Ever heard of this? Negotiating in Online sales. Why would you have to, aren’t all the offers fixed anyway. If all the offers were fixed why do they send you different packages or different emails. How valuable is your time? It all depends on who you are dealing with and what you are looking for doesn’t it.

If you are looking for a specific piece of information,that you require to help develop or expand the model or stage you are at, then where do you go to get that information? Well the traditional person would go to Google.com and do a “search”. But what else is out there? Where are the caveats for finding certain types of information? Well what are you looking for?

Legal Tips?
www.legalwiz.com

How about your Alexa ranking?
http://www.webconfs.com/alexa-ranking-tool.php

Maybe your looking for a freelance writer and editing service?
http://www.seo-writer.net/reprint/articles.html

How about free business growth tips and links?
http://www.usabusinessgrowth.com/Splash_Screen.html

Maybe you want to be up and up on Business Technology lifestyle in Canada?
http://www.backbonemag.com

How about the lastest in free classified advertising?
http://www.adpost.com/

Or for those of you who like a little bit of Venture Capital in the good ol’ U.S of A.
http://www.tvausa.com/consultantContactus.asp

Take a drive on one of these sites. Till next time.

Growing Small Business

Mr. Des Marais has helped several entrepreneurs in North America increase their business by 000,000’s in a matter of months.

Entrepreneurs are pre-screened based on their track record and desired level of success, goals and objectives and timeline.

He has helped several entrepreneurs expand their business rapidly in a period of 1 week to 2 years.

Out of the box thinking is a popular fad today. And yet, in order to leave a box, you have to realize that you are in one.

For example, the Indians who lived in the Grand Canyon believed the entire world was like the canyon. And so they didn’t try to find Kansas. This can be okay, if you’re in a beautiful place like the Grand Canyon.

It can be a rut, however, if you’re stuck in bad meetings.

For example, many leaders truly believe that it is normal to spend hours in a meeting engaged in pointless chit chat. Some believe that a meeting should be conducted like a Medieval court where the subjects listen while the boss talks. Others even believe that a group of people will be able to guess the purpose of a meeting without receiving a hint, like an agenda.

They may be like the VP who left his staff meeting after it had gone on for 30 minutes to ask his assistant, “Do you remember why I called this meeting?”

Or the manager who invited 30 software experts to a two-day meeting in Houston (actually a $50,000 argument) with no agenda because he didn’t want to “spoil the spontaneity by imposing a structure.”

Or the manager who was told to reduce the number of meetings that he held and responded by calling an all-day meeting to figure out how.

All of these executives are working inside a very small, very unproductive box.

Instead, they should climb out of the box and run their meetings like a business. They should:

1) Have a Plan.

Every meeting should have an agenda.

Your agenda should begin with a clear, complete statement of the result that you want. Begin by writing out your goal for the meeting. Then study it. Review it. And revise it until it reflects exactly what you want.

Let’s play with a simple example. Suppose your goal was to reduce the budget. Now, is that what you really want to do? Would a better goal, for example, be something like: figure out how to reduce spending on utilities, or reduce the cost of materials, or maintain productivity without buying new equipment? Notice that these goals reduce the budget while producing results more valuable than simply making numbers smaller. Of course, your goal will depend upon your situation and what you want to accomplish.

Once your have the goal, then plan activities that will accomplish it. Most meetings are conducted using a discussion, which is the least effective process for reaching agreements and making decisions. Instead, use activities that equalize participation and lead to consensus.

2) Earn a Profit.

Most meetings produce a loss. That is, the cost of the meeting exceeds the value of what it produces.

Begin by estimating the value of the result that you want from your meeting. If the value seems low or uncertain, then ask yourself if a meeting is warranted. Perhaps, it would be more cost effective to write a memo, make a phone call, or visit the manager next door.

Then design your meeting so that you earn a profit. Estimate the cost by multiplying your budgeted labor rate by the number of participants multiplied by the length of the meeting. Add the costs of travel, services, and materials.

Finally, compare the cost with the value. If the cost, exceeds the value, change the scope of the meeting.

Staying in the box, may be okay for executives who want to play make-believe games with their time. But those leaders who want to be part of the future will run their meetings like a business.

