Leadership 101

"If...you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning." Catherine Aird

Do people willingly want to follow you? The real test of leadership is influence. Would your subordinates describe you as an effective manager, supervisor or team leader? Be honest with yourself. Put yourself in their shoes. Would you want to work for YOU?! If your employees' pay, perks and benefits were not dependent on doing what you ask, would they still want to follow you? If the answer is yes, you are truly a role model of leadership.

In conducting leadership training around the world for over a decade, here are the key traits I hear over and over that employees want to see in their leaders. And most of these employees are managers themselves.These traits will sound familiar to you. Yet, we need to be reminded of them. Many managers confide to me that they're so overloaded they forget about practicing many of these qualities on a regular basis.

1) Supportive/Good listener: It's been said the average person listens to what you have to say only 25% of the time. Yes, that's right. Much of the time we're caught up in our own "stuff" and we're not always listening. Listen. Think before you speak. Some people just nee111Cd to be allowed to vent. Vent within reason of course. Then, they'll be more likely to listen to you.

2) Open-minded. It's hard to listen without an open mind. At least acknowledge what your employees have to say. It doesn't mean you necessarily have to agree. In order to gain respect and get your team members to follow you, sometimes you first have to show respect.

3) Honest. Do you possess personal integrity? Your team members will look to see if you do what you say you are going to do. This sounds like common-sense and it is. Yet, many in a leadership position forget this important trait. The minute you can't deliver on your promises you lose all credibility. It will be the one thing your employees will always remember. As the saying goes, "They remember your last act." Under promise and over deliver. Always do what you say you are going to do.

True Leadership = Inspiration:

4) Inspiring. True leadership = inspiration. Real leaders have a passion for what they do. They are able to transfer that enthusiasm to their employees. People want to follow someone they respect and admire. In my leadership training, a lot of managers tell me they also want a leader "who is balanced in their personal as well as professional life." They see a balanced leader as someone who walks their talk. Employees want to follow someone who has what they want.

5) Intelligent. I frequently hear the comment, "In our organization, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing." Or, "My manager really has no idea what I do for a living. What my job entails, the challenges and the time constraints." Please educate yourself on each of your team member's responsibilities. It's the only way you can speak intelligently to them and gain respect.

6) Future-oriented. Upper management should put their organization's five year, three year, and one year plan in writing and pass it out to every employee. A lot of employees don't know their organization's overall goals and objectives. An integral part of leadership is having vision, and being able to convey that vision in a way that excites and inspires team members. A great way to motivate most of your employees is to show each and every one where they fit in with the organization's big picture. Most of them want to know their purpose and how they make a difference.

Effective Leadership = Effective Social Skills:

7) Excellent communicator. Many people are promoted to leadership positions based on their "hard skills" or technical skills. Yet, most managers describe true leadership as demonstrating good interpersonal skills. Excellent leaders and managers aren't just good communicators in terms of what's expected on the job. They also make it a priority to take a sincere interest in their employees. Little things go a long way. For example, know your employee's birthdays, whether or not they have children, and acknowledge their length of service on their anniversary.

8) Fair-minded. Employees and managers alike respect leaders in an organization who are fair, objective, and "don't play favorites." They want sincere recognition for a job well done. Most employees want to be judged on their performance, not on whether or not they've got friends in high places.

9) Flexible with change. An effective leader is open to change, new ideas and taking risks. A leader who is a good role model doesn't take a "my way or the highway" approach. They're confident enough in themselves that they can give explanations for WHY a change is being made. Employees always want to know why. Managers and leaders who are secure within themselves don't need to say, "Because I'm your supervisor and I said so."

10) Leadership starts with service. Effective leadership involves rolling up your sleeves and helping others. The term "servant leadership" was coined in 1970 by Robert K. Greenleaf, former AT&T executive and founder of The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership. He wrote, "It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead."

"A good example is the best sermon." Anon.

