Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

When you start reading Mark Thompson’s and Brian Tracy’s book called,  Now…Build a Great Business! , you may feel like you are reading 200 pages of Blog posts, but the bite-sized approach to providing tools, practical steps and ideas, rather than theory, is precisely the authors’ intended approach. The book thoroughly explains the  seven keys for how to achieve business success : 1.  Become a great leader 2.  Develop a great business plan 3.  Surround yourself with great people 4.  Offer a great product or service 5.  Design a great marketing plan 6.  Perfect a great sales process 7.  Create a great customer experience You’ll find a checklist at the end of each step (each chapter) where you can write down your action plan for applying what you’ve learned. Particularly interesting is the chapter on  strategic planning , where the authors recommend you should  ask yourself these important questions before you act to c...

When you start reading Mark Thompson’s and Brian Tracy’s latest book called,  Now…Build a Great Business! , you may feel like you are reading 200 pages of Blog posts, but the bite-sized approach to providing tools, practical steps and ideas, rather than theory, is precisely the authors’ intended approach. The book thoroughly explains the  seven keys for how to achieve business success : 1.  Become a great leader 2.  Develop a great business plan 3.  Surround yourself with great people 4.  Offer a great product or service 5.  Design a great marketing plan 6.  Perfect a great sales process 7.  Create a great customer experience You’ll find a checklist at the end of each step (each chapter) where you can write down your action plan for applying what you’ve learned. Particularly interesting is the chapter on  strategic planning , where the authors recommend you should  ask yourself these important questions before you ac...

I really like these  10 guiding business principles  that San Antonio, TX headquartered insurance company  USAA has lived by: Exceed customer expectations Live the Golden Rule (treat others with courtesy and respect) Be a leader Participate and contribute Pursue excellence Work as a team Share knowledge Keep it simple (make it easy for customers to do business with us and for us to work together) Listen and communicate Have fun Too many companies don't make it simple for their customers to do business with them. Is it easy for your customers to: Buy from you? Make returns? Get pricing and terms? Receive timely responses to their e-mails? Quickly get answers when phoning your company? You can find more examples of companies with impressive guiding principles in the book,  1001 Ways To Energize Employee s .

I really like these 10 guiding business principles that San Antonio, TX headquartered insurance company  USAA  lives by: Exceed customer expectations Live the Golden Rule (treat others with courtesy and respect) Be a leader Participate and contribute Pursue excellence Work as a team Share knowledge Keep it simple (make it easy for customers to do business with us and for us to work together) Listen and communicate Have fun You can find more examples of companies with impressive guiding principles in the book, 1001 Ways To Energize Employees .

John Baldoni offers these tips in his book, Lead With Purpose , for how to define an organization's purpose. He suggests that you must ask three questions : What is our vision -- that is, what do we want to become? What is our mission -- that is, what do we do now? What are our values -- that is what are the behaviors we expect of ourselves?

Be sure to check out the October 10, 2011 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, where you'll find an entire 66-page issue that takes you through the entire life of Jobs in what they describe as a biography of a boundary-breaking thinker and endlessly astute businessman. What got me hooked on the issue are the following quotes of wisdom and leadership from Jobs that the magazine features as its intro into its impressive retrospective issue: There is no reason not to follow your heart. Simple can be harder than complex.  You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. The only way to be satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. Don't be trapped by dogma. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. It's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important. Don't settle. Things don't have to change the world to be important. Stay hungry.

According to David Grossman , author of the new book, You Can't Not Communicate -2 , here are eight things employees say managers don't do: Don't keep employees informed. Don't explain the "why" behind decisions. Don't communicate frequently enough and in a timely way. Don't update employees on changes happening in the business. Don't share regular business updates and how the team is performing. Don't ask for feedback. Don't ask for or listen to concerns. Don't act on feedback (or at least close the loop as to why feedback wasn't incorporated into a decision) This is a great reminder for leaders of what not to do.  And, perhaps number 8 on the list is the one where most managers fall short -- not explaining why they didn't incorporate feedback into their final decision.

Southwest Airlines is celebrating its 40th year and was kind enough to share in its in-flight magazine 40 lessons it learned since 1971.  The lessons provide good tips for business leaders. If you missed the full list, here are some of the highlights: Invent your own culture and put a top person in charge of it .  A crisis can contain the germ of a big idea . Simplicity has value .  For Southwest, simplicity means using 737s for most of its fleet, which makes maintenance more cost-effective and allows more efficient training for flight crews and ground crews. Remember your chief mission . Take your business, not yourself, seriously. Put the worker first .  For Southwest, that meant being the first U.S. airline to offer a profit-sharing plan, in 1974.  Employees now own 13 percent of the airline. The web ain't cool, it's a tool .  Southwest was the first U.S. airline to establish a home page.  By 2010, Southwest.com boasted more unique visit...

Wharton Digital Press' first eBook, The Leader's Checklist by Michael Useem, goes on sale on June 21, but you can download a free copy between June 21 and 28 wherever eBooks are sold.   The book will ultimately sell for $6.99.  I recommend getting your free copy.  Because, within the 56-page book, Useem provides 15 core principles that will help you to develop the ability to make good and timely decisions in unpredictable and stressful environments . "When leadership really matters," explains Useem. The book helps readers to test, retest, refine and update their preparedness for almost any situation, and among the 15 core principles for building a customized clear roadmap are: Articulate a vision Think and act strategically Act decisively Embrace the front lines Dampen over-optimism Build a diverse top team Place common interest first Useem also suggests that leaders: Communicate in ways that people will not forget ; simplicity and clarity. Build end...

