Doing It Right As a Team
There are several reasons why there is a need to explore and even implement periodic exercises within a team for spoken communication training. Some of the elements that should be addressed within the spoken communication training are as listed below: Ensuring that all involved learn to speak clearly and audibly is the first step to effective communication. Taking the time and effort to stop where the impact is needed for all listening to understand the importance of a particular point being made help to emphasize the point. Using “clever” or bombastic language is often more confusing than enlightening. By the constant use of such language the listeners would either lose interest in what is being said or worst still go about doing things in a way that is quite contrary to the purpose at hand, thus causing even further complications. The idea of effective communication is not to impress but to ensure the contents of what is being said is completely understood by all. When delivering important instructions, adopting a method where the listeners are asked to repeat the said instructions, ensures a complete understanding of what is required by both parties. Also giving the instruction in an orderly format helps to keeps confusion levels minimal. If the intention is to keep everyone relaxed, simple and easy-to-understand language should be used. Avoid making too many jokes especially if the connotations are ambiguous, as it can not only cause confusion but also cause misinterpretation and the feeling of being slighted. Using active rather than passive language patterns is also encouraged. There is more emphasis on the importance of the action requirement through active language patterns. Qualities of a Good Leader Supportive A good team leader should be able to encourage and support his or her team. This is what can help build a strong team. Enabling people to be the best that they can be, also improves the general performance of the team as a whole. A good team leader also listens to the grievances and requests of the team and presents this to the organization. The leader should be willing to effectively represent his team whenever the need arises. Great Interpersonal Skills and Strong Relatable Character A good leader should have good character. He should be someone that the team members can easily talk to. A good leader knows where to strike the balance between being friendly and authoritative at the same time. If a team respects their leader, they will be able to follow and work together effectively. However, a team that fears their leader will not be able to work well together. Confident A good leader should always be confident in everything that they do. A team may easily fail to follow a person who seems to be unsure about themselves or the tasks in hand. The team may also fail to respect such a leader. A confident leader can also easily inspire others to be their best and work hard at attaining their set objectives. A confident person is more likely to lead a team effectively. Committed to Excellence There are different types of teams. There is a team that may just try to complete assignments fast without paying attention to quality. There are others that can’t be bothered and normally fail to meet objectives or deadlines. These teams have weak leaders who fail to lead them in the right direction. A good team leader should always have integrity and commitment to excellence. They should seek to have the performance from the team. Such a leader ensures that the team remains productive at all times. As a leader, you have to set high standards and equally high expectation levels. This will help your team embers to aim high each time. Focused If a team leader isn’t focused then it’s very hard for the team to work together to realize their goals. A distracted team is likely to postpone assignments or even fail to work together if at all they don’t share common objectives. A focused leader will be firm at ensuring that every member of the team participates in helping achieve the set goals and objectives. He normally has his mind set of increasing productivity and the output quality of the team. Excellent Communication Skills You can’t lead people if at all you can’t express yourself effectively. Communication is about just being able to be understood. You need to watch out for small issues that may bring a communication breakdown. Learn to be polite and to talk to your teammates with respect. A leader who constantly yells doesn’t inspire his or her team. You should also not issue orders. Learn to discuss and make requests or assign roles. You should also learn to be listener. This is a very effective communication skill. You can learn a lot and get to work well with others if only you learn how to listen first. Innovative An effective leader should know how to think outside the box. Such a person will be able to make the team develop and progress well. Motivating A team will not be able to perform well if they aren’t motivated. You need to keep the team in high spirits. You don’t have to give incentives but just simple things can keep your team motivated. For instance, if someone does something good, it’s good to take not and compliment them. There are teams that acknowledge “the employee of the month/year”. This form of appreciation is also very effective as it motivates the team members to work hard. Once your team a member excels in a project you should congratulate or show them some appreciation. This will motivate them to work harder. Good at Conflict Resolution A team is normally made up of people of different personalities and ideologies. This means that from time to time, there will conflicts among members. A team leader should be able to resolve these conflicts without taking sides or making unfair judgment. He should always ensure that the team gets
Top 3 Business Strategies for Online Entrepreneurs
