Business Leadership Skills 01 (Jul 09 - Feb 13)

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Harvey Mackay Podcast- How To Be A Great Manager by John Nyaradi

Click here for podcast

http://www.dailymarkets.com/stock/2011/ ... t-manager/

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"More business decisions occur over lunch and dinner than at any other time, yet no MBA courses are given on the subject."

Peter Drucker

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"Communication - the human connection - is the key to personal and career success."

Paul J. Meyer

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Eliminate Fuzzy Thinking Forever By Rich Schefren


Lacking confidence...

Feeling unsure about what you should do next...

Jumping from one marketing strategy to another...

Being unclear about when you'll reach your business goals...

All of these issues (and many more) can be traced back to one of the biggest challenges struggling entrepreneurs face: a lack of focus.

I call it fuzzy thinking.

Fuzzy Thinking Stems From Neglecting to Acquire Critical Information

In order to go from fuzzy thinking to focused thinking, you need to know the answers to three questions...

1. What, exactly, do you want?
2. What's the absolute minimum necessary to have it ?
3. What's the fastest and easiest way to get it?


Source: ETR

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7 Ways to Recognize Those Who Really Get It By MaryEllen Tribby


1) A Winning Team: People with a strong sense of urgency quickly identify critical issues and form strong teams that are committed to ambitious change even when the members of the team are already working hard.

2) Vision and Strategies: Strong and committed teams organize the effort to find smart strategies and envision long-term outcomes when dealing with essential issues, even when the best strategies are hard to pin down.

3) Communication: High-urgency teams feel a need to persistently communicate their vision and strategies to the appropriate people to get them on board and generate still more urgency.

4) Empowerment: Those with a strong sense of urgency empower others who are dedicated to making a vision a reality by removing obstructions in their path.

5) Short-Term Wins: High-urgency teams celebrate short-term victories and make them visible to the entire organization.

6) Never Give Up: After a minor or great success, teams with a true sense of urgency never let their members slip back to complacent inertia. Instead, they expand the effort and strive for improvement.

7) Making It Stick: Teams with a true sense of urgency feel duty-bound to find ways to make sure any change sticks by incorporating that change into the organization's structure, systems, and - most importantly - culture.

Here is the truly amazing thing: Working with a sense of urgency actually requires less energy than complacency. And the rewards are ten-fold.


Source: ETR

[winston]

Duck Tale By Harvey Mackay

The late Thomas J. Watson, who built IBM into a worldwide power in computers, frequently shared a story about a man who loved to watch the flight of wild ducks.

Each year the man left feed by a nearby lake so the ducks would stop to eat. Some of the ducks grew accustomed to finding food there and stopped flying south, wintering at the lake instead.

Over time, the ducks grew fat and lazy, because they had lost their need to migrate south when everything they needed was provided for them.

The moral of the story is that you can make wild ducks tame, but you can never make tame ducks wild again.

Watson's lesson from that story was that he liked to encourage the "wild ducks" at IBM as an antidote to conformity and bureaucracy.

Mackay's Moral: It's okay to ruffle a few feathers from time to time. Show some pluck!


Source: ETR

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Should You Always Follow the Leader? By Harvey Mackay

I am not advocating disobedience or disrespect. I am encouraging expanding your mind to find new and better ways to address issues.

Conformity is absolutely necessary sometimes. For example, following traffic laws demands conformity or chaos reigns. Paying taxes requires conformity, and if you don't believe me, ask anyone whose creative deductions have resulted in substantial penalties - or prison. And when your mother tells you to shape up, I would recommend conforming.

But conformity will not provide a creative solution to a problem. That usually calls for a different approach from what has been tried before, or a variation on the theme. Free thinkers are often dismissed as goofballs - until their ideas have smashing success.

Train your brain to look at all the possibilities, not just those that are tried and true (or tried and failed). To do that, you cannot think the way you've always thought. Try these strategies:

Look at the whole picture. It's easy to look for the simplest solution, but will that really solve your problem or just patch it up for the time being? Is this problem the result of following all the old rules instead of re-examining your practices for improvement?

Put yourself in another time. How would you have solved the problem 10 years ago? How about 10 years from now? Would you have the same choices available, or would you have to start over? Do you have all the tools/knowledge/staff you need?

