Online Leadership Courses

 

 

Leadership Pathways – A Worthwhile Course?

The Seven Habits Of Incredibly Successful Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are some of the most powerful individuals in society. Not because they’re wealthy, but because the habits they possess ensure that they are successful in whatever they set out to accomplish. Take a look at the seven habits below and find out which habits you have in common with incredibly successful business leaders, managers, team leaders and entrepreneurs worldwide!

1 – A Hatred for Sleep

You’ll find most entrepreneurs never sleep in late (unless perhaps when on vacation!). Every second you spend lazily snoozing in bed, is a second spent watching your productivity plummet. For most people, this is pleasurable and a welcome break, but for an effective entrepreneur and leader, it’s a restless affair.

Taking a break is worthwhile. But that’s what your 8 hours of sleep is for. If you don’t feel happy unless you’ve had a good measure more than this, then there’s a good chance you won’t cut it as a business leader.

2 – The Willingness to delegate

From low-level positions, delegation is seen as a mouth-watering perk. Who wouldn’t love to be able to give important tasks to people below them, and take the weight off their own shoulders? The real answer is; less people than you’d think.

While most people think delegation is something they could get very used to; in practice it’s a very tough and draining process if done incorrectly.

Imagine yourself as the bride in a wedding. It’s an event you’ve been thinking about for a long time, and there is an awful lot of pressure on the event being a success. Would you happily delegate all the decisions in this case to a relatively inexperienced wedding planner? Of course you wouldn’t. You would likely think along the lines of:  ‘My wedding day is far too important to let someone else potentially mess it up. Surely they won’t give it as much attention and care as I would. It simply isn’t worth the risk. I’ll do it myself’.

This is the scenario that many new managers find themselves in. They have the ability to delegate tasks completely to those below, but are afraid to because so much stands on the success of the activity, and it causes them too much worry to have anyone other than themselves perform the task.

A successful leader simply places confidence in those beneath them, and let experts do what they do best, leaving the entrepreneur do what they do best – Leading!

3 – The Lightening Pursuit of Opportunities

The difference between a successful entrepreneur and a normal individual, is that when they both see a business opportunity, their reactions are different. A normal individual may actually consider a business opportunity that has presented itself, and have a look at their bank account… maybe plan the possibility of leaving their job. However by this point, the entrepreneur will have already organised a team to begin!

4 – Proactivity

Business Leaders do not wait for opportunities to slip onto their lap. They instinctively partake in continuous research (or pay someone else to) to always make sure they have some new directions to be exploring. They’re never happy staying in the same place, and are always looking for the next new idea. Even successful entrepreneurs that are seen to stay firmly within one business, may be actually exploring several products or business models within that single entity.

5 – Optimism

An ineffective entrepreneur may think – “There are pro’s and con’s here… lets weigh it up”
The successful business leader thinks – “Those pro’s are significant enough to pursue this, we will solve the cons later.”

Being optimistic is a crucial habit for entrepreneurs, because it’s the only way to deal with the amount of risk these people take on! Would you risk your year’s salary in order to make more money next year? Many wouldn’t, and that’s why successful entrepreneurs aren’t common.

6 – Ruthlessness

Its probably their most famous trait – Entrepreneurs are often ruthless individuals. This isn’t to say they’re immoral folk, but don’t expect to receive politeness and ‘niceties’ if it will hinder their success. You have to be this focused too. Maybe you’re thinking ‘It isn’t worth it’. Well, being an incredibly successful entrepreneur isn’t for everyone!

7 – Obsession with attention to detail

Everything has to be perfect. Competition is so fierce in today’s business world that entrepreneurs cannot afford to do a half job. A successful businessperson won’t go home until the job is completed 110%. Delivering above what is expected is a classic signature of entreprenuers. This is how extraordinary profits are made and how a small venture can explode into a multimillion dollar success.

Which habits do you possess? Which habits do you think are the rarest and hardest to possess? Leave your comments below!

 

Leadership Development

Leadership Development is any activity that enhances the quality of leadership within an individual or organization. That’s a wide ranging definition to suit an extremely wide ranging subject. Leadership Expert™ is a web leader in leadership development information – so I hope you find this hub page useful like thousands of others. Our specific leadership development articles are listed below and you can subscribe to our updates in the form at the bottom of the page.

Leadership Development Training : What is leadership training? How much does it Cost?

Leadership Development Programme : What is a leadership programme? How to build a successful one.

Leadership Classes : Are leadership classes an effective way to boost your leadership ability?

Leadership Training : Is formalised training always the answer?

Leadership Courses : The trend towards personal study is increasing.

Leadership Coaching : Is one-on-one coaching the solution to the leadership problems of large companies?