So, you want to be a successful entrepreneur. But which business strategy do you choose? There seem to be so many out there, with each so-called guru touting a different philosophy, that it can be very difficult to narrow down a business strategy that actually works. However, when you remove all of the window dressing and break the strategies down to the basics there are only three that makeup nearly all of the entrepreneurial ventures that are out there. Which one you choose will depend on your personal preference, your unique skills, and where you see a hole in the market. Service Providers The first of our three top strategies is providing some type of service. There are many occupations that provide a service where someone can become an entrepreneur. Graphic design is one good example; freelance writing is another. Whenever you are doing a service for somebody else and they are paying you for it (while not in the employee of another person or company) you are an entrepreneur. Affiliate Marketing Another big boom in Internet entrepreneurship is affiliate marketing. With the creation of websites like Clickbank, the affiliate programs offered by leading retailers like Amazon, and the big profits that could be potentially earned, affiliate marketing is one of the most popular entrepreneurial ventures today. With affiliate marketing, you find the customer, send them over to the seller to buy the product and the seller pays you a commission. Of course, you have to find the right product not to mention have a solid plan for getting in front of people that can be difficult. Info Product Creation Rather than being the person that receives the commission when someone buys a product from someone else, you could be the person that they are buying that product from. You could create an info product of some kind that you’ll be able to sell to the Internet at large. One of the more popular ways to do this is by publishing Kindle content on Amazon, but the products on Clickbank are also part of this strategy. Combining Strategies Of course, you don’t have to just stick with one. You could combine two of the above strategies or you could combine all three if you like. There are no rules when it comes to entrepreneurship. If you can create something that sells, or make money at something and be successful, you are an entrepreneur.
A Complete Guide to Human Capital Management
Any company that wants to achieve great success needs to pay close attention to human capital management. The employees of a company are the biggest asset it has and by keeping that asset strong, the company has the best chance of success. A company that pays little attention to its employees will end up with a team of employees who are unmotivated and unproductive. Human capital management can be the difference between a company with a winning team of employees all pulling together toward a shared goal and a demoralized group who are providing little overall value. It is important that each and every member of the team is considered as an individual, each with their own set of strengths and weaknesses. Human capital management assumes that any lack of knowledge amongst the employees of a company is purely down to lack of training or teaching, rather than looking upon it as a fault of an individual or a team. Human capital management provides a strategic approach to managing staff at a company. It differs from traditional HR practices as it is concerned less with administrative tasks and procedures and focuses more on getting the most out of staff for a happy and productive team. Companies that currently do not have any type of human capital management program in place should think carefully about implementing one. The employees benefit greatly from human capital management which in turn means the company benefits greatly too. The approach to managing and organizing employees through a human capital management program is done in a number of ways. In essence, the approach should provide a fully inclusive strategy from even before a new employee is hired right through to their exit. Another important part of human capital management is succession planning and talent management. Being able to identify key members of staff as possible future managers can make the decision-making process for current senior management more straightforward, and allow for greater ease with forward planning. Employees at a company reap many benefits from having succession planning tools and strategies implemented. Being able to construct their own career path and identify future roles and responsibilities can also place them in a better position when considering their future. Helping employees with their career development is of benefit for everyone, especially the company itself. If you have a company and are interested in having a human capital management program implemented then there are a number of options available. You could either outline a program yourself and attempt to implement it, or you could outsource it to a specialist company. There are professionals in this field who can design and implement a thorough strategy for your organization. No matter how large or small an organization is, there are a host of benefits to be gained from implementing some human capital management strategies. Not only will the staff benefit as their own career paths begin to unfold, but the company benefits too as the productivity and motivation of the team increases. If you want to compete in the very tough marketplace, then investing in the employees could make all the difference. If you hire experts in human capital management then you can have that peace of mind that it is being carried out by those who know how to get the very best out of staff. With strategies such as a leadership assessment, one-to-one interviews, and even employee surveys, they can help improve the morale and productivity right across the workforce of your organization. Ensuring 360 feedback is always given and using proven way to identify talent, strategize for future success and plug knowledge gaps through training programs, a team of professionals can bring invaluable help to your team and your organization.
