Full Engagement By Brian Tracy

Best-selling author Brian Tracy's 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 questions
• Listen
• Be polite
• Say "Thank You"
• Keep employees informed
• Encourage improvement
• Treat employees like volunteers
• Pay employees well
• Compliment employees
• Assure harmony
• Praise regularly
• Refuse to criticize
• Celebrate success
• Express interest in employees
• Be a mentor
• Give employees freedom to do their work
• Protect employees from negativity, rudeness or bad treatment from other people
• Be pleasant
• Speak positively about your staff with other people
• Be clear about employee's job responsibilities
• Give feedback
• Be a good role model
• Disagree without being disagreeable
• Set clear, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bounded goals

One of my favorite sections of the book is where Tracy outlines the Law of Three for hiring:

• Interview three candidates
• Interview the person you like best three times
• Interview the that person in three different meeting places
• Have three different people interview you top candidate

Tracy provides a number of compelling personal references and examples from his vast business experience and upbringing in Full Engagement.  In addition, each chapter in the book ends with a list of Action Exercises to help you implement Tracy's guidance.

I recommend the book for any manager who wants to learn how best to work with an employee to:

• build up his/her self-esteem
• build his/her self-image
• drive away his/her fears
• make him/her feel like a winner

How To Step Up To Lead In Six Moments That Matter

The book, Step Up, shows readers how to step up to the plate during six critical leadership moments.  Readers learn how to:

• Use anger intelligently in the workplace.
• Recognize and deal with terminal politeness.
• Make decisions when no one else is making them.
• Take ownership when others are externalizing a problem.
• Identify and leverage pessimism.
• Inspire others to take action.

And, before you start to read the book, you can take (via a QR code in the book) a fifteen-minute online Step Up Leadership Assessment, which will give you instant feedback on your leadership readiness and point you to the most relevant chapters in the book.

The book's two authors recently shared these insights with me:

A Conversation with Henry Evans and Colm Foster, authors of Step Up

What is a “leadership moment”?

• These are moments when leadership is required in order to see a problem solved, opportunity seized, momentum changed, relationship(s) built, or when the intelligent expression of emotion is required to drive a desired result. Leadership moments are when there will be an “easy thing” to do or a “right thing” to do, and you choose the “right thing,” even though it may be hard to do so. Some of the moments are counter-intuitive and will contradict some of the prevailing wisdom about leadership.

What are common misconceptions about leadership?

• That people who have the formal position of “leader” are good leaders and/or are always ready to lead. Another misconception, in our experience, is that people at all levels of organizations sometimes feel helpless and think that without a formal title they cannot lead.

Many books outline how to harness positive energy. Are negative outlooks—pessimism, skepticism, criticism—ever useful?

• In short, yes. The emotional intelligence community, ourselves included, have taught that emotions such as anger and frustration should be banned from the workplace. We have now changed our view. In our research and work with clients, we observe that the intelligent use of emotions like anger can lead to better business outcomes and stronger relationships. Stupidity is a problem, but not always anger, if channeled productively. Pessimists are often misunderstood and under-appreciated. Sometimes your pessimists are providing a counterbalance for unbridled optimism.

Are the six leadership moments important for both managers and non-managers? Can mastering how to act in the six moments help people advance in their careers?

• Yes. Leaders must demonstrate these qualities, and we promote the use of the six moments as criteria for reward and promotion across teams. We also believe that if you are working for someone who does not possess these qualities, you should train up, or trade up (get a new boss). Lastly, when you find yourself in a moment when you and your team are experiencing a leadership void, you can learn-how and when to demonstrate leadership in those same moments. You don’t need the title. You simply need to know how to recognize the moments when leadership is required, and of course, what to do when you are in one of those moments. If you demonstrate these qualities consistently, people are likely to view you in a new light, that of a leader.

What’s an example of a leadership moment in the news that a prominent leader stepped up to?

• Just a few weeks into the job, GM’s new CEO Mary Barra stepped up to the company’s recall crisis. The evidence looks like a leadership void may have led to the crisis and Mary stepped in to show very publicly how to turn this into an opportunity to lead.  She has been much more open, transparent, and accountable than auto company leaders have traditionally been about recalls. She still faces huge challenges ahead to solve GM’s crisis, but she has already been an inspiring example of how we can all step up and show true leadership when needed.

