Sunday, March 29, 2009

Getting serious about your meeting problem

Getting serious about your meeting problem

Do you have one? Some folks are going to eight hours of meeting a day. At Ford, they used to have meetings to prepare for meetings, just to be sure everyone had their story straight.

If you're serious about solving your meeting problem, getting things done and saving time, try this for one week. If it doesn't work, I'll be happy to give you a full refund.

...more

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Why your Employees are Losing Motivation

Business literature is packed with advice about worker motivation—but sometimes managers are the problem, not the inspiration. Here are seven practices to fire up the troops.

... more

Friday, March 20, 2009

Book The Manager's Guide to Effective Meetings

by Barbara J. Streibel

In our increasingly collaborative work environment, the ability to manage results-driven meetings has become a critical career asset. Let The Manager's Guide to Effective Meetings provide you with a step-by-step template for energizing your next meeting, and transforming it from a roomful of clock-watching individuals into a collaboration of involved and enthusiastic partners.

(more ...)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Operating With 20/20 Vision in Areas That Matter Most

A father and son were traveling home from a college football game late one night in the 1970s when the dad pulled the car onto the shoulder of the rural, desolate highway and asked his son to take over the driving. As hard as it was for him to admit, the father said his eyesight was failing him and he didn't think it safe for him to stay behind the wheel. So the son took over, and it didn't take him long to realize that his dad's eyesight wasn't the problem - it was the station wagon's headlights that were fading.

In life, we have to stay focused on the things that matter most. As Mark Twain put it, "Plain clarity is better than ornate obscurity." For the father and son with the fading headlights, the most important thing became obvious: The road in front of them for that last 15 miles! For most leaders, however, finding clarity starts with establishing priorities from a long list of things that all seem important.

more ...

Monday, March 16, 2009

Cutting back - smart advice on managing business debt

Even successful businesses have debt, but how much is too much? Learning how to manage debt is what can put you ahead.

... more>>

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Three kinds of meetings

Meetings are marketing in real time with real people. (A conference is not a meeting. A conference is a chance for a circle of people to interact).

There are only three kinds of classic meetings:

more...

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Lead Excellently. Start Here!

Lead Excellently. Start Here!

Learn the Insider Secrets of Becoming a Top Leader In
Your Industry. Win the Respect and Success You Deserve!

Become an exceptional leader, with "How
to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You."


Do you want to be a highly effective leader? Do you want to develop the self-confidence, vision, wisdom, motivational impact and delivery skills that the most effective leaders have? And do you want to be the person to whom, quite naturally, other people turn for direction?

And do you want to learn the leadership "magic" of building a team whose members work together effectively and positively, bringing the exceptional performance improvements that good leadership and successful teamwork can bring? And what about the rewards, respect and personal growth that come with effective leadership?

This Course Helps Good Managers Become Exceptional Leaders

Looking at where you are right now, do you feel that you're not getting the rewards and recognition you deserve?

You may be very competent as a manager. However, leadership is a different thing from management (they complement one another). If you rely only on being a good manager, you'll never inspire people to give their very best. Because of this, people who are only good managers are passed over for promotion - time and again...

The good news is that with just 24 hours of study, you can learn to be an exceptional leader! With just a little application, you can learn the 48 simple skills that will make you the wise, self-confident, inspiring and successful leader you want to be. You'll say goodbye to the mundane struggle of everyday management existence, becoming the natural center of a positive, enthusiastic, well-motivated and highly successful team.

Read on. It's all explained below!

Business Leadership – Made Clear

With Mind Tools’ “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You” leadership system, you'll learn the essential, tried-and-tested leadership skills and techniques you need to become a well respected and highly effective leader in business.

You'll see the the mysteries surrounding leadership (for example, the myth that good leaders are born, not trained) fall away as we reveal the clear, simple, up-to-date principles that lie behind good leadership.

And with "How to Lead"'s sharp focus on leadership in the corporate world, you'll learn the skills you need to lead effectively and positively in today's workplace, including the often tricky skills needed to persuade, influence and lead people over whom you sometimes have little direct authority.

(These skills should work well for people in the military, healthcare, nursing, education and public service generally - it's just that our focus and experience lies in the corporate world...)

Among many other things, with "How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You", you learn how to:

  • Create a reliable, robust and attractive vision of the future that people will respect and believe in (meaning that they'll enthusiastically follow your lead);

  • Communicate your vision, and see the benefits as people work to the best of their abilities to complete the projects you initiate successfully;
  • Grow your self-confidence, becoming a calm and self-confident leader, and one who inspires confidence in others;

  • Build a reputation for expertise and a track record of achievement that teams members and your peers will come to respect, value and trust;

  • Make good decisions under pressure, with the confidence that you’ve done the homework needed for these decisions to be right;

  • Build a strong, flexible and highly effective team, expanding your ability to deliver many times over;

  • Develop the sureness of touch shown by the best leaders, and learn to build the empathic, mutually trusting relationships needed for maximum team performance;

  • Enjoy mutually rewarding, co-operative working relationships with team members and peers. And enjoy the happy, energizing atmosphere that comes with this;

  • Keep people on target and performing well together in a “firm but fair way” that gets the job done while respecting the rights of team members;

  • Learn to inspire and motivate team members so that they'll "go to the ends of the Earth" to give their very best;

  • Become a truly inspirational leader, and enjoy the perks that come with this.

As you learn and start using these skills, you'll become the natural choice for advancement and promotion. Your career will take off, and you'll quickly gather the financial and emotional rewards that come with success. You can join the ranks of the high flyers.

"How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You’ provides, in one volume, a concise presentation of many of the best ideas about leadership. Some of these concepts will reinforce what you know about leadership; some will expand your knowledge.

“By using assessment tools that are included as part of the course, you make visible areas of your leadership strength and areas that can use some exercise. With assessments complete, you can focus on the course content to take actions in your daily work to improve your skills.

“This course is thought provoking. It will require you to view yourself honestly. If you truly want to develop the leader within, take the course. You’re worth the effort."

Harold Strawbridge, Philadelphia, USA

In the past, you'd have spent years of painful trial and error learning the techniques taught in this course. And, not knowing these skills, you would not have been performing at your best during this time (even worse, you could easily have made mistakes which were, if only you'd known, all too avoidable.)

But now, with Mind Tools' "How to Lead" leadership system, you'll quickly learn the essential skills you need to be a truly effective leader.

What Does the Course Contain?

Within the “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You” workbook, you'll find the following eight modules:

The Meaning of Leadership - learn how to tell good leadership from bad, and how good leaders behave;

Get to Know Yourself - take five insightful self-tests that give you the self-knowledge you need to be a successful leader;

Get the Right Stuff - learn to counter weaknesses identified in the previous module, build your self-confidence, project a dynamic attitude and capitalize on your leadership strengths;

Creating Winning Ideas - find out how to build a clear and compelling vision of how the future should be, which other people will be inspired to adopt;

The Power to Rouse - discover how to inspire people with this vision, and motivate them to give their very best;

Getting Things Done - learn the rare skills needed to transform vision into reality;

Develop Your Team - find out how to develop your people so that they become highly-motivated and exceptionally-effective team players;

Get the Extra Edge - learn about things like risk taking, networking and cross-cultural leadership, helps you move from being a good leader to being a great one.

Click here for fuller details about the contents of these modules.


Sunday, March 08, 2009

To Be A Leader You Can’t Stand On The Sidelines

If you want a starting position, you need to act like a starter. There is a world of difference between expecting to be a starter and actually being a starter. ... more