The Know Insider Weblog

I recently surveyed CEOs and Business Leaders of large companies and small, profit and not-for-profit, and I asked just them just one question:
‘What is the single biggest factor that you believe will inhibit your sustained profitable growth into the future?’ A, perhaps, surprising 37% responded that it was people - the recruitment, motivation and retention of people that was the biggest factor.

So let’s address the first one - recruitment.

I see many, many businesses through a year from the very smallest through to the largest corporate and I am simply amazed how many people still use ‘traditional’ methods to recruit - maybe a couple of interviews, nothing more - together with a great reliance on the content of the CV and on references.

You may know that the generally accepted wisdom is that by using these methods you are likely to get it right just 2 times in 5
ie. a 60% failure rate!

Is there anywhere else in our businesses where we would accept that degree of failure?

So we need to be more sophisticated in our recruiting methodology. For example:

When we recruit a sales person how often do we establish directly whether they can sell?

When we recruit an accountant how often do we establish whether they can read, interpret and, most importantly, report on a set of accounts?

There are comprehensive methodologies that will dramatically improve your recruiting success rate and I have been using them for many years. They, of course, take longer and they may cost more, but it is nothing compared with the cost of getting it wrong - I saw some figures recently that that cost was around five times annual salary!

There’s too much to put in an article so I’ve therefore put them onto a double CD ‘Recruiting to Win’ - which is available on line at [http://www.rogerharrop.com/orderfrm.php]

Can there be anything more important to the sustained profitable growth of your business than recruiting right?

Roger Harrop is a former quoted company CEO, International Speaker, Business Advisor, Consultant and the author of ‘Staying in the Helicopter - the key to profitable growth’. He is Speaker of the Year with The Acadamy for Chief Executives and a member of faculty of The Institute for Management Studies.

Visit http://www.rogerharrop.com and get your free e-book ‘Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Profitable Growth, But Didn’t Know Whom to Ask’

One of the greatest challenges a coaching manager has is in moving his or her team though the various team development stages. If a manager has no, or little experience of teams and team dynamics then taking over a team and then leading that team can be a very stressful experience. Every manager should know what the various growth stages are of a developing team and they should know how best to move the team through these stages with the minimum of fuss and stress. Unfortunately, many managers do not get the necessary training or coaching in this area of team development and as such teams go through a lot of stress and turmoil when perhaps this could be minimised quite considerably.

In the next couple of pages I will take you through a simple team development model, which I find the most useful of all the models I have studied. The names of each of the stages sum up perfectly what you can expect at each stage!

Psychologist, B.W Tuckman in the 1970s, developed this model and Tuckman suggests that there are four team development stages that teams have to go through in order to be productive. The four stages are:

Forming when the team meets and starts to work together for the first time.
Storming, when the members within the team start to “jockey” for position and when control struggles take place.

Norming when rules are finalised and accepted and when team rules start being adhered to.

Performing when the team starts to produce through effective and efficient working practices.

Some teams will go through the four stages fairly rapidly and move from forming through to performing in a relatively short space of time. A lot depends on the composition of the team, the capabilities of the individuals, the tasks at hand, and of course the leadership from management. One thing is certain - no team passes over the storming phase.

All teams must be prepared to go through the difficult and stressful times as well as reaping the benefits of the productive phases. The task of the coaching manager is to identify where along the path of team development his or her team is and then move it on to the next phase with the minimum of fuss and resistance.

Let’s look at each of the stages in detail.

Forming:
This is a stressful phase when new teams come together. Everyone is a bit wary of each other, particularly if they do not know anyone and particularly if the manager is new. Even more stressful, if the rumours circulating about the manager are not favourable!

The first meeting is a nervous one and a good coaching manager will recognise this and make attempts to ensure the team is put at ease. As the forming stage is the stage where cliques can develop, the coaching manager should be aware of this and should be aware of the various alliances that will occur at this stage. Not all alliances will be counter-productive to the team’s future success but it pays for the coaching manager to watch and observe the behaviours of potential cliques. The challenge for the coaching manager is basically to give an inert group of people who hardly know each the best start possible as a new team. The coaching manager should attempt to do the following in order to give the team the best possible start.
Outline specifically the task the team has to perform.

Be specific about each person’s role in the team’s task.

