Metropolitan LifeWorks

The Awesome Power of Goal Setting!

2012-02-15T14:59:00.000-08:00

http://humanresources.about.com/od/performancemanagement/a/goal_setting.htm

Resolving to Be a Better Boss in 2012 - Great View Of Why Companies Struggle And What Their Leaders Can Do About It

2012-01-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/01/09/resolving-to-be-better-boss-in-2012/

Even in the face of a feeble labor market and uncertain economic environment, American workers are fedup enough with their work situation and looking to make a change.

According to the 2011 What’s Working survey from Mercer, nearly one in three employees polled was “seriously considering” leaving their job. What’s more, most of these respondents cited their sour rela tionships with their bosses as a main reason for looking for employment elsewhere.

Whether you are a line supervisor, middle manager, or executive, you, as the boss, are responsible for setting the tone and creating a positive and productive work environment. When bosses fail to do this, turnover increases, morale drops, and hiring expenses skyrocket.

Here’s the problem: Too many bosses enter into their leadership roles with little experience and support. Many bosses were likely promoted because they were good at their job or had peaked out in their role. I call this a great American business tragedy because we reward workplace success by putting people in a position they don’t necessarily want and often aren’t well suited for.

Not everyone’s goal is to be the boss; but in most companies, upward mobility means taking on people responsibility. To make matters worse, many companies don’t spend the time or money to provide the requisite training for new bosses to actually succeed in their new role. In other words, we reward success by setting people up for failure, creating a lose-lose proposition.

Both as a former employee at a major consulting firm and as an executive coach, I’ve had to deal with my share of bosses, particularly new bosses. As much as I disagree with the typical premise for corporate promotions, I do believe there are ways to help inexperienced bosses become successful. Here are three tips to get any bosses off to the right start in 2012.

1) Look in the Mirror . It always starts with you. You have to know how to manage yourself before you can manage others. Get to know your personality and your management style before you take on the burden of managing others.

Face three mistakes: Reflect on three major mistakes or bad decisions from 2011. Assess what went wrong and why. Take responsibility for your part and make sure they don’t happen again.
Get feedback: Seek out feedback from colleagues, mentors, and key employees. Ask for constructive criticism and be willing to hear the good and bad.
Self assess: Take self-assessments such as personality and management style inventories (often your HR folks have access to these tools) to get a somewhat objective view of how you operate.

2) Listen First, Shoot Questions Later. Good bosses are good listeners first. Learn how to actively listen to those who get the job done because they are your experts and they need to know you hear them.

Ask, don’t tell: Resist the temptation to tell your employees what to do. Instead, try asking them what they would do to solve the problems they bring to you. Remember, successful managers don’t hand their people fish on a platter, they teach them how to fish for themselves.
Find teachable moments: Life is about learning, so be sure to use every interaction as an opportunity to teach, not just talk.

3) Encourage More, Punish Less . Punishment stops bad behavior, but it doesn't produce new good behavior. Learn to reinforce the good! And please remember, it's not all about money. In fact, it's rarely about money. People just want their good work recognized.

Reward one positive act each day: Always take time to seek out the positive and recognize it! Every employee does good work, so be sure to notice it.
Be genuine: Make sure to be genuine in your recognition. Don’t just give a pat on the back for the sake of it.
Be Fair, but not equal: Don’t treat people the same. Everyone is different and has different needs, which means that which is motivating for one person may not be motivating for another. Know what motivates your individual players and use that knowledge.

Good luck and happy new year!

Small Business Strategies: Twelve tips for 2012 - Interesting Perspective From Rhonda Abrams - Which Businesses Will Follow These Tips?

2012-01-05T20:41:00.000-08:00

Small Business Strategies: Twelve tips for 2012

By Rhonda Abrams, USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/columnist/abrams/story/2012-01-06/12-small-business-tips-for-2012/52397760/1

Strategies

By Rhonda Abrams

By Jemal Countess, Getty Images
Giovanna Rodger joined thousands of revelers in New York's Times Square this New Year's Eve.

Enlarge

By Jemal Countess, Getty Images

Giovanna Rodger joined thousands of revelers in New York's Times Square this New Year's Eve.

Great. But now what?

To help you actually achieve your goal, I've got 12 tips to make sure you do make more money this year.

COLUMN: Index of Rhonda Abrams' Small Business Strategies columns

1. Get listed free. Take 30 minutes -- right after you finish reading this column -- and list your business, free, on search engine local listings.

