Leadership SelfDevelopment and the Committment to Growth

Leadership, Self-Development, and the Committment to Growth
By Jeffrey Miller

There is a common phrase that says: You can't teach an old dog new tricks. I know that most of us have heard it. The problem is that we all too often take it, and other so-called conventional wisdom as truth.

Read that phrase again: You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

What is conjured up in your mind - what do you think of - when you contemplate those words?

If you're like most, you believe, for whatever reason, that after a certain age, you can't learn anything new. That, after a certain point, an 'old dog' cannot do anything about who they are or what they are able to do to change the course of their life and it's direction, level of happiness or ability to produce the results that they would like to see.

The old dog in the phrase doesn't have to be 'old' in the sense of years though. I've met many people several years my junior, who believe that because they've done so many things a certain way, that, for them at least, any other way is out of the question.

And therein lies the theme for this article. For, it is the belief in so-called 'truths' like this one that most often prevents otherwise powerful people - individuals filled with the potential for greatness - to break through to the happiness and success they seek.

Although, there are many that contribute to your overall progress, we'll be focusing on the success trait of 'commitment.' The dictionary describes commitment as a 'duty,' 'promise,' 'responsibility,' or 'pledge.' And, each of these key words can be used to focus our intention on breaking free of these self and outwardly imposed limiting beliefs to unleash our own power to be what we choose. Understanding with clarity and focus will allow us to set up our lives in a way that danger cannot touch us, and if it did it would be dealt with . . . quickly and decisively.

Let's look at each of these 'keys' to commitment, as they relate to the concept of Warriorship and our desire to engage the world in a positive, productive, way in order to better understand why we must grab the opportunity (or as a great poet reminded us to seize the day!) for growth whenever possible.

Duty

Related to the concept of leadership, each one of is a role model in the life of at least one other person. Regardless of whether you are a parent or not, someone is looking at how you move, act, speak and the like. And, they are deciding for themselves about these actions. If they like what they see, even if you would call something a bad habit, they may embrace that 'habit' as a truth to be lived up to. They want to be just like you. If we are truly concerned about the fate of others and our influence over their lives in a positive way, it is our duty to be the best 'example' that we can be. We don't have to literally be a teacher, or have a job whose official title says leader, but, we are an example that others are following. The question we must ask ourselves is, how do I take control of the way I inspire or motivate others?

Promise

This key can be seen to be a reflection of the water realm of clarity and truth and the wind realm of accomplishment through action. When we make a promise, we communicate something, in the form of a truth that others can rely on. Much like the commitment that two people make to each other when they get married, a promise is the creation of something that creates safety and security for another. And, it is the outward, 'other' focus that make a promise an important aspect of commitment and our ability to get necessary help from others when we need it. The question here is, what benefit will others (and myself) receive if I succeed in my endeavor?

Responsibility

This key has to do with our liability or accepted obligation for seeing that something is done. This is the opposite of the it's not my job attitude often heard and lived by the lazy personality. In order for us to commit to something, we have to see and accept our own responsibility for making it so. In fact, to take this even further, we must see accept complete liability for the failure of something not happening. The statement that, if it's to be it's up to me leads me on. The question, what it does it say about me, when I take responsibility for my life and actions?Pledge - Related to the fire realm of connection and expression, a pledge is a vow and a means of engaging with a goal or cause. Much deeper in meaning and understanding than a promise - just as the 'pledge of allegiance' is a more powerful title than the 'promise of allegiance' - this key comes from the heart. We feel so strongly about the necessity for the goal to be attained that there is no doubt, no hesitation, no fear of failure. We are so totally committed that the pledge sounds more like a statement of 'of course it will happen' than a wish to somehow appear in the world as if by magic. Feeling sparks the question, what makes this goal so important that it must be accomplished?

Though the four keys can be found to be synonyms of each other and, for many, indistinguishable from each other, the subtle differences in context can mean all the difference in being committed to something and merely saying that we are committed.

So, how about you? How committed are you to those things you say are important. How much do you your really want to change your life - to create results that can benefit both yourself and others - to create the life you've always dreamed of living? How important is your Ninja Martial Arts training and your successfully learning the skills of Mastery?

Saying or thinking that you're the 'old dog' in the phrase we talked about earlier just says that you recognize how limited you've become in your own habitual patterns. But, it's never too late to start creating new habits and success patterns. In fact, the world depends on you're taking action - and now! Because, if there's one thing the world does need is one more truly successful person - one more bright light - one more honest, respectful, engaged person who does exactly what they say they will do because they recognize their purpose and is willing enough, no brave enough, to break from the those who will settle for mediocrity.

