Leadership

Lone Wolf to Lead Wolf-The Evolution of Leadership

Privately held companies range in size form very small “Mom & Pop” operations with revenue as low as $100,000 or less, to huge multi- million dollar distributors with locations all across North America. Wholesale distribution also has some mega-distributors with sales ranging from $1 billion to as much as $27 billion. The majority of wholesale distributors are family owned.

Family owned organizations, both small and large, with succession issues, family preparation and second and third generation leadership issues have been subjected to the evolution of leadership. These organizations are often founded by an aggressive, highly talented entrepreneur. Many of the principles of leadership that helped build the success that the organization enjoyed in the past is not the type of leadership that will maintain that success through generations of ownership. Contrary to some “leadership authorities” belief, the Machiavelli theories on leadership just don’t apply today. Niccolo Machiavelli is considered by some a leadership guru who lived during the renaissance period and is often quoted and written about today. Machiavelli believed that “Men are more ready for evil than good.” “A leader’s goal is one of power and domination.”

The Evolution of Leadership

Times have changed, leadership has evolved. The days of the “Lone Wolf” leader at the top who dominates with power are gone. Successful privately held organizations have gone through the leadership evolutionary process. They understand that today’s leader must create change in the organization to meet the needs of their customers, to meet the needs of their employees and to meet the needs of their vendor partners. It involves a particular life cycle change. This change varies according to the generation of leadership.

More often than not, the “seat of the pants” based on intuitive judgment leadership style of the founder with highly autocratic methodologies won’t work in today’s business environment. Today’s environment demands a stable administrative structure that requires a change in the nature of past leadership practices. Simply put, it’s an evolution from a highly reactive, autocratic individualistic style to a more empowering, people employee oriented proactive style. It’s about going from a “Lone Wolf” leadership style to a “Lead Wolf” leadership style that has confidence in the employee’s ability to make things happen and empowers the employees to get the job done.

Founders and even second and third generation successors may find it difficult to make the transition from the “Lone Wolf” to the “Lead Wolf” leadership style. When this happens, ownership may put personal needs ahead of business needs and the organization is not managed in the best interest of its customers, its vendors and its employees. Organizations that are still run in the “Lone Wolf” style have an owner at the helm that has a strong dominating personality that is likely to be a poor listener. This “Lone Wolf” syndrome is easy to recognize. The same problems seem to arise over and over. Market share deteriorates, cash flow problems exist, there may be a vision but no plan exists to accomplish that vision. Anxiety may set in and the owner becomes defensive or even paranoid and resorts to blaming others for the lack of success or pending failure. Without outside intervention, executive coaching, a solid board of directors or even an advisory group, the company may end up being sold or worse yet the company may go into a death spiral. (e-mail rick@ceostrategist.com for the article “The Death Spiral” and the “Leadership Thought Provoker” Checklist)

The Lone Wolf Leader Still Exists

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t some “Lone Wolf” leaders that still exist today that are successful. Remember, they have a strong entrepreneurial spirit that makes them dynamic and decisive. They often have a clear vision and these traits can drive a company for some time. However, I submit to you that the “Lone Wolf” leaders that have not evolved today cannot maximize the success of their organization. They will not leverage the competitive advantage that has become the life line of their survival. The strong traits that brought them success in the past quickly become liabilities in today’s environment. They don’t believe in empowerment. They don’t believe in long range planning. They are reluctant to develop structure, policy and procedure because it inhibits the ability to shoot from the hip and it slows them down. They mistakenly believe that shooting from the hip is part of their competitive advantage because it worked so well in the past. They can make reactive crisis-driven decisions with little or no help from their management without recognizing that they must identify and correct the root cause. If they do have a board of directors, they are hand picked friends that basically do whatever they want and challenge very little. They count on only those that seem to be the most loyal and they motivate by fear and guilt. Sure, they’ll hold staff meetings but it’s more of an exercise in power to report on crisis intervention or simply to chew people out. They have difficulty in letting go of the past.