- - -

Steve Kaye helps leaders hold effective meetings. He is an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator, author, and speaker. His meeting facilitation and leadership workshops create success for everyone. Call 714-528-1300 for details. Visit www.stevekaye.com for a free report.

Not but a month ago a gentleman named Henry came to visit me in my office at Rice. He was in sales - a tall, fit, attractive man wearing a crisp pinstripe suit with a bright, eye catching tie - clearly successful. His visit was unannounced.

“Excuse me, Dr. Eliot,” he said in a professionally polite manner as he knocked on a hinge of my open door. “Might I steal a moment of your time?”

I motioned in, inviting him to have a seat as I fired off a last minute e-mail.

“If you’re busy, perhaps I can come at a better time?”

“Not at all,” I told him, swiveling my desk chair in his direction to focus my attention. “What can I do for you?”

“Well, it’s kind of a long story…” he began, to which I propped my elbows on my desk, leaning in with interest. I’m always up for a good tale. Besides, the foundation of my career is listening to people - really listening. Henry relaxed a bit. He announced that he’d just finished reading my most recent book, Overachievement (Penguin Portfolio, 2004) and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

“How so?” I inquired.

“Dr. Eliot, I’m a pharmaceutical rep. for Pfizer - a good one. In fact, last year I was the number one leading producer in the United States. But I’m not happy. I’m miserable. I go to every Pfizer function religiously, I volunteer by mentoring younger sales reps, my boss thinks I walk on water, I’ve been taking night courses here at the Jones School to work toward my MBA, my résumé is the best in the business… but it just doesn’t matter. It’s killing me.”

Henry then reached across my desk, thrusting his wrists toward me, palms up as if tied together: “You’ve got to help me get these handcuffs off!”

He was exasperated. Here was a man making, pardon my rough calculation, a couple million in annual commissions, yet desperately seeking help. Odd? Actually, quite common.

As we talked at greater length, I discovered that Henry had fallen into the trap of relying on Goal Setting to navigate his career and define his success - to define him.

I see it in every line of business: bright, talented men and women who’ve had success or are working toward their next achievement but are stuck in the office 15 hours a day, who don’t spend enough time with their kids or take vacation with their spouse, who don’t enjoy hobbies, who don’t exercise or eat right. They get caught up creating and checking off to-do lists for all of their personal and professional responsibilities. They’re socially rewarded for their diligence or conscientiousness, but they long for a sense of freedom… even a mere few minutes would be a reprieve!

Goal Setting, as a tool, has its utility. More often than not, though, in my work with top executives, surgeons, artists, and athletes, I see people held back by Goal Setting, people unsatisfied with their career, out of balance between work and life.

The reason? Goal Setting has five significant downsides when it comes to happiness, exuberance, and a true sense of fulfillment:

ONE: PERFECTIONISM

Goals, by definition, are ideals - where you want to be and how you’re going to arrive there. The disconnect is that the real world gets in the way. Plans and schedules are never absolute. Clients and colleagues change their minds. Weather rolls in unexpectedly. Politics emanating from Washington shift after an election. The economy rises and falls.

If you ascribe to goal setting to set your course, it’s easy to lock yourself into too narrow a definition of success. Write your goals down and review them feverishly every single day and you’ll miss opportunities, I guarantee it. Think of the billion dollar products on the market that were mistakes, that weren’t planned out or systematically engineered, or weren’t intended for greatness: Post-it Notes, Silly Putty, the microwave oven, Newman’s Own foods, Velcro, Teflon… the list is a mile long.

There isn’t one path to excellence. In fact, the most successful people in this world twist along pronouncedly convoluted paths. In doing so, they also learn that success and perfectionism are not synonyms. For most, thinking that there is such a thing as perfect is a sure way to impede growth.

TWO: IMPATIENCE

The famous achievers in history share a number of psychological traits in common. Vision is first on the list. They can stretch their minds to look at existing problems in fresh an interesting ways, breakthrough ways; they can see through details, obstacles, and setbacks - loads of them. The rest of our population is stuck in the minutia.

When you orient your time and thinking around a list of goals, by definition you pay more attention to the details. You constantly assess how much work is left to reach an end point, how close or far you are from your goals - you evaluate far too much.