What can readers of your first book, Winning with Accountability, expect with Step Up?

• Winning with Accountability is a language-based system for driving better business results, and building better relationships through the language you use when making and requesting commitments. Step Up focuses on the six critical leadership behaviors required for leadership, regardless of your title or formal position. As with Winning with Accountability, you can expect more ideas that are easy to access, immediately applicable, and which naturally connect to your current business reality. In both books, we are action-focused, not theory-focused.

Why Responding To Customer Complaints Is Critical

A customer who complains and receives a fast response will actually be more loyal to your company in terms of future sales and referrals than a customer who never complained at all.  That is what author Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy proclaim, and I agree with them.

They also say in their book, Now...Build A Great Business!, that:

• a slow response to a customer complaint triggers fear and anger

And, when that happens, the customer is afraid that he/she is going to be stuck with a product/service that doesn't work and feels angry that he/she went ahead with the purchase in the first place.

So, lead your team to:

• Respond quickly to customer complaints
• Refuse to defend or make excuses
• Offer to make the customer happy immediately
• Be open and honest
• Tell the truth and tell it as soon as you know it

Bottom-line...assume that anything you do or say will become public knowledge quickly. So, resolve to build and maintain trust in everything you do.

How Women Can Speak Up, Stand Out And Succeed

Judith Humphrey's book, Taking the Stage:  How Women Can Speak Up, Stand Out, and Succeed, is based on a program that has been delivered to over 400,000 women worldwide.

Filled with practical and actionable advice, the book is ideal for women at all stages of their career and for the managers and executives committed to supporting and guiding these women on their leadership journeys.

"This book deals with the qualities and desires deep within all of us," says Humphrey.  "It is our birthright to be heard.  We were born with voices -- loud, penetrating voices - and there is absolutely no reason why women should feel obliged to surrender those voices in the face of obstacles," adds Humphrey.

Divided into four parts and covering 25 themes, this "handbook" for women teaches readers how to make the most of every opportunity by understanding how best to:

• Speak up confidently, even when others don't agree
• Convey your accomplishments without self-doubt
• Be assertive but not aggressive
• Deliver clear and convincing messages
• Move beyond "minimizing" language and apology
• Find your own powerful and authentic voice
• Achieve confident body language and a leadership presence

Humphrey is the founder of the Humphrey Group, a firm that teaches executives and leaders to influence and inspire their audiences.  Her previous book is, Speaking as a Leader.

The Leadership Test

One of my favorite books about leadership is The Leadership Test by Timothy R. Clark.  You can read it in an hour and its message will guide you through your entire career.

Here are some important points from the book that are particularly powerful:

• Leadership is the process of influencing volunteers to accomplish good things.
• The spectrum of influence ranges from manipulation to persuasion to coercion.
• Only persuasion is leadership.  Manipulation exploits.  Coercion controls.  Neither manipulation nor coercion can produce lasting results or consistent good results.
• Leadership is based on the influence-through-persuasion at the front end, combined with accountability at the back end.

Clark further points out that:

• Leaders qualify themselves based on the manner of their influence and the nature of their intent.

If you haven't read this gem of a book, pick up at copy today.

Must-Read eBooks From David Grossman

When I seek advice about leadership and how to effectively communicate in the workplace, I often turn to David Grossman.

Grossman helps leaders drive productivity and get the results they want through authentic and courageous leadership and communication.

Grossman’s work solves three business problems:

• Minimize the downside of change where business could be stopped, slowed or interrupted
• Maximize the upside of change to accelerate business results
• Turn employee confusion, skepticism or apathy into engagement

Grossman is both a teacher and student of effective leadership and communication. He is one of America’s foremost authorities on communication and leadership inside organizations, and a sought-after advisor to Fortune 500 leaders.

He also offers for free via his website a host of ebooks about primarily leadership and communication.

“One of the most popular eBooks is the Top 10 Barriers Communicators Face: How to Get Your Leader on Board with Internal Communication, which came last year," says Grossman. "I think it resonates with readers because it helps them (communicators) identify and overcome common barriers to effective communication that leaders construct in a practical and effective way that helps them get the results they seek," he adds.

