Tag Archives: Business Leadership

Leadership

Throw Away All Your Leadership Books

I hate to say it, but most business leadership books are absolute trash. Typically, they’re oriented toward Fortune 500 companies and written by people who don’t have a clue about how to lead one of the regular, everyday businesses that make up 99% of the business sphere. In this article, I’m going to tell you about the real secret of successful leadership — what you should be doing if you want to be a leader in your field.

Nowadays, it’s the “in” thing to be a leader, and sure, there are certainly things you can identify with those who claim leadership. But you have to wonder: why are people always talking about how to be a leader? Why aren’t they just out there leading by example, showing us instead of telling us?

Some people seem to think that everybody is capable of being a leader, is a leader, or should be a leader. Well, here’s a news flash: if everybody’s a leader, then no one is. To be a leader, you need followers; and in any case, you can’t have everybody occupying the same space in society. There’s nothing wrong with being a leader, but you actually have to be out front to claim the title. You’re never going to get anywhere if all you want to do is achieve income equality or a level playing field, which won’t happen anyway. Utopian ideals don’t mix well with business reality. If you want to distribute income and leadership equally, get out of business, because your competitors will eat you alive.

There must be and will be a leader in every environment and situation. Even when people start out entirely even, someone will eventually take the lead. It’s a natural law that some people will do better than others. Some will create wealth with the money they have, and leverage it into greater wealth. So what makes that person a leader? Well, a true leader is good at persuading people to do what they want them to do. They have something to say that makes people rally around them and give them their support, in the form of labor, social prestige, or money. This is true of secular, religious, and business leaders alike. Sometimes the leaders are benevolent; sometimes they’re dictators.

If nothing else, business leaders have to convince people that their products or services are good deals for them. They can successfully pitch their product to an audience and get those people to respond.

The point is that when you think about leadership, don’t think about some nondescript thing that people can’t really quantify, and don’t entertain any politically correct ideas about what qualifies someone to be a leader. You’re a true leader only if you’ve learned to persuade people to follow you or to do what you want them to do. Jesus Christ was a true leader. Ronald Reagan was a true leader. So were Mao and even Hitler, though we don’t like to bring him up in polite conversation. Some of these people were born with natural charisma; others developed it.

It’s your duty as a marketer to use your creativity, inventiveness, and skills like public speaking and writing copy to enhance your leadership skills, whether or not you’re a natural leader. This results in increased sales and profit, because you can persuade people to buy what you’re offering. Learn to be a good persuader, and you’ll find yourself more successful than you’d be if you followed any of those leadership books. They’re a dime a dozen. Forget them. There’s no question that great salespeople, great marketers and good copywriters are great leaders, because we persuade people to take action and buy our products. In fact, most leadership is about selling — even politics.

Back when Andrew Jackson was a general — before he became president — he had a great saying: “I lead, you follow, and everybody else gets the hell out of the way.” You have to take the reins, because no one will just give them to you. But let’s be real here; most people are letting the business reins flop around loose. Dive on them and take charge of your market, especially when no one else will. Become the very definition of leadership for your market, and keep pushing that leadership in everyone’s faces.

John Maxwell once defined leadership as influence, and I firmly believe that your ability to influence other people is what makes you a real leader. Lots of people think they’re leaders, when no one is actually really following them. A specific position doesn’t automatically translate into leadership. Leadership isn’t a title, whether the title is CEO or President of the United States. Yes, people who serve under you may do what you say when you order them to, but if you’re not a true leader they won’t follow you when you turn your back, and they may find ways to sabotage you. If you’re a true leader, then you’re influencing people, providing real value in their lives You’re singing the song they want to hear, and they want to follow your lead.

Years ago I read another quote that went, “Good leaders are good followers.” When I first read it, I thought it was nonsense. How could a good leader be a good follower? But in the years since, I’ve given that quote a lot of thought, and I’ve seen the wisdom in it. A good leader understands his followers very, very well. There’s a push and pull there. Good leaders know how to admit when they’re wrong; they go to their followers and work with them, listening to what they have to say. And it’s doubly true today, as business leadership trends toward more of a one-to-one working relationship with the rank-and-file, where leadership supplies the vision and the rest of the team provides the strategy and execution. A good leader empowers his people.

