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Being likeable will help you in your job, business, relationships, and life. I met with and discussed leadership dozens of successful business leaders, to determine what made them so likeable and their companies so successful. All of the concepts are simple, and yet, perhaps in the name of revenues or the bottom line, we often lose sight of the simple things - things that not only make us human, but can actually help us become more successful. Below are the eleven most important principles to integrate to become a better leader:

1. Listening

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway

Listening is the foundation of any good relationship. Great leaders listen to what their customers and prospects want and need, and they listen to the challenges those customers face. They listen to colleagues and are open to new ideas. They listen to shareholders, investors, and competitors. Here's why the best CEO's listen more.

2. Storytelling

"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McAfee Brown

After listening, leaders need to tell great stories in order to sell their products, but more important, in order to sell their ideas. Storytelling is what captivates people and drives them to take action. Whether you're telling a story to one prospect over lunch, a boardroom full of people, or thousands of people through an online video - storytelling wins customers.

3. Authenticity

"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey

Great leaders are who they say they are, and they have integrity beyond compare. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of the authentic leader and create a positive, attractive energy. Customers, employees, and media all want to help an authentic person to succeed. There used to be a divide between one’s public self and private self, but the social internet has blurred that line. Tomorrow's leaders are transparent about who they are online, merging their personal and professional lives together.

4. Transparency

"As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier

There is nowhere to hide anymore, and businesspeople who attempt to keep secrets will eventually be exposed. Openness and honesty lead to happier staff and customers and colleagues. More important, transparency makes it a lot easier to sleep at night - unworried about what you said to whom, a happier leader is a more productive one.

5. Team Playing

"Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." -SEAL Team Saying

No matter how small your organization, you interact with others every day. Letting others shine, encouraging innovative ideas, practicing humility, and following other rules for working in teams will help you become a more likeable leader. You’ll need a culture of success within your organization, one that includes out-of-the-box thinking.

6. Responsiveness

"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." -Charles Swindoll

The best leaders are responsive to their customers, staff, investors, and prospects. Every stakeholder today is a potential viral sparkplug, for better or for worse, and the winning leader is one who recognizes this and insists upon a culture of responsiveness. Whether the communication is email, voice mail, a note or a tweet, responding shows you care and gives your customers and colleagues a say, allowing them to make a positive impact on the organization.

7. Adaptability

"When you're finished changing, you're finished." -Ben Franklin

There has never been a faster-changing marketplace than the one we live in today. Leaders must be flexible in managing changing opportunities and challenges and nimble enough to pivot at the right moment. Stubbornness is no longer desirable to most organizations. Instead, humility and the willingness to adapt mark a great leader.

8. Passion

"The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." -Steve Jobs

Those who love what they do don’t have to work a day in their lives. People who are able to bring passion to their business have a remarkable advantage, as that passion is contagious to customers and colleagues alike. Finding and increasing your passion will absolutely affect your bottom line.

9. Surprise and Delight

"A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless." -Charles de Gaulle

Most people like surprises in their day-to-day lives. Likeable leaders underpromise and overdeliver, assuring that customers and staff are surprised in a positive way. There are a plethora of ways to surprise without spending extra money - a smile, We all like to be delighted — surprise and delight create incredible word-of-mouth marketing opportunities.

10. Simplicity

"Less isn't more; just enough is more." -Milton Glaser

The world is more complex than ever before, and yet what customers often respond to best is simplicity — in design, form, and function. Taking complex projects, challenges, and ideas and distilling them to their simplest components allows customers, staff, and other stakeholders to better understand and buy into your vision. We humans all crave simplicity, and so today's leader must be focused and deliver simplicity.

11. Gratefulness

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -Gilbert Chesterton

Likeable leaders are ever grateful for the people who contribute to their opportunities and success. Being appreciative and saying thank you to mentors, customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders keeps leaders humble, appreciated, and well received. It also makes you feel great! Donor's Choose studied the value of a hand-written thank-you note, and actually found donors were 38% more likely to give a 2nd time if they got a hand-written note!

The Golden Rule: Above all else, treat others as you’d like to be treated

By showing others the same courtesy you expect from them, you will gain more respect from coworkers, customers, and business partners. Holding others in high regard demonstrates your company’s likeability and motivates others to work with you. This seems so simple, as do so many of these principles — and yet many people, too concerned with making money or getting by, fail to truly adopt these key concepts.

