Essential Leadership Survival Traits

T his article is by Jim Rohn. Mr Rohn has had a huge impact on my business development but, more importantly, has fostered the spirit of change in my personal life as well.
In my career thus far, I have had the incredible good fortune to have met and worked with awesome entrepreneurs and tremendous leaders. It has made me realize that, though we often seek out those to mentor us, there are times when our mentors find us instead.

Maintaining Honesty and Integrity by Jim Rohn (excerpted from Cultivating an Unshakable Character)

For a leader, honesty and integrity are absolutely essential to survival. A lot of business people don't realize how closely they're being watched by their subordinates. Remember when you were a kid in grammar school, how you used to sit there staring at your teacher all day? By the end of the school year, you could do a perfect imitation of all your teacher's mannerisms. You were aware of the slightest nuances in your teacher's voice - all the little clues that distinguished levels of meaning, that told you the difference between bluff and "now I mean business".

And you were able to do that after eight or nine months of observation. Suppose you had five or 10 years. Do you think there would have been anything about your teacher you didn't know?

Now fast forward and use that analogy as a manager. Do you think there's anything your people don't know about you right this minute? If you haven't been totally aboveboard and honest with them, do you really think you've gotten away with it? Not too likely. But if you've been led to believe that you've gotten away with it, there might be a good probability that people are afraid of you, and that's a problem in its own right.

But there is another side of this coin. In any organization, people want to believe in their leaders. If you give them reason to trust you, they're not going to go looking for reasons to think otherwise, and they'll be just as perceptive about your positive qualities as they are about the negative ones.

A situation that happened some years ago at a company in the Midwest illustrates this perfectly. The wife of a new employee experienced complications in the delivery of a baby. There was a medical bill of more than $10,000, and the health insurance company didn't want to cover it. The employee hadn't been on the payroll long enough, the pregnancy was a preexisting condition, etc,etc,..

In any case, the employee was desperate. He approached the company CEO and asked him to talk to the insurance people. The CEO agreed, and the next thing the employee knew, the bill was gone and the charges were rescinded. Then he told some colleagues about the way the CEO had so readily used his influence with the insurance company, they just shook their heads and smiled. The CEO had paid the bill out of his own pocket, and everybody knew it, no matter how quietly it had been done.

Now an act of dishonesty can't be hidden either, and it will instantly undermine the authority of a leader. But an act of integrity and kindness like the example above is just as obvious to all concerned. When you're in a leadership position, you have the choice of how you will be seen, but you Will be seen one way or the other, make no mistake about it.

One of the most challenging areas of leadership is your family. Leadership of a family demands even higher standards of honesty and integrity, and the stakes are higher too. You can replace disgruntled employees and start over. You can even get a new job for yourself, if it comes to that. But your family can't be shuffled like a deck of cards. If you haven't noticed, kids are great moral philosophers, especially as they get into adolescence. They're determined to discover and expose any kind of hypocrisy, phoniness, or lack of integrity on the part of authority figures, and if we're parents, that means us. It's frightening how unforgiving kids can be about this, but it really isn't a conscious decision on their part; it's just a necessary phase of growing up.

They're testing everything, especially their parents.

As a person of integrity yourself, you'll find it easy to teach integrity to your kids, and they in turn will find it easy to accept you as a teacher. This is a great opportunity and also a supreme responsibility, because kids simply must be taught to tell the truth: to mean what they say and to say what they mean.

"Praise is one the world's most effective teaching and leadership tools. Criticism and blame, even if deserved, are counter productive unless all other approaches have failed."

Now for the other side of the equation, we all know people who have gotten ahead as a result of dishonest or unethical behavior. When you're a kid, you might naively think that never happens, but when you get older, you realize that it does. Then you think you've really wised up. But that's not the real end of it. When you get older, you see the long-term consequences of dishonest gain, and you realize that in the end it doesn't pay.

"Hope of dishonest gain is the beginning of loss". I don't think that old saying refers to loss of money. I think it actually means loss of self-respect. You can have all the material things in the world, but if you've lost respect for yourself, what do you really have? The only way to ever attain success and enjoy it is to achieve it honestly with pride in what you've done.

This isn't just a sermon, it's very practical advice. Not only can you take it to heart - you can take it to the bank.

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

To order Jim's best selling CD series Cultivating an Unshakable Character (6 CD's) from our Inventory Blowout Product Special, go to http://jr3.jimrohn.com

Credit Statement to be included in Reprints:

This article was submitted by Jim Rohn, America's Foremost Business Philosopher. To subscribe to the Free Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine go to www.jimrohn.com or send a blank email to subscribe@jimrohn.com
Copyright © 2005 Jim Rohn International. All rights reserved worldwide.

You - The Brand

Wendy Maynard:

For a consultant, solo professional, or other type of entrepreneur, YOU are the brand. Marketing your business is about marketing YOU as the best choice for your customers' needs.

Starting today, make sure that you are positioning yourself as the brand…the expert. Begin to make a list. What makes you different from your competition? What traits make you stand out? What do people remember most about you?

By branding YOU, you build the power of influence. Your prospects begin to perceive you as the best resource in your field. Create a tagline for you that describes your benefits - are you a straight shooter...compassionate...a big thinker...a problem solver? What things about you make you absolutely different and valuable from someone else in your industry?