Outline how the team has come together and give reasons as to why the various team members have been brought together for inclusion within this team.

Be open about the way you operate as a manager - what are your strengths and weaknesses? Outline your expectations of both the team and the individuals within the team. In other words, start to contract with the team.

Encourage each team member to do likewise.

Ensure that the team has a set of rules and guidelines and that the team has an input into how these rules are formed and agreed.

Have a discussion about reward and recognition. How does the team want to celebrate its achievements?

How are the team going to make decisions?

How are the team going to give feedback on each other’s performance?

By having an open discussion right at the start of the team’s task then people get the chance to air views, concerns and queries. The coaching manager will enable this to happen with the result that people feel they have been listened to; they have been able to contribute; they know the rules and regulations by which the team will operate and they now have a greater appreciation of the people they are working with.

Storming:
Storming is a challenging phase and the coaching manager who has led the team through the forming stage well and is starting to feel quite good about progress may have quite a rude awakening. Storming always seems to come as a surprise, no matter how well the coaching manager has prepared and led the team up till now. This is where the leadership qualities of the coaching manager are tested to the full. I have had the privilege of working with some managers who have handled this stage well and also have witnessed (and suffered) at the hands of managers who have had no idea of what to do to move the team forward.

Storming usually arises as a result of goals, roles and rules all becoming confused and unclear. No matter how clear the team was in relation to the goals, roles and rules during the forming stage it is very often the case that the individual team member interpretations of these roles and rules is somewhat different in reality. This results in confusion when different behaviours are evident and conflicts can arise with the potential for factions being created within the team.

It is during this stage that the coaching skills of the coaching manager should come to the fore. Both individuals and the team as a whole should be coached to enable and support them to ensure agreement as regards what specifically the goals, roles and rules are with respect to the team and what that means to each and every individual. Many managers get frustrated at this stage because they believe that they have already done the work at outlining the goals, roles and rules at the early stage of the formation of the team. I have seen managers go from a state of immense pride about the way they have guided their team through the early stages to a state of anger where they look to blame the team and its individual members. What is it they say, “Comes before a fall”?

The coaching manager must go over again the agreements made by the team during the forming stage and ensure that the understanding is uniform across the team. The earlier in the storming stage this is revisited the better and this is where the aware coaching manager comes into his or her own. The unaware manager will tend to panic and blame and will be unable to control the behaviours of the team even though they may take a very authoritarian stance and start to order that people behave. All that achieves is compliance and team members will still have the same misunderstandings about what is going on. This is when a lot of talking goes on “behind the manager’s back” This is very unhealthy for a team.

Once the coaching manager has got his or her team through the storming phase they have to be aware of a challenge that can come out of the blue. And that is the challenge of a new member. No sooner has a coaching manager got their team through the “storm” then it is joined by a new member who then starts to question the ways of working and potentially starts to destabilise the team. All new members to the team must be made aware of the team goals, roles and rules before they join and they must be made aware of the process that is in place or the giving and receiving of feedback if they have any suggestions as to how they can improve the ways of working for the team. Again, this is an area where I have seen managers lose the progress that they have made with their team. Instead of taking time out to bring a new member up to speed with all the rules, roles and goals, the manager lets the new member join the team without much of a briefing. The result can be chaos. Beware.

You will find at times that there will be people who tend to hold back the storming process or perhaps prolong it. These people have a decision to make. Go with the majority or get out. Business has no place to let the odd individual hold things up. That may seem tough coming from a “coaching” manager but this is reality and in many cases management is a tough role. This is one of these instances.

Norming.
Do you remember what it is like when a real storm passes? The winds drop, the sky brightens, the birds sign again. Teamwork is like this also. There is a calm, a focus. Goals are clearly understood. Roles are clarified. The rules and regulations are being adhered to and people are working together positively. Relationships become stronger as people are more aware of each other. Strengths and weaknesses are realised and utilised accordingly. Norming is characterised by acceptance. Whereas in the storming stage, people were apt to rebel very quickly, this is now not the case and if someone has a grievance, complaint or suggestion then the proper processes are used and people tend to be listened to.

The role of the coaching manager in this stage is to ensure that this calm continues and that any behaviours that arise that may threaten the calm are channelled in the right direction. Also the coaching manager has an important role in conveying information particularly in relation to the successes that are starting to occur within the team. The coaching manager should be spending a lot of time with individual team members coaching them and supporting them to develop their capabilities that relate to the individual’s team role and the tasks that they have to perform in relation to the team goals.

