The Meaning and Essence of Leadership in Business

Change is the only unchanging features in this changing world. Everything surrounding us changes with the passage of time to be in line with modernization. The ongoing business environment is no exception when it comes to this trend. Modern business is on a triumphant march through tracking changes via hard work from the most efficient business leaders.

Effective leaders adopt strategies and techniques to try to win or take the lead in the competitive market, which is ultimately a game of "survival of the fittest." In both good and bad times, there is always a need for quality leadership. The success of a business or an industry is mostly dependent on the leaders it gets or inherits. The successful implementation of desired leadership techniques is crucial for meeting the changing demands in business. The mystique of leadership in and of itself makes it one of the most widely debated, studied and sought-after commodities in business.

The Meaning of Leadership

Leadership is the social process of influencing the behaviors of others without posing any threats of violence. It is a process of influencing the thoughts, attitudes and behaviors of others by setting a direction that helps visualize what they can hope to achieve or what lies ahead for them. It's the capability of getting other people to do something significant through harnessing their efforts jointly.

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Perfect Moment Monday: Down with the Sickness

My Perfect Moment for this week …

…is difficult to pinpoint. One rises to the top so the one glowing the brightest while looking back over the week was the moment when I made the decision to take a not just one sick day but three last week.

Nobody enjoys being sick. I know I certainly don’t like the sniffles, headaches, moodiness, congestion, etc. But last week both my toddler and I were sick with a cold. His was bad enough to keep him home from preschool for three days. These three days meant that I also was being asked to balance work with family. But half way through his first day home I was blessed with his cold when the symptoms began. I think they’re finally beginning to subside.

The perfect moment was about not just prioritizing my own health and family over work but being able to honestly acknowledge how much I enjoyed the one-on-one time with my son. Was I stressed about not working and…

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Skills of a Successful Entrepreneur

So you want to go into business for yourself, do you? Well, there are a few skills every successful entrepreneur needs to either have himself or the resources (both monetary and human) available to him. We are not all born to entrepreneurship; and even if we grow up in an entrepreneurial family setting, we still need to have a certain amount of drive and basic skills to achieve success.

It is a given that successful entrepreneurs need to begin their journey of being in business for themselves with a certain degree of courage combined with the ability to plan before entering into the business world—let alone meet or exceed the challenges they will face. The following are eight basic skills you need to achieve success as an entrepreneur.

#1: Value

The first and the foremost skill before embarking into business for yourself is to ensure you will be providing value: value to customers, the industry, vendors as well as to yourself. Once you enter the business world, you will face tremendous challenges and a new competitor at every turn. It is important to try to discover new ideas of promotions and do what others are not providing to your target market. It will be important to work hard to maintain your value on a scale that is equal to or greater than your competitors.

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Understanding Intrapreneurship

Not everyone is fortunate enough to give wings to her entrepreneurial pursuits due to lack of capital and other resources. The concept of “intrapreneurship” comes to the rescue of such individuals. Intrapreneurship is basically practicing entrepreneurship within the confines of an organization. Intrapreneurship works well for various reasons—the foremost being that unlike entrepreneurial ventures, there is no substantial risk involved. Intrapreneurs are employed by an organization for a fixed remuneration and are involved with generating new ideas and converting them into profitable ventures with financial support and other help from the organization.

Difference between Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship
There are certain similarities and differences between entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Like an entrepreneur, even an intrapreneur exhibits characteristics such as independence, conviction, vision, passion to fulfil his dreams, etc. Entrepreneurs make their own decisions, whereas…

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Debt v. Equity Financing

When entrepreneurs begin to think about either going into business for themselves or taking their business to the next level, the financial and money concerns become the main challenge to address and/or overcome.

Debt and equity are the two main financing options from which most businesses can choose. Debt financing in simple terms means borrowing funds for the business for a fixed period of time at an interest rate pre-determined at the time of borrowing. Equity financing, on the other hand, refers to the capital raised for a company by selling common stock to individual or institutional investors. It leads to sharing of ownership in the business, depending on the amount invested. The following is a brief introduction to the advantages and disadvantages of both debt financing and equity financing.

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Client Referral Systems

Any small business owner worth his salt will tell you word of mouth publicity is one of the best ways for securing more business. Client referral systems are based on this very thought. Generally, when a satisfied client refers your name to someone chances are good the person will end up becoming your client as well.

However, you can’t depend only on the whims of clients to refer you to their friends. To secure referrals you may have to offer your clients incentives. A lot of businesses successfully use an incentive-based system to get more client referrals. The following are five of the most recommended and used client referral incentive programs or techniques currently being used.

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Social Entrepreneurship: What Is It?

Is profit the sole focus of entrepreneurship? Is maximizing returns the only thing that matters? If we answer these questions with a yes, we would not be doing justice to a whole class of social entrepreneurs—people devoted to bringing social change through their business ventures.

