Make Business Decisions Quickly

Now I am not saying that as a business leader you should be rash about decisions, however as Jason Jennings and Luarence Haughton say in the title of their book "It's not the BIG that eat the SMALL, its the FAST that eat the SLOW"

Leadership is about making decisions...understanding what are the decisions that need to be made, asking the right questions to find the best answer, understanding what decisions you need to make and what decisions your teams need to make..

Meetings can be such a blocker to speedy decision making, they also can harm the overall decision by diluting the answer to appease people. Successful companies find a way of making speedy decisions, well assessed yes, but knowing that there will always be an element of risk. If there is no risk then you are probably not leading you are following other leaders or companies.

As a modern leader, time is of the essence....as the authors continue

"The fast thinker has a good memory, learns from previous experiences and always learns from failure including the unexpected failures that occasionally take place"

Lessons From Beyond the Graves of Leaders

I was reading ChaosScenario blog and came across a new book that talks about lessons in leadership from leaders who are now dead. Here is some insight from Ray Kroc of MacDonalds - it also shows how building companies is hard, no one not even the greats have not had setbacks...what separates them is their resilience and passion to succeed.

"Ray Kroc, a high school dropout, built a business by convincing companies that sold shakes and malts (such as Walgreens) that using paper cups instead of glassware would increase their sales volume. Kroc further helped their businesses by devising a contraption that would allow them to make multiple shakes at once.

World War II and a slew of other factors caused orders for his machines to slow to a near stop. When he happened upon a couple of brothers in California selling quick lunches (and shakes!), Kroc saw an opportunity to transform the way Americans saw lunch.

Though he may have too hastily signed a contract detailing the franchising opportunity, he never relented in his pursuit of his dream, and after more than five years of quality management and trying to make ends meet (assuming enormous debt to buy out his less ambitious business partners), McDonald's started making a profit, and eventually served "billions and billions" of burgers that, at the time, far exceeded the standard fare of the day."

Carnival of Leadership Development

Developing leaders and indeed ourselves is imperative if business is going to flourish. Here are the latest set of blog articles that will help you develop your thinking, your management style and achieve career success.

Anna presents Leadership, comfort zones and related rant posted at The Engaging Brand

Mike King presents Preparing for your own performance review. posted at Learn This, saying, "These are some specific things that if consistently practiced, will make a big difference to improve your reviews every year."

Warren Wong presents Why You Should Be Careful When Your Business Is Going Well posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, "Some reasons to be cautious when your business has been doing really well."
GreatManagement presents Get Rid Of Procrastination Once And For All posted at The GreatManagement Blog, saying, "Everyone suffers from procrastination at some stage in their lives."

Norman Morse presents The Serene Toastmaster. posted at The Game of Self.

American Entrepreneur presents Expert Q & A: Creating an Effective Culture for Your Small Business posted at American Entrepreneurship.

Edith presents If a Seven-Year-Old Can Do It, You Can Do It Too! posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

Karl Goldfield presents Building a plan part 6e: Execution - Opportunities - Value makes the sale | Coaching Sales Champions posted at Coaching sales champions.

Roger Carr presents What Makes A Great Nonprofit Leader posted at Everyday Giving Blog.

Wally Bock presents Leadership: Developing leaders the natural way posted at Three Star Leadership Blog, saying, "Leaders learn to lead by leading. They don't learn to lead in a classroom. They don't learn to lead from a book. Great leadership development programs provide tools and support to help developing leaders learn faster and more effectively."

Michael Bass presents How a manager can turn employees into a team posted at Debt Prison, saying, "Are you the type of person that intelligent, educated, positive people will want to work for? Are you a happy person that is easy to get along with while still demanding the utmost in satisfaction for your customers? Can you work with a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, leading them in a common goal of teamwork and success?"

wilson ng presents First Things First ? how to Work and Take care of your Boss! posted at Reflections of a BizDrivenLife, saying, "Advancing on the job means working with your boss! Get the boss to be pushing behind for you, rather than try to overtake him. Don’t gain your confidence by putting down the boss. Try to gain it by having the boss pull you up!"

GreatManagement presents What Every Manager Can Learn From Barack Obama posted at The GreatManagement Blog, saying, "What Every Manager Can Learn From Barack Obama"

Warren Wong presents How To Get Whatever You Want From Anyone posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, "How to get whatever you want from anyone you want - from money to sex to love!"

Michael Walsh presents Individual Accountability in Business posted at Business Growth, saying, "This is a good leadership development article"

Matt presents Good vs great posted at Life is your Career.

James D. Brausch presents Failure? The Doorway to Success posted at Internet Business Blog.

Mark Riffey presents If Michael Jordan is ok with failing, isn’t it ok for you? posted at Business is Personal.

Mark Riffey presents Marketing opportunities: As perishable as lettuce. posted at Business is Personal.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Maximize the Cognitive Value of Your Mental Workout posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution, saying, "Why our brains need constant novelty and learning...doing more of the same in one same domain, no matter how intellectually stimulating it may feel, is not enough "mental workout"."

Joshua C. Karlin presents Powerful Yet Reasonable Goals posted at Marketing & Fundraising Ideas.

Charles H. Green presents Trust Is the New Leadership In A Flat World posted at Trust Matters, saying, "In a flat world your suppliers and customers are your partners, and leadership requires building trust."

Shawn Driscoll presents 5 Massive Mistakes Keeping You Stuck posted at Shawn Driscoll.

Rich Vosler presents Lessons From The Geese posted at Sales Training Tips.

Mark @ TheLocoMono presents The 7 Lessons of Growth posted at TheLocoMono Website, saying, "7 insights on developing your leadership skills."

Ralph Jean-Paul presents Bounce Back After Failure posted at Potential 2 Success, saying, "Some of the most successful people in the world credit their success to a failure they’ve experienced. Bounce back from your failure and you might become one of them. Learn about the different types of failures and how to recover from them successfully."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of leadership development using our carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.