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Taliban Hardliners Spread Out to Undermine Afghanistan Election

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
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The Taliban leadership has redeployed some of its most hardline foot soldiers into areas of Afghanistan where local insurgents are reluctant to disrupt the country’s elections on Thursday.

Details of the move emerged as a statement, said to carry the authority of the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, reiterated that the movement would attempt to stop Afghans from voting.

The insurgent leadership appears to be trying to harden resolve among its men on the ground and foil deals struck between the government and individual commanders designed to guarantee peace on polling day.

An official within the Afghan interior ministry said Taliban fighters had been moving from “hardline provinces” such as volatile Paktika and Paktia in the east into “less hardline” areas such as Wardak and Ghazni, south of Kabul.

On Sunday the country’s intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh, announced that commanders across the south had been paid off not to interfere with the elections. The interior ministry official said the government was receiving “mixed reports” about how much violence could be anticipated on election day: “Some commanders are still saying they will fight, while in other areas the threat is coming from outsiders.”

For months now Taliban fighters have been dropping messages in villages – so-called “night letters” – threatening to punish anyone who attempts to vote on Thursday. One threat is that anyone found with indelible ink on their finger – given to anyone who casts a vote to prevent double voting – will have their finger cut off.

Haroun Mir, former special adviser to the anti-Soviet resistance fighter Ahmed Shah Massoud, said the mere threat of retributions could “undermine the legitimacy of the whole election”.

“Even with these ceasefires no one living in areas of Taliban influence will want to take the risk of going out to vote,” he said. “We could end up with the half of the country that lives in the north picking the next president, which could lead to some very big fights in the future.”

The country will deploy all available security forces to try to ensure the election is as smooth as possible, with tens of thousands of extra foreign forces used to secure the outer security perimeter of polling stations.

Elections officials say around 10% of the approximately 7,000 polling centres may not be able to open because of insecurity, although the final number will not be known until just before polls open.

Today was the last day in which open campaigning is permitted by law, and the second-placed candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, attended a major rally in Kabul’s main sports stadium.

A helicopter flew over the heads of the 10,000-strong crowd dropping leaflets calling for change, and Abdullah delivered a scathing attack on the record of the president, Hamid Karzai, which has been marred by allegations that he has ignored corruption in his own government.

Abdullah asked the crowd: “Do you want to vote for the president who releases killers from jail, who releases opium traders from jail?”

Meanwhile, Karzai played the final card of his more traditional strategy of gathering the support of ethnic, religious and regional power brokers, no matter how unsavoury they may be. The president, who already outraged the UN when he selected former warlord Mohammad Qasim Fahim as his running mate in May, gave the all-clear for notorious Uzbek militia leader Abdul Rashid Dostum to return on Sunday night from exile in Turkey.

The whisky-drinking strongman from northern Afghanistan flew back into the country on Sunday night despite the strong opposition of the US and the UN, who believe he is a human rights abuser.

The US embassy in Kabul released a strong statement, saying it had “serious concerns about the prospective role of Dostum in today’s Afghanistan, and particularly during these historic elections … Among other concerns, his reputed past actions raise questions of his culpability for massive human rights violations.”

Dostum had been living in Ankara ever since he fled Kabul in February last year to avoid charges of assaulting one of his political arrivals. His supporters had threatened to withdraw their electoral support from Karzai if he was not allowed to return.

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Are Leaders Born or Made?

Saturday, January 8th, 2011
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For centuries people have debated whether leaders are born or made. Several decades ago researchers started trying to answer the question. The debate goes on, even though we know the answer.

It turns out to be a little of both. Leaders are sort of born and they’re always made. Knowing the details will help you develop effective leaders for your company.

Leaders are Sort of Born

It seems like there’s only one thing that a person needs to actually be born with in order to be a leader later in life. That’s intelligence. A leader needs to be smart enough.

Effective leaders aren’t necessarily the smartest people in the room or the company or even on the team. But they have to be smart enough to do the job they’re assigned.

What’s more important is what kind of person the potential leader is when he or she becomes an adult. The person who emerges from adolescence into young adulthood has the psychological and character traits they’ll demonstrate for the rest of their life. Some of those matter for leadership.

By the time a person becomes an adult we can tell if they can help other people achieve results. That, after all, is what we expect leaders to do. We expect them to achieve success through a group. We expect them to help their subordinates grow and develop.

By the time a person becomes an adult, we can tell if they want to achieve objectives or if they just want to go along and take it easy. We expect leaders to be responsible for achieving results. You can have a marvelous life without a results focus, but if you’re going to lead successfully you have to have the drive and willingness to be measured by the results of your leadership.

By the time a person becomes an adult, we can tell if they are willing to make decisions or not. Lots of people wake up every day and let the world happen to them. But leaders must be able and willing to make decisions that affect themselves and others.

By the time a person becomes an adult we can tell if they have the basic qualities that we expect leaders to have. We can determine if they’re smart enough to do the job. We can tell if they are willing to help others to achieve results as a group. And we can tell if they will make decisions.

Those things are essential. People who have them can learn the multiple skills it takes for them to become effective leaders.

No matter how they measure up on the key essentials, no one emerges from the womb or from adolescence with all the skills in place to be an effective leader. Everybody has to learn the job. That’s why leaders are always made.

Leaders are Always Made

Leadership can be learned by anyone with the basics. But an awful lot of leadership cannot be taught.