Reverse the situation. What would a reasonable person do in your situation? What is the opposite strategy? You might gain a fresh perspective by considering the alternatives.

Bridge the gap. Think about where you are now, and where you need to be. How many steps are missing? Can you solve the problem with fewer steps, or are you so far from a solution that starting over is a real option?

Write down your thoughts. Spend a few minutes brainstorming all by yourself, and be sure to write down your ideas. Brainstorming means letting your imagination go, so nothing is out of bounds. Some ideas will be useless. Others might hold some promise. But the main point of this exercise is conditioning your brain to leave your comfort zone.

Speak up! Don't hide your ideas, fearing that you'll become the office joke. Your idea may not be completely viable, but you might spark others to find solutions.


Source: ETR

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"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself."

Peter F. Drucker

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Double Your Personal Power by Mastering One Simple Strategy I've Used to Make a Fortune By Michael Masterson

In any organization, power moves inexorably to those who speak well.

By well, I don't mean eloquently. I mean persuasively. There is an art and a skill to persuading people to accept your ideas. In today's essay I will tell you about the simple, four-part strategy that I use.

Persuasive speaking has four parts: knowing what you want, understanding what the other person wants, understanding the possible objections, and then presenting your case as simply as possible.

Step One: Figure out what you want.

Let's say you've been invited to take part in a business meeting... or perhaps you're gearing up to have an important conversation with a family member. Spend some time beforehand thinking about the topic you will be discussing. Figure out how you can benefit from it. Set a specific, measurable goal for yourself. Then figure out how you can achieve that goal.

This may seem like an unnecessary step. You might be thinking, "I don't need to think about what I want. I am always aware of it."

In fact, most people don't know what they want. They have some general impressions of what being successful means. But they don't analyze those impressions. They don't break them down. They don't understand how to achieve them strategically.


Step Two: Figure out what the other person wants.

Contrary to what some self-improvement gurus will tell you, you won't get what you want in life simply by asking for it.

Everybody is ultimately motivated by self-interest. Achieving your specific goals, therefore, is a matter of figuring out how you can satisfy the desires of others.

If, for example, your goal for that business meeting you've been invited to is to be nominated to head up an upcoming project, plan for it by making a mental list of how your nomination will help each person attending the meeting. Figure out how, in leading the project, you can provide that.

Most important, think about how you can direct the project so that it will achieve growth and profitability for the company. Spend some time formulating the phrases you will use to drive that point home.

By putting the company first, you will enlist the respect and support of just about everyone. You will establish yourself as a natural leader. And then, when you explain how the project will benefit each person individually, you will see how quickly they line up to support you.


Step Three: Take time to consider the objections.

After figuring out how you can achieve your goal by providing benefits to others, make a list of the objections you might encounter.

Good copywriters do this when they write a promotional package. Good public speakers do this before giving a speech. You should do it too before making any informal presentation.

Of course, it's not enough to list potential objections. You must craft concise arguments that will overcome those objections. You must show your listeners that you are sympathetic to their concerns and that you have a plan to deal with them.

Break the objections down into their component parts. Analyze those parts. Discover their weaknesses or find ways to minimize them. Base your thinking on research, if you have time to do it. But also think about your past experience. Remember that your ultimate objective is to find solutions that are good not just for you but for the people you're speaking to.


Step Four: Keep it simple.

After you have taken these first three steps, you will be very excited to present your case. But then you will start coming up with all sorts of extra ideas. All sorts of secondary benefits and arguments that might be useful if you were writing a long paper, but which will only hamper your effectiveness if you include them in your oral presentation.

So before you make your pitch, make a conscious decision NOT to mention these secondary considerations. Just focus on the main idea and the primary benefits. And state them as clearly and compellingly as you can.

Ready, Fire, Aim

Most of us, most of the time, speak impulsively. We are stimulated by some event or remark and utter the first thing that pops into our heads. We don't stop to consider the effect our statement will have on those to whom we are speaking. Neither do we consider how our words will affect us. Yet they surely do.

"Words are all we have," Samuel Beckett said. And this is often true.

You can't force your colleagues to listen to your ideas. You can't force your boss to give you a raise or a promotion. You can't force your spouse to agree with everything you say. But if you follow these four simple steps before you speak, you will be amazed at the persuasive power you will have.


Source: ETR

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"If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings... you almost don't have to manage them."

Jack Welch