How to Inspire Your Team
Now you have a broad idea of what it means to be a good leader, it’s time to break this down and to examine each of these points in more detail. But the most important point we can discuss is inspiration. If you can inspire your team to work, then you can get the very best out of them no matter what else. If they believe in your vision, they will be absolutely loyal and absolutely committed to what you’re doing. They will work harder and longer hours and they will drive your business, department or startup forward faster than anyone else. Notice the word ‘vision’ here. That’s very important and we’ll come to why in a moment. What’s more, is that if you have a vision for your team, you’ll help to inspire others. That means your customers and your potential business partners. More people will want to work with you. More people will want to buy from you. And more people will want to be loyal to your brand and to think of themselves as a ‘part’ of what you do. It goes deeper too. That’s because having a vision can also help you to make the right decisions for your organization. We talked briefly about the importance of not just keeping your team afloat but of growing and avoiding catastrophe? That all comes from having the right vision. Your vision is what gives you your goal. And if you get it right, it should also be what gives you your drive to succeed and makes that passion contagious. Many of the points we talk about later in this article will stem from that vision. Introducing: The Golden Circle Perhaps the best way to illustrate what is meant by this, is to look at a concept in business known as the ‘golden circle’. What is the golden circle? Well, if you believe the highly popular TED talk by Simon Sinek (who first proposed the concept), the golden circle is the difference between innovating companies that grow and thrive and those companies that fail. Why is it that Apple is constantly creating more exciting products he asks? (This was a while ago, bear in mind). Why is it that the Wright Brothers’ succeeded where others failed, others who had more resources and more means? The answer is the golden circle. The golden circle is made of three ‘rings’ which can be seen like layers. On the outermost ring, you have the word ‘What’. Inside that, you have the word ‘How’. And on the innermost ring, is the word ‘Why’. So as a leader, you need to think about these three things: What? How? Why? For the sake of simplicity, we will start by focusing on this question from a business perspective. That means we can change these questions into: What do you do? How do you do it? Why do you do it? And the key aspect to all this is that last part – the why. The most important question you can possibly ask yourself as a business is why you do what you do. And what might surprise you is that a lot of people can’t answer this question. What they tell you is that they are in their business to make money. Other than that, what ‘why’ is there? This is where your company ‘mission statement’ comes in and this is something that all the most successful businesses in the world have in common – great mission statements. It is the company with the mission statement that actually believes in something, that has a strong brand and that other people can get behind. Some examples: Ikea At IKEA, our vision is to create a better everyday life for many people. Our business idea supports this vision by offering a wide range of well-designed functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. Amazon It is our goal to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Coca-Cola To refresh the world in mind, body, and spirit. To inspire moments of optimism and happiness through our brands and actions. To create value and make a difference. Facebook Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share make the world more open and connected. Google Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Intel Delight our customers, employees, and shareholders by relentlessly delivering the platform and technology advancements that become essential to the way we work and live. McDonald’s McDonald’s brand mission is to be our customers’ favorite place and way to eat and drink. Microsoft Our mission is to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential. This is important because it is what makes the brand something that the audience, the employees, and the leaders themselves can believe in – and it is what sets the long-term course for the journey. And as Simon Sinek puts it: people don’t buy what you do, people buy why you do it. The objective is not to sell to people who need what you make, the objective is to sell to people who believe in what you believe. Those are the people who will be loyal to your brand. And the same goes for employees. Employees who believe in your mission statement will stay up late at night working because they believe in what they do – they’re excited by it and they want to see it happen. Heck, people on Kickstarter will even pay to see your mission statement become a reality even when there’s nothing in it for them. Oculus’ mission statement is to: deliver incredible, affordable, and ubiquitous consumer virtual reality to the world. This is a mission that people believed in so strongly, that they essentially funded the organization and allowed it to become a real-life company. A good business starts
