing smoothly. By staying on top of these projects we will have the ability to reprioritize while it is still useful to do so and we can readily put a stop to those projects that eventually get mired down or offer diminishing returns.

EVALUATE

Carefully written reports are handy at employee evaluation time. They are an excellent source of past accomplishments as well as a valuable record of the progress made in meeting assigned goals, and not just for an individual employee, but for the department as a whole. These reports will help to define the strengths and weaknesses of your department or of an individual. They will help to expose those areas that may require improvement. Since priorities within companies are often changing, formal reports afford management a means of determining if a project should be shelved or if additional resources should be assigned. They remove the emotion from a manager’s assessment of an employee’s performance. You will be hard pressed to find better evidence of an employee’s worth than what is outlined in their project reports.

DISSEMINATE

Yet another good argument in favor of formal reporting is the dissemination of information. Whether you need to update the rest of your department, the whole organization, or the public sector; formal reports are a valuable source of relevant information and often times this information is useful to others inside your company. One highly overlooked asset to these reports is the opportunity to mine information and ideas from other people. often times when you hit a wall there is nothing better than a different point of view to get you back on track and formal reporting is an informal style of brainstorming. These records are a perfect asset in determining future quotes and estimates. There have been numerous occasions when I have been able to go back and get costs for fixtures, equipment, services, and the like. The truly wonderful thing is that these numbers are real, not guesses, and they are of items that are actually working in your facilities and meeting your needs. They simply need to be adjusted for inflation and the current state of your economy.

MAKE THEM USEFUL

Status reports are a good thing, but you need to keep them simple and to the point. It is a lot of wasted time if people are reading and writing reports just because they are required to. Don’t put it off until the last minute and just slap together some meaningless pages loaded with mindless rambling; take the time to create a document that will benefit everyone in your organization. Try to keep in mind the real reasons you are reporting and attempt to make them as useful as possible. Make them a great outline of your current activities while documenting an invaluable reference for the future. Taking the time to write those reports may seem tedious and time consuming, formal reporting, if done with the purpose with which it is intended, is an essential tool for any business and well worth the effort.

About the Author

Mr. Cavalluzzi is the founder and owner of CONSOLUTE, LLC engineering support and consulting services providing site search, industrial, manufacturing and design engineering support. His extensive background in engineering dates back over 30 years and includes the robotics, automotive, aerospace, metals and plastics industries.

