Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

From the book, Light A Fire Under Your Business : A clear and concise mission statement defines, in the simplest terms, your organization's core reason for being, and it had better not be all about money. Money is definitely important to most of society, and it is a motivator. But many people aspire to be part of something  more meaningful than just a paycheck. They want a paycheck that is also connected to a culture that offers greater intrinsic values.

Here is some great advice from the authors of the book, Light A Fire Under Your Business , about high-performance teams: Once you have developed teamwork within a group, synergy is born. But it is the mission that creates motivation, an essential ingredient in high-performance teamwork. High-performance teams must have a common purpose to experience the motivation to achieve shared success. When team members share a duty to serve a stated mission and respond in like fashion, they create motivation in each other. One of the greatest elements of a well-written mission statement is that every person on your team will use it as the same foundation for decision making. Regardless of his or her specific responsibilities or status on the team or in the organization, everyone is motivated by the same mission but from a different perspective.

"The more specific you can be about your goal, the greater your level of success will be," explain authors Tom Pandola and James W. Bird , in their book, Light A Fire Under Your Business . "This is because once we have visualized something that doesn't yet exist, it causes our subconscious mind to make the decisions necessary to make that visualized goal a reality." The authors explain that all goals must have these five elements : Goals must clarify a specific action or outcome. Goals must be measureable by being able to quantify the benefits of achieving them. Goals should be achievable with the resources available (or at least you should know that the necessary resources are in reserve and can be acquired). Goals must also be realistic for achieving based on your particular situation. Goals must also include the time period in which you want to achieve them. With a date or time period specified for completion, planning can be established in orde...

I have a deep respect for the leadership and teamwork embodied by Navy SEALS, Olympic athletic teams, and firefighters. That's why I find the new book, Light A Fire Under Your Business: How to Build a Class 1 Corporate Culture Through Inspirational Leadership , so interesting. In the book, former Los Angeles Fire Department Captains turned business executives Tom Pandola and James W. Bird share principles for management, leadership and success that have the power to continuously improve business operations, personnel motivation, and the bottom line. The stories they tell in the book are actual experiences. And, it's these stories of their past experiences that acted as a practical classroom in which they learned the principals that have served them well in firefighting, subsequently in business, and in life in general. More specifically, they learned and applied these lessons over nearly 50 combined years of fire service careers, and used them successfully in nea...