Successful Entrepreneurs Take Personal Responsibility
There are certain attributes that you can find with almost every successful entrepreneur out there. Drive and persistence are among those, but another huge one is their willingness to take personal responsibility for their life and their livelihood, which is why so many of them are successful. Have you ever met someone who believed that everything that happened to them was someone else’s fault even when it was clearly theirs? That kind of person will never be a successful entrepreneur because they believe that things happen to them instead of them making things happen, either positive or negative. So, how can you cultivate this personal responsibility to be a successful entrepreneur? The World Owes You Nothing Successful entrepreneurs feel as if the world is theirs for the taking, but they don’t feel like they are owed something by the world. They believe that if there is something that they want or need, the responsibility to go out and get it is theirs and theirs alone. They don’t believe that someone is going to come along and hand them a check, without a great deal of hard work beforehand. That’s why they are so good at recognizing opportunities – because they are looking for them, and they are willing to act when they see the opportunity present itself. They Do Not act like Victims There are people out there who have what is called a victim mentality, which simply means that they believe that some metaphysical someone – like fate – is out to get them, and that’s why they haven’t had the opportunities that other people have. They think of themselves as a victim and so have negative thoughts and beliefs which is an attribute not suited for entrepreneurship. Successful people know that when something bad happens it’s just chance, and they have the opportunity to rise above it. They Learn from Their Mistakes and They Are Grateful Finally, a successful entrepreneur not only has no problem making mistakes – they know it is going to happen whether they have a problem with that or not – they actually embrace their mistakes because they have the opportunity to learn something from them. When something bad happens, they considered it a learning experience and they improve so that it doesn’t happen again in the future. Most of the time, entrepreneurs are very grateful for the learning opportunity as well, because they might have continued making that mistake if it hadn’t been brought to their attention.
Leadership Development As An Art
Having a team follow and look up to you indicate signs of leadership. Having the ability to lead is a gift. It’s something that is offered to all, but only few respond to this call. That’s why, as one of the few who respond, it is your duty to keep moving forward with the skill. Leadership Development training will help you become a better leader not only to your team, but also for yourself. Simply put, leadership training is defined as the process of an individual continually trying to become a better leader. The training will definitely be of great use and advantage for aspiring leaders. The training includes all sorts of things in the process. One must look at his attitudes, the way he makes decisions, the way he behaves in front of his followers, the way he manages his time, the way he influences others and the way he makes the team efficient. Leading has things to consider. The first one is your familiarity with the people you are trying to lead. You should know what kind of words would get into their brains. You should know them well enough to know what kind of music they like, or what kind of dancing is their type. From which generation are they from? Second is your ability to teach. Of course a leader is also considered a teacher to a lot of people. You should be able to teach people how to think and make decisions for themselves, giving them a more independent way of thinking. Leadership development will provide you techniques on how to do such things. As a leader, you have to know what your boundaries are. Boundaries include having intimate relationships with your followers. As part of your behavior as a leader, you should know that it is unprofessional to be having intimate relationships with those who follow you because that could shed light on the idea of having biases on him/her. Another is that you shouldn’t abuse this power given to you. Of course, you should respect those who have faith and trust in you. Don’t steal from them, or bribe them or scare them. Be a good leader by being in their shoes, not stepping on their shoes. Leading is an art. There is honor, discipline, talent, and individuality in it. However, this individuality is different. This individuality is a personal view of what leading is. The only thing that all forms of leading is, is that they all look at the betterment of those who believes, looks up, and trusts in the leader. Be a leader, and create a future, take Leadership Development to hype it up for you.