That’s because leadership is an apprentice trade. Leaders learn about 80 percent of their craft on the job.

They learn from watching other leaders and emulating their behavior. They choose role models and seek out mentors. They ask other leaders about how to handle situations.

Leaders improve by getting feedback and using it. The best leaders seek feedback from their boss, their peers and their subordinates. Then they modify their behavior so that they get better results.

Leaders learn by trying things out and then critiquing their performance. The only failure they recognize is the failure to learn from experience.

In their book, Geeks and Geezers, Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas identify the special power of what they call “crucibles.” These are trials which teach hard lessons that leaders use as the basis of their strength in later crises. Many of these events can be called “failures,” but leaders turn the bad situation to good by learning from it.

Effective leaders take control of their own development. They seek out training opportunities that will make a difference that will make a difference in their performance.

Effective leaders look for training programs that will help them develop specific skills that they can use on the job. Then, they when they return to work, they devote specific, deliberate effort to mastering in real life what they learned in the classroom.

Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan studied the progress of 88,000 managers who had been to leadership development training. The people who returned from the training, talked about it, and did deliberate work to apply their learning were judged as becoming more effective leaders. The ones who didn’t showed no improvement.

If you’re responsible for leadership development for your company, you should structure your support for your leaders to recognize that most leadership learning happens on the job. Help people develop leadership development plans. Help them select specific skills training and then work on transferring skills from the training to the job. Help them find role models, mentors and peers to discuss leadership issues.

Help your leaders get feedback from their boss, peers and subordinates. Work to create the culture of candor that will make that feedback helpful and effective.

Don’t stop there. Make sure that you evaluate your leaders on their leadership work. Reward them and hold them accountable for accomplishing the mission through the group. And hold them accountable for caring for their people and helping them grow and develop.

A Leader’s Growth is Never Done

Leadership learning is a lifetime activity. You’re never done because there’s always more to learn. There are always skills you need to improve.

Effective leaders seek out development opportunities that will help them learn new skills. Those might be project assignments or job changes. What they have in common is that the leader develops knowledge and skills that can be used elsewhere.

Effective leaders also seek out opportunities that will increase their visibility. The fact is that great performance alone will not propel you to the top in your career. You also have to be visible to people who make decisions about promotions and assignments.

If you’re responsible for developing leaders in your company, set up programs to give your leaders both kinds of development opportunities over the course of their careers.

There’s no magic formula for developing quality leaders in your company. But if you select potential leaders with the essential traits, then support them with training, feedback, on-the-job learning and development experiences and hold them accountable for results, you’ll have the leaders you need to shape your company’s future.

Wally Bock is an author, speaker, consultant and coach who helps leaders improve the performance and morale of their teams. Wally is the author of Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership (http://www.performancetalk.com/) and the Three Star Leadership Blog (http://blog.threestarleadership.com/). You’ll also find tips and resources about all aspects of leadership at the Three Star Leadership site (http://www.threestarleadership.com/).

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Emotional Intelligence: Positively Invest Your Emotional Energy

Monday, December 20th, 2010
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The 2009 “Stress in America Survey” by the American Psychological Association (APA) highlighted the rising levels of stress Americans continue to experience. Concerned with the “prevalence with which Americans continue to report increasing and extreme stress levels,” Dr. Katherine Nordal Phd., APA’s executive director, expressed the need for tools to help people better manage their stress. When we develop our Emotional Intelligence skills we are able transform negative emotions and go beyond just managing our stress. We begin to master rather than react to our environment.

The daily challenges we face both at home and at work bring about a certain level of stress. As these challenges grow and accelerate, our stress levels are compounded. And our stress levels compound exponentially as we face global issues such as the healthcare reform, the recent financial meltdown and government bailout, and catastrophic events such as the earthquake in Haiti where help was slow to arrive.

We tend to react emotionally as we are continuously assaulted with daily stressors whether large or small. We feel helpless as we find ourselves, in a perpetual state of negative emotional energy. Further, we are typically unaware that we are living in this negative emotional state. And as long as we remain oblivious to where we are investing our emotional energy, we are not likely to be able to change what has become, for us, the “status quo.” So what can we do?

Recognize Emotions:

We cannot change were we are until we recognize our emotions – what we feel. Throughout the day we need to identify exactly what we are feeling, labeling each feeling with a specific name: sad, happy, hurt, anxious, afraid, etc. Writing down each of these feelings or set of feelings, we can generate a simple emotional map. We can use a four-quadrant grid where the lower quadrants are “low-energy” emotions and the upper quadrants are “high-energy” emotions. Then we can label the left side as “negative” emotions and the right side as “positive” emotions. Once our grid is labeled, we can place the emotions we identified throughout the day or week in the appropriate grid: excited in the upper right quadrant, fearful the lower left quadrant and so on. Once complete, we begin to get a picture of where we are investing our emotional energy.

If we discover that we are in the left two quadrants (the stress zone), we become aware that we need to move toward the zone where most successful people operate – the right two quadrants or peak performance zone. With this awareness, we can start making choices to transform negative emotions into positive productive emotions and begin our journey to master our environment.

Tailoring the art and science of Emotional Intelligence to your needs, Byron Stock focuses on results, helping individuals and organizations in developing Emotional Intelligence skills, leadership competencies and core values. To learn about Byron’s quick, simple, proven techniques to harness the power of your EI, visit Byron Stock.

