Archive for July 30, 2009

100 Ways to Be a Better Leader

July 30, 2009 admin No comments

I found this post to day and recommend you check it out http://learnthis.ca/2009/07/100-ways-to-be-a-better-leader/

Here are a few of my favourites
 Highlight several strengths or skills you see another person has and tell them
Admit a mistake you have made
Increase communication by using open ended questions
Smile at the first people you see each and every day
 Complete the one thing you have procrastinated the most before anything else!
 Start procrastinating things a leader doesn’t do.
 Encourage and promote change. Be a change agent.
 Bring up and engage in a difficult subject or conversation
 Keep your actions and decisions aligned with your values

Which ones challenge you in your leadership right now?

Leadership Development

Need Help and Tips About psychic readings – Read This

July 30, 2009 leadershipskills No comments

In this article we will try to figure out what does emotional intelligence mean? I am sure that everybody heard about IQ or the Intelligence Quotient; it is used to identify the level of your intelligence. However, there is also EQ or emotional Intelligence, with the help of which can be determined your own emotional state or make the analyzing of other people emotional state in the same way that the intelligence is measured by IQ.

Peter Salovey and John Maeyr have been studying the Emotional Intelligence since1990’s and they had determined it to be the part of social intelligence and regard it to be the evaluation of one’s emotions and feelings.

There are actually a lot of methods to train your emotional intelligence and also you not only training it, you are also getting the use from it. How can you do it? What are the possible methods? There are a lot team performance games which involve work in the team and training your emotional intelligence. One of such games calls Lost in migration that may help you to increase your concentration power and productivity and work. You can find the details about this game on web site lumosity.com

Emotional intelligence training helps people to understand each other feelings and listen to each other. And as the result this leads to more efficient communication, and leaves behind the misunderstanding among people. Such team games and other cognitive exercise will also help you to interpret others people emotional state more accurately and build, as the result, stronger relationships.

Also such training may help you to build a bound of trust with other people. It will keep you more emotional connected and will build strong ties between each other.

If you feel that you are already on the higher emotional scale that will bring you to the leadership. This means, you can lead the group.
There are also a lot of games for those who want overhaul their brain with constructive thoughts and activities. And also the memory games such as Color Match and Bird Watching.

Emotional intelligence training is a great practice for such Doctors as psychologists, because strong emotional intelligence helps to handle their patients problems and boost their own confidence level and helps with handling hard situations.

E I training also helps in building productive workforce and as the result workers reach better outcomes at work.

In the conclusion I want to say that EI training is good not only for your professional ties. It is also pertains to almost all fields. Does not matter if it family relationships, friends or colleagues, in other words, emotional intelligence helps us to build stronger human relationships and keep us closer to each other

For the fans of psychic readings, we recommend to check this psychic readings site. You will find psychic readings and other helpful info about this sphere of interest.

Leadership Development

Lessons About the Importance of Training for Manufacturing Software

July 24, 2009 leadershipskills No comments

The purpose of this article is to tell the story of a company that learned an expensive lesson when it came to implementing a new ERP software system. Despite the best intentions of the company, things did not go well and they ended up in worse shape than they began. Of course, the company name will not be revealed to maintain their privacy.

Every day, I speak with a number of users of various construction and manufacturing software packages. In most cases, the users are not satisfied with their current system and come to me for advice on how to improve their performance with a new package. The majority of the time, they are correct and will benefit greatly from a more advanced software solution. However, in about 20% of the cases, the company that thinks they need new software are destined to be disappointed because they will fail to properly learn and train their employees how to use the new software. I find this to be true regardless of company size, specialization, or industry.

Several years ago, I worked with a medium sized contractor that focused on completing small jobs in small timeframes. The software they were using lacked a lot of the functionality that newer, more advanced software provided and was slowing down their productivity. They came to me for advice on selecting their next package.

Solving their problem seemed simple enough, they just needed to invest in a new manufacturing ERP software package. So, I did some research for them and came across a system that wasn’t top-of-the-line but was definitely capable of meeting their requirements. We all sat in on some demos for the software and agreed that it was a great solution. After the demos were over and the company agreed that the software seemed like a good fit, they decided to have their primary accounting person give the software a “test drive” to test it’s functionality in relation to their needs. However, the fast pace of the company didn’t allow this person enough time during their normal day at the office, so it meant that any trials had to be done after work hours.

Adding to the problem, nobody in the company’s upper management offered to help this individual with this ardous task. Since the assignment was way out of the individual’s skill set and knowledge-base, over a year went by with little to no progress. Finally, after two years, the company decided to purchase the software and install it. They completed some introductory, basic training for their end-users and went live with the new system. However, since their staff was not very technologically-inclined (and wasn’t properly trained), they made the choice to continue operating with their old system in parallel with the new system for an entire year. Why? Because nobody within the company was willing to take the necessary steps to learn the new software and train the users how to properly manage it. Therefore, they essentially doubled their workload for these employees for a whole year out of the (avoidable) fear of the unknown.