Visit them at: Consolute, LLC – Engineering and Consulting Services

When people think about motivating employees, they’re usually thinking about ways to reward them. What carrots can be offered to get employees to work harder, what can we dangle in front of them to incent them to take the actions we desire? There are whole books written on ways to reward our employees, and multi-million dollar consulting engagements built on those books.
They include issues big and small, like money, pay-for-performance plans, flexible shifts, thank-you notes, gift cards, extra days off, promotions, educational opportunities, public recognition or a private pat-on-the-back.
But while rewarding employees is important, it misses a hugely important point. If someone is hitting your foot with a hammer, you can’t stop the pain with a backrub. This is an odd bit of folk wisdom, but here’s the lesson. In one of our recent studies, 76% of employees said that in the past 12 months, their manager has done something that made them want to quit. And 89% of employees said that their organization has done something that made them want to quit.
Every day, employees face various demotivators, things that cause them to lose their passion for their jobs and even cause them to consider quitting. And before we can try to “motivate” them, we’ve got to stop “demotivating” them. To make this concept a little easier, instead of talking about demotivators and motivators, we’re going to talk about Shoves and Tugs. Shoves are those issues that cause people to lose their passion, enthusiasm and even consider quitting. Tugs are those issues that get people excited, ignite their passion, and make them committed to staying with an organization or boss.
This tends to be a radical concept for most leaders, so let’s walk through an example. Pat is a nurse at a major teaching hospital. She’s worked there for 8 years and thinks it’s a great place to work. She loves doing research and this organization has hundreds of ongoing studies on which she can participate, and even publish. Her major Tug is doing intellectually challenging work with really smart people. But two weeks ago, the hospital instituted flexible work schedules and they changed all the shifts. This is causing Pat serious difficulty because she had timed her kids’ schedules around her old shift start/end times, and this change disrupts everything. For Pat, this scheduling change is a Shove.
Now, here’s the radical part. Before Pat’s manager can address her Tugs, they will have to fix her Shoves. When you see Pat’s issues described separately as Shoves and Tugs, it becomes pretty clear that she’s going to be much less excited about the opportunity to publish as long as her schedule is causing her problems. But because most leaders don’t initially separate Shoves and Tugs into two distinct issues, the typical leader will ignore the scheduling issue and just try to give Pat more research work. Or try to buy her compliance with money.
Shoves are often focused on basic issues like working conditions, schedules, compensation, acceptable relationship with the boss, etc. Tugs often encompass higher-order issues like enjoying the work, career advancement, working with interesting people, organizational culture, etc.
If we had only asked Pat what excited her about her job, what really made her love this hospital, we’d have gotten an answer about doing intellectually stimulating work. And if we had only asked Pat what could make her life sufficiently miserable to cause her resignation, we’d have gotten an answer about her schedule and her outside-of-work obligations. It’s only when we ask about both issues that we get the complete picture.
When you’re working with low performers, when you’re working terrible hours, or you’ve got a terrible working environment, you could be so frustrated that you feel like you’re being Shoved out the door. You could feel so frustrated that you no longer notice all of the other good things about your job that Tug at you to stay – the autonomy, the ability to have control over an entire process, the ability to work on innovative projects and teams. If your organization is like the organizations in our studies, as much as 35% of your workforce could feel this way. And these people are huge retention risks.
On the other hand, you could have a working environment that is free from Shoves, but also lacking in any significant Tugs. You’re not being Shoved out the door by frustration, but neither are you being Tugged to remain at the company. And once again, if yours is anything like the organizations in our studies, as much as 50% of your workforce could feel this way. The good news is that these people probably aren’t spending their days on Monster.com actively applying for jobs. The bad news is that if the economy changes, or one of your competitors makes a play for them, or they just happen across another opportunity, they will leave.
To get someone really truly committed to your organization, you must first eliminate any Shoves and fulfill at least some of their Tugs. In essence, you’ve got to meet their basic needs and afford some opportunity to address their higher-order needs.

About the Author

Leadership training meeting basic needs that open to the door to opportunity. Management leadership training arms your management team with the everyday tools to lead and succeed.

One of the key qualities of a good leader is to understand leadership styles and know when to change.

Each of us has our own unique strengths and weaknesses; sometimes, we need more direction, other times, less. Being able to recognize and respond to these differences is part of what makes a good leader.

Different Players, Differing Abilities

Let’s turn to a youth basketball scenario where a coach must teach young players to rebound, pass, dribble, and shoot the basketball.

Imagine shorter players who tend to dribble and pass the ball well, while taller players may be better at rebounding.

If you are teaching dribbling, the shorter players may be better at the task and need less instruction.

Conversely, when you change to a rebounding drill, the opposite applies in terms of player strengths and weaknesses.

“There is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals.”
- Ken Blanchard

In Ken Blanchard’s book with Patricia and Drea Zigarmi, Leadership and the One Minute Manager, they discuss four leadership styles that correspond to varying development levels: directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating.

In our basketball example, a player who does not dribble well may need to spend more time practicing this task and require more observation until they demonstrate proper technique.

As players get increasingly better, the coach must change their approach from being directive, to supportive, to perhaps little or no involvement as a player masters a task.

Same Player, Different Abilities

The ability to apply different approaches goes beyond categorizing people as strong, average or weak. Since we all have our strengths and weaknesses, you may have to apply a different approach with the same individual depending on the task. Making this adjustment is another one of the qualities of a good leader.

On the one hand, the shorter player may be the best ball handler and dribbles the ball so well that he needs little feedback. Conversely, that same player may not pass or rebound very well, and your feedback is essential if he is to improve upon his weaker areas.

Treat people differently

Each of us has different strengths and weaknesses and we need to improve our weaker areas at different rates.

Be sure to treat people differently – it’s the right thing to do!

Leadership and the One Minute Manager is my favorite book on leadership styles. It is an easy, must read.

About the Author

Tom Crea has been developing leaders for more than 20 years. If you would like to know more about a values-based approach to leading, building teams, and improving communication, visit Tom’s website at http://www.all-about-leadership.com. For one-on-one coaching, contact Tom at http://www.all-about-leadership.com/contact.html.