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You Choose: Laugh or Cry

Monday, November 29th, 2010
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You Choose: Laugh or Cry

Self Help Articles | December 3, 2009

We choose how we react, in every situation.  We choose to be upset or to be positive. Next time you are in a laugh or cry situation, choose wisely.

Some days are filled with one challenge after another.  Today was one of those days. What made it so challenging?  Here are a few of the highlights.

I woke up late with a four mile run ahead of me.  I’m training for another half-marathon and if I don’t get the requisite miles in I’m going to be sorry.  Today’s run seemed like the longest four miles ever.  I suffered a sore back, aching shins, and the constant thought that this should be easier.  Knowing that the big race is fast approaching, the voice in my head was really whining.  I got through it and followed it with a short walk with Mia, the poodle.  She was happy.

Today is also a travel day. I packed my bag and dressed for the trip eastward.  Knowing it would be much colder in Washington, DC than in Phoenix and learning from my flip flop mistake of last week (Salt Lake City and sandals don’t mix in the winter), I decided to wear closed toe, “sensible” shoes. Having few options in my closet, I pull out my trusty brown clogs and put on my warm socks.  Rushing through the airport to catch my flight I couldn’t figure out why these shoes felt so “funny.”  They were making my back hurt even more and they just seemed “wrong.”  As soon as I got to the gate I realized the problem.  My trusty clogs, which I thought were made of wood, were actually made of foam which had begun to disintegrate. The bottoms of my shoes were falling off right there in the terminal.  The only alternative I could consider was to put on my black patent leather pumps which were in my suitcase.  Of course, this was not a viable option as the pumps did not go with my outfit.  I tried taping the bottoms with tape I stole from the gate agent, but I continued to “shed” my soles throughout the long trip. I felt like crying.

Phoenix to Washington, DC is a four and a half hour flight and first class upgrades weren’t available.  Believe me, I tried.  So, I packed my laptop and trade journals and headed to the next best seat:  10D, on the aisle in the exit row.  When I arrived at my assigned seat I met my seatmate.  Joe is a 450+ pound traveler who usually flies first class because of his size.  Today he’s been re-routed and the airline didn’t have his usual seat available.  On this full flight they had just one seat to offer him—the one next to me.  As I settled in to my seat with Joe nuzzled up close, I realized that I was “one cheek to the aisle.”  Without armrests, tray tables, or ability to see through my seatmate to the window, I was in this for the long haul.  Again, I felt like crying.

It’s on days like these when I hear my mother’s sage advice. When I was in high school and all teenage-like and hormonal, I’d occasionally come home from school and cry about something someone said to me or something that didn’t go my way.  Mom would console me for a short time and then she’d say, “Now, stop your crying.  A week from now you won’t remember what you were crying about.”  And, you know what?  She was right.  I don’t remember any of the causes of those tearful times.  I won’t remember this day either.

It’s days like this that remind me: we choose how we react, in every situation.  We choose to be upset. We choose to be negative.  We choose to be “easy to get along with” (as the flight attendants described me today!). And, my Mom was right. You usually don’t remember the details for too long.

I ended up having a great flight.  I hung out with the great flight attendants in the galley. I got this article written, and I now have a good excuse to get a new pair of shoes.  I even got a voucher from US Airways “for my trouble.”  I’ve chosen to be unhappy as a response to situations in the past and it’s not a good thing.  Today<img src="http://www.articlesfactory.com/pic/x.gif" alt="Free Web Content" border="0", I chose to just laugh about it. What a better choice.

Marnie E. Green is Principal Consultant Management Education Group, Inc. Green is a speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations develop confident leaders. Contact Green at phone: 480-705-9394 email: mgreen@managementeducationgroup.com web site: http://www.managementeducationgroup.com/

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Types of Leadership

Sunday, November 28th, 2010
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If you look at modern organizations today, you will find managers adopting different kinds of leadership styles, in order to achieve their targets. These days, organizations are not like what they used to be. Today we have people from different countries, cultures, educational backgrounds, skills, working in the same team, together, to meet team targets. That’s why leaders, today, rely on various types of leadership skills as well as leadership styles to get the best out of their subordinates. Given below is a list of the most commonly observed types of leadership in the modern-day corporate world.

Different Types of Leadership Styles

Autocratic Leadership
In autocratic leadership style, decision making is the sole prerogative of the leader. Everything, right from how things are to be done, what will be the individual and group targets, the structure of punishments and rewards, etc., is decided by the leader himself, without any input from anybody. Such a leadership style works well in situations when some emergencies arise, and have to be dealt with immediately.

Bureaucratic Leadership
This corporate leadership style entails, exactly following the policies and procedures which have been previously laid down. It is the leader’s job to ensure that all rules are adhered to by the employees. This type of leadership style is effective, if employees perform routine tasks everyday. However, there is no room for creativity or innovative problem solving in this leadership style.

Participative Leadership
Participative leadership style leads to development of trust and loyalty among subordinates for the leader, as he takes them into full consideration, utilizes their skills and knowledge and takes their inputs, before arriving at a decision. Participative style works really well wherein the leader has just joined the organization, or the department, and is completely new to how things operate.