Copyright (c) 2006 Colleen Kettenhofen

Colleen Kettenhofen is a speaker,5A0 workplace expert, & co-author of "The Masters of Success," as featured on the Today Show, along with Ken Blanchard and Jack Canfield. For more free articles and e-newsletter, & to order the book visit http://www.colleenspeaks.com/ Topics: leadership, management, difficult people, public speaking.Colleen is available for keynotes, breakout sessions and seminars. Call 971-212-2412 or email colleen@colleenspeaks.com . http://www.colleenspeaks.com/ . You are free to reprint or repost this article provided Colleen's name, website and email are provided with the article.

Your Guide to a Successful Future

Career Planning - Home Builder Guide

Having a career plan is a useful tool to monitor your career progress. It cannot be overemphasized the importance of having a realistic workable career plan. The operative words here are that you work the plan. You monitor your career progress and over time you make adjustments to your career plan as circumstances change.

Following are some basic ideas laid out for you to start planning and managing your career. Working on a career plan means you have to spend time understanding and organizing yourself. Your career goal is to maximize you skills, talents and abilities. Reflecting on your unique set of skills, strengths and limitations and how they change is time never wasted. Thinking about these things leads to a certain lucidity so when future opportunities are presented you can quickly make good choices.

Rapid changes in the economy, in the nature of work and organizations have complicated the career planning process. Gone are the days when many career plans looked like steps on a staircase. Predictable step by step career plans can't now be relied on and you must plan for greater flexibility with more frequent review and analysis of your progress and situation.

Look around, often those who are most skilled in managing their career and maximizing opportunities get the promotions and the best jobs. Let's see if we can help vault you into that group so you can manage your career progress through a well thought out career plan.

The foundati5B4on of your career plan has to be based on your understanding of who you are, what is important to you and your ideas and hopes for the future. This detailed understanding will help you to begin the process of developing your career plan.

Answering the following simple questions will get you started. In the past did you change jobs? If so why? What are the noteworthy influences in your life? How have these influences affected your career?

Now examine your skills. What are your major skills? What are your principal strengths? What limitations do you have? List your successes and failures. Do you have any underdeveloped talents? What are they? What are your wishes and dreams? Where do you see yourself in the near future, longer term?

Now look at what options do you have to make changes in your career plan. Is there a large gap that you need to start working on or do you need to make smaller improvements a number of factors? Write out your goals to your career plan. Keep each item measurable in both the short and longer term. If for example, your need a course in self-study, and plan on reading 48 books in the next two years, your career plan would be to read two books a month.

One career planning area that many find productive is to increase your satisfaction on you current job. Look around, is there an opportunity to undertake a new project, participate in a job swap, look for new responsibilities, come up with new5B4 ways to do things, go out of your way to mentor others, or even look at part-time or flexible employment.

The other main area in career planning is to change yourself by learning new skills or updating others or resetting your expectations and possibly reexamining present attitudes. You could take some additional courses at a local college, start a program of self-study, work at developing additional mentors or contact a career coach. All will move you toward achieving you career goals and making your career plans a reality.

Finally after you've looked internally for career opportunities and found nothing but dead ends, you may have to look elsewhere to advance your career. Examine your current situation critically when making plans to change employers. Develop creative solutions to ensure as close a match as possible between what you have planned for your career and what might be available. If you have gaps in your skills plan to get them closed, if you have to learn new skills get on a training and study program, begin studying writing and updating your resume and begin learning the latest in interviewing and job hunting techniques.

The right job may not be available at the right time. You may have to think beyond job opportunities that offer a promotion or increase in salary so don't overlook a sideways move or a job which will give you experience or increase you career satisfaction.

As you periodically revie5D6w your career plan you will find changes in what abilities are important and others will drop down in priority or some skills become more useful and others become redundant. The key is to review your career plan regularly, at least every three months with a more serious annual review. With these steps you will find yourself more in control, have more satisfaction with your present situation and be more positive and optimistic about your future.

John Groth is a former HR executive and career coach. Find Career Planning Ideas, valuable articles and a free seven day career planning guide. Discover up to date career and recruitment strategies at our Employment Changing Guide; all to assist you in advancing and managing your career.

J P Morgan

John Pierpont Morgan (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier, banker, philanthropist, and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1891 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thompson-Houson Electric Company to form General Electric. After financing the creation of the Federal Steel Company he merged the Carnegie Steel Company and several other steel and iron businesses to form the United States Steel Corporation in 1901. He bequeathed his large art collection to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. At the height of Morgan's career during the early 1900s, he and his partners had financial investments in many large corporations. By 1901, he was one of the wealthiest men in the world. He died in Rome, Italy, in 1913 at the of age of 75, leaving his fortune and business to his son, Jack Pierpont Morgan.


