Answer: Leadership and management are both concerned with achieving results. Leadership is vision, action, spirit— seeing what needs to be done, knowing how to do it, and influencing others to do it.

Management is concerned with doing it -getting results through people and systems. Systems run the business, people run the systems, and managers “run” the people.

Being a manager doesn’t automatically make you a leader. The best managers are good leaders, however, many managers- possibly most managers- lack leadership skills.

There are five core skills of effective leadership. They are:

Vision:
The ability to formulate ideas: to understand opportunities or the need for change; to picture your business in the future; and then being able to clearly articulate it. At the highest level, it’s the creation of the “entrepreneur’s dream.”

Discrimination:
The ability to see what’s important, to understand the available choices, and to make sound practical decisions. Discrimination is free-form decision making rather than rule-based. It’s knowing what questions to ask and being able to answer them in the absence of rules or previous experience.

Strategic Thinking:
The ability to see the “big picture” and devise an effective path – the “right actions” – that will lead to realizing the vision. This is where “the rules of the game” are invented. It is the creation of your business philosophy and key policies.

Commitment:
The determination and energy to follow through and make the vision a reality even in the face of obstacle, opposition, uncertainty, and risk.

Inspirational Communication:
The ability to communicate the vision and the strategy, and also to infuse the organization with enthusiasm, dedication, and some of the leader’s won “spirit.”

Leadership on a local level is paramount to a thriving community. The vested interest that comes with local leadership encourages economic growth and has the welfare of its citizens, clients or employees first and foremost. In the absence of "leaders" and the vision they provide, you're just left with managers "running things" to the tune of someone else's rules.

Does your business have managers or leaders running your business? You need both of course. In many businesses it is sad to discover that the business has a vacancy in both areas. The owners are neither leaders nor managers. They were never trained how to lead or manage, and consequently they have never trained their managers how to do either as well.

Management and leadership are skills that can be trained. Does your business have a system for training your managers how to manage?

Do you have a system for training your managers how to be your next leaders? The most successful company’s do. Don’t you think it’s time you consider a system for doing the same as well?

Give me a call if you feel you need some help with this.

Douglas Wick
Positioning Systems
Management and Leadership
888-921-5354


2. The Problem with being the Chief Problem Solver
As a manager, leader or owner of your company do you find yourself asking these questions?

How do I get my people to become more self-motivated and self-driven? How do I get them to be more accountable?
This weekend I listened to a podcast from The Sales Buzz that author Keith Rosen [Coaching Salespeople Into Sales Champions] was the guest speaker.

His remarks on this subject reminded me of Michael Gerber’s emphasis on this same subject. As Rosen pointed out that managers are continually creating the problem they want to avoid most.

They are continually putting out the fires and solving all of the challenges for their staff which further contributes to two of the problems every manager is looking to solve. You guessed what those questions are right? The two I listed above.

So what do you need to do? Stop giving the answers to your staff. It simply creates more dependency on you the leader or manger.

Michael Gerber is adamant about this. You are not to be the chief problem solver; you’re role as leader is to be the person who asks all the questions.

Many times leaders and managers believe their value is in being the subject matter expert. This is not the case.

The most valuable leader and manager’s are those that honor the primary directive: make your people more valuable. To do this manager’s must learn to ask more questions. Get their employees to develop their own problem solving skills and come up with solutions on their own.

If they create their solution, they’re going to own it. And if they own it they’re more apt to act on it rather than being told what to do.

If you do otherwise you’re sending a message every time they have a problem, you solve it. When the solution is wrong whose fault is it? It goes right back to the manager, which robs your people of the very accountability you’re looking to instill in them.

What are some good questions to ask the next time your people come to you with a problem to solve? That’s next blog.

Douglas Wick Positioning Systems

3. The Number One Quality of Leadership:

The Number One Quality of Leadership:

Formula for Human Potential – Brian Tracy

IA = In Born Attributes: Quality, personality, intelligence, temperament that we are born with. AA= Acquired Attributes: Our learning, our experience, our education, our wisdom, our synthesis of knowledge A = Attitude

Formula: IA [In Born Attributes] + AA [Acquired Attributes] X A [Attitude] = Human Potential

In born attributes are fixed. Acquired Attributes take time to change. Of the three, attitude is the only one that can be multiplied without limit. To the degree to which we have positive or negative attitude it either releases or inhibits the release of our complete human potential.

Survey of Harvard University graduates discovered 85% of all subsequent achievement in life after students left was because of attitude. Only 15% would be because of grades, fraternities, background, and family.

85% of our success in life is determined by our attitude.

Interview of 1200 top executives – 94% said their attitude was the sole or key ingredient in their success.

Our attitude is mirrored back to us by the world. The world and people we deal with just tend to reflect our own attitude back to us.

Key: If we expect our outcomes to be positive our attitude will be good. If we expect our outcomes to be negative our attitude will be poor.

Whether based on true or false information what we expect determines our attitude.

One of the most outwardly identifiable characteristics of a winning human being is an attitude of positive self-expectancy. The belief or feeling that something GOOD is about to happen.

Where do our expectations come from? Belief about ourselves and reality. These form our self concept.