This helps your company show up when a prospective customer searches for a business like yours on the Web or a mobile device. No technical expertise is needed. Get started with Bing business portal, bing.com/businessportal; Foursquare, foursquare.com/business; Google Places,google.com/places; Yahoo Local, local.yahoo.com; and Yelp, biz.yelp.com/claiming.

2. Figure out what makes you money. Businesses have two kinds of money, cash and profits.

Cash comes from making sales. Profits come from selling products or services for more than they cost you to produce. Small businesses generally focus on bringing in cash, and that's OK because cash keeps the doors open.

But to get ahead, you need to focus on the parts of your business that bring you the most profits.

3. Market to current and former customers.Satisfied customers are the ones most likely to be future customers or refer others to you.

Yet small businesses typically neglect to market to them.

When my garbage disposal breaks, will I remember the name of the plumber I used two years ago? Not if the business doesn't keep its name in front of me.

4. Get a contact management system. You need a good way to organize, manage, and stay in touch with your contacts, something easy and that you can access from mobile devices, not just a drawer full of business cards.

My company just switched to Salesforce.com.

5. Create a marketing plan. Spend your marketing dollars and time wisely.

Identify your best prospects and the most effective ways to reach them. Then market consistently. You have to stay in front of prospects.

6. Contact at least three prospects a week. Or seven. Or 20.

Give yourself a realistic quota, make a list of top prospects and referral sources and keep it where you see it. Get out there and sell.

7. Bother people. I mean be persistent, not annoying.

People are busy, including your prospects. Even if they want to buy from you, they may forget you. So stay in touch repeatedly.

8. Close the deal. Marketing is great, but at the end of the day, you also have to make -- and close -- the sale.

Sure, you have to let prospects know about your products or services, but you also have to ask them to make the purchase. Give them incentives to purchase now and make sure they see a strong call to action in your marketing materials.

And ask, directly and in person, to take the order, close the deal.

9. Shop local, shop small. I asked a woman at my gym where she got her workout shoes.

She responded: "Try them on at (name of local small store), then order them online." Yikes!

Small businesses can't survive as showrooms for online retailers. If we want customers to buy from us, we have to shop small.

10. Check out social-media marketing. I'm not saying that Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn will make you money, but you can increase your visibility.

At least know enough to figure out whether it might be right for you.

11. Get a cloud-based email newsletter service. Don't be misled by the word "newsletter." You can use these services to announce sales, new products or services, whatever.

Some choices for small businesses: Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, Vertical Response, Emma. An added bonus of cloud services is analytics. You get far better information about how your sales efforts are performing and who is responding to your emails.

12. Develop a business plan. In many ways, this is the most important.

Yes, I'm biased because I've written two books on developing business plans. But developing a business plan has been the single most important contribution to my company's survival and success. Planning gets everyone moving in the same direction and provides structure for decision-making.

Now is the perfect time to develop a business plan for 2012.

Rhonda Abrams is president of The Planning Shop and publisher of books for entrepreneurs. Her newest is the 5th edition of The Successful Business Plan: Secrets and Strategies. Register for Rhonda's free newsletter at www.PlanningShop.com and "like" The Planning Shop on Facebook for updates. For an index of her columns, go tosmallbiz.usatoday.com. Twitter: twitter.com/RhondaAbrams. Copyright Rhonda Abrams 2011.

Metropolitan LifeWorks, Inc. Launches New Website With The Opening Of New Location In Texas

2011-12-30T07:49:00.000-08:00

http://www.free-press-release.com/news-metropolitan-lifeworks-inc-launches-new-website-with-the-opening-of-new-location-in-texas-1325258813.html

Metropolitan LifeWorks, Inc., a sales and marketing firm, has opened in a new location Houston, TX and has launched a new website. The new user friendly website has officially launched and will serve to inform both current and potential clients of new services available. Since the company is rapidly expanding and hiring new account representatives, the site is also a resource to potential employees.

Metropolitan LifeWorks, or MLW is a client acquisition firm originally founded in 2004. MLW's first opened its doors in Barcelona, Spain and served as a boutique business consulting firm. Metropolitan LifeWorks’ original client list included organizations like the University of Hamburg, MCI, Aguas de Barcelona, and the US State Department. Once the company relocated to the United States, it changed its scope to marketing and sales. MLW now specializes in client acquisition and retention for national service providers.

The new user friendly website has ten informative pages with details for all audiences. The Home page gives an overview of the company in addition to links to find Metropolitan LifeWorks at all you favorite social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Blogger. The home page also includes links to navigate through the website and a map of the new Houston location.

