You Are What You Do
The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread. Every time you repeat the act you strengthen the strand. You add to it another filament with each repetition, until it becomes a great cable and binds you irrevocably to each thought and act. First you make your habits and then they make you. Your thoughts lead you to your purpose. Your purpose always manifests into action. Your actions form your habits. Your habits determine your character, and your character fixes your destiny. Your habits are either the best of servants or the worst of masters. (Reprinted with permission, Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology, Leadership Management® International, Inc.)
Everyone Has A Chance For Success
People often handle life as they do bad weather. They while away the time waiting for it to stop. Yet the tide of opportunity comes to everyone. Opportunity knocks all the time, but you’ve got to be ready for it. When your chance comes, you must have the equipment to take advantage of it. The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, for time and chance happen to everyone. Take a second look at what appears to be someone’s “good luck.” You’ll find not luck but preparation, planning and success-producing thinking. When you’re prepared for opportunity your chance for success is sure to come. The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success. Decide that this will be your year for success and prepare for it to happen. (Reprinted with permission, Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology, Leadership Management® International, Inc.)
Grasp the Role of an Effective Leader
While no two leaders possess exactly the same personality or leadership style, effective leaders generally have many of the same characteristics. They frequently a contagious enthusiasm for life, a genuine concern for others, an enhanced clarity of purpose, and a firm commitment to the achievement of worthwhile, predetermined goals. The magnetic force of effective leadership is a tool which draws on the ability to arouse in followers a desire to be like the leader – or to possess some of the admirable qualities and personality traits seen in the leader. Effective leaders bring out the best in their team members. To do so, they employ leadership traits which can be divided into three major areas: attitudes, behavior, and people skills. How You Think Goal direction. Effective motivational leaders define clearly the goals they want to reach, visualize them vividly, and work toward reaching them with intensity of purpose. Self-motivation. Never feeling compelled to wait for someone else to tell them what to do, effective leaders rely on their own decisions and actions. Self-motivation propels leaders into purposeful and productive action. Insight and judgment. Determined, effective leaders apply their general intelligence and common sense to the task of learning what works, and what does not work. This trait, practiced efficiently, allows leaders to move ahead without wasting time before making a decision or taking action. Competence and action. Effective leaders face problems and do something about them. They often find themselves in new or unfamiliar situations without guidelines to follow or established patterns to give direction. They are forced to devise creative new paths to their goal, new methods for attaining their purpose, and new ideas for achieving success. Leaders know that some ideas and actions will prove unworkable. Effective leaders rebound from temporary setbacks, risk trying the next creative idea…
Become Better, Do Better, Be More Productive
A basic part of human nature yearns to achieve, to accomplish, to attain – to do better in the future than in the past. Through the ages, philosophers, poets, heads of state, commanding generals, businesspeople – leaders of all types – have tried to light the fires of enthusiasm and kindle the flame of motivation to glimpse the heights they might reach, the happiness they might enjoy, and the depths of reward they might gain from using more of their potential. The term, productivity, captures the essence of this human pursuit of becoming better and doing better. Productivity, in fact, has earned recognition as the key to personal and business progress, success, and survival. Productivity Defined Since improving productivity is vital in today’s competitive world, a clear understanding of the term productivity is essential. Productivity is defined by some from an economic standpoint. Others take a management viewpoint, while yet others look at productivity from other perspectives. A simple definition that applies to all businesses and individuals is that productivity is the measure of how efficiently goods and services are delivered. Productivity in a broad sense is concerned with the overall effectiveness of getting things done. In a narrower business sense, productivity is doing what it takes to make more money. From a personal perspective, productivity enables you to earn your income. Overall, productivity means making more from your available resources; it means investing time in tasks, activities, or responsibilities that provide a high return to your organization and you. Productivity is determined by working on high payoff activities, and high payoff activities mean spending time doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, and for the right length of time. When you spend your time on high payoff activities, you will be more productive. You…
Go After What You Want And You’ll Get It
When you’re sure you’re on the right road to success you don’t have to plan your journey too far ahead. Don’t burden yourself with doubts and fears as to the obstacles that may bar your progress. You don’t need to know all your answers in advance. Just have a clear idea of the goal you want to reach. You can only take one step at a time. If you can muster up the courage to begin, you’ll find the courage to succeed. It’s the job you never start that always takes the longest to finish. Eighty percent of success is in showing up. (Reprinted with permission, Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology, Leadership Management® International, Inc.)
There Is A Good Side To Every Situation
View your problems as opportunities. You cannot have the success without the failures. Any experience can be transformed into something of value. Everything depends on the way you look at things. What are stumbling blocks and defeat before you can be stepping stones to victory if you remain determined. In all of your adversities lies the seeds of equivalent advantages. In every defeat there is a lesson showing you how to win the next time. When it’s dark enough you can see the stars. (Reprinted with permission, Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology, Leadership Management® International, Inc.)
Be Prepared When Opportunity Comes
By the law of periodical repetition, everything which has happened once must happen again and again and again. Not capriciously, but at regular periods, and each thing in it’s own period, and each obeying it’s own law. There is a tide in your affairs, when taken at the flood, that will lead you on to fortune. As events tend to repeat themselves, the tide of opportunity will come to you. Luck is the time when preparation and opportunity meet. When you’re prepared, your chance for success will come. You can change chance into good fortune if you’re ready. The only sure thing about luck is that it will change. (Reprinted with permission, Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology, Leadership Management® International, Inc.)
Delegate to Succeed
A manager’s primary responsibility is to get work done through other people, and the single most effective technique for achieving this purpose is delegation. Effective delegation is the act of giving someone else the responsibility and authority to carry out an assignment or to represent you or your organization in a specific role. In addition to sharing responsibility, delegation involves communication and training. When teamwork is at its best, effective delegation occurs. Practicing the art of effective delegation is a vital tool in your development as a leader and manager because of these key benefits: 1. You improve your personal time management, leveraging your energy and ideas. 2. You provide motivational and development opportunities for others on your team. 3. You maximize the interests, strengths, and contribution of others and increase the team productivity. 4. You make use of a valuable yet easily overlooked training tool – delegation! The definition of delegation can be expanded to include sharing of responsibilities with team members, other managers, or anyone with whom dividing responsibilities is appropriate and logical. The concepts used for traditional delegation apply with some modification when sharing responsibility. For example, some tasks within your work load may best be accomplished by counterparts of yours. Certain individuals may have special skills or knowledge, information, or relationships that make it more effective for them to complete the work. Keeping in mind the overall goal and being willing to share responsibility, as well as the credit, increases your success as a manager. Effective delegation multiplies your efforts many times over by using the time, knowledge, experience, and creative power of other people. Effective delegation frees you for the planning, problem solving, and tracking required to build a more productive organization. Types of Delegation Choose carefully the team members to whom you delegate specific…