The True Meaning and Significance of Team Building
The term team building may not be new to us but it is not surprising that many of us still do not have a full understanding of what this term really means. More often than not, we see team building as an opportunity to get away from the humdrum of everyday work and experience a paid vacation with our colleagues. To others, it is merely a waste of corporate or organizational time and money as it does not really help build teams, but only gives employees a reason to take a long break from work. It can be quite difficult to fully define what this term really means. When used in a business context, it refers to a wide range of activities geared towards the improvement of team performance. It can be pursued through many different kinds of practices which can range from simple bonding activities or exercises to complex work and situational simulations to multiple day retreats that are all designed to help build or develop a team. The term should not be confused or interchanged with team recreation, because team recreation merely consists of different activities for teams that are purely recreational. Team building is often associated with business organizations and is generally discussed within the theory and practice of organizational behavior and development. However, it is not limited to enterprises and organizations alone – it can also be applied to school groups, civic organizations, sports teams, and many others. Many business and organizational executives, managers, leaders, and even regular employees believe that this concept plays an important role in any environment because it focuses on and specializes in bringing out the best in a team and in each of its members. With improved team performance, teams can better ensure that there are enhanced leadership skills, positive communication, and self-development within the team. This can result to an improved ability to work closely together as a team to solve problems more effectively and efficiently. While there are business enterprises and organizations that focus on specific individuals and personal goals (with rewards and recognition that single out the achievements of certain individual employees), this does not mean that teams no longer have a place in the company or organization. This tendency of focusing more on individual achievements only emphasizes the growing challenge of developing effective teams within the workplace, civic group, sports club or school organization through team-building activities.
Tips for Running a Creative Business
Creative businesses often have the same challenge. That challenge is how to be creative and successful. This isn’t always easy to achieve, so these ten tips have been provided to help you in your venture. 1. Put your focus into one area and become good at it. If you focus on what you’re good at as opposed to doing what people want, you’ll notice you have a greater chance of success. This is because you specialize in one area, allowing you to offer more value in your specific area of work. 2. Plan where you want your business to go. If you have a good vision of what you want, this will be very helpful. You can always change your plan as things in life change, but having your plan written down will keep you focused on your goals. 3. Do different things. When you change things up a little bit, people are bound to notice and pay attention to you. Realize that if you only offer the same things as everyone else around you, you won’t stand out in the crowd of businesses. Taking risks gets you noticed. 4. Pay attention to the numbers. You may work in a more creative field but that doesn’t mean you can forget about numbers. You have to ensure that you have a regular cash flow and without an organized way to go through all of the numbers, you’ll never know how successful you are. 5. Share your ideas to revolutionize. Talking to others is the key to a successful business. Having a great diversity of ideas can help you to adopt an innovative way of doing things for your business. Collaboration helps you to succeed in this world. 6. Have proper protection of your ideas. You don’t want to ever run into the issue of someone stealing your ideas. Be sure to be able to defend your ideas if you ever do run into this unfortunate issue. Your ideas are the essence of what you and your business are, so ensure that you know how to protect yourself including use of trademarks and/or copyrights as needed. 7. Take a digital approach to your business. Engage with your customers, employees, and suppliers. Learn how to use different social media platforms to help promote your business. This will help you to extend the boundaries of your business and how to appeal to people to support you and your business. 8. Don’t lose hope. People always make mistakes but it’s important that you move away from them and learn from them. You need to be determined to run a business of your own so don’t give up easily. 9. Always strive to improve. Continuous improvements help to make a business succeed. This includes looking back at things that went wrong and making them better. 10. Have fun. You’re supposed to have fun while running a creative business. Having fun makes work enjoyable, even the more routine tasks that form part of any business. It’s not easy running your own creative business but when following these tips, hopefully, it can help your business run a little bit easier.
