Your Daily Quote - Leader

"If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are an excellent leader." 
Dolly Parton

Your Daily Quote - Anticipation

Anticipation is one of the ultimate powers. Losers react, leaders anticipate. 

Tony Robbins 

Top 10 Qualities That Make a Great Leader - part 2 of 2

By Tanya Prive

Commitment

If you expect your team to work hard and produce quality content, you’re going to need to lead by example. There is no greater motivation than seeing the boss down in the trenches working alongside everyone else, showing that hard work is being done on every level. By proving your commitment to the brand and your role, you will not only earn the respect of your team, but will also instill that same hardworking energy among your staff. It’s important to show your commitment not only to the work at hand, but also to your promises. If you pledged to host a holiday party, or uphold summer Fridays, keep your word. You want to create a reputation for not just working hard, but also be known as a fair leader. Once you have gained the respect of your team, they are more likely to deliver the peak amount of quality work possible.

You want to keep your team motivated towards the continued success of the company, and keep the energy levels up. Whether that means providing snacks, coffee, relationship advice, or even just an occasional beer in the office, remember that everyone on your team is a person. Keep the office mood a fine balance between productivity and playfulness.

If your team is feeling happy and upbeat, chances are they won’t mind staying that extra hour to finish a report, or devoting their best work to the brand.

Creativity

Some decisions will not always be so clear-cut. You may be forced at times to deviate from your set course and make an on the fly decision. This is where your creativity will prove to be vital. It is during these critical situations that your team will look to you for guidance and you may be forced to make a quick decision. As a leader, it’s important to learn to think outside the box and to choose which of two bad choices, is the best option. Don’t immediately choose the first or easiest possibility; sometimes it’s best to give these issues some thought, and even turn to your team for guidance. By utilizing all possible options before making a rash decision, you can typically reach the end conclusion you were aiming for.

Intuition

When leading a team through uncharted waters, there is no roadmap on what to do. Everything is uncertain, and the higher the risk, the higher the pressure. That is where your natural intuition has to kick in. Guiding your team through the process of your day-to-day tasks can be honed down to a science. But when something unexpected occurs, or you are thrown into a new scenario, your team will look to you for guidance. Drawing on past experience is a good reflex, as is reaching out to your mentors for support. Eventually though, the tough decisions will be up to you to decide and you will need to depend on your gut instinct for answers. Learning to trust yourself is as important as your team learning to trust you.

Ability to Inspire

Creating a business often involves a bit of forecasting. Especially in the beginning stages of a startup, inspiring your team to see the vision of the successes to come is vital. Make your team feel invested in the accomplishments of the company. Whether everyone owns a piece of equity, or you operate on a bonus system, generating enthusiasm for the hard work you are all putting in is so important. Being able to inspire your team is great for focusing on the future goals, but it is also important for the current issues. When you are all mired deep in work, morale is low, and energy levels are fading, recognize that everyone needs a break now and then. Acknowledge the work that everyone has dedicated and commend the team on each of their efforts. It is your job to keep spirits up, and that begins with an appreciation for the hard work.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/12/19/top-10-qualities-that-make-a-great-leader/

Your Daily Quote - Class Act

In every society, there are “human benchmarks” – certain individuals whose behaviour becomes a model for everyone else – shining examples that others admire and emulate. We call these individuals “class acts.”

Dan Sullivan

Top 10 Qualities That Make a Great Leader - part 1 of 2

By Tanya Prive

Having a great idea, and assembling a team to bring that concept to life is the first step in creating a successful business venture. While finding a new and unique idea is rare enough; the ability to successfully execute this idea is what separates the dreamers from the entrepreneurs. However you see yourself, whatever your age may be, as soon as you make that exciting first hire, you have taken the first steps in becoming a powerful leader. When money is tight, stress levels are high, and the visions of instant success don’t happen like you thought, it’s easy to let those emotions get to you, and thereby your team. Take a breath, calm yourself down, and remind yourself of the leader you are and would like to become. Here are some key qualities that every good leader should possess, and learn to emphasize.

Honesty

Whatever ethical plane you hold yourself to, when you are responsible for a team of people, it’s important to raise the bar even higher. Your business and its employees are a reflection of yourself, and if you make honest and ethical behavior a key value, your team will follow suit.

Ability to Delegate

Finessing your brand vision is essential to creating an organized and efficient business, but if you don’t learn to trust your team with that vision, you might never progress to the next stage. It’s important to remember that trusting your team with your idea is a sign of strength, not weakness. Delegating tasks to the appropriate departments is one of the most important skills you can develop as your business grows. The emails and tasks will begin to pile up, and the more you stretch yourself thin, the lower the quality of your work will become, and the less you will produce.

