Leadership is a funny thing. Being in charge doesn’t mean that you’re leading. In fact, if you turn around and find no one is behind you, you’re probably not leading. Even funnier, you won’t see this as easily as you think. Let me give you a story about the difference between leading and managing.

If you were to take a small 1 foot piece of rope and I asked you to push it to me, you’d have a hard time. If I asked you to pull it to me, you’d find it to be quite easy. That’s the difference between leading and managing. Leaders pull people along with them. They help people get what and where they want by leading…pulling them along. On the flip side, managers are constantly try to push the people to do what they want. Managers find it difficult to get things accomplished without using tactics like insisting and threatening. Managers use their position to get things done.

Managers can get things done quickly. I’ve seen people make drastic changes in a short amount of time only to be stuck because they forget to take people along. They’ll do it reluctantly, but only for a the short-term. Leaders, on the other hand, will get things done, but over a little longer time. They’ll work on creating a foundation so they can lead the team where it belongs. The leader does things for the long-term. One can say, “Who cares, as long as it’s done,” but those who think this, will find it to be frustrating to work with the manager after a little while.

Which one are you?

]]> http://www.hedgehogconsultinginc.com/do-you-lead-or-do-you-force/feed/ 0 http://www.hedgehogconsultinginc.com/do-you-lead-or-do-you-force/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HedgehogConsultingBlog/~3/7h3sAol9jQM/ http://www.hedgehogconsultinginc.com/learning-to-lead/#comments Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:59:53 +0000 admin http://www.hedgehogconsultinginc.com/?p=1435 Learning to Lead

Now that the Olympics are over, we can move forward with our lives, right? One thing I noticed when I watched the athletes as their level of performance. Olympic Athletes work non-stop to continually improve, and that’s no accident. In fact, I watched a speech from Joshua Foer called Step Outside Your Comfort Zone and Study Yourself Failing. He mad an interesting point in that the difference between athletes who are professional and athletes who are short of professional is what they do when they practice. Professional athletes practice the things they cannot do…things they feel are very difficult. Those who are short of professional (and are not going to be professional) are those who practice what they can do and work to improve those.

I realized that the best operators of business are a lot like Olympic athletes. The best business operators focus on those things that need their attention and are not simple. The tasks they work on are the tasks and goals that many other business owners are not working toward. Also like Olympic athletes, the best business owners are highly focused and know where and what they are working toward…a vision.

While the Olympics are over, we can take from their lessons and experiences to improve our lives/businesses.

To continue…Dale Carnegie has been read by many. In the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” he provides some fundamentals to dealing with people. These really should be considered the laws of being human. If you haven’t read the book, its worth reading. Here is the fourth part to the book.

Part Four: Be a Leader

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.”
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

Each of these are fundamental in being a stronger leader. Use these tactics to strengthen your leadership position because people will want to follow you if you use them.

To continue again…Dale Carnegie has been read by many. In the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” he provides some fundamentals to dealing with people. These really should be considered the laws of being human. If you haven’t read the book, its worth reading. Here are the main parts to the book, beginning with part one.

Part Three: How to Win People To Your Way of Thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2. Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

Each of these are fundamental in dealing with people well. Remember you get more with honey than with vinegar and these tips are just the way to lay on the honey! You’ll always get more from others (meaning always get them to see your way of thinking) if you follow these rules that I almost have to call Laws.

Watch for the next post for Part 4.

To continue…Dale Carnegie has been read by many. In the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” he provides some fundamentals to dealing with people. These really should be considered the laws of being human. If you haven’t read the book, its worth reading. Here are the main parts to the second portion.

Part Two: Six Ways to Make People Like You

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
6. Make the other person feel important — and do it sincerely.

Each of these are fundamental in getting people to not only like you, but to get people to remember you. Think about that time that someone couldn’t remember your name. How did it make you feel?

Watch for the next post for Part 3.

Dale Carnegie has been read by many. In the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” he provides some fundamentals to dealing with people. These really should be considered the laws of being human. If you haven’t read the book, its worth reading. Here are the main parts to the book, beginning with part one.

Part One: Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Each of these are fundamental in dealing with people well. Think about it, how do you react if the other person doesn’t criticize, condemn, or complain about you, provides you with sincere appreciation, and makes you want something because they are supporting you?

Watch for the next post for Part 2.

Technology has changed the way we work, think, and even play. Since the economic downturn, many businesses have sought out ways to reduce costs using technology as well as reducing certain forms of overhead. Add on top the ability to hire someone around the world to work while you sleep and you have an enticing opportunity to manage a virtual team. Sounds easy, right? Its not as easy as you’d think. Consider the problems of consistency, vision, and the need to communicate directly. Here are some common problems with managing a virtual team and what you can do about it.

1. Distance and Meetings. The question really is, how often should I meet in a face to face meeting? There has been a lot of research on this, and the answer is…it depends. If your team is relatively new, more often is better. If there are multiple tasks at hand, or if the tasks are very complex, suggesting that guidance is critical to insuring overall success, more frequent face to face meetings are important. A critical component to face to face meetings means planning them out. Each individual involved should be able to count on the time and frequency so as to plan accordingly. Nothing worse than a surprise meeting. By the way, face to face meetings may mean using Skype, iChat, Google Hangout, etc. Each of these can do the trick, but again, it depends on the type of work.
2. What technology should I use? Again it depends on what you’re doing, how you’re managing, and so on; however, here are couple to things to consider: (a) Keep it simple, (b) Choose reliable service (nothing worse than scheduling a virtual meeting and no one can access it, and (c) Make it accessible to all who need to access it.
3. Coordination of Tasks. How do I make sure everyone is doing what they should? And even more important, how do I prevent bottlenecks? Because virtual teams usually do not know what each other are doing, what they overall objective is, etc., it’s easy to have a breakdown of communication and miss a deadline. The key is this: communicate with each member to insure each knows their part and then, at least weekly (and more frequently if a highly complex task is required), have a group (or virtual group) meeting to discuss tasks at hand, what has not happened, what has changed, and any other pertinent information. This will be the life or death of a virtual team. Forget this and you’ll become frantic and wonder what just happened!

Let us know if we can help!

Based on the Blog:  Mortensen, M & O'Leary, M. (2012). Managing a Virtual Team [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/how_to_manage_a_virtual_team.html?awid=8211852297013117554-3271 Photo Source: http://www.roederconsulting.com/projectmanagementvirtualteams.php 

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Time Savers and Time Wasters

Hopefully these tips have helped you identify one or more areas you can improve your time management skills. Time management is usually a great indicator of a leaders ability to hold his or her team accountable to what they should be doing (with exception of those in businesses they run themselves).  To learn more about these or other business management tips, visit us at www.HedgehogConsultingInc.com or contact us directly at Info@HedgehogConsultingInc.com.