Here are 10 tips for how to maximize employee involvement : Have active ways to listen to your employees. Check often with employees to see if the information you are sharing with them is what they need and what they want. Share information about customer satisfaction with employees. Discuss financial performance with your employees and be sure everyone understands the importance of profitability and how they can contribute to profitability. Allow ad hoc teams among employees to form to address organizational problems and work with those teams to tackle the identified issues. Encourage employees to make suggestions for improvement whether those ideas are large or small. Take an idea from one employee and share it with other employees and teams and let everyone make a contribution to build upon that idea. Train! For long-term employees, find ways to keep their jobs interesting through new assignments and challenges. Conduct meetings around specific issues and brainstor...

Today, just a short, but powerful quote and advice for leaders: " The great leaders are like the best conductors. They reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players ." -- Blaine Lee

Some of my favorite quotes for leaders are: A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit -- Arnold H. Glasgow I praise loudly, I blame softly -- Catherine II of Russia Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress -- Mohandas Gandhi A long dispute means that both parties are wrong -- Voltaire The least questioned assumptions are often the most questionable -- Paul Broca These and many more compelling quotes can be found in Susan H. Shearouse's new book, Conflict 101 .

Best-selling author Brian Tracy's newest book, Full Engagement , provides practical advice for how to inspire your employees to perform at their absolute best.  He explains that above nearly every measure, employees' most powerful single motivator is the "desire to be happy". So, Tracy teaches you how to make your employees happy by: Organizing their work from the first step in the hiring process through the final step in their departure from your company so they are happy with you, their work, their coworkers, as well as in their interactions with your customers, suppliers and vendors. Full Engagement includes these chapters and topics: The Psychology of Motivation Ignite the Flame of Personal Performance Make People Feel Important Drive Out Fear Create That Winning Feeling Select The Right People Internal Versus External Motivation At a minimum, Tracy suggests that managers do the following when managing their employees : Smile Ask q...

There is an important difference between giving your employees positive feedback and giving them praise . Positive feedback focuses on the specifics of job performance. Praise, often one-or two-sentence statements, such as “Keep up the good work,” without positive feedback leaves employees with empty feelings.  Worse yet, without positive feedback, employees feel no sense that they are appreciated as individual talents with specific desires to learn and grow on the job and in their careers, reports Nicholas Nigro, author of, The Everything Coaching and Mentoring Book . So, skip the praise and give positive feedback that is more uplifting to your employees because it goes to the heart of their job performance and what they actually do. An example of positive feedback is : “Bob, your communications skills have dramatically improved over the past couple of months. The report that you just prepared for me was thorough and concise. I appreciate all the ...

You can't lead if your employees, team or followers don't trust you.  Building trust takes energy, effort and constant attention to how you act.  To help build trust, follow these 16 tips , recommended by author Susan H. Shearouse: Be honest Keep commitments and keep your word Avoid surprises Be consistent with your mood Be your best Demonstrate respect Listen Communicate Speak with a positive intent Admit mistakes Be willing to hear feedback Maintain confidences Get to know others Practice empathy Seek input from others Say "thank you"

Having your employees learn more about what their fellow employees do is invaluable. When everyone knows how each job/position on your team fits together, your team can accomplish so much more. Plus, the new-found knowledge drives a better appreciation for what everyone does, and proves to the team, that success comes only when all the pieces fit together like a well-oiled machine . So, plan a half day where you pair up employees. Once paired, one employee explains to his (or her) partner what he does in a "typical" day. Allow enough time for sharing samples of his work and for Q&A. Then, it's the second person's turn to share about their " typical " day. If your half day is a morning, suggest the pairs of employees have lunch together, where they can finish by incorporating more discussion about away-from-work hobbies and interests. Schedule your job learning days for once a month and have your employees meet with different partner...

Keep these five tips in mind when you craft your next company policy: Keep the policy short and simple. Get rid of two old policies for every new policy you implement. Make sure that your organization's policy and procedures are written to serve your employees and customers--not just your organization. Don't write a policy in reaction to a single incident.  The problem may never arise again. Don't write a policy longer than one-page, no matter how large your organization may be. Thanks to author Bob Nelson for these great tips from his book, 1001 Ways To Energize Employees .

If you're a parent of two children you already know that when the two are fighting and child #1 tells you what happened, you then ask child #2 what happened, and most often the truth is somewhere in the middle of what the two children have told you. Surprisingly, many managers, even when they are parents, don't use this parenting "discovery" skill in the workplace. Instead, they often listen to only one side of a situation. Whether it is because of lack of interest or lack of time, they don't proactively seek out the other side of the story. The unfortunate result is those managers form incorrect perceptions that can often lead to poor decisions and/or directives. So, the next time two employees are at odds, or when one department complains about another department within your organization, take the time to listen to all sides of the situation to discover the truth that's in the middle .

Many Human Resource (HR) managers have moved away from questions like "What's your weakness?" and prefer behavior-based questions, which ask you to: describe how you handled specific situations at your former jobs If you about to interview for your next leadership position, be prepared for questions like these (from a recent article in Reader's Digest ): Tell me about a time when your integrity was challenged . What was the situation, and what did you do? Tell me about a time you had to work with someone you did not personally like . If you could come to work with only three tools to get your job done, what would they be ? What personal and professional development have you been engaged in outside the workplace over the past year? Describe your Outlook calendar on a typical day

High-functioning teams can disagree and still produce excellent products and results. Team members can also disagree and still care about each other. And, they can challenge each other to think differently. Best-selling leadership book authors Scott J. Allen and Mitchell Kusy recommend that leaders ask seven tough questions of their teams to help maximize their results. Here are those questions to ask each team member: What are some obstacles affecting this team? What are opportunities we could take advantage of that we have been largely ignoring? Where can you take greater ownership on this team? Where have you let this team down ? Compared to other teams with which you are familiar, how are we doing ? When was the last time you complimented the team or one of its members? How open are you to giving direct feedback to team members?