Dare To Be Unavailable

Dare to be unavailable at times. Set your own boundaries for how accessible you are going to be. Teach your team to back up for you and for each other. You don't need to respond instantly to e-mails, phone calls or text messages if you set expectations up appropriately. You can describe how you deal with incoming e-mail traffic in your auto response message. On your voice mail you can similarly explain how you respond to phone calls and so on. Most calls are not urgent, and if they are, you tend to know about them already.

Communicate With Stories

Have you found that it is more fun to listen to someone who exemplifies the points they are trying to make? You can use this technique yourself and tell more stories and give examples of what you are talking about. Use examples from your own experience whenever you can. Storytelling and personal examples are great because stories easily slide beneath people's bullshit-indicator. People will listen and more readily believe you when you verify your claims with examples and a good story.

The Perception Of Authority

I used to travel in former Eastern Europe and remember how well they responded to authority in places like Romania and Russia. I came to the conclusion that you have authority to the degree by which you act with authority. I recently read about a man who lost a promotion to a less qualified candidate with the argument "You don't walk like a manager". Authority partly comes from position power but largely from perception power. Act the part and fake it till you make it.

Marketing Is Lead Generation

Oftentimes the purpose of marketing is neglected or overlooked. Regardless of what you sell (and you are always selling something) the goal of your marketing effort should be lead generation. Are you calling on customers, advertising or using direct or online marketing? Give some thought to your own prospecting and marketing efforts. It is wasted if it is not properly measured and followed up. How could you improve the quality and quantity of your lead generation?

Who Is In Control?

Psychologists talk about a concept called locus of control. It can either be internal, meaning you believe that you control yourself and your life, or external, where you believe that your environment or other people control your decisions and your life. People could be divided into those who attribute outcomes to ability (internal locus of control) versus those who attribute outcomes to chance or luck (external). In what group would you belong?

Chunking Tasks And Time

Successful people tend to break their time and their tasks into smaller entities than the average person. A worker may break the day down to before and after lunch, a professional into one hour slots and an executive might break their day into five or ten minute periods. Similarly, the more skilled break their tasks down into smaller segments that they can manage quickly without interruption. How can you use the concept of chunking tasks and time to be even more successful?

Develop A Strong Result Orientation

Have you ever felt proud of yourself, after a long day, pushing paper in the office all day, saying to yourself; "Today I got a lot of things done"!? Did you really? If you want to be a great leader you have to be extremely result oriented. Don't confuse activity with results! First establish the objectives. You can't hit a target you can not see. Once you have defined the goal there are always a few key actions to get done in order to reach the goal. With a strong result orientation you will focus on those key actions.