Leading People.

The cult of the heroic leader remains strong. -- Loren Gary, editor

Effective leaders are not born with the gift of knowing how to lead. Rather, they gain experience, they absorb knowledge, they see and listen to the world around them - both inside the organization and beyond.

Effective leaders are also capable of assuming the leadership qualities needed for specific situations. There are many kinds of effective leaders -- among them are the charismatic leader, the transformational leader, and the pragmatic leader -- but these distinctive qualities can blend together in one person in different ways at different times.

Charismatic leaders seem to shine

A charismatic leader may seem to be born with a gift to inspire. Particularly during a crisis, people turn to this powerful voice for a grand vision and hope for solutions. Such a leader can clarify the situation for his people and instill the confidence they need. People feel safe handing off a problem to this type of leader.
What makes charismatic leaders such champions? They differ from the norm in greater self-confidence, energy, enthusiasm, and unconventional behavior. Charismatic leaders tend to:
• Have a clear, fresh, new, and creative vision
• Be completely devoted to their vision
• Make great sacrifices to achieve their vision, taking personal risks - financial, professional, social
• Create a sense of urgency among their followers
• Gain the absolute trust of their followers (and also fear)
• Use persuasion rather than forceful commands or democratic appeals for consensus to influence their followers

A charismatic leader is most successful during a crisis. For example, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a charismatic leader who led the United States out of the Great Depression and readied the nation for World War II. On the other hand, Adolf Hitler was also a charismatic leader who gave his defeated nation a new vision of power and might. Thus, charismatic leaders can have great power and influence, but how they use it determines whether their inspiration works for good or not.

However, most organizations are not in a continual state of peril. A lofty vision for achieving a grand mission may not be attainable, and the value of inspiration may dissolve into a need for everyday, step-by-step progress. Thus, charismatic leaders are not always the best type of leader.

"[The charismatic leader is] supposed to have the 'gift of tongues' with which he [can] inspire employees to work harder and gain the confidence of investors, analysts, and the ever skeptical press."
--- Rakesh Khurana, professor

Transformational leaders focus on the people and the task

Unlike charismatic leaders, transformational leaders remold an organization not through the force of their own personality but by appealing to their people, gaining their trust and respect. Transformational leaders achieve results by paying close attention to their group or team as they
• articulate a clear and compelling vision
• clarify the importance of the vision's outcome
• provide a well-defined path to attain the vision
• use symbols to realize their vision
• act with confidence, optimism, and self-determination
• encourage their people to work as a team rather than as individuals to reach the organization's goals
• empower people to make good decisions for the benefit of the whole
What makes transformational leaders effective is their ability to make their vision a clear, identifiable goal that can guide their team's actions to meet the goal.

They trust their people, provide the resources they need, and encourage them to move forward.

Pragmatic leaders -- from the ideal to the real

The most apparent characteristic of pragmatic leaders is their focus on the organization rather than on people. Pragmatic leaders face the realities of business environment; they listen to and understand the truth, whether good or bad, hopeful or daunting. They are effective because they
• have a vision that is recognizable as a variation of the status quo
• listen carefully to their people
• make realistic decisions for the good of the organization
• manage by the numbers
• put the right people in the right positions to get the job done
• delegate responsibilities to people they can trust

Pragmatic leaders may not be as flamboyant or exciting as other types of leaders, but they get the job done. Pragmatic leaders are most effective when an organization is going through rough times or when the business environment is too turbulent to see far ahead, when a short-term, familiar vision is necessary.
After all, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were successful in attaining the goal of their Northwest journey. When they reached the Pacific Ocean in April 1805, Lewis wrote that he was "much pleased at having arrived at this long wished for spot."
Effective leaders are future-focused

In general, leaders who are effective now and in the future have learned how to be:
Future-focused: They create a vision, articulate it to their group, and stick with it. They understand how their unit or organization fits into the larger picture, and they organize short-term tasks according to long-term priorities.
Comfortable with ambiguity: They are willing to take calculated risks, can handle a certain level of disruption and conflict, and are willing to change their minds when new information comes to light.
Persistent: They can maintain a positive, focused determination in pursuing a goal or vision, despite the obstacles.
Excellent communicators: They know how to write clearly, listen closely, run meetings, make presentations, negotiate, and speak in public.
Politically astute: They have acquired a solid sense of their organization's power structure, listen carefully to the concerns of its most powerful groups, and know where to turn for the support and resources they need.
Level-headed: They know how to stay calm in the midst of turmoil and confusion.
Self-aware: They know themselves enough to realize how their own patterns of behavior affect others.
Caring: They have a demonstrated ability to empathize with other people's needs, concerns, and professional goals.
Humorous: When the situation warrants it, they know how to inject a little mirth to relive tension within a group.
Tip: Be the change you want to bring about -- model the behaviors you're trying to encourage.

Excerpted from:
Leading People

Body Language

According to a University of Southern California study, up to 55% of influence in communication comes from your 'body language'. Let's take a look at how you can control it:

First, you must understand that you can control your emotions by controlling your physiology. Some folks say that they can not seem to feel good no matter how much they 'tell' themself to feel good. Try this: Stand up. Smile. Look straight up. Put your shoulders back. Take a deep breath. Now, TRY to feel depressed. Really Try. If you'll do this exercise, you'll find that you can *NOT* get depressed when you move your body this way.


They will tell you when you start out, that you must 'fake it till you make it'. What they are trying to tell you: Move your body AS IF YOU ALREADY KNOW what you are doing, and your brain will begin to believe you do in fact know what you are doing.


If you are in tele-selling or sitting behind a desk conducting business with clients who you never see face to face: Get yourself a MIRROR. Look at yourself WHILE you sell or are talking with others. This is a strategy that will help you condition your mind and body to become aware of how you are holding your body. Ask yourself this question: Does my customer think I am a 'marshmallow' or a real business leader? Which one would you like to be?


The FIRST person you need to impact with positive body language is not others, but rather YOURSELF. If you can not influence yourself to change your emotional state of being, how can you impact others? So, HOW do you do this? Start by controlling your breath. Experiment with taking DEEP breaths, increase or slow down the speed of your breathing. The FASTEST way to change your state & body language is to change your breathing.


The Mirroring & Matching Technique: Mirror the physiology of the customer or person you wish to influence. If they are down, go down to their level. If they are UP, come up to their level. If they are talking fast, you talk fast. If they are slouching, you slouch. Then, as you talking with them, slowing begin to make small changes in your body. Your goal is to bring the person you are trying to influence, into the physiology that will be most effective for getting your end outcome, and you want the other party to feel good about themself, you, and being with you.


Use exercise to lift yourself up. You can best experiment with practicing new physiology positions while at the gym, because it is totally acceptable to stretch yourself while working out. You might also want to try it at home in front of a mirror.


Demand MORE from yourself. Expect MORE from yourself. Your mind will follow the lead you dictate for your body and your life. I've found that the mind can not make up its' own mind sometimes. Start by deciding to control your body language in order to feel better about yourself. Over time, others will begin to feel better about themself while they are around you, because they are unconsciously mirroring or emulating you.

This Piece Was Submitted By Entrepreneur, Author, Business Builder and Email/Web/Internet Strategist, Christopher M. Knight.

Eat That Frog - Brain Tracy

There is one quality that one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants and a burning desire to achieve it.

Napoleon Hill

Before you can determine your "frog" and get on with the job of eating it, you have to decide exactly what you want to achieve in each area of your life. Clarity is perhaps the most important concept in personal productivity. The number one reason why some people get more work done faster is because they are absolutely clear about their goals and objectives, and they don't deviate from the.

The greater clarity you have regarding what you want and the steps you will have to take to achieve it, the easier it will be for you to overcome procrastination, eat your frog, and complete the task before you.

A major reason for procrastination and lack of motivation is vagueness, confusion, and fuzzy-mindedness about what you are trying to do and in what order and for what reason. You must avoid this common condition with all your strength by striving for ever greater clarity in your major goals and tasks.

Here is a great rule for success: Think on paper

Only about 3 per cent of adults have clear, written goals. These people accomplish five and ten times as much as people of equal or better education and ability but who, for whatever reason, have never taken the time to write out exactly what they want.

There is a powerful formula for setting and achieving goals that you can use for the rest of your life. It consists of seven simple steps. Any one of these steps can double and triple your productivity if you are not currently using it. Many of my graduates have increased their incomes dramatically in a matter of a few years, o even a few months, with this simple, seven-part method.

Step one: Decide exactly what you want. Either decide for yourself or sit down with your boss and discuss your goals and objective until you are crystal clear about what is expected of you and in what order of priority. It is amazing how many people are working away, day after day, on low-value tasks because they have not had this critical discussion with their managers.

One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.

Stephen Covey says, "Before you begin scrambling up the ladder of success, make sure that it is leaning against the right building."

Step two: Write it down. Think on paper. When you write down a goal, you crystallize it and give it tangible form. You create something that you can touch and see. On the other hand, a goal or objective that is not in writing is merely a wish or a fantasy. It has no energy behind it. Unwritten goals lead to confusion, vagueness, misdirection, and numerous mistakes.

