For More Profit, Shovel Away the Sand Over Those Whose Heads Are Buried in It

Minimizing the importance of any related problems or to trying to cover them up are the two most common defensive postures for dealing with irresistible forces. You can always find someone to convince you that there really is no problem even when there is one. And since the bearers of bad news often fear blame or punishment, they prefer to keep quiet about problems. Either way, you end up with your head in the sand and your vulnerable flanks exposed. Intel learned this lesson to its dismay. A... Read more »

Look for the Benefit in Setbacks to Gain the Most Profit

Your biggest customer calls to say that the firm is going into bankruptcy and won’t be able to pay the six month’s worth of outstanding invoices. You wish him well and hold your head in pain. An hour later, you discover that your plant is in violation of OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration) standards. You have to pay a large fine and buy millions in new equipment before you can restart operations. If that weren’t enough, your lawyer calls to say that a large sex... Read more »

Confidently Prepare for the Best When You Feel Helpless

Irresistible forces can leave you feeling helpless. When that occurs, you are often vulnerable because inaction is often worse than a poor action. How can you find a helpful path? Answering the following questions is intended to help you see alternatives where you might otherwise feel helpless in the face of irresistible forces. How can this setback become the best thing that ever happened to your enterprise? In the case of a faulty product, for example, you have the chance to show that you are... Read more »

Open Your Eyes and Ears When Tough Times Arrive

A number of years ago I was asked to help a struggling business overcome setbacks created by increased global competition, adverse cost trends, unfavorable currency rates, and weak leadership. Looking closely at the operations, I saw that within the weak operation was a kernel of strength: Huge profits could be gained by cutting back the product line by 95 percent, and great amounts of cash flow would be generated as well. The Chief Operating Officer (COO) was ready to take action, but he didn’t... Read more »

Management Theory And Building A Network Marketing Business

Building a Network Marketing Business is not so much about managing people as it is about leading others. You can manage from a very selfish vantage point but to maintain longer term leadership demands the ability to be others oriented. It means you do what is best for the people. It has been noted that “the extent to which you are able to transform your self-concern into other-concern will determine your effectiveness in getting others to follow along.” Often the role of the leader... Read more »

Act Fast When Customers and the Community Lose Faith in Your Offerings

There may be no stronger source of unhappy surprise than having the customers’ and community’s perceptions of your products and services suddenly turn from positive to negative with no warning. Perhaps a television program runs an expose about the safety of your product, testing it in ways that you have never considered or are inappropriate. Or suddenly the government imposes a new standard, and your product has to be phased out in its current form. If you didn’t anticipate these... Read more »

When the Situation Looks Hopeless, Doubt Your Lack of Choice

Like Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise in the Star Trek television series, movies and books, you should spurn helplessness and believe that there is always a positive way out of a difficult or unexpected situation. Your job is to find and take that way out. As a cadet at Starfleet Academy, the fictional James Tiberius Kirk was once faced with a problem to solve for which there was no positive alternative included. The purpose of the problem was to see how the cadets handled a setback. ... Read more »

How to Become an Effective Leader

Recent evidence has shown that there is a Personality Profile for someone who can be called a natural born leader. In this personality profile there are a set of innate characteristics that can be studied and learned by those who feel they are inadequate in a leader ship position. A natural born leader can effectively convey confidence, assertiveness, boldness, responsibility, and leadership. Time and time again great leaders will test high for these psychological traits; the results are the same... Read more »

Banish that Helpless Feeling When Trends Turn Negative

People who feel helpless often react that way because they cannot locate any acceptable alternatives in their own minds. A good way to circumvent that problem is to find others who have had similar problems, and ask them what they would do in your situation. Undoubtedly, you’ll get some ideas, and then you can test the more plausible ones on a limited basis to find out which ones actually work. Alan G. Robinson and Sam Stern report that the Japanese national railway company was building a... Read more »

How to Run a Leadership Activity

The big buzz in the Learning and Development community is about Leadership development. “If only we could train good leaders,” goes the argument, “we could be beat the world” This belief is so well ingrained that hardly anyone stops to question it. But when you step back for a second, there are a number of huge questions. For example: 1. If leaders need training, who trained Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin? 2. If leaders can be easily trained, why are there any followers... Read more »