Frequent comparison between where you are at this moment and where you’d rather be is not vision; it’s impatience. Real vision is confidence, problem solving, understanding the bigger picture, not delaying happiness until you attain a certain measure of prosperity. Excess goal setting, in turn, doesn’t lead to vision, it leads to increased frustration.

Take a baseball player, for example. If he sets a goal of hitting .400 for the season, he introduces pressure to monitor his “progress”. Is he batting .380? How many more hits does he need to raise his average? How many more turns at the plate are left? Years of sport science research has shown that kind of thinking to be deleterious to on field production. Constant evaluation ties performers up in knots.

THREE: THINKING IN THE FUTURE

A funny thing about true visionaries: they don’t actually spend much time thinking about the future. Contrary to popular conception, they aren’t idealists always mentally wandering into fantasyland. Yes, they can see well down the road, but they use that ability to keep their motivation strong. When they arise in the morning, as they brush their teeth, they think of great things to come. When the fall asleep at night, it’s to content musings of the enjoyable day ahead. And, when they run into roadblocks, they remind themselves of their potential.

In between those brief moments, they actually have no idea what the future will bring. If you interrupted them at work, asking for predictions or odds, you’d likely receive a confused stare, or a retort: “Why are you bothering me with such nonsense, can’t you see I’m busy?” Busy thinking in the present, that is.

Top level performance happens when you are engrossed in the moment, absorbed in the thrill of what you are doing.

Mozart once described the art of writing music as child’s play. An interviewer, assuming him to be conceited, questioned the statement: “In other words, you’re just that talented?” No, replied Mozart, concertos become art when you lose yourself in the process, like a child stringing cranberries onto a thread, one at a time, not paying attention to anything else going on around them, least of all their mother calling them for dinner.

If you want big accomplishments, unwavering happiness one of them, you need to spend a significant portion of your work day absorbed, moment to moment, in the present. Goal setting takes you out of the present.

FOUR: OUTCOME ORIENTATION

I often find myself explaining the science of motivation to my clients. Let’s face it, on any given day, there are an enormous number of distractions to derail our momentum. There’s no doubt: sustaining motivation is key to success.

So what is the driving force that keeps us juiced? Intrinsic value not extrinsic reward. A gold star on your report card, cashing your year end bonus check, moving into the corner office, a Porsche in the driveway… they certainly seem incentivizing. But they don’t hold up day in and day out; they don’t generate sustained motivation. If you place a carrot at the end of your health club’s treadmill, it may propel you the first time you go for a jog. Before long, though, you’ll say, “Screw this; I’m going to Starbucks.”

I know, a metaphor silly to be sure. The lesson, however, is that outcomes - byproducts of our effort - can’t hold our attention to nearly the magnitude of internal rewards: the real meaning of what we do, purpose, resonance we feel when executing something the right way or for the right reason.

To that end, it is FAR more effective to focus on the process, not what you might be given if the process goes well.

FIVE: EXCESS PLANNING

The fifth downside of goal setting is reduction in work altogether. Simply put: elaborate goal setting designs, like those espoused in psychology textbooks, take hours to build, and even longer to implement. How often do you hear of sales forces or executive teams flying off for three and four day retreats… to redefine their goals, to complete “productivity” seminars? It tends to be a lot of wasted time.

Instead of pouring yourself into work that you enjoy, work that will translate into results and make a difference, spend your time writing down goals, monitoring them, reorganizing and reprioritizing them, entering them into spreadsheets and Palm Pilots. Where will you end up? No need to answer that question.

Goal setting is at it’s essence planning. The more energy you put into planning, the less energy you put into execution.

As we say in sports, “Champions get after it.”

So ask yourself, are you going to transform your work and personal life with perfectionism, impatience, daydreaming, sweating after a dollar, and planning to re-plan? Or are you going to be like Henry and ditch the handcuffs?