Laissez-faire Leadership
This team leadership style is the anti-thesis of autocratic style. In this, the subordinates are given absolute freedom by the leader to determine their own goals and ways of reaching them. Such types of leadership is based on the principle of least interference. It can be a great success if the subordinates are experienced and skilled, however can backfire if they are not trustworthy.

Transactional Leadership
This leadership style works on the principle that when subordinates sign a contract to participate in a particular project, they take their manager as the ultimate authority. Also, there are set rules for rewards and punishments. If the subordinates perform well, they are rewarded and if their performance is below expectation, they are punished.

Transformational Leadership
In the transformational leadership style, the leader sells his vision to his subordinates, by bringing it forth in the most passionate and appealing manner. The transformational leader motivates his subordinates to work for a given task with great enthusiasm. The leader genuinely cares for the welfare of his subordinates and wants them to learn new things and progress by working with him on his vision.

Servant Leadership
The leader acts as someone who is out there to help other people grow. By acting as a serving leader, he gives them freedom to grow, nurture their spirit and in the process become trusting of him and in the end giving him their whole and sole commitment. This leadership style goes a long way in aiding community building.

Charismatic Leadership
Such types of leadership style is most commonly seen in politicians. A charismatic leader, by using his charm, his ability to make others feel important and his skill of gauging concerns of the people, and using some clever words to address them, is able to garner many admirers. People are attracted towards him and thus, like to work for him. You may read more on leadership styles and examples.

Situational Leadership
This leadership style in management is adopted by a leader in accordance with the prevailing situation. Some determining factors can be, the ability of the subordinates, the kind of co-operation that exists among various team members, available resources, etc.

Quiet Leadership
This type of leadership style is the exact opposite of charismatic leadership style. In this, the leader motivates his team through his actions rather than words. This leadership is all about being rational and people-oriented at the same time.

These are the different types of leadership styles, which managers follow in organizations today. To be termed as a successful leader and for effective leadership, a manager should know which leadership style to follow in any given situation, to get things done!

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Postcard Marketing Model #22: Spark Repeat Business

Thursday, November 18th, 2010
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Did you know that it costs five times as much to sell to a new customer as to sell something else to the same customer? Although this fact is far from a marketing secret, it’s a rare company that takes full advantage of this important dynamic. Online, you can follow up a purchase using autoresponders. Offline, you can inspire a buyer to purchase again and again with postcards.

Here are some inexpensive and powerful ways of using postcards to inspire repeat business.

1. “Thank you”s. Three to seven days after a purchase, mail a simple postcard to the purchaser saying “thank you.” Even if the postcard isn’t very personalized, in itself it makes a significant impression. By getting across the message that you don’t take customers for granted, it creates good will and encourages the customer to shop with you again and tell friends about your company. Don’t forget too that postcards often get posted on refrigerators, slipped into briefcases or file folders or propped by the telephone as reminders.

For this kind of a postcard, try for something eye-catching, unusual, scenic or humorous rather than a clichéd image. A “thank you” makes an especially deep impression when the purchase was downloaded. Intensify the “wow” experienced by the customer by signing postcards with handwriting in ink before they go out.

2. “Stick message.” Information marketers recommend a message congratulating the purchaser, providing instructions on how to get started with the product and reiterating the benefits of the item purchased. While this is often enclosed with the product, it can also be sent afterwards on a postcard. Stick messages reduce refunds and lay the groundwork for a great long-term customer relationship. Include contact information – your email address and/or phone number – and invite questions for even greater effectiveness.

3. Unannounced bonuses. Deepen customer loyalty by sending some or all of your buyers a postcard that they can redeem for a gift by bringing it into the store, calling your office or using a coupon code at your web site. I can still remember my surprise when online bookseller Amazon sent me a branded travel mug out of the blue and Google sent me a little cookbook and apron for being a good customer. The postcard is a cheaper yet still effective way to deliver a bonus gift, as well as to train customers to pay attention to your mailings.

4. Revised versions. Use a postcard to let past buyers know that a revised version of the product is now available. Of course not everyone will want to upgrade, but such a card helps maintain the thread of your relationship with each customer and helps you stay top of mind when a related need arises.

5. Complementary products. Figure out which other products might appeal to those who bought Product X, and create postcards pitching one of the complementary products at a time. Send them a month apart. When the marketing copy makes clear the connection with what they’ve already bought, customers tend to like being pitched. Again, recipients start to welcome your follow-ups and become more likely to recommend you to others and to repurchase themselves.

6. Reorder reminder. For consumable purchases like vitamins, toner cartridges, auto maintenance services and so on, a well-timed postcard letting your customer know they may run out soon and giving them a special offer if they reorder now usually gets results. Such a program almost always adds to your bottom line, because when customers order before they use up what they have, they purchase more times per year.

7. Seasonal offers. Contact customers by postcard to let them know how you can help them with tasks that are especially appropriate for a certain time of the year. Be creative, and the postcards can miraculously bring in revenue during predictable slow times. For instance, a landscaping company can offer stone wall or driveway maintenance just before winter sets in, or a B&B can send a “staycation special” postcard to past visitors when gas prices have spiked and fewer folks are traveling.

8. Useful information. Simply staying in touch reminds customers you exist and reminds them to call you about a current need. So monthly or quarterly postcards to your customer base could present snippets of useful content, such as recipes, statistics, case studies, industry news, a short editorial or opinion piece, and so on. Be sure to include a call to action on such an information piece, such as an invitation to visit your online catalog or to call about an upcoming project.

