“Leadership is not

just telling people

what you want…it

is getting people to 

do what you need 

them to do.”

– JON ALTERMAN, Senior Fellow,

Center for Strategic & International Studies

     There’s a classic leadership-style story about (pre-US President) General Dwight David (“I Like Ike”) Eisenhower on the battlefield during WWII, when he was addressing his team of officers at a makeshift table with a piece of string.

     He first pushed the string across the table with thumb and forefinger and demonstrated the end result being a tangle. Next he took the end of the string between the same two fingers and shook it a bit before gently pulling it, demonstrating the straight-line formation of the string…and made his point clearly that troops who were pulled by their leader from the front would outperform those whom the leader pushed from behind.

Are YOU 

p~u~l~l~i~n~g  

or   P U S H I N G ?

     Because you own or manage a business or part of one, you are responsible for motivating your troops. You set the example. If you are pushing people, others below you are pushing people. Pushed people get resentful, uncooperative and disruptive.

     People who exhibit these attitudes will cost you untold amounts of money, time and effort. In fact, such behaviors have been known to cause and lose wars. Surely, they will lose your customers.

     If you are always the first to step up to the frontlines and then pull others along, you will inevitably gain and retain the respect and loyalty of those below you. They will believe in you, trust you and follow you. They will be more productive more often.

     This thinking and approach is as critical for government as it is for multinational and Fortune 100 corporations, even Mom & Pop stores and your own family! Every organization can gain from Eisenhower-style leadership.

     In fact, small and mid-sized companies are places to ignite the kinds of larger, global applications that will eventually revitalize and bolster world economy. Managers in giant corporations who lead by pulling, succeed at cultivating more entrepreneurial, innovative solutions to chronic problems. 

     It matters not that you sell pizza, luxury automobiles, chickens, well-drilling, website designs, media advertising, crabs, healthcare services, insurance, pickles, legal services, clothing, real estate, or microchips…you will be more successful “getting people to do what you need them to do” by pulling instead of pushing.

     What does matter is that you keep working every single day at making your leadership style better because the solidity of your customer base is only as good as the day-to-day performance of those who work for, with and around you.

     Your people’s performance is only as good as the constant attention you give to the kind of leadership you provide. We are living in a low-trust business climate. Raise the bar!

     Remember that “integrity” is doing the right thing even when no one else is looking. Your integrity is your brand and people buy the benefits they believe are attached to your brand. It all starts and ends with how effectively you motivate others…

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Kiss Staff Infections Bye-Bye!

     By now, all of us know, or have heard (or we believe instinctively) that the majority of hospital deaths are the result of complications compounded or initiated by staph infections. These can be traced back to caregiver professionals and support staff not properly and frequently enough washing their hands. 

     Who woulda thunk it?  Such a simple thing.

     Well, not only is it true, but I believe it’s even truer (though never researched) in business.  It’s no secret that the majority of business failures, corrupted products and ineffective misguided staffs and services come from poor management. 

     Management (even when it’s more task than people-oriented) is all about interfacing, interacting, and encountering.  It’s about keeping a clear and receptive mindset.  Open doors open minds! SO WASH YOUR HANDS!  

     Now I’m not talking about hot water, soap, scrubbing and towel drying.  I’m talking about:

1. Closing your eyes for just 10 seconds (perhaps 5 if you’re telemarketing, and not at all if you’re driving!) before and after every customer/employee/vendor/investor encounter,
2. Taking a deep breath http://bit.ly/Bb1Tw (to focus and maintain blood pressure) and
3. Mentally (imagining yourself) washing your hands, like a doctor between examinations. 

     For many who try or maintain this practice, it helps to go through a 2-3 second physical action of briskly rubbing your hands together.  The action sends a reinforcing mental message to your brain.

     Do it before and after EVERY meeting, conference, phone call, email, letter, overnight delivery, and text message exchange, you are after all being a doctor, aren’t you? 

     You ARE examining, aren’t you? 

     You ARE listening, exploring, considering, assessing, recommending, deciding, weighing, evaluating, checking and re-checking, sizing up, assuring and reassuring, projecting, planning, strategizing, and predicting, aren’t you?

     And what happens to your brain when you’re on the fly and go straight from one encounter to another without –it sometimes seems– even breathing?  Go on, answer this last question.  I’ll wait.  Okay, and how does that stress translate to your body? 

     Headaches, backaches, toothaches, stiff neck, upset stomach, constipation, diarrhea, short temper, edginess, leg cramps, burning eyes, skin rash, urinary infection, or worse — cancer, heart problems?  Bottom line: is it worth it? 

