A very popular and growing management phenomenon is the practice of retaining an executive coach. There has been a veritable explosion of interest in coaching on the part of many managers.

Why Coaching?
Well, the pace of change, the increasingly complex environment for leadership, the need for more creativity and the need to balance work life and personal life are all drivers of this new approach to managing. In addition, the growing importance of managing relationships and producing results, coupled with a lack of traditional support from mentors within an organization is creating the need for advice and counsel from someone completely outside the workplace.

When is Coaching Used?
Sometimes managers and leaders experiencing difficulty in performing their role, are offered the assistance of a coach for a period of time to help them sort out what is working for them and where they could improve their effectiveness. Many organizations are finding that this approach is very cost effective, particularly if the person being coached, improves their performance.In a more positive vein, more and more, individuals are recognizing that, as they move from position to position, either within the organization or to another organization, having someone to help them through the transition is a very valuable resource. This is truly the reason behind third party consulting.

Either way, coaching is a phenomenon that has come of age in the last few years. Many very successful leaders employ coaches to help them navigate through the increasingly choppy waters of organizational life.

Definition of Coaching
What is coaching anyway? It is the process that is very similar to counselling with the emphasis on increasing performance and enhancing the leadership experience of the person being coached. It is an ongoing partnership between the coach and the person being coached. It is a confidential arrangement that can lead to deeper learning, increased self-awareness and personal effectiveness. It is not about the personal life of the individual. Coaching is clearly focused on the professional life of the client.

Principles of Coaching
Successful coaching starts with the principle that the client is a creative, resourceful person who is interested in improving his or her effectiveness in dealing with others in the workplace. The relationship between coach and client is a sanctuary, a safe place for conversations and planning around specific situations that need improvement. The objective of the whole process is to change behaviour through expanded self awareness.

Coaches’ Responsibility
An executive coach’s responsibility is to discover, clarify, and align with what client wants to achieve in the way of leading and managing self and others. The coach encourages client self-discovery and helps the client to generate solutions and strategies for increasing their ability to have a positive impact in their job and on the organization as a whole. The coach also holds the client responsible for his or her own behaviour and accountable for the actions they take. The coach’s role is to ask questions and provide options and alternatives for the client to consider. The client is free to accept or reject suggestions or in turn or counter-offer with suggestions or alternative ways of behaving. In a successful coaching situation, the coach and the client, working together, reach conclusions as to courses of action to take in a given set of circumstances. Once a course of action has been decided upon, the client takes specific steps to implement the action and then in subsequent discussions with the coach, review what worked, what didn’t work and what could be done differently in the future.

Deciding to Use a Coach

Individuals who have decided to make use of a coach to help them improve their performance do so because they:

• have chosen to make a change in their lives
• will stretch and raise the performance bar for themselves
• over time, will walk the talk on their commitments
• are ‘coachable’ and able to make space for the coaching process – take the challenge; challenge themselves

Choosing a Coach/Coaches’ Commitment

When choosing an executive coach it is best to look for someone who can

• create experiences for meaningful change
• act as sounding board for complex issues
• challenge & support
• use inquiry to create awareness & clarity
• champion & acknowledge the best in the client (cheerleader)
• help client discover what’s right for him/her

As for experience as a coach, it is best to find someone who has managed or has experience working in organizations similar to the client ones. Also, some background in counselling as well as managing in an organization helps the coach to understand the issues.
In the final analysis, there has to be a good ‘fit’ between the coach and the client so it is important to interview several prospective coaches and certainly ask questions about their experience, their approach and even get some references.

David A. Bratton

We all have a built-in “compass” that offers values for decision-making. These evolved out of the messages we received from parents and other influencers, and tend to sound like, “Mind your P’s and Q’s,” and “Say please and thank you.” Just as a mechanical compass shows Magnetic North, an internal compass shows Magnetic North values. These values should be considered whenever you have crucial choices to make.

Effective leaders rely upon this internal compass to guide their choices in everyday life, which increases trust among their followers. These leaders have an awareness of a personal Magnetic North to keep them on the right path.

Forks in the business pathway present themselves frequently, and the choices you make indicate whether you are using your Magnetic North values consistently, or ignoring them. There are five crucial leadership choices observed by your followers everyday. Are your choices in alignment with your Magnetic North?

1. Set the mood.
The mood you choose to display when you arrive each morning to meet and greet your followers is the first observable behavior noticed. Leaders often underestimate the significance of these moments, but followers tend to take a “reading” from the leader’s mood and internalize it. It’s quite natural for people to make assumptions about the company’s health and future based on the climate created by the mood of the leader. On any given day, the prospect of smooth sailing or impending doom is implied by the facial expressions of a leader. The mood of the leader becomes the mood of the group and ripples throughout an organization like electricity; the mood of the group never exceeds the mood of the leader.
For this reason, a leader must be a good actor, at least to the point of projecting hope and optimism. It doesn’t mean you can’t have a bad day, but if you expect your followers to work with hope and optimism like the future is bright, you must display that emotion when you walk through the door. Preaching your Magnetic North means having a positive disposition, and you must deliver the same on a consistent basis.

2. Respond to challenges.
Your demeanor when reacting to business challenges is another indication of your commitment to Magnetic North. A calm tone in your voice says, “I’m confident we can handle this situation,” whereas panic in your voice says, “I’m threatened by this and you should be too.” When a crisis or challenge hits your team, all eyes will look to you for a reaction. It’s relatively easy to voice confidence in your workforce when things run smoothly, but when things are under attack, be sure to reflect a calm resolve that says, “I believe in you and our ability to solve this issue.” All leaders expect their followers to be conscientious problem solvers, so be sure to send that message when the seas are rough as well as during smooth sailing.

3. Initiate change.
Your choice in how you initiate change within the organization is critical to the success of that change. While change is inevitable, and creating change is part of your job description, the choices you make regarding how and when will say volumes about your Magnetic North. Followers expect leaders to understand the implications, and the difficulty, of adjusting to change. As a leader, you most likely wrestle with the anxiety of change weeks ahead of its announcement. Some leaders forget their own anxiety, and when it’s time to implement change, they dump the whole truckload of new expectations without regard to the team. Your delivery style of any change telegraphs the level of empathy you have for the people who must adjust quickly to the change. Share your understanding of the discomfort this change will create, and break down new procedures into small bites. Find multiple ways to communicate the change and why it’s necessary.

4. Judge performances.
How you choose to react to great performances and sub-par performances indicates your belief about your coaching and your people. When it comes to praise, followers watch for consistency. Do A+ performances receive equal recognition, regardless of the performer? When a performance does not meet standards, is coaching or mentoring readily available? Followers want to know you can separate the “deed” from the “doer” and accept each individual for what he or she accomplishes without personalizing it. Performances should be measured against the agreed upon standards. This process will be fair if your Magnetic North includes a precise and clear definition of what excellence looks like.

5. Treat customers.
Nothing speaks louder to followers than how their leaders treat customers. How you react to your customers shows everyone how it should be done. Your true Magnetic North is exposed when customers are involved. Your values in terms of service, product value, profit and goodwill are obvious to your followers as they watch you react to both the easy customers and the tougher ones. Make consistent choices in and set an example that will be duplicated.

Choices are made each day – some of greater importance than others. The choice to honor your Magnetic North values is observed by everyone around you, and likewise a choice to ignore those values is equally noticed. This misalignment between what you say is important and your actions causes a credibility crisis. Leaders with high credibility are the ones who have strong convictions about what they value. They are admired because their beliefs are very clear, and their actions are consistent with those beliefs.

By David Benzel

There are two streams of competitiveness running through every organization. The first goes outward: It's the organization's competitive activities toward its competitors. The second goes inward: It's the competitiveness of leaders inside the organization who are vying against one another for power, recognition, privilege and promotion.

