5 Reasons Why You're NOT Retaining Leaders

It's great and all to get leaders working for you and making a difference...but the real test is retaining those leaders! How to do this? That's the question, for if we check the facts on why you're not retaining leaders, we'll find out the root of the problem and solve it. Make sense? Let's explore.

1. Lacking emotional control is one of the main reasons. Lacking an ability to keep control over your emotions can cause a lot of problems in leadership. It's best to realize that your emotions can get in the way, so figure out how to keep a lot of emotion out of your work.

2. Lacking trust and/or trustworthiness is a problem. Whether you trust other people or people finding you trustworthy - it's important to let trust play into your leadership. Without trust, how can delegation be done? For your constituents, you want to delegate roles and activities, right? And you most certainly want your own leader(s) to delegate certain things to you. Trust is definitely important, and if you don't know how to trust people - you better start.

3. Lacking relationships is not good, when it comes to leadership. If you're a successful leader, then you will say you've made some quality relationships. But, leaders who say that they haven't made relationships along their path - then the trustworthiness of the leader significantly drops. Leadership success needs evidence, so that when you need someone to recommend your leadership, you have the right relationships to do it.

4.  Lack of historical leadership or the evidence of it. Not having a history of leadership drops your success rate. If you have past leadership, but have no evidence (probably because you don't have proof, which can be found in the relationships you should have formed), then people won't believe you have enough experience to maintain your role.

5. Lacking vision is another common reason leaders fail. This is because leaders don't think about what they're working for and how they can improve it so. Therefore, it creates problems wanting to move forward. Without vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). They get lazy! You must have good vision as a leader or share in the vision of the group or others.


It's time to step out of the lazy zone, and time to step into the trustful, visionary leader zone. Believe in the power of leadership and have a purpose about your work - success should arrive shortly after.

Ways to Overcome Hard Times as a Leader

Being a leader can be difficult, especially if you lead a large group of people, such as a business, organization, church, etc. When groups become difficult to lead, leaders need hope. How can you have hope, when people are generally misbehaving or being insolent?

 What are some of ways to overcome troubling times as a leader?

1. Have a purpose about yourself. What is the purpose of the leadership? Stick to the purpose, and you can overcome.

How to Lead Change in your Organization

 Leadership becomes a challenge when you've got to change things in your organization. So, how is this done? I've got a few principles that can help free your mind on the issue.

1. Let people trust in your leadership first.

Nothing is worse than new leaders stepping foot in an organization without having a pre-established trust. Be sure to gain trust before you go trying to make a whole lot of changes. Otherwise, you'll get burned.

Is it just a Team or Family?

In terms of unity, is your group of employees a team or a family? Consider quite a few things on whether or not you are having a family atmosphere at your workplace, or if it's just a team.

Before quitting a current job or accepting a new job, make sure you're going to be with a family-style team, or if it's just going to be generic team (punch-in, punch-out).

It's a lot harder, in fact, to fire a family member if they were working in your organization, rather than just another person. So, if you treat your team like family, the chances of the person doing something outrageous goes down, and the chances of you hopping off the wire go down.

Guest Post: Six Ways Leadership Starts with You

Six Ways Leadership Starts with You (via http://westfallonline.com)

What’s behind every great leader, and every great leadership story? Turns out, leadership is a two-way street. Employees can actually train their bosses to be better leaders. There are skills and leadership characteristics that many employees possess…

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Know the Difference Between Leading and Controlling People

Many reasons exist to why people should be led rather than controlled. However, many people misunderstand leadership and should consider looking at some differences between controlling people and leading people.

Here are some of the controlling characteristics:

Many Ways to Criticize Others Constructively without Hurting

Criticizing other people in hurtful ways is a good way to obtain enemies, so what ways can we offer criticism that gets heard by people in a constructive, helpful way? What are some true ways to seek helpful advice when you need it?

Recognize and compliment the good in other people. Note that you are criticizing a small thing in a big project/organization/etc. Realize the good before touching on the not good parts.

Be specific on the offering of your suggestions for improvement. Don't let your ego get in the way of explaining in full detail the good and the bad of a project or organization. Make sure to be specific and offer the best advice.

Top 10 Hints that it's Time to Give Up and Leave your Job

Everyone is looking for a way out, when it comes to striking circumstances. Although you'd think I'm nuts for recommending that you leave your job, this is wrong. I don't recommend leaving your job, unless is more than 2/3 of the following signs are evident. Just because there's one sign that you should leave your job, doesn't mean to go ahead and do it (then come back and blame me).