Performing.
Not every team makes it to the performing stage. Many get stuck at Norming and although everything appears normal, there is a lack of momentum and motivation towards achieving the all important team goals. It is as though the team is comfortable in this stage and does not want to progress further for fear of returning to a storming stage, a stage that probably was very uncomfortable for most people.

It is at the performing stage where team members really concentrate on the team goals. They are determined to work towards them, as they know what rewards are available to them on completion. They are also aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the team, and they appreciate these, and also works towards developing the weaknesses. This is a period of great personal growth among team members. There is a good deal of sharing of experiences, feelings and ideas together with the development of a fierce loyalty towards team members. There will be arguments, disagreements and disputes but these will be facilitated positively as the team will now live and die by its rules. The coaching manager at this stage will play very much a non-directive role, concentrating on strategy to plan the next way forward. The team will be in many ways, self-directing, perhaps even self-appraising with the manager taking very much a back-seat role. Again the manager’s role will be to facilitate communication and ensure that the successes are communicated and rewarded.

In summary:
Forming. The successful coaching manager will ensure that the team meets and understands the team goals, the roles they have to take on and the rules by which they have to play. The coaching manager will realise that although there may be a great deal of agreement and compliance about what is discussed many people will have different interpretations of what is agreed. One to ones help but inevitably there will start to be undercurrents of disagreement as to what has exactly been agreed.
Storming. Once the disagreements and blame start, get the team quickly together to thrash out what the concerns and disagreements are. The coaching manager at this stage is strong, directive but also fair. The team needs direction at this stage and perhaps people need to hear things that perhaps they don’t want to hear. Get things out in the open. Let the team bleed a little and then begin the healing process by facilitating their coming together.

Norming. Lessen the direction and spend time with individuals starting to coach them in relation to their roles within the team and the tasks that they have to perform. At the same time the coaching manager will be challenging team members to take on extra capabilities in order to move the team on to the next stage.

Performing. Take a step back and allow the team to become self-directing. Be there for them and continue your coaching role with both team and individuals. Allow individuals to take on leadership roles and encourage rotation of roles. Communicate success and reward success accordingly.

Allan Mackintosh is Head of Performance at Reivers Development Ltd and also oversees the Management Coaching Consultancy, PMC Scotland. He is the author of ‘The Successful Coaching Manager’ and creator of the OUTCOMES® and CARERS performance coaching models.

He can be contacted on 00 44 1292 318152 or e-mail at allan@pmcscotland.com

Every business requires a structure that will withstand necessary legal and governmental scrutiny. The choice of how to organize a new enterprise should be made based on the needs and capacity of the owner(s) to maintain and detail the records, history and finances of the business.

Many simple service businesses are set up as a sole proprietorship. The lawn service I utilize is a sole proprietorship. I make out the check in the name of the person providing the service. If I do not spend over $600 per year with any sole proprietor I am not required to fill out tax form 1099 and provide the information to the Internal Revenue Service and the service provider.

The sole proprietor is the method of structuring most entrepreneurs utilize when starting out in a small-scale commercial venture. This works if services provided are simple, of relatively small transaction size, small inventory required and there is no need for hiring and paying employees. As sales grow and the need to expand becomes apparent the entrepreneur will probably want to consider a more formidable structure.

Here is my advice when considering the business structure best suited for your business, based on present and future needs: consult an attorney. Taxes, investment vehicles, partnering, harvesting profits, incorporation options, and depreciation or only a few of the areas of concern a new business may need to consider and decide upon. A business attorney will have expertise in every area of concern and can construct the most appropriate structure for your business and personal needs. The ability to memorialize in precise legal documents the exact terms, conditions, and responsibilities of all officers and/or share holders in the company is invaluable when disagreements occur.

The importance of written agreements and contracts, signed by all parties to the transaction, cannot be overstated. No one ever enters into a business situation if they are 100% sure it will fail. There is always an air of confident expectation that the business has a good chance of success and will ultimately prosper. Unfortunately, there is always a significant chance that results will be disappointing and disagreements will occur. Make sure that all parties to a deal have a full awareness of the business structure they are participating in.