The key to delegation is identifying the strengths of your team, and capitalizing on them. Find out what each team member enjoys doing most. Chances are if they find that task more enjoyable, they will likely put more thought and effort behind it. This will not only prove to your team that you trust and believe in them, but will also free up your time to focus on the higher level tasks, that should not be delegated. It’s a fine balance, but one that will have a huge impact on the productivity of your business.

Communication

Knowing what you want accomplished may seem clear in your head, but if you try to explain it to someone else and are met with a blank expression, you know there is a problem. If this has been your experience, then you may want to focus on honing your communication skills. Being able to clearly and succinctly describe what you want done is extremely important. If you can’t relate your vision to your team, you won’t all be working towards the same goal.

Training new members and creating a productive work environment all depend on healthy lines of communication. Whether that stems from an open door policy to your office, or making it a point to talk to your staff on a daily basis, making yourself available to discuss interoffice issues is vital. Your team will learn to trust and depend on you, and will be less hesitant to work harder.

Sense of Humor

If your website crashes, you lose that major client, or your funding dries up, guiding your team through the process without panicking is as challenging as it is important. Morale is linked to productivity, and it’s your job as the team leader to instill a positive energy. That’s where your sense of humor will finally pay off. Encourage your team to laugh at the mistakes instead of crying. If you are constantly learning to find the humor in the struggles, your work environment will become a happy and healthy space, where your employees look forward to working in, rather than dreading it. Make it a point to crack jokes with your team and encourage personal discussions of weekend plans and trips. It’s these short breaks from the task at hand that help keep productivity levels high and morale even higher.

Confidence

There may be days where the future of your brand is worrisome and things aren’t going according to plan. This is true with any business, large or small, and the most important thing is not to panic. Part of your job as a leader is to put out fires and maintain the team morale. Keep up your confidence level, and assure everyone that setbacks are natural and the important thing is to focus on the larger goal. As the leader, by staying calm and confident, you will help keep the team feeling the same. Remember, your team will take cues from you, so if you exude a level of calm damage control, your team will pick up on that feeling. The key objective is to keep everyone working and moving ahead.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/12/19/top-10-qualities-that-make-a-great-leader/

Your Daily Quote - Gladiator or Champion

Anyone can train to be a gladiator. What marks you out is having the mindset of a champion.

Manu Bennett

Your Daily Quote - Leadership Focus

“Leaders spend 5% of their time on the problem & 95% of their time on the solution. Get over it and crush it!” – Tony Robbins

Your Daily Quote - Trust and Leadership

"The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say 'I.' And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say 'I.' They don't think 'I.' They think 'we'; they think 'team.' They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but 'we' gets the credit.... This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done." 
Peter Drucker, author of Managing for the Future

10 Principles of Effective and Authentic Leadership - part 1 of 2

by Anush Kostanyan

There is a great amount of definitions and theories about effective leadership. Each leader chooses their unique formula of success, but still there are keys to authentic leadership that can't be ignored. Below are 10 important principles each leader should know.

1. Leadership Is Behavior, Not Position
Leaders are the ones who take responsibility for making decisions and bringing change. Leaders are the ones who empower people to discover and use their greatest potential. The executive position on someone's visit card won't do all of these. People are the ones to choose their leader. And how will they do that? They will judge by behavior, attitude and actions. If you want to be a leader, then act like a leader and shape a better reality.

2. The Best Way of Influence Is Setting an Example
Each leader wants to get the best out of their team. Excellence orientation is great, as there is always need for development. But here is the simple truth. Instead of telling your team members what to do, show it to them by your own example. They are following you each and every moment. Practice what you preach, and the results will astonish you. Especially during hard times, when chances to give up are very big, you should be the one who faces obstacles with confidence and determination towards success. Be sure, that they will do the same and stand by your side.

3. Leading Means Making an Impact

Think about the greatest leaders in history. What was the one thing they had in common? Yes, they all made an impact. Leadership is not just setting goals and effectively achieving them with your team. Leadership is not just brilliant public speaking and great communication skills. If you want to be an authentic leader, you should have your unique contribution to the welfare of the society. You should make a positive change.

4. Leadership is Chasing Vision, Not Money
Without a vision, your activities are meaningless. Each person can be very busy implementing various tasks, but the key is devoting your efforts and time to the realization of your vision. Vision is what inspires people to take action and go forward. Discover your unique vision and coordinate all your activities towards it. Inspire each and every member of your team with that vision.

