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Jonathan Wild, notorious English criminal (1682-1725) picked the pocket of the priest who administered the last rites on the gallows at Tyburn. The unrepentant felon triumphantly waved his trophy, a corkscrew, just before he was dropped to his death.

There is a leadership lesson in this. And it’s a lesson many leaders miss. When you’re leading a group of people of whatever size to get results, understand that roughly about 20 percent of the people will be against you. The 20 percent won’t do or at least won’t want to do what you require and thus may perform poorly on the job.

One of the most persistent and difficult challenges of leadership is dealing with poor performers. Aside from job-related problems they engender, they also squander time and resources. “Forty percent of my time,” a CEO told me, “is devoted to dealing with ten percent of my employees.”

Mind you, I’m not talking about poor performance tied to “skill” issues. People who are not measuring up because they lack skills and knowledge to do well usually need a different intervention than people who have “will” issues.

You might make a rough equivalence between the people performing poorly on the job because of will issues with the Jonathan Wilds of the world. After all, as an upright citizen, Wild was a “poor performer.” But as a pickpocket, he was adroit.

Putting aside the specific kinds of interventions you might undertake, the important thing is your perspective. In dealing with them, you absolutely must not underestimate the skills, talents, and proficiency they bring to poor performance. They can “pick your pocket” and you won’t even know it.

You have three choices when dealing with them. You can choose to live with them as they are. You can choose to rid yourself of them. Or you can choose to intervene to try and change them. There’s no fourth choice.

Or maybe I should say there’s no first choice either. The first “choice” may be no choice at all. You probably can’t leave them alone. Poor performers are usually not content to be one-man-bands. They love company. They need to recruit others onto their poor-performance teams – or at least keep them from joining your team. In this capacity, they’re smart, adaptive, innovative, and good leaders. Your underestimating them gives them an advantage against you.

There are many ways to deal with poor performers. (Articles on my web site detail a few.) The point is that in your dealings, keep in mind you could be up against some Jonathan Wilds, those people who may be performing poorly on the job but who perform excellently in their parallel, and maybe to them more important, job — which is being against you.

2006 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at http://www.actionleadership.com

After 3 long days of a very intensive workshop in Toronto, a group of us decided to go canoeing for a day, up in Barre, Ontario (an hour north of Toronto) on the Nottawasaga River. It was a warm day, the water was warm, and no one else was on this pristine flat-water river winding through a protected swamp.

We had idyllic moments out of time, we had mishaps and laughs, and we had the slogs of carrying canoes and gear (called a portage) around logjams in the river more than a few times, as well the insufferable companionship of mosquitoes.

Why am I sharing this with you? I want to share some of the pings of the day, and the pings were all about leadership and the dynamics of leadership. It was reassuring and inspiring to see leadership arise from a number of different people in the group adding strength and depth all around.

Great leaders are always working on themselves. In this case, the leaders never stopped paddling. They led by example. In spite of the mosquitoes, they stayed focused on the objective of the day, 19 km through utter wilderness.

Exemplary leaders don’t push or manage a lot. They problem solve, then inspire and motivate the team. You can be a strong leader without being impolite. When a canoe capsized, a leader didn’t wait for the organizer to suggest it, a leader just handed people life jackets and said “Put it on”, because it was the right thing to do. Another leader figured out how to recover, right and empty the canoe.

Leadership means learning to be bold without being a bully. To build your influence, you’ve got to walk the talk in front of your group, team, or clients. You’ve got to tackle the first problem, seize the moment and make quick decisions. In our case, it was a leader choosing the portages.

Leadership also means learning to develop humor - but without folly. It’s OK to be witty but not silly, to have fun and be funny without being foolish. A leader’s response to the first person getting dunked in the river was to put a positive spin on the slight mishap — just like we all do for a baby learning to walk or a child learning to ride a bicycle. This leadership skill was brought out in many of our leaders later on the trip when we kept sinking into the mud, or shoes got stuck in the mud. One leader unabashedly sang old songs on the portages as a distraction from mosquitoes feasting on us.