The reason I know that most leadership books are crap is that I bought too many back in the 1990s; leadership was a very popular subject then. In most of those books, it’s difficult to pin down what the author is even getting at, because everything is so homogenized. Toss those books away — or at least put them on the shelves to collect dust — and remember that true leadership is based on your ability to influence and persuade other people. This is a learnable skill that you can develop over time.

If you liked this article and are serious about making more money, please consider letting T.J. Rohleder (a.k.a. “America’s Blue Jeans Millionaire”) personally help you. Check out his podcasts and coaching programs by going to http://www.tjrohleder.com.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/T.J._Rohleder/1735800

 

Leadership

Business Leadership

Over the past several years during the current economic downturn many groups of business professionals have speculated about what it takes to be a leader. Is a leader someone who grows the company and will stop at nothing to get profits? After all, without profits a business cannot operate. However, we have seen that some leaders will stop at nothing to gain the most profits and have no regard for the greater good of society. The term leader can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. This paper takes an in depth analysis on the topic of Business Leadership and what clearly defines it.

When analyzing business leadership, the first step is to define some of the traits and characteristics of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders today. With the advent of globalization, the business environment has had an increasing rate of change. With this new change to businesses everywhere, most business markets have become dynamic and volatile. Now more than ever, most companies are looking to their leaders to guide them through these rough waters. All companies are placing a lot more emphasis on business leadership on all different levels throughout their organization.

Managers of the past may have been easily promoted due to large economic growth and may have just been expected to maintain the status quo. Now many managers or successful business leaders have to think outside of the box to constantly deliver growth to their shareholders or superiors. The new business leaders we are seeing in the new economy tend to be visionaries. They look to see how business is changing and try to adapt strategies before any of their markets are impacted. The recent subprime mortgage scandals and housing bubble burst steered several large institutions into bankruptcy. Many companies are now trying to also look for business leaders that will not only keep the profits coming but also build a strong sense of ethics and integrity into their organizations.

After careful investigation and research here are some of the top traits or characteristics noted in most of the business leaders today. Good leaders must be able to keep a clear head and tolerate frustration and stress well. A business leader today must be able to stay calm under adversity and be able to process a clear vision of the actions that need to be taken to accomplish their ultimate goal. One trait of a successful business leader is emotional stability also known as locus of control.

The next trait would have to be self-esteem. When you are a business leader you are constantly being analyzed and many decisions are made quickly. A leader has to know that they will guide the business in the right direction and be confident in their choices. This in turn, can often inspire others in the organization to believe in the same goal or vision.

Drive or need to achieve is often looked at as common trait in business leaders today. If the leader is just satisfied with average results he or she will not continue to push the envelope and often productivity or profits can lack. The drive or need to achieve is rarely filled in a true business leader. They are always looking for the next challenge and create ways to get around obstacles.

Filtering information quickly is also a trait that is held by most business leaders today. Another term used to define this is business acumen. Ted Prince notes “Before the Great Recession, leadership development was essentially a boom-time phenomenon. It could afford to focus on traditional leadership competencies such as interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence and decision making. To some extent, leadership development had atrophied into the study of leadership when things are going well.

Today, we are in a very different place. Business acumen is all about showing how our behaviors directly impact and improve business outcomes, measured in financial and market value terms. Business acumen development aims to fill the chasm in traditional leadership development programs, which involves the behavioral skills that lead to increases in profitability and market value. Business acumen is defined as the capability to bring about positive business outcomes” (Prince).

Optimism is a trait that will be found in every successful business leader. The leader often views problems as a challenge and looks at setbacks as a possible new direction. They are constantly focused on the main goal at hand and will not let many things deter their mindset that the goals will be achieved. If they do not get a sale that day they will still believe they are going to get the sale in the future. Their sense of optimism can often be a motor to keep them driving to their ultimate goals.