Step three: Set a deadline on your goal; set subdeadlines if necessary. A goal or decision without a deadline has no urgency. It has no real beginning or end. Without a define deadline accompanied by the assignment or acceptance of specific responsibilities for completion, you will naturally procrastinate and get very little done.

Step four: Make a list of everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. As you think of new activities, add them to your list. Keep building your list until it is complete. A list gives you a visual picture of the larger task or objective. It gives you a track to run on. It dramatically increases the likelihood that you will achieve your goal as you have defined it and on schedule.

Step five: Organize the list into a plan. Organize your list by priority and sequence. Take a few minutes to decide what you need to do first and what you can do later. Decide what has to be done before something else and what need to be done afterward. Even better, lay out your plan visually in the form of a series of boxes and circles on a sheet of paper, with lies and arrows showing the relationship of each task to each other task.

You'll be amazed at how much easier it is to achieve your goal when you break it down into individual tasks.

With a written goal and an organized plan of action, you will be far more productive and efficient than people who are carrying their goals around in their minds.

Step six: Take action on your plan immediately. Do something. Do anything. An average plan vigorously executive is far better than a brilliant plan on which nothing is done. For you to achieve any kind of success, execution is everything.

Step seven: Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal. Build this activity into your daily schedule. You may decide to read a specific number of pages on a key subject. You may call on a specific period of physical exercise. You may learn a certain number of new words in a foreign language. Whatever it is, you must never miss a day.

Keep pushing forward. One you start moving, keep moving. Don't stop. This decision, this discipline alone, can dramatically increase your speed of goal accomplishment and boost your personal productivity.

The Power of Written Goals

Clear written goals have a wonderful effect on your thinking. They motivate you and galvanize you into action. They stimulate your creativity, release your energy, and help you to overcome procrastination as much as any other factor.

Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement. The bigger your goals and the clearer they are, the more excided you become about achieving them. The more you think about your goals, the greater become your inner drive and desire to accomplish them.

Think about your goals and review them daily. Every morning when you begin, take action on the most important task you can accomplish to achieve your most important goal at the moment.

EAT THE FROG

Take a clean sheet of appear right now and make a list of 10 goals you want to accomplish in the next year. Write your goals as though a year has already passed and they are now a reality.

Use the present tense, positive voice, and first period on so that they are immediately accepted by your subconscious mind. For example, you could write. "I earn x number of dollars per year" or "I weight x number of pounds" or "I drive such and such a car."

Review your list of 10 goals and select the one goal that, if you achieved it, would have the greatest positive impact on your lie. Whatever that goal is, write it on a separate sheet of paper, set a deadline, make a plan, take action on your plan, and then do something every single day that moves you toward that goal. This exercise alone could change your life!

Seduced By success

Success leads to the damaging behaviors of a lack of urgency, a proud and protective attitude, and entitlement thinking. This leads to the tendency to institutionalize legacy thinking and practices. Essentially, you believe that what enabled you to become successful will enable you to be successful forever.

After reviewing this problem in many companies, I believe there are nine dangerous traps into which successful people and organizations often stumble.

Trap 1: NEGLECT

Sticking with Yesterday's Business Model

By business model, I mean what you do and how you do it. It includes such issues as deciding what industry you will be competing in and what approaches you will use in carrying out all the processes necessary to compete in that industry. Will we manufacture something or contract it out? How will we sell our products or services?

Do we go through retail channels? How should we organize our sales force? Which segments of the industry do we want to ignore, and which do we want to compete in? What is the structure of our support staff? Which parts of the organization do we out source? What are our approaches to distribution and inventory management? What are the cost targets of the various components of the organization, like information technology costs and human resources costs? Does our model leave us satisfied with our gross margins, profit margins, and other such figures?

Organizations should be consistently reviewing all aspects of their business model, looking for areas that are weak and need to be overhauled. By weak, we mean out of date, too costly, too slow, or not flexible. In which areas of the business model are you at parity? In those areas, are there any bright ideas on how to achieve a competitive advantage?

TRAP 2: PRIDE

Allowing Your Products to Become Outdated

You may be super proud of your product or service today, but you have to assume that it is going to become inferior to the competition very soon. You need to hustle ad beat your competition to that better mousetrap, and you need to do it over and over.

The amazing thing about success is that it leads to a subconscious entitlement mentality that cause you to believe that you no longer need to do all the dirty work of getting out and studying consumer behavior in details, analyzing different sales approaches, jumping on the latest technology to generate improved products, and everything else that is required to stay ahead. The attitude is often one of believing that you have done all of that and have figured it out, and now things are going to be fine.

Until the early 1970s, typewriters were used to prepare documents. The IBM Selectric model was the standard. Then along came Wang Laboratories' word processor in 1976, providing a completely new approach. It displayed text on a cathode ray tube (CRT) screen that was connected to a central processing unit (CPU). In fact, you could connect many such screens to that CPU in order to handle many different users. Wang's device incorporated virtually every fundamental characteristic of word processors as we know them today, and the phrase word processor rapidly came to refer to CRT-based Wang machines. Then, in the early to mid-1980s, the personal computer emerged. Wang saw it coming but made no attempt to modify its software for a personal computer. PC-based word processors like WordPerfect and Microsoft Word became the rage, and Wang died. Wang fell into the trap of not updating its products, even though it basically invented the word processor industry.

We saw this behavior very clearly with the General Motors example. Its cars, while highly distinctive back in the 1970s, were allowed over time to look more and more alike, and the excitement factor for the customer disappeared.

TRAP 3: BOREDOM

Clinging to Your Once-Successful Branding after It Becomes Stale and Dull

Constantly achieving uniquencss and distinctiveness for a brand and also keeping it fresh and contemporary is hard work. Once a brand achieves some success, the tendency is to sit back and pat yourself on the back, allowing your brand to become dull and ordinary.

The Plymouth automobile was introduced by Chrysler for the 1928 model year as a direct competitor to Ford and Chevrolet. It was a sturdy and durable car that attracted a legion of loyal owners. Plymouth became one of the low-priced three from Detroit and was usually number three in sales, just behind Ford and Chevrolet. For almost two decades, Plymouth sold almost 750,000 cars per year and had a solid brand reputation in the low price range of being reliable but having a bit more flair than Chevrolet or Ford. Older readers may remember the 1957 Plymouth with the huge fins, as well as its Road Runner (beep beep!) model. Plymouth had a very clear brand positioning.

In the 1960s, the Plymouth brand began to lose its uniqueness. Chrysler decided to reposition the Dodge, reducing its price so that it was quite close to Plymouth's. Chrysler came out with low-priced compact and intermediate-size models under both the Plymouth trademark and the Dodge trademark. By 1982, Dodge, was outselling Plymouth. Throughout the late 1980s and the 1990s, Plymouth offered nothing unique. Sales continued to decline, while Dodge was quite healthy. In 1999 Chrysler announced that the Plymouth brand would be discontinued. The lesson is simple: when you allow brands to get stale, they die.

TRAP 4: COMPLEXITY

Ignoring Your Business Processes as They Become Cumbersome and Complicated

Successful organizations often reward themselves by adding more and more people and allowing processes to become fragmented and nonstandardized. This is often done under banner of refining the management of the business. It is also caused by business units and subsidiaries seeking more autonomy, which leads them to develop their own processes and staff resources. Before you know it, getting any kind of change made is very complicated.

Over and over again you read stories about organizations experiencing weak financial results, then finally coming to grips with the problem, laying off thousands of people and simplifying the organization.

We saw in our Toyota case study how aggressive that company is at constantly improving each and every process. Keeping that mindset of constant improvement is very difficult. Success usually leads to a decrease in the intensity with which you tackle such challenges. Also, success leads to a belief that since we are doing so well, we probably need to reward the people in the organization who are asking for their own building and lots of extra people to get them to the next level. Importunely, all those extra costs often lead to bloated processes and further fragmentation of how work gets done.

TRAP 5: BLOAT

Rationalizing Your Loss of Speed and Agility

Successful organisations and individuals tend to crate complexity. They hire a lot of extra people, since clearly things are going well, and those people find things to do, often creating layers of bureaucracy, duplicating capabilities that already exist in the organization, and making it very hard to react quickly to change.

Getting an organization to constantly think about retaining simplicity and flexibility is not easy. The account given in the previous chapter of Toyota's Global Body Line is a good example of doing it right. Toyota thought about agility ahead of time, and when it came time to build a brand-new car, such as the Prius, it didn't have to build a new plant or a new line. This enabled Toyota to get to market fast and save tens of millions of dollars compared with traditional approaches.

TRAP 6: MEDIOCRITY

Condoning Poor Performance and Letting Your Star Employees Languish

When organizations are successful, they have a tendency to stop doing the hard things, and dealing with poor performance is a really hard thing. It also becomes hard to move new people into existing jobs, because there is the burden of getting the new person up to speed and the perception that you are losing valuable expertise. Also, the really strong performers and to get ignored. Consequently, what happens in many successful organizations is that people are left in their jobs too long and poor performance is not dealt with as crisply as it should be. Unfortunately, this also leads to strong players not being constantly challenged.