Leaders are good at dealing with reality. They accept life as it is. This is not fatalism or the opposite of optimism. It’s practicality. It’s a constructive approach to the truth. On the river, when the mosquitoes and logjams got to us all late in the day, there was a dramatic switch in group dynamics. Leaders recognized what had to be done, picked up the pace and just did it without discussion, negotiation or complaining.

In the end, I think we had more fun and the adventure was more memorable because of the challenges that brought out the strengths in each of us. As leaders, we want to inspire the people around us to bring out their strengths too. So what adventure will you organize to inspire the people around you?

Kerri Salls, MBA runs a virtual business school to train, consult and coach small business CEO’s and entrepreneurs in 10 key strategies to make more profit in less time. Learn more at www.breakthrough-business-school.com/products.html or sign up for a free weekly newsletter at www.breakthrough-business-school.com/newsletter.shtml

Many of the world’s most driven and successful people sleep only 4 to 5 hours per day. Do you really need to sleep 8 or more hours? No, you don’t. No one does. Reduce sleep and increase your energy? Have you ever thought of reprogramming your inner sleep clock as a time management tool? Imagine what you’d do with an extra 21 hours in your week!

A “sleep scientist” has come up with some easy to implement techniques for sleeping less, a means of programming your inner time clock for a more energized sleep, so you need less time in bed. Feel more rested, more alert and more energized than you would with the number of hours you’re currently sleeping. Yes, you really can increase your energy by decreasing your sleep! Reducing your sleep by 3 hours a night (21 hours a week) is the goal. And it is definitely achievable.

What times of day you feel tired, and how long you sleep, is determined by a number of factors, and some of these factors can be influenced by you to decrease the need for sleep. Once you understand efficient sleeping, these techniques can be utilised to increase the quality of your sleep and at the same time reduce your time spent sleeping.

Are you aware that your body temperature rises and falls during the day and night according to your body clock? Synchronising these temperature changes with your sleeping habits can and does produce remarkable results.

Jet lag is the result of these temperature fluctuations getting out of sync with your sleeping pattern. That’s why it takes so long to “readjust” to the new time zone. These revolutionary techniques can even help you beat jet lag!

You may have heard of “power napping”. This is one part of the strategy used in this powerful sleep technique. But it’s essential to use the power nap correctly. Sleep too long during your power nap, and you’ll actually cause damage to your sleep system. But power nap at the right time of the day, and learn how to speed up your body temperature rise afterwards, and you can boost your energy levels and reduce your sleep time dramatically.

This important Powerful Sleep package is available here: www.PowerfulSleep.BrigitteRecommends.com
You can even review the first 2 chapters for free.

A University of California study, completed in 2002, established that people who sleep less than 8 hours per day actually live longer than those who sleep 8 hours or more. The study was carried out using over 1 million participants, and over a period of some 6 years, and its results are now accepted without question.

Insomnia is a significant problem in the industrialised world. And hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people are treated for insomnia with drugs. What you won’t be told by the drug companies is that these drugs are producing a very inefficient sleep, so you end up needing more.

This is why you’ll wake up feeling groggy, every time you take a sleeping pill, no matter how long you sleep for. Well, guess what? You’ll never need another sleeping pill when you understand how to have an energized sleep, and you’ll spend less time sleeping as well.

So if you’re interested in lengthening your life, exploding your energy, having an extra 21 hours in your week, eliminating insomnia, and beating jetlag, you can! And you can do it by learning how to sleep less and by optimizing your body clock.

(c) 2005, Brigitte Smith

Brigitte Smith has several websites relating to health - both people health and pet health.

The scientifically designed powerful sleep program described in this article has helped thousands of ordinary people and can help you too.

Access further information here: http://www.PowerfulSleep.BrigitteRecommends.com

Identity Crisis

It’s not only the knowledge you carry around in your head. More important to your effectiveness as a leader is your character – who you ARE. In an interview of Harvard Business School Professor, Scott A. Snook, conducted by, Harvard Business School, Working Knowledge Senior Editor Martha Lagace, they exposed a truth that will help you guide your leadership development program.