To be successful in the second, leaders must not only do well in their jobs but they must also be able to have their bosses and colleagues perceive they do well.

In other words, they must be able to publicize themselves. or, to use the vernacular, blow their own horns.

I submit, however, that if one simply puts lips to the horn of publicity and blows hard -- i.e., makes an outward show of publicizing oneself, such efforts will turn out to be discordant and counterproductive. The result will be people turning their backs on you rather than having them hum your tune.

Though it is necessary to blow one's own horn as you climb your career ladder, it is also necessary to know how to do it. After all, there is an art to the effort. Here are four steps that you can follow.

Step 1
Identify an area in your organization that needs better results. The art involves not just selecting the right results but doing so in cooperation with others. Make sure that when you shine light on the lack of results, you do not embarrass somebody who has been tasked to get those results. Instead of making beautiful music, you could end up on somebody's enemies list! Get the responsible person's permission to focus on the area.

Step 2
Put together a team whose task it is to achieve those results. Blowing your own horn means that you want to be seen, not as the Lone Ranger, but as a team player. Ensure the results can be achieved with a team. Enlist members to join the team by giving leadership talks. (What's in it for them to be part of the team?) Be aware, as you form the team, of any hard feelings or rough edges that might surface between and among team members and others in your organization who have a stake in the results. If you lead an endeavor that causes hard feelings, it's better to have never started it in the first place.

Moreover, the new team must be not only be formed, it must be MARKETED. Both of these efforts require communications tools and skills, which can take numerous forms. First, to describe the new team or service, communications must be employed to fully define its purpose and operating principles, and the people who are involved in it. These communications tools are descriptive in nature and may include everything from biographical back-grounders to product descriptions and data sheets.

Step 3
Achieve the results. Execution and achievement of the targeted results is absolutely critical to this phase of horn blowing. Make sure you score a win even if it's only a partial win. The idea is to get the low hanging fruit at the outset to show others that your team is succeeding, and then go for the bigger results later.

Step 4
Publicize the results. This is one of the most important steps of all, and it is a step that few leaders follow. They might put together a team that gets a few wins, but they have no idea how to publicize their efforts. The first rule in this is: To blow your own horn most effectively, make sure YOU DON'T TAKE CREDIT FOR THE RESULTS -- YOUR TEAM MEMBERS TAKE CREDIT INSTEAD! Your efforts will get torpedoed if they look at all self-serving.

To highlight the successful products and services achieved by your team, you can put together white papers, data sheets, presentation papers and case-history articles.

Don't make this a one-time effort. You must be continually looking for results that are flagging, putting together teams to achieve the results, then marketing and publicizing the achievements.

In this way, when you blow your horn in your organization, the music you'll be making can accompany you on a fast-rising career-trajectory.

- Article by Brent Filson

To maximize our potential in a rapidly changing global economy, people recognize the need for leadership ethics more than ever before.  Developing commitment in a world of "free agents" and "volunteer" talent is not an easy assignment and requires the development of leadership skills; effective leadership ability that you didn't learn at the university or in executive education. 

Coach John Agno believes we must develop leadership qualities to achieve the success we seek.  Agno's job is to coach people to greater self-awareness, purpose, personal strengths and a sense of well-being that often translates into greater compensation, job satisfaction and practical use of skills and abilities.  The goal of our leadership tips is to help you pay attention to your intentions and get to where you want to be.

Receive More for Less
Don't hire Coach Agno.  Hire you to coach you.  He'll just provide the tips.

Self-coaching helps you acquire useful leadership skills, clarify your values and guiding principles and actively build your reputation.  Self-knowledge provides the personal integrity to engage in powerful action oriented relationships.

“The crux of leadership development that works is self-directed learning: intentionally developing or strengthening an aspect of who you are or who you want to be, or both.”   Primal Leadership  by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee (Harvard Business School Press)

To build practical leadership skills, subscribe to Coached to Success actionable knowledge from world-class teachers.  Success comes from persistence.  Persistence comes from support and encouragement.  For support and encouragement, sign up for low-cost daily leadership tips...or...take a 30-day test drive...or...sample our free coaching tips.

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Bottom Line: Leadership development is self-development.  Learning how to not micromanage, not be overly concrete, not fail to explicitly state expectations and other unproductive inter-personal behavior only happens through the increased self-awareness gained in a personal coaching or mentoring relationship.

What is Leadership?

Effective leadership can happen on the dance floor of conversation. Leadership is an interactive conversation that pulls people toward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment. 

Leadership is not just for people at the top.  Everyone can learn to lead by discovering the power that lies within each one of us to make a difference and practicing the law of reciprocity.

Leadership is applicable to all facets of your life: a competency that you can learn to expand your perspective, set the context of a goal, understand the dynamics of human behavior and take the initiative to get to where you want to be.  Through discovering who you are and your life's work, you develop the self-awareness and confidence required to lead.

Coached to Success insights help you to develop the leadership skills necessary to become the master of yourself so you will be ready, willing and able to lead others.  Self leadership happens through self-learning and self-coaching.  As you build your capability to lead, people become attracted to you and this opens the door for trusting you.  When they trust you, people will be open to listening to what you have to say.

What is Success?
Success lies in being who we are and in the choices we are willing to make for ourselves, not in the fear of what you should do or be.  Fear is the only thing that holds people back from achieving personal success.

Only you know what's important in realizing your vision of success.  However, we all seek shared outcomes to provide a foundation for where we want to be.  Here is one client's definition of the foundation for his success:

"Have you ever watched, listened, and felt someone tuning a guitar or other string instrument? That is what it is like to have the good fortune of connecting with John Agno. He is a living tuning fork and you're that string instrument. Today, I have greater self awareness, am more in step with my calling, and better able to appreciate the journey, including the valleys, than ever before. Thanks, John for helping me get attuned with my life signature."

You can drastically increase your chances of succeeding in business and life when you learn from a coach or mentor – someone who once stood in your place and overcame all obstacles to earn success and happiness.

The common thread throughout history has been that you learn mastery performance from the master.  Whatever quality or skill you want to develop, you "get it" by hanging out with people who have it.

There’s something not quite right at work. Your colleagues are generally a good bunch and work gets done, but yet you’re in early, leave late and a full lunch break is a distant memory.

Chances are you’ve been down-sized or re-engineered so radically there’s zero tolerance for mishaps or delays, and you extend your work day to pick up the slack. What you really need is some help on building a high performance team, to regain that work-life balance we all yearn for.

Step 1 - Master your own destiny

Realise you don’t have to be the “boss” to build a high performance team. It’s easy to let average performance slip by just because you’re not in charge. Always remember - it’s your life that is being frittered away by all those extra hours at work, so take control of your work-life and be your own boss, managing your own team.

Step 2 - Put your eggs in one basket

Chances are you’re a member or leader of many teams at work. Think about which teams work well and which could do with some care and attention. Do you need to improve all your teams or is it just one? Start small and invest your efforts in improving the team that will make the biggest difference to your working life. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Step 3 - If you don’t know it’s broke, how can you fix it?

Regardless of how established the team is, invite constructive feedback about the team's performance. In the classic “Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing” team building model, the Storming part is about disagreement, dissent and dissatisfaction. Ask the team’s customers what they think. Ask the team what they think about themselves as a group and individually. Learn to recognise the team’s strengths, discuss where performance gaps exist and plan to close them.

Step 4 - Proper practice prevents poor performance

Footballers spend 95% of their time practicing for the big game. How much time do you and your team invest in practicing basic skills and team work? Even if you spend 1 hour in an effective team meeting, planning who’s doing what and when, it’s still less than 3% of your working week. Building and maintaining a high performance team doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming, when you build it into your regular work-life.