This wasteful process points to several key lessons, though. First, upper management was not involved in the software selection and implementation from the beginning, despite the need for them to be involved. Key managers need to be present at all meetings and training sessions so that they can be the internal driving force behind the switch to new manufacturing software. If they don’t know what is going on, how can they pitch in and keep things on track? Their un-involvement also created another problem – the choice of the accounting person to learn the system and train the company. Instead of choosing the person that is best qualified to do these things, they chose the person that they thought would be the most convenient, and lost over 3 years of benefits that they could have realized from the software. Since there was no involvement from upper management, it was later learned that a number of staff employees opted to skip the training sessions since they didn’t appear to be important to management.

The conclusion to be drawn here is that new software will only be as good as the people that use it. And the people that use the software will only be as good at using the software as they are trained and motivated. To be successful with new software, all key members of the company must be involved and management must ensure that proper training and motivation are provided.

Leadership Through Change

Show Your Leadership Skills – Research Solutions When Faced With Tough Decisions

July 19, 2009 admin No comments

The key to making good decisions is to have all the information at your disposal and a clear plan of where you wish to go and where the outcome of your decision will place you, with regards to your future moves. A true leader will take all this into consideration, and often they might have 10-20 important facts surrounding an issue to be cognizant of, and each one of varying importance.


Thus, a true leader will fully research all the data, information and potential solutions ahead of time, and a true visionary leader or genius will have anticipated this decision point far in advance and will know exactly which move to make, as well as the potential decisions that will come next. The law of unintended consequences does not impact the most brilliant of leaders, as they have already considered all the potential eventualities already.


Where can a leader gain access to research and solutions and data to make such crucial decisions you ask? Well, interestingly enough, you already have access to practically all the human knowledge available on the Internet and you should have access to all your company data, market data and good informational flow from your business units. If not, you need to concentrate on that first, before you have to make too many more decisions without enough information.


Tough decisions have to be made and many times a leader must do this, sometimes they can use the executive group to help them, but many times they do not have such access at the drop of a hat, when that important decision must be made on the fly. So, you must have access to instant and pertinent information; remember information is power, don’t be powerless.


By Lance Winslow

Lance Winslow – Lance Winslow’s Bio. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/.

Leadership Development

How Couples Are Choosing to Get Married in Different Ways and Locations Than Their Grandparents Did

July 17, 2009 leadershipskills No comments

Weddings have changed over the course of the years . Two generations ago it was a simple church service, typically followed by a lunch or dinner for the family in the parents home . It was typically just the family and a small family event . Today weddings have become all out extravaganzas with a minimum of a years worth of planning and a lot of couples requiring assistance from wedding consultants to pull it off . Many couples want something that is special to them in stead of simply getting married at the church and having the reception there or at thetown hotel such as using Dallas event facilities. Couples are getting married at Irish castles, all the way to Dallas ranches.

People are getting married in all sorts of different ways today. Several decide to get married doing an activity that they enjoy and have that incorporated into the ceremony. There is actually a business that conducts weddings to couples that wish to get married under the water while scuba diving. Some wish to wear their jeans and cowboy boots while getting married on a ranch on the back of their favorite horse . Whatever people think of , they do nowadays for their weddings . These examples are a bit more unconventional but most people want a beautiful elegant affair just maybe in a different type of location.

Destination weddings have become wildly popular as couples are waiting until they are older to get married and therefore are typically footing the bill for their own wedding . Having a destination wedding offers the couple a more intimate wedding and their honeymoon trip all in one in a destination that could be very special to the couple. Some couples choose to return to the place of their first trip together or maybe where the groom proposed to the bride . A majority of destination weddings tend to be in beach locations and can be intimate affair of two or a large wedding of 300 guests.

The natural beauty of the outdoors is the main reason to choosing a destination wedding or choosing to get married in a beautiful part of your own state. A lot of Colorado residents choose to get married outdoors on top of a mountaintop with beautiful abundant views of the Rocky Mountains. Some ski lovers choose to get married during the winter months so they can have a skiing honeymoon or others may choose to wear a sundress surrounded the mountain wildflowers. Whatever location the couple decides the setting of the vast outdoors is often the best backdrop location for a wedding service .

Another thing some couples are doing today is having their weddings paid for in a unique way to have it paid for by the Today show or some have gotten vendors to donate their services in return for advertising it at the actual wedding . These are unique ideas that are not for everybody but obviously some couples have enjoyed their wedding and not had the large expense to pay at the end of the event .