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The six deadly sins of leaership

28/8/2013

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Being a leader is perhaps the hardest challenge any of us will ever face. No matter how long we work at it, practicing the right behaviors is a never-ending task. Knowing – and avoiding – the wrong ones is too. Thus, we offer the following six common leadership pitfalls:

1. Not Giving Self-Confidence its Due.

Self-confidence is the lifeblood of success. When people have it, they’re bold. They try new things, offer ideas, exude positive energy, and cooperate with their colleagues instead of surreptitiously attempting to bring them down. When they lack self-confidence, it’s just the opposite. People cower. They plod. And they spread negativity with every word and gesture.

But all too often leaders ignore (or neglect) this very basic fact of the human condition. Why is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they just don’t understand that it is part of their job to instill self-confidence in their people. It may even be said that it’s their first job. You cannot unleash the creative power of individuals who doubt themselves.

Fortunately, some people seem to be born with self-confidence. Others gain it from life and work experience and come to a company fully loaded. Regardless, leaders can never stop pouring self-confidence into their teams. The ways to do so are myriad. Make sure goals are challenging – but achievable. Give effusive positive feedback. Remind your direct reports of what they do right.

We’re not saying that leaders should blindly extol and exalt. People know when they’re being gamed. But good leaders work relentlessly to find ways to instill self-confidence in those around them. They know it’s the gift that never stops giving.

2. Muzzling Voice.

Perhaps the most frustrating way that leaders underperform is by over-talking. That is, they act like know-it-alls. They can tell you how the world works, what corporate is thinking, how it will backfire if you try this or that, and why you can’t possibly change the product one iota. Sometimes such blowhards get their swagger from a few positive experiences, but usually they’re just victims of their own destructive personalities.

Ultimately, the company ends up being a victim too, because know-it-alls aren’t just insufferable, they’re dangerous. They don’t listen, and that deafness makes it very hard for new ideas to get debated, expanded upon, or improved. No single person, no matter how smart, can take a business to its apex. For that, you need every voice to be heard.

3. Acting Phony.

Can you spot a phony? Of course you can – and so can your people. Indeed, if there is one widespread human capability, it is sniffing out someone who is putting on airs, pretending to be who they’re not, or just keeping their real self hidden. Yet too many leaders spend way too much time creating personas that put a wall between them and their employees. What a waste.

Because authenticity is what makes people love you. Visibly grappling with tough problems, sweating the details, laughing, and caring – those are the activities that make people respond and feel engaged with what you’re saying. Sure, some people will tell you that being mysterious grants you power as a leader. In reality, all it generates is fear. And who wants to motivate that way?

Now, obviously, authenticity is unattractive if it’s coupled with immaturity or an overdose of informality. And organizations generally don’t like people who are too emotionally unbounded – i.e. so real that all their feelings are exposed. They tend to tamp that kind of intensity down a bit. And that’s not a bad thing, as work is work and, more than at home, allows us to maintain some privacy.

But don’t let convention wring all the authenticity out of you, especially as you climb the ladder. In time, humanity always wins. Your team and bosses come to know who you are in your soul, what kind of people you attract and what kind of performance you want from everyone. Your realness will make you accessible; you will connect and you will inspire. You will lead.

4. Lacking the Guts to Differentiate.

You only have to be in business a few weeks to know that not all investment opportunities are created equal. But some leaders can’t face that reality, and so they sprinkle their resources like cheese on a pizza, a little bit everywhere.

As a result, promising growth opportunities too often don’t get the outsized infusions of cash and people they need. If they did, someone might get offended during the resource allocation process. Someone – as in the manager of a weak business or the sponsor of a dubious investment proposal.

But leaders who don’t differentiate do the most damage when it comes to people. Unwilling to deliver candid, rigorous performance reviews, they give every employee the same kind of bland, mushy, “nice job” sign-off. Then, when rewards are doled out, they give star performers little more than the laggards. Now, you can call this egalitarian approach kind, or fair – as these lousy leaders usually do – but it’s really just weakness. And when it comes to building a thriving organization where people have the chance to grow and succeed, weakness just doesn’t cut it.

5. Fixation on Results at the Expense of Values.

Everyone knows that leaders deliver. Oratory and inspiration without results equal…well, a whole lot of nothing. But leaders are committing a real dereliction of duties if all they care about are the numbers. They also have to care about how those numbers came to be. Were the right behaviors practiced? Was the company’s culture of integrity honored? Were people taken care of properly? Was the law obeyed, in both letter and spirit?

Values are a funny thing in business. Companies love to talk about them. They love to hang them up on plaques in the lobby and boast about them to potential hires and customers. But they’re meaningless if leaders don’t live and breathe them. Sometimes that can take courage. It can mean letting go of a top performer who’s a brute to his colleagues, or not promoting a star who doesn’t share her best ideas with the team. That’s hard.