JOHN F. ELIOT, PH.D., is an award winning professor of management, psychology, and human performance. He holds faculty appointments at Rice University and the SMU Cox School of Business Leadership Center. He is a co-founder of the Milestone Group, a consulting firm providing training to business executives, professional athletes, physicians, and corporations. Dr. Eliot’s clients have included: SAP, XEROX, Disney, Adidas, the United States Olympic Committee, the National Champion Rice Owl’s baseball team, and the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Eliot’s cutting edge work has been featured on ABC, MSNBC, CBS, ESPN, Fox Sports, NPR, and highlighted in the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, New York Daily News, Entrepreneur, LA Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, and the New York Times. Dr. Eliot serves on numerous advisory boards including the National Center for Human Performance and the Center for Performing Arts Medicine. His latest book is Overachievement: The New Model for Exceptional Performance. For more information, visit Dr. Eliot’s site at http://www.overachievement.com.

Anyone who is involved in customer service has probably been amazed at some point by the customer’s assumption that we have all the time in the world to deal with them, that we are sitting at empty desks just waiting for the phone to ring!

Here are some tips which might help you to manage your time better, while maintaining the illusion that they are the only customer who needs your help!

1. Stand up when you answer the phone. For some reason you will come across as more business-like and will probably finish the conversation quicker than you would sitting down.

2. Similarly, if you are meeting face-to-face, stand up as the customer enters the room. You will have greater difficulty in ending the exchange if they sit down.

3. Open the conversation with “How can I help you?” rather than “How are you?” to direct them straight to the point.

4. Don’t be afraid to tell them if you have a pressing deadline. Explain that you are just about to go into a meeting, take their contact details and agree a realistic time when you can ring back, remembering to allow plenty of time for contingencies.

5. If they are rambling, simply say their name politely but assertively - this will make them pause so you can interject to summarise and wind-up the conversation, to avoid later misunderstandings.

It is perfectly possible to practise all these suggestions in a courteous way which will help both you and your customer to have a pleasant and constructive exchange.

Andy Britnell specialises in sales and customer service training for the private and public sectors. Go to http://www.andybritnell.co.uk/ and you can sign up for my FREE short monthly newsletter and FREE e-mail coaching.

I coach corporate and SME clients who wish to fulfil more of their potential by thinking and behaving more effectively - see http://www.executive-coaching-for-business-growth.com/

In a nutshell… YES!

I’ve given a lot of thought recently to the power of ‘resolutions’ - to that basic human instinct that continually drives us to improve ourselves and to expand our horizons.

Perhaps you’re reading this now and resolving to finally conquer your anxiety?

The trouble with resolutions, however, is sticking to them! All too often, within weeks, they’ve fallen by the wayside. Why is that? Why do we all struggle so much to maintain our resolve?

To my mind, ‘resolve’ and ‘resolution’ are in themselves anxiety-inducing words! What do I mean…? Well, just consider the word RESOLVE. It resounds with a sense of determination… demanding immense effort. It also calls upon you to SOLVE something… to remedy a problem… to seek out that elusive ‘Holy Grail’ alone.

And don’t we ALL have some aspect of our life that needs a ’solution’? EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US! It comes with living life to the full! RESOLUTIONS require us to take a long hard look at our lives. They demand we show an honest recognition of the need for change… and often this can be the hardest part of any new resolution.

Little wonder, then, that resolutions fill us with trepidation! Suddenly, we have to face up to a PROBLEM or a CHALLENGE. Then we have to decide on a course of action for CHANGE. Then we have to find the SOLUTION. And through it all, we have to maintain our RESOLVE.

Pretty daunting! Especially for those of us with personal experience of the debilitating affects of anxiety.

So let me try to make it a little bit easier for you!

Just be kind to yourself. Give yourself a break and understand that you can’t solve everything… and certainly not at once. You have to take that pressure off yourself. Don’t take too much on and try to implement lots of changes… this would be scary even to non-anxiety sufferers!

Oh, and don’t worry about all the ‘detail’ - the weight loss… the job application process… the dating game… the college course… the house move. Don’t be side-tracked by them… And certainly don’t beat yourself up if these changes don’t happen all at once! Remember, it’s early days!

I remember when I was anxious and I felt that every aspect of my life was wrong. I just wanted to change everything at once… to be a totally different person living a totally different life. But it felt like I was asking for the impossible, I felt beaten before I’d even begun to make a single change. There was just too much to deal with at once.