This post was published to Wealth2share’s Blog at 10:14:32 PM 8/30/2009
The Power of Decisions

What do you believe? What do you stand for? What are you willing to accept? Most importantly, what are you willing to do to get what you believe you want, you need, you deserve?
Do you love your job? Is that why you got out of bed today? Are you being paid what you’re worth? Are you doing what you most enjoy doing?
You have the ultimate power to make a decision! You get to decide! If you live in the USA, you don’t have to do a lot of things. You don’t have to live the way you’ve been living. If you believe you deserve better, change what you’re doing! Don’t let someone else decide what you should do or how you should live! Are you living under your belief system or someone else’s? If things aren’t the way you believe they should be, change them! You are in control of your life. You ultimately decide how you will live, what you will do. You have the power to decide.
You are where you are because of decisions you’ve made!
If you’re not where you think you should be, it’s time for you to make the decision to change. Who is running your life? Who is really in charge? Have you given control of your life to someone else? That was your decision. Okay, so maybe things aren’t the way you want them to be. Maybe things haven’t worked out the way you’d hoped. Can you make a decision today to change those things? YES!!! What’s keeping you from making that decision?
Make the decision today to change your life. You are in control. Not some other person, not the government, not a relationship. You are responsible for your life and how it turns out. You are in charge of what you are doing and most importantly, what you will become. If you continue doing the things you’re doing today, where will you be in 10 years? Will you be right where you are today, or are you in transition. Are you heading to a place you want to be, or have you settled for something someone else has decided is where you should be? You do not have to be a victim any more. You are not a product of your circumstances, or the way you were raised, or the opportunities you missed. You are a product of your decisions.
Are you ready for a change? Are you ready to move in a new direction in some part of your life? In my experiences, I’ve found most people are unsatisfied with the direction some part of their life is moving. Make the decision today. Decide where you want to be in 10 years, or 5 years or 1 year. Maybe it’s a decision you’ve made about your health or your fitness or your financial situation. Do not settle any longer for what “they” say. Make the decision today to accept what is right for you.
It is NEVER too late to change any direction of your life.
If you are ready to make the changes you want to see in your life, come visit me at wealth4sharing.com. We’re here for your growth, for your success, for your future.
To your growth and success,
Charles M

About the Author

Charles is a personal development coach, a peronal business trainer and a successful internet marketer.

Online entrepreneurs tend to rely on the Internet for all of their social interaction. Particularly those entrepreneurs who are heavily engaged in social networking, Internet entrepreneurs become comfortable with electronic communications exclusively. E-mail, instant messaging, online chat, and even online videoconferencing are all ways that Internet marketers utilize the Internet to network. It is a very powerful process, and enables the Internet marketer to reach a broad and diverse market from the comfort of their own home.

However, sometimes social interaction — the live, face-to-face, personal kind — is the most effective type of communication there is. Human beings tend to relate and communicate with one another more effectively in person. Speaking directly with someone enables you to read their body language, to send your own nonverbal signals, and to create a closer bond. For this reason, Internet marketers should also integrate a social component into their marketing mix that includes mingling and meeting face-to-face with other like-minded people.

One of the best ways to do this is through events that a particular business community or opportunity offers. These events are typically held in resort type locations, bringing together many entrepreneurs who are all focused on the same goals and who are all operating the same business opportunity. Mingling with these people is an excellent way to share ideas, learn new tools and techniques, and to increase one’s stature within the industry.

To anyone aspiring to be a leader in network marketing, direct and personal social interaction is key. By meeting people at industry events, an individual can demonstrate their leadership qualities, and attract people into their personal sphere. Once this has been done, and once a reputation has been built, growing an online Internet marketing enterprise becomes much easier.

An added benefit is that often times these industry events are fun to attend. As stated previously, they are typically held in exotic and beautiful locations that enable the Internet entrepreneur to mix business with pleasure and enjoy a mini vacation while actually working. It is important for the successful Internet entrepreneur to understand the value of face-to-face interaction with team members, industry leaders, and other business operators. If you are an Internet marketer and are not already doing this, it is time to start.

About the Author

Ruthlyn Watts is a business coach and mentor that assists serious entrepreneurs in building a profitable online business with multiple incomes streams. Ruthlyn and her team have assisted hundreds of people in generating profits that exceed $250K or more in their first year. For more information and to contact Ruthlyn, visit: http://www.Ruthlyn360successtoday.net

In our examinations of various leadership styles and leadership qualities, none could possibly be more apt than Barack Obama as a case study. His refreshing ideology and brilliant execution certainly bestows us with many leadership lessons to draw from.