Step 5 - A stitch in time

Keep going. Get your priority team functioning well and establish a team-maintenance regime. Then think about the other teams in your life. What is it about the more productive teams that you could replicate in the less effective teams? Behaviour breeds behaviour, and as you develop a reputation for being an effective team leader or member, you’ll be pleasantly surprised how much easier it is to make improvements elsewhere.

As my grandmother said, don’t have a wish-bone where your back-bone should be! High performance teams are not conjured from thin air – they are a direct result of thought, plans and action. Follow these five simple steps for building high performance teams and enjoy longer lunch breaks again.

By Lyndsay Swinton

Where there are people, there is conflict. It affects us all. The failure to communicate effectively, or to communicate at all, is a leading cause of conflict's existence and escalation. If not confronted early and well, conflicts will escalate, negatively affecting entire families, neighborhoods and organizations. We can't banish conflict from our lives, but we can communicate more effectively through it. It's a topic that can fill volumes, but you can get a handle on it by using these five tips:
1. Distinguish between true conflicts and false conflicts.
Before you can think about how to communicate through a conflict, decide whether you need to communicate at all. Not all conflicts need to be resolved. Before you do or say anything, ask yourself, "Is this a true conflict or a false conflict?"
A true conflict has to be resolved. If not resolved, it will get bigger and result in a negative consequence.

Your child has a drug problem. You and the child's other parent have a conflict about how to intervene. No intervention happens and the child is not being helped. This is a true conflict.You and your colleague must write a grant proposal. There is conflict about how to write the proposal and how to allocate your time to it. As a result, there is a risk that the proposal will not be the best it can be and might not be completed on time. There is risk, therefore, that your organization will not receive this much-needed grant. This is a true conflict.

False conflicts are differences that don't have to be resolved. You and your colleague disagree about how smart your boss is. That does not have to be resolved for the two of you to be able to work, share a break, or attend meetings together.
You and your spouse disagree about a movie. You don't have to convince your spouse that it was a great (or horrible) movie. You don't have to agree on the movie's merits to be happy together.

Be careful. Choose your battles. Let the false conflicts go. Refuse to engage in unnecessary arguments and debates. There's nothing wrong with a rousing political debate or a lively discussion containing different opinions. If you get known, however, as someone who always argues everything, you will lose your credibility with the people around you, and they will no longer want to listen to anything you say, even when what you have to say is important.

2. Remember that confrontation is not a dirty word.
Once you determine that you are dealing with a true conflict, you need to communicate. Often, we don't want to confront; we want to avoid, and true conflict cannot be avoided. We struggle with confrontation primarily because we confuse it with fighting, anger, and unpleasantness.

Confrontation is not a dirty word. It comes from Latin, meaning, "to face."
Properly defined, to "confront" means to face an issue instead of avoiding it. Yet, we often use the word "confrontational" in a negative way. "She's so confrontational," we say, as if that's a bad thing. We often avoid conflicts that should be confronted, and the longer we wait, the harder it is to resolve them.

3. Get objectivity.
If you've lost your objectivity about someone, try to get it back before you communicate. There are two parts of any conflict: the issue and the persons attached to the issue. Sometimes, when conflict has gone on for a while without being confronted, we start liking the other person less and less, losing our objectivity. Once we can no longer be objective about the person attached to the issue, it is difficult to effectively communicate through that issue.

How do you regain objectivity about the person attached to your conflict?
Observe him or her. Note competences and positive attributes. Is he a good father? Does she donate time to charity? Try to get a more balanced view.
If you can only think negative thoughts about the other person, those thoughts will guide your communication. Even if you choose the right words, the communication will fail, if your face says, "You make me sick."

4. Start on a foundation of sameness.
Instead of starting the communication with the conflict and why you're angry, start with something about which you do agree. Start with something you share. "We both have worked here a long time." "We both love our child." "Our friendship has helped us both through some difficult times."
Then move to the issue causing the conflict. This is also helpful when you're trying to communicate with someone you don't like but who works with you or is a member of your family or neighborhood.

By talking about common interests and goals (such as wanting to resolve this conflict), you can stay away from how you feel about the other person. When you start communicating with a negative, you may ignite immediate defensiveness and leave no positive or productive place for the communication to go. Start on a foundation of sameness, collaboration, and sincere desire to resolve the issue. You can do this with integrity, no matter how you feel about the person attached to the issue.

5. "Beat up" issues, not the people attached to the issues.
If your goal is to resolve a conflict and change another's behavior (what a person does or doesn't do) for the better, your communication has to address the behaviors. When we attack others, they are generally going to either attack back or retreat out of a real or perceived lack of power. Either way, the real issue will not be resolved because when we are attacked, we cannot hear, nor do we focus on how we can change our behavior.

By Ronnie Moore

Team building exercises are excellent exercises designed to motivate bonding between people and to strengthen teams of individuals who are cooperating on any particular project or may be working in school together. In selected cases, team might have set a budget for such team building exercises that comprises some exclusive trips and retreats also. When looked at the other cases it might have simple games that take places in "home kind" of surroundings to develop friendships among each other. Take any instances, team building exercises need collaboration among people participating that motivates team work and also permit strangers to get to know one other better.

Some common kinds of team building exercises are usually intended to be carried out in office or school environment. Such exercises could take place in starting week of school or when a team is preparing of work together on same project or even during training. Many of such even comprise of easy judgment puzzles, word games, and few other activities, which need physical or small level mental assistance. As well to getting a team thinking of a group, such effective team building exercises further remain as ice breakers, allowing group learn appealing things about one other and lean-to some of their usual coyness.

When it comes to advanced team building exercises they are usually taken place outside the usual environment such as one day outing or retreat for few days. This is done by corporations often and also by some colleges and educational institutions as well. Some examples of outdoor team building exercises are orienteering, hunter hunts, ropes training, and superb camping experiences. Advanced team building exercises generally need an even superior level of faith and assistance among the people taking part and some other cases might go on for a week or more at a dedicated retreat. Regularly the members come back with deeper friendships to one another, which actually serve them well in the months and years for the future.

Common team building exercises to carry out with a class or place of work comprise trust falls, where in people are requested to remain with their back to the team and let themselves to drop backwards, depending on other members of the team to catch them before they drop down the ground. Hunter hunts games are further very popular, and could be limited to a small area or enlarge over a whole city, relying on the range of partaking desired. Another well-liked method for people to understand more about one other is "Walk across the Room," a team building exercise where the spur reads statements such as "I have no siblings," or "I belong to small town" out loud. If the statement is true for any person, he or she comes forward: if it is false, the people just stay in place. By viewing around, people could at least acquire fundamental facts about each other. There are many such team building events that can help a team grow in healthier and friendly manner.

By: john David

Many people assume leadership roles in organizations without any basic understanding of what it takes to be a real leader. Just because you are called a supervisor or manager does not mean that you have the ability to lead. It takes more than just occupying the position to be a successful leader.

Why do people want to be leaders anyway? Is it for the power? In most instances, leaders have to get things done through other people so the amount of power they have is often very limited. Is it for the prestige? Maybe it is but there are an awful lot of leaders who have given the role a bad name. Think of the leaders of Adelphia, Enron or Worldcom and you don’t necessarily think of prestige; you think of malfeasance, theft, and corporate fraud. No wonder we have a shortage of leaders in our society.

Throughout history scholars and laymen alike have pondered the subject of leadership.
Can it be learned? Is it an inherited trait-are leaders born to lead? Is it situational, does leadership emerge in a given situation? Is style important? The answer is not very clear. It could be any of the above or none! One thing is certain; there are several popular myths about leadership.

The first myth is that everyone can be a leader. This is not true because many supervisors and managers don’t have the necessary knowledge of their own behaviour or the ability to be authentic, two common characteristics of good leaders.  Also, you must want to be a leader but not everyone does. Some people, who could be leaders, prefer to remain in the background, or balance their personal and professional life.