     TRY THIS 10-SECOND APPROACH for just one week –January, 2010, is a perfect test period.  Try it and see what happens. 

     Here’s what you’ll get:  IF you’re honest with yourself and IF you actually follow the prescription, you will be more tuned in to each person you communicate with; you will be noticeably more productive; you will GUARANTEED feel better – mentally, physically, and emotionally; you will more positively affect others around you. 

     Put “WASH YOUR HANDS” reminder notes on a sign over your desk, stuck to your phone and computer screen.  Ask a co-worker, friend or associate to ask you: “Did you wash your hands?” before and after you turn a doorknob, before and after you lift and replace your phone, start or end your meeting . . . improvise here; just keep making the effort. 

     You will, I promise, astound yourself! 

More on 2010 “LEADERSHIP”? Come visit me and comment on my Guest Blog post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

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The best “CHANGE” message 

Pity all you want, but

nothing happens ’til you’ve

put yourself in other’s shoes.

     Okay, you’re a leader. You own and/or operate and/or manage a business, or part of one (or you’re a sales professional, which is essentially the same thing!). You need to wear many hats, day to day, and probably one of the most difficult of these to keep balanced on your head (and for most leaders) is the one that dictates your role when serious, draining emotional problems arise.

     Odds are you have no training as a shrink or you would be one, and it’s bad enough being constantly looked upon by others who think of you (and sometimes openly treat you) as a surrogate parent … then along comes tragedy, or calamity, or personal, or family, or community, or even a company upset or grief period.

     And it’s often hard to know how to respond.

     First of all, respond. When you can respond instead of react, you can never over-react, and you will more likely than not help others to also respond instead of react too. That’s a good thing. HOW do you make that happen? First recognize that responding instead of reacting (like all behavior) is a choice! Next, try:  http://bit.ly/Bb1Tw 

     When you can focus your response energy on empathy and being empathetic (which the dictionary defines as “understanding and sharing the feelings of others”), you can help yourself and others to be immensely relieved, productive, positive, and motivating.

     When you focus instead on sympathy and being sympathetic (which the dictionary defines as “feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune”), it’s rare to experience an outcome that’s anything more than one that has simply piled on more pity and sorrow.

     We need only to turn to what’s probably the greatest exampleof our lifetimes — in the defining behavior, for example, exercised by “America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani after the infamous terrorist attacks of “9/11” — for inspiration and a lesson in the values of using empathy in leadership. His ability to put himself in other’s shoes, and to help a panicked nation be there with him by virtue of his acts and words, sprouted calm and order and honor and harmony from the chaos.

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Leaders who fail to sell

fail as leaders.   

     No, not everyone is out there selling, every minute of every day … just those who are leaders!

     Leaders of the world, and of every nation, region, state, county, city, town, neighborhood, household, and business, department, institution, team, crew, organization, task force, office, store, studio, construction site, laboratory, factory floor, and professional practice are the ones who are out there selling with every waking breath. 

     Well, now, that certainly includes most everyone, doesn’t it? Not really, there are armies of followers (in the military and in Twitter, to name just two), and there are hermits. Okay, that’s being evasive for the sake of prompting a smile. Truth is we are ALL leaders of SOMEthing. It it’s not a rock group, classroom project, family, or community group, it’s SOMEthing. What are you a leader of? What do others think you’re a leader of?

     Most of us mix it up: leaders of some things, followers of others. The point is that whenever we are actively leading ANYthing, we are selling. And whenever we are NOT actively leading something, we are — at the least — a hair trigger away from selling, and will pounce into a sales mode at the mere mention of anything that even suggests the focus, issues, or activities of the thing(s) we lead, stand for, and believe in. 

     So, now that that’s all cleared up, let’s examine the flipside:

     Short of threats to perpetrate physical harm, how can anyone expect others to “buy into” ideas, directions, and recommendations that the leader has not enthusiastically endorsed and demonstrated value for? If we as followers see no benefits to the leader’s plans, do we suffer through the process or seek new horizons? Does it depend on circumstances?

     Without getting into all the side issues of parental control, HOW do we choose to provide inadequate leadership and expect others to follow? (Remember that selling is helping others solve problems, and it is 80% listening!)

     Unlike the tokenism we see in politics, truly effective salesmanship ushers in substance. It does that by proving performance, by instilling trust through demonstration, and by acting from a posture of authenticity.

     You are most certainly a leader of something, perhaps many things, and your effectiveness can only be measured in terms of results. Results only happen when others are motivated to prompt or get them.

     Others are only motivated when you have been effective in selling them the benefits they will realize by their efforts. And this applies to volunteer and charitable organizations as well as entrepreneurial ventures, “Mom and Pop” bricks and mortar stores,  virtual online enterprises, and global corporate entities.