The 10 Most Powerful Tips for Leaders
So with all that said and done, there is an awful lot to take on board here. Hopefully you have a much better idea now of what really makes a great leader and how you can win the respect of your team and steer them to victory almost without trying. But still, putting all this into action can be challenging and that’s why it’s useful to break this down further and to recap on some of the most potent tips we covered throughout this article. So here they are… 1. Have a Vision You Believe In This is by far the single most important point if you want to make sure your team respects you and that you are making the right decisions for your organization. 2. Focus on Your Mission Statement As a leader, you need to see the bigger picture and that means focusing on how to deliver results and how to grow the business. 3. Build Resilience and Plan for Contingencies Make sure that your business is able to handle crises and that you know what you’ll do in any of the worst case scenarios. 4. Hire the Right Team Your team should be diverse in their skills and their abilities but they should be united by the common goal that you all share and the common vision. 5. Give Your Team Autonomy and Credit This is the best way to make work intrinsically motivating for your team and to ensure they work hard and passionately. 6. Stay Calm, Be Respected This will keep your team calm and it will make you seem more confident. This is most important when you are challenged by dissidents and when you are going through tough times. By showing your passion, doing what’s best for the team and being friendly but distant, you can endeavor to be respected. This is better than being liked or feared. 7. Be One Step Ahead Use financial modelling and other techniques to stay one step ahead. 8. Take Responsibility If things go wrong, you must always take responsibility. This gives your team confidence and assurance but also wins their respect. 9. Be Knowledgeable You won’t be the best at anything and you need to know how to delegate. BUT you should also make it your business to understand the role of each team member so that you can oversea the course of your ship. 10. Take Risks It is important to take risks and be courageous as a leader. This is again what will allow you to grow and what will make your team achieve above the rest.
Team building exercises Help Your Business Performance
Team building programmes can help your business by improving the communication, levels of trust and general understanding between the members of a team. It is important that you plan it carefully. A negative experience can irreparably damage your team’s morale and have the opposite effect that you were hoping to create. If you have no in-house expertise in this area it may be worth calling in the experts. Depending on your budget and/or plans this could involve someone offering an initial consultancy through to designing and administering a bespoke programme for you. One of the benefits is that they have experience of using a range of recognised diagnostic tools and instruments. This means that you can be confident that it is a positive experience, meets all of your chosen objectives and makes a positive contribution to your business’ performance. There are a number of different types of team building exercises that you could use depending on the areas that you want to address. For example there are problem solving exercises with an objective of encouraging flexible thinking and creativity. There are also planning or communication activities and these can develop the importance of these business processes, as well as exercises that have the aim of developing trust between the members of a team. Within these categories the activities can take a range of different forms from social and/or group bonding activities through to personal development activities or activities to analyse team roles and dynamics. One of the first factors you need to take into consideration is to ensure that there is understanding of the need for the session and one way of doing this is to connect any activity to the team’s day to day work and any obstacles that have been identified. It is also important to create a sense of ownership and to follow up any of the outcomes of the session as agreed. Other ways to help your team building session to be a success is to get the individuals within the team involved in the preparation of the event. This could be by simply seeking initial feedback on their issues and concerns, holding a survey of what the team members think the obstacles are in improving productivity or getting a small group to work with the consultants to plan the whole programme. By making the event something they can buy into rather than something that is ‘done’ to them, team members will have a positive approach to the event from the beginning. If some of the team members are hostile to the idea of team building exercises, possibly because of negative experiences in the past, try linking it with other activities. Perhaps the whole team needs training on a new computer system. Rather than a simple IT training session why not link in a team building strand to the event. As well as things to build into your event there are also a number of things to try and avoid, for example try and make sure that the session is pitched at the right level. While some may enjoy fun ice breaker type activities, chances are your team are already very busy people and if they think that you are wasting their time it will probably put them in a negative mindset for the session. Similarly though overly complex tasks or physically or emotionally draining activities should also be avoided, you want to try and engage everyone. While there are many benefits to be gained from taking your team out of the office for some outdoor and/or physical development activity make sure you take into account the makeup of your team and make sure that all members of the team will be able to contribute to activities and complete them in a satisfactory way. Team building programmes can give a business a vital competitive edge over their competitors by not only improving productivity but also improving morale and leadership skills, developing new procedures and processes or identifying blockages that are holding back the team’s and therefore the business’ performance. They can also help teams to identify their strengths and weaknesses and to clearly identify the team’s goals and objectives and to help them feel ownership of these goals and objectives.