Leadership Communication

Self Improvement – Leadership, Why This is Crucial to Your Success

July 14, 2009 admin No comments

It is a fact that most folks are not leaders they are followers. This is the one key character trait that successful people learn is how to be a good leader.


If you could learn one good skill trait for yourself that would be the most important for your success. It would be to learn good leadership.


You see if you are not a leader but a follower then you tend to not take action unless you are directed to do so by some one that you believe to be a leader. Also you are not likely to make decisions that are vitally important to getting the results. You tend to relay on others to make the decisions and come up with a plan for getting things done.


The problem with this for you is that without taking action or being able to make plans or decisions. You can not reach your goals and there fore you will not become successful.


When you learn good leadership skills then you have good self confidence in your ability to make decisions and also are willing to overcome your fears and take action towards accomplishing your goals. You also look to yourself for the answers and these are all so vitally important in order for you to get the results that you want and deserve for yourself.


Also by developing good leadership skills you get others to believe in you and are willing to help you achieve your goals.


Now get busy applying these tips in your life.


By Sunny James

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Sunny James is a motivational speaker & life coach who has helped hundreds of others to get the results & success they wanted with their life in as fast as 90 days.

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Leadership Development

Start Online Home Business-How to Start an Online Home Business?

July 12, 2009 leadershipskills No comments

Many people today want to start an online home business for several different reasons. Actually it is believed to be a good way to earn some money.

To start an online home business, the first step is to choose a business. The choice of a business depends upon 3 main things. First of all your temperament and comfort level, secondly the amount of time you can dedicate to the business and thirdly the resource you have. The business should suit your torment and personality. Being comfortable with is also very necessary, otherwise it would be hard to excel at it. Imagine what can happen if a person who knows nothing about fashion tries to sell fashion accessories. Obviously he will not be able to market them properly and it will show when he will not be comfortable doing it. If you choose to be a program affiliate that will only require a few hundred dollars investment.

But to be an affiliate you will require to have a firm knowledge base of CPC (Cost per Click) marketing, Google ad word marketing and the CPA (Cost per Action or Cost per Acquisition) marketing. Now you see that the investment cost is really less but if you want to learn CPC, CPA and about other marketing models you will have to enroll in expensive courses. But usually that is not a problem. Internet is very flexible in this regard. The other thing that you need to decide before starting an online home business is the amount of time for which you can do effort for your business. There is no rule of thumb but it is said that the more time you will give to your online business, the more it is going to flourish. The choice of business will also depend on this factor in the sense that either you want to do a part time online business or you want to own a full time online business.

Another very important factor to consider when you want to start an online home business is the amount of resources that you have for the business. It is not necessary to have a lot of money to Start Online Home Business. The online businesses can be started with as low as a few hundred dollars and sometimes even lesser than that.

If you want to start an online home business then you can benefit from the Home Business Reviews. It is a very well organized website which contains very authentic information on the subject.

Women in Leadership

Leadership Skills – Compromising Values

July 9, 2009 admin No comments

When we look at history, conflict arises from misunderstandings and situations where people do not offer any compromise. Imagine an Organization, where certain values are imposed on people, leading to dissatisfaction and conflict within the workplace.


When you have several groups of people with each other, with very differing perceptions and beliefs working together for one common aim, then we risk conflicts. Stronger more mono- cultural perceptions within a group, can ruin the compromise needed to get things done.
 
Managers and Leaders need to create an understandable target, in order to offset one groups perception from dominating the other. Leaders also need to diffuse potential conflicts within these groups, by perceiving potential areas of conflict. Managing and minimal zing conflict, before fault lines occur.
 
Introducing a “common aim,” with an incentive to reach that aim, diffuses conflict. Building an understanding of that aim, is the key to creating a smooth running understanding between all parties. And that aim has to be seen as rewarding to all parties, involved in the tasks.
 
One good example was a Manufacturing Company that had an export order for tents to an African Country. The management knew that the time scale for the order was minimal, and the workforce was mainly doing semi-skilled monotonous tasks.
 
Being in a multi-cultural environment, certain groups had economic values, whilst other groups had their own Moral values. This was a potential for conflict, as several religious duties were expected from the “moral” group, that could conflict with their work.
 
To diffuse conflicts arising from having to allow the moral group to have time off to pray. The Company decided to split the shifts, allowing for workers in the “moral” group to work in the afternoon shift, as not to interfere with their religious duties, and accept to work one weekend, awarding them two days off during the week to coincide with a religious holiday.
 
The “economic values” Team, perceived the other group working weekends, as a punishment rather than a reward, and as both groups had a weekly target based on an incentive skill. Felt that they were luckier, because they could go home earlier, and had their weekends free!. Whilst the ” Moral” group, were grateful that they could continue their religious obligations, and were not affected by having to work evenings or one weekend because they did not perceive free evenings, and weekends as a natural right. Only the right to perform their religious values, without affecting their economic rights to work.
 