Well, I found that the simple SOLUTION is to make just ONE RESOLUTION. And when you live with anxiety, there is only ONE RESOLUTION you should be making - only ONE RESOLUTION which will magic away all the ‘detail’, which will bring about all the ‘changes’ you want in your life. And that ONE RESOLUTION is…

I AM GOING TO BE ANXIETY FREE TODAY… AND FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE

I know what you’re thinking…. That’s easy for you to say! Well, YES it is! But, what have you got to lose?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING - except your anxiety!

The rest of your life is all there for the taking… but as with all resolutions, you have to be prepared to make that choice for change, that RESOLUTION, to face up to and resolve the anxiety.

Charles Linden specialises in the treatment of anxiety symptoms. Learn how to cure yourself of Anxiety quickly, permanently and get Free access to a valuable interview done with Charles by the BBC visit: http://beatanxiety.amazon-4u.com

Do you ever say, “I don’t have time to ……”? Often this is an excuse to justify doing something else or not doing anything. The following is an updated version of an article I originally wrote in 1980. Time is still time.

You may want to read these items with the intention of identifying just one that is the most important for you at this time. Successful individuals already perform most of the ideas on this list.

1. Take Time to Plan. One minute of planning saves three minutes of work or re-planning.

2. Take Time to Organize. Your work needs a structure that reduces unnecessary, repetitive decisions.

3. Take Time to Set Goals. A goal that is identified and acknowledged can be achieved. When written, goals become more real.

4. Take Time to Schedule. A deadline that is not set might not be met. Set several intermediate deadlines to meet a major deadline.

5. Take Time to Decide Priorities. Knowledge of the relative importance of activities reduces re-inventing a system at the beginning of each task. Focus your attention on the important issues.

6. Take Time to Analyze the Situation. Although it is not possible to have all the facts all the time, it is important to review the essential ones.

7. Take Time to Reflect. Reflection can take many forms throughout the day for maximum effect. More than reviewing, reflection allows you to sort the essential items from those that are less important.

8. Take Time to Involve Others. Involve in the decision-making process those who will carry out the decision yields dividends in individual commitment. And, these are the persons who have relevant ideas!

9. Take Time to Divide the Job. Many small tasks reach the goal in less time than a few larger tasks. Additionally, it is more satisfying to achieve several objectives en route to your higher goals.

10. Take Time to Delegate. Distribute tasks to enhance others’ experience and increase leverage. Be certain that the delegated responsibilities are meaningful and stimulating, not just the tasks you do not want to do.

11. Take Time to Explain Clearly. A few well-chosen words that clearly direct others avoid duplicate effort and disappointment.

12. Take Time to Review your Work. Check your work when you finish. For more thorough review and correction, let it rest a while and review it again.

13. Take Time to Relax. Just a few moments can replenish you. When you are relaxed and refreshed, you are more efficient.

14. Take Time to Meditate. The journey within is increasingly more important when your life is hectic. Twenty minutes in true meditation each day enhances brain function, breathing, sleep, relaxation, response to stress, and general well-being.

15. Take Time to Do It Now! Procrastination is a thief of time and confidence. Do the job now.

Copyright © 2006 Marshall House Jeanie Marshall, Empowerment Consultant and Coach with Marshall House, produces Guided Meditations on CD albums and MP3 downloads and writes extensively on subjects related to personal development and empowerment.
Voice of Jeanie Marshall, http://www.jmvoice.com

I study the use of time and how to maximize productivity and enjoyment from it. From these studies, I have come up with the following list of time rules:

1 - It is more important to have clear goals than to be efficient. It is more important to work on the right things than to work efficiently. I liken this to the person who wants to get to Sudbury so gets in their car and drives 150 Km/hour. Does he get there before the person who checks the map (direction) and drives less efficiently at say 100 KM/hour? Driving in the right direction is more important than driving fast. I call this Leadership before Management. Leadership is about direction, management is about efficiency. This is why I called my CD “Time Leadership”.

2 - Energy use is more important than time use. I can get much more done if I have the right energy than if I just spend the time. Because of this, I work on things that give me energy (eg. exercise, working on things I am inspired by, avoiding things that drain my energy etc.). I also try to recognize when I am high energy and spend those time doing high productivity tasks.