Don’t forget that postcards are versatile! Besides sending them out in the mail, you can enclose many of the above types of cards with a purchase, hand them out at a trade show or stack them on the giveaway table at a networking event. Even though they’re designed to be mailed, postcards are much more magnetic than a typical invoice, sales sheet or business card.

Veteran postcard marketer, consultant, author Marcia Yudkin is the creator of The Mighty Postcard Marketing Course, which teaches strategic, logistical, design and copywriting secrets of postcard marketing. Download her free 1-hour audio interview on postcard marketing: http://www.yudkin.com/postcards.htm

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The Listening Leadership Talk

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
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<img src="http://www.buzzle.com/img/articleImages/91710-4med.jpg" width="325" height="488" alt="The Listening Leadership Talk" class="ImgBorder"
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For more than 20 years, I have taught the Leadership Talk to thousands of people worldwide. And maybe the most important thing I’ve taught isn’t about talking — at least the leader’s talking.

I’ve taught there is a hierarchy of verbal persuasion. The lowest levels, the least effective, are speeches and presentations. The highest levels, the most effective, are Leadership Talks.

I’ve taught that speeches/presentations communicate information; Leadership Talks, on the other hand, have leaders establish deep, human, emotional connections with audiences — indispensable in achieving great results.

Of course, the Leadership Talk is by definition about talking. But often there’s a more effective dynamic to employ: listening. Not passive listening — but listening for one purpose, so the other person gives you your Leadership Talk.

After all, it’s not what you say that’s important in a Leadership Talk but what your audience does after you have had your say.

And if they do the best thing not after you speak but after you listen, then you have given one of the most effective Leadership Talks of all — a Listening Leadership Talk.

The Listening Leadership Talk focuses on what other people are invariably interested in, themselves. (Who isn’t interested when they themselves are talking?) But here’s the key: their simply talking is useless to your leadership. It is only useful when their talk is the talk you need for them to give.

Moving people from talking their talk to talking your talk — and ultimately walking your walk –is the art of the Listening Leadership Talk.

Here are a few tips to make it happen.

(1) Use question marks. Asking questions encourages people to reflect upon and talk about the challenge you face. After all, we can’t motivate anyone to do anything. They have to motivate themselves. And they best motivate themselves when they reflect on their character and their situation and are also given the opportunity to talk about their reflections.

You may not like what they say; but often their answer is better in terms of advancing their motivation and your results than your full-stop sentence.

Furthermore, their answer may prompt them to think they have come up with a good idea. People tend to be less enamored of your ideas than they are of their own.

However, be aware of the difference between asking a question of somebody and questioning them. When asking a question, you communicate you’re interested in the answer the person wants; when questioning, you communicate you’re interested in the answer you want. And if the people you are interacting with think you are there not for them but for yourself, you damage the environment a Listening Leadership Talk can thrive in.

(2) Create a critical convergence. This will help you avoid the “herding cats” syndrome. Once you get people talking, they may be all over the map, talking about everything but what you want to have talked about.

Keep things on track by establishing a critical convergence, the joining of your enthusiasms and theirs so they’re as enthusiastic as you about meeting the challenges you face. Do that by understanding their needs as problems and seeking to have them voice solutions to those problems, solutions that advance your leadership concerns.

For instance, at a police academy classroom, the instructor passed a note to one of the recruits. It read, “CLEAR THIS CLASSROOM OUT NOW!” The recruit started shouting, “Everybody out of the room!” People looked confused. A few left. The remainder stayed. The instructor gave the note to another recruit, who pleaded, “Please, everybody out.” Still, people remained there. Then the instructor gave a note to a third recruit, who developed a Listening Leadership talk by creating a critical convergence. He asked, “What time is it?” “Quarter to twelve,” someone answered. The recruit with the note simply shrugged and in the silence, let the idea emerge. “Lunch break!” the recruits called in unison and quickly cleared the room.

Creating a critical convergence establishes and environment in which the Listening Leadership flourishes.

(3) Develop a Leadership Contract. This may be written — from a few ideas scribbled on a scrap of paper to a more formal typed version calling for your signatures — or the Contract may simply be an oral agreement, sealed with a handshake. Clearly, it’s not a legal instrument — nor should it embody legalese. It’s just a spelling out of the leadership actions you both agree must be taken to accomplish your goal.

Here’s the key: The best way to get that agreement is first to have them talk about actions they propose to take. Make sure they describe precise, physical actions. And not just any actions but leadership actions. Discourage them from talking about how they’ll be doing tasks. Instead, encourage them to talk about how they’ll be taking leadership of those tasks. (There is a big difference in terms of results generated between doing and leading.) Then ask how they need to be supported in those actions. Finally, ask them how those actions should be monitored and evaluated. In getting answers to these questions, you’ll be putting together a Leadership Contract by giving a Listening Leadership Talk.

The Leadership Talk is the greatest leadership tool. But the tool has its gradations of effectiveness. Often your talking is not as effective as your audience’s talking. When your Leadership Talk comes out of their mouths, not your mouth, you may find you are raising your leadership effectiveness to much higher levels.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at http://www.actionleadership.com. More about the Leadership Talk: http://www.theleadershiptalk.com

Action Leadership
Helping leaders achieve audacious results

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How To Identify The Signs That Your Business Is Heading For Trouble

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
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Has your business started to take a turn for the worse recently? Are your cash flow worries keeping you awake at night?