The second myth is that the people who rise to the top of the organization are leaders. Not always. Sometimes people become leaders by default-nobody else are there to fill the void. Sometimes people are politically astute and maneuver their way to the top. There are lots of reasons people rise to the top and leadership is only one of them.

The third myth is that leaders deliver business results. This is not always the case. If it were, then we would not have the extraordinary turnover in the executive ranks that we see in modern business.  Nor would we see so many companies foundering in bankruptcy protection!

The fourth myth is that leaders are great coaches. If leadership is defined as getting ordinary people to do extraordinary things under difficult circumstances then the most important ability is that of truly exciting and inspiring others to follow a vision of success. That’s not coaching, that’s motivation.

So what are the characteristics of a good leader? Hard to tell. There are almost 2000 new titles on leadership every year. If the riddle had been solved there would be a lot of remaindered books out there.  But, according to researchers, historians and even Shakespeare, there are four common qualities of inspirational leaders.

First, they show their vulnerability by revealing themselves as human and approachable.  Second, they rely heavily on their ability to intuit the right course of action by reading ‘soft’ signs. Third, they manage employees with ‘tough love’. They relate well to employee concerns but hold high standards for achievement and accomplishment. The fourth quality is the leader’s ability to capitalize on what is unique about them and their personality. Churchill was a master at all four of these qualities.

So, look for these four qualities if you want to be inspired and become a good leader. For real inspiration, read Shakespeare’s play, Henry the Fifth. Shakespeare captured all the inspirational qualities of a leader in Henry V.  Anyone aspiring to a leadership role can take a lesson from Henry the Fifth!

Article by David A. Bratton

Hello!

Imagine your life starting out this way....

...You grew up in an emotionally and physically abusive family environment, with chaos and pain all around you. After many years of that, your mother leaves her husband and is at times working three part time jobs or is on welfare. In the midst of all that you discover that the man you thought was your dad isn’t your biological father. So you go looking for your biological father and find out that he is a well-to-do professional baseball player. You finally make contact with him, only to find out that he does not want to have anything to do with you for many years. Years later, when it comes time to go to college, he reluctantly agrees to pay your tuition only, and has legal documents drawn up to that effect. Soon afterward, you and your dad connect, grow close… and then he dies of cancer long before you are ready to let go of him.

Okay, what would you have done if you had that kind of start in life? For many, it would have been enough to make excuses for their failure to create the life they really wanted. And they would have plenty of others to join in with them, offering them their “understanding” and “sympathy.” …Well-intentioned perhaps, thinking they are being empathetic and kind. In reality, they might as well be the judge and jury that locks someone up in prison and throws away the key.

Now, whether you are a country music fan or not, chances are that you are familiar with superstars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Both have carved out lives for themselves, and with each other, that goes far beyond what most would believe to be possible for themselves. Tim McGraw, for those of you who are not country music fans, is the Tom Cruise of his industry, having recently recorded the biggest hit of his career, “Live Like You Were Dying.” He is also an actor, convincingly playing an abusive, often drunk father in the recent movie Friday Night Lights. At 37, according to one writer, “McGraw has the trim, hard body of a man a decade younger, and he is married to the stunning Faith Hill.” Together, they have three beautiful young daughters.

Consider all that and then let me inform you that the life I asked you to imagine earlier is the life Tim McGraw lived for the first couple of decades of his life. Yes, you heard that right. Tim’s current life is dramatically different from what he started out with.

And with the life that he has created for himself, what does he seem to value most? The answer? Finding and building a close relationship with his biological father before he died of cancer, and creating the family life that he had always longed for. Tim said in an interview, “When you get married and have a family, you get very focused on what that means and how easily it can get away from you…your career can come and go at any time, and you can survive losing that. But I could not stand losing my family.”

Considering how the first twenty or so years of his life went, you might be wondering how Tim got to where he is today.

Let’s think about that, and think about how you can actually create what you want and truly want what you create. Because life is such a precious gift, and because it is short, it is important for us to be able to create what we want… and to want what we create. As long as you are alive, you will be creating a life for yourself. The question is, will it be a life that you want…truly want? And you might as well build the life of your dreams, because you are fully capable of doing so. Period.

Why Create The Life You Want? Because You Can!

Now, what does this involve? Many things, to be sure, and a few things that are paramount, all of which can be learned. Let’s consider…

A Foundation For Creating The Life You Want…

First, understand that the past does not equal the future. Period. Tim McGraw understood that early on. He understood that his future life could be engineered to whatever specifications he desired, regardless of his past. You can believe whatever you want in regards to creating the life you want. It is up to you.

Next, pay attention to the “state” (emotional, mental, physical, spiritual) you will be in as you go about planning your future. Make sure that you begin with a mindset, an overall attitude that you can and will learn to create a life that you will truly enjoy and profit from, on all levels. A life filled with learning, meaning, and fulfillment. A life shared with loved ones and friends and lived with excitement for the next moment, all the while loving the present moment.

Then, perhaps next, choose what outcomes are important to you, across all contexts of your life. Consider your health, your relationships, your hobbies, your work life, your family, etc. What do you really want for yourself? Allow yourself to be a child again and imagine Santa telling you, with a broad smile, that you can have whatever you want. Your job is to dream, and to dream big! Now, dream bigger than that! Why? Because you can! A child doesn’t know what is “reasonable” or “possible!” She just knows what she wants! Now, as you choose your outcomes, you will want to ensure that they are what we call “well-formed outcomes.” A well-formed outcome, for instance will be arrived at, in part, when you consider the short term and long term consequences of your choices. Consider how your choices will affect you and those you care about, across all contexts of your life.

It’s Your Life…You Get To Choose

Now, there is another important element to creating what you want and wanting what you create. It’s called “congruency.” Congruency is all about having your beliefs, values, desires, behaviors and states (mental, emotional, physical, spiritual) aligned, so that they are all flowing and going in the same direction. A direction that you have carefully chosen for yourself vs. a direction that has been set by others. And make no mistake about it, you will either be moving in a direction that you have carefully chosen or you will be moving in a direction imposed upon you by others, well intentioned perhaps, but still imposed.

To do all of this, of course, requires having or building in the required skill sets. It takes skill to fly an airplane, to build a satisfying relationship with a significant other, to have rapport with your client or colleagues, to influence your children in useful ways, to get and stay healthy, to increase your income. You are capable of doing, creating and achieving anything you want, whether you believe that to be the case or not. Look around you and see who else has done what you are wanting to do. We can model anyone we desire. And modeling is itself a skill, a skill that can be learned. Now, while skill is important, it is not the most important element of creating what you want and wanting what you create.

What Drives Your Behavior?

For instance, your overall belief system, which includes what people call “beliefs” and “values” will drive your behaviors as you build your life. So the question is, what beliefs and values will be useful for you to operate from, considering the life you want to create? All beliefs and values are learned, and you can install any belief you desire and see how useful it is or is not for you. If you do not know how to do this, you can learn how.

Now, we have considered a few things that will make it easy for you to create what you want and to want what you create. I have mentioned friends, family, and loved ones. Why? Because, life was meant to be shared. Life was meant to be lived with others. It is easier and sweeter to create what you want when you are having fun doing so with others who share your values and vision. And when you share in theirs as well. We can all learn from each other, can we not? And then there are the fortunate ones who have consciously decided to build a community that they can contribute to and draw from, a community that will make it so much easier for them to create the life of their dreams.

I hope I have stirred your thinking, as well as your emotions, about what is possible for you in terms of creating what you want. You can settle, of course. Or you can really go for what is worth going for in your life. And you get to decide what is worth going for. Of course you do, because you are the one that will be living with the consequences of your choices. Not to say that you do not affect others, because you do. If you have children, consider them as you let everything we have been talking about sink in. What do you want to teach your children about creating what they want? And remember, they will not be listening to what you say. They will be paying attention to what your behaviors communicate. Now, what was it that you were saying?

by Alan Allard

Success is not a one-time act. You need to repeat one success with a second; and the second with a third … life moves forward and you need the next success to satisfy your growing expectations and desires.
You need to know how to make Success a habit.

"Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal." ~ Earl Nightingale

Therefore, who succeeds? The only person who succeeds is the person who is progressively realizing a worthy ideal. The person who says, "I'm going to become this"… & then begins to work toward becoming it.

Here are 8 steps to help you realize success as often as you want:

1. See yourself, as you want to be 10 years, 5 years from now. Describe how you will be at end of each year for next 5 years.

This is long-range planning and need not be done too often. Once a year is adequate. Frequently looking at and imagining the long-range future has a tendency to discourage small incremental efforts in the short-term.

The key is to start with a 10-year vision; then the 5-year and work back towards success spot for each year for next 5 years. From the start fix whether you are talking and describing the beginning or end of the year.

Do not mix the 2. If you fix on beginning as your time reference, it should remain beginning for checking status for all the time-slots: day / week / month / year.

Will you evaluate, analyze, consolidate and visualize at the beginning of the day / week / month / year or at the end? Decide this upfront and then stick to it.

I personally prefer to do it at the end so that I can start the next time-slot well prepared but everyone has his or her preferences. Select the one that you tune to but be consistent in all time-slots.

2. Write a description of the person you want to become by calendar year end: the money, health & relationships you want to have - Act the part -- You are that person!

Here I want you to work from a feeling of abundance. I would like you to read & forget about the one paragraph: because if you remember what you should not do you may find yourself doing what you should not do … merely because you are focusing on not doing it!

Often you are told to evaluate where you are and then describe where you want to be … and plan how to get where you want to be. This exercise unfortunately focuses on your lack of something: it reinforces scarcity and the gap discourages you from even taking the first step forward. Read the article “How to Conquer Fear of Success”. Now forget about this paragraph (after you read the article:-)

What you should do is: forget about where you are today. Just describe where you want to be. Make it as wild and ambitious as possible. Think of great people who did just such ‘impossible’ things. Feel that you have already reached your goals: in the areas of money, health and relationships.

Behave, think, feel and act today in the same way that you can see yourself after having accomplished your goals. To learn what makes you tick and how you can gain the skills required to make success a habit, read the article “How to Align Your Goals for Success” and the ebook “Project Serenity - How to gain happiness and peace”

3. Establish definite goals - money, health, relationships Experience the sensation of these goals accomplished.

Whenever you sit down to define your goals remember to work from an abundance mentality. Go ahead stand at the place where you want to be, and define what you have accomplished.

These are the goals that you must plan for now in the present. This exercise will take a lot of time and practice because from childhood our minds have been tuned to work from a scarcity mind-set. Remember your own past accomplishments, remember great men who did ‘impossible’ tasks, history repeats itself: all you need is faith and confidence that you too can repeat history.

Think positive thoughts about yourself. Take total responsibility for your current position. It was your reaction and responses to circumstances that have placed you were you currently are. Learn to change your attitude if need be. Read the article “3 Ways to Help Yourself Towards Success” and receive the free email course "Success comes from Within" with a mail to within@sendfree.com

4. Look back … from the vantage spot of goals reached.
What have you done to reach that point?
List these activities. Do them.
Who has helped you reach this point?
Request their support. Do as they say.

It is a good idea to prioritize the list of activities and have no more than 3 that are mandatory for the day. In the beginning, define just ONE mandatory activity and complete it. Then move onto 2 and finally 3. In a single day, never ever plan to complete more than 3 mandatory activities.

Classify the activities into 4 Quadrants: Simplicity and Impact. Low Simplicity (i.e. complex, difficult, time-consuming) and Low Impact is Quadrant 1; High Simplicity and Low Impact is Quadrant 2; Low Simplicity and High Impact is Quadrant 3; High Simplicity and High Impact is Quadrant 4.

When you assign priorities, ensure that you give higher priority to Quadrant 4 activities and least to Quadrant 1 activities. Quadrant 2 and 3 you can categorize as you wish: I would prefer to complete the simple activities and get the benefit of even the low impact early on; therefore I would prefer Quadrant 2 to Quadrant 3 any day. But there is not much to prioritize between Quadrants 2 and 3 really.

While planning for Career Success, here are some tools that will help you create your list of activities: “7 Ways to Reach Success At Any Stage of Your Career”

5. Every day evaluate status, praise yourself; go back to step 4

Planning activities even in the minutest details does not guarantee success. What helps you succeed is keeping track of progress, anticipating possible roadblocks, mitigating them, facing issues head on, and taking necessary corrective actions. You should re-plan every day. Whatever may be the state of your activities, you should praise yourself for at least ONE accomplishment of the day, however small it may be.

6. Every week analyze progress, reward yourself; go back to step 3

The key to praises and rewards is to maintain a Journal of the reasons why you praised yourself daily, why you rewarded yourself every week. Go through this list and I am sure you will be able to justify the celebration recommended in the next step.

As human beings we do have our ups and downs. It is how fast and how well we recover from our downs that determines how fast we progress during our next up cycle. The Journal helps remind us of how good, how great, how unique we are and gets us through the next down phase with greater energy than before.

7. Every month consolidate, celebrate; go back to step 2

Accomplishments have a funny way of getting buried under the debris of day-to-day blunders, mishaps and existences. Celebrate with your support team, your near and dear ones.

The praises you received from others could be passed onto your support team for reinforcements. The rewards that you give yourself can also be shared with those who wish you well. However, it does not matter if you sometimes enjoy praises and rewards with yourself.

However when it comes to celebration time, it is highly recommended that you gather your support team and friends too. This has the added advantage that you recognize publicly those who have supported and helped you. Your support team meets each other and gels together ... and this will help them help you better in the future.

8. Every year take a vacation, visualize; go back to step 1

Often you see things more clearly when you take one step away from the situation. You need to sharpen your axe. You need to get your reinforcements in place.

A vacation away from the nitty-gritty of your goals, your list of activities and your accomplishments is sure to rejuvenate you. Do give yourself a holiday at least once a year for at least 3 consecutive days, preferably a week.

You could do the visualization on the last lap of your vacation after you have refreshed yourself. Remember that on your return from vacation, you should complete your visualization BEFORE you start any other activity … even checking your mails can wait … especially checking your mails.

by Naseem Mariam

Taking Responsibility for Choices in Our Lives

A 38 year-old man was at his parents' home for Sunday dinner. He mournfully turned the discussion to his many problems; "I've just left my third failed marriage, I can't hold onto a job, I'm in debt up to my ears and will have to declare personal bankruptcy" he whimpered. "Where did you go wrong?"
When things go wrong, it's easy to blame others. Blaming others for our difficulties is the easy way out. That's why it's so popular. Turn on any daytime talk show and you'll find endless examples of people blaming everybody and everything for the way their lives have turned out.

But the happiest and most successful people - the leaders who get things done and get on with their lives -- know that life is an endless series of choices, and take responsibility for these choices as well as the consequences of their actions. Leaders choose to control their destiny so fate and others don't. They believe that choice more than chance determines their circumstances. Even in circumstances for which they're not responsible, they still take responsibility for their actions.

Leaders recognize that they have control and choice over a number of key factors:

Choose Not to Lose - Whether we choose to focus on our problems or our possibilities is a key leadership issue. When we are faced with obstacles and failure, those who can overcome adversity and learn from their experiences, turning them into opportunities, are the ones who will be truly successful.

Perceived Reality - Most so-called "facts" are open to interpretation and are highly dependent upon what's being read into them. We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are. Too often, we let our problems trap us deep inside our own "reality rut". As long as we're stuck there, we can't see out of the rut to the possibilities beyond.