Evolution has Created the Demand for Lead Wolf Executives

Successful growing organizations have gone through the experience of change. In fact, these organizations recognized the necessity to create change. That is what leadership is really about; the ability to create change. These successful organizations have developed their employees along the way. The Lead Wolf executives have earned the respect and trust of their employees by demonstrating respect and trust in the employees themselves. Most employ a servant, situational leadership style that is based on an empowerment platform. They develop future leaders; make proactive decisions based on calculated risk. They employ root cause analysis even if they don’t formally call it that. They employ best practices and make staffing decisions based on responsibility, competency, training and capabilities. They develop a real board of directors that provide value to the organization, challenge the executive staff and hold them accountable. The Lead Wolf executives recognize and believe that leadership is an invitation to greatness that we extend to others. Successful leaders understand that they must give back what they have learned. They become mentors.

The Evolution is a Growth & Learning Process

Owner executives that have evolved to the Lead Wolf style of leadership have gone through an individual growth and learning process. They have accepted the fact that they may not have all the answers. More importantly, they recognize that they don’t have to have all the answers. Many have found a mentor or an executive coach outside the organization. Changing a leadership style is not the easiest thing in the world to do. Coaching becomes a very useful resource. This evolutionary process includes:

o Enhancement of their instinctive curiosity and a strengthening of their focus on being a customer driven organization. Service and quality become a way of life within the organization and it is used to support their competitive advantage.

o Taking their vision and redefining it as an end game which challenges their executive team to create a strategic plan to meet this end game. This plan incorporates growth and profitability as well as other specific goals and objectives.

o The recognition that employees are the most precious asset and backing up that recognition by the willingness to invest profits in the development of these employees.

o Empowerment that is accompanied by the resources necessary to succeed and accountability for results.

o Utilizing a board of directors as a resource while sharing management challenges seeking policy and guidance. Incorporating contingency planning and scenario planning as a regular exercise.

(e-mail rick@ceostrategist.com for Board of Director information including a sample director application form and qualifications)

Wholesale distribution organizations increasingly are characterized by a large and incredibly complex set of independent relationships between highly diverse groups of people. That is what the evolution is about. To be successful, the Lead Wolf executive determines how to get active involvement, innovation and creativity out of their employees. Success depends on more than just “best practice” success drivers. Success demands a superior level of leadership–a level that requires deep commitment. This commitment will not flourish in workplace environments that are still dominated by the Lone Wolf–“slap & point” or the “carrot and stick” method of management often used in the past.

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FAQ, Healthcare

Kidney Dialysis – A Look at the Most Common Kidney Dialysis Questions

Interesting Facts about Kidney Dialysis

 

1. Hemodialysis and peritoneal kideny dialysis have been done since the mid 1940’s.

 

2. The federal government pays 80 percent of all kidney dialysis costs for most patients.

 

3. Since the 1960s, surveillance studies have consistently shown that American kidney dialysis patients do not live as long as those in other countries…the U.S. mortality rate for dialysis patients is about 23 percent, twice the rate of patients in Western Europe or Japan.

 

  1. 4. According to The National Center for Health Statistics kideny dialysis survival rates are as follows:

 

1 Year – 77%

 

5 Years – 28%

 

10 Years – 10%

 

5. About 90 percent of dialysis patients receive hemodialysis, in which the blood is circulated outside the body and cleaned inside a machine before returning to the patient.

 

6.Kidneys process 18 gallons of blood each hour with a sophisticated method of excretion, absorption and re-absorption. By the end of each day, they can produce as much as 7 gallons of urine.

 

What is Kidney Dialysis?

 

Kidney Dialysis is a treatment that does some of the things done by healthy kidneys. It is needed when your own kidneys can no longer take care of your body’s needs.

 

When is kidney dialysis needed?

 

You need kidney dialysis when you develop end stage kidney failure, usually by the time you lose about 85 to 90 percent of your kidney function.

 

What does kidney dialysis do?

 

Like healthy kidneys, kidney dialysis keeps your body in balance. Kidney Dialysis does the following:

 

-removes waste, salt and extra water to prevent them from building up in the body

 

-keeps a safe level of certain chemicals in your blood, such as potassium, sodium and bicarbonate

 

– helps to control blood pressure

 

Is kidney failure permanent?

 

Not always. Some kinds of acute kidney failure get better after treatment. In some cases of acute kidney failure, kidney dialysis may only be needed for a short time until the kidneys get better.

