Tag Archives: business leaders

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Business Challenges and Ways to Overcome Them

For many businesses today, there are many challenges that come along inhibiting success. It is, therefore, important to know the pitfalls that one can run into and the possible solutions. Some of these challenges are:

• Lack of Integrity
• Resource management; borrowing cash
• Increased Competition and Selection
• Customer Loyalty and Marketing
• Uncertainty
• Regulations
• Risk management and problem-solving
• Finding competent staff

These are the main challenges that every business faces or will face. It will only be wise to have a prior understand what they are and hence find a proper way of solving them. No one starts a business to fail but at the same time, challenges are not meant for failing but to sharpen, strengthen and inspire growth. This article goes deeper into each of these setbacks and offers practical solutions for the same. Continue reading →

Leadership

Where Christian Leadership Principles Begin

Recently our country has been overloaded with far too many incidents of leaders in business, sports, and politics who have been exposed or destroyed through “leadership” failures. The headlines, tabloids, and blogs today continue to tell the sad stories of people whose flaws are now pubic domain as well as late-night comedian disdain. This is a particularly daunting challenge for Christian leaders in business. It is far to easy for all of us to base our fundamental leadership principles upon currently popular yet misguided core principles.

So how can Christian business leaders avoid these same failures? Where should Christian leadership principles begin?

Before I answer that question, I need to mention the two primary ways society’s most popular leadership principles fall short (and even Christian business leaders get caught).

Where Society’s Leadership Principles Begin… and Fail

First, today’s society focuses far too much awe and reverence on leadership charisma. Peter Drucker, the world-renowned author and management expert, once said that, “Charisma has nothing to do with leadership. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were the most charismatic leaders of the 20th century. It that is leadership, I want no part of it!”

Second, society also places far too much emphasis on leadership skill. Be it brilliance in strategy, finance, marketing, innovation, or any number of important competencies, an over reliance on leadership skills alone is wholly inadequate for higher level leadership success.

“Whoa, Dr. Jim, are you saying a leader’s high skill level is a bad thing?” No, not at all. For example, would you prefer the leader(s) of your company to be:

•a highly skilled professionals of questionable character, or

•a moderately skilled professionals of unquestionable character?

I bet I know (and I just gave away the answer to the title of this article.)

Where Christian Leadership Principles Begin

Christians leadership principles must first and always begin with our character. For it is our character that is the wellspring of everything we do: from how we treat our colleagues and customers, how to talk to employees, when we pay our bills, how we manage and discipline, and everything else. It’s the depth of our character, the combination of our wisdom, integrity, and self-discipline, that can separate us from society’s expectations of leaders and propel us and our teams to a higher level of success and significance.

The incredibly gifted military leader, General Norman Schwarzkopf, may have said it best when he stated, “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character, but if you must be without one, be without strategy!”

Regardless of a person’s political power, net worth, position rank, social status, or professional skills, without a solid foundation of character, any leadership house will crumble – including believers in business!

How To Get Started

To help you clarify your core Christian leadership principles, here is a three-step plan I encourage you to begin now (This is a system I use in both professional coaching and business team strategic planning/culture transformation.).

 

  1. Craft a character-development plan for yourself and your team List and define those core convictions you and your team refuse to negotiate, the lines-in-the-sand you refuse to cross, in how you treat your colleagues, customers, constituents, community, and competitors.
  2. Develop operational definitions for each conviction, how others will actually “see” that conviction played out. In other words, how will you and your team walk-the-walk of your core convictions?
  3. Create a feedback system that recognizes rewards behaviors that align with your core convictions.

 

I firmly believe that your Christian leadership principles should first and foremost be based on your character, not your charisma, competence, or any other quality.

For more insights on how to begin with Christian leadership principles, download my white paper ” Taking Leadership to a Higher Level ” and tell me your thoughts.

Dr. Jim Harris teaches thousands of professionals every year how to crystallize their goals, leverage their strengths, energize their teams, and realize their significance as a professional and as a leader. From keynotes and workshops to 1-on-1 coaching and digital learning products, Dr. Jim helps transform your potential into productivity, and your passion into results. An author of eight books, Dr. Jim offers you, your team, and your audience a unique combination of perspective, insight, passion, and integrity.