For Entrepreneurs, Time is Precious!
You might be confused by the title of this chapter. You might be saying: “Hey, I value my time. That’s why I am doing this whole entrepreneurial thing.” What you probably mean however, is that you value your leisure time, and this chapter is more about valuing the extra time that you have when you’re not doing something that you absolutely have to do, such as going to the doctor or going to work, so that you can have the time you need to be successful. “I just don’t have time,” is the common battle cry among those who never actually make a success of themselves in any field. You have time during the day or evening or when you should be sleeping that you can use to be successful. You just have to find it. Jealously Guard Your Time from Others Do not let other people monopolize or even have any part of your precious success time. If you’ve committed to working on your business from 7AM to 8AM every single weekday, then don’t agree to run an errand for a friend during this period. You don’t want to be a “yes man.” Your time – at least the time that you’re spending working on your business – is your most precious commodity, and you should jealously guard it from others and not let anyone take you away from spending that time working on your business. If you’re getting into the entrepreneur business because you don’t like to work hard, you are definitely in the wrong occupation. While there are many entrepreneurs out who have achieved a great deal of success and now have free time that they can spend doing what they want, they either worked very hard to get to that point or are still working hard. In fact, successful people can’t seem to stop working. Even if they’re retired, there is always something that they are doing to achieve goals or to better themselves. Is your business really your number one priority? Are you willing to make some sacrifices to achieve your goals? The answer to both of these questions needs to be yes because if you don’t make your business your number one priority it will slip further and further down on your ranking list of priorities until you almost never work on it and you need to be willing to make sacrifices to achieve your goals; some of the sacrifices are going to be painful. Just like a man or woman who is going on a diet, you might have to sacrifice the chocolate cake and Rocky Road ice cream of your life in order to achieve success. Price Your Products What You’re Going to Be Worth If you are entering the marketplace with a product or service, don’t do more than a basic, cursory examination of the going prices. Once you know what the going prices are, consider how much you think your services are worth, which also goes for products. Some people start their business off on the wrong foot by lowering their prices drastically in trying to undercut the competition. This is a bad idea for many reasons. First, you’re not going to be able to outprice the biggest retailers out there like Amazon and Walmart. Second, people are more apt to buy something that costs what they think is a fair price than something dirt cheap. Cheap stuff isn’t good and good stuff isn’t cheap, as the saying goes. Have you ever wondered how some people charge what seems like exorbitant prices for the same services that you’re providing? It’s like the story about the fruit merchant who met another fruit merchant on the road. The second merchant asked the first how much he charged for apples and the man replied that he sold them two-for-a-dollar. The second merchant was aghast, and asked him how he could get people to pay two-for-a-dollar for his apples when everyone else was charging two-for-a-quarter. The man replied that he didn’t know what everyone else was charging, he just charged with he thought they were worth. If you think you’re worth a certain amount, then charge that amount. You’d be surprised how willing people are to pay a competitive price if you’re confident and good at what you do. Manage Your Time Effectively If you want to be successful, you’re going to have to start managing your time differently than you have in the past. In the past, you may have flirted with the idea of starting an online business but spent most of the time looking around, seeing what other people have done and watching videos on YouTube – business-related or not. From now on, you have to be more serious. You’re going to have to start devising a schedule and sticking to it religiously. Make sure that you set aside enough time during the day to actually make a significant amount of progress with your business. If you have allotted 15 minutes per day to grow your e-commerce website, you’re going to grow at a very, very slow rate We live in a distraction-filled society. When you get on the Internet there are 4 billion things vying for your attention. Someone just got on Facebook that you’ve been wanting to talk to; there is a tweet from your favorite celebrity that you really want to read; there’s a video on YouTube that literally everyone is watching. If this is how your Internet experience usually is and you are starting an online company you’re going to want to take active steps to remove the distractions. What used to be effective was a tool called Freedom which allowed you to irrevocably and completely block the Internet for a period of time. However, now that we have mobile devices at our disposal and multiple methods for accessing the web, you’re just going to have to exercise some good, old-fashioned self-control, buckle down and get done what you need to do make your business successful.