Oral contracts and agreements have been upheld in courts. However, they are much more difficult to enforce than properly written and executed business structures. Do not leave important details to chance. Have proper documentation on hand for the protection of all parties.

Partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability corporations, and corporations are popular vehicles for housing the legal structure of a business. Each has benefits and liabilities, depending on the needs and requirements of the business owner(s).

A partnership can be useful when several parties bring complimentary assets to a venture. One partner might have a patent that represents a commercial opportunity. Another might have investment resources they can bring to bear. Yet another potential partner has specific management experience to contribute.

I have entered into several partnerships in the past with mixed results. If there is a bit of advice I can offer to potential partners before they start it is this: have full agreement on how to harvest profit/loss when success/failure occurs. One partner wants to grow and mature a business, while another wishes to cash out after a few years and this is where the seeds of destruction are sown. Goals, as well as duties and responsibilities must be fully transparent.

The Limited Partnership can be an excellent opportunity for the entrepreneur wishing to put capital to work, but not physically committing to work on a project. Typically a General Partner will manage the business, and the Limited Partners provide the pool of money required in funding a business. Usually units of a Limited Partnership are sold in equal dollar amounts. Be sure and read the deal prospectus carefully and skeptically. In addition, be sure to familiarize yourself with the laws of the state where the business entity will be domiciled as the various states have different laws in this area.

A Limited Liability Corporation is a relatively new corporate structure that offers many of the advantages of the corporation and the benefits of individual tax rates. An attorney will be able to advise if the Limited Liability Corporation is appropriate for your particular needs.
A Corporation is the vehicle that requires the most care and maintenance, as well as providing maximum personal protection. A Corporation is ostensibly a legal entity that acts as if it were a person. Losses are incurred by the legal entity of the Corporation, not by the shareholders of the Corporation. Assets of an incorporated business are property of the Corporation, not the individual shareholders. The owners of stock in the Corporation enjoy benefits based on the number and status of their shares.

An attorney can advise the best state in which to incorporate based on your anticipated needs. Nevada is the best state for secrecy. Delaware is excellent for transparency and resolution of disputes. Some states are more business friendly from a tax and regulation standpoint and all of these areas must be considered before filing for incorporation.

A Corporation will need to be assigned a Federal Identification Number in order to open a bank account at any financial institution in the United States. The Federal Government utilizes this number when tracking tax, financial and employment data on every incorporated business.

The Articles of Incorporation, annual meeting minutes, a board of directors, corporate fees and filings, state compliance and filing local, state and federal tax returns require a detailed, and potentially costly execution of corporate governance. In addition, stock certificates must be appropriately accounted for and capitalization requirements met and maintained.

Be realistic when choosing the business structure that will offer your fledgling enterprise the most useful features based on present and future needs. Many people file for incorporation, then realize they do not need the hassle of maintaining detailed books and records. Use the business structure that enables you to legally perform every obligation required, while allowing you to be a slave to your business opportunity, not a slave to your corporate structure.

Geoff Ficke has been a serial entrepreneur for almost 50 years. As a small boy, earning his spending money doing odd jobs in the neighborhood, he learned the value of selling himself, offering service and value for money.

After putting himself through the University of Kentucky (B.A. Broadcast Journalism, 1969) and serving in the United States Marine Corp, Mr. Ficke commenced a career in the cosmetic industry. After rising to National Sales Manager for Vidal Sassoon Hair Care at age 28, he then launched a number of ventures, including Rubigo Cosmetics, Parfums Pierre Wulff Paris, Le Bain Couture and Fashion Fragrance.

Mr. Ficke and his consulting firm, Duquesa Marketing, Inc. (http://www.duquesamarketing.com) has assisted businesses large and small, domestic and international, entrepreneurs, inventors and students in new product development, capital formation, licensing, marketing, sales and business plans and successful implementation of his customized strategies. He is a Senior Fellow at the Page Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Business School, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

Radical Innovation

One of the common concepts in innovation is the idea of radical creativity. That innovation is only truly innovative if it is radical. But how do we define radical?

Of the many definitions, one of the most useful is that of Liefer et al (2000):

a) An entirely new set of performance features.

b) Improvements in known performance features of fine times or greater.

c) A 30% or greater reduction in cost.

d) Changes the basis of competition (Sage, 2000).