Here's the formula: If you change, you will grow. But to grow, you must be committed to act - to do exactly what must be done to make the world, if only your little corner of it, a better place in which to live.

Jeffrey M. Miller is the founder and master instructor of Warrior Concepts International. A senior teacher in the Japanese warrior art of Ninjutsu, he specializes in teaching the ancient ways of self-protection and personal development lessons in a way that is easily understood and put to use by modern Western students and corporate clients. Through their martial arts training, his students and clients learn proven, time-tested lessons designed to help them create the life they've always dreamed of living, and the skills necessary for protecting that life from anything that might threaten it. To learn more about life skills and other subjects related to the martial arts, self-defense, personal development & self-improvement, visit his website at http://www.warrior-concepts-online.com To subscribe to his online newsletter, go to http://www.warrior-concepts-online.com/newsletter-subscribe-self-defense.html

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The Four Laws Of Leadership (Part Two)

The Four Laws Of Leadership (Part Two)
By Brent Filson

In Part One, I described the laws of motivation. In Part Two, I'll examine the laws in more detail.

Law 1. Motivation is physical action. Motivation isn't about what people think or feel but about what they physically do. In leadership, you should understand the difference between inspiration and motivation.

The word inspiration comes from the ancient Greeks and the oracle of Delphi. The oracle would sit in front of a fissure in the earth and breath in (inspire) earth vapors and in a half-drugged state, make her pronouncements. For instance, when she told the Greeks only a wall of wood would save them from being annihilated by the Persians, it was the Greeks themselves who had to take action and build up a great navy that ultimately defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis.

Motivation, on the other hand, comes from a complex of words beginning with mo. Motion, motor, momentum, etc. all denote physical action.

Getting people to not simply be inspired but motivated to take physical action may seem like a simple, even simplistic, approach to leadership. However, once you begin to see your leadership interactions in terms of physical action, you'll see your leadership, and the way you get results, in fresh ways.

For instance, in my seminars, participants develop Action Plans designed to achieve measurable and continual results back on the job. I have them challenge the cause leaders they enlist to take physical action by asking them, What three or four leadership actions, PHYSICAL ACTIONS, will you take to achieve the results we need? The difference between people simply saying they will execute their part of the Plan and their committing to specific physical actions leads to a significant difference in results.

Remember, people who simply take some action are useless to the organization. The useful ones are those who take action for results. For the end of all action in an organization is results. Therefore, the best action is freely chosen action directed toward specific results.

Law 2. Motivation is their choice. When you face a particularly tough challenge, avoid meeting that challenge by ordering people; instead, have people make the choices to meet the challenges.

An effective way to have them make the right choices is to ask them questions.

Here is a tip that you can start using immediately to become a more effective leader. Put question marks, not periods, at the end of your sentences. That's one of the best ways of developing an environment in which people are making the choices for results.

Some of the most powerful questions a leader can ask are: What is our challenge here? Why is it worth tackling? How do we feel about it? Do we have the facts we need? Are we asking the right questions? What results are we really seeking? What's the worse thing that can happen? Why are we having this problem? Can you explain that further? What if we do nothing? Have we explored creative approaches? What do you propose? And what can I do to help?

Law 3. Emotion drives motivation. The words emotion and motivation come from the same Latin root meaning to move. When you want to move people to take action, you must engage their emotions. I'm not talking about getting people emotional. I'm talking about having people make strong emotional commitments to what you're challenging them to achieve.

The best way to make that emotional connection is with Leadership Talks.

My experience working with thousands of leaders world wide for the past two decades teaches me that most leaders are screwing up their careers. On a daily basis, these leaders are getting the wrong results or the right results in the wrong ways.

Interestingly, they themselves are choosing to fail. They're actively sabotaging their own careers.

Leaders commit this sabotage for a simple reason: They make the fatal mistake of choosing to communicate with presentations and speeches -- not leadership talks.

In terms of boosting one's career, the difference between the two methods of leadership communication is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.

Speeches/presentations primarily communicate information. Leadership talks, on the other hand, not only communicate information, they do more: They establish a deep, human emotional connection with the audience. For more on the Leadership Talk, click on my website in the resource box.