Successful organizations are especially vulnerable to this trap, since companies that achieve success often have high morale and pride. And who wants to spoil the fun by dealing with the tough personnel issues, which is an onerous task for most managers? Any excuse to put it aside will be embraced.

TRAP 7: LETHARGY

Getting Lulled into a Culture of Comfort, Casualness, and Confidence

Success, and the resulting tendency to become complacent, often leads organizations and individuals to believe that they are very talented, have figured things out, have the answers to all the questions, and no longer need to get their hands dirty in the trenches. They lose their sense of urgency � the feeling that trouble might be just around the corner.

Considering our case studies on GM and Toyota, the contrast between their cultures is really striking. GM seems to exude pride and an attitude of "we are the real pro in the industry," while Toyota has a more humble personality that is all about constant improvement.

The leader of a group really sets the tone on this cultural complacency issue. The tendency is to become very proud of your success and protective of the approaches that got you there. It is those very tendencies that lead to an insular, confidence culture that makes people believe that they are on the wining team, while in reality, the world is probably passing them by.

TRAP 8: TIMIDITY

Not Confronting Turf Wars, Infighting, and Obstructionists

Success often leads to the hiring of too many people and the fragmentation of the organization. Business units and subsidiaries work hard to be as independent as possible, often creating groups that duplicate central resources. Staff groups fragment as similar groups emerge in the different business units. Before long, turf wars and infighting emerge, as who is responsible for what becomes vague.

Even worse, the culture gets very insular, with an excessive focus on things like who got promoted, why am I not getting rewarded properly, and a ton of other petty issues that sap the energy of the organization.

Another source of turf wars and infighting is lack of a clear direction for the organization and slow decision making on critical issues. When these kinds of management deficiencies occur, people are left to drift and end up pulling in different directions. That often leads to tremendous amounts of wasted time as groups argue to have it their way.

TRAP 9: CONFUSION

Unwittingly Providing Schizopherenic Communications

When an organization is success or stable, its managers often fall into the trap of not making it clear where the organization is going from there. Sometimes this is because they don't know, but they don't admit that, and they don't try to get the company's direction resolved. They do everything they can to keep all option open, with no clear effort to get decisions made and a plan developed. Such behaviors lead to speculation by the troops, based on comments that they pick up over time. Often those comments are offhand remarks that the leaders have not thought through. Or the troops hear conflicting statements coming form a variety of folks in leadership positions in the organization.

When employees receive confusing and conflicting messages and don't have a clear picture of where the organization is gong or whether progress is being made, they feel vulnerable and get very protective of their current activities. In late 1991, IBM's CEO,John Akes, announced that in the future, IBM would look more like a holding company and that "clearly it's not to IBM's advantage to be 100 per cent owners of each of IBM's product lines."

During the next 12 months, everybody was trying to figure out what he meant. And IBM made no attempt to start publishing separate financial information by product line in preparation for possible spin-offs. IBM also ignored Wall Street's suggestion that it create separate financial entries, with their own stock exchange symbols, for the products that were to be spun off. Employees and investors were confused. The IBM board of directors finally ended the drama in early 1993, announcing that Akers was leaving and a new CEO would be hired quickly. From 1987 to 1993, IBM shareholders lost $77 billion of market value.

Communications from the head of the organization, be it a small group or an IBM, are critical. People want to know where they are headed and how things are going. When the words and actions don't match, confusion reigns.

In the remaining parts of this book, I will discuss these traps in detail. In each part, I will give detailed examples of companies and individuals that in some cases have been hurt and in other cases have avoided these problems. My objective in each part is to provide specific actions that people can take to avoid the particular trap, or to rid themselves of the problem.

The illiterates of 21st Century.

The illiterates of 21'st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and learn again - Future shock.

One school of thought feels writing on a clean slate is more easy today and hence would prefer to hire outside the industry rather then look inside when ever a radical change is required. Some such experiments have yielded good results. The tribe is increasing. Managers from unrelated industries who quickly understand the basics and try to keep it simple have been successful.

Those who refuse to unlearn tend to loose out in the long run. They move into obsolescence and then develop a phobia to change. We know the case of the frog refusing to jump out even when the temperature of the water goes up.

Change is constant and change does not mean changing jobs only, it can be a change in the way one works, behaves or manages stakeholders.

Grow ur Bussiness

15 Powerful Ways to Grow Your Business This Year
by Jim Cathcart, CSP, CPAE

1. Notice more . Grow your awareness (of money, needs, expenses, what's coming, what's working, where gaps are...). Know where you stand.

2. Give more than you have to. Practice up-serving not just "up-selling," (exceed your customer's expectations). Grow your impact on customers. The quickest way to get a raise is to give your customers and your company a raise through your performance.

3. Grow your profit per sale/account. Provide more value to the customer at an even lower cost to your company. Customers are assets, invest in them constantly.

4. Grow your ability to deliver value. Increase your possibilities (available credit, experts, investors, colleagues, partners, advisors, connections and ways to connect). Grow your technology. The better your tools, the better your results. Seek resources which can speed or refine your ability to deliver value.

5. Grow your freedom and flexibility (low inventory of materials, high availability to deliver, high inventory of sales to come). Stay financially light on your feet. Grow your savings and investments.

6. Grow your existing markets. Do more business with current customers and further penetrate each market.

7. Grow your image and market presence. Gain more share of mind. Improve and enhance your reputation as a true professional.

8. Grow your pipeline. Build a larger and better reservoir of future customers. Do next year's prospecting now. Identify more qualified buyers.

9. Grow your inner circle (your closest contacts). Take extra good care of the primary people in your career. Help them grow. Acknowledge them often. They'll become even better resources for you.

10. Grow your virtual work force. Find talent that can expand your capabilities without increasing your payroll expenses. Form strategic alliances and connect with expert vendors and colleagues.

11. Grow new markets. Get outside your usual channels. Ask, "who else could benefit from what we do?" Expand your thinking.

12. Let others sell for you. Grow your referrals. Seek new testimonials and endorsements. Capture examples of how others have benefited from what you do.

13. Serve your community. Be a responsible citizen. Make the places where you live and work better because you and your business are there.

14. Grow your industry . Advance the craft in what you do. Join your industry association. Write articles, teach others, and support your profession.

15. Grow your caring, compassion and sensitivity . Become known as someone who genuinely cares about making a difference. If you don't care about others why should they care about or listen to you?

©2002 Jim Cathcart, Lake Sherwood, CA

The 8 keys to Success.

An Essay And Thoughts on What It Takes To Reach Your True Potential
David H. Lyman

For years, I have been lecturing to CEOs, artists, photographers, filmmakers and other creative people on what it takes to be successful - successful at least at being who they can be, not necessarily who others think they should be. I've interviewed hundreds of successful artists, counseled hundreds of students and working professionals on their way up and a few on their way down. I've also looked at my own career, talents and motivations along the way, and come to the conclusion that there were eight keys to being successful. When I started there were five keys; in a few years, when I am wiser, then maybe I'll have 10 keys, but for now eight keys seem enough. Here they are in their order of importance.

#1: PASSION

Passion is that "demonic compulsiveness" that John Gardner talks about in his book, "On Becoming a Novelist." It's what fires any creative person, something that gets you angry, or something you love and want to share. It's ambition, a vision for your future, dim though it may be. That vision leads to setting goals, long-term goals (I want to be a photographer) and short-term goals, (what camera do I buy?). I ask everyone I interview, have you written down your goals? Most people have not. Have you? Do you know where you'd like to be in five years? I do. I have written it down, so that at year's end, or on some quiet evening, I can look at what I've written and reflect on where I've been, and where I'm going ? how far along the path I've come and how far I've got to go. Often, I realize I've reached my goals and need to be dreaming about new horizons, new challenges and new goals. Write down your goals. They will tell you what to do for the short-term goals ? what books to buy, skills to develop, workshops to take, exercises to do to get better.

#2: ABILITY TO ACCEPT A RISK

I do not know anyone who has succeeded who has not been able to assess and take a risk and then live with the consequence - success or failure. Risk avoidance is a sure way to remain mediocre; being safe does not promote personal growth. Failure or making a mistake is not a bad thing; it's proof you were exploring new ways to do something, and that's better than safe success. We learn from our mistakes, not our successes. Really creative people embrace risk. They can sustain a high level of ambiguity; they do not need to know where they are. They do not mind being lost, for they call it just taking the longer, more interesting way around.

#3: HIGH SELF-ESTEEM

You think well of yourself. You are not boastful or egotistical, but do have an honest understanding of your talents, handicaps and are working toward getting better.

#4: PERSISTENCE

You have just done this long enough. How long is long enough? Well, it will take 10 years. I have asked hundreds of accomplished photographers, writers, filmmakers, painters and musician how long it took before they felt they were able to speak from a source within. Ten years was been their unanimous answer.