The About Us page gives an overview of the team at MLW as well as a biography of the President of the company, Derek Fisher. The Clients and Services page talks about how Metropolitan LifeWorks’ new national client is a leading provider in the telecommunications industry.

There is a Frequently Asked Questions page where users can find answers to questions regarding MLW’s history, client questions as well as questions asked by potential employees. For more information about the open positions at MLW, users can access the Careers page to find current openings as well as an explanation of training and benefits offered by the company. The Growth And Development section of the website outlines MLW’s goals for expansion and the MLW Online page gives users the ability to browse other sites with information about the company.

The Contact Us page includes an interactive map giving users a view of how to get to the new location from all directions. For those trying to contact Metropolitan Lifeworks, this page includes an online application form which can be used to send a message to the company or submit a resume for an open position.

“We are excited to have relocated the company back to the United States and we are excited about the growth potential we have. I know the new website will help our past clients understand what direction we are moving in as well as open doors for new clients. We already have a strong team of hard working individuals and I am excited to see them evolve in their career as we grow. I look forward to working with the new team members we will be adding as well during this time of expansion,” explains Derek Fisher, President at MLW.

As outlined in the Growth And Development section, Metropolitan LifeWorks has goals of expanding to multiple locations with goals to go global by 2012.

Members Of Metropolitan LifeWorks, Inc. Plan To Donate Time To Serve Dinner At Bereavement Center Bo’s Place

2011-12-30T07:47:00.000-08:00

Members of Metropolitan LifeWorks, a sales and marketing firm founded in 2004, will be donating their time to serve dinner to children at Bo’ Place. Several members of the company, along with friends and family, will volunteer for the bereavement center.

Metropolitan LifeWorks, or MLW, is a client acquisition firm founded in Barcelona, Spain. Its original focus was to serve as a boutique business consulting firm. Metropolitan LifeWorks’ primary client list included organizations like the University of Hamburg, MCI, Aguas de Barcelona, and the US State Department. The company relocated to the United States and changed its scope to marketing and sales. MLW now focuses on client acquisition and retention for national service providers.

Metropolitan LifeWorks is hired by national clients to represent their brand name to business account holders. MLW is in charge of increasing the number of business account holders in an assigned market share as well as retaining these account holders for long term profitability.

Since shifting its focus, Metropolitan LifeWorks’ took on its first client, a leader in the mobile telecommunications industry. The new client is the U.S. wireless operation of one of the largest telecommunications companies in the World, with nearly 130 million customers worldwide. The new client is a national provider of wireless voice, messaging, and data services and claims to be capable of reaching over 293 million Americans.

Bo’s Place is a non-profit organization that offers grief support services free of charge to children, families and adults. Bo’s is the currently Houston’s oldest and only on-going, free-of-charge, grief support program for children. The free of charge support comes in many ways, while the organization provides education and resources for those who assist people in grief.

Bo’s Place was founded and operates on the belief that a large part of healing process involves allowing grieving children and adults to share their stories, memories, experiences, thoughts, and feelings with other grieving children and adults.

With its inception in 1990, Bo’s Place began as an Information and Referral Line that provided callers with free grief resources. Initially, the organization provided support contacts in the Houston Area and in 1995, Bo’s Place moved its headquarters to Houston’s Museum District. There, its services were expanded to include support groups for grieving children and their families and filling the need for a program directly focused on the needs of the children. The most recent change occurred in 2005 when Bo’s Place designed a location specifically for grief support groups.

Members of Metropolitan LifeWorks plan to get involved with the organization this winter. MLW will be joining the individuals of Bo’s Place to serve dinner and share their time.

“We are excited to be in our new location in Houston and we want to make more of an impact than just doing business in this town. We want to be a bigger part of the community and Bo’s Place is a great place to start. As we grow over the next few months, we want to continue giving back to the Houston community. I’m proud to say we have a team of individuals at MLW who have similar values,” explains Derek Fisher, President at Metropolitan LifeWorks.