Who is He?

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th President of the United States. As an African American born in Hawaii, Obama took interest in being a community organiser in a low income neighbourhood, and served as a church based community organiser before studying Law at Harvard Law School. He was eventually sworn in as senator of Illinois in 2004 and inaugurated as the President of the United States in 2009. He was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.

Leadership Style

Among the most apparent style of leadership that can be seen from President Obama is its transformational nature. Being highly charismatic and exceedingly eloquent, President Obama is easily able to influence the people he lead to work towards a common goal and achieve something larger than themselves. His persuasive and diplomatic style contrasts starkly with the more aggressive and confrontational measure of his predecessor President Bush, and it would definitely play an important role in forging international cooperation and inspiring action at home.

As much as it is ideological, President Obama’s leadership is also highly pragmatic, focusing on concrete issues such as non-insurance of healthcare and relationship with the Muslim world. This leadership trait is integral in his success in translating his noble ideas into reality.

President Obama’s leadership is also characterised by strong communication with the citizens of America and the people of the world. In this new world of information and knowledge, President Obama is able to capitalise on the media to communicate his views and messages to the American citizens. This fact is evident from his presence in talk shows. Being at the top of the any large organisation, it is crucial that messages and ideas get translated clearly right down to the last man so as to ensure congruency in intent. In this aspect, Obama has excelled in his keeping the people he governs in the know.

Leadership Qualities

Being one of a kind, President Obama epitomises several leadership qualities and these can be valuable leadership lessons to take away.

Foremost, he listens. One would think that for such an outstanding orator, speaking well would be his key tool to influence and gain consensus. However, we must realise that communication starts with listening, and President Obama proves to be as good at listening as he is at speaking. As he proves to the world that he, along with the United States is finally willing to listen, the flame is reignited for further relationships to be forged and diplomacy to take place. When asked by a German reporter about his designs for the NATO in 2009, he humbly replied, “I don’t come bearing grand designs, I’m here to listen, to share ideas and to jointly, as one of many NATO allies, help shape our vision for the future.”

This leads to the second quality of empathy. The ability to put himself in the shoes of others so naturally allows President Obama to be able to feel for his people, and this helped shape many of his policies, such as his healthcare reform. The president once said, “The world doesn’t just revolve around you.” This highlights his strong belief that one need to learn to see things through the eyes of others. As leaders, it is pertinent to be able to see issues via the eyes of those we work with in order to understand their concerns. The ability to do so would certainly allow us to become a more understanding and empathetic leader.

President Obama also scores well in terms of being able to delegate tasks to more capable hands, and concerns himself more wit the direction setting and visioning of the nation. In higher management, delegation is a crucial skill to master in order to be effective. It allows us to focus on what we are paid to do, that is to LEAD and MANAGE our team, rather than to micromanage and be take on the jobs of our whole team.

President Obama’s frankness is also another key that sets him apart from countless other politicians. By communicating his goal honestly and clearly, listeners are able to sense his sincerity and will tend to trust him more. This is opposed to many others who choose not to come clean regarding certain ulterior motives, apparent as they may be, and this only mean that listeners are less willing to trust them wholeheartedly.

The last and certainly not the least of his qualities is his willingness to make tough decisions. Despite preaching cooperation and mutual agreement, President Obama is aware that gaining a majority of consensus is not possible and economic, and tough calls may have to be made at times. Right or wrong, it is more important to make a decision and take action, rather than to delay and shriek the responsibility to successors.

President Obama’s leadership style is certainly a fresh beginning for further realignment of the United States in terms of political, economic and social aspects. For aspiring leaders, his leadership qualities can be likened to valuable gems that we can model from, adapt, and use as our own, allowing us to take ourselves to greater heights.

About the Author

Lucas Lin is a renowned expert in the field of leadership and management. Having held leadership positions ranging from management executive to operations manager, Lucas is in the prime position to offer advice on leadership and consulting services to leaders across the hierarchy as he developed an intimate knowledge of value-based leadership.

Visit Lucas Lin for Timeless Leadership Lessons at http://leadership-lessons.com

Leadership in Tough Times calls for special understandings. Often because of their training, leaders focus everything on the bottom line. As a result, all efforts are toward cost cutting. The result is often a kind of stagnation, while the leader attempts to ride out the storm.