And yet if you’re a leader, this is a sin you cannot squint away. When you nail your results, make sure you can also report back to a crowded room: We did this the right way, according to our values.

6. Skipping the Fun Part

What is it about celebrating that makes managers so nervous? Maybe throwing a party doesn’t seem professional, or it makes people worry that they won’t look serious to the powers that be, or that, if things get too happy in the office, people will stop working their tails off.

Whatever the reason, too many leaders don’t celebrate enough. To be clear here, we do not define celebrating as conducting one of those stilted little company-orchestrated events that everyone hates, in which the whole team is marched out to a local restaurant for an evening of forced merriment when they’d rather be home. We’re talking about sending a team to Disney World with their families, or giving each team member tickets to a show or a movie, or handing each member of the team a new iPod.

What a lost opportunity. Celebrating makes people feel like winners and creates an atmosphere of recognition and positive energy. Imagine a team winning the World Series without champagne spraying everywhere. You can’t! And yet companies win all the time and let it go without so much as a high-five.

Work is too much a part of life not to recognize the moments of achievement. Grab as many as you can. Make a big deal out of them.

That’s part of a leader’s job too – the fun part.

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Great work is work that has meaning

25/8/2013

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When we take on too much good work our time and attention gets distracted from our great work. This busyness trap distracts us from taking responsibility to choose work that matters. Great work is work that has meaning. It’s work that has impact. It’s work that stretches you. It’s work that makes a difference.
One example of a leader who lived a life pursuing his great work is Steve Jobs. He live his life on his passion, learning how to express and live his great work, even if it challenged people along the way. You cannot live a life that matters if you’re worried what the world thinks of you. To live a life of meaning requires that you live your life doing what matters. Everything else is of secondary concern.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech, June 2005

The secret is not to settle. But, this is exactly what we do! We settle. We settle too easily. We settle into our stable, but boring job. We settle into familiar patterns and routines that fail to challenges us to do and be more. We settle into the living a pedestrian life, fulfilling someone else’s dream, vision and purpose.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech, June 2005

In the day-to-day pressures of life it’s easy to get distracted, to miss your passion, to overlook your purpose and end up living someone else’s life. We often don’t think about the sacrifice we’re making when we live our life striving to meet the expectations of others, whilst we miss our own purpose and passion. It easier to purse what others deem to be necessary. As opposed to the courage it takes to pursue your own great work. But, this is the essence of effective leadership that passion and conviction to accomplish your great work.

As leaders, it’s our responsibility to focus on work that matters. That is work with greater impact. A focus on better quality work allows us to work less, accomplish more and have greater impact.

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” - Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech, June 2005

Finding your great work provides the context and the focus against which all work and effort is assessed. Clarity concerning your great work keeps you focused on what matters. Great work is your true north. It’s the focus on your great work, the few things that really matter that sets apart the great leader from the good leader.

The commitment to great work is a choice we all face. To live a life of meaning demands we choose great work, rather than merely good work. It demands courage, but it’s what makes the journey worthwhile. It’s the difference between living a pedestrian and a life of meaning.

Have you made yours? Or have you settled? Are you clear on your great work?

Take some time and consider the following:

How much time do you spend doing your great work?
How much time do you want to spending doing your great work?
How could you make that happen?
What should you stop doing?

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Employees feeling valued is at the top of the list when it comes to employee retention

22/8/2013

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Hopefully it isn’t a surprise to you that employees feeling valued is at the top of the list when it comes to employee retention. And it probably isn’t a surprise that employee recognition is key to helping employees feel valued.

What may or may not surprise you though is that not all employees like to be recognised the same way. But often times that’s what we do. We apply the “Golden Rule” of recognising them the same way we would want to be recognised.

It is important though that leaders apply the “Platinum Rule” of employee recognition in helping them feel valued. Applying the Platinum Rule means you recognise employees the way they want to be recognised, not the way you want to be.

Through the years I have questioned and surveyed staff I have led. The questioning is specifically asking how each member of my team likes to be recognised. The following are the questions I ask in my employee recognition/feeling valued survey.

1. What types of personal hobbies or interests do you like to talk about the most?
2. At work, what increases your happiness or creates positive emotion the most?
3. Who do you like to receive recognition or praise at work from the most? (e.g. peers, manager, senior leaders, customers)
4. How do you like be recognized? (e.g. public, privately)
5. What types of recognition motivates you the most? Do you like gifts, a heartfelt email or card, call, trophy/certificate or something else?
6. Tell me about the greatest recognition you ever received? Why was it so great?

I have personally had a lot of success in administering this questioning tool to many on my teams through the years. Employee recognition needs to be personal. The more personal it is, the more employees will feel valued.

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Treating employees well can make a leaders job more difficult..