When you are in the process of branding your personality, it’s time to forget about modesty. Become as visible as possible. Show up at events and speak with passion to people about what you offer. This is very difficult for some people. But there’s a saying; if you don’t toot your own horn, who else will?

Your Portable Billboard

Dr. Christopher Cordima:

"It May Be Small, But It’s So Powerful...Your Business Card!

If you’re like most professionals, you have a business card. But, what does your business card *do* for you?

“Do”?

Yes, that’s right; what does your business card *do* for you? Does it help to actively create more business for you or does it sit—like most business cards—in a big stack of other business cards that nobody ever looks at?

If you want to maximize your marketing strategy into all areas of your business collateral, it’s time to make your business card work for you. The time when your business card was just a simple way to give your name and number has long since passed. Far from having to be just a way to communicate your name and contact number, a business card provides an excellent opportunity for you to make yourself memorable.

The key to any successful marketing campaign is being memorable. Advertisers spend millions of dollars figuring out exactly what needs to be done to create advertisements that stick in the heads and hearts of their consumers. When it comes to creating a unique and distinctive business card, you have the exact same goal. In today’s highly competitive marketplace, you need to stand out from the rest to define yourself as the best."

Begin Your Journey

From Small Business Motivation, Inspiration, and Perspiration -

Start your own business.
You can start your journey to freedom now.
Roots are dangerous things, they trap even majestic oak trees. Almost everything you have learned is directed at making you a target for the bulldozers.

"Don't let schooling interfere with your education." - Mark Twain

The world is changing in a dramatic fashion, and you need to be ready to move.

Read more.

Alive and Well: Entrepreneurial Spirit

Yahoo! Small Business via Kim Klaver

"Two-thirds of Americans have entrepreneurial aspirations, and a growing number of baby boomers say they would never be too old to launch a business, according to a Yahoo Inc. poll released on Wednesday.

The poll by Sunnyvale-based Yahoo Small Business (NASDAQ:YHOO) showed 55 percent of respondents chose "own my own business" as the kind of work they would prefer to do late in life. Other choices included volunteer work/public service, 42 percent; consulting, 29 percent; teaching, 20 percent; and coming in at less than 15 percent were running for political office, retail/customer service, corporate officer and sales.

In addition, 37 percent of those who said they want to launch their own business plan to do so within one to five years. Of the respondents who use the Internet, 92 percent said it's important for a new small business to have an Internet presence."

Company Rankings

From an ad in the current issue of Home Business Connection (HBC), Xango lists the top 16 home business companies by US Sales as of August 2005. Unfortunately for the purpose of this post, the actual sales figures are not provided but there are other "facts" presented that may be of interest.

The ad notes the age of the company, the number of markets, and the number of products offered through these firms.

Understanding The Comp Plans

I found this article, written by Doris Wood of Multi-Level Marketing International Association (MLMIA). It is a very thorough explanation of compensation plans and examples of how they function.
Here's a short snip:

UNDERSTANDING THE MLM COMPENSATION PLANS
Copyright 1995 - 2003
By Doris Wood

Many components go into making up a plan and circumstances change with time. For instance, back in 1932, when MLM first began, and for another 20 years, the vast majority of companies developed their compensation plans without the benefit of computers. For those companies that started back before every business had a computer, and there are still quite a few around, it probably would cause a major shake up (as well as the loss of many dollars) if these companies were to make any major change in their program. Yet, it is doubtful if they would create the exact same program today.

Many factors, such as...

* Direct sales (party plan) or MLM
* Type of product
* Consumable, not consumable
* Product or service (a service is the product)
* The product mix
* Cost to consumer ratio
* Corporate goals (going public or sell the company within 3 years)
* Experience
* Postal laws
* Ease of sales
* Internet Based
* National or International
* Room for incentives like travel and cars
* More!
Read the entire post.

Doris Wood is the co-founder of MLMIA, which was formed in 1985 along with Michael Sheffield. If you are interested in reading their bio information, click HERE.

Network Marketing - The Home Game

Here is a way to have more fun with your networking business. Not only entertaining but also educational. Invite a few of your downline partners to the house and play
Diamond Destinations, the board game.

"Finally, a board game that teaches the success principles of network marketing and creates real-life results!

Not to be confused with other board games, Diamond Destination is a sophisticated educational product that teaches the principles, skills, and secrets of network marketing success. Endorsed by top personal development trainers like Brian Tracy, Michael Oliver, Richard Bliss Brooke, and many others, Diamond Destination is an emotionally charged, interactive experience that shows you how to work more efficiently, multiply your income, and take control of your business.

With Diamond Destination, you will develop prospecting expertise, have unprecedented access to personal development resources, learn to overcome personal challenges, understand the process of building a team, and achieve clarity in your goals.

Diamond Destination doesn’t just teach you how to win in network marketing; it also shows you why you are in business and the amazing things that will happen for you, your family, and your lifestyle after applying success principles. And the great news is that you can learn all of this while having fun. You will find yourself entertained for hours in the company of friends, wanting to play over and over, and best of all, experiencing real-life results."