I’m not an organisation. I’m an individual. How can I improve my leadership skills?

Like many things in life – if you look in the right places, you’ll always be able to find a great resource for a bargain. Leadership development is completely intertwined with the idea of self-investment. All excellent leaders regularly invest in themselves – sometimes to great expense. But if you follow our guidance, you’ll be able to build your skills for the minimum cost.

Public Speaking Skills

If you’re looking to improve your ability to deliver confident or inspiring presentations or speeches, we suggest the effective e-course Public Speaking Extraordinare, which we think represents good value at £25/$37.

Leadership Exercises

The success of every corporate organization largely relies on its team-members performances, right the way from lower order employees to highly regarded directors. FTSE 100 managers constantly undertake various leadership exercises to improve the performance of their organization. By using these leadership exercises, they can help craft the atmosphere of their organization.

By using the leadership exercises, the person can increase the productivity and quality of the company. He has several leadership qualities to manage the performance of any corporate organization.

One of the integral parts of these leadership exercises is the teamwork consistently. Such ability to perform with groups increases the strength, productivity and quality of such organization. Such teamwork as a part of leadership exercises contain the skill of the leader to spot the positive points of his team members. Also apart from his teammates, he also gives importance to strengthen his organizing abilities. The leadership exercises also include the quality to tie up the skillful individuals into one unified entity. Also while uniting these skills and different human characters, the consent about the type of work, organization, ideology of the organization is one of the integral part. If the leadership exercises fail to satisfy their team members, the productivity will less and that makes crises in the organization.

So create an environment of mutual understanding is vital leadership exercise for making the environment fresh and undutiful. The true leader always gives emphasis to leading from the front. So leading the team with courage and confidence is the significant part of the leadership exercises. Such positive signs from the leader make the environment of the organization positive and optimistic. Also such leadership exercises also possess positive and attacking thinking which makes him and his teammates hungry for success. the encouragement, admiration and appreciation of the legendary qualities, dynamics of the team members is one of the type of the leadership exercises . These techniques are essential to increase the confidence among the team members.

While recruiting and appointing the eligible candidates, various leadership exercises are held by the corporate sectors, government sectors. The main aim of such leadership exercises is to familiar the trainee candidates with factual leadership tasks, responsibilities and problems regarding the leaderships.

In professional courses like MBA program, various internships of technical courses, civil services examinations; there is a provision to firstly conduct the leadership exercises for the selected, eligible responsible candidates of such course. So the main objective behind that leadership program is to develop the leadership qualities like teamwork, decision making in critical situation, developing the positive mindset, attacking attitude, etc. so these are the vital leadership exercises in the training program which makes the candidate well prepared for the actual situation in society while facing the crises.

In such leadership exercises, the inclusion of the leadership tips gives the candidate slight idea or experience about the adversity of exact problem. Such leadership tips contain the objectives of the leaders which are the vital part of the leadership exercises. These tips are making a plan to achieve the target, building a competent team to achieve that target, making the co-ordination between team members to achieve such targets.

Adapted from an Article Written By Muna wa Wanjiru – http://www.merpetsales.com/leadership/Leadership-Exercises.php

Leadership Development Programme

Leadership Development Programme is just one of the leadership development articles at Leadership Expert™. In this article, we will be taking a brief look at what a leadership development programme is and how to build an optimal programme for your employees.

What Is A Leadership Development Programme?

Leadership Development Programmes are tailor-designed schedules of activities that seek to improve the leadership skills of a workforce or group of workers. Leadership development programmes are typically targeted at the graduate intake who have been within a company for 3-5 years. At this critical point in their career – these ‘Generation Y‘ individuals will be looking to move on to the next step in their career. Whether that future is at their current company will depend on how attractive and possible a leadership role will be on their current path. Therefore by targeting leadership development programmes at twenty-something employees, companies are helping to retain talent within their organisation.

How Do I Build A Good Leadership Development Programme?

Good leadership development programmes consist of the following 5 success factors.

1. Multiple leadership training techniques

Employees learn in different ways and favour certain teaching techniques over others. Therefore it would be dangerous to create a course with only one technique in mind. You are not creating a ‘fad diet’ leadership course. You want to create a course that will hit all the bases and have the best chance at really engaging with the participants.

2. Hollistic view of leadership

Many companies take a very narrow view of leadership. Often management skill and strategic thinking are put at the forefront of important topics. While a good leadership development programme should also address people skills, leadership traits and charismatic leadership to deliver a wide picture and full curriculum.