22/8/2013

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What!!! I hear you all saying.

But if you consider people pounding your doors down wanting to work for you a problem then maybe it makes sense.

That is exactly what happened to Henry Ford in 1914 when he announced a minimum $5.00 a day pay (which was more than double the day wage for most of his workers) for all eligible employees. Additionally he dropped the work day from nine hours a day to eight. Talk about improving the quality of your employee’s lives!

Many, including “The Wall Street Journal” and stockholders saw it as a reckless and irresponsible move. But Ford stuck with his “reckless ideas.”

Employees considered him a friend. As a result he increased employee retention, was able to hire the best mechanics and dramatically raised productivity across the company. Profits sky rocketed, doubling from $30 million to $60 million between 1914 and 1916. In this case treating employees well really paid off!
Ford’s revolutionary “Five Dollar Day” did create some problems though including massive crowds flocking to the plant daily in search of jobs, police having to use force to disperse them and angry mobs who released their frustrations of not landing a job by throwing rocks through factory windows. However, those problems seemed minimal considering the good his ideas produced.

Unless you own a business, you most likely lack the power to increase wages and cut hours so dramatically. However, treating employees good doesn’t have to be expensive or that drastic. Great leaders know that!

A few ways leaders can treat employees better include:
•Caring enough to ask someone you lead how their family is doing and taking a personal interest.
•Using good manners in your interactions by using words such as, “please, thank you, and excuse me.”
•Genuinely and specifically pointing out things they are doing to provide value to the team and organisation.
•Taking the time to give constructive feedback and then caring enough to nurture and develop them.
•Respectfully and actively listening to concerns they bring to you.
•Promoting work-life balance by understanding and identifying their needs.

I could outline many more ways of how leaders can treat those they lead better, and I am sure you have a few as well. The reality is we will get much further and get what we want out of our teams and organisations by being respectful, service orientated, caring and genuine in our approach with those we lead than being dictatorial, puffed up with pride, egotistical and all about results.

Leadership is about relationships. The greater trust you create; the greater loyalty you will produce. Loyalty almost always leads to better results. Put people first, and the results will follow.

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Coaching leaders help employees identify their unique strengths and weaknesses and tie them to their personal and career aspirations. They encourage employees to establish long-term development goals and help them conceptualize a plan for attaining them. They make agreements with their employees about their role and responsibilities in enacting development plans, and they give plentiful instruction and feedback.

Coaching leaders excel at delegating; they give employees challenging assignments, even if that means the tasks won’t be accomplished quickly. In other words, these leaders are willing to put up with short-term failure if it furthers long-term learning.

Not surprising, the coaching style is used least often in our high-pressure economy. Many leaders say they don’t have the time for the slow and tedious work of teaching people and helping them grow. But after a first session, it takes little or no extra time. Leaders who ignore this style are passing up a powerful tool: its impact on climate and performance are markedly positive.

Admittedly, there is a paradox in the positive effect on business performance because coaching focuses primarily on personal development, not on immediate work-related tasks. Even so, coaching improves results. The reason: it requires constant dialogue, and that dialogue has a way of pushing up every driver of climate. Take flexibility. When an employee knows his boss watches him and cares about what he does, he feels free to experiment. After all, he’s sure to get quick and constructive feedback.

Similarly, the ongoing dialogue of coaching guarantees that people know what is expected of them and how their work fits into a larger vision or strategy. That affects responsibility and clarity. As for commitment, coaching helps there, too, because the style’s implicit message is, “I believe in you, I’m investing in you, and I expect your best efforts.” Employees very often rise to that challenge.

The coaching style works well in many business situations, but it is perhaps most effective when people on the receiving end are “up for it.” For instance, the coaching style works particularly well when employees are already aware of their weaknesses and would like to improve their performance. Similarly, the style works well when employees realize how cultivating new abilities can help them advance.

By contrast, the coaching style makes little sense when employees, for whatever reason, are resistant to learning or changing their ways. And it flops if the leader lacks the expertise to help the employee along. The fact is, many managers are unfamiliar with or simply inept at coaching, particularly when it comes to giving ongoing performance feedback that motivates rather than creates fear or apathy.

Some companies have realized the positive impact of the style and are trying to make it a core competence. At some organizations, a significant portion of annual bonuses is tied to an executive’s development of his or her direct reports. But many organizations have yet to take full advantage of this leadership style.

Although the coaching style may not scream “bottom-line results,” it delivers them.

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Become a better leader

The six deadly sins of leaership

Great work is work that has meaning

Employees feeling valued is at the top of the list when it comes to employee retention

Treating employees well can make a leaders job more difficult..

Coaching for success

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