Self Improvement Information

There is a pervasive belief, in the world today, that to get ahead in politics and business a person can’t have principals.  Some people have high moral fiber in their home life and may even be pillars in the church, but when it comes to business they are unrecognizable as the same people.  I have had managers tell me, “ethics don’t add to the bottom line.”  I have even been told, “Stop being childish, everyone compromises their ethics, sometime.”

There are many opportunities in business today where we will be in a position to make a choice.  In business, and in life, there are many forks in the road.  It may appear to be the faster road to success, to take the road to doing something, we know in our hearts, is not right.

I believe that particular road is built on sand.  It may feel solid at first, but as trials and tribulations happen the road quickly begins to disintegrate and success is lost.  In leadership, it is even more important to have principals.  When we teach and lead people, they will do as we do, not as we say.  We would quickly become a leader of unprincipled people who will do anything unethical to succeed.  This behavior, eventually, opens up the business to legal and regulator issues.  Most of all, to the disappointment and distrust of the customers.  This is very evident in the business of politics, today.  Who can we trust and believe in?

In business, a reputation is everything.  Not only will customers, eventually, mistrust and avoid the wrong doer, but people talk.  Word of mouth is a powerful thing.  It can make, or break a company.  It is said that when someone is happy with a product or service they will, on average, tell five other people.  If they are unhappy with how they have been treated, they will tell eleven to sixteen people. Those eleven to sixteen people will, not only not do business with that company or person, they will tell others.  It doesn’t take long to ruin a reputation.  Soon the business is gone.

We have to strive to be right, in our ethics, as well as our customer service, 100% of the time.  When you are a leader of people, those people are putting it on the line for your company and you every single day.  They are assuming, you know what is right and in their best interest.  We have to know from the very beginning what is right and wrong.  Our lives depend on it.

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There are advantages to leadership.  The leader set the goals, develops the game plan to meet those goals, and makes the decisions along the way.  Great leaders know this freedom comes with many rewards, but, also, a tremendous amount of responsibilities.

Great leaders knows the ultimate “buck” stops with them.  Whether their team wins or loses, the responsibility for those results falls to the leader.  I have found, that the toughest thing, for some leaders, is to accept the responsibility for team failures.  The easy route to take, is to blame the members of the team.  Whether they say it themselves, or anyone else, they justify the loss by thinking their team’s a bunch of “donkeys” with no ability.  Or, they make excuses, such as, the competition caused this.

A strong leader accepts the responsibility, learns the lesson from those failures, and takes steps to never, ever, do it again.  When the leader can do that, the team will learn the lessons of being responsible for their own actions.

A leader, should set a team goal, pass out the responsibilities of that goal to each team member, and step back and let them do it.  I have seen leaders who do a great job of setting the goal, delegating the task, and then step all over their team mates.  They begin to micro manage the tasks.  They don’t trust the job to get done to their specifications.

I believe one of the most frustrating thing a leader can do to their team is to tell them how they, as the leader, would do the task.  It creates a dependency in the team and fear of not being able to do the task without input from the leader.  It is good to test the team’s ability to do the task by giving them the freedom to do it.  Each team mate is responsible for getting their own part of the task done.  The leader’s responsibility is to give their team support and encouragement.  By asking them to imitate the leader, their true abilities will not be given the opportunity to shine.  The leader will never know their potential and neither will they.

The sign of a great leader is not that they win every battle or game.  It is their ability to grow other strong, independent leaders, capable of getting the job done.  Great leaders spawn great teams, that creates other great leaders, who create strong teams…and the cycle goes on and on.

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There is nothing worse than the feeling of being out of control in our lives.  That feeling when someone, or something, has so much control over us that we are no longer free.  We don’t want our government, our job, or our relationships with other people to take our freedom away.

People enjoy the feeling that they have ownership in their job or career.  Many people are attracted to starting their own business because they have a desire for more ownership in their lives.  Starting a business comes with many distractions.  There is the freedom to do just as we wish because we own the company.  That presents the challenge of disciplining ourselves to do the work that it takes to get the job done.  We have the freedom, but it comes with responsibility.

Some folks are afraid to take the leap into business ownership.  I have heard people say they need structure, because they aren’t a self starter.  The freedom scares them.  They would be leaving the security of guaranteed income and benefits to start something new.  Even though, their job security may only be as secure as their boss’ next mood change.

A job or career, without the feeling of ownership, is similar to having a car given to you as a teenager.  My husband and I always provided our children with their first car.  In the case of our youngest son, it was something he expected to happen and he didn’t value it.  Before the car was 6 month old, he had rolled it doing something stupid.  The next car was on him.  He had to take the school bus every morning to school. He was back to being chauffeured to his job by his parents.  His freedom was severely curtailed.  He worked hard to earn the money for his next car. He took much better care of car #2. He learned a lesson and so did we.

When we invest ourselves into something and are held accountable for what we personally have put into it, we have a feeling of ownership.  We, as leaders of people, need to understand this principal of ownership.  Making people responsible for the outcome.  Evaluating that outcome, in a measurable way, gives them a sense of ownership of their job.  Increased income, more freedom, responsibility by accountability, praise, and recognition for a job well done will help give them the ownership so many people desire.

Feelings of fulfillment and ownership brings the feelings of having more control over our own lives.  More feelings of control in our lives leads to more fulfillment and ownership.  The cycle continues….

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