Social entrepreneurs are in the business of touching lives. Such individuals do not believe addressing social issues is the responsibility of the government and large corporate houses alone; they take it upon themselves to champion the cause in which they believe. Social entrepreneurs go beyond philanthropy to bring radical changes in their society and put forth new and sustainable models of businesses with a cause.

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Stand Tall or Stay Flat?

As an entrepreneur, what was the first organizational decision you made? Most likely it was accounting or something to do with internal procedures, or maybe it was something to do with the product or service you were going to be selling. If you are like most small businesses, one of the distant decisions you rarely think about when you go into business is how you’re going to structure your business as it grows—organizationally, that is.

Choosing your organizational structure is a strategic decision that involves a careful evaluation of your options, but long before this decision you need to believe that what you are creating will grow and ultimately become its own entity; therefore, it needs to have its own family tree. This article will help you with the visualization of two of these main organizational hierarchical structures.

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Importance of HR Accounting

There is no undermining the value of Human Resource in any organisation. To quote Narayan Murthy founder of the IT giant Infosys, “My assets are not the buildings, the business or foreign contact. My assets walk out of the gate every evening and I wait for them to come back to me the next morning.”

Human Resource is the greatest asset of any organization, and like any other asset you need to account for it. This is particularly true in service-based organizations where instead of a tangible product there’s an intangible product (i.e., service to offer), and hence the conduct and approach of the employees assumes greater importance. Human Resource Accounting (HR Accounting) may be a new term for a lot of small businesses since most view their employees as assets but forget that there is a real tangible cost associated with obtaining these assets and well as maintaining the assets to ensure a long and loyal life.

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Goodwill and Social Media

The Internet has provided us with a free platform to market our products and services. Smart marketing, however, involves subtle techniques of convincing people you truly offer the best products or service because you are an expert in your niche. To build this kind of brand value you need to sound authoritative and knowledgeable. For instance, when you send out newsletters and emails, use a tone that says “I know what I am talking about” without sounding arrogant or pompous. Your posts on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites should also carry the same note of authority.

Sounds great, right? I know; it sounds wonderful to me too! As Therapy in Transition continues to move through the ebb and flow of its journey, I have come not only to live and breathe but also love the idea of social media and what it means to us as an organization. Originally I joined the world of Facebook to connect with family and friends who live at a distance, only to quickly learn that as a business we can also be connecting with current clients, potential clients and strategic partners. But navigating these new waters opened up a whole new world. Here are three concepts I’ve learned as a business owner and would like to share to hopefully allow you to embrace using social media a little more effectively.

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Bulletin Board Ideas

Remember back to your childhood and the first day back to school. Your new teacher for the year spent the month of August putting together her welcoming bulletin boards for you to see and hopefully build excitement about the upcoming school year. Bulletin boards are excellent tools for making learning fun! Not only do bulletin boards make the classroom look brighter, they can also serve as excellent platforms for students and teachers to work together and express their creativity.

As business professionals, can we tap into this same creative approach to get our employees excited about upcoming change and transition? I think so. Let’s take a few minutes to see how ideas that teachers embrace can easily be translated into a professional work environment.

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Undercharging? Death of a Business

In the competitive world of business, selling your services cheap may seem tempting. After all, a lower price tag on your services may help you attract more clients than your competitors, right? But when you are in a field like consultancy or coaching, you need to ask yourself, “Is undercharging for my services worth it in the long run?”

What sets apart a consultant from the others is your intellect—or, more specifically your wisdom. Cheapening or devaluing your wisdom to a level that in line with or less than that of a competitor may not be a good idea. Also, it is simple business psychology that people expect providers to reduce their prices even more if they are already offering their services at a fee lower than the average market rate. By reducing your fees you are buying into this psychology. If that is the case, then you may want to ask yourself, “What is my true value, and how this is being reflected in the fees I charge?”

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Difficult People at Work?

Whether we like it or not, all those working in an office setting have to deal with office politics and difficult people at work. After all, we can’t always choose with whom we work, so we just need to find a way to co-exist with people we don’t like or with whom we can’t get along. The vital question is, “How can one do that?” So, here are some tips that can help you find the right answer.

Introspect
I know it doesn’t sound like the best piece of advice. After all, we’re supposed to discuss how to handle people whom you have already acknowledged as difficult, right? But the fact is that often it is our own reaction to people who are different from us that makes us see them as “difficult.” It is therefore important we examine our own reactions and behavior objectively to figure out if at all we are the ones who are overeating.

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Client Management: When to Fire Clients

As a consultant you want both money and work satisfaction, right? You’ll get these two vital things only if you have the right clients. So, what do I mean by the “right clients,” you may ask? The answer: your clients should respect you, value your services and pay you well. As a small business owner you do not go into business for yourself with the risk and investment to lose money or just break even. You go into business to make money. Part of the responsibility of working for yourself is about knowing your limits and your area of expertise. When you don’t honor these elements, you run the risk of losing more than you could be gaining.