The main thrust of this interview is how effective the Army has been in transforming the professional identity of its leaders after the end of the Cold War. Professor Snook explained what created the need for a transformation. The end of the Cold War brought about an “identity crisis” for the Army. It was no longer in a “bipolar world (that) had shaped a very strong and static sense of professional identity,” he explained.

“Such an identity crisis manifested itself in a variety of symptoms:
low morale, high turnover, waning commitment, missed recruiting goals, and officer retention nightmares.”

Character: Most important AND Most Challenging to Develop

One of the highlights of the research is that the character of a person is not only the most important “component of leader development,” but also, “the most challenge(ing).” In order for the Army to re-align the professional identity of its leaders, and arguably solve the negative manifestations of the crises, the hard, high-payoff work had to be focused on leader character.

The negative results of the identity crisis are challenges in the civilian sector also. We experience and fear low morale, high turnover and waning commitment. We fight with it every day, though leader identity is not typically cited as the cause. It goes without saying that leadership should be considered the source of all good and conversely the lack of it a factor in all negative. In order to increase the positive, which for corporate America comes in the form of higher profit margins and a more cohesive and pleasant work atmosphere, strong consideration needs to be given to Snook’s suggestion. “Our contention (is) that the real leverage in developing leaders has to do with the BE component.”

The BE component is explained as the, “who you ARE.” The paper uses BE and character interchangeably. This, of course, is our key area of focus for groups like Leading Concepts who get beyond the academic into the actual immersion experience of leader and team development.

Snook went on to say, first, “we build our understandings of ourselves from our experiences. Second, we progress through a finite series of universal and progressively more complex stages in how we construct our understanding.”

Experience For Change

As we dig into this idea of leader development and getting to the heart of it through a concentration on character, these two areas deserve more attention. It is interesting to see how our experiences have to be progressively more complex. It has been a trend, perhaps a plateau in civilian leadership development that has kept us from designing meaningfully complex learning vehicles. I believe that the reason is due to a concentration on the complexity instead of the experience. An experience is infinitely more complex than the most difficult concept. Simply add up the number of senses involved in a walk through the woods verses a day in a classroom.

The properly designed and guided experiential leadership development course will go much farther to influencing the character of a person than will a stack of the most deeply researched papers. To acknowledge the order of accomplishment, the deeply researched papers must precede the properly designed and guided course.

Professor Snook’s “research has several implications for organizations and those interested in leadership development.”

“Adhering to a traditional learning model is fine if you are primarily interested in improving your employees’ knowledge and skills. However, should you decide, as we did, that the leverage lies much deeper, in the BE component, be prepared to think differently about what development really means and how to go about measuring and influencing it.”

“I am currently studying how both life experiences and designed interventions contribute to our development as leaders. At this point it seems clear that it’s not only the nature of the experience itself, but rather a complex interaction of an individual’s readiness beforehand and sense-making afterwards that ultimately determines how much impact such events or programs will have on one’s development.”

ROI

The lessons of Professor Snook’s research were taken from the success that he observed in over 10 years of the Army’s transition from a Cold-War institution to a highly flexible, service-oriented and powerful organization ready for undetermined conflicts of the future. For everyone who downplays the power of this value (soft-skill) training, we have seen the ROI a thousand times over on our televisions over the past several years.

Without this training and development in such a purposeful and planned way, the victories in Afghanistan and Iraq would not have been possible and the loss of life and resources would have been much greater. Soldiers have always been able to shoot straight. They’ve had the technical abilities, as do your workforce. The difference between success and failure comes in the ability of the leader to activate that ability in conjunction with others in the team towards a common goal.

Crisis Free?

Notice that the Army undertook this transformation a decade prior to their need. They were forward thinking enough to know that their need for this enhanced flexibility would be necessary during some future conflict. Granted, the Army always knows that there is a next crisis. Don’t you?! Are you looking at today and thinking that everything is fine, or are you looking down the road to the next crisis?

The Army was successful in transforming the professional identity of its members because it focused on character development through experiential training.