As Fisher explains, the company is planning to continue its philanthropic efforts as it continues to grow. Metropolitan LifeWorks plans to expand globally by 2012. More information about the companies goals to expand can be found in the Growth and Development page of their website.

http://www.free-press-release.com/news-members-of-metropolitan-lifeworks-inc-plan-to-donate-time-to-serve-dinner-at-bereavement-center-bo-s-place-1325258539.html

Metropolitan LifeWorks, Inc. Is Now Open For Business In Houston

2011-12-27T19:41:00.001-08:00

Metropolitan LifeWorks, Inc. Is Now Open For Business In Houston

http://www.free-press-release.com/news-metropolitan-lifeworks-inc-is-now-open-for-business-in-houston-1325041490.html

Metropolitan LifeWorks, Inc. has moved to Houston and is now open for business. The once international consulting firm is now focusing its efforts on national clients. In addition to celebrating 7 years of successful business, the company is celebrating the opening of their new location in Texas.

Metropolitan LifeWorks, or MLW, is a client acquisition firm originally founded in 2004. MLW was founded in Barcelona, Spain and served as a boutique business consulting firm. Metropolitan LifeWorks’ original client list included organizations like the University of Hamburg, MCI, Aguas de Barcelona, and the US State Department. Once the company relocated to the United States, it changed its scope to marketing and sales. MLW now specializes in client acquisition and retention for national service providers.

Metropolitan LifeWorks is hired by national clients to represent their brand name to business clients. MLW is in charge of increasing the number of business account holders and retaining these account holders for long term profitability.

Metropolitan LifeWorks recently took on a new client in the mobile telecommunications industry. The new client is the U.S. wireless operation of one of the largest telecommunications companies in the World, with nearly 130 million customers worldwide. The new client is a national provider of wireless voice, messaging, and data services and claims to be capable of reaching over 293 million Americans.

“We are excited for our new location and the shift in the company’s direction. We are already looking at expansion and new clients in the next year. I have a great team of hard working individuals here and I am excited to give them the opportunity to advance in their careers as we grow,” explains Derek Fisher, President of Metropolitan LifeWorks, Inc.

Metropolitan LifeWorks opened its doors in Houston in December. The company expects to expand to multiple locations next year before returning to the international market in the coming years.

Lessons In Leadership By Mandela

2011-12-17T11:13:00.000-08:00

Mandela: His 8 Lessons of Leadership

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1821659-3,00.html

By Richard Stengel Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Though Mandela has retreated from the public stage, the 90-year-old still speaks out, as he did in condemning Zimbabwe's Mugabe.

Nelson Mandela has always felt most at ease around children, and in some ways his greatest deprivation was that he spent 27 years without hearing a baby cry or holding a child's hand. Last month, when I visited Mandela in Johannesburg — a frailer, foggier Mandela than the one I used to know — his first instinct was to spread his arms to my two boys. Within seconds they were hugging the friendly old man who asked them what sports they liked to play and what they'd had for breakfast. While we talked, he held my son Gabriel, whose complicated middle name is Rolihlahla, Nelson Mandela's real first name. He told Gabriel the story of that name, how in Xhosa it translates as "pulling down the branch of a tree" but that its real meaning is "troublemaker."

As he celebrates his 90th birthday next week, Nelson Mandela has made enough trouble for several lifetimes. He liberated a country from a system of violent prejudice and helped unite white and black, oppressor and oppressed, in a way that had never been done before. In the 1990s I worked with Mandela for almost two years on his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. After all that time spent in his company, I felt a terrible sense of withdrawal when the book was done; it was like the sun going out of one's life. We have seen each other occasionally over the years, but I wanted to make what might be a final visit and have my sons meet him one more time.

I also wanted to talk to him about leadership. Mandela is the closest thing the world has to a secular saint, but he would be the first to admit that he is something far more pedestrian: a politician. He overthrew apartheid and created a nonracial democratic South Africa by knowing precisely when and how to transition between his roles as warrior, martyr, diplomat and statesman. Uncomfortable with abstract philosophical concepts, he would often say to me that an issue "was not a question of principle; it was a question of tactics." He is a master tactician.

Mandela is no longer comfortable with inquiries or favors. He's fearful that he may not be able to summon what people expect when they visit a living deity, and vain enough to care that they not think him diminished. But the world has never needed Mandela's gifts — as a tactician, as an activist and, yes, as a politician — more, as he showed again in London on June 25, when he rose to condemn the savagery of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. As we enter the main stretch of a historic presidential campaign in America, there is much that he can teach the two candidates. I've always thought of what you are about to read as Madiba's Rules (Madiba, his clan name, is what everyone close to him calls him), and they are cobbled together from our conversations old and new and from observing him up close and from afar. They are mostly practical. Many of them stem directly from his personal experience. All of them are calibrated to cause the best kind of trouble: the trouble that forces us to ask how we can make the world a better place.