Grossman offers more than 20 free ebooks and downloadable resources, including these:

10 Ways To Be A Better Listener

Being a good listener is absolutely essential to being an effective leader.

When you really listen, you:

• Remember names and facts correctly.
• Hear "between the lines."
• Show respect.
• Learn more about what's going on within your workplace.

Here are 10 tips on how to be a better listener:

1. Look at the person who's speaking to you. Maintain eye contact.
2. Watch for non-verbal clues, body language, gestures and facial expressions.
3. Eliminate all distractions. Don't multi-task.
4. Ask questions that let the other person know you have heard them, and that you want to learn more.
5. Don't interrupt.
6. Don't finish the other person's sentences.
7. Avoid using words, such as "no," "but," and "however," when you respond.
8. Don't prejudge.
9. Display a friendly, open attitude and body language.
10. Ask questions to clarify what you heard.

Listening And Learning As A Leader

In John Baldoni's book, The Leader's Guide to Speaking with Presence, he provides these tips for listening as a leader and learning as a leader:

When Listening As A Leader:

• Look at people when they are speaking to you. Make eye contact.
• Ask open-ended questions, such as "Tell me about..." or "Could you explain this?"
• Consider the "what if" question:  "What if we looked at the situation like this?"
• Leverage the "why" question:  "Why do we do it this way?"
• Employ the "how" question:  "How can you do this?"

When Learning As A Leader:

• Reflect on what people have told you.
• Think about what you have not observed.  Are people holding back?  If so, why?
• Consider how you can implement what you have observed.
• Get back to people who have suggested ideas to you and thank them.
• Look for opportunities to collaborate with others.

For nearly 20 years, Baldoni has coached and consulted for a number of leading companies in a variety of different businesses, ranging from automotive and banking to computers, high technology, fast food, and packaged goods. 

How To Lead Breakthrough Change Against All Odds

David S. Pottruck's new book, Stacking the Deck, teaches readers a nine-step course of action leaders can follow from the first realization that change is needed through all the steps of implementation, including assembling the right team of close advisors and getting the word out to the wider group.

This book tells the in-the-trenches stories of individuals who led bold, sweeping change. Stories that walk you through the social and emotional reality of leading others -- many of whom are fearful of change.

Stories from eBay President and CEO John Donahoe; Wells Fargo former CEO and Chairman Dick Kovacevich; Starbucks Chairman, President and CEO Howard Schultz; San Francisco Giants President and CEO Larry Baer; and Pinkberry CEO Ron Graves.

Part one of the book outlines the Stacking the Deck process -- the nine steps through which nearly every breakthrough change inevitably goes:

1. Establishing the need to change and creating a sense of urgency.
2. Recruiting and unifying your inner team.
3. Developing and communicating a clear and compelling vision of the future.
4. Anticipating, understanding, and planning to overcome potential barriers to success.
5. Developing a clear, executable plan.
6. Breaking the change initiative into manageable pieces.
7. Defining metrics, developing analytics, and sharing results.
8. Assessing, recruiting, and empowering the broader team.
9. Piloting the implementation.

Part two covers the higher-order skills that are necessary for success in the process of leading breakthrough change.

This book will help you lead through any of these major changes:

• Introduction of a new product.
• Expansion into a new territory.
• Downsizing.

Most important, Pottruck teaches readers how to learn to anticipate and to analyze logically and carefully; think creatively and embrace possibilities; learn what to prioritize, where to concentrate energy, and how to move forward while bringing others along with you.

David S. Pottruck

Pottruck is coauthor of the bestselling Clicks and Mortar.

Thanks to the book's publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

The Art Of Leading By Looking Ahead

Anticipate: The Art of Leading by Looking Ahead, gives readers practical guidance and concrete techniques to help leaders become more visionary. In his new book, Rob-Jan de Jong provides the developmental framework for visionary capacity, focusing on two key skills:

• The ability to see change early
• The ability to connect the dots

Rob-Jan de Jong

De Jong makes a clear distinction between the company vision and your personal vision. And, in this book, he helps you increase your personal visionary capacity for your personal leadership whether or not you are hierarchically in a senior position.

The book includes many exercises and examples, along with QR codes to access videos with additional content that can be viewed on your smartphone.