Find the full interview “How the U.S. Army Develops Leaders” at http://www.hbswk.hbs.edu

To learn more about how immersion team building and leadership training can help you visit: http://www.leadingconcepts.com

Copyright 2005 Brace E. Barber

Brace E. Barber works extensively with Leading Concepts, Inc. http://www.leadingconcepts.com in the field of immersion soft-skill training with a focus is on how to develop leaders, who are prepared for and can succeed under stressful circumstances. He is the author of the book No Excuse Leadership. http://www.noexcuseleadership.com

Is it possible for an individual to pass a course of instruction with high marks and remain ineffective?

Is it possible that this person never actually learned anything, but merely gathered enough information and remember it well enough to repeat the process?

Learning should make you a more effective individual, learning should improve the quality of your life.

Do you ever wonder why some stuff sticks in your brain and other stuff falls out?

See, it’s because…….

When your brain is bored, nothing seems to stick. But when you play with ideas and think creatively, the things you learn stay in your head because it’s a cool and interesting place to be

This is the power of learning!

Right Now i want you to think about your future possibilities and the fact that your potential is virtually unlimited.

You can do what you want to do and go where you want to go. You can be the person you want to be.

You can set both large and small goals and make plans and move step-by-step, progressively toward their realization.

There are no obstacles to what you can accomplish except the obstacles that you create in your mind.

The power of learning turns eager desires into reality, giving you the inner drive to increase your salary … achieve financial security

.. lead a happier, more fulfilling life … and enrich the lives of everyone around you.

Once that image burns into your brain, fear will no longer be a factor for you.

Stop, Look and Listen to what you are learning.

What do you notice?

What are you learning?

Is it time to go create a new version of YOU?

Be Good.

Olabisi(DJ)

About The Author

(c) Olabisi(DJ) The Hope Engineer, is the owner of http://www.Taeboselections.com. My financial picture continues to improve. A secret i have been keeping has increased my discipline indirectly benefiting my finances.

mysecret@Malibuemail.com

“All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small.”
Lao Tzu

Today, the latest, business craze of the 21st century is “virtual organizations.” Loaded with emerging technologies such as videoconferencing, employees work in teams that transcend time and distance. Communication, however, takes on a brand new meaning when there is no “face-to-face” interaction between team members to facilitate these nontraditional relationships; it is essential to understand how to unify these virtual relationships. Virtual teams sound like a great idea, right? I have one question then…how can you trust someone you can’t see? Many companies have allowed workers to work from home to achieve huge company savings. Managers assume that an employee, equipped with a computer and fax machine, can stay connected to the organization. This outlook is simply a myth. Relationships are built on trust. According to a USA Today poll, nearly half of those interviewed said that corporations can be trusted only a little, or not at all, when it involves looking out for the best interest of employees. James Kouzes and Barry Posner, management experts, note that over the long term a leader’s credibility depends on the quality of the relationship maintained with followers.

Are virtual teams a mistake? I would say “no” because there are numerous advantages. Hackman and Johnson, leadership gurus, explain that virtual teams still need to meet periodically at the same location in order to clarify organizational issues. Numerous studies have shown that communication is less efficient in virtual than “face-to-face” teams. Rico and Cohen, virtual team researchers, argue that virtual team members also have a difficult time staying connected to each other. These matters showcase the problems with maintaining trust in virtual teams. Therefore, it can be argued that virtual teams have more difficulty in building relationships among its cohorts than traditional teams. Leaders who understand the challenges of virtual teams have an opportunity to build stronger relationships with followers. Learn how to better manage your team (virtual or not). Don’t allow your organizational relationships to deteriorate. Grow this relationship today!

References:

Johnson, C. & Hackman, M. (2000). Leadership: A Communication Perspective. Waveland Press.