 

In chronic or end stage kidney failure, your kidneys do not get better and you will need kidney dialysis for the rest of your life. If your doctor says you are a candidate, you may choose to be placed on a waiting list for a new kidney.

 

Where is kidney dialysis done?

 

Kidney Dialysis can be done in a hospital, in a kidney dialysis unit that is not part of a hospital, or at home. You and your doctor will decide which place is best, based on your medical condition and your wishes.

 

Are there different types of kidney dialysis?

 

Yes, there are two types of kidney dialysis –hemodialysis and peritoneal kidney dialysis.

 

What is hemodialysis?

 

In hemodialysis, an artificial kidney (hemodialyzer) is used to remove waste and extra chemicals and fluid from your blood. To get your blood into the artificial kidney, the doctor needs to make an access (entrance) into your blood vessels. This is done by minor surgery to your arm or leg.

 

Sometimes, an access is made by joining an artery to a vein under your skin to make a bigger blood vessel called a fistula.

 

However, if your blood vessels are not adequate for a fistula, the doctor may use a soft plastic tube to join an artery and a vein under your skin. This is called a graft.

 

Occasionally, an access is made by means of a narrow plastic tube, called a catheter, which is inserted into a large vein in your neck. This type of access may be temporary, but is sometimes used for long-term treatment.

How long do hemodialysis treatments last?

 

The time needed for your kidney dialysis depends on:

 

-how well your kidneys work

 

-how much fluid weight you gain between treatments

 

-how much waste you have in your body

 

-how big you are

 

-the type of artificial kidney used

 

Usually, each hemodialysis treatment lasts about four hours and is done three times per week.

 

A type of hemodialysis called high-flux dialysis may take less time. You can speak to your doctor to see if this is an appropriate treatment for you.

 

What is peritoneal kidney dialysis and how does it work?

 

In this type of kidney dialysis, your blood is cleaned inside your body. The doctor will do surgery to place a plastic tube called a catheter into your abdomen (belly) to make an access. During the treatment, your abdominal area (called the peritoneal cavity) is slowly filled with dialysate through the catheter. The blood stays in the arteries and veins that line your peritoneal cavity. Extra fluid and waste products are drawn out of your blood and into the dialysate. There are two major kinds of peritoneal kidney dialysis.

 

What are the different kinds of peritoneal kidney dialysis and how do they work?

 

There are several kinds of peritoneal kidney dialysis but two major ones are: Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) and Continuous Cycling Peritoneal Dialysis (CCPD).

 

Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) is the only type of peritoneal dialysis that is done without machines. You do this yourself, usually four or five times a day at home and/or at work. You put a bag of dialysate (about two quarts) into your peritoneal cavity through the catheter. The dialysate stays there for about four or five hours before it is drained back into the bag and thrown away. This is called an exchange. You use a new bag of dialysate each time you do an exchange. While the dialysate is in your peritoneal cavity, you can go about your usual activities at work, at school or at home.

 

Continuous Cycling Peritoneal Dialysis (CCPD) usually is done at home using a special machine called a cycler. This is similar to CAPD except that a number of cycles (exchanges) occur. Each cycle usually lasts 1-1/2 hours and exchanges are done throughout the night while you sleep.

 

Will kidney dialysis help cure the kidney disease?

 

No. Kidney dialysis does some of the work of healthy kidneys, but it does not cure your kidney disease. You will need to have dialysis treatments for your whole life unless you are able to get a kidney transplant.

 

Is kidney dialysis uncomfortable?

 

You may have some discomfort when the needles are put into your fistula or graft, but most patients have no other problems. The kidney dialysis treatment itself is painless. However, some patients may have a drop in their blood pressure. If this happens, you may feel sick to your stomach, vomit, have a headache or cramps. With frequent treatments, those problems usually go away.

 

How long has kidney dialysis been available?

 

Hemodialysis and peritoneal kidney dialysis have been done since the mid 1940’s. Kidney Dialysis, as a regular treatment, was begun in 1960 and is now a standard treatment all around the world. CAPD began in 1976. Thousands of patients have been helped by these treatments.

 

How long can you live on kidney dialysis?