Source:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anush-kostanyan/10-principles-of-effective-and-authentic-leadership_b_5686841.html

Your Daily Quote - Responsibility

"It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

— J. W. Goethe

6 LEADERSHIP STYLES, AND WHEN YOU SHOULD USE THEM - Part 1 of 2

BY ROBYN BENINCASA

Taking a team from ordinary to extraordinary means understanding and embracing the difference between management and leadership. According to writer and consultant Peter Drucker, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." 

Manager and leader are two completely different roles, although we often use the terms interchangeably. Managers are facilitators of their team members’ success. They ensure that their people have everything they need to be productive and successful; that they’re well trained, happy and have minimal roadblocks in their path; that they’re being groomed for the next level; that they are recognized for great performance and coached through their challenges.

Conversely, a leader can be anyone on the team who has a particular talent, who is creatively thinking out of the box and has a great idea, who has experience in a certain aspect of the business or project that can prove useful to the manager and the team. A leader leads based on strengths, not titles.

The best managers consistently allow different leaders to emerge and inspire their teammates (and themselves!) to the next level.

ROBYN BENINCASA leads by example

When you’re dealing with ongoing challenges and changes, and you’re in uncharted territory with no means of knowing what comes next, no one can be expected to have all the answers or rule the team with an iron fist based solely on the title on their business card. It just doesn’t work for day-to-day operations. Sometimes a project is a long series of obstacles and opportunities coming at you at high speed, and you need every ounce of your collective hearts and minds and skill sets to get through it.

This is why the military style of top-down leadership is never effective in the fast-paced world of adventure racing or, for that matter, our daily lives (which is really one big, long adventure, hopefully!). I truly believe in Tom Peters’s observation that the best leaders don’t create followers; they create more leaders. When we share leadership, we’re all a heck of a lot smarter, more nimble and more capable in the long run, especially when that long run is fraught with unknown and unforeseen challenges.

Change leadership styles

Not only do the greatest teammates allow different leaders to consistently emerge based on their strengths, but also they realize that leadership can and should be situational, depending on the needs of the team. Sometimes a teammate needs a warm hug. Sometimes the team needs a visionary, a new style of coaching, someone to lead the way or even, on occasion, a kick in the bike shorts. For that reason, great leaders choose their leadership style like a golfer chooses his or her club, with a calculated analysis of the matter at hand, the end goal and the best tool for the job.

My favorite study on the subject of kinetic leadership is Daniel Goleman’s Leadership That Gets Results, a landmark 2000 Harvard Business Review study. Goleman and his team completed a three-year study with over 3,000 middle-level managers. Their goal was to uncover specific leadership behaviors and determine their effect on the corporate climate and each leadership style’s effect on bottom-line profitability.

The research discovered that a manager’s leadership style was responsible for 30% of the company’s bottom-line profitability! That’s far too much to ignore. Imagine how much money and effort a company spends on new processes, efficiencies, and cost-cutting methods in an effort to add even one percent to bottom-line profitability, and compare that to simply inspiring managers to be more kinetic with their leadership styles. It’s a no-brainer.

(to be continued)

Source:

http://www.fastcompany.com/1838481/6-leadership-styles-and-when-you-should-use-them

Chris Howard Interview - Leadership, Part 3

A true leader lives the values of his organisation.

Your Daily Quote - Leader

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. 
—Jack Welch

5 Lessons That Have Helped Me Become a Better Leader

Great mentors can take on many roles, but here are the five key insights my mentors taught me.

BY JOSHUA CONRAN

Unlike best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki, most people didn't have a "rich dad" mentor while growing up. For instance, I came from a working-class family, so my exposure to successful business leaders was limited. But looking back, I can identify five groups of people that shaped the businessman I became: family members, friends, TV characters, teachers, and authors.

These people weren't my mentors by design, but without them, I would've missed out on lessons about toughness, honesty, and ingenuity. And more importantly, I wouldn't be the leader I am today. Great mentors can take on many roles, but here are the five key insights my mentors taught me:

1. Be tenacious. There is a connection between physical and mental labor. I learned that from splitting wood and baling hay with my father. The toughness and discipline required to finish a physical task can also be used to tackle mental challenges, such as pushing through an off-kilter project.

Look at the people in your life who have overcome great physical challenges. Did they throw up their hands and quit? Of course not! Instead, they worked hard and pressed on. Learning this tenacity has helped me push through failures, and it can do the same for you.

2. Seek out honest friendships. The concept of friendship has changed a lot lately, but when I think about my friends, I don't think of my Twitter followers. I picture the people with whom I share an authentic connection.

Your friends can (and should) influence your life. Focus on the friends who actively listen. They'll talk about what's really going on and help you jump some of life's hurdles along the way.

