As in any skill or trait, the ability to lead comes more easily for some than others. While there are those who are natural-born leaders, many develop the skills necessary to become a person of influence.
In this article titled “Leadership Lessons from the Dalai Lama”, author Drew Gannon highlighted some of the exiled monk’s teachings. The one thing that stood out is perspective or, as I like to call it, attitude.
Great leaders understand the importance of a positive attitude in building strong and effective organizations. One's outlook dictates a person’s response to the present and determines the quality of your future, it is a great influencer in a company's culture.
Clearly there are personal benefits for the individuals as well as the team as a whole, I’ve outlined three below.
Helps to Achieve Business Goals. Persuading customers is much easier for a person with a positive attitude. Research studies have shown sales professionals who think positively have improved sales performance. If a person is optimistic about achieving goals and success, they are more prone to take action in order to achieve it. Positive thinking is conspicuous in an achiever.
Improves Team Morale. A leader’s attitude is infectious – whether in a positive or negative way. Conscious or not, your team looks to you to create a positive attitude in the workplace. When you’re in a meeting or facing a challenge, steer the conversation on teamwork and focus on solutions. More likely than not, your attitude will begin to affect change. Soon people will be drawn to you, not only because of your strong leadership, but because they can’t help but like being in the company of somebody positive.
Develops a sense of gratitude. While several factors go into optimism, cultivating a sense of gratitude can help maintain a more positive mood in daily life. Thankfulness is one of the simpler routes to a greater sense of emotional well-being, higher overall life satisfaction, and a greater sense of happiness in life. People with a greater level of gratitude tend to have stronger relationships, less stress, resulting in increased health benefits.
This tweet from Dalai Lama sums up the best advice for leaders:
Appreciate how rare and full of potential your situation is in this world, then take joy in it, and use it to your best advantage.
Richard Branson
knows a thing or two about leadership and success. He has pieced together an empire that has earned him a fortune and a knighthood. “He has become an icon in the eyes of many aspiring business owners,” said Jason Fell, contributor to Entrepreneur.
At the ripe age of just 22, he opened a chain of record stores later known as Virgin Megastores. The brand grew rapidly during the 1980s as he set up Virgin Atlantic Airways and expanded the Virgin Records music label.
Today the Virgin brand boasts dozens of companies and his net worth is estimated to be more than four billion.
Fell provides some lessons in leadership from Branson we can take and apply to the auto industry.
Have Courage and Follow Your Instincts
You have to do something radically different to make a mark today. The successes of the future will not rely on old ways of doing things. Think outside of the box, embrace change, innovate, and take risks.
Branson’s board members were skeptical when he set up Virgin Atlantic Airways, but he saw an opportunity and stuck to it. Now Virgin Atlantic carries more than five million passengers every year.
Be Open to Change
Technology evolves at a rapid pace and change happens whether you want it or you don’t. Life is always fresh and new so bring that to your business, as well. Fells says with Virgin Records, Branson mastered how to navigate change. He transformed the business model a number of times before he sold the company to EMI in 1992.
Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help
Business leaders will need advice on how to improve their business throughout their career. Know when it’s best to turn to people you know and trust for advice and/or assistance. Branson says, “Thinking back to 1969, my mother’s common sense advice would have been just the thing I needed to hear.”
That was the year Branson was caught smuggling records through customs, for his mail-order record business, without paying taxes by British officials.
Connect with Customers
When you connect with your customers, let them know you listen and you care about their needs. This give you feedback and ways to improve your products and services. Branson says, “Through customers’ comments, we started learning about issues with our products and services more quickly than ever before.”
Encourage Teamwork and Fun
Play hard, work hard is an ethic that permeates the Virgin culture. Happy teams work well together and accomplish goals. The Virgin Group celebrated the summer Olympics by taking part in fun races. “Events like these can help to break down departmental barriers and foster better teamwork as employees get to know each other in an informal setting,” Branson said.
Whether you love him or hate him, Branson has shown us you can go wherever your imagination takes you. He made Virgin a global brand with a distinct personality which spans retail, music, airlines, telecommunication, media, drinks, energy, and even space tourism.
What else have you learned from Richard Branson that has helped you build your business?
Image courtesy of Tequila Partners via Flickr
If you want to build a truly great company, you need to be aware of the legacy you will leave behind.
Before Steve Jobs, there hasn't been a CEO whose presence has meant more to the value of a company than Job’s second reign at Apple.
This article on his plans to build a spaceship in a peach orchard in Cupertino, California, got me thinking.