Tolerance to ambiguity refers to a person’s tolerance to uncertainty and risk. Business Leaders will face this on a day to day basis and have to also possess this trait to be successful in business today. Art Petty writes in his blog that “top performers fight the routine. High performance individuals in all areas of life, from leaders to athletes to great individual contributors work hard everyday to fight the gravitational pull of getting stuck in the proverbial rut. High performance teams and organizations find their comfort not in sameness or routine, but in embracing the ambiguity of the world and the constancy of change and the constant need to change. Many of the best leaders go out of their way to push themselves and their teams to constantly do things different to keep their senses sharp, their individual and collective minds expanding and their ideas fresh” (Petty).

Courage is also a trait that comes up quite often when referring to business leadership. As a leader or entrepreneur you have to have a high tolerance for risk. Generally, when you start out you are all on your own and many more businesses fail than succeed. A true business leader has the gumption to take a calculated risk and keep going when times get slow.

The traits listed above seem to be the most common in the true business leaders today. Some other traits that are highly desirable but may not be found in every business leader are high energy, intuitiveness, maturity, team orientation, empathy and charisma. We can analyze these traits closer to see how a leader can benefit from possessing them.

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Leadership

Effective Time Management For Profitable Business Leadership Results in Strategic Innovative Actions

A strategic way to boost your business leadership results, along with its profits, productivity and growth is through effective time management practices. Because time, as it is in any profession, is a critical resource in making business leadership actions profitable, innovative and transformative.

Before we continue, you need to appreciate this important fact about business leadership – whether we’re talking about market, innovative, strategic, situational, transformational, project or organizational leadership – leadership in any form is always a social activity.

So with that understanding, we can look at business leadership in three generic ways: as market leadership, organizational leadership and human capital leadership.

In business organizations, entrepreneurs may choose to invest their time in human capital related leadership activities, that is in leading, coaching or soliciting and recruiting the support of their associates and trading partners.

Entrepreneurial leaders also have opportunities to use their time to contribute to the quality, quantity or significance of life for their customers and clients. I call these actions a form of market leadership.

Business leadership tasks demand that leaders analyze, plan and re-order their budgets, cash flows, operational systems or their schedules, where their sole objective is to manage their time as profitably, effectively and creatively as possible. We can call these activities organizational leadership.

A fact-of-life for those professionals charged with business leadership responsibilities – which includes the executives, entrepreneurs and managers – they will usually encounter the most disruptions, interruptions or other forms of distractions to their scheduled activities. Unfortunately in the face of that reality, this business leadership personnel tend to immediately discount, ignore or underestimate the potential value in those unanticipated events.

If you ever hope to become an effective leader you should never focus your attention on the management of accomplishing tasks against a daily allotment of your time, you should however concentrate your energies on the management or maximizing the allocations of your significance.

We know that being effective means doing the right things. We also know that being efficient is doing things the right way. Are you doing the “right things” or are you doing things “the right way”?

The problem with the focus of most time management strategies is this, we are told to be efficient in our use of time, that is, we’re taught that the right way of doing time management is to plot whichever tasks we feel or believe we need to accomplish in a certain amount of time segments.

And in the case of business leadership, the right things for your usage of time must be based upon your contributions of quality, quantity or the value of your significance.

In a word, your contributions have to be acts that you take for the purpose of being of benefit to all the actors, artifacts or artifices, attributes and audiences engaged in your social activity. On the other hand, your significance must add a form of excellence, emphasis, essence, elevation, eminence, effectiveness, efficacy, efficiency, execution, elucidation, explanation, exposition, expression or esteem to your actions.

“Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see.” – Edward de Bono, creativity expert

I advise my business leadership clients to keep strategic questions in mind whenever they engage in any activity. I call these mini-evaluations strategic because being strategic means being decisive, deliberate and dexterous – meaning leaders who wish to be strategic thinkers or questioners have to think through, think about and think with their actions, don’t they?