Choosing Our Outlook - An optimist expects the best possible outcome and dwells on the most hopeful aspects of a situation. Pessimists stress the negative and take the gloomiest possible view. And while we may have been given a tendency toward optimism or pessimism at birth or from our upbringing, we decide what we want to be from today forward.

Choosing To Let Go of Deadly Emotions - Another milestone in our growth is when we accept responsibility for our emotions. It's less painful to believe that anger, jealousy, or bitterness are somebody else's fault or beyond our control. But that makes us prisoners of our emotions. We stew in our deadly emotions. For our own health and happiness, we must exercise our choice to let go. No matter how long we nurse a grudge, it won't get better. We need to truly forgive and forget. Forgiveness is not for the other guy, it is for ourselves.

Choosing Our Thoughts - In his 19th century Journals, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Life consists of what a man is thinking of all day." If we continue to think like we've always thought, we'll continue to get what we've always got. Our daily thought choices translate into our daily actions. Our actions accumulate to form our habits. Our habits form our character. Our character attracts our circumstances. Our circumstances determine our future… Taking responsibility for our choices starts with choosing our thoughts.

Leaders realize that life accumulates; the choices we make - good and bad - are like deposits in a bank account. Over the years we can build up a wealth of success and happiness or a deficit of despair and discouragement. It's up to us. As with any active bank account, few of these choice accumulations are permanent. However, the longer we allow poor choices to accumulate, the more time and effort will be needed to shift that balance. Now is the time for action. There's still time. If not now, when?

by Jim Clemmer

The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that works faster than for you to cast off your own limitations than for you to begin dreaming and fantasizing about the wonderful things that you can become, have, and do.

As a wise man once said, “You must dream big dreams, for only big dreams have the power to move the minds of men.” When you begin to dream big dreams, your levels of self-esteem and self-confidence will go up immediately. You will feel more powerful about yourself and your ability to deal with what happens to you. The reason so many people accomplish so little is because they never allow themselves to lean back and imagine the kind of life that is possible for them.

A powerful principle that you can use to dream big dreams and live without limits is contained in what Elihu Goldratt calls the “Theory of Constraints.” This is one of the greatest breakthroughs in modern thinking. What Goldratt has found is that in every process, in accomplishing any goal, there is a bottleneck or choke cord that serves as a constraint on the process. This constraint then sets the speed at which you achieve any particular goal.

What Goldratt found is that if you concentrate all of your creative energies and attention on alleviating the constraint, you can speed up the process faster than by doing any other single thing.

Let me give you an example. Let us say that you want to double your income. What is the critical constraint or the limiting factor that holds you back? Well, you know that your income is a direct reward for the quality and quantity of the services you render to your world. Whatever field you are in, if you want to double your income, you simply have to double the quality and quantity of what you do for that income. Or you have to change activities and occupations so that what you are doing is worth twice as much. But you must always ask yourself, “What is the critical constraint that holds me back or sets the speed on how fast I double my income?”

A friend of mine is one of the highest-paid commission professionals in the United States. One of his goals was to double his income over the next three to five years.

He applied the 80/20 rule to his client base. He found that 20 percent of his clients contributed 80 percent of his profits, and that the amount of time spent on a high-profit client was pretty much the same amount of time spent on a low-profit client. In other words, he was dividing his time equally over the number of tasks that he does while only 20 percent of those items contributes 80 percent of his results.

So he drew a line on his list of clients under those who represented the top 20 percent and then called in other professionals in his industry and very carefully, politely, and strategically handed off the 80 percent of his clients that only represented 20 percent of his business. He then put together a profile of his top clients and began looking in the marketplace exclusively for the type of client who fit the profile; in other words, one who could become a major profit contributor to his organization, and whom he in turn could serve with the level of excellence that his clients were accustomed to. And instead of doubling his income in three to five years, he doubled it in the first year!

So what is holding you back? Is it your level of education or skill? Is it your current occupation or job? Is it your current environment or level of health? Is it the situations that you are in today? What is setting the speed for you achieving your goal?Remember, whatever you have learned, you can unlearn. Whatever situation you have gotten yourself into, you can probably get yourself out of. If your real goal is to dream big dreams and to live without limits, you can set this as your standard and compare everything that you do against it.

The three keys to living without limits have always been the same. They are clarity, competence, and concentration.Clarity means that you are absolutely clear about who you are, what you want, and where you’re going. You write down your goals and you make plans to accomplish them. You set very careful priorities and you do something every day to move you toward your goals. And the more progress you make toward accomplishing things that are important to you, the greater self-confidence and self-belief you have, and the more convinced you become that there are no limits on what you can achieve.

Competence means that you begin to become very, very good in the key result areas of your chosen field. You apply the 80/20 rule to everything you do and you focus on becoming outstanding in the 20 percent of tasks that contribute to 80 percent of your results. You dedicate yourself to continuous learning. You never stop growing. You realize that excellence is a moving target. And you commit yourself to doing something every day that enables you to become better and better at doing the most important things in your field. Concentration is having the self-discipline to force yourself to concentrate single-mindedly on one thing, the most important thing, and stay with it until it’s complete.

The two key words for success have always been focus and concentration. Focus is knowing exactly what you want to be, have, and do. Concentration is persevering, without diversion or distraction, in a straight line toward accomplishing the things that can make a real difference in your life.

When you allow yourself to begin to dream big dreams, creatively abandon the activities that are taking up too much of your time, and focus your inward energies on alleviating your main constraints, you start to feel an incredible sense of power and confidence. As you focus on doing what you love to do and becoming excellent in those few areas that can make a real difference in your life, you begin to think in terms of possibilities rather than impossibilities, and you move ever closer toward the realization of your full potential.

Article by Brian Tracy

In the last twenty years or so, teamwork has become increasingly significant. Most organizations today use a work model that is based on multiple kinds of "formal" and "informal" teams.

Given this development in the work world, team-building skills have come to be an essential part of seeking that new job or that promotion into the next level of management. After all, studies as well as real world experiences have shown that a group of people working as a team can generate much more productivity than the same group of people working individually.

So how do you become a team builder? How do you master the art of team building? How do you get the members to work effectively as a team? All of these skills are necessary to lead your team successfully and to master the art of team building.

-Communication. Efficient teams are created when every single member is free and able to share his/her thoughts and opinions. The decision-making process for a team must be dialogue based, not dictatorial. Good communication also involves active listening among team members and the ability of the team members to value the opinions of the others.

-Trust. All good teams are based solidly on trust. Every member of the team must be able to trust every other member to do the required work and to be an active and productive team member.

-Clear Goals. A team needs specific goals to function effectively. Team goals must be specific, decided after discussion, and must have a particular time limit.

-Progress Review. Goals by themselves are not enough in the absence of regular progress reviews. New information or even actions taken towards achieving the goal can sometimes end up affecting the completion. Teams need to conduct regular internal checks that include all team members to review the progress that has been made so far and to work out any problems that may have arisen.

-Cooperation. Each team member has to find some way of collaborating with every other member of the team. Personal accomplishments will shine through, but cooperation, not competition, is the key to team building success.

-Professionalism. Of the many individuals in a team, some are bound to have personalities that clash with each other. Team members have to be willing and able to set petty differences aside, working together with the others to achieve the team goals.

-Differences. Diversity is an asset. It often brings in new and differing ways of looking at the same issue, thinking about the same issue, and developing new ideas, all of which combine to give the team a better chance at making good decisions. Team members must be comfortable with and should revel in individual differences while respecting the value that each member brings to the team through their differences.

-Enthusiasm. Team members must be able to jump into the team process with enthusiasm. Enthusiasm helps each member to feel like a part of a vibrant.