     It applies to households, classrooms, scouting groups, and sports teams. Notre Dame University’s most famous football coach, Knute Rockne, was a worldclass professional salesman.

How and what are YOU selling? The answer defines your leadership skills.

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You’re going to work for a

living SOME where, right?

Recommended: Print & pass to a business hopeful attending or considering college

     So you’ve earned a PhD, an MBA, LLB, MD, MS, MA, and all kinds of bachelor and associate degrees. You are Mr. or Mrs. (maybe “Dr.” ?) Joe (Josephine?) College, in the flesh. And the academic credentials got you a decent job. Now what? Do you seriously believe your 4.0 grade average means you’ve got what it takes to thrive … even survive?

     After your punishing (and expensive!) labs, coursework, exams, thesis papers and consulting with so-called “Academic Advisors,” if you have learned anything less than HOW to put ALL of the following to work, you’re in big-time trouble, and college put you there.

     Can you honestly say you have learned how to practice (and hopefully excel at) ALL of these attributes?:

• Making Decisions
• Managing Stress
• Managing Time
• Managing Customers
• Communicating Clearly
• Being a Leader
• SELLING
• Delegating
• Innovating
• Being a Team Player
• Listening and Giving Feedback
• Organizing
• Empathizing
• Respecting Others
• Being Genuine, Honest and Transparent
• Valuing Experience
• Accepting Criticism
• Setting and Pursuing Goals
• Being Accountable and Cultivating Trust
• Avoiding Political and Psychological “Games”

     Give or take perhaps a couple of the above items, these are the attributes that add up to being effective in business or professional practice (ANY business or professional practice) and without which, your road to success will be a long one indeed, especially if you aspire to a forward-moving or productive management position.

     Good leaders do all of these things well. So do good salespeople. All good leaders are also, not incidentally, good salespeople [SEE TOMORROW’S POST ON THIS SUBJECT!]  

     What’s sad about all this is that institutions of higher learning (other than a very small handful that do in fact address a number of these subjects as part of academic platforms on, for example, nursing and entrepreneurship and some behavioral sciences like human development) not only scoot around these issues; they outright reject them.

     Colleges and universities (again with rare exception) fail to value reality. They are invested in fantasizing on the past which will never come again, or the future which hasn’t yet arrived, and may never. They refuse to acknowledge their hands in front of their faces.

     So YOU end up losing out to an arcane system of learning that fails to deal with preparing students for life in the real world. It’s true.

How do I know? I’ve worked extensively in creative roles with Fortune 500 companies, as a consultant with entrepreneurial businesses and professional practices, as a management trainer for over 20,000 business and healthcare executives, and as “Professor of the Year” at a major university and two colleges. I’ve been in the thick of it.

     You DO have a way out. There IS hope. You need to first accept that you’ve been taught subject matter, not real life applications, not how to succeed. Second, you must commit to yourself to learn as much as you possibly can about yourself as possible.

The more you know about what makes you “tick,”

the more skilled and successful a leader you will be.

# # #               

Imagine This. Imagine That.

(Then Do It!)

     Sorry, but great ideas you fail to act on are not great. In fact, they’re actually lousy because they clog up your brain and prevent you from getting and acting on the truly great ideas you have. Am I saying that you’re holding yourself back? Yes. Aren’t you?

     I know, you’re overwhelmed right now…sucky economy, family holiday obligations, and you want to just slow down your business push (like past years), just sit back and relax with a nice glass of something warming…and relegate the whole “dreaming up new business ideas” thing to some back burner agenda.

     But guess what? (Yes, you knew this was coming, right?) There couldn’t be a better time to get your brain focused on making more of your imagination. While others are racing around trying to jam in end-of-year sales orders, and still others take vacation time, ACT BOLDLY!

DO AN “O.I.S.T.T.T.”

(Now! This Week!)

     Take 2 or 3 or 5 or 10 of your top people on an “Overnight Imagination Stimulation Think Tank Trip.” Build in a side visit or two for some gift-shopping along the way.

     Here, Try This:

1) Take your Team to breakfast and give them a pep talk. Then give them each some spending allowance or discount deals you work out for special shopping spots along the way to a special meeting destination (Cheap, good dollar-value deals are available everywhere right now!). Maybe offer an extra “Family Day” off to each for Christmas or New Year’s use? 

2) Then bus or limo the whole group to some mountain cabin hideaway, or some fantastic meeting center/resort kind of place. My personal recommendation for those in the Northeast… NY / NJ / PA / DE / CT / MA:  www.InterlakenInn.com because I’ve run dozens of “Escape” meetings there and can vouch for what a super place it is (and I just called them to check, and they assure me they’ll work with your budget).