3 - Know what you have to do. I am not referring to goals here, I am referring to specific tasks. Every course and book on time management talks about the “TO DO” list or some variation on it. Part of the reason for this list is to be able to prioritize (see 1). It also helps you to know your loading. One trick on a TO DO list is to put the first action to take to start on that item right on the list. Eg. If I am calling a vendor, I might need to get a briefing on the relationship as the first step.

4 - Learn to say NO - politely of course. If you know your goals and priorities (see 1), you will see what things you are being asked to do that infringes on them. Having a TO DO list helps you know if you have time (see 3).

5 - Learn tricks. For me, the best sources of tricks are from other people who are effective in their jobs. I also get them from books and audio programs. Some of the more effective tricks I use are:

• Do the worst thing first thing. I choose the one thing I am procrastinating on and spend 15 minutes on it first thing.

• I love the power of while. What can you do while you are working out or driving (of course first priority needs to me to drive safely).etc? Often the answer is audio books.

• I love the power of focus. This conflicts with the previous tip but in some circumstances this is the best way to get things done. Focus only on the task you are working on at the time.

6 - Track how you spend your time. On the tracking sheet record what things give you energy and what things take energy (see 2). Determine how you think you should spend your day and from the time sheets figure out the changes you might want to make. One concept I have worked on is “The Perfect Day”. What would be the elements of your perfect day?

7 - Get rid of your TV, or at least control your use of it. TV is North America’s biggest time waster. I have nothing against entertainment but I think many people use TV as a time waster and do not get great entertainment or learning from it.

8 - Study time use. I have written many articles and published a CD (and before that an audio tape) on Time Management. Even though I have read 40-50 books on the topic, over 100 articles, listened to many audio programs and attended half a dozen time management courses, I always learn something new when I read a new one.

Finally, many people think I am too efficient or time focused. I do not deny that I am somewhat. However, good time use can also lead to a fuller life. Why not spend the time you need to spend effectively so you have more time to do other things you want to do?

Jim Estill is CEO of SYNNEX Canada - jimestill.blogspot.com/

Sometimes the most important and urgent thing we can do is get away to a peaceful and anointed spot.

This is one of the most powerful concepts that I personally have incorporated in my life. I’m sitting right now writing this book in a cabin up on a hill overlooking a beautiful lake, miles away from the nearest city.

As we choose to draw away for a time, we can see and hear much more clearly about how to go ahead. Jesus did this many times during His earthly life, especially just before and after major decisions. The Bible says, …in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. (Is. 30:15)

There’s something invigorating and renewing about retreating to a quiet place of rest and peace. Silence is an environment in which great ideas are birthed.

It is important to associate intently and as often as possible with your loftiest dreams. In Isaiah 40:31 we read, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

I believe that every person should have a place of refuge, one out of the normal scope of living, one where he can “retreat to advance” and “focus in.”

Make a regular appointment with yourself; it will be one of the most important you can ever have during the course of a week or a month. See how much clearer you move forward with God as a result.

- John L Mason, from the book An Enemy Called Average. Over 500,000 sold! (to find out more about this book, please go to http://www.freshword.com/resources)

About the Author:

John Mason is a national best-selling author, nationally recognized speaker and book coach.
He has authored fourteen books including An Enemy Called Average, You’re Born An Original-Don’t Die A Copy, Let Go of Whatever Makes You Stop, and Know Your Limits-Then Ignore Them which have sold over 1.4 million copies and have been translated into twenty-five languages throughout the world.
“I have posted a special message for you to see on my website http://www.freshword.com In it I talk about right associations and the effect they can have on whether you succeed in life or not. Your best friends should bring out the best in you! If you are an author, or want to be, I have many resources specifically designed for you. Also, make sure to sign up for my “Nugget of the Week - I would love to inspire you.”

Every day we deal with a variety of matters of urgent importance in our organizations. Seldom is leadership development on that urgent list. While perhaps not urgent, few things are of greater importance to the future of our organizations that the conscious and consistent development of our future leaders. Unfortunately, when we do put time and effort into leadership development, all too often those efforts fail.