However, this is merely advice that you should consider if you want to get out of an abusive job, bad employee relationships, etc. It's just like reading symptoms of health problems: just because there's one or two signs, doesn't mean you have the condition. But, if there are more than about 2/3 of the signs evident, then you should consider a doctor visit.

Boss Horror Story #2

This past Friday, I reviewed my boss horror story #1, now on to boss #2. The other boss I will talk about a bit on what difficulties I faced, what I observed, and ways to solve the problems that were created. This will help you learn what good management/leadership is, and what it's not.

This other boss, I was working with her a couple hours every day that I worked, then worked with the other manager on the shift for the other time I was at work.

Well, the general manager of this place was not exactly the easiest to get along with. Her focus was all about rules, and if you didn't follow them (or rather, broke at least one), she either yelled at you, or she yelled at the team at our staff meetings. After hearing so much cursing and yelling at our meetings, I couldn't tolerate it anymore.

Boss Horror Story #1

Boss Horror Story #1

Today is the first boss horror story that I'd like to tell you about. I'm not here to shoot down a former boss of mine, but rather provide characteristics on what made the boss less effective. So, today is boss #1 from the first job I had.

Here are some of the characteristics that made boss #1 an unhealthy leader:

1. The boss was pushy.
   
   My first boss, which was a third tier manager (meaning there were two managers tiered above her). She was actually rather pushy in almost any request she made to me and a few other co-workers. She actually was nice to her "friends", but mean to other people.

Ways to keep your Ego in Check

As being a young entrepreneur, you might seem like the type that gets puffed up or a big head with every success moment you have. However, this can lead to disrespect of elder entrepreneurs, or can lead to a distaste people have for you.

As I talked about before, it is a good idea to have socially attractive humility - I identified 7 ways to not describe yourself. One of those identified was calling yourself "powerful", as this makes you sound like you have a big ego.

It's more appreciating to see a wonderful businessperson or employee have a calm manner, humble description of themselves, and overall excellent attitude. Again, be real, be yourself, and people will describe you for exactly who you are.

Top 10 Leadership Skills to Help in any Industry

I've been evaluating my own leadership, went through a couple classes, and have a list conjured up so you can see what the best leadership skills are to have, which can help in any industry.

1. Stay focused. As long as you're looking ahead, the other things won't matter.

Many times, people lose focus in daily activities, distractions, etc. However, if you'll focus on the goals at hand, and ignore these other distractions - you'll start reaching leadership goals.

2. It's not ALL business. What you SAY and DO impacts people in some way.

People say, "It's not personal...just business." However, I disagree with this fact. What you say and do as a leader impacts the people you manage, and the people you don't manage. So, watch what you say and how you say it.

How to be happier at work

Many people really want to know the true way to be happier at work, and the following should be evident to help you manage that. However, keep in mind that the tips below are not how to be happy, but how to stop doing things that make you unhappy.

Usually, people think happiness involves adding things to your life to make your life great. But, these tips are more aimed at subtracting things. In turn, it will makes things a lot less stressful. People need to bring their business dream to life, and learn some happiness while they're at it.

•  Weed out the blaming. For starters, people make mistakes. Vendors may not deliver on time, people may not be on time with project completions, or they may not have things up to code.
  
  However, who is to blame? Well, you can be blamed, too. Taking responsibility is highly important. Why should we worry about blaming someone? Why not take responsibility if it's your issue. If it's someone else's issue, bring it before a manager. At least that's the best way to do it.
  
  What if you're a manager or company executive? Then, you are the one that should take responsibility. Maybe you didn't provide enough training, build enough buffer, or just asked too much - too soon. Makes sense right? We move on...

Become a MUCH better leader in 10 steps

Being a better leader in your business or personal life is highly important and attributable to success. Too often people lose sight of their leadership potential. However, it can be retained by following the best principles that leadership employs.

1. Be a good listener!  First a quote from a trusted author: "When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest HemingwayIn order to maintain any good relationship, listening is the greatest foundation. You need to listen to your customers, prospects, friends, workmates, etc. Listening more will help people realize that you don't bloat your importance, you don't be selfish, and that you are open to what they have to say.
2. Be a great storyteller. Let people hear some of your life's work, especially if you can successfully engage their attention. But make sure that you are telling the right stories, ones where people can act on. British author, Karen Armstrong said it well: "Storytelling is fine as long as you can encourage people to act on the stories."
   
   I think she's right on the money there. You don't want to tell stories that are foolish. But, rather, tell stories that reflect wisdom. It's a great way to put ideas to good work.