No. 1
Courage is not the absence of fear — it's inspiring others to move beyond it
In 1994, during the presidential-election campaign, Mandela got on a tiny propeller plane to fly down to the killing fields of Natal and give a speech to his Zulu supporters. I agreed to meet him at the airport, where we would continue our work after his speech. When the plane was 20 minutes from landing, one of its engines failed. Some on the plane began to panic. The only thing that calmed them was looking at Mandela, who quietly read his newspaper as if he were a commuter on his morning train to the office. The airport prepared for an emergency landing, and the pilot managed to land the plane safely. When Mandela and I got in the backseat of his bulletproof BMW that would take us to the rally, he turned to me and said, "Man, I was terrified up there!"

Mandela was often afraid during his time underground, during the Rivonia trial that led to his imprisonment, during his time on Robben Island. "Of course I was afraid!" he would tell me later. It would have been irrational, he suggested, not to be. "I can't pretend that I'm brave and that I can beat the whole world." But as a leader, you cannot let people know. "You must put up a front."

And that's precisely what he learned to do: pretend and, through the act of appearing fearless, inspire others. It was a pantomime Mandela perfected on Robben Island, where there was much to fear. Prisoners who were with him said watching Mandela walk across the courtyard, upright and proud, was enough to keep them going for days. He knew that he was a model for others, and that gave him the strength to triumph over his own fear.

No. 2
Lead from the front — but don't leave your base behind
Mandela is cagey. in 1985 he was operated on for an enlarged prostate. When he was returned to prison, he was separated from his colleagues and friends for the first time in 21 years. They protested. But as his longtime friend Ahmed Kathrada recalls, he said to them, "Wait a minute, chaps. Some good may come of this."

The good that came of it was that Mandela on his own launched negotiations with the apartheid government. This was anathema to the African National Congress (ANC). After decades of saying "prisoners cannot negotiate" and after advocating an armed struggle that would bring the government to its knees, he decided that the time was right to begin to talk to his oppressors.

When he initiated his negotiations with the government in 1985, there were many who thought he had lost it. "We thought he was selling out," says Cyril Ramaphosa, then the powerful and fiery leader of the National Union of Mineworkers. "I went to see him to tell him, What are you doing? It was an unbelievable initiative. He took a massive risk."

Mandela launched a campaign to persuade the ANC that his was the correct course. His reputation was on the line. He went to each of his comrades in prison, Kathrada remembers, and explained what he was doing. Slowly and deliberately, he brought them along. "You take your support base along with you," says Ramaphosa, who was secretary-general of the ANC and is now a business mogul. "Once you arrive at the beachhead, then you allow the people to move on. He's not a bubble-gum leader — chew it now and throw it away."

For Mandela, refusing to negotiate was about tactics, not principles. Throughout his life, he has always made that distinction. His unwavering principle — the overthrow of apartheid and the achievement of one man, one vote — was immutable, but almost anything that helped him get to that goal he regarded as a tactic. He is the most pragmatic of idealists.

"He's a historical man," says Ramaphosa. "He was thinking way ahead of us. He has posterity in mind: How will they view what we've done?" Prison gave him the ability to take the long view. It had to; there was no other view possible. He was thinking in terms of not days and weeks but decades. He knew history was on his side, that the result was inevitable; it was just a question of how soon and how it would be achieved. "Things will be better in the long run," he sometimes said. He always played for the long run.

No. 3
Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front
Mandela loved to reminisce about his boyhood and his lazy afternoons herding cattle. "You know," he would say, "you can only lead them from behind." He would then raise his eyebrows to make sure I got the analogy.

As a boy, Mandela was greatly influenced by Jongintaba, the tribal king who raised him. When Jongintaba had meetings of his court, the men gathered in a circle, and only after all had spoken did the king begin to speak. The chief's job, Mandela said, was not to tell people what to do but to form a consensus. "Don't enter the debate too early," he used to say.

During the time I worked with Mandela, he often called meetings of his kitchen cabinet at his home in Houghton, a lovely old suburb of Johannesburg. He would gather half a dozen men, Ramaphosa, Thabo Mbeki (who is now the South African President) and others around the dining-room table or sometimes in a circle in his driveway. Some of his colleagues would shout at him — to move faster, to be more radical — and Mandela would simply listen. When he finally did speak at those meetings, he slowly and methodically summarized everyone's points of view and then unfurled his own thoughts, subtly steering the decision in the direction he wanted without imposing it. The trick of leadership is allowing yourself to be led too. "It is wise," he said, "to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea."