If it takes 10 years, then how do you spend the time wisely? It will take at least two years to acquire 70 percent of the craft you will need to work in your medium. It will take another eight years to acquire the next 20 percent of your craft. At 90 percent, you will have mastered your craft, but there is that 10 percent that will take a lifetime to acquire. In the meantime, while working to master your craft (the technical skills and processes for working in your medium) you will also be learning and acquiring a personal vision, your ability to see, to observe, to create and discover things. This is difficult at first, but the older you get the wiser and more aware you become. Craft and vision are your tools for inner exploration.

Persistence takes discipline. Discipline is simply doing what you know you need to do, even though you don't feel like doing it. The first thing is knowing what to do. Most people do not know. You are reading this, so you are interested in finding out what to do. Make a list. Next, find the willpower to do what's on the list. This is the most difficult part of all the keys - finding the positive willpower to do what you know you need to do. We all wrestle with discipline for it does not come easily, not even for the most successful.

#5: BEING NICE TO WORK WITH

Why is being nice important? Because it will be other people who will help you acquire the craft, help you discover and develop your vision, give you a job, introduce you to opportunities. People want to help others, but only if they show a willingness to work, to contribute and are nice to have around. People want to have positive, enthusiastic people around, people who will solve problems, not create them.

#6: WHO YOU KNOW

If you are nice to work with, the next will follow. You need to know and be known by people who will help you, hire you, buy your work, and give you advice. Here is a list of people you need to know and be known by:

Good Teachers - People who know what you need to know and can teach it to you in a way that you learn it.

Coaches - People who know your limits and your potential and will help keep you close to your "edge" of learning and growing.

Peers - Your friends and classmates, people who are on the same rung of the ladder as you, who are striving as you are.

Masters - People who are successful in their careers who can look at your work, your process and your career and give you valuable feedback, feedback you will accept and follow.

Mentors - A master with whom you have established a working relationship, someone who is wiser, accomplished and will help you understand the limits and possibilities of your projects, your process and your creative life.

Your Clients - The people who will buy your work, give you assignments, hire you.

#7: MASTER YOUR CRAFT

Learn a craft, so you have a tool with which to earn a living. This tool can also be used to explore life - outwardly and spiritually inwardly - as you search your soul for the reasons of your existence.

#8: TALENT

Talent is the last thing you need. You have to have some of it, but you do not need a lot. Too much talent is often a handicap. Things come too easily and there is little incentive to push, to make use of the talent. I know highly talented musicians who refuse to perform in public, photographers who are so arrogant no one wants them around, filmmakers whose egos are so inflated they are a pain to deal with, and others who are so impatient at getting what they want, they never master anything and, therefore, never do succeed. I prefer to surround myself with positive, successful people, young people who are enthusiastic even though they have yet to find or develop what talent they may have.

A talent is the natural ability to do something extraordinary. We all can do a lot, but some people have been gifted with talents that go beyond what others can do. What are you talented at? Do you know?

Success is not a matter of being talented. Notice it is last on the list. A little bit of talent, combined with the other seven keys, will lead you to success. I know many people who are talented, but lack one or more of the other seven keys and they fail to succeed.

Do not blame your lack of success on your lack of talent. It will be your attitude that will determine your altitude, not your talent or lack thereof.

Breathe Your Stress Away

By Devananda Tandavan

Stress is a natural and necessary consequence of living. But there’s no need for us to be subject to it in abnormal amounts. Any influence that perverts or abuses the expenditure of our energy toward our desired functions is stress.

When excessive, it produces undesirable reactions, both physical and mental. Examples of stress symptoms are: overeating, drug or alcohol abuse, excessive smoking, glued to the TV, loss of appetite, boredom, twitches and tics, inability to concentrate, persistent worry and fear, hopelessness, depression, sudden lapses of memory, disturbed sleep, sudden feelings of hyper-elation, frequent colds and illness, aches, muscle cramps and chronic fatigue. It’s easy to have any one of these symptoms in a very subtle form and tend to pass it off as not important.

Recognizing The Symptons
Adequate stress management, or coping with stress, must start by recognizing the underlying symptoms, then doing something about it. Our Hindu yoga practices alleviate stress – a fact which Western medicine is just now recognizing.

Hatha Yoga
Hatha yoga teaches us to relax the physical body through stretching and breath control. Diaphragmatic breathing makes us aware of the condition of our body and mind. In order to strengthen the diaphragm – a muscle of respiration – we may practice “sandbag” breathing. A sandbag weighing five to ten pounds is placed upon the upper abdomen to give a slight resistance to the movement of the abdomen during inhalation or contraction of the diaphragm.

Alternate Breathing
A powerful relaxation method is “Alternate Breathing.” The basic technique is to apply slight pressure on the left nostril with the middle and ring fingers of the right hand. The thumb is used to apply a slight pressure on the right nostril. Breathe in through the right nostril, closing it after inhalation is complete and then breathe out through the left side. Then the breath is taken in through the left nostril and the exhalation is out the right. This completes one round then you start over.

Be Aware Of Ur Breathing
Breathe smoothly, slowly with no pause between inhalation and exhalation. Do three rounds of alternate breathing whenever you’re over-stressed. Awareness is drawn to breathing, and thus withdrawn from the stressful situation.

Alternate breathing may be preceded or followed by conscious, diaphragmatic and even breathing. This is a slow, deliberate inhalation and exhalation of equal length, say a count of four in and a count of four out with no pause at the change from inhalation to exhalation, or vice versa.

Benefits
Once rhythm is attained, slow down the breath until you’re exhaling twice the time that you’re inhaling; using a 2:1 pattern. This stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (slowing the heart rate), brings relaxation and reduces arousal stimulations.


Plus, meditation performed twice daily broadens our consciousness and maintains the state of living in the present. It protects us from reacting negatively to the stress of living in our fast-paced world.

Reel Them in With the Right Bait

If you're anything like a "normal" operating company, you probably have competitors. That means, of course, that your customers do have a choice. And, I guess you understand that one key thing to recognize is why customers make the choice they do.

When you think about it, they make their choice based on the difference they perceive between you and your competitors. And that means you have to add "hooks" - seemingly small (often lateral) ideas that make a major difference in perception.

One of our clients (we'll call him John) showed me how his company did it. John's company sells stationery. The situation is that John's company is bidding for a major (as in very major) account for the supply of all the account's stationery requirements. It's a mega-million dollar sale in the first year alone. Everyone else has cut their prices to the bone - everyone else except John.

He meets with the account's professional buyer and asks this simple question, "What is the most difficult thing that occurs in dealing with a stationery supplier?" John expects answers like "service" or "lack of on-time delivery." But what he gets is "reconciliation." "How do you mean?" asks a somewhat surprised John. The client talks at great length about how all the invoices come in and how it's really difficult to charge the appropriate department. John listens intently.

To cut a long story short, John suggests that his people key all the client's computer account codes into their computer so that the account numbers can now appear automatically on the invoices and statements. In addition, John suggests that his company produce a list each month showing how all the various departments are performing with respect to their stationery budgets. "Would that make life any easier?" John asks. In fact, what it's done is saved the client many previously wasted hours of labor.

They are now happy to pay John's premium prices.

John's added a hook to his product. Will it work for your product? If it works for John, maybe it will work for you, too. Just ask, "What hooks can we add?" at your next team meeting.

Remember: you are trying to hook the clients. The bait must be attractive to them. So, always discuss things with your customers. It is often said that the successful salesperson spends 80% of their time listening and 20% talking. Your customer who has the information, and you must listen to them to find out their real needs.

viva Las Vegas!