In this article I will outline seven specific things you can do - as an individual wanting to improve your leadership skills or when thinking about leadership development across an organization. Implementing any one of these suggestions will prove a valuable supplement to what you are already doing. Implementing most or all of them will yield or more confident, competent and prepared leaders than your existing development efforts by themselves ever will.

The Seven Suggestions

Create opportunities for self discovery and to create desire.

Learning anything successfully requires a motivated and interested learner. This is especially true for leadership. Often leaders see themselves as technical experts. In many cases they have been promoted because they were good at their previous jobs - which may have had nothing to do with leading. Leaders need to understand how influential they are and know how they are doing, what the gaps are and have a desire to improve. 360 Feedback processes are one way to raise awareness and create a felt need for improvement. While they can be a powerful tool, the underlying purpose for their use is to create a clear desire for further development. However you accomplish this discovery and desire, it is critical to the development of greater leadership skills.

Set a goal / make a plan.

Leaders, either on their own or with assistance, need to set an improvement goal - they need to have a clear picture of the areas they would like to develop. With a goal set, a plan can be put in place to move towards it. While this will often happen during a training event, this goal needs to be in place before attending any training to maximize the value of that training.

Focus on strengths.

Too often leaders build a plan based solely on improving areas of weakness. While we certainly want to improve in those areas, an equal amount of effort should be focused on enhancing and further developing areas of greatest strength. While there are several reasons for this, none are more compelling than the fact that less effort is required to improve an area of strength or natural talent than to achieve similar levels of improvement in an area of weakness.

Find ways to learn.

Leaders can be challenged to look for a wide variety of learning resources - encourage them to look beyond the training workshops you might provide. Have them consider podcasts, websites, lectures, books, discussions with other leaders, finding mentors, working with a coach - the list goes on and on. Once people begin to look, they will see many ways they can learn.

Find ways to practice.

Learning the ideas and knowledge is one thing, but to become a more effective leader people must practice. Encourage leaders to integrate what they have learned into practice. Help them see that there are opportunities to practice everywhere - and not only at work. People will say they are busy - and they are. Challenge them to consider their leadership development as a integrated part of their work - among their most important tasks - rather than “one more thing to do”.

Get the leader’s leader involved.

Leaders can’t do it alone. Having the leader’s leader involved will help keep development as an important priority, but beyond that, the leader’s leader can provide coaching and help remove any obstacles that might be in the way. Most of all, the leader’s leader can provide support and encouragement - two things that are critical when we are learning (and practicing) new skills.

Build systems organizationally to support the other six suggestions.

We can do the six steps above as a motivated individual. But if we want to create a process for leadership development in our organization we have build ways to systematically provide people with the opportunities and options provided by the other six suggestions.

What is Missing?

Notice that the suggestions above don’t talk about a training workshop, seminar or event as the key to your efforts. While you want any training you provide to be as useful and effective as possible, training alone can only get you so far -which is why your current efforts are less effective than you’d like them to be. The seven suggestions above are meant to be an adjunct to your training efforts - to be a process to layer on top of your existing efforts.

Training alone won’t produce the leaders you need. It is one ingredient. The other seven suggestions in this article will, when added to a valuable, practical and effective training program, produce the leaders you desire - and your organization needs.

Kevin Eikenberry is a leadership expert and the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company. To receive a free Special Report on leadership that includes resources, ideas, and advice go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/leadership.asp or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.

A good friend of mine, C, was the manager of the human factors group for a telecommunications software engineering company. Her boss called her aside one day. It turned out that the CEO of the company had noticed and complained that a number of her team members were regularly seen hanging around, small-talking in one office. That’s not what he was paying them to do, the CEO complained. Didn’t she notice what was happening? Her boss instructed C. to pass on the reprimand and see to it that the situation improved.

C. knew her team was a bright, highly productive group. They were also mostly new hires, just forming their sense of team and how they would work together. The timing for this type of reprimand was lousy. She didn’t want to do it, but she knew she had to do something.

She called her group together, and began with, “I know you’re a great team and you’ve done everything I’ve asked you to do, oftentimes more.” She then described the issue to them without criticism, saying that there was a problem in how they were being perceived by the CEO, that it was serious, and that it needed to be cleared up immediately.