3. Link  to On-The-Job Application.

A crucial element in a leadership development programme is the link between theory and practice.Abstract leadership principles may indeed be sound, but the true measure of the success of a leadership programme is whether these principles can be taught in a such a way that they can be instantly applied to the management of the business.This real-life link is the key factor that distinguishes self-help books from life coaches, dieting books from fitness instructors, and management books from good leadership programmes.

4. Respectable length of time

Leadership isn’t a skill that can be perfected overnight. Leadership excellence is often grown over years of experience. In an attempt to replicate this gradual development – it is important that leadership development programmes are low-intensity courses that span several months, as apposed to a one week crash course. By increasing the length of the programme – instructors will be able to use the programme to actually support and enrich the professional development that the manager gains from their day-to-day job. For instance, the manager can discuss problems that they are running into during the application of certain leadership techniques they have learnt in ‘class’, and hence the skills can be perfected and honed over time. And thus the programme and work life becomes incorporated.

5. A meaningful conclusion

Like every task set in a business – the end must be kept in mind. Why is this programme taking place? To prepare young employees to be managers? To improve the ability of senior management? Whatever the objective – the programme should end with a concluding activity that will display the skills that the participants have learned on their course. As well as this being motivational tool to keep participants actively involved with the course, it also helps to build confidence and affirm the belief that they are now capable of achieving more through leadership.

Examples of such events could involve hosting a conference (involving public speaking), implementing an initiative, heading up a new division, or receiving a promotion.

If you keep these success factors in mind when creating your leadership development programme – you should see improved results.

 

Leadership Development Training

Leadership Development Training is just one of the leadership development articles at Leadership Expert™. In this article, we will be taking a brief look at what leadership development training is, how much it costs, whether it’s a worthwhile investment, and whether there are any cheaper alternatives.

What Is Leadership Development Training?

Leadership Development “refers to any activity that enhances the quality of leadership within an individual or organization“. Therefore leadership development training is the formalisation of these activities into a structured plan to develop leadership in employees. Leadership training has taken centre stage in recent decades as managers across the world have turned their attention to nurturing and encouraging leadership skills in their staff. Modern day leadership development training is the manifestation of that attention.

Leadership development training includes activities such as seminars, leadership coaching, leadership classes, and other leadership services. More often than not, these are provided by external leadership training specialists. Even Fortune 500 companies seem to prefer to outsource their leadership development training rather than keep in-house dedicated staff.

How Much Does Leadership Development Training Cost?

Pricing varies wildly per employee depending on which type of training solution you adopt. One-on-one leadership coaching will cost between £100-£300 per hour, and hence will only be a cost effective leadership development training solution for senior management.

For middle management – small seminars of 5-10 participants are often used, that cost roughly the same (£100-£300 per hour) but naturally provide for a far greater number of employees to benefit from this same fixed cost.

The cheapest or ‘best value’ leadership development training for organisations are hired motivational leadership speakers who can literally speak to hundreds of your employees at once. Logistical problems aside, this solution is common in the USA due to its simplicity and low cost-per-employee. However the drawback with such events are that the package cannot be personally tailored to a specific job role, never mind an individual person. And as such – these events can be largely ineffective in actually improving the real leadership skills of employees.

So as you can see, there is a very clear trade off between cost and quality of leadership development training. You quite simply get what you pay for.

 

Why Does Leadership Training Fail To Produce Leaders?

Great leadership is one of the keys to long-term organisational success; so how come there seems to be such a shortage? In the corridors of political power, and in the boardrooms of large and small organisations, we regularly hear the questions: “Where is the inspired leadership we crave?”, “Where is our next generation of leaders coming from?”, “Where is the flair and inspiration we need to take us to the next level?”

If asked, you could probably say what ‘leadership’ is. Like everyone else, you’ve read the books and seen the leadership competency frameworks. You could clearly describe how it feels to be well and poorly led – you ‘know it when you see it’. But how many current great world leaders can you name off the top of your head? How many great leaders are there in your organisation now?

Why do so many people, knowing what good leadership is, fail to demonstrate it themselves? The first place to look is in the learning environment where leaders are usually developed.

What They Didn’t Teach You about Leadership

1. There is an imbalance in leadership training. There is not enough emphasis on the skills, central to great leadership, of inspiring others with beliefs, vision, values and attitude; and too much emphasis on the importance of systems, planning, measurement, budgets, controls and procedures – in short, on management! Does any great leader ever manage people into following him? No, he inspires them, motivates them, keeps them in touch with the bigger vision – he leads them.

2. As a business leader, you have probably been well trained in logic and analysis. But a key leadership skill is the application of ‘emotional intelligence’ – the ability to know when things are ‘true’ or when they are ‘off’, when people are truly inspired, or just paying lip service. As a leader you need emotional intelligence to manage your own and others’ emotions, and you need skills appropriate to this task. Trying to do it by analysis and logic is about as effective as trying to drive a car by studying from a manual how the engine works.