He is currently the President of the Ropella Leadership Transformation of The Ropella Group. To learn more, subscribe to our videos.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dr._Jim_Harris/1261279

 

Leadership

Why Use Golf to Develop Leadership?

There’s a surprising similarity between playing the game of golf and leadership. Once the analogies are made clear to you, you’ll wonder perhaps why you didn’t see it before. By the time you’ve finished reading this, you’ll know the major connections and feel compelled to find out more.

35% of registered golfers in the UK are senior managers, professionals or executives , according to Mintel. This rises to 43.3% of London Golfers. And 12.8% of all golfers in the UK are senior managers, executives or professionals – that’s about 1.8 million golfers are senior managers, executives and professionals in the UK alone! (Source: GB TGI, BMRB Quarter 4 2006/Mintel) 44% of senior managers executives and professionals in the UK have played, do play or would like to play golf. (Source: BMRB/Mintel) Add another 1.4 million managers (Source: GB TGI, BMRB Quarter 4 2006/Mintel) and you realise just how big a sport golf has become – and it id predominantly ABC1 who play the game, and still predominantly male – 83%!

In part, business leaders, particularly those with some marketing or sales role, play golf to network with prospects and clients. There’s certainly some social status about being a golf club member, and for sure, in part there’s the ‘coincidence’ of playing golf and being a business leader.

The characteristics of those who play golf and those who are business leaders shows considerable similarities. For example, the desire to score well (even win) a round of golf. To be concerned about one’s personal performance and strive to improve it relates to a strong personal ‘Achievement Orientation’. I want to do well because I want to do well!

There are differences too, and important ones. On the golf course, the golfer is playing against the course. It is one of very few sports where the play of others has no effect on the golfer’s performance at all… unless he (and it is predominantly still ‘he’) allows it. This is not the case for the majority of business leaders where personal performance can be impacted by the performance of others. So the golf course is the place where a player can assuredly adopt the attitude, it’s MY performance that matters and only their actions change the result. This suggests the desire for control – or Directiveness.

76% of golfers play for social reasons (GMI/Mintel) – this demonstrates a desire, if not ability, in the competencies of influence and communication.

So why use golf to develop leadership?

The game of golf attracts business leaders more than other groups – & perhaps the conclusions above suggest why. So it became increasingly obvious to our team that golf could be both an attractive idea for development within this group, and that the game of golf itself could be deliberately used to develop the competencies and behaviours associated with great leadership. Indeed, many of our clients confirm the attraction of golf for our senior management training programmes by requesting training to take place at golf clubs.

Our research into using simulations has shown that given a truly safe environment to practice the tools and techniques of leadership and management, participants not only learn more (23% greater learning) than using more traditional methods like case studies, they enjoy it more (17% greater) and demonstrate greater transfer of new behaviours to the workplace (26% greater transfer).

Not only this, but studies in societies where females are considered disadvantaged in management showed a greater improvement in demonstrated management and leadership competencies after a simulation based programme than a traditional programme over their male counterparts 16% greater improvement in demonstrated competencies. The key to the success of using simulations is that they provide a realistic, safe environment to practice the tools, techniques and behaviours of great leadership (Kenworthy 2005)

Is golf a safe, realistic environment?

The great thing about golf is that it is one of the very few activities that provides a genuinely level-playing field – through the well-established handicapping system. It may not be perfect, but it’s very close. This means that a scratch golfer competes fairly with a complete beginner. There are also rules within which the game must be played – these represent the constraints of doing business. There are established game rules that encourage pairs or foursomes to work together, and there are rules to foster individual competition -sometimes in business we want our leaders to be entrepreneurial and ‘go-getters’ – leading by example, at other times, we want them to be team leaders, or team players.

Caddies, provide a perfect metaphor for coaches and mentors. The course itself provides a varied environment, shifting according to things beyond the control of the player, but observable by them. The hole provides a target, the course provides for a strategic plan to achieve the real goal. The points scored can directly relate to revenue or profit. The clubs and balls are resources – even the golf pro can be a consultant resource.

The game of golf provides a fantastic platform to learn leadership – its safe and fair, it’s as realistic as you need it to be and it’s fun!

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