The Butterfly Customer - Capturing the Loyalty of Today's Elusive Consumer

by Susan M. O'Dell and Joan A. Pajune John Wiley and Sons, Toronto, 1997 

 "Butterfly customers" are defined by O'Dell and Pajunen to be people that flit from one store or supplier to another, always searching for a lower price or a different shopping experience. They have no loyalty to any particular store, and are always in search of a better deal or a new promotion. "Constantly in motion for the best deal, the greatest choice, the latest trend, this creature selects a store or brand apparently at random, often abandoning the tried and true for the newest, the closest, the cheapest. It's exhausting to be a butterfly and disheartening to serve one. There isn't one single store that captures all of their interest, dollars or oh-so-precious time. Consumers have been transformed from loyal, reliable and predictable patrons into transients - here today, flitting across the street tomorrow." Butterfly customers have been spawned by the proliferation of options in the retail environment, in the last few decades, including suburban shopping malls that pulled people away from traditional downtown retail and service environments, and national chains of specialty stores that can take advantage of huge purchasing power to obtain the lowest prices for consumers. This is compounded by the fact that many consumers no longer trust retailers and service providers to deliver what they say they will, and to live up to expectations. According to the authors, there are eight characteristics of Butterfly Customers: They will readily accept offers to be loyal customers (through signing up for club memberships, points programs, etc.) but these programs will not truly create loyalty they move across market segments, buying a luxury car one day and waiting in line to save $1 on a pair of socks the next they are intelligent, educated and informed they are cynical and skeptical, tending to disbelieve advertising messages and always reading the fine print they would rather switch than fight - "The current reduction in customer complaints has less to do with a great improvement in service than it does with a collective shrug. What energy the Butterfly Customer does have is devoted to switching, not fighting." they are endlessly interested in the experience of others, and word of mouth is seen to be the most trusted and reliable source of information they are not embarrassed to be Butterflies, and see this pattern of behavior as being praiseworthy in today's economy they know their own worth "It's a wonderful time to be a Butterfly as retailers and service providers everywhere strive to entice this elusive new breed of customer. Every day customers are bombarded with new concepts, new products and new services to try. And there are sales and special offers galore, all designed to lure prospective buyers from retailer to retailer, from bank to bank, from credit card to credit card, and from brand to brand looking to see what's new, what's better, what's different." From the business perspective, though, Butterfly Customers are expensive to win (as there are significant costs entailed in getting their attention in the first place), difficult to service (as they are highly demanding), and almost impossible to keep. However, all is not lost for the poor retailer....At the other end of the spectrum, the authors propose the concept of the "Monarch", a loyal customer who will return again and again because he or she trusts the retail or service operation and knows that what they expect will be what will be delivered. "The Monarch is still a butterfly. The characteristics we described earlier still describe them. They are intelligent, curious, suspicious, and know their own worth. But the Monarch is a species of butterfly which, despite taking various byways and pathways, can be counted on to return to the familiar on a regular basis. These loyal Monarch Customers are less expensive to attract. It usually doesn't take an expensive advertising campaign or give-away promotion to entice them back to your business. They take less transaction time from your staff and are quicker to buy because they are less skeptical and don't need a large amount of convincing. They are more willing to buy and less price sensitive all around." The authors describe five characteristics of Monarchs: Monarchs always return - sooner or later Monarchs often send someone in their place (i.e. recommending and referring other customers) Monarchs always have an opinion - unlike the disinterested Butterfly customers who would rather switch than fight, Monarch customers always have an opinion that they will share if asked Monarchs share their homework, and will freely provide information on what the competition is doing Monarchs are forgiving and giving: "Monarch customers have a remarkable tolerance for the sheer ordinariness of service life. They know the coffee won't always be at exactly the right temperature and even the perkiest of airline attendants sometimes has a bad day. Customers who are loyal put elasticity in their transactions with you. They allow you to screw up once in a while and often even pitch in to help when the going gets rough." So, the big question becomes how do you create Monarchs from Butterflies (or, on the other side of the coin, how do you prevent your existing loyal Monarchs from abandoning you and becoming Butterflies)? O'Dell and Pajunen maintain that it boils down to building (or re-building, as the case may be) trust with the customer. They propose the idea of the 'service kaleidoscope' - a three dimensional way of looking at a business to determine the extent to which it breeds trust in the customer. These three dimensions are: the media dimension the physical dimension the people dimension If the three dimensions are in harmony with one another, then the customer knows what to expect (and gets it), and develops a feeling of trust with the business. If the three dimensions are out of synch, then a feeling of discomfort and distrust will develop. So, for example, if the media message about a retail environment suggests that offers upscale and quality merchandise, yet the physical surroundings suggest 'bargain warehouse' and the staff are surly and untrained, the customer will experience dissonance and not trust the business. (In O'Dell and Pajunen's terms, their "trust account" will be depleted.) They likely won't be back, having turned into a Butterfly Customer for someone else. Loyal Monarch Customers can be found in those environments where the three dimensions are in accord and support one another. The authors have developed a self assessment tool for a business (which they call a '3-D audit', as it focuses on these three dimensions) and much of the book outlines the questions to be asked and procedures to be followed in undertaking this kind of assessment. Another fundamental point that they make is that there needs to be another kind of three-dimensional harmony in place for a retail or service business to work - this time between the managers, the employees and the stockholders. This underscores for them the importance of leadership in creating the kind of environment that customers will trust - as this will create profits for the business, jobs and wages for the employees, and a return-on-investment for the equity owners. One interesting point of contention for the authors that they deplore frequently throughout the book is the 'service excellence' feats that some other writers have lauded as examples of outstanding customer service (the sort of thing where a hotel front desk clerk charters a plane to return a briefcase that a guest has left). They say that these sorts of things are merely silly stories that raise expectations among consumers, but ultimately only end up costing everybody more (after all, somebody had to pay for that flight, most likely subsequent customers through prices that had to be raised to pay for all these feats of service heroism). The Butterfly Customer is an interesting (if somewhat lightweight) book, with undoubtedly several good ideas about improving retail and service offerings to attract more loyal customers. Whether it really is as possible as they seem to suggest to create and keep loyal customers in this era of ever-proliferating consumer options is an open question at this point.

10 rules to manage your boss

Jacques Horovitz | August 12, 2005

The relationship with your boss is probably the most important relationship you have at work. Boss management can stimulate better performance, improve your working life, job satisfaction, and workload. Give your boss a hand and reap the rewards.
________________________________________
When we think of managing someone, we usually think of managing our team members or subordinates. The above title appeared for the first time a few years ago in a Harvard Business Review article written by two well known socio-psychologists.

Their argument was that in modern companies, subordinates are not solely dependent on their bosses, but that today's complexity requires interdependence: the boss needs her team as well.

I have the vantage point of being an adviser to top management, a CEO, and now as Co-Director of the PED program at IMD. In addition, I have been involved in the restructuring of a major international company, which involves some 12,000 people and 12 hierarchical levels.

In order to unleash the energies and get closer to customers, we divided the group into 250 'small companies' of some 50 people each and of three hierarchical levels. To change the mindset, we organised a 20-day management seminar, during which we discussed the challenge of how to deal with bosses, who in the old structure, tended to hamper change.

The whole process forced me to crystallize my observations and previous experience and test them with the 250 managers. I have grouped the results into ten rules that try to answer some common questions asked by managers with respect to managing their bosses, with the aim of helping the relationship become more effective, foster faster decisions, better decisions and more trust.

1. Decisions: If you do not want a 'no' or procrastination, give him/her a hand
Your boss has other subordinates, other decisions to make. Thus, her (for simplicity, we use 'her' from now on in this article) best bet, if she is pressed for a decision, will be to say no. No, it is too risky; no, we do not have enough evidence; no, it is the wrong timing; no, it is off strategy, et cetera.
• To avoid the 'no' that will ruin your and your team's enthusiasm, give her a hand.