Entrepreneurial Success: Utilizing Your Strengths
What’s the first thing you do if you want to climb Mount Everest? While you might jokingly respond that the first thing you would do is get yourself a CAT scan the fact is that climbing Mount Everest – or any other difficult feat of physical endurance – can easily be compared with entrepreneurial success. If you’re going to scale Mount Everest the first thing that you would do is take inventory and find out if you had the tools to climb it. You would need food, climbing gear, water, medical supplies and many other things. With striving toward entrepreneurial success (which can seem as insurmountable as climbing Mount Everest) you are also going to take inventory of your assets. What are your current strengths and how can they help you reach your goals? Do You Think You’re Better than Everybody Else? The first thing that we are going to do is make a list of things that you do better than anybody else. This is not a list of things you do better than anybody else in the entire world, this is a list of things that you do better than the people that you know or the people you’re surrounded by. Also, we are not going to include things that aren’t actually going to help you on your road to success. For example, you might be the best sous chef in three counties but unless you’re planning on opening a restaurant it’s not going to help you with your entrepreneurial goals. However, it is going to include things that might not be directly related to being an entrepreneur or to being successful, but are strengths that will still help you get where you’re going. An example of this would be if you are good at inspiring people. This might not seem to directly relate to your success as an entrepreneur but if you are trying to launch a successful eCommerce website, the fact that you are good at inspiring people could be used in all kinds of ways. You can inspire people to share your products on social media. You can inspire people to participate in and spread the word about contests that you run. As you are making your list, if you come across anything that you think might even be slightly related, err on the side of caution and write it down anyway. You’re also going to be careful about adding things to your list that might be thought of as strengths at first glance but are actually reasons that you have failed in the past. One example of this might be an attribute like flying by the seat of your pants instead of planning out in advance. This could go on your list as self-starter or ready to jump in at a moment’s notice but if it hasn’t served you well in the past, it probably isn’t going to do you any favors in the future and you should avoid putting it on your list of strengths. You are also going to want to include technical or artistic skills that might not seem to directly relate but could come in handy later on. For example, you might be really great at graphic design. You might simply be a natural technical wizard. You might even be a writer. Think about some of these strengths as they relate to your goals of being successful, including the earlier example of sous chef. While culinary arts might not help you start an e-commerce website, the patience that you have cultivated as a sous chef could definitely help. What Are the Attributes of Success? The next thing that you’re going to do is determine what sort of attributes the most successful people in the world have, or especially, the people that you admire. Especially, you’re going to make a list of things the entrepreneurs have to have in order to be successful. These can be both wide and specific depending on what your particular goals are. For example, they need to be good at whatever industry they are in and they are probably also going to want to be skilled in things like social networks, choosing products, building business relationships and marketing. You’re going to want to be as specific as you possibly can because at the end were going to compare the two lists and try to find how many strengths you have already that can help you be successful. The more things you list, the more things that you’re going to discover are actually true about yourself. This exercise isn’t actually about finding all of the qualities that entrepreneurs need to succeed; it is about realizing that you already have the attributes that it takes to be successful. You do have the attributes that it takes to be successful. This is readily apparent, because you’re reading this article. People that are interested in success or aren’t motivated to better themselves and reach their goals don’t read books on success. In fact, they tend to avoid the subject as much as possible because it reminds them of their failures. Here are some of the more apparent attributes just to get you started: Determination: you have the idea or attitude that you are going to succeed no matter what, no matter who stands in your way and no matter what obstacles you encounter. A Passion for Entrepreneurship: if you aren’t passionate about working for yourself and owning your own business, it can be almost impossible for you to be successful at it. Optimism: you are optimistic about the future. You believe that good things are in store for you and your outlook is almost always a glass-half-full kind of mindset. Patience: you are willing to work over a long period of time to get the results that you want. You’re not going to give up if it doesn’t happen quickly. Reliable: you will be able to handle the responsibility of being an entrepreneur. You have a reputation for being
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