Morgan was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Junius Spencer Morgan (1813—1890) and Juliet Pierpont (1816—1884)) of Boston, Massachusetts. Pierpont, as he preferred to be known, had a varied education due in part to interference by his father, Junius. In the autumn of 1848, Pierpont transferred to the Hartford Public School and then to the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, boarding with the principal. In September 1851, Morgan passed the entrance exam for English High School of Boston, a school specializing in Mathematics to prepare young men for careers in commerce.

In the spring of 1852, illness that was to become more common as his life progressed struck; rheumatic fever left him in so much pain that he couldn't walk. Junius booked passage for Pierpont straight away on the ship Io, owned by Charles Dabney, to the Azores in order for him to recover. After convalescing for almost a year, Pierpont returned to the school in Boston to resume his studies. After graduating his father sent him to Bellerive, a school near the Swiss village of Vevey. When Morgan had attained fluency in French, his father sent him to the University of Göttingen in order to improve his German. Attaining a passable level of German within six months, Morgan travelled back to London via Wiesbaden, his education complete.

Howard Hughes
Wayne Huizenga
Collis Huntington
Lee Iacocca

Increase Your Sales in 5 Minutes

By: Al Hanzal



Increase your sales—in five minutes. This article is the third in a series of five articles probing the five critical points influencing how you find a steady stream of customer for your business.

Customers Buy Benefits

You want more sales? Customers buy for one reason. They buy because your product or service has a benefit they want. Telling your customer your product has a 10 year warranty is a product feature. Telling them that in over 400 roofing jobs last year, there were no leaks, no call backs and no broken tile is selling the benefits your customer wants. Sell customer benefits and you will increase your sales.

Why You Sell Features

Bottom line, selling features is easier. Features are the visible things you see about products and services. Features are the things you see, touch, feel and smell.

Selling features is your self-interest. The products and services are your life-blood. You live with them every day. You know them inside and out. You love talking about them!

Identifying the benefits each customer wants it tough work. Customers are unique. Each buys for his or her own reason. It is easier to talk about common product features rather than uncover unique customer benefits.

Your Five Minute Exercise to More Sales!

The five minute exercise is called “SO WHAT.” When you complete this exercise, you will change your from selling product features to selling customer benefits. Remember, customer benefits are what sell! Here is how it works.

You create a five minute dialogue between a pretend customer and yourself. It’s important to speak this conversation out loud. Start with one of your most popular business features. Explain the feature to your pretend customer. Then listen as the customer says, “so what?” Now answer the customer’s so what question. Then listen as the customer says, “so what?” to your response. Again answer the customer’s so what question. The customer again responds with a “so what” question. Keep doing this dialogue until the customer no longer asks you a “so what?” question.

Now, you have identified a customer benefit!

Check Out This Example

This is how an insurance agent used the exercise. I asked him, “What distinguishes you from other agents?” He told me, “I find the cheapest and best policy for my customers.” I responded, “So what?”

He said, “Well, unlike other agents, I customize each policy for my customer.” I said, “So what”.

He answered, “As part of my program, I promise to keep my customer informed about any policies changes that may benefit them in the future. “ I asked “So what”.

He responded, “The customer has the security of knowing that they have the best program and best costs for their insurance.” I said, “So you are guaranteeing me that I can go to bed at night and not worry that I am paying too much for my insurance?”

“Exactly,” he exclaimed, “That is the security I provide each customer with my insurance program!”

By using the SO WHAT exercise, the agent moved from selling the “cheapest rates” (business feature) to providing the customer the security of knowing he will always have the best rates (customer benefit).

Which agent would you buy from; the one with the cheapest rate or the one that provided you with security about your rate and policy?

Conclusion

Now, you have a simple way to make more money by improving your sales at no additional costs! Use the SO WHAT dialogue with each of your business features and start selling customer benefits. For a special report that shows how the five critical pieces work together in getting more customers for your business, Send an email to al@hanzal.com with subject line, “Special Report.”