Whilst creators often define their ideas as innovative, do they meet the above criteria?

But even if they do, is this enough?

Venture capitalists and due diligence are rarely concerned with whether a product is innovative or not. The more pertinent questions include:

a) What problem will it solve?

b) Does the end user believe that the product will solve the problem? What the creator thinks is unimportant. What the end user thinks is paramount.

These topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop MBA, is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com/

Why not a science? why an art? it is because of the fact that there are no hard and fast rules, that is why Leadership is defined an art. Everyone has the right to create his own leadership style. The leadership style is mostly defined by the various factors to name a few the principles they follow, business ethics, interpersonal relationship. Let us see the key points that define a leader.

The most prominent principle of being a leader is to be a authentic leader. This is the most important principle or quality any leader should have. It is the most defining factor to be a leader. Authentic means you reflect and follow what you say and mean! In layman terms it is NOT saying something and doing something. The most obvious question that arises is why? why is “Authenticity” a defining factor? The sole reason is the fact that your credibility increases, your dependability increases. Please note that it does not mean that doing whatever you say irrespective of the consequences. What it means is you commit yourself to what you say! just in case you face problems, you acknowledge gracefully and checkout the alternative courses or corrective measures.

The second important principle is being people’s man rather than the management’s guy. Well, the managers out there might be after me! but the fact is that “People first” should be the rule. No matter what people come first than anything else. Because they are the building blocks over which the entire management rests! If they fail or grumble the company is at loss. In business terms you might want to calculate the loss of productive hours, poor quality output etc.
Once these key principles are in place, the next important factor is the business ethics. It is hard to define business ethics, so in short it is all about cross the line. Trust me, you will know it when you are bound to cross it.

The next important aspect is the interpersonal relationship, how the leader deals with people around him? Here too there are no defined rules, because the rules are bound to change depending upon the person you are interacting with. Not every other person is the same, are they? So each one has to be handled differently depending upon their weakness and strengths. The leader builds upon the strengths of the individuals and helps them to strengthen the weakness. This concept of making them strengthen their weakness, plays a major role in their personal growth as well as the organization they work for. Most people disregard this aspect that once they are trained or shaped they might switch companies. Well, in that aspect that is a risk we need to take, for the evolution of the organization.

Some of the other key factors that are key for a leader are as follows:

The other important aspects in leading a team are to keep them informed periodically about the vision/path ahead of them. The prospects, the pitfalls, the irony everything has to be set out on the table, so that the team is aware of reality. In a sense this will help the team to adapt to reality and make changes as quickly as possible.

Making people realize that the limit for their potential and ideas is the sky. i.e the limits they define are illusions. Need to help them understand that whatever they envision can become reality once they start strengthening their vision.

Periodic feedback after a milestone or key achievement is mandatory. This does not include the corrective or immediate feedback, these have to be given then and there. The periodic feedback mostly concentrate on developing the team members strengths and strengthening their weaknesses. And most often bring back focus to what they want to achieve in their career. This is advantageous in two ways, i.e. the leader knows what is happening exactly and the team knows where they stand always!

The other most important aspect you might want to cultivate in your team is the maturity to see the problem and the person differently. i.e. whenever somebody complains or points out a problem it does not reflect on the person but on the solution proposed by the person. This is one of the major causes of confusion in any organization. This creates havoc within the teams, and most often lead to the splitting up of the team into sides, which is one of the least you want as a leader.

The leader should talk about only the current problem at hand, and forget the previous recurrences when resolving a issue. This gives the team the clarity and focus to solve the problem at hand, rather than looking back what went wrong last time and who to blame this time.

One of the important factor that you might want to cultivate in your team is the frankness to accept when something is wrong, even if it is the leader! This openness in the team helps to build a open culture organization.

Moreover you need to educate the team that falling short is ok! as long as you get back quickly and learn from the past and forge ahead. Because the normal tendency of people is the “Fear Factor” i.e. what if I fail? well, it is a tough question to answer, but let me put it this way, as long as you did your best and it failed, it does not matter. All the team has to do is learn from the mistakes and forge ahead! That is the key!

Many have defined leadership in terms of their own perspective. This is a novel attempt to redefine Leadership in my own terms.