Remind her of where you left it last time you met;
• Remind her of the objective rather than rushing to the 'what' and 'how';
• Remind her of past problems encountered because a decision was not made;
• Quickly summarize the options considered, your criteria for selecting one option -- the one you are presenting;
• Tell her what you expect from her: simply to inform, to decide jointly, to share the risk, to add one criterion, to re-examine the option;
• Focus on the points where you need her help;
• Be prepared with facts/data for potential disagreements. Help her out with graphics and visuals so that the situation is grasped faster;
• After your meeting, summarize for her the decision in writing to make sure of the understanding;
• And finally, once a decision has been made, your way, her way or no way, do not criticize it externally. You have become the best defender; the best ambassador of what was decided.
2. Manage her time: You may represent only 1% of her problems, don't make it as if it is 100%.
Yes, you have preoccupations, problems to solve and issues to tackle. However, while your time is entirely devoted to them, do not expect your boss's time to be also.
• The more simple the problem or issue at hand is, the less time you should have her spend on it: prepare, summarize, and synthesize information and options. Do not confuse your more frequent problems with the most important ones.
• Book her for several meetings in advance. Nothing is more frustrating than to have to wait days, weeks or months for that extra new meeting needed in order to finalize a decision or a project.
3. An opinion: If you ask for her opinion, she will always have one.
Rare are the bosses who, when asked for their advice or their decision, will use the psychological ping-pong approach of retuning the question to the person who asked.
And their opinion may not always be that of a genius or a visionary. However, once given, the opinion becomes a constraint: was it an order? So, if you don't want your boss's opinion to thwart your achievements, to slow the speed of decision-making, or cloud the viewpoint, then don't ask for it. Best of all, don't ask if you don't need her opinion.
• Choose the right moment to avoid procrastination: not only save her time by focusing on big issues, but choose the right moment to do so. If you present an issue at the wrong moment, the chances are she will procrastinate.
• Prepare for your meeting: first because the advantage is to the one who is prepared, second because the preparation helps you reduce the time taken to come to the central issue.
• Show the forest before the trees in a discussion: if you want to avoid spending a lot of time on going back to basics before she is at full speed with you, start with the basics yourself. Remind her of the objective, where you stand today, and what you want her opinion on.
4. Information: It is not data.
Turn grapes into wine: you are supposed to analyze the results of a market survey, and not be the mailman who passes the thick document full of statistics to your boss. So be selective; be visual; group the data; bring out what is essential. Data overload creates stress, which in turn can create denial, rejection, and numbness. As a manager, you are paid to collect the grapes (data), and turn them into wine, i.e. useful information.
• Don't give her only the bad news: give her also the good news. If you keep bringing only bad news, little by little you become the bad news yourself. Don't minimize good news, because you want to focus on the problems. By doing that you contribute to creating a bad atmosphere.
• Make sure she does not get the information from others too often: sometimes by being shy about what we should give or because we think it is not relevant, we don't feed our boss with key elements. However, other people could do it before you. And then the hassle starts. "I heard that…", "Why didn't you tell me that…"
• And then you need to justify yourself; you may need to modify incorrect information. The trade off is between too little information leading to starvation, frustration, and/or restlessness vs too much information leading to overload.
• Round off: what helps more to give sense to an amount or a size: 886,262.11 or 890K? What makes the decision-making process faster: 79.27% vs 21.73% or simply 80% vs 20%. Look back at all the tables you sent to your boss in the last twelve months.
• Participate in and contribute to her informal network: every manager, hopefully, does not rely solely for managing on formal information given in internal documents and reports. Some people use internal informal networks. Some others also have an informal outside network of experts, friends, business connections that help them shape their vision of the world and how to act. You have yours; your boss has too. Why not volunteer part of yours, so that you do not always have to react and be defensive about information fed by people you do not necessarily think are the best sources?
5. Problems: Don't just come with problems, come also with solutions.
Good bosses hate two kinds of behavior. The courtesan who always comes to tell you how great you are and the pyromaniac/fireman who comes to tell you "There is a huge problem" and then says "but don't worry, I will solve it!"
There is also a third kind, the monkey transferor. She has a problem and she puts it on your shoulders, rather than bringing a solution or at least some options.
Problems usually have several aspects. It is usually a gap between an objective and the result; there are options to close the gap; there is a choice of one option to be made; key tasks, dates, people and resources needed must be defined.
On which of those steps in problem solving do you want your boss's input? Just be clear on what input you want rather than come with the stressful -- "I have a problem…" and throw the monkey.
6. Assumptions: Do not assume she knows as much as you do, but assume she can understand; so educate her. Please help, you are the expert. You spend all of your time and that of your team on the issue. You live with data, pressure points and levers; your boss does not. She does not know more than you do.
Most senior executives are even dangerous when they get involved in making micro-decisions, as their point of reference is often not the current one but rather the situation they knew when they were junior managers.
If you need her perspective, it is because it is broader; she has a better sense for inter-relationships with other parts of the organisation. You have two options.
• You inundate her with technical stuff she does not understand, hoping that the amount of technical jargon will knock her down and force her to agree with you. It may work, but it may become a barrier in communication leading to lack of trust.
• You educate him by simplifying, using easy to understand language, feeding him with articles, examples, best practices, summaries that help him see a perspective. By creating understanding, you relieve tensions; create trust that can lead to better decision-making.
7. Delegations: Constantly test the waters.
It is not always easy to define ex ante what is delegated to a person. Some companies prefer to use the principle of subsidiary rather than the principle of delegation: the principle of subsidiary stipulates that you can do everything except the following list, whereas in the principle of delegation you stipulate, "you cannot do anything except…"
Whichever is used, there will always be some doubt whether you have or do not have the delegation. You have two options: either you play it safe by always asking your boss's opinion. This can lead to paralysis, bottlenecks and your own demise, as your boss will think you are unable to take responsibility.
Or you assume too much, take decisions and learn after the fact that it was not yours to decide. In between, there is the 'test the waters' strategy especially for things or areas, domains or steps that are unprecedented.
8. Promises: Do not promise what you cannot deliver, and avoid surprises, trust is at stake.
Trust does not develop overnight and depends a lot on the predictability of the other person: what she says and does, how often she is living up to or not living up to her statements. In the same way, you will not fully trust your boss if she changes her mind too often or says things contrary to what you were told the last time.
You also want to avoid being seen as unreliable by not delivering on what you promise or surprising her with bad news without forewarning.
Do not promise dates for finishing projects you cannot handle. If you see that too much is asked of you, sit down and re-discuss priorities before proceeding, rather than becoming yourself a bottleneck. Involve your boss in the process, so it becomes a common priority.
Avoid bad surprises. If your job is to be in charge of a particular area, then it is also to be in charge of bad results and improving them.
Involve your boss in discussing and evaluating the risks, agreeing on key lead indicators that you will both share, so that neither you nor he will be surprised. For instance, whereas sales are not a good lead indicator, future orders or bookings can be. Cash in the bank is not, whereas good cash flow three months in advance is.
9. Differences: Manage differences in culture.
Sometimes at IMD we use a questionnaire called the Power Map to help participants identify their own culture (i.e. values they cherish, leading to certain behaviors), to identify other executives' profiles and discuss consequences on communication and leadership in a team.
To simplify, the four main types of profiles that our survey identified are:
• People who like to 'control things' and introduce processes, develop more the 'now';
• People who are more concerned with people, develop more the impact on people;
• People who are more concerned with getting things done, start with key actions;
• People who are more concerned with ideas, frame proposals in concepts.
Of course, in managing your boss you should know her personal inclination, as well as your personal bias. If you are process oriented, you will tend to present issues in a systematic and orderly fashion, with pros and cons, chronology of tasks, etc.
If your boss is the action type, she could be bored. So in that case an executive summary, emphasizing the key actions and results would be a handy starting point.
10. Trust: Don't be sloppy in your documentation. It undermines trust.
By making the assumption that she will check what we write or say anyway, and that she will make changes, we sometimes tend to be sloppy in our writing. Tables are not finished, text is not re-read, places we are going to are not visited beforehand, spelling is not checked, and information is missing...

By not finalizing your facts, arguments, memos, spelling, supporting documents, etc., you can be sure some things will get changed, mistakes corrected. And soon you will be asked to show more facts and figures, and you will see more changes, more amendments. Soon all the delegation you had will be gone.

Conclusion Better work between a boss and his subordinate is not just a matter of leadership. It also has to do with boss 'management', which can stimulate better performance, faster decision making and accomplishment of more … by both parties.

Jacques Horovitz is Professor of Service Strategy, Service Marketing & Service Management at IMD, one of the world's leading business schools.

Turbo Strategy

21 Powerful Ways to Transform Your Business and Boost Your Profits Quickly
By Brian Tracy

Businesses are run mostly on auto-pilot and any problem areas are only dealt with when they are already critical, but by then it may already be too late. Most business managers are too busy with the day-to-day work to sit back and look at the business critically in terms of its context and the direction it is going. Brian Tracey's Turbo Strategy provides a checklist of areas that should be regularly examined by all businesses to ensure that it remains on the right path towards success and profitability.

In the book, the author introduces practical techniques that will help you come up with strategies and more importantly turn up profit quickly:

The answers have changed – most businesses operate the way they do because they are “tried” strategies, not because it is efficient and profitable.
Flexibility is essential – from time to time, it is important to take a step back and reevaluate the situation, then do something about it.
The one true measure – two basic questions you need to ask everyday “What is working?” and “What is not working?”

Conduct a Basic Business Analysis

Whenever you go in for a complete medical exam, the doctors and nurses follow a set procedure. In the same way, there are basic business examination questions that you need to ask and answer continuously to determine the overall health of your organization. Remember the following:

The Customer as Centerpiece.
Determine What You Sell.
Define Your Competitor.
Set Clear Goals.

Design Your Ideal Future
Practice Idealization. To do this you must think of what your company would look like five years from now if everything were perfect. Then think in terms of possibilities. Are the goals you set achievable in five years?

Create a Mission Statement and Determine Your Values
A mission statement is essential to an organization because it gives meaning and purpose to the people in their daily activities and work. It inspires loyalty, commitment and become a key factor when making business decisions and when you are clear then you can easily revisit your mission statement and follow its guidelines.

Select the Right People
The two key qualities in finding the best people are that they can be counted on to get the job done well and to get it done on time. Another quality is that they should be good team players.

Market More Effectively
The four essential elements of marketing are: specialization, differentiation, segmentation, and concentration. All marketing elements are important but you should constantly evaluate what you are doing. Remember that the market is changing and changing fast! You may have to change one of your strategies or more than one at the same time.

Analyze Your Competition
You have to know your competition. You have to find out why the customers buy from them, what values and benefits do they get from buying from them. The biggest mistake you can make is to belittle your customers. You have to study them and learn from them.

Three Potential Areas of Superiority
1. Operational Excellence
2. Lead the Field
3. Be Close to the Customer

Change your Marketing Mix

Product – define your product or service in terms of what it “does” for your customers.
Price – be open to the possibility that you may have priced your products or services wrong.
Promotion – this encompasses everything you do in the process of marketing, advertising and sales.
Place – this is the location where the sale of your product takes place.

Position Your Company for Success
Social proof is a major influencing factor to determine whether or not people buy your products or services. Your reputation is the value that people will pay for. Building a brand trust requires personal experiences by people with your products or services. It is very much like a personal reputation that takes a long time to build but can be damaged or destroyed overnight with bad decisions.

Develop Strategic Business Units
The strategic business unit concept revolutionized multi-product or multi-service businesses; each of the products is grouped with similar products or services in different ways. The starting point of implementation is to have someone specifically responsible for the operations and results of the unit. To make this work, you begin by drawing up a complete business plan that would include sales revenue, costs and profitability.