The purpose of those questions isn’t to generate answers consisting of one-word or a single idea. And leaders shouldn’t use these questions to judge a moment-in-time as being either significant or worthless. Rather than making those types of value judgments, these questions should ensure you have competent, strategic responses prepared, organized and ready to go in advance, so that you can optimize, leverage or otherwise make the best use of those planned-for or unplanned-for periods of time.

Here is one set of example questions you could ask to help you make more effective use of your time, regardless of any interruption, or unexpected or distracting event.

“Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.” – Pablo Picasso, artist

(Can I Make This) Quality Time?

 

  • Is it pure? [resulting in no distractions, disruptions, delays from your goals or mission]
  • Is it sweet? [warm, refreshing and enjoyable experience or environment or forum or venue]
  • Is it absolute? [secure, or obligated to my relationship, or persuasive or memorable]

 

“We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.”
– USA President Barack Obama

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Leadership

Business Leadership Development For Managers

Business leadership development plays an integral part in the metamorphosis of a good manager into a great one. Many believe the terms leadership and management to be synonymous, though nothing could be farther from the truth. They are as different as night from day, and a good leader might not make a good manager and vice versa.

However, business leadership development planning can be used to improve the capability of managers to lead and become competent in dealing with people and persuasion rather than position and power. A good leader will have followers as distinct from the subordinates of managers, yet the two need not be mutually exclusive: A good manager can become a good leader, and the development of leadership will not only enhance your ability to lead people and organizations, but also to lead yourself.

Leading oneself is a concept that many find difficult to visualize, but to lead others you must first be able to successfully lead your own life. You must be aware of your strengths and weaknesses, possess self-confidence, but also display humility and not only accept criticism but learn from your successes and failures. You need people to follow you, and not only motivate teams to get things done that need to be done, but also get them to want to do what has to be done. To persuade rather than to order, and to lead them to want to do the right things rather than to do things right.

Although a business needs both management and leadership, it is sometimes necessary to focus more on one than on the other. A business might have a good management structure but little leadership, so will tend to stagnate over time. On the other hand it might have plenty of leadership and energy behind it, but because of poor management is unable to convert that leadership energy into results.

As previously stated, then, business leadership and management are not mutually exclusive, and not only does a business need both but a leadership development program can be used to combine good management skills with good leadership capabilities. Leadership can be learned. The concept of the ‘born leader’ is outdated, and leadership can be defined as forms of behavior in terms of skills that can be learned. Leadership development involves changing a candidate’s behavior to acquire these skills, and achieve competence in leadership.

Being a good manager is not a prerequisite for a good leader, but neither is it a drawback, and the same person can possess both leadership and management skills. That is because both are learned and not innate in a person’s character, so that managers can be developed by their businesses or corporations into leaders. In fact, the best managers are also good leaders.

Nevertheless, good leaders have often been found to possess a higher than average drive and more than the normal share of positive qualities. These traits are also frequently found in good managers, although the competencies needed for leadership can be taught by means of a well designed leadership development program.

Waiting for a leader to emerge naturally is neither economical nor desirable, and certainly not an effective way of planning the leadership structure of a business. If we take a military example, more leaders come out of a military academy than are promoted on the field by virtue of displaying strong leadership potential.

Good leaders should communicate well with those they are leading. Their thoughts and perceptions can help others to follow them. They should also have a positive and confident attitude and be able to instill their confidence in others. With that confidence should also come commitment, and leaders should be able to commit to their actions – committing with confidence breeds confidence in others.

It has also been said that leaders should have high moral standards because people will not follow those they do not respect. Furthermore, good leaders do more than just supervise or manage their teams: they feel a sense of responsibility, and in return the team members know that their leader cares for them and cares for the business. This renders it easier for people to follow rather than be led.

Business leadership development is an important concept for businesses to take on board, and by taking on such a program, managers will find people following them rather than having to be managed. Managers can focus their management efforts on the processes and procedures, and employees will follow them to help convert their ideas and visions into reality. That’s leadership!

Further information on business leadership development is available on [http://www.successanddevelopment.info] where you will also find details of personal development programs and others that will benefit both yourself and your company.You can also get inspirational documentary films in the ‘Giving Back’ section.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Mohammed_Tanko/552699