While everyone was worried about his health and Apple stock, Steve Jobs quietly built his greatest product of all time: A team at Apple that can thrive in the absence of their great leader.
Actively plan for bold and ambitious things that will live beyond your reign.
The iSpaceship is an architectural marvel and has the space to hold more than 13,000 employees. It will be a testament to the Apple design aesthetic, and will create a work space where a love of beautiful things (the Apple trademark) will flourish.
Pass on your DNA.
Behind the scenes, Jobs was training the future leaders of Apple to think and create like him. Of course, like everything else at Apple, the exact details of this experiment remain a secret. They have Apple University (modeled after a program he created at Pixar), which covers everything from products, vision, and strategy.
Create your most ambitious product before you leave.
Jobs said the iCloud will relegate PC and Mac devices to “just a device.” Their goal is to move the digital hub of your life into the cloud.
Just as we’ve seen before, competitors will have a tough time keeping up as Apple doesn’t stop at creating and improving their core products, but focus on transforming the entire ecosystem that their products touch.
If you’ve read Good to Great, you’ll remember the distinctions made between Level 4 and Level 5 leaders.
The best way to build an enduring organization, Jim Collins said, was to have a leader who had enormous professional will but that was humble at the same time.
Nobody would accuse Steve Jobs of being humble, yet he was building an organization that will serve as the model of enduring innovation.
Here’s the question we should be asking: Is there another level of leadership above Level 5? Is it possible that charisma and a distinct personal vision for your company will lead you to greater success than a Level 5 leader would?
Think about what you want your legacy to be. Get started building that vision well before the clock starts to tick close to midnight.
Find the secrets to your success and share them with your entire team so they can start to think and act like you.
Are you the next Steve Jobs? Probably not. But that doesn't mean you can't learn a thing or two from him.
Companies typically use financial measures such as sales and earnings to track and communicate performance. But what happens when those aren't the most important business metrics?
Investors and leaders can miss out on problems and opportunities if they're too focused on the wrong business metrics.
According to Michael J. Mauboussin, a contributor to Harvard Business Review, the right business metrics help you understand, track, and manage the cause-and-effect relationships that determine the value of your company.
The difficulty lies in figuring out how to make a coherent narrative out of the wealth of data accumulated by today's businesses, says Dimitri Maex, co-author of “Sexy Little Numbers.” Maex wrote about measuring what matters and making sense of your data, and says measurement planning is the way to make sense of the surplus of information available to today's businesses.
Leaders make decisions daily and know the value when they listen to others. They weigh their own opinions with advice from others.
Whether it’s a big or small decision, someone will be ready with well-meaning advice. Whether or not you take it depends on a few factors.
“To use advice when growing your business you must learn to separate the wheat from the chaff, the good advice from the bad,” says Matthew Swyers, contributor to Inc.
He shares some pointers on how to separate quality advice from that you should avoid.
Great advice can come from anywhere, from the cafeteria to a bar. “But great advice rarely comes at a bar at 2 a.m. after a night of tequila shooters,” says Swyers.
It’s important to understand the bigger picture. It determines the weight you should put on the advice given.
Swyer suggests people be especially mindful of unsolicited advice.
Why?
Because their advice is typically off-base and driven by a need to hear themselves talk. Take it with a grain of salt because you don’t know their motivation.
Ask yourself a few questions to determine the motivation behind the advice: What is their end game? Are they trying to help determine if your concept can work? Or do they have an ulterior motive?
“Often the most valuable advice you can receive is from a potential investor or venture capitalist as they want you to make money, and they want to as well,” says Swyer.
You've probably met a handful of these know-it-alls throughout life. No matter what the subject matter is, they have the knowledge, but ask yourself this: Is it reliable?
Swyer suggests you do the following:
Listen politely then simply inquire as follows: That's great stuff. Thank you. Did you read that somewhere or how did you come by this?
If they give you a legitimate answer, perfect. If they give you a blank expression, you know not to take their advice.
We typically solicit advice and feedback from people we trust, whether they are colleagues, friends, or family. Just because someone is successful, doesn't mean they are experienced in your industry.
“That is not to say that their advice may not be valuable, but again it must be understood that these are people who have not done what you are doing,” says Swyer.
Sage advice can go a long way, but leaders can’t listen to everyone. Some people love to give advice, but keep in mind all of it isn't necessarily good. Learn to determine what advice is good and what is not.
What else do you consider when someone offers advice?
photo credit: Under 30 CEO
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