How to Win Friends and Influence People

Often we try to attract talent by doing what we like rather than what would attract the individual. Dale Carnegie has a great story in his business books How to Win Friends and Influence People

"I often went fishing up in Maine during the summer. Personally, I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn't think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. I didn't bait the hook with strawberries and cream. Rather, I dangled a worm or a grasshopper in front of the fish and said "Wouldn't you like to have that?"

When you think about attracting talent, attracting customers then you need to think about what attracts them? That may be different for each person. Do you generalise or individualise your offer?

When Facts are Not Enough

Global warming is often seen as a new idea, in fact the term was used by Svante Arrhenius in 1896.
So why has it taken so long to be at the forefront of the world's mind?

Well it shows that facts are not enough to convince people. Facts do not sway emotion. Although scientists have talked about this constantly, it was Al Gore who used emotive wording, emotive storytelling, emotive pictures to grab people's attention.

Facts are great, stories engage....inside and outside the business.

What Business are You In?

Theodore Levitt, the Harvard Professor challenged the railroad business in the 1960's asking

"What business are you in?"

They saw themselves as in the railroad business, but he challenged them to think differently. Together they decided that they were in the transportation business.

Do you narrow your focus? Do you see the product not the experience? Do you see how your business can change lives?

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.

Leadership is for today

There is a wonderful quote from Mother Teresa that says

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has yet to come. We have only today. Let us begin"

Leadership needs you to balance that short term and long term thinking. Creating that dream of tomorrow...the vision of where you want to take the company or the team. However, what we do have for certain is today....dreams without actions become nightmares within the business world.

So....be thinking about tomorrow, but be taking action against your goals today.

A Thought on Leadership

I was at a conference last week and someone said

"Remember, well behaved people seldom make history"

It made me smile - I am not encouraging bad behaviour! - but I love the idea that conformity does not necessarily bring success. When you think of businesses, or successful leaders, they have that ability to play within boundaries however to think differently. To think how could we make this successful, what if we did this......etc and not find reasons or problems that would stop progression.

So today...see if you can make history..see if you can behave as someone who wants to make history!

Breaking a bad leadership habit

Do you that if you moved a light switch from the right side of the door to the left side, it would take about 21 days before your brain stopped telling your right hand to turn on the switch ?

You see we are human, for instance I have a set routine for getting up or when I arrive at my desk. Habits somehow give us a comforting experience.

The problem is that as a leader we can pick up bad habits, feel comfortable with them and keep doing them despite the negative effect on others. The best way to spot them...is to ask what they are...

Always remember you are asking the question, which means that you need to LISTEN and ACCEPT the truth as THEY see it. Don't argue, just take in the feedback. If more than one person is giving you the same feedback then the time to act may well be now!

Carnival of Leadership Development

To succeed in business management we need to have a constant learning mentality. So each fortnight, I bring together articles to help with your leadership development - hope they help to inspire your mind.

Anna presents Do you see your business as human at The Engaging Brand

Ed Rivis presents Powerful Marketing Tactic. posted at Ed Rivis.

Jay M presents Role of entrepreneurship in conceptual economy posted at 4 entrepreneur, saying, "What is the role of entrepreneurship in conceptual economy?"

James D. Brausch presents Turn Off The Tube & Turn On Your Business posted at Internet Business Blog.

Cindy King presents Consistency For International Business Success posted at Get International Clients.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Brain Fitness/ Training Newsletter: January Wrap-Up posted at SharpBrains, saying, "How can we Maintain our Brains in top shape? Here goes a selection of articles on cognitive and emotional training."

TherapyDoc presents What Faking it Til You Make It Really Means posted at Everyone Needs Therapy, saying, "You can't be a leader unless you can bring out that hero."

Adam Pieniazek presents Ray Anderson: Personal, Corporate, Societal Leader | Adam Pieniazek posted at Adam Pieniazek.

CMOE presents Executive Leadership Development: Choosing the Right Leader posted at Teamwork, saying, "This is a great article that talks about how to chose the right leaders."

Amy S Quinn presents 17 Ways to Stop Being a Perfectionist and Get More Done posted at Bootstrapper.

Karl Goldfield presents Coaching sales champions: Building a plan part 6c – Execution - Prospects – Climbing the mountain posted at Coaching sales champions.