Some of de Jong's tips for how to think like a visionary and be a source of inspiration to your organization and teams include:

• Deliberately break your normal, everyday patterns.
• Develop a set of appreciative questions aimed at discovering what is going well, and why.
• Regularly engage with a subgroup that is profoundly different from the usual suspects you hang out with.
• Ask often, "What other options exist?" And, "What are we not seeing or saying?"
• Engage in pure listening conversations. That means listening and not taking over the conversation with your views or ideas, no matter how much you want to.

De Jong is one of five faculty members in Wharton's flagship executive program "Global Strategic Leadership." He lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Thanks to the book's publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

The Difference Between Success And Failure Is GRIT

Why are some people able to succeed in their work, careers, and lives despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, yet others crumble at the slightest sign of adversity?  

Why do some organizations, whether in the private or public sector, thrive despite unprecedented competition, economic downturns, or worse, while others whither and die?  

The difference between success and failure is grit,” says Dr. Paul G. Stoltz in his new book, GRIT: The New Science of What it Takes to Persevere, Flourish, Succeed. 

Having spent thirty-five years studying human performance, Stoltz writes in his book, “I used to be convinced that grit was just one of those qualities on a long list of stuff that everyone knows you need to succeed. I could not have been more wrong. Grit isn’t a nice-to-have item on the get-the-most-out-of-life list. It’s the single most essential item on the list."

The good news is that grit is something that anyone can grow and improve at any stage of his or her life.

The four building blocks of GRIT are:

• Growth
• Resilience
• Instinct
• Tenacity

The four capacities of grit are:

• Emotional: Your emotional capacity to commit and to remain strong, determined, engaged, and unwavering in pursuit of your goals.
• Mental: Your mental capacity to focus intently, even struggle over long periods of time, in pursuit of your goals.
• Physical: Your physical capacity to dig deep, suffer, endure, withstand pain, and persevere in pursuit of your goals.
• Spiritual: Your spiritual capacity to suffer well, to maintain your faith and belief, to remain centered and clear, and to transcend any frustrations in pursuit of your goals.

Stoltz takes readers on an extraordinary journey, providing them with real, meaningful, and practical tools – supported by insightful anecdotes and personal stories – to help them live and become exemplars of what he calls Optimal GRIT. He describes the why’s, how’s, and benefits of GRIT and the science behind his work. 

He then provides readers (free to those who purchase the book) with access to an online tool called the GRIT Gauge. Readers who complete this five-minute survey receive a comprehensive report, including scores, descriptions, graphs, and tips, to help them understand where they are now, and what steps to take to move towards Optimal GRIT.  

By the time you finish reading the book you'll have the tools and advice you'll need to deal with what Stoltz calls all the "gnarly stuff” that life can serve up -- whether it's related to organizations, teams, society or relationships.

 

Paul G. Stoltz, Ph.D.

Stoltz is Founding Director of both the Global Resilience Institute and GRIT Institute. He was selected as “One of the Top 10 Most Influential Global Thinkers” by HR Magazine, and “One of the 100 Most Influential Thinkers of Our Time,” by Executive Excellence.

Thanks to the book publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

How To Cultivate Enduring Customer Loyalty To Keep Your Business Thriving

"Today's customers demand something unlike anything they have ever wanted in the past -- a connection with your business," explains Noah Fleming, author of the new, must-read book, Evergreen. "This means that in order to increase customer loyalty, you need to create a relationship with that customer on a deeper and much more profound level," adds Fleming.

And, to do this, you need to think in an entirely new way (at times even counterintuitively) about your market, your customers and your marketing offers.

Noah Fleming

Fortunately, in Fleming's timely and intensively relevant book, he shows you through strategies, exercises and examples what to do.

He explains why the customer is not always right.  And, why not every customer is worth keeping.

Fleming's techniques teach you how to acquire customers faster and how to create what he calls legitimate brand loyalty -- the type that helps to keep your business thriving.

One of the book's most compelling lessons for me was why it's so important to tell your customers your company's origin story. Fleming explains that it's critical that you build a rich and complex backstory about your company for your customers. Your customers want to know this story. So, as you share your story, answer these questions:

• Who started the company?
• When was it started? Where? How?
• Why was it started?
• What were the original visions or aspirations for the company?
• What traditions has the company maintained since it began?