-Collaboration. Efficient teams have members who each play a vital role in the completion of the work. Each member of the team must feel that they play a vital role in the sharing of the work and each member of the team should be held accountable for his/her share. Individual accountability is a large part of sharing and teamwork.

-Clear Responsibilities. Every team member must understand their role within the team and the importance of their share of work to the team as a whole.

By: Tony Jacowski

To be a success is not always to be a success individually. In fact, most of the times we achieve our successes as part of a team. That is why I want to devote this issue to the secrets of successful team. We are all part of teams. Our family is a team. Our place of work is a team. The community groups we belong to are teams. Sometimes we are the team leader or “coach,” while other times we fulfill the role of follower, or “player.” It is so important then for us to understand teams and how they work, especially those who achieve success – the achievement of their desired goal.

In my life I have been on some successful teams, and some not so successful teams. This includes both athletically as well as professionally. When I was growing up, I worked for seven years with the Seattle Supersonics, our local National Basketball Association team. They were at times unsuccessful, and, in 1979, my second year working there, the most successful team in the league, winning the World Championship. I have been able to see firsthand what makes the difference between the unsuccessful teams and the successful ones. Here are some principles that I know, when implemented on a regular basis, can turn any lackluster team into an outstanding one! These principles can be applied to your family, your business, your organization, and yes, your sports team. Enjoy.

 Communication Leader
The leader needs to communicate the vision. If they are setting the pace, they need to let people know where they are going so that the team can follow. The coach always does a pre-game talk, laying out the vision.The leader communicates the vision frequently, so as to always be updating the team as to where they are at and what changes need to be made. The coach doesn’t relegate the direction he gives to the pre-game; he coaches and communicates all the way through the game.

 Team
Watch a good basketball team. They are talking to each other all of the time. Helping one another out, encouraging one another, praising one another, and telling each other how they can make changes so the same mistakes aren’t made again. The same is true of successful teams in the professional world and in life in general.

 Excellence
The truly great teams are teams that are committed to excellence. In everything they do, their goal is to achieve at the highest level. And this commitment is held throughout the team and at every level. A successful team cannot have members who are not committed to excellence because in the end they will become the weak link.

 Followership
If you want a fascinating read, pick up The Power of Followership, by Robert Kelley. The author basically makes the point that the secret to getting things done lies not only in great leadership, but in how well the rest of the people, 99% of the team, follows the leadership. Good teams are filled with people who are committed to following and getting the job done.

 Understanding Roles
Pardon the Chicago Bulls analogy, but it is so clear. When the game was on the line, with only one shot left, everyone, the coaches, the players, the 20,000 people watching in the stadium, and millions watching on TV, knew who would shoot the last shot. That was Michael Jordan’s role.Every team works best when the members of the team have clearly defined and understood roles. Some do one thing, others do another. One isn’t better or more important than the other, just different. When teams operate out of their strengths and their roles, they win.

 Strengths and Weaknesses
This brings me to strengths and weaknesses. Every team member has strengths and weaknesses. The successful teams are those who on a regular and consistent basis enable the members to operate out of their strengths and not out of their weaknesses. And what is one person’s strengths will cover another’s weakness. This is teamwork, enabling all of the bases to be covered.

 Fun
The team that plays together stays together. Is your team all work and no play? If you’re smart, that will change. Get your team out of the office once a month and go have some fun. Enjoy one another. Enjoy life. It will bring a sense of bonding that can’t be made even in “winning.”

 Common Goals and Vision
I have found that these need to have three aspects. Short, simple and clear.
Can you say it in less than 30 seconds? Is it simple? Can you and others understand it? Does the team all know what they are working together for?

 Appreciation
All through the “game,” successful teams appreciate one another and show it in a variety of ways. The coach shows it to the players, the players show it to the coach, and the players show it to one another.

Here is a “Successful Teams” Checklist for you to evaluate with.

Is there communication between coach and players and from player to player?
Is your team committed to excellence?
Do those on the team know what it means to follow?
Does everyone on my team know their specific role?
Do the individuals on our team regularly operate out of their strengths as opposed to their weaknesses?
Does our team take a break from time to time to just have fun together?
Do we understand our common goals and vision? Can we all state it (them)?
Is there a sense of and communication of genuine appreciation among my team?

 
Article by Chris Widener

Leadership is an aspiration. To be a leader is a mark of merit - not just a job title. Leaders are all around us. They move people; they bind people together; they inspire people to go beyond the known horizon.

We should all aspire to develop our leadership every day. Below are some ideas and tips that can help. They are based around what leadership is all about - and what can be done on a day-to-day basis to improve it.

Leadership is a relationship

Leadership is about a relationship between leader and follower. It is therefore defined by the impact the leader has on people and activities around him or her, rather than simply the skill set or competencies that the person has. Leaders need to engage people. This is about listening hard to people - understand their issues, desires, stories, moans. Build trust by being the first to trust in them.

Remember that followers have huge power in the leadership relationship: if they choose not to follow, you are not a leader. But also remember that as a leader you should be prepared to follow at times. Leadership is not a position it is a relationship, so everyday with every relationship, consider what you need to do at that moment - lead or follow?

Leadership occurs at all levels within organisations

Leadership is not confined to the top team in an organisation. Acts of leadership can happen throughout an organisation, from top to bottom. Non-managers as well as managers can be leaders. Leadership is expected in managers but not confined to managers. So it is therefore beyond hierarchy. As someone looking to lead this means being prepared to ask senior managers to follow you. Provide direction upwards, give guidance where it is appropriate. Do not always look to follow senior managers, just because they are senior.
Similarly, be prepared to follow other people, wherever they sit in your organisation. If they are inspiring you to action or providing clarity where there was otherwise a blur, take the role of follower and support that leader. By providing support you make them 'lead' and with it you move both you and your organisation forward.

Leadership is dynamic

Leadership is dynamic. Different people can take the lead at different times. Leadership is what is appropriate at the time and for the purpose in hand. If you are a leader who insists on leading all the time, you keep the relationship two-dimensional. By being prepared to follow at times will make the relationship three-dimensional.
It is hard work being a leader all the time - all day, every day. But if you truly trust other people, the basis of the relationship you have with others, you will provide opportunities to bring out the leader in them. To do this, consider stepping back, taking the follower role, be moved by someone else, be inspired by them, and show that you have. This sharing of the leadership role builds both motivation and helps deal with the practicalities of work.

Leadership needs to be authentic

Work every day to find what is authentic to you. Leaders need to find their own way to lead, to clarify what they stand for and what they truly aspire to be and to achieve. People who fail to be genuine, fail in their leadership. As a leader you need to work day in, day out at finding the best way that you personally lead. This means working everyday to understand who you are and what is important to you. Don't try to motivate people just because you think you ought to if you are not interested in knowing what turns each individual on or off.
The easiest way to lose credibility is to say one thing and do something else. Everyday it is important to work at delivering your promises. And if you fail to deliver, accept this as a reflection on yourself, so that you can in future be more authentic. You may try to copy other people that you admire. Don't forget that you are a unique individual in unique circumstances. Not everything anyone else does is right for you and for the leadership relationships you have.

Leaders take us to new places

Leadership is all about travelling on a journey from one place to another. It is about looking towards new horizons. It is about being able to create and inspire new visions, a need to change, overcoming barriers, winning hearts and minds, building cohesion and celebrating success. Every day, consider the next step you are taking on your long journey.

It is also about seeing where we have come from, to understand the line of trajectory and to appreciate culture and meaning in others. Only when we really understand where we come from do we really appreciate where we are going. So spending time each day to consider the past, helps to maintain a sense of perspective.
Leadership is something that has to be worked on each day. What have you done today to develop the leader in you?

About the author
David Kesby

You can boost your leadership skills and hence your career by understanding this one thing that most leaders miss: great leadership incorporates a spiritual dimension.

