Leadership Is Dealing With People

The higher you climb on the corporate ladder, more of your problems become behavioral. When you start out, great technical skill is sufficient to get the job done and position yourself for promotion. As you raise through the ranks into leadership roles, interpersonal relationship skills become more important. How you deal with people ultimately becomes the most critical skill of all.

Decide What You Want

The Comic strip character from MAD, Alfred E. Neuman once said: "Most people don't know what they want - but they're sure they haven't got it." There is only one way to find out; decide what you want! Then make a plan for how you are going to get it, launch out, monitor your progress as you go and self correct if necessary.

Underpromise And Overdeliver

If you make promises but come in short every time you are turning your success into defeat unnecessarily! You have to manage expectations and promise only when you are 100% positive you can do it. Don't promise what you can't deliver. In budgeting it is best to underpromise and then surprise everyone with delivering way above the expectation.

Catch The Idea

Even if you are not the most creative individual on the planet, every day in your car on the way back and forth to work you sometimes come up with new ideas, don't you? Studies suggest that the average person comes up with at least four bright, brilliant, one million dollar ideas every year. The key is to catch the idea when it is "hot off the plate" and write it down immediately!

The Law Of Indirect Effort

Everything you get in life you get from other people. The best way to obtain what you want is through indirect means. If you want others to be interested in you, show interest in them. If you want respect, show it to the people around you. If you want friendship, be a friend and so on. There is a natural tendency to reciprocate what we receive from others. This is sometimes referred to as the law of indirect effort.

No Money, No Business

The purpose of any business is to generate money. I know there are lots of other things involved but at the end of the day it is about profit. Therefore you do well to prioritize your efforts around revenue generation and cost control. No money, no business. No business, no job. You work for the shareholders and one of them is you, really.

Cultivate Your Connectors

In your social network there are many types of individuals. Some are connectors. They know a lot of people and, for whatever reason, enjoy connecting them with each other. In my extensive network of acquaintances I have a couple of handful of good connectors. They are amazing with their exceptional interpersonal relationship skills. Connect with your connectors and you will find their relationships tremendously rewarding.