Creating solutions when there is always a chance of conflict is often harder in multi-cultural environments, but solutions can be found. This depends on the perceptions of people around you, and nurturing these perceptions into a viable plan to positively avoid conflicts.


By Markus Taylor

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Leadership Development

Leadership – 5 Proactive Steps to Becoming a More Effective Leader

July 5, 2009 admin No comments

Your effectiveness as a leader significantly impacts on the results that you deliver. The results that you deliver not only impacts on the success you deliver for your organisation or team but also the personal success you achieve. So what proactive things can you do to become a more effective leader?


Step 1: Do a self assessment


A great quality of effective leaders is self awareness. They know where their strengths are and are also aware of their weaker areas. Start the journey to becoming a more effective leader by carrying out and honest and objective self assessment.


Step 2: Get some feedback


Even if you are the most self aware person around, chances are you still have a few blind spots. We often fail to recognise or even see strengths that others see in us or weaknesses that are getting in the way of success. Collect some feedback from at least 10 people to get a rounded picture of where you stand as leader.


Step 3: Make a plan


Many people talk about the importance of continued development. Very few on the other hand make a clear plan when it comes to development. Think about it. Would you try to build a house without a plan? Of course not yet, many people fail to create a plan when it comes to building their leadership capability. Simply thinking about what you need to develop and putting in place some basic activities that you will undertake will set you apart from most.


Step 4: Create accountability


A plan is great and more than most will do. By creating some accountability you will greatly increase the chances of executing and getting the results you want. Why? Simply because when you have to account to someone else for what you did or did not do, you are more likely to follow through.


Step 5: Keep refreshing the plan


Professional and personal development is not done once and forgotten about. New areas emerge that you need to work on or the internal or external environment in which you work changes. Make sure that you refresh your plan periodically so that it remains relevant.


Bottom Line – Developing yourself as a leader is no longer an optional extra. So what proactive steps will you take to becoming a more effective leader and achieve success?


By Duncan Brodie

And I now invite you to download your free leadership assessment at http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/resources.php

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements (G&A) works with professionals, teams and organisations to develop their management and leadership capability.

With 25 years business experience in a range of sectors, he understands first hand the real challenges of managing and leading in the demanding business world.

Leadership Development

Leadership – 5 Leadership Lessons From Professional Cycling

July 2, 2009 admin No comments

I have recently been reading an excellent book In Search of Robert Millar. It is about the career of one of Britain’s most successful cyclists and former King of The Mountains in the Tour De France. Whilst reading I noticed a number of key lessons which are as relevant to leadership as they are to professional cycling.


Lesson 1: You need to be clear about what you want to achieve


One thing that came through from the book is that Millar had absolute clarity about what he wanted to achieve. He knew the end game. As a leader of an organisation, function or team you need to be clear about what you want to achieve. On a scale of 1 to 10 (where 10 is absolute clarity) how clear are you on what you want to achieve.


Lesson 2: You need to break your goals into steps


While it might be tempting to think that you can go from zero to hero, reality is completely different. Millar knew the steps that he needed to make in order to achieve his dream of being a successful professional cyclist. He viewed each step as another towards achieving his ultimate goal. How clear are you about the steps you need to take in order to achieve the success you want?


Lesson 3: You need to be willing to stick at it


The route to success as a professional cyclist is hugely demanding physically and mentally. And so is achieving success as a leader. There are many highs and lows along the way. Are you willing to go the distance and stick with it through the good and bad times?


Lesson 4: You have to make choices


In the early stages of his career, Millar trained with many others who made the choice not pursue cycling to professional level. Every time we make a choice about the next step it has consequences. It might mean relocating or taking some risk. As an aspiring leader you need to weigh up the pros and cons and then positively choose to act. Too often people are passive when it comes to their career and are surprised when they don’t achieve what they desire.


Lesson 5: You need to be your own person


Many fellow professionals thought Millar was introverted and odd. For example, he chose to be vegetarian at a time when most of the thought was that cyclists needed lots of red meat. What is clear throughout the book was his desire to be his own person even if it made him odd in the eyes of some others. As a leader you might have a similar set of skills, experience and attributes as everyone else. So what is it that makes you stand out from the crowd as your own person?


Bottom Line – Professional cycling just like leadership is demanding. So what lessons can you draw on from cycling or other sports that could help you to be an even better leader?


By Duncan Brodie

And now I invite you to take advantage of my free audio e-course Leadership Success available at http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements (G&A) works with professionals, teams and organisations to develop their management and leadership capability.

With 25 years business experience in a range of sectors, he understands first hand the real challenges of managing and leading in the demanding business world.

Leadership Development