 

We do not yet know how long patients on kidney dialysis will live. We think that some dialysis patients may live as long as people without kidney failure.

 

Is kidney dialysis expensive?

 

Yes. Kidney Dialysis costs a lot of money. However, the federal government pays 80 percent of all kidney dialysis costs for most patients. Private health insurance or state medical aid also help with the costs.

 

Do kidney dialysis patients feel normal?

 

Many patients live normal lives except for the time needed for treatments. Kidney Dialysis usually makes you feel better because it helps many of the problems caused by kidney failure. You and your family will need time to get used to kidney dialysis.

 

Do kidney dialysis patients have to control their diets?

 

Yes. You may be on a special diet. You may not be able to eat everything you like, and you may need to limit how much you drink. Your diet may vary according to the type of kidney dialysis.

Can kidney dialysis Patients travel?

 

Yes. Kidney Dialysis centers are located in every part of the United States and in many foreign countries. The treatment is standardized. You must make an appointment for dialysis treatments at another center before you go. The staff at your center may help you make the appointment.

 

Can kidney dialysis patients continue to work?

 

Many kidney dialysis patients can go back to work after they have gotten used to kidney dialysis. If your job has a lot of physical labor (heavy lifting, digging, etc.), you may need to get a different job.

 

Robert Hilley writes for a number of health related websites and shares his findings regularly through Ezine @rticles. Robert can be contacted at: RobertHilley.com [http://www.roberthilley.com]

 

Kidney Dialysis [http://www.kidney-dialysis.org]

 

The National Kidney Foundation

 

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Robert_Hilley/13010

 

 

 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/62784

 

 

 

 

Leadership

Leadership: Seed or Fruit?

Purpose: Learn immediately if you are fostering leadership or ignoring it. Discover the power of nurturing your people.

It was an enormous redwood tree. And due to regulations the forest service had to go to incredible trouble and expense in order to cut it down. The cutting team had to start by climbing to the branches and removing them one at a time from the lowest to the highest. Once at the top they could cut two foot lengths off of the trunk at a time until they reached the ground. It seems absurd to us that they started with the branches and then disassembled the trunk, a process that took hundreds of thousands of motions instead of just cutting at the base of the trunk, which of course, would have affected the entire tree. Recognizing that the efficiencies of working with the trunk in order to influence the rest of the tree holds true when we wish it to live and thrive, we have the choice to take a different approach – yet, many are attempting to grow branches before the trunk.

Leadership is the trunk. Strategic initiatives are the branches. Benefits are the fruit. This is not philosophy; it is a simple statement of the truth.

– Trunk = Leadership

– Branches = Lean Systems, Sustainability, Decentralization, Agility, Customer care, More.

– Fruit = Profit, Market share, Efficiencies, Quality, Environment, Innovation, Compliance, Low turnover, Prestige, Influence, More.

Are you starting at the right place?

There is no other place to start. An idea in action means people in action. The very second someone exposes their desire for the accomplishment of an objective; the idea is in motion through people. The exposure of the idea is leadership in itself, then the actions of people, whether guided by proper principles or not, is leadership.

There is a misconception that leadership is always positive. It is not. Leadership is setting the example. That example can be good or bad. Either way, that example will be followed. In their book, Built to Last, Jim Colllins and Jerry Porras say, “Top management will have an impact on an organization – in most cases, a significant impact. The question is, will it have the right kind of impact?” A manager sitting in his office all day, not interacting, not supervising, not inspecting, not involved, is setting the example for others. And yet, even if there is a low level use of positive leadership principles, there will still be a certain amount of good fruit.

These results, though limited, will usually follow from the power and validity of the idea, the existing infrastructure and manpower, and the mandate from the boss. The compulsory need to interact with others to accomplish a goal for mutual benefit means that a certain level of leadership capability exists and is needed in every person. The trunk of your business is leadership. Your company’s leadership, with its latent capacity, will piggyback the initiative and produce fruit.

In normal conditions of competition and growth, this present level of leadership is sufficient to produce enough fruit to keep everyone happy and focused on marginal periodic improvements. Due to the fact that the ability to produce quantum leaps in leadership capabilities has escaped corporate America, the incremental improvements created through books, seminars and tapes have sufficed.