Rico, R. and Cohen, S. (2005). Effects of tasks interdependence and type of communications on performance in virtual teams. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 20(3/4), 261-274

© 2006 by Daryl D. Green

Daryl D. Green has published over 100 articles in the field of decision-making (personal and organizational), leadership, and organizational behavior. Mr. Green is also the author of two acclaimed books, Awakening the Talents Within and My Cup Runneth Over. He is a columnist, lecturer, professor, and management consultant. Mr. Green has a BS in engineering and a MA in organizational management. Currently, he is pursuing a doctoral degree in strategic leadership. For more information,visit his website at http://www.darylgreen.org

It has been stated that the world of tomorrow will be shaped by the leaders of today. This is certainly true when you stop to think that the great leaders of the past, Columbus, Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, King, and Reagan did not get to see the lasting impact their leadership had on the future.

With this in mind I began to contemplate what the world would look like long after my generation has turned over the reigns of leadership to the next. I determined the best way to peer into the future would be to talk to tomorrow’s leaders - which are today’s youth.

In order to get a world view, I decided to talk with youth from around the world. I arranged interviews with five exchange students in the United States as part of Rotary International’s student exchange program.

The 17-year-old students included Nina, a German learning about Canada; Alex, the guy with the infectious smile from Australia; Morris, from Turkey, getting adjusted after only a couple of days in the US; Marco, learning the concept of “snow days” - something he never had in his home country of Ecuador; and Anton, although the same age as the rest, already for college due to the shorter school life in his native Philippines.

It was immediately surprising that despite the diversity of each of the countries - in economy, climate, politics, and geography - the four youth had an amazing similar concept of what makes someone a leader, and how to best use leadership ability.

Each looks for similar traits in the leaders they will follow:

* Social skills: A leader must be kind, understanding, and empathetic.

* Hands-on approach: Leaders must lead by example.

* Deal with stress. A leader must stay calm in difficult situations.

* Communicate. Great leaders connect people with their vision.

* Listen. To lead, one must hear what the followers are saying.

* Exude confidence. Leaders need to believe in what they say/do.

* Ethical. Leaders need to be worthy of trust.

So who are the leaders these leaders of tomorrow look up to? Alex was the fastest to answer this question with his ideal leader: Gandhi. He admires the way Gandhi did what was right, leading by the example of a selfless life.

Morris admires Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the charismatic leader of the Turkish national liberation struggle in 1919. Following a series of impressive victories against all odds, he led his nation to full independence. He put an end to the antiquated Ottoman dynasty whose tale had lasted more than six centuries - and created the Republic of Turkey in 1923, establishing a new government truly representative of the nation’s will. As Morris says, “He made a country from a collapsed country, and then made it a modern country.”

Nina turns to literature for the leader she admires - a little girl called Momo from a story. She is poor and lives all by herself. Her friends seem to be lost when she is not around. When they want to talk to her about their problems, she listens to them and helps them figure out the solutions for themselves.

Marco and Anton both admire relatives when they think of the greatest leaders. Their mother and grandfather both know what to do in tough situations, are caring, involved, and strict and stern (that’s right - children respect parents for being strict and stern). By becoming an important leader in of each of these young men’s lives, they will leave a legacy that each will carry into future generations.

Since four of these students had traveled thousand of miles to America, it was compelling to get their points of view on the leadership role of America. Again there was tremendous commonality in their beliefs. They seem to admire America or the American people in varying degrees, particularly for the positive ways that America uses it’s leadership role, such as humanitarian aide. They said that their countries look up to America and they see America as an influential world-leader.

With Nina in Michigan’s neighbor to the east, there was the opportunity to contrast a youthful view of national leadership. Nina admits she knew little about Canada before moving in with her host family. Unlike the students in America, whose comments centered on a dominate country, Nina thought of Canada as a “very peaceful, calm country”.

The contrast in views also demonstrates a leadership quality often overlooked - that of impression. America is extremely well represented in the news venues of other countries and as such people seem to have strong opinions - some with a good viewpoint, some mixed, and some critical - about the United States. We see the same in mid-sized and large companies. Departments within the larger organization are very visible and opinions by those in other departments is often formulated before actual contact is made with the group. This truth is exemplified by the student’s views of their host country - formulated before and after they began their stay in North America. For example, Alex noted that his view of America centered on the portrayal of America on television’s “The Simpsons”. He now sees Americans at hard-working and patriotic.