Instead of warning them, she asked them to come up with the best course of action to change their boss’ perceptions, so he would get a more accurate picture of the hard work they ere actually doing. Rather than get defensive or hurt, the team took up the challenge and together they found a set of solutions that worked beautifully. The best part for C. was that a potential trust-damaging episode actually improved her credibility with her team. And in fact it improved her respect for them, as well.

After the success of her managerial experiment, she decided to relate to her team all the time in that way. “Whether things are going well or not,” she told me, “I’ve let go of ‘I know best, here’s what you should do,’ and instead I’ve embraced, ‘You’re excellent, I’m proud of you, and here’s a problem we’re facing, so let’s brainstorm together’.” It wasn’t always as directly spoken as that, but as a general place to come from, she found it very powerful.

Doing this had a strong impact on the quality of their work and productivity, she discovered. Enough to get noticed. A few months after C. started this form of trust-building with her team, her boss one day called her a “natural manager,” something he had never said to her before in five years with the company.

Some time later, when the telecommunications industry slid into decline, all thirty engineers and the entire support staff for her office were let go, leaving only her team left. “We were absolutely stunned. They basically kept the office open just for the five of us to keep doing our work. Ordinarily an R&D group like ours would be let go first, yet here we were. I think it was because we listened, took challenging problems and came up with creative solutions for the company. It really wasn’t me, it was them.”

There are some good lessons in this story about creating high-level trust. Trust, like all other worthwhile qualities, comes in degrees. My interest is helping leaders take their capacity for inspiring trust to the highest possible level. When C. said, “…here’s a problem we’re facing, let’s brainstorm together,” she hit on a powerful source of inspired leadership. She had discovered that her unique gift as a leader was giving people the room to find their own greatness.

Every leader will have something different to offer. To get at your own version of what C. had hit on, ask yourself this question: what qualities do I bring to my leadership role that make me unique at what I do? These are the qualities that you feel are important to share. Sometimes they are the way you often wish others would treat you (rather than the way they do). They will nearly always also be the qualities that are responsible for your professional and economic success.

What do I mean by qualities? I’m talking about the particular life-enhancing virtues that you give to people at work when you are operating at your best as a leader. People will feel most inspired by your leadership guidance when you’re simultaneously drawing on your personality strengths, your core values, and your expertise. For some leaders it is their sense of humor that inspires, for others it is caring, or thoroughness, poise under pressure, unflagging enthusiasm, or the ability to help people think creatively or to discover their greatness.

A good way to identify your unique leadership gift is to remember a specific time at work when you felt particularly good about what was happening between you and a person or team you manage, or between you and your boss. Try to identify the positive inner qualities these people were receiving from you at the time that met their needs and made them feel good about you.

Perhaps their confidence or peace of mind or ability to see light at the end of the tunnel went way up as a result of what you said and did. Is this something that people receive from you when you are at your best? If so, then that’s your gift.

Keep this alive in as many ways as you can. So if you identified something like “I’m great at supporting creative business people who want to turn their bold ideas into marketable products,” then why not add that phrase to the way you think about your current job or position? “As the Director of New Product Development I actually get paid to do what I love the mosthelping a team of creative business people keep their confidence and vision alive through the difficult process of turning great ideas into marketable products.”

You see the difference? You are shining the light on the very thing that makes you greatthe unique gift that people receive from you. Sometimes you just forget or lose sight of your gift in the daily grind. By reminding yourself what it is that you give people, you’ll be able to use it more consciously and consistently.

But how often do we fail to recognize and acknowledge in ourselves this avenue to greatness? It’s easy to take our unique strengths for granted”well, that’s no big deal, that’s just who I am.” The next time someone asks you what you do, you might try replying with a variation of your leadership theme instead of giving your job title right off. “You know how difficult it is to get a new product idea into the marketplace? Well, what I do is…”

When you fully and humbly and proudly take possession of your unique leadership gift and use it more and more intentionally, you may find that it’s the key to your career success. As a result of promotions, your gift will “naturally” find wider and wider avenues for expression.

Joe DiSabatino helps companies turn aroud morale problems by building high-trust work environments with an emphasis on integrity and core values. For more information go to: http://www.phoenixleadership.com