No. 4
Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport
As far back as the 1960s, Mandela began studying Afrikaans, the language of the white South Africans who created apartheid. His comrades in the ANC teased him about it, but he wanted to understand the Afrikaner's worldview; he knew that one day he would be fighting them or negotiating with them, and either way, his destiny was tied to theirs.

This was strategic in two senses: by speaking his opponents' language, he might understand their strengths and weaknesses and formulate tactics accordingly. But he would also be ingratiating himself with his enemy. Everyone from ordinary jailers to P.W. Botha was impressed by Mandela's willingness to speak Afrikaans and his knowledge of Afrikaner history. He even brushed up on his knowledge of rugby, the Afrikaners' beloved sport, so he would be able to compare notes on teams and players.

Mandela understood that blacks and Afrikaners had something fundamental in common: Afrikaners believed themselves to be Africans as deeply as blacks did. He knew, too, that Afrikaners had been the victims of prejudice themselves: the British government and the white English settlers looked down on them. Afrikaners suffered from a cultural inferiority complex almost as much as blacks did.

Mandela was a lawyer, and in prison he helped the warders with their legal problems. They were far
less educated and worldly than he, and it was extraordinary to them that a black man was willing and able to help them. These were "the most ruthless and brutal of the apartheid regime's characters," says Allister Sparks, the great South African historian, and he "realized that even the worst and crudest could be negotiated with."

No. 5
Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer
Many of the guests Mandela invited to the house he built in Qunu were people whom, he intimated to me, he did not wholly trust. He had them to dinner; he called to consult with them; he flattered them and gave them gifts. Mandela is a man of invincible charm — and he has often used that charm to even greater effect on his rivals than on his allies.

On Robben Island, Mandela would always include in his brain trust men he neither liked nor relied on. One person he became close to was Chris Hani, the fiery chief of staff of the ANC's military wing. There were some who thought Hani was conspiring against Mandela, but Mandela cozied up to him. "It wasn't just Hani," says Ramaphosa. "It was also the big industrialists, the mining families, the opposition. He would pick up the phone and call them on their birthdays. He would go to family funerals. He saw it as an opportunity." When Mandela emerged from prison, he famously included his jailers among his friends and put leaders who had kept him in prison in his first Cabinet. Yet I well knew that he despised some of these men.

There were times he washed his hands of people — and times when, like so many people of great charm, he allowed himself to be charmed. Mandela initially developed a quick rapport with South African President F.W. de Klerk, which is why he later felt so betrayed when De Klerk attacked him in public.

Mandela believed that embracing his rivals was a way of controlling them: they were more dangerous on their own than within his circle of influence. He cherished loyalty, but he was never obsessed by it. After all, he used to say, "people act in their own interest." It was simply a fact of human nature, not a flaw or a defect. The flip side of being an optimist — and he is one — is trusting people too much. But Mandela recognized that the way to deal with those he didn't trust was to neutralize them with charm.

No. 6
Appearances matter — and remember to smile
When Mandela was a poor law student in Johannesburg wearing his one threadbare suit, he was taken to see Walter Sisulu. Sisulu was a real estate agent and a young leader of the ANC. Mandela saw a sophisticated and successful black man whom he could emulate. Sisulu saw the future.

Sisulu once told me that his great quest in the 1950s was to turn the ANC into a mass movement; and then one day, he recalled with a smile, "a mass leader walked into my office." Mandela was tall and handsome, an amateur boxer who carried himself with the regal air of a chief's son. And he had a smile that was like the sun coming out on a cloudy day.

We sometimes forget the historical correlation between leadership and physicality. George Washington was the tallest and probably the strongest man in every room he entered. Size and strength have more to do with DNA than with leadership manuals, but Mandela understood how his appearance could advance his cause. As leader of the ANC's underground military wing, he insisted that he be photographed in the proper fatigues and with a beard, and throughout his career he has been concerned about dressing appropriately for his position. George Bizos, his lawyer, remembers that he first met

Mandela at an Indian tailor's shop in the 1950s and that Mandela was the first black South African he had ever seen being fitted for a suit. Now Mandela's uniform is a series of exuberant-print shirts that declare him the joyous grandfather of modern Africa.

