3 Leadership Skills That Trump All Others | Inc. 5000 The first job I accepted after college was with a large home builder in Phoenix. In my first year, the company had been taken private, carved up, and the pieces sold off. During this span of time, I worked for three different companies all while sitting at the same desk. I stopped buying business cards for a while. When the dust finally settled, I had managed to tag on with a small group of people who made up the Phoenix office for a California home builder entering the Arizona market. None of us had the experience to become the division president or CEO, so the "higher-ups" brought in someone from the outside. They brought in an accountant. Given this was a construction company, I was a little confused why we would hire someone who didn't understand the intricacies of construction. A female CPA named Kathy, running a construction company. I had serious reservations about how her background and management style could lead such a complex business. 1. 2. Kathy was great at encouragement. 3.
3 Biggest Excuses of Wanna-Be Leaders This is a familiar dynamic: After facilitating a coaching or training session, or after speaking at a conference, two groups of people form around the speaker in concentric circles. The first, inner group are leaders who want to know more. The second, outer group, hanging back a little meekly are the wanna-be leaders. The conversations I have with both groups are always fascinating. You'd think that people who want to be leaders (but aren't yet), would each be in that position for highly individual and therefore unpredictable reasons. 1. Here's the thing: Leaders aren't created upon arrival in a position. If you're truly intent on being a leader, then that's precisely what you need to do: Lead. Find ways to do what you do, better. 2. Look, to get started as a leader, the only person you need permission from is you. Yes, after you've begun to lead, you will need other people's permission, in the form of them accepting your leadership. 3.
The Art of Gaining Access There are so many variables that come into play when you go after companies and individuals to gain access. These include tenacity, persistence, referrals, creativity, connections, and so much more. But the one that seems to be the determining factor for not only gaining access, but also closing the business is a deep-seated belief in the value that you bring. Jump start your confidence Action is always the kick start of any type of confidence. Let go Have you ever experienced a call where you spoke truly from your heart...no mind? Learn what works for them To gain access, you need to have a deep understanding of a client's business, goals, challenges, and passions. But the bottom line is having a real solution that will have a big impact on their company and bottom line results.
5 TED Talks Every CEO Should Watch On a mission to better humankind, TED challenges the world’s most remarkable people to come on stage and give the talk of their lives in less than twenty minutes. Inspiring, funny, motivational and educational, these messages are well worth the watch for anyone hoping to improve in their personal or professional lives. Whether you want to become a more insightful manager or more creative strategist, here are five TED talks that contain timeless advice. Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action When Simon Sinek found he no longer enjoyed his stable advertising career, he struggled to rediscover his excitement about life and work. The realizations that followed spurred him to coach others through the same process to become more effective leaders. “If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation Best-selling author Daniel Pink makes a case for rethinking how we run businesses. Elizabeth Gilbert: Your elusive creative genius
Become a Great Negotiator: 5 Steps Although everyone claims to want a "win-win" deal, the sad truth is that most businesspeople are competitive and subconsciously want to "win" by making the other person "lose." Even when you enter negotiations with the best of intentions, it's fair to assume that, at some level, your counterpart wants to see you "lose" at least something. There's also probably a part of you that probably feels the same way about them. The trick to moving out of this mentality is to "increase the size of the pie," according to Dr. To accomplish this, you treat the negotiation as a way to expand the deal to include items that both parties want but may not have identified or realized when they first entered the negotiation. 1. When Dr. In most business situations, people who are working together--rather than competing--tend to sit next to each other, sharing what they know in order to reach a higher level understanding. 2. 3. 4. 5.
The Psychology of Language: Why Are Some Words More Persuasive Than Others? Agreed. My jaw dropped when I saw "What we easily forget on a very high level is that using less words builds trust." LESS words? It's FEWER. If it's countable, it's "fewer." Moreover, the above is pulled from a paragraph entitled, "Avoiding Adjectives in Writing and Speech." "Reading this, hit me like a rock and couldn't make it any more clear I think." And then the appended "I think" could actually use the comma, but it still undermines the prior idea. It is one very confused sentence in an article about clear writing.
What Breed Is Your CEO? Randy Komisar on Leadership and Management In the life of a company, every dog has its day. So says Randy Komisar, a veteran Silicon Valley venture capitalist and entrepreneur who has spent the last 25 years launching technology startups. Komisar is a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers where he specializes in working with technology entrepreneurs. Kermit Pattison: What are the classic pitfalls you see entrepreneurs making over and over again? Randy Komisar: Mistaking the difference between leadership and management. In your mind, what's the difference between management and leadership? Management is more operationally focused. In early stage projects, the CEO oftentimes is effectively a project manager. They start to think, "Oh, I've got to be a leader, I've got to start reading books and learning theory?" Exactly--I need a vision statement, I need to define my culture in five bullet points. Now what I usually say is, "We're going to come up with a culture statement a year after we formed." The husky is the next one.
3 Steps to Becoming a High-Value Employee | The Snelling Blog Your future rests on your shoulders..not someone else’s. Yes, there are times when massive downsizing or even closures occurs ( ala Hostess Brands or American Airlines), and you may be handed a pink slip, but generally, others are not going to hand you a job/promotion/raise out of the blue. In most cases, when downsizing occurs, senior management makes the decision on who stays and who goes based upon some value judgment of a particular person’s worth. To make things more difficult, each manager has a different definition and set of expectations for “value”. So with all this confusion, how can you ensure not only your job stability but your future career growth? FedEx – the oil crisis of 1973. Value is everywhere. For example: 1) Go beyond the bullet-points in your job description. 2) Show support and give credit where credit is due. 3) Tolerate company idiosyncrasies and embrace your workplace. Remember, your value is not determined by you. By Christiane Soto, Snelling.com
Beyond CSR: Integrated external engagement - McKinsey Quarterly - Strategy - Strategic Thinking Traditional corporate social responsibility (CSR) is failing to deliver, for both companies and society. Executives need a new approach to engaging the external environment. We believe that the best one is to integrate external engagement deeply into business decision making at every level of a company. Are companies doing well at external engagement? Properly understood, external engagement means the efforts a company makes to manage its relationship with the external world. That traditional approach has had some positive effects. Many executives recognize that their current approach is inadequate. Where are companies going wrong? Executives should not blame themselves alone. What is wrong with CSR? First, head-office initiatives rarely gain the full support of the business and tend to break down in discussions over who pays and who gets the credit. Third, CSR focuses too closely on limiting the downside. Finally, CSR programs tend to be short-lived. The logic is simple and compelling.
Thought Leaders Now Being Replaced By Feeling Leaders No matter what business you're in, the engine of innovation is really about being moved. That's what movements are made of -- the heartfelt, intrinsically motivated effort to get off of dead center and accomplish something meaningful. This is the crossroads all of us are standing at these days -- the intersection between this and that. What the newspaper industry is going through. And the music industry. My heroes, these days, are the people who don't just stand at the crossroads, but dance -- inspired individuals who find great delight in the paradoxes, get juiced by the challenges, and realize that "innovation" is not a program, initiative, or model, but a way of life. That's the main reason why I enjoyed the World Innovation Forum so much. Because that was precisely the mindset of the presenters -- and the people who attended -- no matter what industry, pedigree, or astrological sign. So, for all of you conference kick ass wannabees out there, take note. 1. 2. So play full out. 3. 4.
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