The following ten questions will help you to determine if your business is the lean mean fighting machine you believed, or a bed-ridden sick note, coughing and spluttering its way on a wobbly pair of last legs.

1. Increase in staff turnover

If you’ve watched a number of your key employees walk away from the business recently you should sit up and take notice. Staff is arguably a company’s most valuable asset and if your people are leaving, it’s often the first sign that something is going wrong.
The problem is not just the associated cost of recruitment, but also training new starters and the additional burden on remaining staff while the new team members get up to speed, that add further strain on the business.

Remedy

One of the best ways to keep track of staff morale is to hold regular reviews where employees can air their views on both the business and their specific concerns without fear of recrimination.

2. You lose a key account

It’s believed that winning a new customer is seven times more expensive than keeping an existing customer happy. Small businesses are often too reliant on a couple of main customers, as demonstrated in this year’s collapse of MG Rover and Courts.
There are a number of reasons key accounts could defect: Your product or service is not of the standard promised or expected, or you could be beaten on price, quality or service.

Losing a key account can have a serious impact on your cash flow. Credit companies such as Experian offer a credit scoring service which can be invaluable when setting credit terms for key accounts. This is important: You wouldn’t lend a stranger £20,000, so why offer new customers this kind of credit facility without checking their financial strength? In order to manage this risk further, there is a wide range of bad debt protection policies available which pay out in the event of your customer going under.

Remedy

Take a long, hard look in the mirror and discover the underlying reasons for your clients’ lost faith. This way, you’ll have a much better chance of either winning the client back, or at least making sure you don’t lose others going forward.

If your customers’ satisfaction isn’t a priority for you already, it should be now! Paper trails for every transaction can be an extremely effective way to guard against disputes and to keep an eye on quality control. Obtain written purchase orders to back up your invoices and always get a signoff from the customer to say goods have been received or a service completed satisfactorily.

3. Orders are rising fast

This is not something that would be immediately cited as a sign of problems. However, when your business is growing quickly you need to be even more careful about your cash flow.
We’ve all heard the phrase “cash is king” and this is never more true than when you’re struggling to keep up with increasing demand for your products or services.

While most resources will be occupied meeting that demand, it is worth remembering the income from these orders may take three to six months to come in. That means you’ve got to be able to cover your costs for at least that period to keep the business afloat.

Remedy

Two of the most effective ways to manage your long term cash flow are to use factoring or invoice discounting services and to lease your manufacturing or office equipment.

Factoring and invoice discounting raises up to 90% of your invoice value ‘up front’, enabling you to invest back in the business. You get the remaining monies when your customer pays the debt, less a fee.

4. Waiting longer for payments

If your customers are taking longer to pay your invoices but you’re still working to fulfil a growing order book, you’re going to start having problems. And it may happen sooner than you think.
A customer who puts in repeat orders is important for your business success. However, if they take too long to pay, you have to ask if it is worth accepting their next order until some agreement has been made about payment.

Remedy

Too few small businesses employ a designated credit controller to collect invoice payments and chase up late payers. If you’re starting to notice customers taking too long to pay, it’s worth sitting down with them and discussing the reasons.

Business is built around mutually beneficial relationships and the better you, your suppliers and your customers understand each other, the more flexible the relationship will be.
Be understanding when you’re asking for payments but remember that you have rights, including being able to charge interest on overdue invoices. Make sure that all credit terms are stated on each invoice, along with the due date for payment. If you don’t, your customer can quite rightly say they didn’t know when they had to pay.

Remedy

Factoring companies can also collect your outstanding debts. They’ll effectively buy your outstanding invoices, release up to 80% of the value and take their fee from the remainder when payment is collected. If you do not need an external credit control facility but would still like the funding it can generate, an alternative product is available called invoice discounting.

5. Unrealistic assets on your balance sheet

Many businesses have valuable assets on their balance sheet, including machinery or equipment owned outright. All assets depreciate over time – how long has it been since your business assets were valued?

Out of date and inaccurate valuations make a business look healthier than it actually is and may cause problems when you’re looking for growth investment or calculating your profit and loss statement.

It’s also worthwhile considering that older assets lose their market value very quickly and can start costing more in operating and maintenance costs.

Remedy

Leasing and asset finance services can help simplify cash flow by enabling you to use the equipment you need without actually owning it outright. This financing mechanism is available for both existing and new machinery.

6. Increasing stock levels

Unused and unsold stock isn’t just cash tied up in the business, it’s also a depreciating asset with a diminishing return on the money you invested to produce it. In other words, it’s a waste of money.

Although this is more relevant to manufacturing businesses, the underlying factors behind this problem should be a concern for all businesses – if you’re producing something that isn’t selling, how long do you expect to last?

Remedy

Keeping a close eye on patterns of supply and demand and having the flexibility to adjust to these changes is the difference between a growing business and a dying business. By automating your ordering process. wastage is minimised and the business has moves closer to a just in time delivery structure.

7. Cutting prices

While a popular tactic for promoting new products or gaining short-term market share, reducing your prices without cutting your production costs can seriously damage your business prospects.

Remedy

Instead of cutting prices if sales start to fall, try to find the reason sales have slowed. It’s possible that your market sector has reached saturation point or it could be a problem with the quality or perceived value of the product.