-Ramesh-
About the Author
More details about the author is available at his website

Did you ever wonder how some organizations (businesses,
not-for-profits, churches, etc.) just seem to perform
better than others? Is it luck? Chance? More resources?

The answer? There are five key differences - all of which
are described in detail in the best-selling book HREF="http://www.SixDisciplines.com/book" rel="nofollow">“Six Disciplines for
Excellence”

At Six Disciplines Corporation, we conducted extensive research
to determine how top performing organizations differ from the
rest. We found several areas where the contrasts were
significant between the highest- versus lowest-performing small
businesses.

Here’s the top five - in order of their importance:

1. Strength of the Leadership Team. Top-performing
organizations rated 155% higher than the lower performers. The
two primary factors were the ability of leadership to define a
clear vision for the company, and the appropriate involvement of
leadership in leading and supporting projects that were
strategic to the organization.

2. Ability to Attract and Retain Quality People.
Top-performing organizations rated 142% higher than the lower
performers. The best small businesses have found that success in
this area all starts with recruiting.

3. Disciplined Approach To Business. Top-performing
organizations rated 114% higher than the lower performers. Top
performers are also good planners, but are practical and are
disciplined about the commitments they make.

4. Strategic Use of Technology. Top-performing
organizations give more emphasis to using technology to impact
the business in strategic ways (114% more) than the lower
performers.

5. Effective Use of Trusted Relationships. Top-performing
organizations rated 100% higher than the lower performers in
their ability to utilize the expertise and talents of external
organizations.

Other factors contribute to top-performing organizations and how
they differ from lower performers (i.e., work ethic/attitude,
teamwork, commitment, etc.). The five described above highlight
the areas of greatest difference.

Your next step? Understand further each of the characteristics
of top-performing organizations by investigating the
step-by-step Six Disciplines methodology.

To find out more, visit HREF="http://www.SixDisciplines.com" rel="nofollow">www.SixDisciplines.com

Why is it that some goals have a fire and a passion behind them that creates an almost self-propelled drive towards completion, while other goals are left dead in the water before they’ve hardly even begun? What causes that level of motivation to manifest itself? Can we harness it? Can we predict when and where it will hit? The answers lie in finding out if the person setting the goal is in touch with his or her own deepest desires. Do they really understand who and what they are? Do they really know what it is that drives them?

Write down a list of goals and dreams you’ve set for yourself over the years. Take a nice long trip down memory lane. Think about the kinds of goals and dreams you set for yourself when you were a child, a teenager, a young adult. Look at what kinds of goals you began listing when you became a spouse, a parent, an employee, or a boss. Don’t worry if you can’t remember every single goal you’ve ever set for yourself. Don’t make the assignment into a research project and a headache. But I do want you to spend a bit of time with it.

Now that you have your list of old goals and dreams, make some kind of a checkmark or run a highlighter over the ones that had a strong powerful effect on you and you couldn’t possibly put them down. These are most likely the ones that you accomplished. If you didn’t accomplish them, do they still haunt you? Do they still beg to be completed? Don’t start counting and keeping score as to how many you followed through to the finish and how many you let drop aside. It really doesn’t matter at all what kind of a success rate you may or may not have had before today. This isn’t about that, I just want you to separate the ones that did put a fire in your belly from the ones that had no fire or passion behind them.

Now, take your list of positive traits and attributes from Finding Yourself and compare it to your list of old goals and dreams. How many of the goals that had you all fired up were somehow connected to the wonderful things we found are within you? If for example, you found out that one of your positive traits is that you are intelligent, then how many of the goals you were really passionate about involved using your intelligence? How many of them were about developing or enhancing your intelligence? If you found out that you are funny, how many of the goals and dreams that you loved were somehow connected to your sense of humor?

Okay, now do the same thing with your list of things you want to be from Finding Direction. How many of those goals appealed to the roots of who or what you want to become? If you want to be remembered as adventurous, then how many goals from your past were centered around an adventurous spirit? How many of the goal you were really excited about made you feel or appear to be adventurous? If your desire is to be financially secure, then how many of your most passionate dreams were wrapped around that concept? How many of them promised to push you in that direction?