Also, in the book, Fleming also shows you how to:

• Invert the expectations gap that can drive customers away.
• Create loyalty programs that turn satisfied customers into enthusiastic advocates.
• Measure the true cost of your customer acquisition efforts.
• Communicate your values at every customer interaction.
• Make social media communications with customers personal, genuine, and meaningful.

Most important, you'll learn how to build impeccable character, community, and content -- the Three Cs of evergreen companies.

• Character (aka brand personality) -- by developing an organizational mindset about why you do what you do and how customers perceive you (what the first thing the customer thinks about when exposed to your brand).
• Community -- by giving customers a sense of shared interests, viewpoints, or values, and a feeling of belonging. How you bring people closer together.
• Content -- which basically means whatever the company offers -- products, services, food, advice, or information. Content is about what you do and how you do it.  And, be sure to pay more attention to the experience and feeling your content creates than the actual content.

"An Evergreen organization," Fleming says, "has spent the time to continually cultivate and nurture relationships with its customers, from even before they were actually customers. Like the roots of an 800-year-old evergreen, strong customer loyalty is embedded into that relationship, and eventually those roots are capable of supporting tremendous and continuous growth."

Thanks to the book publisher, AMACOM, for sending me an advance copy of the book.

How To Discover Your LeaderGrade

If you need a tool to measure your leadership skills, check out LeaderGrade, by Quantum Workplace, which measures your leadership influence by asking your peers and followers to rate your leadership skills.

The online survey tool uses a 45 question assessment to measure your leadership skills across 15 dimensions of leadership.

The survey typically takes respondents seven to 10 minutes to fill out and the results you get will identify your strengths and weaknesses, and will allow you to compare your evaluators' responses to your own self-assessment.

The self-evaluation survey is free and it's the first step in the program. Also free is a summary analysis of your results. A full reporting on your results costs $79.

Also, by using LeaderGrade, your leadership skills can be compared to those of other leaders who have completed the LeaderGrade assessment.  I don't know the pricing for the full program, but the free self-assessment is worth using.

How To Write Anything

Ever wondered about the do's and don'ts of writing a:

• Business Apology
• Letter of Recommendation
• Job Advertisement
• Interview Follow-up
• Press Release
• Executive Summary
• Collection Letter
• Resignation Letter

...then, the book, How To Write Anything: A Complete Guide is for you.

This 596-page book not only provides you examples and templates for all types of writing you do at work, but also, and most important, provides you do's and don'ts for each writing situation.

Author Laura Brown provides 200 how-to entries and easy-to-use models organized into three comprehensive sections on writing for:

• Work
• School (research paper, book review, internship letter)
• Your Personal Life (i.e. get-well note, baby shower invitation, complaint letter)

Best of all, her advice is Internet-savvy, because she provides you advice for choosing the most appropriate medium for your message:  email or pen and paper.

Brown has more than 25 years' experience providing training and coaching in business writing.  She's also taught composition and literature at Columbia University.

This is a book you can use for a lifetime -- during your schooling, career and everyday living.

The Questions To Ask To Move Your Company Forward

The April 2014 issue of Inc. magazine featured a fascinating list of 35 questions from business owners, entrepreneurs and management thinkers.  Each offered the one question they would ask to move a company forward.

From the list, my favorites are:

• Are we relevant?  Will we be relevant five years from now? Ten?
• What prevents me from making the changes I know will make me a more effective leader?
• Are we changing as fast as the world around us?
• Who, on the executive team or the board, has spoken to a customer recently?

And, my most favorite is:

• How can we become the company that would put us out of business?

What question do you ask to help move your company forward?

A Goal Without A Plan Is Just A Wish

How To Build A Culture To Foster Creativity

Here are some great tips and guiding principles for how a manager and leader can build a culture to foster creativity.

• Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. But give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better.
• If you don’t strive to uncover what is unseen and understand its nature, you will be ill prepared to lead.
• It’s not the manager’s job to prevent risks. It’s the manager’s job to make it safe for others to take them.
• The cost of preventing errors is often far greater than the cost of fixing them.
• A company’s communication structure should not mirror its organizational structure. Everybody should be able to talk to anybody.
• Do not assume that general agreement will lead to change—it takes substantial energy to move a group, even when all are on board.