There are a number of ways to differentiate products from the competition. There might be an alternative to cutting prices that will strengthen your business and its prospects, rather than eating into your profit margins.

It’ often worth spending a bit of money to market your product more effectively, or by hiring a designated sales person to reverse the downturn in sales.

8. Rising debts and slowing growth

Getting into more debt is not the best way to finance business growth. The quicker you can get your business trading on profits rather than debts, the better.

That said, some forms of borrowing are more sustainable than others and can reduce the time it takes your business to begin trading on your profits.

The debt to asset ratio of the business becomes serious when your assets (including book debt) are outweighed by liabilities (including creditor’s ledger and longer term liabilities such as director’s loans).

Remedy

VAT and PAYE payments are often tricky to keep on top of if you are experiencing a change in your sales volumes. While many companies pay their VAT quarterly, if it might be easier to pay monthly. Many VAT offices will be happy to change to this structure.

The Crown has lost its preferential creditor status and so is under increasing pressure to secure payments from companies which look a little shaky. If you do anticipate problems paying the Crown, you should immediately meet your tax officer to discuss a payment plan.

Agree in writing to clear your arrears and guarantee future payments. As long as you stick to the terms, this should stave off further action from the Crown on outstanding monies.

Most businesses have a number of assets that can be used to secure much-needed capital – including your outstanding invoices, machinery, equipment or company vehicles. Two of the most effective ways to manage your long-term cash flow are to use factoring or invoice discounting services and to lease your manufacturing or office equipment.

Factoring is essentially selling your outstanding invoices to a company that will release a percentage of those funds immediately for you to invest back in the business, for a fee.
Also, don’t be afraid to have another look at your business plan. The most successful businesses have management teams that can spot opportunities and have the flexibility to adapt to these opportunities.

Don’t rely on your yearly accounts for the day to day financial management of your firm. Even simplistic management accounts, if kept up to date, can be invaluable.

9. You don’t admit the truth

Are you still trying to convince yourself that everything will be alright? Do you find yourself hiding from bills and avoiding contact with your accountant, investors and staff?

Covering up the truth about your financial situation will not only stop you getting out of the mess you’re in, it may get you into deeper trouble. Investors aren’t going to penalise you for getting into problems – every business faces financial difficulties– but if they don’t know what’s going on, they can’t help.

Remedy

Investors will be far more likely to help if you are open and honest with them, so that potential problems can be caught earlier rather than later.

Your investors will have put a significant amount of money into the business and would undoubtedly prefer to invest more money than to lose it all because they were never told of the difficulties.

10. It’s not fun anymore!

Think back to the reason you first got into your business. It’s generally because of the excitement and the challenge, rather than the opportunity to make a quick buck.

If you wake up in the morning and can’t stand the thought of going to work or is it that the company has evolved beyond your interest or control, then perhaps it’s time to consider getting out.

Many entrepreneurs enjoy the challenge of getting a company off the ground but once the business has become reasonably self-sufficient, they lose interest and need to move on to the next challenge.

Remedy

Perhaps it’s time to start thinking about how you can start delegating more authority to employees that you trust as part of your exit strategy.

By giving some of your key employees the authority to make decisions, you can free up more of your time to concentrate on the parts of the business that still excite you, and potentially even get the passion back that made you start the business in the first place.

The main thing to remember in all of these cases is that they do not necessarily mean that your business is on its last legs. If you catch any of these signs early enough, they can all be turned around so the business ends up stronger in the long run.

Copyright © 2006 Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserved

Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The JFA Group. To find out more about the author, read his latest articles or to subscribe to his newsletter, visit: http://www.jonathanfarrington.com You can now also read his weekly blog for dedicated sales professionals: http://www.thejfblogit.co.uk

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The Value of Values

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
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One of the toughest jobs a leader has to perform is to act as guardian of an organization’s values.

An organization’s values are the things that are really important to it.

In the early days of an enterprise, the values are sometimes the only thing that keeps the business going. When other factors make the chances of survival doubtful, such as funds, markets, and technology, it is the set of beliefs held by the original founders which pull the business through. The beliefs of the organization are almost always the beliefs of the original leaders.

These beliefs are intangible. Think of Unilever’s belief in co-operation, or Mars’s belief in efficiency, or IBM’s belief in innovation, or Hewlett-Packard’s belief in “plain hard work”, or Levi-Strauss’s belief in empathy with its customers. It is the high value placed on these beliefs that ensure these organizations survive in the first place and continue to survive.

As the years go by, and the organization changes its technology, its products and its leaders, there is a danger that it may abandon its original set of beliefs or relegate them in importance or forget them. To do so is to risk corporate suicide. If original values have to change – often a difficult step – then new values must replace them and be as meaningful, relevant and important as the original ones.

As custodians of the organization’s values, leaders have to know the values, live the values, and preserve the values. John Maxwell tells the story of how John Wooden, head basketball coach at the University of California, put values before expediency. Wooden had spotted an outstanding young basketball player whose skills would be an asset to his line-up. Everyone urged him to sign the youth. But Wooden was unsure. Something in the young man’s demeanour bothered him. So he arranged a home visit, with the contract all prepared in his inside pocket. When he took tea with the family, he couldn’t help noticing a disrespectfulness in the youth’s attitude towards his mother. One of the key values in Wooden’s team was respect. And it was a value he intended to maintain. As a result, the contract stayed in his pocket.