Copyright Al Hanzal, 2004. All Rights Reserved

About The Author


Customers have been using Al Hanzal's materials to improve their sales and marketing skills.

al@hanzal.com

Drivers Of Change

Five Drivers Of Change!
By: Roger Gauthier




The huge Tsunami that hammered the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia in 2004 gave no warning.

Many were on the beaches and casually going about their day unaware that a deep sea earthquake had sent a shockwave that sent billions of tons of water racing toward the shores of the Indian Ocean at 500 MPH.

It was too late when those on the beach looked up and saw the wave that was so large that they had no time to escape. There was no warning.

We are facing a Tsunami of Change of even greater proportions in business. The drivers of change are forcing business leaders and individuals to rethink their strategic plans.

At Tri-Vision Global http://wwwTriVisionGlobal.com , we have been working on some projects related to strategic business development. This has forced us to think long-term. The data on the changes that are about to break onto the shore of the business world will create massive changes in the business environment.

These changes can have a disastrous impact on your business; or, they can create gigantic opportunities.

Here is the short list of five major drivers of change in today's business environment.

Changing Marketplace Trends

1) Entrepreneurial Workforce

45 million Americans own a business. That is 20% of the workforce. Americans are now entrepreneurial in their career perspective. They are more mobile and likely to change jobs or careers rapidly based on their circumstances and individual motivating factors. Loyalty to employers is minimal. Consider the cost associated with searching, screening, hiring, training and supporting an individual before ever realizing any return on investment from that person in their job function. Ask any CFO or senior human resource manager and they can tell you exactly how this issue impacts the bottom-line.

2) The Internet Age

The changes occurring in the way people live as a result of the Internet is only beginning. In most domains of human activity, massive paradigm shifts are being generated by this disruptive technology. 80% of all purchases in the U.S. start with an Internet search! The democratization of the music, film, and broadcasting industries is allowing both producers and consumers of content to bypass media centers to get what they want.

Major producers of big ticket products are scrambling to devise Internet strategies. Web developers are working overtime to meet the demands of rapidly changing business models.

3) Baby Boomer Exodus

The most notable pressure is the retirement exodus of the Baby Boomer generation. This group represents over seventy million people in the American workforce today that are entering retirement age between now and 2015. For some job classifications, over 50% of the work force is expected to retire within the next twelve months! While skills can be taught, the life experience of someone who has spent years in an industry or company and weathered multiple business cycles and market shifts isn't knowledge that is easily replaced or transferred. This will result in a huge deficit in skilled workers, wage inflation, and diminishing productivity.

4) Workforce Retention

Another catalytic trend emerging is the concept of "blending" one's professional and personal life. Americans by far put in more hours on the job than any other industrialized nation. The next generations of workers are much more interested in balanced living between their careers and personal interest, thereby challenging employers to think more holistically in developing their human resources strategies. You can only automate and outsource to a certain degree. Eventually, all organizations succeed or fail based on the quality of their people. In the twenty-first century people are interested in significance and lifestyle. Knowing what workers want and need will become even more important in the years ahead. This challenges organizations to seriously consider their employee hiring, development and retention strategies especially as the pool of talent becomes shallower.

"People are the greatest asset to any organization"

5) Globalization and competition

Here in the West, we seldom practice the art of long-term thinking. Everything is about how fast we can make things happen. We focus on short term gains that can allow us to flip to the next bigger better deal. However that isn't how our global competitors think. China, India and others are becoming economic super powers because their strategic thinking is fifty years or more down the road.

Japan's Toyota Motor Company is arguably the biggest automotive manufacturer in the world. That didn't just happen in the last few years, it was part of the vision they cast over forty years ago and they have stayed the course.

The companies that prepare themselves for the changes coming regarding these five trends will be positioned to take advantage of them better than their competition. Change management can no longer be reactive and passive, dealing with problems of change as they are required. Business leaders must learn to be to proactive in planning for the changes.

Human resources, marketing and sales divisions must be transformational in their planning regarding these trends.