Ignore leadership development at your own peril – Apply common sense

We have settled for the less involved leadership development approach and the nebulous results because we feel the need to do something without expending the resources that would then demand a measurement of ROI. In a Society for Organizational Learning supported survey, it was identified that one of the current challenges to leadership is that the “pressure is on for leaders to deliver and sustain measurable results and deliver results through others. (however) Focus of results is ROI, yet there is no measurement of ROI for leadership.” Though there is ample evidence to support the positive affects of properly principled leadership, many organizations are unmoved unless they have internal numbers to justify the expense. The cost of getting the numbers, however, is a barrier in itself and leads to an abandonment of a serious program and reliance on the marginal results of “what everyone is doing.”

Are you fixated on line items and task lists?

Our concentration, therefore, moves to the power of the ideal. Sustainability and Lean Manufacturing are the way to go, or it is our ability to be responsive to the market that is important, or by decentralizing we will produce the fruit we want. No matter the complexity of the strategic initiative it lends itself to a task list and line items. We can assign a person; put it in a pert chart and schedule meetings six months in advance. This black and white constitutes our corporate comfort zone.

We are darn good at it, and it predictably produces results – though marginal. We are spending time on the branches, squatting at the end waiting to see the fruit. We are lavishing attention on the branches, pruning, watering and talking to them. If a leaf sprouts, we know it. If a leaf falls, we know it. We mark it in black or red and continue to stroke the bark and fluff the leaves. All the while, the trunk is left to nature for its water, sun and soil.

The growth of the trunk is out of our comfort zone. Dean Hohl, the President of Leading Concepts Inc. explains that, “The objectives associated with leadership, teamwork, and communication, don’t lend themselves to task lists and line items.” They are nearly impossible to quantify and track. It is easy to rest on our experience that the trunk was here when we arrived and it will be here when we leave. We’ve build hundreds of branches, but never a trunk. We then rely on the latent soft-skills of our people to implement the ideals.

Today we find ourselves in an unanticipated predicament, which is pressing us from several different directions and threatening our viability. Foreign competition, new technologies, and ideals that require a shift in corporate culture all seem hard to keep up with and out of our control.

Acknowledging that we can have minimal impact on our competitors, especially those overseas, and that new technologies are something that are requisite for all to grasp, our greatest opportunity for advantage comes from a superior ability to implement the reigning corporate ideals. Many strategic initiatives, particularly sustainability and lean manufacturing, have drawn us in with promises of incredible fruit and their adaptability to black and white. However much these initiatives look like branches, they are actually part of the trunk.

These initiatives necessitate a sea change in corporate culture. Successful implementation requires the buy-in of nearly everyone in the company, which demands a purposeful approach to changing people’s values; a soft subject. The objective of changing people’s behaviors forces us to enter an arena parallel to that of soft-skill development. Our situation demands that we get out of our comfort zone and figure out how to effectively nurture the trunk.

In order to best control the situation our focus must go back to influencing people’s values. Along with helping people understand and value the power of the continuous improvement of lean thinking or the financial impact of sustainability, we have the complimentary opportunity to develop the soft-skills of teamwork, leadership and communication. If we are going to legitimately jump into this arena and do it correctly, not only is leadership complimentary, it is an imperative.

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Leadership

The Leadership Strategy: An Unmined Comstock Lode of Results

During the Second World War, Winston Churchill had a framed inscription on his desk that said, “It’s not enough to say we are doing our best. We must succeed in doing what is necessary.”

The world demands results. Good intentions and promises are no use to it. And one of the best ways for any leader to get results is to employ a strategy, which is a plan, method or series of actions for obtaining a goal or specific outcome. It doesn’t matter what job you have or how many people you are leading, if you don’t come to grips with the challenges of developing and executing strategies, you’re limiting your abilities to get results.

In a sense, strategies are promissory notes, payment due upon demand. One reason for their becoming less than worthy tender is they are not backed by a Leadership Strategy.

Leadership Strategy — have you heard of it? I bet you haven’t. For one thing, it isn’t taught at business schools. And for another, even in the unlikely case that you have heard of it and know what it is, you probably don’t know how to make it happen.