Our self concept is the single most important predictor of our performance and effectiveness in every area of our life. We always act in a manner consistent with our self-concept. We are in a one to one relationship between our level of human potential and our self concept.

Therefore the most powerful affirmation you can use is: “I LIKE MYSELF!” It’s like putting a flame to the ball of a mercury thermometer – every time you say “I LIKE MYSELF!” your self-esteem raises commensurately.

"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." - Lou Holtz

Do you like yourself? When was the last time you acknowledged that? Do you make it a practice to say affirmations, and do you allow yourself to admit that you like yourself? It may seem like the ultimate arrogance to look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I LIKE MYSELF.”

Yet think of doing the reverse and what it would do to you. I’m not suggesting you become arrogant or conceited. In fact those people are the most insecure. The person who has high self-esteem, confidence and enthusiasm and genuinely likes himself rarely if ever gives off the appearance of arrogance. This person is so well centered that they easily focus on others.

They make who they’re with the center of attention, asking questions, showering them with their interest by listening attentively, and in doing so earning their trust and respect. Isn’t that the type of person you would trust to be your leader?

Douglas Wick
Positioning Systems
http://Positioningsystems.com


4. What Should I Do Now?

Question: Now that I know what I want,
what do I do next, or what's stopping me
from getting what I want?

Answer: Action and Clutter!

PS. To get a free copy of the Key Frustration Process, send an email to:
mary@positioningsystems.com with
in the subject and we'll email you a word document attachment.


5. Are you constantly getting Interrupted? Become effective....use Business Coaching | with | Doug Wick
How frequently are you interrupted during the day? Does it seem impossible to get things done in your office because you or the people how work for you seem to be always being interrupted? In many offices the nature of the work demands interruptions. If you’re in customer service area, customer calls can be "good" interruptions. In fact even with your people another kind of "good" interruption could be a teaching experience. Yet frequently most interruptions are not what might be classified as being "good" and even those that can be teaching experiences often fail to yield their fruit since many owners and managers fail to put this opportunity to use. Would you li, ke to change all that? Would you like to prevent interruptions, and get the good that can come from those that offer that opportunity? The first thing to do is begin looking at the communication that goes on in your office. In our business development work we teach our clients to recognize interruptions first in the Leadership Module with Time Management, and then latter in the Management Module in Working Relationships That Work. Look at your own interruptions first. Start by quantifying them. [A time log summary of a typical work week would allow you to do so.] How often are you doing something that requires a degree of concentration that you are interrupted? Why is this happening? Is it because you haven’t told everyone interrupting you is off limits at that time? Is it because your people don’t know what to do and you don’t have systems in place to cover the question that’s come up? Is it because your people have become overly dependent upon you to answer every problem, and you have encouraged it because it unconsciously feeds your need for self-importance and being the hero and rescuer or savior in your business? If you have children, then you may be aware of how frequently we as parents enable our children to run over us. Shows like the Nanny and Wife Swap have made correcting some of the mistakes we make as parents obvious. As a parents or managers we ourselves are often our greatest. Too frequently the solution we choose to solve a challenge is not to allow our employees and children to take responsibility for remedying their challenge. We find it easier to pick up their clothes, or with employees do the work they are being paid to do rather than taking the time to enforce their responsibility. We don’t want to hear them whine or explain to them for the 100th time how we want things done right. Here again is why we always press upon owners that to change your business you must first begin to change yourself first. Recognize you are the root of the problem and changing your behavior to not accept less than responsible pattern's of performance is the key to making a difference. If you need time to concentrate, set boundaries on when and where to do this. One client set up a flag system [like those on a postal mailbox] in his office. When the flag was up it meant only to interrupt in an emergency. When it was down it was okay. Finally if you have systems set up and documented, when your people interrupt your first question should be: Are you following the system? If they are but haven’t reviewed how to handle this and you’re sure your system has it spelled out have them refer back to the system. This requires discipline, and often it’s much easier to simply explain what needs to be done. But don’t give in to this tempatation. Why? Because you are setting yourself up to have it repeated continuously. What happens if you do answer and accommodate them? Right you reinforce their need to see you every time. You don’t teach them the valuable lesson that they can learn on their own. In Dale Carnegie classes we were taught a technique that Napoleon used to get his staff to learn and think better. No reporting position ever came to a supervisor with a question on what to do, rather they came with a clear set of thought through steps that presented their commanding officer with options and included what the reporting position felt was the best option in their opinion. This taught everyone responsibility and helped them to learn from the issues the military was facing. Ultimately the supervisor had the authority to make the decision, but by having the reporting positions think through the situation before confronting their supervisor Napoleon was training his staff from the ground up how to act like generals and think consistently in the heat of battle. This same list of questions is available to you, and can help you make every possible interruption in the future a learning experience that increases your staff’s responsiveness and eliminates the stress of upward delegation that can cripple an organization. Interruptions can be good. If they come from your customers often they are veiled as opportunity. If they come from your staff it is your responsibility to make sure they aren’t robbing you of time and them of the opportunity to be better employees, leaders and managers. If you need assistance let | Douglas Wick| of, |Positioning Systems|, who is a cerfied |Business Coach|,help you increase your revenue flow, reduce your expenses, and gain a competitive advantage with his 12 years of experience in coaching and consulting; small businesses.