Values are not just important for the organization. They are the touchstone that determines whether people succeed in the organization. When the chips are down, it’s not what you do that counts, but whether you stay true to the values. As Christel Brown says, “People do things because of their values. People rob banks because their values include greed, more money and maybe recognition. People die on the battlefield because their values include love of their country and patriotism.” Values are the ultimate people motivators. In organizations where values matter, people may be dismissed for violating the rules; they should always be dismissed for violating the values.

John Maxwell says that values are at the heart of everything an organization does, hence the use of the phrase “core values”.
“Values are like glue. They hold an organization together.
Values are like a ruler. They set the standard for a team’s performance.
Values are like a compass. They give direction and guidance.
Values are like a magnet. They attract like-minded people.
Values provide identity. They define and identify the team.”

One last example. Few people today have heard of Phil Knight, Bill Bowerman and Steve Prefontaine. But these three were the driving force and inspiration that created Nike, the footwear and clothing colossus. And what drove them? A passionate belief that things could be done. The stories of Bowerman’s endless experiments with the family waffle iron into which he poured rubber to create the best running shoe sole are legendary. So are Prefontaine’s battles to make running a professional sport. Today, Nike actually employs executives as “corporate storytellers” to remind their staff of the values of the original founders and that their business is about getting things done.

In business, as in life, beliefs can move mountains. Without belief, without a positive set of beliefs, and without action to act on these beliefs, we achieve nothing. Our beliefs and values drive us and our businesses. As Alvin Toffler says, “Every business has a belief system and it is at least as important as its accounting system or its authority system.”

© Eric Garner, ManageTrainLearn.com

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Merkel Becomes Germany’s First Woman Chancellor

Monday, October 18th, 2010
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Germany was on the brink of a new and volatile political era last night, after a deal was agreed that will see the conservative leader Angela Merkel become the country’s first ever woman chancellor.

Three weeks of wrangling over last month’s indecisive election ended yesterday when the chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, announced he was resigning. Mrs Merkel will now become chancellor and lead a “grand coalition” between her Christian Democrat party and its Bavarian ally the Christian Social Union, and Mr Schröder’s Social Democrats.

But there were doubts yesterday over how long such a coalition would last. Mr Schröder’s resignation came with a big price tag. The Social Democrats emerged from days of secret negotiations with eight seats in Germany’s new cabinet and virtually all the big portfolios – including foreign, finance, health, environment, and transport.

Mrs Merkel’s conservatives, by contrast, have only six cabinet posts. They include the industry ministry, as well as defence, home affairs and education. Mrs Merkel, relaxed and grinning, denied that the Social Democrats had got all the best jobs, hailing the distribution of posts as “fair” and describing the coalition as a “new beginning for Germany”.

Germany now had “no alternative” but to continue with its “reform course”, she said, adding: “We want to get things moving in this country. That’s why I talk about a coalition of new possibilities.” Asked how she felt about being chancellor – following a battle of wills with Mr Schröder, who had tried to hang on to his job – she replied simply: “I feel very good.”

Mr Schröder kept out of the public eye all day. According to reports in the Passauer Neue Presse, he said that he would not join the new government.”My path in life looks different,” he is reported to have told Mrs Merkel, the CSU leader Edmund Stoiber and Franz Müntefering, the SPD’s party chairman.

But there were signs last night that Mrs Merkel’s problems were only just beginning, with rank-and-file Social Democrats expressing fury that their party’s leadership had sacrificed Mr Schröder and done a deal with his neo-Thatcherite nemesis.

“We said before the election we wouldn’t go into a grand coalition with Angela Merkel and that’s precisely what we are doing,” Bernd Becker, an SPD activist and political analyst, told the Guardian.

He added: “Schröder didn’t win the election. But neither did Merkel. The price for a deal should have been Merkel’s head.” Dr Becker said he – and many other SPD party members – would oppose a grand coalition when the party meets at a conference next month.

More worrying for Mrs Merkel is the possibility that she might fail to win a majority when MPs vote to elect a new chancellor in a secret ballot. She can get the job only with the support of SPD MPs.

Yesterday Mr Müntefering, said that he expected the parliamentary party to vote for Mrs Merkel as chancellor – assuming that formal coalition negotiations which begin on Monday go well. Mr Müntefering said the election had showed that German voters wanted “renewal” – but also “social justice”.

Born in Hamburg, Mrs Merkel, 51, is the first chancellor of Germany to have grown up in the communist east, after her pastor father moved in the 1950s to rural Brandenburg. She only began her political career after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and rose rapidly in the 1990s under the patronage of Helmut Kohl. During the election campaign she proved a dour, uninspiring speaker, leading her party to a worse than predicted result.

Yesterday Mrs Merkel’s biographer, Wolfgang Stock, said that it would be a mistake to underestimate her. She had a habit of getting the better of her numerous male enemies, he told the Guardian. “Soon she’ll be in command of the machinery. And in a few months Schröder will be gone,” he said. “It might seem like a mistake to give the SPD so many ministries. But who wants to be finance minister at the moment? All you do is give bad news. What Merkel has done is not un-clever.”

Who gets what

Christian Democrats (and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU)

Chancellor

Leader of parliament

Industry

Defence

Home

Education

Consumer protection

Family

Social Democrats

Foreign

Finance

Justice

Work

Health

Environment

Transport

Development

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