3. Learn to solve problems. I grew up watching re-runs of TV programs featuring characters such as Andy Taylor (The Andy Griffith Show), Charles Ingalls (Little House on the Prairie), and Ben Cartwright (Bonanza). These characters taught me a great deal, and I watch their shows today with my kids.

As a leader, you have to face difficult challenges. If you work hard to overcome them, there's always a lesson to learn. Even though it might sound a bit silly, don't discount the challenges faced by your favorite fictional characters. The lessons they've learned might apply to your life as well.

4. Become fully engaged. Some of the minor tweaks my teachers made during my early years continue to affect how I learn today. For example, one teacher recognized that I had trouble learning in a lecture setting. She decided to change things up for my benefit and would occasionally open up classroom-wide conversations after lectures. My teacher taught me that new information could be fun when I learned it in a way that suited my needs.

I still enjoy learning by diving into projects that will force me to learn the subject matter better. Look back and see how you learned most effectively growing up. Revisit those methods to see your comprehension improve.

5. Absorb knowledge through books. I didn't have access to business leaders at the beginning of my career, so I turned to books. If you ask me which business book will put you on the path to success, I'd say you're missing the point of reading.

John Donahoe, president of eBay, has said, "Pursuing a full life and pursuing balance is a journey and not a destination." I think the same is true of reading. There's no book that contains the secret to success. If you read a wide range of topics, you'll find valuable nuggets of wisdom during your journey.

You can't rely on my mentors--I've only been able to identify them through self-reflection, after all. You must seek out your own. Don't let your influencers just happen. Be the architect, and line them up to help you achieve your idea of success.

Source:

http://www.inc.com/joshua-conran/5-lessons-that-have-helped-me-become-a-better-leader.html

Rohn: 7 Personality Traits of a Great Leader

The qualities of skillful leadership

Jim Rohn

If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills and opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent. Jim Rohn calls leadership the great challenge of life. What’s important in leadership is refining your skills. All great leaders keep working on themselves until they become effective. Here’s how: 

1. Learn to be strong but not rude. It is an extra step you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It’s not even a good substitute. 

2. Learn to be kind but not weak. We must not mistake kindness for weakness. Kindness isn’t weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell somebody the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion. 

3. Learn to be bold but not a bully. It takes boldness to win the day. To build your influence, you’ve got to walk in front of your group. You’ve got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle the first problem, discover the first sign of trouble. 

4. You’ve got to learn to be humble but not timid. You can’t get to the high life by being timid. Some people mistake timidity for humility. Humility is almost a God-like word. A sense of awe. A sense of wonder. An awareness of the human soul and spirit. An understanding that there is something unique about the human drama versus the rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we’re part of the stars. So humility is a virtue, but timidity is a disease. Timidity is an affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem. 

5. Be proud but not arrogant. It takes pride to win the day. It takes pride to build your ambition. It takes pride in community. It takes pride in a cause, in accomplishment. But the key to becoming a good leader is being proud without being arrogant. In fact, I believe the worst kind of arrogance is arrogance from ignorance. It’s when you don’t know that you don’t know. Now that kind of arrogance is intolerable. If someone is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that. But if someone is ignorant and arrogant, that's just too much to take. 

6. Develop humor without folly. That’s important for a leader. In leadership, we learn that it’s OK to be witty, but not silly. It’s OK to be fun, but not foolish. 

7. Lastly, deal in realities. Deal in truth. Save yourself the agony. Just accept life like it is. Life is unique. Some people call it tragic, but I’d like to think it’s unique. The whole drama of life is unique. It’s fascinating. And I’ve found that the skills that work well for one leader may not work at all for another. But the fundamental skills of leadership can be adapted to work well for just about everyone: at work, in the community, and at home.

See more at: http://www.success.com/article/7-personality-traits-of-a-great-leader#sthash.0UqasKjY.dpuf

Тhe 10 Commandments of Leadership

Becoming a great leader comes down to remembering and following these 10 simple rules

by GEOFFREY JAMES

A group of archaeologists digging through ancient corporate archives recently
uncovered two mysterious tablets (aka "wall plaques") engraved with the
following laws:

I. Thou shalt remain optimistic.

Since thy employees look to thee for leadership, thou must not let thy
worries and concerns cast a black cloud over everyone else, for that
way lies certain failure.

II. Thou shalt set a clear direction.

If thou wouldst be a leader, thou must create a vision in the minds
of your followers whence and whither thou art leading them. Fail
at this, and thy organization will wander into the wilderness.

III. Thou shalt create a workable plan.

While no plan should be engraved in stone and plans should be amended
when conditions change, if thou hast failed to plan, then verily thou hast
also planned to fail.