Law 4. Face-to-face speech is generally the best way to motivate people (i.e., have those people choose to be motivated.) A middle-manager told me, Where is our new CEO? We call himElvis'. We seldom see him in person. There're only purported sightings of him. Maybe I'll see a blurry photo of him in one of those supermarket check-out tabloids.

In another company, a secretary said, Our division chief stays in his office most of the time. But on the rare occasions that he's out and about, the only evidence of his existence is the odor of his pipe smoke.

Isolation may be good for monks but it's an affliction with leaders. When you want to motivate people, relationship is the name of the game; and you can't have a relationship, at least a productive one, as an absentee leader.

Get out and about. This is more than MBWA, (Management By Walking Around). The key is what you do when walking around. Don't be about simply sharing information but also creating the environment for motivation. People hunger to be motivated. Even more: people are ALWAYS motivated. And if they won't be motivated for your cause, they will be motivated for their cause a cause that may be at cross purposes with yours.

Make no mistake: Motivation isn't about bands playing, people cheering, hugging, and singing kombaya. Those are only the surface features of motivation. True motivation happens in the profound quiet of human relationships.

So, in your interactions, strengthen those relationships by keeping the laws of motivation in mind. When interacting with people, challenge them to take physical action, understand that motivation is their free choice, their HEARTFELT free choice, give Leadership Talks to develop deep, human, emotional relationships; and take opportunities to speak with them face-to-face.

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

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: < href=mailto:brent@actionleadership.com>brent@actionleadership.com

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

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Here's The REAL Reason Bush Won: The Dark Night Of The Leadership Soul

Here's The REAL Reason Bush Won: The Dark Night Of The Leadership Soul
By Brent Filson

George Bush won the election because he was finally able to break out of the presidential bubble and give leadership talks on a consistent basis.

But to do it, he had to face the dark night of his leadership soul. And this is a lesson for ALL leaders.

The presidential bubble is that physical and psychological insulation that descends upon the president of the United States the moment he's sworn in.

Inside the bubble, people continually agree with him. Inside the bubble, he can give canned speeches in front of canned audiences all to his heart's content -- and think he's doing a great job as a communicator. But the bubble ultimately is a blight, and it almost destroyed the Bush presidency mainly because it kept him from giving what I call leadership talks.

Presentations and speeches primarily communicate information, but leadership talks are a much more effective leadership communication tool. They establish a deep, human emotional connection with people.

It's taken me 20 years of working with thousands of leaders around the world to identify what leadership talks are and to show how they should be given. However, leadership talks have been around since the dawn of history. In all cultures and countries, whenever a people had to do great things, one thing had to take place, a leader had to gather those people together and speak from the heart.

That heartfelt speech to win the hearts of key segments of voters was what George Bush was lacking in the campaign, especially throughout the debates in which he was beaten badly by John Kerry.

After those debates, George Bush faced the dark night of his leadership soul. It happens to many leaders when they realize that in order to succeed they have to abandon what worked before for them and jump off a cliff and make their wings on the way down.

FDR faced it when he got polio and responded by seeking to continue in political life with wisdom and persistence and compassion. Winston Churchill faced it at Dunkirk. Harry Truman faced it in 1948 when it looked as if he would be defeated by Tom Dewey, and he made his now famous whistle stop campaigning that enabled him to come from behind and win. Ronald Reagan faced it when he decided that he would run for president at 68 years old.

George Bush faced it after the debates. He could have remained in the presidential bubble and given his canned speeches in front of canned audiences. But instead, he decided to go out there and be himself and lay it all on the line. During the last weeks of the campaign, he pretty much dispensed with the canned and just stood up there and spoke from the heart to voters in the battleground states. For the first time in the campaign, he was out of the bubble giving leadership talks. And it made all the difference in the world.

Leaders take note. When you face the dark night of your leadership soul and must take new action to get new results, break out of whatever bubble you might be in and start giving leadership talks.

2004 The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com.

About The Author

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 has worked with thousands of leaders worldwide during the past 20 years helping them achieve sizable increases in hard, measured results.

Sign up for his free leadership ezine and get a free guide, 49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results, at www.actionleadership.com.

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Executive Coaching: A Leadership Development Tool for Top Performers

Executive Coaching: A Leadership Development Tool for Top Performers
By Gayle Lantz

Coaching used to be a popular approach for derailing executives or professionals whose performance needed a lot of work. Got a problem? Get a coach. However, increasingly, coaching is being sought by some of the most successful executives in their field those who want to get even better at their business game. So the new thinking isGot a goal? Get a coach.