These changes also imply that individuals should examine their future plans. What skills can you develop in an Internet-driven world that will make your visits to the bank be for deposits rather than withdrawals? What do you need to learn about the Internet that will position you well for the future? As Boomers retire, those who don't can be in demand if they have the skills and maturity that businesses will need. If you don't want to retire, how can you position yourself to be at the forefront of that demand? How can you start an Internet-based business that does not require all of your time? Is there a business you can start that will serve the changing human resource needs of businesses?

Rapid change creates danger and opportunity. The Chinese character for both words is the same. The meaning depends upon the context of where it appears. That there will be massive changes in the business environment during the next few years cannot be questioned. The dangers are severe, but the opportunities are numerous. What will you do to position your business and yourself for those changes?

This article is produced by Tri Vision Global, Inc. - TVG (http://www.TriVisionGlobal.com) TVG is a Jacksonville, Florida based firm that provides business optimization, planning, training and Internet services globally. CREDITS: Contributing authors are Steve Chelette of the Gumbo Group, Roger Gauthier and Dr. Larry D. Pate of TVG.

For further information about TVG contact media relations at press@trivisionglobal.com or 888.367.9461

PERMISSIONS: Article may be copied & reproduced, but must be published in entirety, including credits & permissions.



About The Author

Roger Gauthier

The TVG team is comprised of partners and TVG leadership. It includes Steve Chelette, Founder of the Gumbo Group, Dr. Larry Pate, CEO Bridging Peoples Consulting, & Roger Gauthier, CEO Tri-Vision Global.

Trading Options for a Living

I like to think of myself as an entrepreneur. I'm actually an accountant by profession, but really an entrepreneur at heart. Being an accountant is ok, but like any job working regular hours for someone else, it has it's drawbacks.

For example, I often get tired after lunch so wish I could take a short afternoon siesta, to perk myself up for the rest of the day (they even say that people who do this live longer, but that's another story). So it was often during those "after lunch" hours when I was pushing myself to concentrate on numbers when I just wanted to float away into dreamland, that my heart would wish I had the freedom to do as I pleased, when I pleased.

Then I found option trading.

I went to a seminar run by a guy named Nik Halik back in July 2002. I remember it was a pretty full-on weekend and very motivating. I came away from there, feeling like I had found what I always wanted to do. With the discovery of option trading, my whole view of the sharemarket changed. I realized that, when properly understood, options provide the advantage of flexibility that ordinary share trading does not. This is because options have so many more variables than just buying and selling shares - and you can use these variables to your advantage.

When you buy shares, you simply buy at a certain price and hope to sell it for more. But options have "strike prices", "expiry dates", 'implied volatility", "in and 'out of' the money" factors.... all of which allow you far greater flexibility in adjusting your position as you see the market direction forming. When buying shares, you simply buy and hope you've got it right, but with options, if the market turns against you, you can always salvage your position. Some options can also be purchased as a form of "insurance" on shares you already own.

The other advantage with options is that you can buy different types of options, depending on your view of market direction. If you think the price of a share will rise, you can buy a call option, but if you think it will fall, you can buy a put option.

But the "wow" factor with options really comes into play when you realize that you can also "write" or "sell" an option contract, in a way that allows you to create it out of nothing. Then if you start combining the buying and selling of different option contracts on the same underlying share, simultaneously, you are talking "spreads". Spreads can be either debit (ie. they cost you money) or credit spreads (ie. you receive a net credit to your broker account from the deal).

If a share price action is narrowing into a small range and you feel it is going to break out soon, but don't know which way, you can take an "each-way" bet. You buy an equal number of call and put options with the same expiry date and wait for the move. When the share price breaks out, the move is usually large enough so that the profit from the winning option pays for the losing one and gives you a nice net profit.

I've done very well with options. I tried trading CFDs for a while, but found them very volatile and inflexible instruments. I would often be right on my general expectation of market direction, but was "stopped out" before from intra-day fluctuations before the move took off. You can avoid this with options and go on to make your profit.

Options are beautiful things.

For further information about option trading and associated strategies, you really should take a look at Nik Halik's material. You can discover more about his stock market education at http://www.nikhalikreview.com

Look at Retirement Planning

Retirement Plans - Does Conventional Wisdom Work?

Both Wall Street and Corporate America are very fond of retirement plans like 401K and SIMPLE and SEP. Have you ever asked yourself why? Being somewhat cynical, I have: and the answer I came up with was disturbing at best.