Although the goal of the Rotary Exchange program is to introduce students to other cultures, students are also learning about leadership. The program offers these students a hands-on experiential learning environment. They are seeing leaders in all walks of life in the culture of their host nation, and rapidly learning to adjust to the culture in such a way that their year will be meaningful and prosperous in the form of knowledge and friendship.

As they eventually move from academia to the business or political world, they will use their valuable Rotary learning experience to help them adjust and thrive learning about corporate cultures (just as with countries, no two are alike).

Morris summed up his comments, touching on one of the main secrets that has robbed us historically of great leaders. He stated, “everyone that has self-confidence and can lead”. The secret is to find that hidden self-confidence within us to extract the inbred leadership qualities every individual possesses.

Rick Weaver is President of Max Impact, a national leadership and organization development company based in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Rick is an accomplished business executive with experience in retail, market analysis, supply chain and project management, team building, and process improvement. He has worked with hundreds of companies to improve sales, processes, and bottom-line results. MaxImpact offers leadership and organizational development services along with employee assessments and background checks. Contact Rick at 248-802-6138 or via email, rick@getmaximpact.com. MaxImpact is on the web at http://www.getmaximpact.com

Stumbling block or stepping-stone, how do you view last year’s failures? Take ownership and personal responsibility for any career derailments. Pack your own parachute instead of leaving your success to others; that was the thrust of Part One of this series. Perform root-cause analysis of why certain goals were not met and identify patterns that caused the derailments. Keep in mind though, the block of granite which is an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.

If you want to route your career toward something noteworthy on a tombstone marker at the end of your professional career, you must now, during your vibrancy, pinpoint and relentlessly pursue the things that professionally, matter most to you. Focus on these alone. Set monthly accountability measurements and milestones to ensure you stay on track.

These next steps are the “Phase Two” components to turn your New Year resolutions into a revolution that return you to the driver’s seat where you will, without regrets, command the course of your career:

During part one / phase one of this series, you culled the top five things that professionally, matter most to you and you regrettably, didn’t achieve. Now that these are standalones, you’ll take it to the next level with a new compass, bullet-proof gear and tactical blueprint to retrofit your next job search, career direction, or business initiative:

• Create a one-sentence statement next to each of the five items, the action needed by you to convert loss of accomplishment into a winning feat. Use a different-colored font or ink to demarcate the statement of action from the item.

Now here comes the gut-wrenching, no-holds-barred introspection  the really hard stuff to get alter your course. Ask yourself:

• Can any of these things that matter most to you and you want to achieve this New Year be accomplished while remaining at your current place of employment. If not, write down, why not? What are the reasons (other than money) that cause you to remain in a work environment that stymies your creative ability to solve problems, contribute meaningfully, or expand professionally?

• Can any of these top five things be accomplished if there were no human interference? Why are you remaining in a division, department or unit staffed with persons that that do not have your best interests in mind during day-to-day activities?

• Can any of these things that matter most to you and that you want to accomplish in your career these next 12 months be achieved if you raise your competency? What are the reasons (other than money) that cause you to delay gaining the requisite experience and industry-niched knowledge?

The longer you wait to move forward, the longer the list becomes that moves you backwards. Here’s an aggressive blueprint that’ll fast-track your plans, marketability and success. Proceed with caution and deploy only if you’re willing to allow yourself to succeed, no matter what the barrier:

• Don’t cave at first sign of resistance. Persevere. Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.
• Refuse to adopt failure as an option. Use failure as a tool to filter options.
• Seek professional intervention for structure, organizational planning and accountability.

• Set doable and measurable milestones.
• Make it work (the thing you want done) or get it out of your system and move on.

The power to navigate the direction of your career is more in your hands to control than you are willing to admit. This being true, you have to ask yourself today, not tomorrow, why you are so reluctant to make the time and requisite sacrifices to chart a new course? Fear of the unknown is always overcome with strategic planning and a personal accountability that refuses to blame others for lack of success. You’ll land where you set your course. Every time.

Marta Driesslein, CECC is a management consultant for R.L. Stevens & Associates, Inc..