Executive coaching has evolved quickly over the years. Some consider it a field in itself; others consider it a form of consulting. There are many interpretations for executive coaching. No matter how you define it, coaching can be a useful tool for executives who want to develop as leaders.

Rather than debate the definition of coaching, its more important to consider the type of coach and approach thats most appropriate for you given the results you want to achieve. Some executives have difficulty articulating concrete desired results, but a skilled coach can help. Often executives simply havent taken the time to slow down and think things through.

Coaches come in the form of business professionals, psychologists, trainers, consultants, authors, etc. They come from all walks of life. Some are tough, challenging and direct. Some are sensitive, encouraging and indirect in their style. Some impose a particular process. Some are more flexible.

A consultant with expertise in communication may focus on executive coaching that emphasizes presentation skills. A fashion consultant may offer executive coaching with an emphasis on professional appearance. Other executive coaches focus on leadership skills or business strategy. The approaches are as varied as the professionals who deliver coaching services.

Selecting a Coach

Ultimately the most important factor in selecting a coach is the coachs track record and his/her ability to establish the kind of relationship with you that helps you achieve results.

Senior leaders who have few peers seek out coaches to discuss business and professional goals. Its a decision that should not be made lightly.

Coaching relationships can be structured a variety of ways. Consider whether you want to work with a coach in person, by phone or both. Know whats most important to you in selecting a good coach.

Finding the right fit is everything. Youll know you have the wrong fit if you feel youre wasting your time, dread your coaching conversations, or focus on issues that arent directly relevant to your goals. Listen to your instincts and find the best fit.

Coaching Issues

With the complexity of issues that challenge executives, there is never a loss for discussion topics between a coach and client. Below are a few of the issues that many of todays top-performing leaders discuss with their executive coaches:

Staying focused on top priorities
Increasing accountability for follow-through
Building skills in particular areas (such as communication or decision making)
Dealing with organizational politics
Thinking strategically
Handling stress & avoiding burnout
Managing teams & dealing with sensitive personnel situations
Influencing others
Negotiating
Brainstorming new ideas/creative thinking
Personal career planning
Life-work balance issues
Establishing clear goals and action plans

Success Factors

In addition to finding the right coach, here are a few success factors to keep in mind for those who engage in a coaching process.

Establish clear guidelines for the relationship and coaching process on the front end. Dont make assumptions.

Share feedback. If something is not working, discuss it.

Acknowledge progress and successes along the way. This helps build momentum.

Involve other stakeholders if necessary. In some cases, others in the organization can participate in the process to share input and feedback.

Executive coaching is not for everyone. Its only for those executives who are highly motivated, who are committed to leadership development and who want to engage in the process. Expect a minimum commitment of six months to a year.

Company Sponsored Coaching Programs

Many more companies now recognize the importance of promoting coaching within their organizations. Many have formal coaching programs that include internal and external coaches. Organizations that sponsor coaching programs need to be diligent about connecting the benefits of coaching with business results in their organizations. Without a results focus, organizations run the risk of promoting coaching for its own sake a campaign for coaches, instead of solutions for executives. Coaching is simply a means.

Corporate initiatives that mandate or roll out a coaching program too broadly jeopardize the effectiveness of the program. Often those who need coaching most are least likely to be open to the process, but top performers are always looking for a leading edge. Finding the right coach can be the leading edge you need to succeed professionally.

Gayle Lantz, http://gaylelantz.com/, Founder of WorkMatters, is an organizational development consultant and executive coach who works with organizations that want to develop their people, and with individuals who want to achieve important business and personal goals. For more tips on how to make the most of your work, sign up for WorkMatters Tips at http://gaylelantz.com/signup/index.htm.

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Know Thyself Self Awareness as the Key to Enlightened Leadership

Know Thyself - Self Awareness as the Key to Enlightened Leadership
By Wally Adamchik

You cannot lead anyone or anything if you cannot lead yourself. Effective leadership of self depends on a high degree of self-awareness founded on honesty and introspection. As individuals advance in their careers they are exposed to new challenges and the opportunity to make decisions with the benefit of wisdom gained over time. However, this wisdom must be cultivated. It lies within all of us but only surfaces when it is sought. Not only do we as individuals face new challenges as we advance but society throws challenges at us also. Fortune Magazine puts it this way, leading a company today is different from the 1980s and 90s, especially in a global company. It requires a new set of competencies. Bureaucratic structures dont work anymore. You have to take command and control types out of the system. You need to allow and encourage broad-based involvement in the company. Stephen Covey in The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness says, the industrial age was about control, and the information age, or knowledge worker age, is about release.