For financial institutions, the retirement plan permits them to charge much higher fees then they ever could collect under the old fashioned defined benefit plans. For corporations, retirement plans allow the employer to shift investment risk and funding cost to employees. Presto, two problems solved: Revenue generation and risk transfer.

As a professional and small business person, preparing for your own future, does the conventional wisdom of retirement plans really work for you?

Before we answer that question, let’s first talk about the 5 great risks of retirement plans: Savings Risk, Investment Risk, Longevity Risk, Government Rule Change Risk and Tax Risk.

Savings Risk is the risk that you will not be able to save enough in your retirement plan to provide an adequate retirement.

Investment Risk is the risk that even if you do save enough, you will choose the wrong investments and lose all or part of what you have saved.

Longevity Risk is the risk that even if you save enough and wisely invest, you will outlive your retirement plan value and be destitute in your final years.

You are in a partnership with the government and you are the minority partner. The government can change how much you can contribute, the tax treatment (now and in the future) and just about anything else any time they want. This is Government Rule Change Risk. Example: at one time there was a penalty for accumulating too much money in retirement plans: 15% excise tax on amounts over $750,000. By the way, that penalty has been suspended (not eliminated).

Tax risk is the risk that when you go to use the money you have saved, you may be in a higher tax bracket. Taking into account the situation in regards to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, not to mention the war in Iraq there are a few questions to ask yourself. Will taxes go up, down or stay about the same in the next 20 years? Will my retirement assets be positioned to take advantage of the tax situation at that time?

This is the part of the article that most experts would begin to tell you how to overcome each of the above risks. The problem with applying conventional wisdom to such issue is that it doesn’t always work. This goes back to my point of why corporations and financial institutions want you to buy into retirement plans – they have their own agenda. That agenda doesn’t necessarily work for your benefit.

You can use techniques to offset the individual risks, but sometimes, that very effort creates other risks and problems. Let’s use longevity risk as our example. You can offset longevity risk by using what’s called an immediate annuity. An insurance company agrees to take your retirement account value and promises to pay you an income for the rest of your life – no matter how long you live. Sounds good because you’ve offset the risk, but there is a cost. First, you lose control of that money. Once it’s in the hands of the insurance company, you can’t change the payment structure – even in the case of an emergency like illness. If you die after receiving a couple years of payments – your heirs loose all the money. Of course, you can set up the annuity to pay you for your life and include payments for a certain period or guarantee payments to a spouse, but you get much less income in those scenarios. PLUS, you pay a big fee to the insurance company when you purchase this product.

As business owners and professionals we must think about retirement planning as more than just accumulating money in a retirement plan. While we accumulate, we should be thinking about how that money will distribute to us when we need it and how it will be conserved as we reach the end of our lives.

- If a retirement plan builds wealth while we are working, but that is eroded by risks before retirement – is it really wealth?

- If taxes eat a large chunk of our retirement plan just when we need to use it – can we really count it as wealth?

- If we can’t pass on the money in our plan without paying multiple levels of tax – are we really building wealth?

The take away wisdom: The only way to make progress towards your goal of a comfortable retirement is to focus on how all the pieces work together to efficiently build wealth, allow you to spend it and pass it on. The “Micro-Economic” management of risks and benefits, when it comes to planning for retirement, just won’t get you any further ahead. If you take away only one idea from this article let it be that the better the phases accumulation, distribution and conservation integrate and coordinate together towards your goals, the better off you will be now and in the future.

Action Plan: I recommend that professionals and business owners thoroughly review their choices when it comes to retirement planning. Everything you have in your financial model can (and should) be used for your retirement. A comfortable retirement is about more than just starting a retirement plan or buying a hot investment. Retirement planning starts with coordinating and integrating the phases of your life while using the efficiency of money to build the most wealth you can (while controlling risk).

Joan Gilles is a Financial Coach. She helps business owners and professionals get really clear about what it is they want financially. Then, she gives them a model and tools to get it. Because. you deserve to have everything you desire. What makes her different is she does her work without taking money out of a business or personal pocket. She can be reached at 651/578-2961 or jmgilles@pressenter.com