How to Protect Your New Business Idea
Pitching a new business idea can be very nerve-wracking. You don’t know how it will go and what people will think of it. And probably the worst thing you could have happen is having your idea stolen. With the three steps given below, you can help prevent this from happening. You should know that legal protection falls into three different categories: copyrights, trademarks, and patents. 1. Copyrights This type of legal protection covers any of your artistic and musical ideas including but not limited to songs, paintings, photographs, and books. Copyright protection is put into place when an original piece of work is set into a tangible form, meaning that you must be able to prove that you came up with the idea. Once this is accomplished, you have the legal right to produce your work. If you live in the U.S., you’ll notice that there is no requirement to register your idea. However, if you do have it registered, there are benefits to doing this. Once registered, you have a public record of your copyright which can help you with any infringement claims. The registration process is different according to the type of material created, but it always involves a processing fee and sending in a copy of your work. The copyright time varies too, but usually, it lasts for the duration of the creator’s life plus an extra 70 years. 2. Trademarks Trademarks apply to names, symbols, and words that identify and represent a company or a product. Similar to copyrights, you do not have to register your idea for protection. Also like copyrights, you get benefits if you do register your idea. When you register, the public is aware that you own the mark. The law will then see that it is your idea and you gain the right to use the registered mark. This means that people cannot then use a similar mark to your own. If you do decide to register your idea, it’s important that you get your application done professionally, particularly when registering for a trademark as it is more intricate. Getting approval of a trademark has been known to take months, even years. 3. Patents Patents protect the inventor’s rights to their inventions. Inventions protected by patents can range from machines to plants. Unlike copyrights and trademarks, you must register your idea for protection. Getting a patent can be very time-consuming as it can take years to approve. It can also be very costly, with amounts going up to six figures. While it may take years for your patent to be approved, you get protection as soon as you apply. A patent lasts for 20 years and you have the right to exclude others from making, selling, and using your invention in the U.S. Some ideas may require that you have a combination of protection. Remember, if you ever run into an issue of dispute about your idea, ensure that you have early drafts of your idea and detailed records of the development of your idea to prove that it’s yours.
How Team Building Benefits Your Business
In many companies, individuals are often appointed for their technical ability rather than their interpersonal skills. Communication, motivation, negotiation, and listening skills can be overlooked as part of the recruitment process. The failure of teams to function successfully can often be attributed to a lack of these softer skills on the part of members of the team, particularly those in management or leadership positions. In today’s business environment, it can be that employees do not actually meet other members of their team or see them infrequently making it difficult to strike up and maintain successful business relationships. Homeworking, offices located at multiple premises, and on-the-road roles can all contribute resulting in isolation for an individual and a lack of feeling like part of a team. This isolation can also make it difficult for individuals to focus on the overall aims of a business rather than their own personal goals and targets. The purpose of team building is to overcome these obstacles to business success. Team building seeks to draw out the individual strengths of employees and bring them together into a coherent whole so that business objectives can be realised. At a basic level team building is about getting to know and understand co-workers. By building relationships communication improves, the workplace becomes more enjoyable and motivation is higher. Those participating in team-building learn more about their own strengths and weaknesses and the strengths and weaknesses of their co-workers. As a result, individual strengths can be utilised in the workplace, leading to increased productivity. So what exactly is team building? Team building can encompass a wide range of activities designed to develop participants’ ability to work together successfully. There is often the use of games for team-building activities. Sometimes children’s games are used, sometimes more complex games, designed with specific tasks in mind. Team building games can take place over a period of time, at one-day events or over several consecutive days. There is no one set way in which team building should take place. Exercises should be appropriate to the individual needs of a business. Team building games generally relate to specific skill sets. Successful teams need to be able to communicate, make decisions, plan effectively and trust each other and it is around these areas that the exercise usually focus. Sessions are usually run by trained facilitators to ensure focus and flow to exercises. A team-building game can be very simplistic, such as a social activity designed to get employees talking to one another. It may be centered around personal development, for example, physically challenging or adventure activities such as treasure hunts or learning a sport. Team building can seem excessive particularly when it comes to small businesses. All businesses, however, whatever their size need to have a shared direction of where they are heading and what needs to be done to achieve this. Team building can actually be exceptionally valuable to smaller businesses as organizations with fewer employees tend to have roles with very specific accountabilities and little overlap. This can lead to a lack of focus on the overall objectives of such organizations, in an environment where there is little margin for error. So what results should a business expect to see after investing time, money, and effort in team building? When using good exercises and games team building has benefits for both the business and the individual. At a fundamental level, a successful team-building event should lead to employees having a clearer understanding of business goals and direction. This is essential if everyone is to work together towards the same ultimate goal. Team building games are about enabling employees to successfully work together to achieve the aims of a business. Team building is not a one-off exercise, however, but a continual business need. Businesses are not static and operate in a constantly changing environment. Staff turnover, the economic environment, business relationships and changing customer needs all mean that teams need to be dynamic and able to evolve to meet the many challenges that they will encounter. From start-up businesses to mature organizations, a company’s best assets are those that it employs. For a business to be successful all employees should be working towards the same goal. To do this competition between different parts of an organization needs to be eliminated. Employees need a sense of ownership of their own role and need to understand how it interacts with others, working collaboratively towards defined objectives. It is only by everyone, whatever their role, actively participating in developing a business that it can truly flourish.
