THE ONE TRAIT EVERY CEO MUST HAVE

Charisma Is Not Enough. Great Leaders Execute

Unlike charisma, which is in your genes and dictated by your personality, you can learn strong execution skills. Here’s what I mean.

Over the years, whenever and wherever I’ve asked a group of students, executives, or academics to list the five most important attributes of leadership, charisma always makes the list.

The 19th-century sociologist Max Weber greatly emphasized the importance of charisma. For him, charisma was a deeply rooted personality trait that enabled individuals to attract others by the sheer power of their dramatic presence. When you are in a crowd listening to a charismatic leader, what do you tell yourself? In your semi-deification of the charismatic leader, you may engage in self-exclusion. The message you tell yourself is, “It ain’t me,” and by the cultural glorification of charisma, society tells most people, “It ain’t you.”

Implicitly or explicitly, many leadership experts maintain that your dramatic presence and the power of your personality are essential to your success as a leader. But I ask you to look around. The fact that some charismatic people are leaders doesn’t mean that charisma is the litmus test of leadership. As Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Dwight Eisenhower, as well as many others show, leaders are defined by their actions and ability to execute, not only on their charismatic personality.

For all the debates and discussion, reflection and counter-reflection about leadership, it’s pretty straightforward. Leaders aren’t remembered because of their dreams, aspirations, or intentions. They are remembered because of their accomplishments. They are remembered because they took ideas and made them concrete.

As an entrepreneur, as a leader, as a person with drive and ambition, what you care about is moving from potential to execution and that means moving an agenda. Charisma and vision may get you in the door, they may even get you elected, but in the final analysis, leadership is about execution.

Continue reading this article at INC.com after the break!

 

FOOL-PROOF METHOD TO SAVE A DYING BUSINESS

This salon consultant has saved many a dying business. Find out how she is able to take severely indebted companies and turn them into the money makers that they once were. Get her method here!

Entrepreneur shares…

If you don’t like the atmosphere at your business, a recent episode of Tabatha’s Salon Takeover offers a primer on how to turn it around. If you don’t know the Bravo reality show’s star, Tabatha Coffey, she’s an edgy, black-clad, white-blonde, brutally frank Aussie salon-business consultant who overhauls failing shops.

Coffey puts the reality in reality TV. She doesn’t care whose feathers get ruffled if she can fix a dying business. In the episode I caught, she arrives at Earth Moon Sun, a salon in upscale Western Springs, Ill, that’s fallen $500,000 in debt. Owner Janeen Nufer has floundered since her sister and business partner, who led the hairstylist team, left her flat.

Since then, the atmosphere devolved radically. Employees and managers shout across the salon and berate each other. Workers eat while talking on the phone to customers, belch at the front desk, and drink on the job. Unsurprisingly, customers come in. . . but they don’t come back.

Here’s how Coffey turned around this sorry scenario and helped instill a culture of professionalism and respect:

• Document the problem. Before arriving at the salon, Coffey spent a day taping the workers on hidden camera, and sent in secret-shopper customers who came back unhappy with their haircuts. Confronted with the evidence of the problems in the salon, Nufer was receptive to new ideas to turn things around.
• Get over the past. Nufer hadn’t moved on after her sister left the business. She’d never hired a new hairstyling manager, leaving the salon floundering artistically and in terms of training. Coffey takes Nufer to the beach to scream and vent her anger and sadness over this betrayal. Then, it’s time to move forward.
• Freshen up. If your place of business looks grotty, it’s easy for civility to go out the window. A quick facelift that adds warmer colors and a few new furniture pieces have workers instantly feeling happier to show up to the salon.
• Get out from behind the desk. Nufer’s general manager, Nicole, is a big problem that Coffey identifies immediately. She’s not really managing the employees or making sure customers’ needs are met, preferring to hide in the back office doing paperwork while everything goes to heck. Coffey pulls her on to the salon floor and tries to get her involved in operations, but Nicole isn’t interested.
• Take a break. At one point, Coffee sends workers home for a couple of days to think about how they’ve been acting and to learn new skills. The break from the work grind gives everyone a chance to reflect on how they could change their behavior.
• Boost training. One haircutter is a disaster, unconfident and unresponsive to customer’s feedback. With Coffey’s encouragement, the employee is moved to an assistant position and off the haircutting floor, then signed up for more training to improve her skills.
• Model the behavior you want. Coffey has Nufer lead the staff in rounding up all the liquor and pouring it out. When they go out to cut hair for a fashion show, Coffey cautions her to set the tone by making sure she’s polite and talks softly to staff. Employees immediately pick up on the vibe.
• Have the guts to cut the deadwood. Every worker in the salon hates Nicole, and Coffey feels Nufer is in a co-dependent relationship with her manager. At one point, Nicole even cuts off all Nufer’s sentences and finishes them for her. A few weeks after Coffey departs, Nufer finally musters the courage to get rid of her.

Get more information at Entrepreneur!

 

Shirdi Sai Baba Wish Fulfillment Prayer

Shirdi Sai Baba Wish Fulfillment Prayer.
Perform this prayer for five days and make a wish. 
After five days, share this Wish Fulfillment Prayer with five people.
May Shirdi Sai Baba fulfill all your wishes.