A logical extension of self-awareness is the style the leader then uses to lead in this changing world. There are many labels to describe leadership styles. Some of these labels are authoritative, participative, charismatic, task-oriented, people-oriented, big-picture focused etc. This is where stereotypes fail us. There is no one single leadership style that is most effective. The most important aspect of style is the ability to adapt it to be of maximum effectiveness. The most successful leaders are able to modulate and moderate their approach.

It is the recognition by the leader of their own style and the situation they are operating in that differentiates average performers from superior leaders. The true student of leadership moves beyond anecdotal stories and experiential development into the academic. By academic I mean they undertake a lifelong study of the art and science of leadership. They seek to learn from others outside their normal frame of reference. This learning may come from talking with others, reading business books, reading academic research or taking higher level classes. They make every effort to have a higher level of self-awareness and to understand the impact they have on others.

Many supervisors today have been exposed, and sometimes subjected to, some type of psychometric assessment. They are known by names such as DISC, Myer-Briggs, etc. These assessments are tools to help people be more effective on the job. They first do this by giving us a better understanding of ourselves. Then we are able to look at how we interact with others. These tools also help us understand others. This mutual understanding is an essential part of high-performing teams. Some assessments measure preference, some measure aptitude, others measure attitude and some measure intelligence. Intellect, as we commonly know it (IQ) and emotional intellect (EQ) are measurable with much being made of EQ lately.

Ultimately, your effectiveness is not solely a factor of what style you employ. It is not based on your natural instincts or on learned traits. Most researchers in organizational development agree on this. David Segal in Military Leadership writes that the nature and quality of the interaction between the leader and the other group members is a strong determinant of the effectiveness of the group. Despite this assertion, we still want to know what style delivers interactions of the highest nature and quality? Of course, the answer is any style can be effective. The biggest determinant in the quality of the interaction is the authenticity of the leader. Authenticity is about being real, genuine. Genuine people know themselves; they are fully self-aware of their strengths and limitations and recognize they are part of the team. This all leads to a confidence that enables them to walk their talk, to deliver consistent messages and to look people in the eye in a way that engenders loyalty.

One size does not fit all. There is no universal truth when it comes to leadership and there is certainly no universal style that is most effective. Effectiveness stems first from the quality of the relationships between the leader and those they lead. The quality of the relationship has little to do with style and a lot to do with trust and credibility. Still, an awareness of individual style and the willingness to get better at adapting ones style to a given situation are differentiators of the most successful leaders.

2006 FireStarter Speaking and Consulting

Wally Adamchik is the President of FireStarter Speaking and Consulting. His new book, NO YELLING: The Nine Secrets of Marine Corps Leadership You Must Know to Win In Business is available on line at http://www.noyelling.net and will be available in stores in the Fall. You may contact him at Wally@beafirestarter.com or at 919-673-9499

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Developing A Leadership Culture

Developing A Leadership Culture
By R. Mike Booth

Once you move beyond the hype, why is leadership so important? Effective leadership is the differentiating factor between average and great companies. Why? Because most companies are so focused externally on products and customers, they simply do not focus on developing leadership qualities within their own staff. Great companies that develop a strong leadership culture from the board room to the boiler room realize a sustainable competitive advantage.

The phrase be a leader has become clich and truly mythical in nature. There are countless books to tell you how famous people successfully led and give you tips to lead in the same way. Authors and publishers sell millions of books, tapes, and CDs every year but do little to help anyone actually lead. The inability to successfully convey conceptual leadership ideas and put them into practice is the crux of the problem with todays how-to leadership books.

In a society where image is everything, we tend to apply the leadership tag only to those individuals who are dynamic communicators, great motivators, and have the gift of persuasion. We automatically assume that individuals with a skill that we admire are great leaders.

How many times do we assume that just because a 19 year-old-college athlete has a deadly three-point shot that he is by default a great leader? We often assume a player lacks leadership ability when he does not have an outspoken personality. When players of this type are interviewed about their leadership for the team they always reply, I lead by example. The reality is that every team needs at least one outspoken leader to motivate and rally the team. However, every player on the team should lead by example within their role. A team with average talent will often beat a team with superior talent when everyone utilizes their innate leadership ability in combination with their skills. Teams with strong top to bottom leadership are unselfish, communicate better, and will always put team goals ahead of their own agenda. The key is both basketball and leadership skills must be developed.