IV. Thou shalt secure sufficient resources.

While it is written truly that faith can move mountains, that faith must be
accompanied by bulldozers, dump trucks, and paid employees who know
how to use them.

V. Thou shalt listen more than talk.

Leadership doth not consist of giving lectures and then issuing orders.
Leadership consists of understand what others desire and harnessing that
desire to serve the common good.

VI. Thou shalt not hold meetings without agendas.

Before each meeting send out a decree defining what will be discussed and
for how long. Then adhere to thy own decree as if the productivity of the
entire team depended on it. For verily it doth.

VII. Thou shalt not criticize in public.

Though thy staff and colleagues consist of fools and rogues, public shaming
creates resentment. Should a follower deserve a reprimand, provide it in the
privacy of thy office.

VIII. Thou shalt not ask an employee to do something that thou wouldst not
 do thyself.

Truly great leaders, should they perceive a scrap of litter on the floor of a
hallway, will bend down, pick it up and throw it into the trash.

IX. Thou shalt not make of thyself a bottleneck.

If thou insist upon making every final decision, the progress of thy organization
will grind to a halt. If thou canst not delegate, thou hast no business pretending
to be a leader.

X. Thou shalt give thy team the credit.

True leaders accept the blame when things go awry and take no credit when things
go right. Thy rightful reward will the love and commitment of those who continue
to work for thee.

Source:

http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/the-10-commandments-of-leadership.html

12 Habits of Genuinely Courageous People - part 2 of 2

BY JEFF HADEN

6. They're not afraid to show genuine emotion.

Acting professionally is actually fairly easy. (We all know a few robots.)

Acting professionally while also remaining openly human takes courage. It's not easy to show sincere excitement, sincere appreciation, and sincere disappointment--not just in others but also in yourself. It takes real bravery to openly celebrate, openly empathize, and openly worry.

Don't be afraid to strike a balance between professionalism and humanity. That's what builds exceptional relationships--both professional and personal.

7. They're not afraid to forgive... and forget.

When an employee makes a mistake--especially a major mistake--it's easy to forever view that employee through the lens of that mistake.

But one mistake, or one weakness, or one failing is also just a part of the whole person.

It's easy to fire, to punish, to resent; it's much harder to step back, set aside a mistake, and think about the whole person. It takes courage to move past and forget mistakes and to treat an employee, a colleague, or a friend as a whole person and not just a living reminder of an error, no matter how grievous that mistake may have been.

Don't be afraid not just to forgive... but also to forget.

8. They're not afraid to stay the course.

It's easy to have ideas, but it's hard to stick with those ideas in the face of repeated failure.

And it's incredibly hard to stay the course when everyone else feels you should give up.

Hesitation, uncertainty, and failure causes people to quit. It takes courage to face the fear of the unknown and the fear of failure.

Don't be afraid to trust your judgment, your instincts, and your willingness to overcome every obstacle. You can.

9. They're not afraid to earn the right to lead.

Every boss has a title, and in theory that title confers the right to direct, to make decisions, to organize and instruct and discipline.

The truly brave leader forgets the title and leads by making people feel they work with, not for, that person.

Don't be afraid to stop falling back on a title but instead working to earn respect; when you do, you earn the permission to truly lead.

10. They're not afraid to succeed through others.

Great teams are made up of people who know their roles, set aside personal goals, willingly help each other, and value team success over everything else. Great business teams win because their most talented members are willing to sacrifice to make others successful and happy.

Don't be afraid to answer the question, "Can you make the choice that your happiness will come from the success of others?" with a resounding "Yes!"

The payoff is worth it.

11. They're not afraid to say, "I'm sorry."

We all make mistakes, and we all have things we need to apologize for: Words, actions, omissions, failing to step up, step in, show support.

It takes courage to say, "I'm sorry." It takes even more courage not to add, "But I was really mad, because..." or "But I did think you were..." or any words that in any way places the smallest amount of blame back on the other person.

Don't be afraid to say you're sorry. You'll gain, not lose, respect--and in the process repair a relationship that might have been damaged.

12. They're not afraid to take undeserved blame.

A customer is upset. A coworker is frustrated. A supplier feels shortchanged. An investor is impatient.

Whatever the issue, the courageous people step up and take the hit. They support others. They support their teams. They willingly take responsibility and draw negative attention to themselves because to do otherwise is not just de-motivating and demoralizing, it also undermines other people's credibility and authority.

Don't be afraid to throw yourself under the bus; and if that's too much to ask, at the very least never throw other people under the bus.

Source: http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/12-ways-genuinely-courageous-people-are-more-successful.html

Your Daily Quote - Leader

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. 

—Jack Welch