How Talent Management Produces Effective Leaders through Performance Management
The first phase in talent management or in other companies, also known as succession planning defined as a strategic method to attract, retain and develop highly skilled individuals to serve your company is leadership consultancy. It is basically the process of identifying characteristics, traits and qualities or the exact criteria for the attributes that should make up your desired leader. This allows for creating the ideal model or framework for leadership that is aligned with your company goal, vision and mission. The second phase is leadership audit wherein the goal is to amass collective data about the existing effectiveness of your current leaders to gain insight on how they have had impact on your company, as well as identifying areas for improvement. This is used to measure effectiveness, performance, alignment, capability and value for money to be used as a comparative study against studies from other companies giving you a clearer insight in how you can improve the structure of you current leadership model. The next phase is leadership assessments and benchmarking where the aim is to focus on the capabilities of an individual, measuring the ability to lead with the help of their amassed knowledge, background experience, learned management skills and high-performance behaviors, and on preferences of an individual where personal characteristics, traits, values and motivations influence their methodology on leadership. This again is collective data across you organization to be comparatively analyzed against successful organizations to help boost the success of your company taking it to the next level. The next phase is the use of assessment and development centers based on a theoretical model in helping your leaders through learning and accreditation. Based on solid research it aims to tackle the complex relationship between behaviors and performance such as negative effects of behavior and differentiation between behaviors and its impact on your organization. These also include but are not limited to, workshops and courses on leadership skills, development toolkits, coaching and development toolkits, top team development and leadership coaching focusing on skill development coaching, transitional coaching, career coaching, executive coaching and performance coaching. Participants are usually asked to spend time going through this training until they have received their accreditation. This of course may be costly but is a necessary investment if you are serious about influencing a great change within your company. The last phase is the most crucial to a future leader and given the utmost importance by a talent management team, performance management, because affecting change does not come naturally to some and usually involves a greater emotional aspect than an intellectual one. A leader’s efficiency is based on his ability to influence favorable outcomes which is always going to be dependent on the performance of his department. The only way effective leadership is measured is through seeing his performance, the results. There are two organic key factors that can immensely influence performance, motivation and environment. Motivation is essential in driving results because it is an innate drive to improve one’s self. It is vital that the leader knows his employees on a personal so he can create an approach tailor-fit for every individual personality so he can better gear them towards a goal. There are different forces that drive motivation in every person and it is a leader’s responsibility to use that as a tool for improvement. In the same way, it helps define the preferences in their working environment. An employee who feels comfortable with his office environment does not need coaxing to do better. He enjoys his job and the company of his co-workers as well. As a result there will be need for minimal supervision in driving results once positive reinforcement has been implemented. Prepare your future leaders today.