The same holds true in business organizations. We find a super worker that does his job exceedingly well and then assume he can become the outspoken super-visor or super-manager. The super worker is promoted and is placed in a sink or swim leadership position without anyone really knowing if he can even float. Some people are gifted to lead by leading others while others are gifted to only lead themselves. Both types of leaders influence and impact those around them but in different ways. Every organization should develop a strong blend of both.

The capacity for leadership exists in everyone, but most people never take the time to develop it. Leadership is determination, courage, confidence, and the ability to get results.

Positive leadership assumes that goals can be accomplished, the job can be done, the problem can be solved, and the obstacles will be overcome. A leader creates his future and drives the future success of the organization. The return on investment in productivity and profitability by developing your staffs potential could be incredible. When employees consider themselves leaders, they exhibit a positive attitude, take ownership, and accept accountability for their decisions and actions.

Developing a leadership culture where everyone is expected to be a leader in whatever position they hold will improve decision making and communication, increase profitability, lower absenteeism, and enhance customer service.

Decision making and communication are improved when everyone works together with the common goal of helping the organization reach its strategic goals. Absenteeism and turnover are minimized when employees feel a sense of ownership and self-fulfillment.

Profitability is maximized when management and staff work together with the single objective of making the organization a success. Customers hear, see, and feel the commitment and enthusiasm whenever they come in contact with your staff.

Leadership is interwoven into the fabric of an organization and affects everything a company does and the decisions it makes. Just as effective leadership will lift an organization to the next level, ineffective or poor leadership will cause an organization to under-perform and be ineffective. That is why leadership within an organization is truly cultural and not a fad or program of the month.

Imagine a dynamic, energetic, flexible organization that strives for continuous improvement. Imagine a staff where everyone cares and takes as much ownership in the success of the company as the executive leadership team.

A leadership culture does not happen by accident, and it certainly is not developed overnight. Otherwise, someone would have written a book to tell you how to create a leadership culture in three easy steps. A leadership culture is built over time with a strong senior management commitment to developing the potential of its management and staff.

A leadership culture where everyone from the board room to the boiler room leads will differentiate and set your company apart from the competition providing competitive advantages that lead to long-term profitability.

About the Author:

Mike founded TouchPoint Advantage in late 2005. TouchPoint Advantages works with businesses to help them think and plan strategically and individuals to help them achieve their dreams by maximizing their potential.

Organizations find their unique competitive advantage and individuals take their career and their life to the next level. We help both make their vision and dreams a reality.

Mike is an active public speaker and writer on leadership and related topics.

http://www.touchpointadvantage.com

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The Global Minded Leader: Leadership in an Age of Globalism

The Global Minded Leader: Leadership in an Age of Globalism
By Regi Adams Adisa

The ability to understand the most basic elements of culture is invaluable to any educator, manager or business professional. The goal of curriculum is to elevate the knowledge and understanding of the learners. This goal is the sole determinant for instructional efficiency and success. To understand the natures and proclivities of ones students or associates is a necessary requirement when designing learning tools. Dunn and Marinetti (2004) look at the proposition this way For learning to be effective, learning activities should be relevant to the learners interests and background and should occur in settings that mimic authentic ones.

Ignoring cultural factors leads inevitably to frustrating and ultimately ineffective learning experiences. This process is not much different from that of a coach training a new team. The coach understands that each team is different, possessing varying skill levels and dispositions than the previous team. The coach as a result must adjust his/ her strategy to best fit the character and needs of the team. It is an unrealistic expectation that the same educational or management strategy will work in all situations. That expectation does not exist in the world of sport, nor should it exist on the educational landscape. One should always be learning and growing as a professional and as a person; this is the only way to consistently understand, train and develop people within a diverse workforce.

Regi Adams Adisa is an instructional designer, performance coach, and founder of the e-Lightened Professionals. Regi has conducted his human based approach to professional and personal development within multiple Fortune 500 companies and non-profit agencies.

Regi's philosophy on exceptional business and human performance is that all success starts with the people. Thus Regi's approach to creating high performance organizations is by creating high performance individuals and teams. If people can learn to be effective leaders and teammates this would positively impact the organization as a whole

Regis belief is that Powerful relationships are the key to effective work environments, and goal attainment. Powerful, healthy relationships are the pulse behind any great endeavor and achievement. Developing a healthy understanding of yourself and your teammates is the way to achieve big things!

More information on Regi can be found at e-lightened.com.

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