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 Achieving Success

I have always enjoyed listening and reading the thoughts of Zig Ziglar. I love this business quote that I believe people should print out and put prominently on their desk...

"Success is one thing you can't pay for. You buy it on the installment plan and make payments every day."

Inspiring Talent on Recruitment

There is a wonderful quote from Steve Jobs. He is quoted as asking John Sculley

"Do you want to sell fizzy water for the rest of your life or do you want a chance to change the world?"

John Sculley was inspired not by the job but the purpose to unleash the creativity in all of us....how do you inspire talent to come and work for you?

A Thought on Listening

I love this quote from Dr Joyce Brothers

"Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery"

Remember LADDER as a way of developing your listening skills

L = Look directly at the person
A = Ask questions periodically
D = Don't interrupt the speakers train of thought
D = Don't change the subject
E = Empathise with the feelings of the speaker
R = Respond both verbally and non verbally

Understanding Your Customer

Some may say the only way to understand customers is to do market research, well I like this approach that is free and accurate

"I used to hold meetings in the aisles of my supermarkets. Customers would constantly interrupt to talk to me, to give me feedback. Then I'd attend meetings back in the office with colleagues who spend all their time compiling customer research and wading through consumer behaviour reports. And I'd tell them things about our customers I'd picked up from random conversations in the aisles. And they'd say 'We didn't know that.' " - Feargal Quinn, founder, Superquinn supermarkets

How often do you get from behind your desk and speak, yes speak to customers...wonderfully old fashioned concept that is so overlooked in business.

Developing Cool Products

I just love this quote from Hugh Macleod from the Gaping Void blog

"If you wanna have a cool product, you gotta do cool sh**!"

I just love this quote and have it on my desk......the more you read it, the more sense it makes.
Doing cool stuff means taking a few risks, but without risk you won't get cool stuff.

I will extend this quote now

"If you wanna be a cool leader, you gotta take a risk and allow people to do cool sh**!"

How do you inspire innovation?

Do you ask for ideas? Do you hold creative sessions? Or do you speak like Jeff Immelt of GE who asked his teams for

"breath-taking, mind blogging, word rattling, technological innovation"

Now that is inspiring talk, that is helping people not to have an idea but to have a dream....to create something special. Both approaches are asking in reality for the same thing, but one uses words that stir emotion, that stir the company to want to create success.

Employee Engagement

Aristotle said

"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work"

I love this quote as it sums up in 9 words why leaders should be concerned with the "happiness" of their employees at work. If people feel values, if they feel listened to, if they feel their work is meaningful...then this will be reflected in their work.

Demand the best

Somerset Maughan said
"It's a funny thing about life - if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it"

Remember Steven Spielberg who found a deserted trailer at Universal Studio and put his name on the outside! He put his dream into action, he believed in his talent.
Look around at the talent that exists in your team. What they need for you is to stretch them, to make their dream reality, to treat them as talented people......treat people as successful and watch the confidence flow...

Beating the Competition

A quote from Mark Twain helps us understand our competition

"The best swordsman shouldn't fear the 2nd best: no the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do and often catches the expert out and ends him on the spot."

At work we need to concentrate on being the best, and learning from the young companies who think and act differently. The second best is watching you, but the younger companies are looking for a differentiating factor. To be a leader of a successful business make sure that you are at the head of the pack but then learn from new starters. This is also true for learning from the new managers...they might not have the experience but they do have new ideas.