You’re probably starting to get the point. The items on those first two lists spark the flame of passion needed to carry out goals and dreams. The more items from both lists that you bring into play, the more motivated you will be to finish the goal involved. Each item adds more and more of your own personal drive and inspiration to the dream. Naturally, the reverse is true too. If you had few or even none of the items from the first two lists involved in a goal or dream, you probably gave up and quit out of boredom. If it was a very important goal with a lot of guilt or pressure forcing you to do it, like going to college when you really didn’t want to, then you probably struggled a lot and really had to force yourself to stay focused and motivated. You probably found yourself saying that you “ought” to complete that goal or that you “should” complete that goal. The other thing that can happen is that some outside person like your folks or a boss was hanging over your head telling you that you “ought” to do it or that you “should” do it. Only those goals that contained your own personal drive and focus were a joy to complete and had a motivation all their own that nobody else needed to spur you along.

With this information in mind, you can really look at a list of current projects you’re working on and see how many of them appeal to who or what it is that you want to be and how many of them allow you to really utilize your favorite traits about yourself. Is there enough of your own personal drive behind them to insure that you go the long haul and finish them? Do you need to redesign them so that they will touch your heart in such a way as to empower you with excitement and joy to keep going through the difficult or tedious parts? If you really have to do something that you don’t want to, is there a way to bring pieces of those two lists into it so that you can tolerate the task in a different light?

You should be able to evaluate your future plans against these two lists and get a fairly accurate prediction as to whether or not you’re really going to stick to it. Then you can invest your time and energy in things that serve you and your need to become someone that you feel is wonderful.

Copyright 2003, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow’s Edge

About The Author

Skye Thomas began writing books and articles with an everyday practical approach to life in 1999 after twenty years of studying spirituality, metaphysics, astrology, personal growth, motivation, and parenting. After years of high heels and business clothes, she is currently enjoying working from home in her pajamas. Go to www.TomorrowsEdge.net to read more of her articles and to get a free preview of one of her books.

Skye@TomorrowsEdge.net

The term “leadership style” refers to a leader’s behavior. Behavioral pattern, which the leader reflects in his role as a leader, is often described as the style of leadership. Leadership style is the result of a leader’s philosophy, personality, experience, and value system. It also depends upon the type of followers and the organizational atmosphere prevailing in the enterprise.

There are four types of leadership style. It includes autocratic leadership, participative leadership, free rein leadership and paternalistic leadership. The autocratic leader gives orders that must be obeyed by the subordinates. He determines policies for the group without consulting them, and does not give detailed information about future plans, but simply tells the group what immediate steps they must take. He gives personal praise or criticism to each member on his own initiative and remains aloof from the group for the major part of the time.

A participative leader is one who gives instructions only after consulting the group. He sees to it that policies are worked out in group discussion and with the acceptance of the group. Participative manager decentralizes managerial authority. His decisions are not unilateral like that of the autocrat. Unlike an autocratic leader who controls through the authority he possesses, a participative leader exercises control mostly by using forces within the group.

A free rein leader lets the group lead itself. The free rein leader avoids power. He depends largely upon the group to establish its own goals and work out its own problems. Group members work themselves and provide their own motivation. Under paternalistic leadership, the leader assumes that his function is paternal or fatherly. His attitude is that of treating the relationship between the leader and his group as that of a family with the leader as the head of family. He works to help, guide, protect and keep his followers happily working together as members of a family.

Leadership provides detailed information on Leadership, Leadership Training, Leadership Development, Leadership Styles and more. Leadership is affiliated with Corporate Leadership Training.

Years ago, the Carnegie Institute of Technology analyzed the records of ten thousand people and concluded that while fifteen percent of success is due to training, intelligence, and skill, eighty-five percent of success is based upon the ability to influence people. Despite what some may tell you, there is no secret to influencing others. The key to winning people over is our willingness and ability to help protect and build their ego.

Through my work with hundreds of successful businesspeople nationally, I have learned that all us — regardless of how accomplished — want approval and to feel important. Put another way, we are all “ego hungry.” It’s only when our ego is somewhat satiated that we can take our attention off ourselves and give it to someone else.

Your ego is like your stomach. When you have three solid meals a day, you’ll think little about your stomach, but when you go without food for a significant period of time, your ego will call out to be fed. Nature tells us, “You and your needs come first.”

Les Giblin in his little book How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People offers this sage advice, “People act — or fail to act — largely to enhance their own egos. When you are trying to persuade another person to act in a certain way, and logic and reason seem to fail, try giving him a ‘reason’ that will enhance his ego.”