Bottom Line: You won’t believe how much good the overnight “brainstorming” trip will do for your business (AND your Team!).

3) Imagination will flow from the first cup of coffee to the last, then you have some time left over to evaluate and assess the ideas, and determine the directions and steps to take.

4) POOF! You will start out the new year on the run, ahead of the pack, and with increased commitment and loyalty from your top Team, because they will be part of the action from the git-go.  

Assuming now that you might be serious about wanting to put some truly creative leadership to work, and you’re willing to test your mettle (and your braintrust) as to how spontaneous you can all be (because you realize that SOMETHING powerful has to happen with your business SOON), then check each of these quick blog posts on related subjects:

http://bit.ly/6VFJHL  ~~~ INNOVATING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING (“Has Your Brain Been Thunder-Struck?”)

http://bit.ly/85FlLC  ~~~ 5 WAYS TO BREED INNOVATION (“It Doesn’t Fall From The Sky … Innovation Needs Ignition!”)

http://bit.ly/5358lq ~~~ BEAT THE RECESSION WITH IMAGINATION (“Entrepreneurs Are Imagination Junkies”) 

 MY PROMISE:

THIS (PERHAPS RISKY-FEELING) SUGGESTION WILL POSITIVELY PRODUCE THE MISSING INGREDIENTS YOU NEED TO SKY-ROCKET YOUR BUSINESS INTO THE NEW YEAR!

(Or, if doubts and excuses get in the way, call me at 302.933.0116 to arrange a free how-to, same or next-day consulting session!)

# # #               

Think Big But Act Small!

     As small business owners and managers, we unfortunately have not much of a role model for success anywhere within the avalanche of daily government’s much ado about nothing, or the poor misguided mainstream media’s efforts to distort, opinionate and manipulate in order to sell advertising time and space.

     How could we expect, for example, to learn anything about decision-making from an Armed Forces Commander in Chief who takes three months to conclude what his own paid, experienced experts have told him from the outset the steps that needed to be taken with respect to troop deployment?

     And, to top it off, in addition to having put those who serve — and who are clearly committed — in harms way for that entire three months, the agonizingly slow decision and extent of unnecessarily prolonged delay now threatens to undermine the very determination that was finally and reluctantly made. This decision should have been made in one day.

     Odds are that if any of us practiced such poor (and critical) decision-making and failed to rely on those we chose to surround and advise ourselves with in our own businesses, we’d be out (or well on our way to being out) of business!

     Oh, and just imagine what kind of customer loyalty we might generate if our marketing programs and public messages were as intentionally contentious and provocative as the sensationalist “journalism” that flows from the fork-tongued mouths of mainstream media’s loose cannons. You know who and what make up this list. 

     Something about this desperate media pproach to doing business smacks of ramming a healthcare program down the throats of 63% of the population who do not want it. Could you do that with your business prospects and survive?

     We could forget about repeat sales. We could also give up our customer service pursuits (Who would ever believe in the dollar value and performance quality of our products and services when we’re fully preoccupied with putting down our competition or trying to produce sales by mental water-boarding instead of simply demonstrating the benefits of our business, our integrity, trust and authenticity?)

     And what have we in our poor excuse for a national leadership to follow? A hypocritical multimillionaire holding our feet to the fire to keep us honest while abusing tax-dollar-paid privileges? People with less business experience than your 2 year-old nephew, dictating business policy? People so entrenched in their own sense of political self-importance that they’ve lost sight of what they’re supposed to be doing and whom they’re supposed to be representing?

     You couldn’t count fast enough to guess the numbers of customers leaving your business if you started price-gouging while delivering inadequate products and services in the name of global warming scams designed to divert tax dollars to political causes, and self-aggrandizing delusional thinking about spreading wealth to those who haven’t earned it (because handouts work just fine).

     A helluva way to run a business. Any business. 

When you want to be big,

act small enough to make it clear

that your growth is not more important

than your customer.    

# # #               

Politically Correct Crap

Has Gone Over The Top!

     It’s really time for small businesses to rebel.

     It’s time to show the corporate giants standing in line waiting for another surge of taxpayer dollar bailouts that their small-minded insistence on following small-minded government politicians (and even smaller-minded, major-media wimps) is wrong because Christmas is Christmas is Christmas. Period.

     It is what it is: a Christian celebration of the birth of Christ.

     It is NOT a generic convoluted cluster of “holidays.” It is NOT Hanukkah, Ramadan and 39 other special celebrations all thrown together in one big New York City melting pot. This is the CHRISTMAS Season!