Is the energy of your organization high enough to bring it back into health? Is your organization vibrant? Is its energy surging or retracting? Are your leaders “holding their breath” because it is easier and presumably safer than being aggressive in slow times?

Pay attention to the quality of your leaders and the quality of the way they make decisions if you want to know the future.

History has shown us that our best military leaders seem to emerge during war. In prolonged periods of peace it is easier for poor leadership to survive, and sometimes thrive. Under the pressure of real conflict, the weak leaders reveal themselves and are pushed aside in the urgency of responding to real threat.

We are seeing the same phenomenon in our business leaders over the course of this downturn. During the good times, many average or even below average leaders were elevated beyond their capacity for good leadership. Often they achieved their positions through finesse, political maneuvering or bullying rather than substance, integrity or business acumen. Many of our truly talented, high-potential leaders were also elevated without the seasoning and experience they need to weather our current situation.

What are the symptoms that your leaders might be “over-faced” by the tough times?

Are they making good decisions? Are they so afraid that they are cutting costs in areas that they will need in the future? Do they really need to or are they doing so out of fear of looking bad, or not looking proactive enough?

How good are they at being completely honest, no matter the personal cost? How good are they at making the decision that improves the long term viability of the organization, or business unit as opposed to making everyone happy or doing everything possible to make each week, month or quarterly numbers look good? How focused are they on winning versus doing what’s right? What risks are they willing to take if it makes them more vulnerable in the short term?

As unprepared leaders react to bad times, they often try to force their own agenda even when they don’t really know what to do. They drag themselves and the organization through their inept decision-making as long as they are allowed to do so. They attempt to fake it (even to themselves), but while the lengthening economic downturn offers some cover, eventually it becomes apparent that they simply are not skilled enough to bend reality. They are basically standing still, hoping it blows past. Sometimes they get away with it, but the longer the crisis, the more visible they become.

The Lost Art

The conversations go round and round, repeating the same issues and obstacles again and again. Decisions simply do not get made or they are made badly, based on sheer force of personality, as opposed to real “knowing”. Organizations stagnate even more.

We are in a sea of fearful fish, all turning together on a dime, away from each new perceived threat.

We may not have the time to wait for magic heroes to fight their way up to the top of organizations that are dominated by men and women who are desperate to maintain their position and fearful of any real change.

We will get some benefit from the challenges of the times, and some real leaders will surface. In the meantime, there is a lost art we can revisit that will help to some degree.

Along with our courage and risk taking, we have lost our appetite for proper problem solving. Correct problem solving is a very precise discipline, with mandatory steps.

One Positive Place to Focus

In good problem solving, solutions are not even suggested until a number of very specific steps are completed with the appropriate attention given to each. Take note of the debates in your organization and observe how many of them circle around solutions (“answers”) before there has been any definition of the problem or criteria setting for the solution.

Revisit classic problem solving disciplines. Here is a brief (oversimplified) outline of steps that can help refocus any group:

1. Define the problem you are trying to solve. This step should be the longest step in your process. Rarely will you see leaders address this step properly. It is the set up for good solutions.

2. Identify the most significant cause to your problem before you begin talking about solutions! List all causes and be thoughtful about your choices.

3. Determine a list of criteria for your solution before you even discuss what you will do. Be sure to include cost of time and resource as a part of your criteria.

4. After making a list of all possible solutions, choose your solution based on the criteria you have established.

Challenge yourself and others to recognize and remind each other when they leap immediately to solutions. If there is no clear problem definition to point to, or no list of criteria for solutions, they will never get past the debate (without bullying) because there is nothing concrete against which they can evaluate their choices.

Summary

The underlying leadership issue is one of basic preparation for tough times. Identify the real issues of leadership including: courage, creativity, risk taking, confidence, balance, healthy ego strength, etc.

Focus on the right things. Be sure that the focus on the numbers is balanced with an emphasis on the organization’s health.

About the Author

Toni Lynn Chinoy is a speaker and author of leadership books. She is the founder of Harlan-Evans, Inc, a consulting firm specializing in effective organizational change initiatives.

When put to the test, people are endlessly adaptive, inventive, cunning and resilient. These are some of the qualities that have helped us survive eons of changing, challenging conditions to emerge as the dominant species on the planet.

We share many of these qualities with other creatures. I recently read about a chimp in an outdoor zoo that doesn’t like being gawked at, so overnight he gathers piles of rocks and places them, strategically, around his pen to hurl at visitors when they arrive. Luckily, chimps only know how to throw underhand.