Thanks author Ed Catmull for these tips and great new book, Creativity, Inc.

13 Energizing Verbs To Use More Often

In a few weeks, I'll post my review of the great new book, Anticipate, the Art of Leading by Looking Ahead, by Rob-Jan De Jong.

In the meantime, here are 13 energizing verbs the author recommends we use more often:

• Discover (instead of See)
• Explore (instead of Discuss)
• Radiate (instead of Display)
• Uncover (instead of Show)
• Transform (instead of Change)
• Engage (instead of Involve)
• Mobilize (instead of Gather)
• Stretch (instead of Develop)
• Boost (instead of Increase)
• Propel (instead of Move)
• Deliver (instead of Give)
• Grasp (instead of Understand)
• Connect (instead of Join)

Great advice, indeed!

6 Interview Questions To Ask To Access Leadership Skills

The next time you are interviewing a candidate and you want to access their leadership skills, consider asking the candidate these questions:

1. What personal qualities define you as a leader?  Describe a situation when these qualities helped you lead others.
2. Give an example of when you demonstrated good leadership.
3. What is the toughest group from which you've had to get cooperation?
4. Have you ever had difficulty getting others to accept your ideas?  What was your approach?  Did it work?
5. Describe a situation in which you had to change your leadership style to achieve the goal?
6. One leadership skill is the ability to accommodate different views in the workplace, regardless of what they are.  What have you done to foster a wide number of views in your work environment?

Thanks to Sharon Armstrong, author of The Essential HR Handbook, for these helpful questions!

How To Me A Manager With Class

One of my favorite sections of the book, The First-Time Manager, is the one about class in a manager:

• Class is treating people with dignity.
• Class does not have to be the center of attention.
• Class does not lose its cool.
• Class does not rationalize mistakes.
• Class is good manners.
• Class means loyalty to one's staff.
• Class recognizes the best way to build oneself is to first build others.
• Class leads by example.
• Class does not take action when angry.
• Class is authentic and works hard at making actions consistent with words.

A Good Reason To Start Volunteering On January 19

As the nation honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, January 19, volunteer or make the decision to volunteer in your community. King routinely asked “What are you doing for others,” and January 19th is the ideal day to ask yourself that question.

The federal holiday was first observed 28 years ago and in 1994 Congress designated it as a National Day of Service, inspired by King’s words, “everybody can be great because anybody can serve.”

You can turn to Volunteer Match to find volunteer opportunities right in your neighborhood or nearby surrounding area. Visit the web site, type in your city's name and the types of volunteering opportunities that interest you most, and you will be presented with a variety of organizations seeking volunteers.

And, if you are a leader in the workplace, encourage your employees and team members to volunteer in the community as individuals. Or, organize volunteer afternoons or evenings for your employees.

8-Point Plan For A Powerful Team

Take some quality time to read the book by C. Elliott Haverlack, Unbunde It, because it explores the issues you face as a leader with a twist that is different from many other leadership books.  Throughout, the book offers suggestions on how to overcome the burden that complexity creates in our lives and businesses.

Most intriguing for me is Haverlack's straight-forward, unbundled insights on teams.  "The healthiest teams trust each other," explains the author.  "When we trust, we tend to be more transparent and are more likely to share the hurdles we need to leap.  And, once trust becomes a competency, accountability comes much more easily."  And, accountability is the key to delivering results.

Haverlack's eight-point plan for a powerful team is:

1. Engage a group that shares your core values.
2. Set aspirational yet achievable goals for the company and every individual.
3. Create an environment that encourages and rewards trust.
4. Empower every individual to create and achieve greatness.
5. Persuade them to stretch.
6. Love them when they fail.
7. Create an environment that encourages and reward self-discipline.
8. Have the courage to exit those from the team who do not fit.

Other particularly useful sections in Unbundle It are the ones on:

• Tips for excellence in the email world
• Ground rules for meetings
• Coaching

How To Write An Effective Nonprofit Annual Report

Here are some tips for leaders responsible for writing an effective annual report for their nonprofit organization.