When Mandela was running for the presidency in 1994, he knew that symbols mattered as much as substance. He was never a great public speaker, and people often tuned out what he was saying after the first few minutes. But it was the iconography that people understood. When he was on a platform, he would always do the toyi-toyi, the township dance that was an emblem of the struggle. But more important was that dazzling, beatific, all-inclusive smile. For white South Africans, the smile symbolized Mandela's lack of bitterness and suggested that he was sympathetic to them. To black voters, it said, I am the happy warrior, and we will triumph. The ubiquitous ANC election poster was simply his smiling face. "The smile," says Ramaphosa, "was the message."

After he emerged from prison, people would say, over and over, It is amazing that he is not bitter. There are a thousand things Nelson Mandela was bitter about, but he knew that more than anything else, he had to project the exact opposite emotion. He always said, "Forget the past" — but I knew he never did.

No. 7
Nothing is black or white
When we began our series of interviews, I would often ask Mandela questions like this one: When you decided to suspend the armed struggle, was it because you realized you did not have the strength to overthrow the government or because you knew you could win over international opinion by choosing nonviolence? He would then give me a curious glance and say, "Why not both?"

I did start asking smarter questions, but the message was clear: Life is never either/or. Decisions are complex, and there are always competing factors. To look for simple explanations is the bias of the human brain, but it doesn't correspond to reality. Nothing is ever as straightforward as it appears.

Mandela is comfortable with contradiction. As a politician, he was a pragmatist who saw the world as infinitely nuanced. Much of this, I believe, came from living as a black man under an apartheid system that offered a daily regimen of excruciating and debilitating moral choices: Do I defer to the white boss to get the job I want and avoid a punishment? Do I carry my pass?

As a statesman, Mandela was uncommonly loyal to Muammar Gaddafi and Fidel Castro. They had helped the ANC when the U.S. still branded Mandela as a terrorist. When I asked him about Gaddafi and Castro, he suggested that Americans tend to see things in black and white, and he would upbraid me for my lack of nuance. Every problem has many causes. While he was indisputably and clearly against apartheid, the causes of apartheid were complex. They were historical, sociological and psychological. Mandela's calculus was always, What is the end that I seek, and what is the most practical way to get there?

No. 8
Quitting is leading too
In 1993, Mandela asked me if I knew of any countries where the minimum voting age was under 18. I did some research and presented him with a rather undistinguished list: Indonesia, Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea and Iran. He nodded and uttered his highest praise: "Very good, very good." Two weeks later, Mandela went on South African television and proposed that the voting age be lowered to 14. "He tried to sell us the idea," recalls Ramaphosa, "but he was the only [supporter]. And he had to face the reality that it would not win the day. He accepted it with great humility. He doesn't sulk. That was also a lesson in leadership."

Knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make. In many ways, Mandela's greatest legacy as President of South Africa is the way he chose to leave it. When he was elected in 1994, Mandela probably could have pressed to be President for life — and there were many who felt that in return for his years in prison, that was the least South Africa could do.

In the history of Africa, there have been only a handful of democratically elected leaders who willingly stood down from office. Mandela was determined to set a precedent for all who followed him — not only in South Africa but across the rest of the continent. He would be the anti-Mugabe, the man who gave birth to his country and refused to hold it hostage. "His job was to set the course," says Ramaphosa, "not to steer the ship." He knows that leaders lead as much by what they choose not to do as what they do.

Ultimately, the key to understanding Mandela is those 27 years in prison. The man who walked onto Robben Island in 1964 was emotional, headstrong, easily stung. The man who emerged was balanced and disciplined. He is not and never has been introspective. I often asked him how the man who emerged from prison differed from the willful young man who had entered it. He hated this question.

Finally, in exasperation one day, he said, "I came out mature." There is nothing so rare — or so valuable — as a mature man. Happy birthday, Madiba.

Frequently Asked Questions About Metropolitan LifeWorks, Inc.

2011-12-11T21:16:00.000-08:00

Is this the same MLW that is in Barcelona?

Yes. MLW's origins were in Barcelona, Spain in 2004 as a boutique business consulting firm. It's client list included organizations like the University of Hamburg, MCI, Aguas de Barcelona, and the US State Department. Due to the relocation of its principles to the US, MLW is now in the US and changed it's scope to marketing and sales.

I have significant sales and managerial experience. Can I be considered for an equivalent managerial position at MLW?

Simply put, no. Everyone starts at the entry level for a reason. Our system is unique. There is no great general who didn't go to boot camp, who didn't learn the ins and outs of what their men go through. Managers can never ask an individual to do something that they themselves weren't willing to do. Frustration of managerial incompetence in other businesses are diminished because our managers have a complete and intimate knowledge of what we do.