Sell More Effectively The fact is that 80 percent of your markets have not yet been approached by your salespeople. No one has told them about you. Your business could be probably being selling twice as much if you could just find out how to sell it to them.

Eliminate the Bottlenecks
There are two important steps that you need to take. First, decide on your specific business goals; make them clear, measurable and time-bounded. The next step is asking the question: “why am not in that goal already?”

Reengineer Your Company
To simplify and streamline your operations so that it is more efficient, faster and more effective and therefore more profitable, you have to reduce the number of steps in each process. You have to simplify the processes and make faster and better decision.

Pump Up Your Profits Conduct a complete profit analysis on every product. You must also remember that labor has a real “opportunity” cost along with other use of other resources especially in a multi-product or multi-services business.

Focus on Results
All your customers care about is results. They do not care much about your problems with your people, products, processes or any other aspects of your business.

There are four questions that customers answer before buying the product or service. These are:
What does it cost?
What do I get for the money?
How fast do I get the benefits you promise?
How sure can I be that I will get those benefits?

Seven Steps to Personal Performance
Step 1: Set clear, specific, written goals for each important area of your business. Make them measurable and time-bound.
Step 2: Make a list of activities before you begin a day, put it on paper. The best time to do this is before you go to bed so the subconscious mind can work on your list as you sleep.
Step 3: Set priorities on the list you made. Apply the 80/20 rule and select the top 20 percent of your tasks to work on.
Step 4: Practice creative procrastination. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, decide in advance which of those tasks have little value or importance can you do away with.
Step 5: Select the one most important job and have the discipline to accomplish that first thing.
Step 6: Practice single-handling with the most important task you have identified. Resolve to work on it until it is resolved.
Step 7: Develop a sense of urgency. The faster you move, the more work you get done and the better you feel. This will create momentum

7 top skills for great relationships

by Leslie D'Souza.

The author is President, Grid Organisation Development, Mumbai, India.

Regardless of size, industry or nationality, the future of an organisation is determined by its culture. The Grid theory empowers people to create relationships built on candour, confidence, mutual trust and respect. How can that happen in just four-and-a-half days? Leslie D'Souza explains.

For some people, achieving results is all-important. For some, other people matter most: what they feel, think and say. Life events detach some people from reality: they are neither interested in people nor results.

And for others, results and concern for people go hand in hand, one complementing the other. People express their concern for results in different ways. A production manager focuses on volume and quality of production, a sales person on sales results.

A high level of concern for people means the ability to understand and anticipate how others feel, and to consider the impact of certain actions. A low level of concern for other people means avoidance of meaningful interactions and limited direct communication.

There is also a third dimension: motivation, which addresses the basic question, "How is a person motivated for life?" and reflects fundamental values and attitudes that people hold. Motivations that are hard to identify and articulate, clearly reveal themselves through Grid.

Grid styles

In practice, seven distinct styles stand out. These distinct styles emerge when the two concerns (concern for results and concern for people) meet. Studying how the two concerns relate mutually is the key to understanding the styles.

For example, a person has a high (degree of 9) concern for results. She expresses that concern in strikingly different ways if the interacting concern for people is low or high. If it's low, then she comes across as domineering and unilateral, with little concern for the other person's feelings. If it's high, she works in collaboration with the other person to strive for high results.

Reality and self deception

The Grid theory of leadership styles helps define how people relate to one another: how they see themselves, and how others perceive them . Most people carry a clear self-image of their personal effectiveness.

This personal image is however, seldom objective. People evaluate their own actions based on what they intend to achieve and rationalisation protects that self-image. But, when they look at others, they only see the other person's actions, not the underlying intentions.

This protective reaction is a subtle form of self-deception that everyone experiences to some degree. The higher up a person is, the more others say what they think she wants to hear, and the less they confront problems. Lack of candour perpetuates self-deception and blocks improvement.

Can I change my style?

If the manner in which we relate to results and people is based on assumptions and if we can change our assumptions to fit reality; it is possible for us to change our Grid style and progress towards sounder ways to relate with people. It's a journey worth pursuing. There are four basic conditions that need to occur for personal change to take place:
• Theory, insight, knowledge, experience: A sound and clearly defined Grid style allows individuals a new way of doing things, of looking at situations, and of responding to people on a day-to-day basis.
• Removal of self-deception: Personal growth centers around being able to see own behaviour objectively. The key learning comes from understanding how your behaviour is perceived and practicing ways of improvement.
• Realising the motivational gap: Realising the gap between where you want to be and where you are now creates a tension that motivates people to challenge their own self-image and seek out ways to change.
• Team support: Change efforts remain on track by involving people who work with you everyday to help you change.

How does the grid transform behaviour?

Through a two-step process:

• Defining sound and unsound behaviors in tangible terms of seven relationship skills.
• Learning structured critique skills to assess behavior objectively to make constructive suggestions for improvement without offending or creating defensiveness.

The Grid framework brings the theory into practical use by defining seven relationship skills in simple and specific terms of which behaviors do and do not work effectively:
• Critique: How do people learn from experience by anticipating and examining how behaviour and actions affect results?
• Initiative: How do people exercise effort, drive, and support for specific activities?
• Inquiry: How do people question, seek information, and test for understanding?
• Advocacy: How do people express attitudes, opinions, ideas, and convictions?
• Conflict resolution: How do people confront and work through disagreement with others toward a resolution?
• Decision making: How do people evaluate resources, criteria, and consequences to reach a decision?
• Resilience: How do people react to problems, setbacks, and failure, and understand how these factors influence the ability to move forward?

Each Grid style presents in detail the behavioural approaches to these relationship skills, and explores the positive and negative impact on others.

Is there one best style of leading?

Most management gurus and successful managers would say, "No!" Yet, I'm certain that most would not dispute the principles of 9,9 leadership listed below.

What the Grid organisation development process seeks to do is to lay the foundation for sound organisation behavior on a set of core values and principles that individuals embrace and cherish in action. The 9,9 principles are:

• Human activity and productivity gets its character from fulfillment through contribution.
• Being responsible for one's own actions is the highest level of maturity and is only possible through widespread delegation of power and authority.
• Open communication in the form of advocacy, inquiry and active listening is essential for the exercise of self-responsibility.
• Conflict is resolved by confronting the causes and building understanding and agreement.
• Shared participation in problem-solving and decision-making stimulates active involvement and commitment to productivity and creative thinking.
• Merit is the basis of reward.
• Learning from work experience happens through critique.
• Norms and standards that regulate behaviour and performance, support personal and organisational excellence.

The principles listed above do pose a challenge to business leaders and HR professionals. Should they teach managers to change their behavior to fit situations, or should they teach them to influence situations through sound principles of leadership? We only have to read the stories that unfold about WorldCom, Enron and the likes to get an honest answer.

Does the grid put people in pigeonholes?

No it does not. In fact, the purpose of Grid is not to typecast people. The Grid provides a framework to understand the differences between one person and another, and to clarify a motivational gap between ideal and actual behaviors.

Having a theoretical model helps us understand our motivation and basic orientation toward sound and unsound behaviors especially in dealing with conflicts that result from faulty coping with problems.

It offers an opportunity to under-stand how different values and beliefs influence behaviour and determine results. The purpose of Grid is to help individuals and organisations strip self-deception and migrate to the ideal.

An organisation's culture conditions the way members think, feel and act. For change to impact the bottom line, organisations must implement sound management practices and create a culture to support them. Grid advocates the 'The Change by Design' process that is often initiated through an 'organisation diagnosis.'

Emergence from a downward spiral or a stagnant pattern depends on the ability of an organisation to tap its powerful human resources and to establish a climate that promotes satisfaction and stimulates involvement and commitment to the goal of excellence.

Following diagnosis and discussions with top management, a usual first step is for the top management to participate in a Leadership Grid Seminar. Here, we focus on change by providing a basic framework for developing individual excellence and also create a readiness to move forward.

Next, we aid the organisation members to gain a comprehensive understanding of teamwork to strengthen their operating effectiveness.

Once sound leadership and team effectiveness are in use at all levels, members can employ them in shaping the future of the organisation. We then help members of the executive team design a strategic model for achieving organisation excellence.

The cycle of development is complete when an organisation has acquired the skills to plan and implement future changes.

The Essence of Leadership: By N R Narayana Murthy

A leader is an agent of change, and progress is about change. In the words of Robert F Kennedy, 'Progress is a nice word; but change is its motivator.'
Leadership is about raising the aspirations of followers and enthusing people with a desire to reach for the stars. For instance, Mahatma Gandhi created a vision for independence in India and raised the aspirations of our people.
Leadership is about making people say, 'I will walk on water for you.' It is about creating a worthy dream and helping people achieve it.
Robert Kennedy, summed up leadership best when he said, 'Others see things as they are and wonder why; I see them as they are not and say why not?'

Adversity
A leader has to raise the confidence of followers. He should make them understand that tough times are part of life and that they will come out better at the end of it. He has to sustain their hope, and their energy levels to handle the difficult days.

There is no better example of this than Winston Churchill. His courageous leadership as prime minister for Great Britain successfully led the British people from the brink of defeat during World War II. He raised his people's hopes with the words, 'These are not dark days; these are great days -- the greatest days our country has ever lived.'