Healthy Mindset Habits for Entrepreneurial Success
So, we have discussed the fact that your mindset is the most important factor when it comes to achieving success. You also should have identified some of your strengths and a few of your weaknesses. So where do you go from there? The very next step is to start yourself on the path to healthy mindset habits. Habits are a funny thing. Your habits are things that you do without even thinking about them. Each morning (hopefully), you get up, brush your teeth and take a shower. You do these things without thinking too much about them. You can be worried about something at work, dwelling on a personal issue or even deeply engrossed in a great novel and the subconscious part of your brain will still nudge you every morning until you jumped in the shower and brushed your teeth or completed whatever other morning routines that you have. So, should be quite obvious that habits are one of your biggest assets when it comes to being successful. The people who are successful in this world are the people who developed the right habits. They don’t have to think about doing things that make them successful; they just get up every morning and do them, which of course, gives them the results that they want in the long run. In this chapter were going to discuss how you can create habits that will allow you to change your mindset from a negative, self-destructive one to a healthy mindset that is ready for success. Start Your Day with Positive Affirmations Have you heard the term self-talk? Self-talk could be more accurately described as internal memo-ing, or the constant communication between your conscious mind and your subconscious mind. For people who are not having success, and in fact, are having problems, negative self-talk is likely the reason why. Their subconscious is telling their conscious mind all these negative things and that just reinforces the idea that they aren’t successful and are never going to be successful. You’re going to do something different. You’re going to wake up each and every day and give yourself positive affirmations. You’ve probably heard of these before and you may think they’re silly. That’s perfectly okay to think that they’re silly, but still do them because silly-sounding or not, positive affirmations actually do work. Remember that your subconscious mind is like a sponge. It soaks up information and then informs beliefs which then drive your thoughts and your thoughts control your actions. If you change a belief with positive affirmations, you will be changing your actions as well. Find a place where you can actually say your positive affirmations to yourself, where no one will overhear you and where it is something specific and meaningful that will say to your subconscious mind: “Hey! Pay attention!” For example, some people stand in front of a mirror so they can look themselves in the eye and say their affirmations. Some people want as much privacy as possible so they do it in their car on the way to work. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you pick a place and a time that is meaningful to you and do it every day. Create a routine that will develop into a solid habit. Spend Time with Your Feelings When you do have doubts, try spending some time with yourself and taking a good, hard look at those feelings, to see where they are coming from. As mentioned, your behaviors today are the result of your thoughts which come directly from your beliefs. That means, if you are convinced that you’re going to fail, which you might be if you haven’t been able to attain success so far, then that belief is what is driving all of those other factors that is keeping you from success. What you can actually do, is when these doubts enter your mind, and you start thinking about all the ways that this could possibly go wrong, take a step back, and evaluate where the thoughts are coming from. Remember, just because your subconscious believes something to be true doesn’t mean it is. So rather than trying to push away these negative thoughts or avoid them, accept them and then work to eradicate them by finding out which belief is driving them. Spend Each Day Learning Something New You should never stop learning. No matter how much you know, there is always room for more information. Just as science discovers that the more that we figure out about the world around us in the universe, the more we realize that we don’t know; It works the same way with your learning as well. Spend a little time each and every day learning something new that is going to help you. You could read a motivational book. There are many different ones out there that are geared towards entrepreneurs and are written to give great advice from experts who actually have made a success out of entrepreneurship. You can find them at your local library or online in digital format. Books by Anthony Robbins, Stephen R. Covey, Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill are all great reads if you’re trying to motivate yourself and become more successful. There are many other places that you can find motivation. Go on YouTube during your free time and look for motivational videos if that’s more your style or you could even correspond via email with someone who is more successful than you, who could be your mentor of sorts. No matter how you get information, the point is, to keep learning and to devote some time each day to that learning. You don’t even necessarily have to read motivational or self-help books. You could do something that improves yourself like learning a new language or teaching yourself a new skill, or by studying a subject that you been interested in, relating to your business.
Encourage Leadership Training
One of the things that employers look for in their employees, apart from the standard abilities like being a team player, being flexible, being detail-oriented, possessing the right skills and qualifications as well as good work ethic, is the drive to learn more and become more. From time to time, you might feel like you’re simply a tiny cog in a bigger machine that isn’t even aware of your presence or understand the value of what you do, but there is someone who is keeping an eye on what you do and how you perform, and that person is usually your immediate boss. He or she is the one who sees your performance and your contributions to the team and is able to recommend you for a raise or a promotion as needed. Employers would do well to encourage skills development in their employees. This adds to their arsenal of skills, making them more valuable to the company and ensuring that their skills are used to benefit the company. One of the workshops employers must encourage their workers to take is leadership training. Some people might think that developing leadership qualities in employees could pose a threat to the current higher-ups since it sounds as though people will be groomed to usurp their positions. This isn’t the case at all. Leadership training simply means that companies will be able to have teams of workers who are all able to take charge and have a thorough understanding of what it takes to make a company run smoothly. Encouraging leadership training in employees also means that employees have a chance for advancement, keeping them on their toes and helping them exercise their potential in their careers. Leadership training is not something that should be restricted solely to the heads of a company, although it would benefit them in the event that they forget what true leadership is about, help them reassess their progress and figure out where they may be going wrong, and allow them to be more sensitive to the needs of their workers. Everyone who is willing should have a shot at leadership training, especially since it will not only improve their outlook on their jobs and their skills but also allow them to make use of it in their lives. Keep in mind that leadership training is not just about creating the future heads of the company and it certainly doesn’t mean that participants will be actively angling for currently occupied top positions. It offers people a chance for advancement and self-improvement, and employers should recognize that having a team of highly skilled and effective with leadership abilities is much preferable to having workers who are skilled but possess a drone-like mentality.