This spiritual dimension has been a part of leadership since time in memorial; but in today's global economy, it is undergoing an historic, universal transformation. It's a transformation that speaks directly to your individual leadership and career challenges.

However, when we talk about the spiritual in leadership, we must, first and foremost, talk about results -- the results leaders achieve. Concrete results. Hard, measured results. Plus, we must talk about getting more of them, getting them faster, and getting "more, faster" continually. Otherwise, there is no sense in delving into the spiritual aspect of leadership.

Results are the stuff that leaders are made of. If they're not getting results, they won't be leaders for long. Results come in countless forms and functions. But one thing they all share: they are material consequences of actions.

You can't see spirit, you can't hear it, you can't smell it, you can't taste it, you can't feel it; however, if you ignore the non-material that the spiritual encompasses, you'll give short shrift to your leadership.
Just as the root word for spirit comes from Latin "to breathe" so spiritual dimensions of leadership are its very life-breath; for through it, the greatest results are achieved.

Spirit has been applied to many different things in different fields: to stealth bombers, corporations, rock bands, comic book characters, etc. In religion, spirit is the concept of an innate essence of a being. All religions embrace spirit in many ways. But when applied to leadership, spirit is differently manifested than with organized religions. The spiritual aspect of leadership I'm talking about must be exerted universally in the global market place, across cultures,ations, ethnic groups, etc. No religion has a corner on the spirit of leadership.

Fortunately, there is a universal ground for the kind of spirit needed in today's leadership: the spiritual wisdomof tribal cultures. Anthropologists have come to identify common features in the diversity of tribal cultures around the world. First, they are earth-based. The relationship betweenthe earth and the people is one of mystical interdependence. Second, the powers of nature, the acts of daily life, birth/death nature and the cosmos are all invested with deep meaning through ritual and dance. Third, most tribal cultures view all individual things that make up our universe -- rocks, stars, mountains, rivers, people, animals, fish, etc. -- as interdependent.

This interdependence is not just a physical dynamic. Yes, we live on the same earth, breath the same air, and are all mortal. But tribal cultures understand it as a spiritual dynamic as well. Unlike the concept of human souls, which are believedto be eternal and preexisting, one's spirit according to tribal wisdom develops and grows as an integral aspect of a person living interdependently with the community and its environment.

Today, these interdependent features of tribal spiritual wisdom can be applied with dramatic consequences to global leadership. Just as tribe members saw themselves as interdependent with their tribe and their spiritual deities and dictums, so today's leaders in order to be truly successful on a global stage must see themselves in similar interdependent terms. However, the difference today is that interdependence is not with a tribe but with people the world over and with the world environment. That's a profound, spiritual leadership lesson, hard but necessary to actualize, from which great leadership results flow.

How do we actualize this spiritual imperative? Enter the Leadership Talk. I have been teaching the Leadership Talk to leaders of all ranks and functions worldwide for nearly a quarter of a century. It works on the premise that great results happen primarily when leaders establish a deep, human, emotional connection with people. When I first began developing and teaching it, I saw it as a powerful results generator. It is that. In fact, the Leadership Talk is the most powerful leadership results generator of all. But I had not really understood why until recently. Now, I see each one of those descriptors, "deep, human, emotional", which grew organically out of my having to work with leaders challenged to get great results, are fundamentally spiritual in nature. That's because they are predicated on the spiritual wisdom of interdependence. A key reason the Leadership Talk has helped leaders get great, material results for nearly 25 years is its driving methodologies are fundamentally spiritual.

Globalization is forcing broad and deep changes in human relationships as organizations are being challenged to achieve greater results than ever before. When you understand that the best results come from practical processes bolstered with spiritual dynamics connected to tribal wisdom, you'll have an opportunity to achieve an unmatched competitive advantage in the world marketplace.

Article by Brent Filson

Lord Leitch's report 'Prosperity for all in the global economy: world class skills' clearly expressed the economic and social impact of standing still on skills: five million people not just unemployed but unemployable by 2020. A year of thinking and planning later, it is now high time for action. We need to make the next 12 years count if we are to change the skills landscape of Britain by 2020.

Leitch's message echoes one Ufi regularly hears from the millions of people who have used the learndirect careers advice service, or taken a learndirect course – in the 21st Century workplace, you have to upskill just to stand still.

12 years ago, people with office-based jobs did not need to know how to email or search the web. Now they do. In 12 years' time, the skills needed to keep our economy competitive will have changed again. With the right systems in place – mechanisms for people to get the right advice and guidance, the right funding available for the right courses – this change need not be as daunting as it may seem.

So what do we, the learning and skills sector, need to do to make this happen? Certainly, we must carry on working to improve the skills of jobseekers and help them into work. The abolition of the 16 hour rule for the unemployed has been a welcome advance in this area. We must continue to collaborate with employers and the government to train up those already in work. However, we also need to find new and better ways to reach people with no or few qualifications, and those in low paid work. These are the people for whom time is running out, the people Leitch predicted will have no possibility of work in 2020, and they should be a higher priority.

The announcement of the new adult advancement and careers service is a major shift in the right direction. We know, again through learndirect service users, the huge importance of good quality advice and guidance on career decisions. The 21st Century trend of moving often between jobs and careers over the period of a working life will continue and increase as the global economy develops, and we need a new, enhanced service to support people as they make these choices.

Finally, to meet the challenge set by Leitch head-on, we must drive learning and skills provision full throttle into the 21st Century. All adults need to be offered the range of choice available in other aspects of their lives. This means learning fully tailored to their needs and to their personal learning style.

In attracting over two and a half million clients, many with low or no skills and qualifications, and enabling them to achieve and progress, learndirect provides one of the most successful examples of 21st Century learning. We must keep developing our methods of learning, training and advice provision to match our ambitions and enable everyone to improve their skills, play a full part in their communities and contribute to the UK's economic growth.

By Pablo Lloyd

Any business is only as good as its employees and this is also true of the management of that business. Managers should possess excellent leadership skills and be able to lead their teams and use all of their skills to motivate their staff to perform well and meet their targets. Without effective leadership a business will eventually start to lose profits as staff will not be driven to excel and improve on their performance and this is something that business owners should avoid at all costs. Due to this is now standard practise that managers attend leadership courses to make sure that they have the skills required to inspire and lead their staff effectively.

If you are a business owner who thinks that their managers would benefit from leadership courses here are some areas that should be covered within that course to make it as beneficial as possible -

* Leadership skills these are the basic foundations of what makes a good leader or manager and these are the skills that should be constantly practised by your team.

* Working within a team this is essential as to be a good leader you must also be an effective member of that team.

* Performance management all managers/team leaders need to have a sound understanding of performance management as this is one of the core principles of effective management.

* Coaching skills in the workplace today there is a great deal of emphasis on coaching as it is increasingly used as part of the performance management process, so all managers/team leaders should be able to coach their team effectively to maximise their performance.

* Feedback being a manager/team leader involves having to give both positive and negative feedback to your team, good leadership courses should include a section on how to do this effectively.

* Team building team building is an important aspect of being a manager/team leader so all good leaderships courses should include a section on this so that managers/team leaders can develop their own team building skills and use them on a daily basis.

* Motivation and inspiration without these two key factors to drive a manager/team leader each day they will be of little use in motivating and inspiring their teams. Leadership courses should show new managers/team leaders how to get the best from their staff through being someone who can motivate and inspire them to achieve their goals.

* An understanding of the Employment Law this is crucial for any manager/team leader as legislation on employment can change from year to year so it is important that your leadership team are up to date and have a working knowledge of the laws surrounding employment.

These are just a small selection of the topics that a good leadership course should cover. If you are looking for training courses that will meet the needs of your business Premier Training offer a range of tailored to suit courses that would be suitable for you and are delivered by experts in that particular field.

By: John McLean 3