If I am considered for a position with MLW, what does the interview process consist of?

What we want to accomplish in the first round of interviewing is simply to get to know one another and see if there could be a potential fit on both sides. The second round of interviewing is a realistic job preview that involves shadowing and observing an account manager actually performing the day to day responsibilities of that position. The third round involves addressing any questions or concerns that an individual may have during the second round shadowing.

How can Metropolitan LifeWorks assist in my marketing efforts?

MLW is positioned to provide an instant sales force that is qualified in the most effective form of marketing. Face to face skills are increasingly more difficult to find in the modern work force due to the reliance of technology that diminishes the honing of this essential skill set. Our people work every single day in refining their skills and abilities to communicate the value that our clients offer.

Why is Metropolitan LifeWorks so good at what it does?

We rise above the competition because of the ability of our marketing and sales professionals to receive compensation equivalent to their efforts. We only accept clients that have the willingness to reward performance and a commitment to growth and expansion. Our associates know and understand that their path of advancement is directly a result of successfully representing our clients to their fullest satisfaction.

What is our assurance that Metropolitan LifeWorks is going to do business our way?

All of our associates read and sign a client code of conduct that is absolutely necessary to follow. We provide the absolute appropriate amount of training regarding client product knowledge and systems and will not allow an account manager to represent a client until we are satisfied that they can properly articulate the message that you want us to provide. If they are unable to comply with the code of conduct, then they cease to be associated with MLW.

The Planned Growth Of MLW

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Future Markets

MLW's goal is to be global in 2012. Future markets that are being considered are:

Dallas, TX USA
Raleigh/Durham NC USA
Boulder, CO USA
London, England
Dublin, Ireland
Johannesburg, South Africa
Cape Town, South Africa
Auckland, New Zealand
Christchurch, New Zealand
Melbourne, Australia
Sydney, Australia
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Clients And Services At Metropolitan LifeWorks

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Metropolitan Lifeworks' main client is a subsidiary of one of the largest global telecommunications companies in the world. Due to positive recent developments of having the largest 4G network available in the US, its efforts to increase their small to mid sized business market share is of critical importance. In the competitive world of telecommunications, their need for competent, compassionate, and confident sales reps is more important than ever. MLW is an essential arm of the marketing and sales efforts currently being utilized to ensure that acquisition and retention of customers is handled as smoothly as possible.

MLW will continue to grow with other clients in the B2B channel of similar size and scope as its current client. Additionally, there will be considerable amounts of attention focused to the development into clients' needs in both retail and residential markets. Opportunities for growth range from leading companies in alternative and green energy, VOIP services, office supply providers, and home internet and cable services.

The ability to expand is one of the most attractive and desirable elements that MLW has to offer, for both its clients and its employees. Clients value the opportunity to partner with an organization that can quickly mobilize a dedicated and proven sales force that can again intimately address their customers needs in whatever market, both domestic and international, that the client wants to participate in.

More About MLW

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While there are many attributable factors to the success that MLW has enjoyed, the vast majority of credit must go to their people. Other companies simply cannot match their integrity, professionalism, and commitment to both client and customer satisfaction.

Their people go through extensive training in sales, marketing, business development, and leadership. In addition to learning how to target the customers of their clients, they also learn the ins and outs of business management. This training is essential for not only individual growth but the overall growth of the organization.

When people are challenged to keep learning, that is when they get better. A fundamental core value at MLW is that this road of improvement is an endless one and that this relentless pursuit of excellence will be what definitively separates us from our competition.

Find About Metropolitan LifeWorks, Inc.

2011-12-11T21:12:00.001-08:00

Metropolitan LifeWorks, Inc. (MLW) is a marketing and sales management firm located in Houston, TX that responds to a demand from large corporations for a more effective and results-driven marketing technique than traditional mass media channels.
The strategies incorporated by MLW are driven by one simple concept: face to face.

People dealing with people.

No other form of marketing can deliver such personal, precise, and professional results. Large organizations tend to lose touch with their customer base and therefore lose sight of the needs of those customers. This is where MLW steps in.

Metropolitan LifeWorks

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Lessons In Leadership By Mandela

Frequently Asked Questions About Metropolitan LifeWorks, Inc.

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Clients And Services At Metropolitan LifeWorks

More About MLW

Find About Metropolitan LifeWorks, Inc.