Develop a Company Culture to Improve Sales
With as much competition as there is in the marketplace, businesses must find a way to market themselves that will help them to stand out from the other companies in the industry. One way to do this is to develop a company culture that customers can identify with. Many people like to feel as though they belong to something. When they know a company and its history and vision and they identify with the company in some way, they come to feel like they know the company and can trust it. A customer is more likely to give their hard-earned money to a business they view as a trusted friend and neighbor than a faceless corporation. Trust is an important part of the equation that leads a customer to choose a company to patronize. They want to trust that you know what you are doing, that you will not overcharge them and that you will give them a quality product they need. A company that freely educates the consumer without laying on a heavy sales pitch will win the trust of consumers and their business as well. This form of marketing is not difficult to do, yet it is highly effective. Sharing your Company Culture with the Marketplace Your company probably already has its own culture, with certain beliefs and philosophies on how things should be done and how customers should be treated. Are you sharing this with your customers? Think of the commercials for the cereal company where the employees are talking about their favorite cereal. They all seem to be having a great time making it that the viewer feels good about patronizing the company and buying the cereal. The buyer wants to be a part of that culture. There are other parts of your company culture you may want to share with customers and potential customers. One is the story of how you came to found your business. Stories of how Microsoft and Apple started continually circulate. Not only does this give consumers that sense of belonging, but every time the story is told, the company gets a free advertisement. Does your company have a vision? If not, it is time to come up with one. Not only do you need one to keep your company focused and your employees on track with where you want the company to go, but your customers like to hear about your vision as well. If written well, your vision statement can be powerful, inspiring and something consumers want to be a part of. The marketplace is too competitive to continue doing business the way it was done thirty years ago. Every company must stand out if it is to truly succeed, and developing a company culture your customers want to be a part of is an excellent way to do just that.
A leader – simply put!
The question of what is leadership has received an inordinate amount of airplay. Everyone accepts that it is a critical dimension of organizational growth. Ongoing leadership development often referred to as leadership training, is critical. Unfortunately, the higher in the organization we go, the less often we undertake formal development. There is a myriad of reasons for this – some very self-soothing! While we should continue to seek ongoing development and training, perhaps what is most important is that we remind ourselves of the key essentials of leadership. In searching for the right leadership recipe, we can often be overloaded with messages about what we need to do more/better/less to be an effective leader. Often we fall into the trap of doing for doings sake and, playing the role of the leader that is forged by the environment around us rather than what made us a good leader in the first place. Perhaps we need to firstly look at the core character attributes that provide the fertile ground for good leadership to grow. I recently read through the Hippocratic Oath – the oath where doctors pledge to undertake ethical medical practice. Perhaps not so surprisingly, since first written by Hippocrates in the 4th Century BC, it has been translated and ‘modernized’ a number of times. Regardless of this, at its core, any interpretation of the oath infers that practitioners must … ‘do no harm’. If the essence of leadership is the power of influence, then you can understand that its use and misuse can have long-lasting effects. Taking a lead from the medical fraternity, do no harm has a certain core principled-centered base that may guide our actions as leaders. Similarly, I once heard a leader talk about his personalized version of principled-centered leadership. In testing a decision or action that impacted people, his first test was to objectively answer his own question – is this fair to all concerned? But it is his second test on which he places most importance – simply put, if a decision or action he took was to make the front page of the newspaper, could he comfortably look his children in the eyes and explain it. In these current economic times, cost management practices such as retrenchments have become more prevalent. Certainly, for the sake of the long-term viability of the organization and its employees, they may be necessary at times. However, in keeping our oath or the front-page test, it will be how we treat people throughout these processes that separate true leaders from pretenders! So whenever we seek to be better leaders, firstly look within to see if we have the central requisites. By working from these, we will be better positioned to be the leader we want to be.