I have identified five strategies to enhance the ego and ultimately influence people. All begin with the letter “a.” They are:

1. Attention

2. Acceptance

3. Appreciation

4. Assumption

5. Acquiescence

We’ll examine each beginning with attention. We need others to help us feel important, and one way we can show others that they are important is to give them attention. There are hundreds of ways of showing attention. Two of my favorites are not keeping people waiting and being a good listener.

Do you remember the story about Queen Victoria, Benjamin Disraeli, and William Gladstone? Someone once asked the queen whether she preferred the company of Disraeli or Gladstone. She answered that when she broke bread with Gladstone she felt he was the most interesting man in England, but when she dined with Disraeli she felt she was England’s most interesting person. Disraeli discovered what every person of influence knows: influence begins with attention.

To be accepted for all we are is a basic human want, if not a basic human need. To feel truly confident, we have to feel that people — at least a few people — truly love and approve of us for all we are, not just for our public persona. My friend Michael is one of those people for me. I can say most anything to him and know that he will not judge me. Our friendship is based on what we call “a safe container.” We have consciously created a safe place where we can risk being totally honest with each other knowing that the other will be supportive.

It’s not enough to simply approve of one another. To protect and build ego, and ultimately influence others, we must show appreciation. Study after study shows that workers respond more positively to recognition than to almost any other incentive including money and titles. In giving praise, Giblin recommends that we be sincere and specific.

Sincerity. We must mean it. All of us have highly sensitive “BS meters” that will sound as soon as someone tries to manipulate us.

Specificity. We should praise something specific. “You’re a great guy” means little compared to “I have always admired how good you are with children.” Praise the person for what he or she does, rather than what he or she is. For example, “Sarah, you are a good worker” lacks the impact of “Sarah, your report on the ABC project was excellent.” Finally, people are more pleased with compliments that are not glaringly obvious. For example, my friend Tony, an excellent athlete, responds to compliments about his openness to try new sports more than compliments about his athletic prowess.

People with the power to influence know the importance of getting in the right frame of mind. A positive attitude is based upon three critical assumptions:

“I believe in myself.” It’s a fact: the world forms its opinion of us largely from the opinion we have of ourselves.

“I believe in you.” We have to believe that the other person is going to, or does, like us. Why? When we believe others like us, we act differently. We are warmer, more open, and much more likely to win them over.

“I believe in what I am selling.” Les Giblin reminds us, “You never sell anything to anyone until you yourself are sold on it.”

The fifth and final “a” is acquiescence. In order to win people over to our side, we must be willing to acquiesce to a small degree. Do you remember the basic principle I stated at the beginning of article? It is so important that I will repeat it: “Key to winning people over is the willingness and ability to help them protect and build their ego.” When an argument becomes an ego battle, nobody wins. We all know from experience that the biggest mistake we can make is to attack the ego of another person. But when we are willing to place our ego aside and not feel we have to win one hundred percent, our ability to influence increases.

Here are several other tips to increase your influence:

Listen carefully, recap, and pause before responding. Let the other person know that you think enough of what he or she has to say to listen closely and consider it.

If the other person has a good point, acknowledge it. If you give in to the smaller points, the other person will be more likely to give in on the larger ones.

Use third-party testimonials. When a politician says, “I am the most honest candidate running,” we roll our eyes, but when the League of Women Voters makes the same statement about the candidate, we pay attention.

Allow the other person to save face. Perhaps the person didn’t have all the facts in the first place. “I can well understand that you would have felt that way. You didn’t know XYZ at the time.” Or, we can suggest that someone else may be at fault. “Maybe one of your staff people booked the hotel and forgot to tell you.”

Like tenacious watchdogs, our egos stand guard over the decision-making process. When the ego is threatened it will bite. To win people to our side we must help them protect and build their ego. We must feed their “ego hunger.” And little satisfies that hunger as much as these five “a’s”: attention, acceptance, appreciation, assumption, and acquiescence.

“The Career Engineer,” Randy Siegel, helps clients electrify their careers and transform their lives by becoming high voltage communicators. Power up and subscribe to “Stand in Your Power!” his complimentary monthly eNewsletter at http://www.powerhousecommunications.com