     You’re not likely to toss all your meat. fish, vegetables, bread, and dessert into one big bowl and call it dinner, right? So why should anyone insist on combining all religious celebrations into one and calling Christmas and the Christmas Season “Holidays” as indistinguishable from the others?

     The answer: Big business and government and the media have become so superficially multi-cultural and culturally-diverse conscious (and more sensitive to unfounded anti-discrimination lawsuits than to the Christian religious ideals and annual celebration of the birth of Baby Jesus) that they are petrified at the idea of calling Christmas by its name for fear of offending those who provide handouts and political favors.

     It’s not just time to put Christ back in Christmas, it’s time to SAY “Merry Christmas!” without being afraid of offending someone. Anyone who IS offended by that is as ignorant, insensitive, misguided, and self-righteous as those who would have us take “In God We Trust” out of our nation’s pledges, proclamations, and currency.

     Bottom line: Stand up to those who try to make you feel guilty (or who are simply too dumb to know better) by wishing your customers and suppliers “MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

     If those you do business with want to wish you Happy Hanukkah or whatever it is that one wishes for Ramadan, accept it and thank them and wish it back to them. But let’s not encourage any more “PC” thinking about something so sacred, and so much a part of American tradition … for even those who are NON-Christians!

     Be reminded that “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” carries with it implications of commitment to goodwill and to loving and respecting one another. Jews and responsible Muslims share that thinking. There’s no need to feel apologetic for wishing someone “Merry Christmas!” no matter what his or her religion. 

     I have had a great many Jewish friends (including quite a few who are orthodox) and never knew even one who took offense at being wished Merry Christmas. Most, in fact, have always replied in kind, or with a cheerful: “And Happy Hanukkah to you!” 

     Big business and politics have no place in dictating change in objects of religious respect, and need to butt out! Small business owners and managers can help make a difference by simply honoring the Christmas Season as they have since childhood in wishing one and all a “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” and by suggesting those employees who agree, to do the same. 

     It is the joyful spirit of what the message represents that counts.    

# # #

Entrepreneur money

goes round and round.

    Yup! You “coont effin spelt enterprenewer, and now y’all is one.” Well, just maybe there’s some chance that you could have also had a few other misconceptions about the title. But you’re probably still smarter than the rest of the business world. 

     Or perhaps you’re one of those amazed and astonished corporate types who’s literally rolling in misconceptions about entrepreneurs, and likes to cluck your tongue at even the thought of such low-life business people who haven’t one iota of strategic planning in their blood.

     Well, hey, YOU might be wondering about how the entrepreneurial thing is going right about now in this government-fantasized period of financial boom that even the neighborhood corporate mogul knows is nowhere near reality.  

     Well, here’s something to keep in mind that very few people except entrepreneurs know about entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurs only take reasonable risks! Whaaaa? How could that be? You trying to say those reckless spender-types have a sense of reason? Vision? Purpose?

     Actually, I am convinced that government institutions and agencies along with corporate giants are the only entities in existence (well, maybe academia too) that throw around money they don’t have, and insist on taking risks that would be unreasonable to a three year-old.

     But what do I know? I’ve only notched a few hundred business startups and taught entrepreneurship in college, and managed to squeeze in some significant years of service to both corporate giant and government (and academic) incompetents

     I observed enough to appreciate that no entrepreneur worth her or his salt would be caught dead in those suffocating environments for any longer than it takes to escape to lives of business independence and self-sufficiency. 

     Those experiences also underscored for me the absolute sanity of individuals that most of the rest of the world considers to be insane business venture leaders. Entrepreneurs are postured as being filled with cockamamie ideas and always juggling money deals while straddling shifting sands. Not a pretty picture.

     Truth: Entrepreneurs are the world’s most genuine and productive catalysts of change.

     Historically, Entrepreneurs have always been the movers and shakers of society. They still are today, and will continue to be far into the future. They alone know how to turn on a dime, how to respond to market fluctuations, to competitors, to innovation, to the whole mindset of making ideas work.

     Entrepreneurs, again contrary to popular opinion, are not driven by profit motives. They are driven by a burning desire to marshal whatever forces necessary to make their ideas work.

     That pursuit alone is so staggering in so many quarters that money simply appears and flies at them — heads down, charging forward — while they are in the make-it-work process. Yet we are actually seeing more entrepreneurs distance themselves from investors who today seek immediate ROI and hold out no regard for authenticity of pursuits.

     When we finally ever DO see this economy turn, remember the impetus didn’t come from government or corporate giants. They haven’t a clue. If you want to appreciate financial upswings, thank an entrepreneur!                                                                                                                        

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