In this article, I’ll show you what a Leadership Strategy is and ways to institute it. It can be far more important than your standard business strategy.

Whereas a business strategy seeks to marshal an organization’s functions around central, organizing concepts, a leadership strategy, on the other hand, seeks to obtain, organize, and direct the heartfelt commitment of the people who must carry out the business strategy.

The business strategy is the sail, the Leadership Strategy the ballast. Without a Leadership Strategy, most business strategies capsize.

To understand what a Leadership Strategy is, let’s look at your past leadership activities.

Divide a single sheet of paper into two columns labeled A & B. At the top of column A write “business (or organizational) strategies”. On top of column B write, “Leadership Strategies” — in other words, what strategies were used to obtain people’s heartfelt commitments to carry out the business strategies?

Think of the strategies your organization has developed during the past few years. They might be product strategies, service strategies, growth strategies, sales strategies, marketing strategies. You do not have to explain it in detail, just give each strategy a tag and write down the tag.

Did the listings in column A match the listings in column B? Were there any listings at all in column B? That gap between what was in column A and what was in column B is a killer gap. It means that the business strategies haven’t been augmented by Leadership Strategies. And when that happens, results suffer.

I don’t care if you lead three people, three hundred or three thousand and more. I don’t care if you’re in sales, you’re a plant supervisor, a marketing manager or a COO, CFO or CEO. You’re going to need a Leadership Strategy.

And if you don’t think you need any kind of strategy, think again. Whatever job you’re doing takes strategic thinking. In fact, getting in the habit of looking at whatever you do in strategic terms gives you a great advantage in your career advancement.

The roots of the word “strategy” come from two German words, the first meaning an encamped or spread out army and then second word meaning “to drive.” In other words, a strategy gives direction, organization and force to an otherwise scattered organization.

Most business leaders are good a developing business strategies. They’re taught how at business schools. But I’ll bet that 9,999 out of 10,000 leaders don’t know what a Leadership Strategy is, let alone how it fits in with a business strategy.

Leadership Strategies are not taught at business schools because such Strategies find their meaning not in abstract formulations or case studies but in what can’t be taught but must be experienced, process and relationship.

And if you haven’t thought of a Leadership Strategy before, start thinking about it now, because it can boost your career in many ways.
Most leaders develop their strategies in bunkers, without taking into consideration those outside the bunker who have to implement it. Unwittingly, they buy into the “fallacy of automatic reciprocity” — the conviction that their devotion to the cause is automatically reciprocated by the people they lead. It’s a fallacy because reciprocity is not automatic. It can’t be ordered. It must be cultivated and earned.

Here, then, are five steps to developing a Leadership Strategy.

(1) Understand your business strategy. There are many books and courses on developing business strategies. I don’t want to re-invent this wheel. Suffice to say you should clearly develop that strategy.

(2) Identify the dream(s) of your cause leaders.

Why do I say “dreams”? Far from being fluff, dreams are the stuff that hard, measured results are made of.

Look at it this way: Leadership is motivational or it’s stumbling in the dark. The best leaders don’t order people to do a job, the best leaders motivate people to want to do the job.

The trouble is the vast majority of leaders don’t delve into the deep aspects of human motivation and so are unable to motivate people effectively.

Drill down through goals and aims and aspirations and ambitions and you hit the bedrock of motivation, the dream. Many leaders fail to take it into account.

Dreams are not goals and aims. Goals are the results toward which efforts are directed. The realization of a dream might contain goals, which can be stepping stones on the way to the attaining dreams. But the attainment of a goal does not necessarily result in the attainment of a dream.

For instance, Martin Luther King did not say, “I have a goal.” Or “I have an aim.” The power of that speech was in the “I have a dream”.

Dreams are not aspirations and ambitions. Aspirations and ambitions are strong desires to achieve something. King didn’t say he had an aspiration or ambition that ” ….one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'” He said he had a dream.

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FAQ, Healthcare

Strengthen The Immune System: The Response To The Aging Process

The aging process does increase the need to strengthen the immune system. Aging is not synonymous with  illness. However, getting older does increase the risk for many diseases and disorders. Overall, elderly people have an increased rate of chronic disorders, arteriosclerosis, infections, autoimmune disorders, and cancer.

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