Empower Your Team

Motivation produces results. The first responsibility of a leader is to motivate the team. Refrain from doing anything that disempowers them or reduces their energy and enthusiasm for what they are doing. Involve them and let them provide input. When they participate in a discussion they tend to accept the conclusion even if it differs from their perspective.

Maintain Your Disciplines

Hold on to your positive habits that made you successful in the first place. When things go smoothly it's easy to relax your disciplines. Your productive habits form the basis for your future success. They are vaccines to protect you when the wheels get spinning faster and things get harried. Review you habits and ask yourself if there are any you have forgotten and should pick up again.

Tell A Story

One of the best way to influence others is by telling stories. There is something about a good narrative that is difficult to challenge. A story acts as a kind of independent witness in a trial. No one can argue with the experiences of others. This story telling technique is commonly used in politics, religion and by great sales- and marketing people. Figure out how you can use story telling when influencing others in your line of work.

Hear All Sides, Get The Facts

A way to solve problems; resolve conflict; and bring closure to your worst mistakes and failures: hear all sides; get the true facts; let the chips fall where they may. Get everyone's version of the story. Listen a lot and don't jump to conclusions too quickly. Don't stop until you have a clear picture of what really happened. Let the appropriate people be held accountable for what happened, especially if you are one of those people! It is helpful and inspiring to a team when a leader is willing to admit their own mistakes. Be one of those leaders.

Thank You!

Thank the people around you for the smallest acts of kindnesses. The more you thank other people for doing things for you, the more things those other people will want to do. Look for ways to make people feel more valuable and important. Say things to others that you would like others to say to you. Express appreciation for everything anyone does for you, large or small. Say the words, "thank you" on every occasion.

Understand Momentum

It is never the size of your problem that is the problem. It's a lack of momentum. Without momentum, even a tiny obstacle can prevent you from moving forward. With momentum, you'll be able to navigate through problems and barely even notice them. As a leader, your responsibility is to understand momentum, to get it moving for your organization, and to sustain it over time.

Prioritize Your Tasks

Ivy Lee is considered to be the father of modern Public Relations and worked for Rockefeller, Chrysler and others. He sold an idea to Charles Schwab for $ 25,000. The idea was to write down your six most important tasks for next day, prioritize them in the order of their importance and work on them in that order, not proceeding until a task is completed. Schwab introduced the idea to his entire management team. Try it for yourself.