Mark Riffey presents Righting a wrong: How business owners show they give a rip. posted at Business is Personal.

Galba Bright presents Tune up your EQ : The Most Important Thing Productivity Experts Don’t Teach You About Success posted at Tune Up Your EQ.

Sagar presents The HR Bible: 100 Articles Every Human Resources Pro Should Read posted at Bootstrapper.

GreatManagement presents As A New Manager, Don’t Spend 57% of your Time Dealing With Difficult Staff posted at The GreatManagement Blog, saying, "The majority of new managers waste around 57% of their time dealing with difficult staff? Why?"

James Feudo presents Leadership – How to get experience posted at Overnight Sensation, saying, "Getting leadership experience when you're not in a formal role at your current job can be difficult. Here are some tips for geting this experience outside of work."

Bruce Kuykendall presents The Leadership Compass posted at brucisms.com.

Derrick Markotter presents Time For A Change posted at Online Business Blog.

Wally Bock presents What do you do with the rest of your leaders? posted at Three Star Leadership Blog, saying, "There are lots of leaders who are important to your business but who aren't "high potential." How you develop and support them has a lot to do with your long term profitability and competitive advantage."

Warren Wong presents What Commiting To Something Means And Why You Should Do It posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, "Here are good reasons why you shouldn't be afraid of commitment."

Rich Vosler presents How to get more belief in yourself posted at Sales Training Tips.

Raj Sheelvant presents Managing Complexity due to Globalization posted at IT Strategy, saying, "Leadership challenge to manage complexity due to globalization"

Dan McCarthy presents New Leader Integration Process posted at Great Leadership.

American Entrepreneur presents The Benefits of Management By Walking Around (MBWO) posted at American Small Business News.

John W. Furst presents Can One Share Overmuch? posted at E-Biz Booster Blog, saying, "Ever being ripped off? You had the idea, but someone else stole it! What's the right balance between sharing and keeping your secrets in today's attention age. Information age was yesterday, but that is a different story."

CMOE presents “Whack -a -Mole” Management posted at Teamwork, saying, "This is a great story about different manager styles. It gives a few great tips on how to be a good leader."

Leon Gettler presents New global management rules posted at Sox First, saying, "Why is it that certain methods like pay for performance fail to catch on in all countries? Why is that cross-border mergers, like the DaimlerChrysler "marriage of equals" , fall in a screaming heap? The global economy is challenging claims of business schools that there is only one way to manage."
Al presents How to Make People Follow You posted at 7P Productions, saying, "You want people to follow you? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way anymore. Instead, do you want to share a new dream, a new vision of a better world for others to pursue with you? OK, now you’re talking."
Jim Logan presents The importance of customer loyalty and its three element foundation posted at Accelerate Business Group, saying, "It's hard to disagree customer loyalty isn't a strategic success factor for most businesses. So, what makes a customer loyal?"
Joe Hungler presents Orientation-Start with the End in Mind posted at Uncle Joe's Leadership Blog, saying, "We spend a lot of time recruiting the right staff people-but not enough time making sure that they get off to a good start. How can we best position our new hires to succeed and hit the ground running?"
Mindful One presents Why Goal Setting Really Works posted at Mindful Source.

Adrian presents 5 Easy Ways to Fake Your Personality posted at Path to Your Destiny, saying, "Sometimes when we need to lead a group of people, we feel as if we don't have the greatest personality to be most effective. This post goes into five ways to fake your personality and make you more charismatic and likable, for those times when you don't feel quite that way. Enjoy!"

Louise Manning presents The mandate for leadership posted at The Human Imprint.

Alan K Rudi presents Dealing with Difficult People Tactfully | Successful Business Leadership posted at Successful Business Leadership, saying, "Communicating, especially with "difficult" people, is crucial to developing leadership skills."

Joe Hungler presents Employee Engagement and Retention posted at Uncle Joe's Leadership Blog, saying, "A major part of leading is listening. We can't lead our employees until they are engaged. Check out the survey that we use to measure retention and other indicators."

DotLobby presents Neurolinguistic Programming 101 - Rediscover Yourself! posted at DotNLP, saying, "Neuro, meaning mind, and linguistic, meaning language, combine to make NLP one of the most powerful techniques to change the way you see yourself and your world..."

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.