For over 25 years, R.L. Stevens & Associates http://interviewing.com/ has been the Nation’s most successful privately-held firm specializing in executive career searches generating quality interviews through both advertised and unadvertised channels.

Leadership is one of the most talked and written about business topics. Whole careers have been made with a wide variety of ‘systems’ and models, some good and some bad.

Sometimes simplicity is wonderful! Dwight Eisenhower used to demonstrate leadership to his staff using a piece of string. He’d put it on the table and say: Pull it and it will follow you anywhere; Push it and it will go nowhere.

I love this concept because it is simple and easily demonstrable; everyone that sees it understands it. I have seen so many systems, plans, and methods that are overly complex and equally hard to understand. It’s no wonder most people can’t put them into practice successfully.

I know, I know…leadership is more than just pulling a string. But think about it. Our ability to make people want to follow, to want to contribute, to want to achieve the same goals and objectives is what separates great leaders from the rest.

Great leaders inspire their people; they want to contribute!
Great leaders think positively!
Great leaders work with their people; their people don’t work for them!
Great leaders encourage first and always, and are critical when they know they must be. And, they are critical in a way that is helpful to the individual, not detrimental!
Great leaders find the reasons why someone is not successful rather than assuming, blaming, or degrading the person. And then they help that person!
And most of all, great leaders are great listeners!
What a concept, someone who actually listens to what the other person has to say.

One of the defining characteristics of great leaders is this ability to listen and an equally developed ability to ask the right questions. One Chairman of the Board, whom I reported to, was amazingly adept at listening to a presentation and then asking a short but incisive question that would bring forth more information and insight than the entire presentation itself. He could find out more about someone in 3-4 questions than anyone I have ever met.

And yes, there are those people that cannot be motivated or made to be productive. But, great leaders know and believe they are the minority, not the majority, and act accordingly!

Stephen A. Burgess is founder and CEO of Corporate Toolbelt, a premier business strategy, business planning, leadership and advisory firm. He has served as a ‘C’ level executive, is a noted speaker, and has his MBA. He currently serves on several Boards of Directors. Steve is also a partner in the Power of 8 and the co-founder and Managing Partner of Speakers Alive!, a southern California speaker’s bureau.

He is the Co-Author of the #1 Best Selling book, Purpose, Passion, Abundance, On an Enlightened Path and Business Successes. He is also author of the forthcoming book, Legacies of Leadership, as well as numerous published articles. Steve’s advice is highly sought after by entrepreneurs, business owners and companies of all sizes. He works together with clients to uncover the power to maximize their growth and profits!

Discover more at http://www.thebusinessprophet.com

It can be very easy to set a big, compelling goal – and then feel overwhelmed by the perceived slog of getting there. The goal is so big, and so different from how things are now, that getting there by the deadline you have set will surely demand too much of you. And the more you think about the legwork it will take, the more discouraged you feel.

There are two things you have to do to regain your motivation.

Sometimes it isn’t easy to see what you should be doing first. The smart way to decide on the sub-tasks that will form your route to the goal is to start from imagining the position of having achieved the goal already. From that perspective, ask yourself:

“What conditions had to be in place in order for this goal to be able to happen?”

Ask the same question for each of these conditions – and so on, working backwards through time until you arrive at the very first step you have to take. This gives you your route to the goal (or routes as there may be more than one way to get there).

If the first task still seems overwhelming, break it down into smaller tasks until the first step is one that you can definitely, no question, accomplish.

Remember what management guru Peter Drucker said:

“We overestimate what we can accomplish in one year, but we underestimate what we can accomplish in five”.

The key is to get started.

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Andy Smith is an Emotional Intelligence consultant and NLP Trainer based in the UK. His new book, “Achieve Your Goals: Strategies To Transform Your Life”, is published by Dorling Kindersley in summer 2006.

You can find more ideas and advice for changing your life at the Create The Life You Want web site at http://www.createthelifeyouwant.co.uk. Sign up for Andy’s “Create The Life You Want” newsletter by sending a blank email to:
andy18-159754@autocontactor.com