3. People, especially in the business world, tend to avoid emotion – expressing it, dealing with it, looking at where it came from and its role in a situation. The rationale for not dealing with emotion, the very essence of leadership, is that all ‘this emotion stuff’ is ‘not professional’! Not so: it’s only ‘unprofessional’ to suppress emotion or express it inappropriately. When all ‘this emotion stuff’ is not explored and resolved in leadership groups, it always produces long-term tensions and political battles. These cause acute stress in individuals and cripple organisational effectiveness and efficiency. At the same time, they also destroy satisfaction, joy, fun, friendship, health, trust and a good night’s sleep!

4. Leadership skills like vision, inspiration and emotional intelligence can be trained on training courses – but it takes a different kind of course. In most leadership training programmes you will see models of leadership discussed, followed by practical exercises that analyse logically what went right and wrong in a ‘leadership game’. It’s all familiar and fun, but what’s being taught are the elements that underpin leadership, not the essence of leadership.

How Can You Learn to ‘Do’ Great Leadership?

There are two effective routes to successful leadership, depending on your budget. If you are a large company, then a leadership coach is certainly your best option. A good coach can help you develop skills appropriate to your working situation, and hence help you build competencies that you know will improve your performance.

Adapted from an article written by – http://www.shineconsulting.co.uk

The Pursuit Of Something Better – Review

If you’re looking for a review of “The Pursuit Of Something Better” then you’ve come to the right place. I’m currently reading an advance copy, and will be publishing LeadershipExpert’s official review within a week, so stay tuned!

Introduction

‘The Pursuit Of Something Better’ follows the story of  US Cellular – a regional telecoms company, through its journey to becoming home to one of the most vibrant and motivated cultures in the USA. As an underdog in the telecoms industry – US Cellular has to fight to survive in the modern world, but the employees fight for it, due to their extreme loyalty and pride.

On one day every year, the managers from across the organisation leave their positions to attend a conference that announces the results of something very dear to them – the annual employee satisfaction questionaire. Grass-root staff rise to the challenge and the company ticks over just fine without them. The atmosphere at the conference is likened to that of a concert – not an annual review. What on earth has happened at this company to drive such enthusiasm?

Well, you’ll have to buy the book yourself to find out!

Review

Review is coming soon!

Purchase

This title was released on the 15th of August 2009.

You can pre-order this book on Amazon UK here

If you’d like to read a review of this book on other blogs, you can visit here and here.

Leadership Challenges

We all face leadership challenges at some point of our lives. If you’re searching for leadership challenges then you’ve come to the right place. You could be looking for one of two interpretations of this phrase.

1. Leadership challenge to mean, an attempt to overthrow your authority. “What can I do to protect myself against somebody overuling my leadership?“. For the answers to these kinds of questions, I suggest you reflect upon your own leadership skills rather than those of your ‘competition’. Are your leadership skills up to scratch? If you want to improve them, click here.

2. Leadership challenges to mean difficult and rewarding leadership experiences. “How can I deal with this situation and come out of it a stronger person?“. This is the topic this article deals with.

In most organisations – you will encounter challenges as a leader many times a year, possibly even many times a week, depending on how much pressure is placed on your role. The key to dealing with these is to quickly picture in your head a clear image of the benefits you would receiving from successfully accomplishing this task. Reduced stress? Increased respect? Improved promotion prospects?

Almost every scenario you will encounter – glorious benefits will await you on the other side. The thought of these will help motivate you, and that is why I ask that you picture them immeadiately.

Next, you need to look inwards and decide whether you have the appropriate leadership skills and experience to be able to overcome the current difficulty. Don’t worry if you look at your skill set and admit ‘I’m not experienced at this area’, because you can certainly compensate for lack of experience by good preparation.

To hone up your leadership skills I’d recommend buying a quick and effective leadership course such as ‘Apply Leadership‘, which is the product I talk about most to those who ask me which leadership e-course I would recommend. (You can follow the link to read my review).

Once you have the benefits clearly in mind, and a good preparation, it’s time to tackle the leadership challenge head on. This will probably involve implementing a strategy of leading that you are perhaps not 100% comfortable with. Perhaps you read a leadership book that suggested a certain leadership style, but you don’t feel that it’s working. Don’t worry! A subtle change of direction can go unnoticed by the workforce if you display confidence in your actions.

Follow these tips and you will be able to weather any leadership challenge, and emerge from the other side as a success leader with an extra notch on your belt!

Simon Oates – Leadership Expert

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