Never is strong leadership more needed than in a crisis. In the words of Seneca, the Greek philosopher, 'Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.'

Values

The leader has to create hope. He has to create a plausible story about a better future for the organisation: everyone should be able to see the rainbow and catch a part of it.

This requires creating trust in people. And to create trust, the leader has to subscribe to a value system: a protocol for behavior that enhances the confidence, commitment and enthusiasm of the people.

Compliance to a value system creates the environment for people to have high aspirations, self esteem, belief in fundamental values, confidence in the future and the enthusiasm necessary to take up apparently difficult tasks. Leaders have to walk the talk and demonstrate their commitment to a value system.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, 'We must become the change we want to see in the world.' Leaders have to prove their belief in sacrifice and hard work. Such behavior will enthuse the employees to make bigger sacrifices. It will help win the team's confidence, help leaders become credible, and help create trust in their ideas.

Enhancing trust

Trust and confidence can only exist where there is a premium on transparency. The leader has to create an environment where each person feels secure enough to be able to disclose his or her mistakes, and resolves to improve.

Investors respect such organisations. Investors understand that the business will have good times and bad times. What they want you to do is to level with them at all times. They want you to disclose bad news on a proactive basis. At Infosys, our philosophy has always been, 'When in doubt, disclose.'

Governance

Good corporate governance is about maximising shareholder value on a sustainable basis while ensuring fairness to all stakeholders: customers, vendor-partners, investors, employees, government and society.

A successful organisation tides over many downturns. The best index of success is its longevity. This is predicated on adhering to the finest levels of corporate governance.

At Infosys, we have consistently adopted transparency and disclosure standards even before law mandated it. In 1995, Infosys suffered losses in the secondary market. Under Indian GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles), we were not required to make this information public. Nevertheless, we published this information in our annual report.

Fearless environment

Transparency about the organisation's operations should be accompanied by an open environment inside the organisation. You have to create an environment where any employee can disagree with you without fear of reprisal.
In such a case, everyone makes suggestions for the common good. In the end everyone will be better off.

On the other hand, at Enron, the CFO was running an empire where people were afraid to speak. In some other cases, the whistle blowers have been harassed and thrown out of the company.

Managerial remuneration

We have gone towards excessive salaries and options for senior management staff. At one company, the CEO's employment contract not only set out the model of the Mercedes the company would buy him, but also promised a monthly first-class air ticket for his mother, along with a cash bonus of $10 million and other benefits.
Not surprisingly, this company has already filed for bankruptcy.
Managerial remuneration should be based on three principles:
• Fairness with respect to the compensation of other employees;
• Transparency with respect to shareholders and employees;
• Accountability with respect to linking compensation with corporate performance.
Thus, the compensation should have a fixed component and a variable component. The variable component should be linked to achieving long-term objectives of the firm. Senior management should swim or sink with the fortunes of the company.
Senior management compensation should be reviewed by the compensation committee of the board, which should consist only of independent directors. Further, this should be approved by the shareholders.
I've been asked, 'How can I ask for limits on senior management compensation when I have made millions myself?' A fair question with a straightforward answer: two systems are at play here. One is that of the promoter, the risk taker and the capital markets; and the other is that of professional management and compensation structures.
One cannot mix these two distinct systems, otherwise entrepreneurship will be stifled, and no new companies will come up, no progress can take place. At the same time, there has to be fairness in compensation: there cannot be huge differences between the top most and the bottom rung of the ladder within an organisation.

PSPD model

A well run organisation embraces and practices a sound Predictability-Sustainability-Profitability-Derisking (we call this the PSPD model at Infosys) model. Indeed, the long-term success of an organisation depends on having a model that scales up profitably.

Further, every organisation must have a good derisking approach that recognises, measures and mitigates risk along every dimension.

Integrity

Strong leadership in adverse times helps win the trust of the stakeholders, making it more likely that they will stand by you in your hour of need. As leaders who dream of growth and progress, integrity is your most wanted attribute.
Lead your teams to fight for the truth and never compromise on your values. I am confident that our corporate leaders, through honest and desirable behaviour, will reap long-term benefits for their stakeholders.

Two mottos

In conclusion, keep in mind two Sanskrit sentences: Sathyannasti Paro Dharma (there is no dharma greater than adherence to truth); and Satyameva jayate (truth alone triumphs). Let these be your motto for good corporate leadership.

The author is Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies.

The 6 great tips for improvement

by Debashis Sarkar |

Process improvements seldom happen by accident. Debashis Sarkar argues that a well thought out plan must incorporate the 'ACCEPT' principles.
________________________________________
Process improvements are an integral part of all quality programmes. Irrespective of the type of industry, all process improvements are touched by a few principles which are vital to their success. Ignoring any of these principles can be detrimental to the expected outcome of the improvement project and their subsequent sustenance.
Whether it is process improvements through Six Sigma, Lean S, TRIZ, TOC (Theory of Constraints) or any other methodology, these principles are universally applicable. I call it the 'ACCEPT principles for process improvements.'

1. Ability of the leader to ask the right questions

Ability of leaders to ask the right questions is critical to the success of a project. The type of questions will determine the quality of process improvements. If leaders do not know what to look for, teams would get the message that they can get away with whatever is possible.

The questions of a leader should be around 'why the problem occurred', 'what is the purpose and business case', 'what will take to accomplish', 'what are the data sources', 'how would it impact the customer, business and overall system' and 'who is accountable'.

It is imperative that leaders make an effort to understand the broad approach to improvement and the type of language being used by the Improvement specialist. This is the reason why Six Sigma methodology requires leaders to go through a Champion's Workshop or a session which gives the brief on Six Sigma, what to look for and what questions to ask.

2. Commit to the right metrics

A fallout of a successful process improvement is installation of metrics. A good process management should include an optimum balance of 'result metrics' and 'process metrics.' The result metrics measure the output quality while the process metrics help in predicting the process output.

The former acts a lead indicator while the latter acts as a lag indicator. The term 'process data' is a bit of a misnomer because all data are the consequence of some antecedent event. However, we refer to these data as they provide sufficiently early indicators such that we can adjust the process before the undesirable condition occurs.

Installation of process measurements should be in two stages. In the first stage of process improvement establish a system to measure the results (outputs) through result metrics. In the second stage add a system that enables proactive management of process outcomes through process metrics.

Remember, measurements should be targetted at improving the effective-ness, efficiency and adaptability of the process.

3. Communicate 'why are we doing what we are doing'

Do not launch an improvement programme without a purpose. Bereft of a purpose there is no framework for establishing priorities, aligning efforts or judging success. Much improvement process fails because the effort is squandered in improving unimportant processes.

Further, it is imperative that all people working in the process are made aware why has the process been taken up for improvement and how does it affect the larger picture. Often the involvement levels of process teams are not adequate because they have not been sensitized on the importance of the initiative and how it would impact the business and them.

It is the duty of leaders, improvement specialist and process owners to relentlessly communicate to all concerned the purpose of the improvement.

4. Ensure system level improvement

Organisations carry out a lot local process improvements without realising how they impact the entire system. It is imperative that we understand the concept of integration and alignment of processes and how it helps in achievement of overall objectives of the system.
The processes should be managed as a system and we need to understand the process networks and their interactions. The outputs from one process may be inputs to other processes and interlinked into the overall network or system. Carry out process improvements with the overall performance of the system in mind.
The worst thing to happen is that a process is optimized but the entire system turns sub-optimal. The effort of the organisation should be to inculcate in its employees to understand systems, lead systems, and think systemically. As Fuji Cho, President Toyota Motor Company, mentions in Jeffrey K. Liker's book The Toyota Way, 'The key to the Toyota Way and what makes Toyota stand out is not any of the individual elements. . . But what is important is having all the elements together as a system. It must be practiced every day in a very consistent manner - not in spurts.'

5. Promote organic growth of capabilities

There are no off-the-shelf approach to improvements. Effective process improvements take time and need to gradually seep deep and wide. Don't set unrealistic timelines as it may lead to bogus improvements without creating the desired capabilities to carry the initiative on an ongoing basis.
Be wary of consultants who are ready to carry out improvements on your behalf. Remember, they are your greatest enemy as they shall carry out improvements without leaving back competencies with the organisation.
Improvements carried out should be self-sustaining and this is possible when there is sufficient number of trained employees within the organisation. In the early days management push may work but in the long run sustenance requires motivated individuals who have the relevant competencies.
The competency development should be in the following areas:
1. Quality methodology used for improvement;
2. Process management and sustenance; and
3. New process.

6. Teams

Just not teams but 'effective teams' are required for process improvements. Teams are the engines that deliver successful process improvements. It is the duty of management to ensure that right teams are put in place and that they are effective.
While there are many traits, the five key characteristics of an effective team for process improvements are:
• Teams should have a clear defined purpose;
• Teams should be cross functional and have representation of all stakeholders of the process;
• Teams should be empowered to take all required decisions;
• All team members should be trained on the improvement methodology;
• Team members should have good change management skills.