There’s an extra quality that humans have. Call it savvy. If the chimp had it, he might build a pile of rocks big enough to climb out of his predicament. Which brings me to the predicament we all find ourselves in, one way or another: the recession.

According to a New York Times article, economists who have tracked trends in previous recessions found that when the economy turns down and jobs disappear, more entrepreneurial businesses spring up. In other words, when people are forced to stop working for someone else, they figure out how to make money for themselves.

The ability to reinvent ourselves is in each of us. It’s part of human nature. But why wait until you are forced to dig deep before you find the motivation to become an entrepreneur? Why not be proactive? Why not gather some rocks ahead of time and work toward building a castle where you can live happily ever after?
You are probably familiar with the expression “The best time to look for a job is when you already have one.” Well, that’s also a good time to launch your own business. When there’s no pressure. But if you are out of a job, don’t despair. It’s always a good time to become an entrepreneur.

The Internet has created countless opportunities for “virtual” businesses, particularly over the last five years with so many people shopping, meeting and communicating online – the mass embrace of Web 2.0 social media. There are literally millions of business opportunities online if you know where to look and how to develop them…or if you simply connect with someone who can show you the ropes.
The Internet has become a multi-purpose business tool that brings individual entrepreneurs together with entire common-interest communities to provide vast resources for business leads and clients, connections to partners, suppliers, product delivery systems, support networks and on-demand, quality training from successful professionals. Why go through the pains of starting a brick-and-mortar business, complete with overhead costs, employee headaches, etc.? You can find a way to turn your passion into a business – without searching for a job that ultimately may or may not do it for you – by using the power of the Internet and social media.
Don’t worry if you can’t identify a passion as the basis for your business. There are so many options out there. And you can let your entrepreneurial drive be your passion.

I’ve talked with so many people who have lost a job (unfortunately), and one of the most frequent comments I hear from them is that when you lose a job you also lose a ready-made social network. To prevent isolation from setting in, one of the ways people stay connected with the world and with each other is through the Internet. What I have discovered (and helped to create) is a network of committed entrepreneurs. Each of them knows that by helping him or herself they help each other.

Before the recession affects us any more than it already has, let savvy, rather than necessity, be the mother of invention. Let’s see how many small businesses that we, as entrepreneurs, can build, and how quickly we can climb out of this predicament.

Are you ready to take action and make a change in your favor?

About the Author

Jay’s entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, executive film producer, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist.
For more information and to contact Jay please visit http://www.CarbonCopyPRO.com

Everybody dreams to make some easy money just working in the comfort of their own home. Affiliate marketing is literally the easiest way to make that possible, being one of the best methods to make money on the internet.

Although some marketing informational programs try to make you think you’re going to start earning money the minute you get involved in this kind of industry, it’s going to take time and work until you’ll start earning some serious cash.

The fact that anyone can be an affiliate marketer has made affiliate marketing one of the fastest growing industries today. Just by promoting a product that can be bought on the internet you can get a commission from that sale.

If a product is for sale, then it almost always has an affiliate program for it, giving you the chance to become an affiliate. You just have to send potential customers through your own link to the vendor’s website and if someone buys the product and followed your affiliate link to get to it, you make a commission.

The most important part of affiliate marketing is sending customers through your own affiliate link or you won’t get credit for the purchases they make.

You can promote a product in a lot of ways but the fastest way is by using pay per click services. Google Adwords is the most common of these, by placing ads on Google’s search results page. A fact that is usually not mentioned by the marketing guides on the internet is that placing such an ad and successfully advertising your product using Google Adwords will require an investment.

How much are you willing to invest influences how long it will take you until you start earning some serious cash, therefore, spending more in the beginning will get your investment back faster. But that doesn’t mean you should rush in and invest like crazy. You have to know very well what you are doing. We’ll talk about Google Adwords more in future posts where I’m going to give you more specific details and strategies.

If you don’t have a large start up budget, another good method of promoting a product as an affiliate marketer is by writing articles. The only thing that needs spending with this method is time as there is absolutely no front cost. If you really want the latest home based business opportunity then this one sure is one of the best out there.

There are still some risks coming with this type of marketing and before getting involved you need to be aware of them. That is why in future posts we will discuss more advanced affiliate marketing ideas and strategies.

About the Author

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