Several consultants have a huge client base, but their earnings really come from 20-25% of them because a lot of people try to squeeze as much as they can out of consultants without paying them what they deserve. Then again, there are also clients who treat consultants like commodities or mere trainers. While such clients may pay you well, at the end of the day people who don’t value your services are not good for your overall brand image. This is one of the many reasons you need to be able to truly identify your key target demographic and/or perfect client type.

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Mentoring Programs: Supportive of Success

When we set out to start our own business, we tend to look back at our previous experience and how the environment was either supportive or non-supportive of the employee’s success--to see what worked and what didn’t. One of the elements of a successful business is the openness to share our wisdom and passion of doing what we love with others. One of the easiest ways is to establish a mentoring program. Mentoring doesn’t always mean we are “grooming” new employees for their rise in the corporate environment; it can also mean mentoring high school students to gain much needed experience in the work place.

Today I would like to share with you a few advantages of how establishing a mentoring program can support your small business success while also touching on how setting up a mentoring program in a small to medium organization can help you develop your human resources and use those resources in the most efficient manner possible.

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Starting Your Own Business?

The idea of doing their own thing has seduced many men and women into chucking their jobs and trying their luck at entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, not all people have been able to succeed at running their own businesses. The problem more often than not lies in the fact that most people plunge into the deep waters of entrepreneurship unprepared. Ideally, before you start your own business you need to ask yourself the following questions. The easy step is asking; providing a truthful, honest answer is the difficult part.

Do you have enough capital and cash? Money attracts money. If you do not have enough capital and liquidity, it won’t be easy for you to sustain your business. Therefore, before you decide to start your own business you must be clear about your funding options. Do you want to borrow? Can you borrow money, and if so, from where? What are you willing to give in return for the investment? If the funds are not from a bank, then private investors are looking for ownership and a return on their investment.

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DIY Coaching

Life keeps throwing one challenge after the other at us, and to stay ahead and keep your focus intact you need to coach yourself to stay disciplined, set achievable goals and monitor your progress constantly. This, though, begs the one word question: How? When partnering with a life, business or personal wellness coach isn’t in your budget, there are a few things you can do for yourself that can kick start your way to achieving your desired goals and dreams.

A great place to begin is by asking yourself what goals you would like to achieve and by when. Your answers will help you in outlining your plan and formulating the steps you need take to get there. When writing down your answers, be sure to be very clear about what the end result will look like. The more specific you are, the easier putting the steps to get there in place will be. An example of one goal you might write down is, “By this time next year my client base will have increased by 50%.” This is a very clear goal: it provides a time frame in which you want to achieve it (year from now), establishes a measurable result (50%), and identifies with what you will be working (client base).

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Customer Service: What Entrepreneurs Need to Know

We’ve all heard the sayings, “A happy customer is a returning customer,” or “Word of mouth is the best form of advertisement.” Both of these philosophies or beliefs need to be taken to heart for those who are in business or looking to start their own business.

The success of any business depends on both of these ideologies. You need to make your customers happy! As important as this is for established businesses, for a new entrepreneur it is all that much more critical--and the following suggestions can help you ensure customer satisfaction and return clientele.

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The Dreaded “Falling” Dreams

Do you have dreams where you see yourself falling off a cliff or building? Are you often awakened by a sudden sensation of falling, only to realize you are comfortably snuggled in your bed? Do you have falling dreams? These types of dreams can have us breaking out in a cold sweat very quickly—and then there is the old wives tale that if you actually hit the bottom of your fall you can die. The myth is enough to make our hearts stop. But what does it all mean?

As with all dream interpretations, their meanings are different for every person who experiences them. The symbols will have one interpretation one night and a very different interpretation the very next. But why? The interpretation of dreams can be generalized, which our past dream interpretation blogs have provided. The specific interpretation depends on the other symbols or underlying theme of the dream. So getting back to our “falling” interpretation, in general when we experience these types of falling dreams it can represent a feeling of insecurity, anxiousness or being overwhelmed with some situations in your waking life.

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Expanding the Skills of Employees

Whether you own a small business or a large firm, the need to embrace the notion of upgrading and improving your staff’s skills is critical to their loyalty and level of happiness in the workplace. Not only does providing on-site training to support your employees slake their thirst for knowledge, it also allows you to keep your business current regarding new trends and opportunities while increasing your business’s chances of staying ahead of the competition.

On-site training of your staff can be done by either yourself or someone within your organization who is already trained in the subject matter you are seeking to pass onto the rest of your team. There will come a time where you may need to hire a training provider to upgrade the skills of your employees when you feel the need and there is no one on staff skilled or trained to do so. Making the investment to hire an outside firm can be challenging, but after all your employees are your most important resource and the success of your business depends on their efficiency. This means you need to choose the best when it comes to hiring the right training provider for your business.

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