Consider making these objectives for your report:

• To demonstrate accomplishments (not activities) (results and how you did it).
• To recognize important people (volunteers, donors, major funders, partners).
• To provide an account of your organization's work for the past year.
• To share your mission with a wide audience.
• To generate new donations, retain donors and grow partnerships.

Consider these audience sectors when writing your report:

• Donors
• Volunteers
• Community leaders
• Future board members
• Supporters (in-kind)
• Elected officials 
• Potential partners, grant funding entities

Allow three to four months to prepare your report:

• Create and outline
• Gather an organize content
• Engage your management team
• Design
• Review/Proof
• Print
• Distribute

Consider packaging your report with a theme, such as one of these:

• Transformation
• Day in the life
• Milestones
• Critical issues
• Progress toward the future
• New undertakings
• Milestone anniversary

Present your financials with:

• Pie charts and bar charts (use five or less elements in your pie charts)
• Numbers and percentages
• Explanations about where your revenue comes from and how the money is spent

Include at least these sections and elements in your report:

• Executive Director letter
• Accomplishments/Achievements
• Financials
• Donor list
• Board of Directors list
• Call to action
• Lots of photos
• Stories (profiles) to highlight your successes

And before you start preparing your next report, use this checklist:

• Who will help prepare the report?
• Do we need to engage an external freelancer (writing and/or design)?
• Who will write the Executive Director letter?
• Are we gathering photos all year long so we have enough come time to prepare our report?
• Is our donor list accurate and up-to-date?
• What will be our annual report's theme?
• Will we distribute in print and/or online?
• What are our best stories to tell?
• What time of year will we release our report?
• What are our three major accomplishments/achievements for the past year?
• Who will double and triple check our reported financials and donor list for accuracy?
• Where will we tell our key messages in different ways (Executive Director letter, photo captions, etc.)?
• What calls to action will we include?

How To Be An Effective Listener

A good book to add to your 2015 reading list is AMACOM's (a division of the American Management Association), The 11 Laws of Likability.

From the book, here are some great reminders on listening -- what to do and what not to do to be a leader who's an effective listener:

Do:

• Maintain eye contact
• Limit your talking
• Focus on the speaker
• Ask questions
• Manage your emotions
• Listen with your eyes and ears
• Listen for ideas and opportunities
• Remain open to the conversation
• Confirm understanding, paraphrase
• Give nonverbal messages that you are listening (nod, smile)
• Ignore distractions

Don't:

• Interrupt
• Show signs of impatience
• Judge or argue mentally
• Multitask during a conversation
• Project your ideas
• Think about what to say next
• Have expectations or preconceived ideas
• Become defensive or assume you are being attacked
• Use condescending, aggressive, or closed body language
• Listen with biases or closed to new ideas
• Jump to conclusions or finish someone's sentences

How To Be A Better Leader In 2015

Four years ago, Lynn Flinn of EWF International wrote the following in her business' newsletter. It's so powerful I wanted to bring it back again this year as 2015 gets underway.

So, here goes...Lynn's advice for leaders:

• Do something that you are afraid to do. Run through the fear rather than running away from it.

• Take a personal risk. Tell someone something you've always wished you'd said to them.

• Write a note to someone who inspires you but probably doesn't know it.

• Pick one characteristic about yourself that you'd like to change and earnestly work on changing it. It is really hard to change a behavior, but it is possible if you are aware, patient and persistent in making a change.

• Realize when you are not engaged and re-engage. Turn off the television, turn off the cell phone, and pay attention to the people around you.

• Smile and talk to strangers that you meet. It is amazing how much shorter a long line feels when you are talking to someone versus focusing on how long the line is.

• Meditate, pray, relax, exercise, hike, laugh or whatever brings you peace. Some people say they are just too busy to do these things, but taking time for self-renewal shows self-awareness, not selfishness.

• Take a trip somewhere that you've never been. It could even be a place you've never visited in your home town. How many experiences have you overlooked in your own town, because you just keep going to the same familiar places?

• Do something meaningful for a non-profit organization. Volunteers are the lifeblood of non-profit organizations. If everyone volunteers a few hours a week, think how much non-profits can accomplish.

• Don't get stuck in the same old routine. Shake it up and do something different. Something as simple as taking a different route to work or going someplace new for lunch makes life a little more interesting.

Thanks Lynn for this great advice.