Leadership

Although some people treat the terms management and leadership as synonyms, the two should be distinguished. As a matter of fact, there can be leaders of completely unorganized groups. On the other hand, there can be managers, as conceived here, only where organized structures create roles.

Separating leadership from management has important analytical advantages. It permits leadership to be singled out for study without the encumbrance of qualifications relating to the more general issues of management.

To clarify, leadership is certainly an important aspect of managing. The ability to lead effectively is one of the keys to being an effective manager; also, undertaking the other essentials of managing -- doing the entire managerial job -- has an important bearing on ensuring that a manager will be an effective leader. Managers must exercise all the functions of their role in order to combine human and material resources to achieve objectives. The key to doing this is the existence of a clear role and a degree of discretion or authority to support the manager’s actions.

The essence of leadership is followership. In other words, it is the willingness of other people to follow that makes a person a leader. Moreover, people tend to follow those whom they see as providing a means of achieving their own desires, wants and needs. Leadership and motivation are closely interconnected. By understanding motivation, one can appreciate better what people want and why they act as they do. Also, leaders may not only respond to subordinates' motivations but also arouse or dampen them by means of the organizational climate they develop. Both these factors are as important to leadership as they are to management.

Leadership can be defined as influence, that is, the art of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals. Ideally, people should be encouraged to develop not only a willingness to work but also a willingness to work with zeal and confidence.

20 Ways To Make Someone Smile

Do you want to put a smile on someone's face today? Maybe make their day a little better. It won't cost you a single penny or much time to do just that. And because smiling is contagious, it probably won't just be one person you make smile today.

Here are 20 ways to turn that frown upside down.

1. Send some flowers to your partner at work.
2. Compliment a friend or work colleague on their appearance.
3. Donate something to charity.
4. Take a friend out to lunch.
5. Let someone know you miss them.
6. Make a surprise telephone call to your partner at work, just to say hi.
7. Hold a door open for someone walking behind you.
8. Hug your partner for no reason.
9. Leave a joke on a friends answer machine.
10. Send a card to a friend letting them know what a good friend they are.
11. Give up your seat on the train to someone when there aren't any left.
12. Share your umbrella on a rainy day.
13. Ask a friend if they need anything while you're out shopping.
14. When it's raining, plan an indoor picnic with your children.
15. Leave a love letter somewhere where your partner will find it.
16. Send someone an unusual and unexpected gift like chocolate, flowers or sex toys.
17. Tell your child you're proud of them.
18. Tell someone you thought about them the other day.
19. Cook a surprise meal for your partner one night, especially if they normally do the cooking.
20. Tell your partner you love them.

Did you know it takes only 17 muscles to smile, but 43 to frown. Why waste all that energy frowning when you could just smile.

Here are 5 more facts about smiling.

1. Women smile more than men.
2. Smiling releases endorphins that make us feel better.
3. We are all born with the ability to smile, it's not something we learn from others.
4. A smile is a universal expression of happiness.
5. A smiling person is thought to be a more pleasant, attractive, sociable, sincere and competent than a non-smiling person.

Just remember, smiling is the easiest and cheapest way of improving your looks.

Forgiving Yourself and Others

At some point in our lives, all of us have been wronged by another person and felt hurt, angry or resentful. This is a natural reaction and part of being human. However, if we do not resolve or come to terms with these hurts, they drive our actions and create a negative way of life. By harboring past hurts, we have the potential to do far more harm to ourselves than anyone else can possibly do.

“All illness is caused by not forgiving.”
– Native American belief

Forgiving others – or yourself – does not mean forgetting or condoning what happened, or giving up the values that were violated or assuming you are at fault; nor is it condemning the other person or seeking justice or compensation. Forgiveness can be viewed as foregoing the resentment or revenge when the wrongdoer’s action deserves it and giving the gifts of mercy, generosity and love when the wrongdoer does not seem to deserve them. To release the shackles of the past, we must be willing to forgive.

Forgiveness is about creating a state “for giving” – both to self and others – and excusing a mistake or an offense and letting go of the associated hurt, anger or resentment. Because forgiveness has the greatest benefit to the person doing the forgiving, it is one of the greatest gifts that you can give to yourself.

Forgiving allows us to get on with our lives and to open up our minds and hearts to new ways of seeing others, the world and ourselves. It releases energy that can be used for other, more productive thoughts and actions.

All Successful People Do This...And You Too Can Do It

Did you know that by applying a simple strategy you can become successful beyond your imagination?!

Success is not dedicated for a certain category of lucky talented people and hence anyone can become similar to those success gurus.

Success doesn’t depend on your environment, circumstances, level of education, financial situation,...etc.

All successful people faced a lot of negative circumstances and failures before they achieve what they want. They were poor, with little or no education, and were brought up under tough circumstances.

But they all followed the same strategy, to change their circumstances and reach their dreams.

You must follow this simple strategy, if you want to achieve your goals and become successful.

Here is the ultimate success strategy:

"Apply the Principles of Success"

Simple, right?!!!

But always remember: “The true power lies under the real simplicity".

This powerful strategy guarantees your success because principles are the same and always work.

Success principles are the same no matter where you live or when you live.

Success principles always work because they are proven facts used by all successful people to achieve their goals.

Success leaves clues. And these clues are timeless success principles.

Principles will work for you as well but this depends on a single condition.

This condition is: "Principles always work if you work the principles"

You must apply these principles and put them in action.

Action makes all the difference.

Successful people believe in principles and so they persist until they see the results.

Apply success principles and they will always work. Since they worked with all who applied them, they will work with you too.

But remember you must work the principles yourself. Don't wait for somebody else to apply the principles for you.

You must apply the principles by yourself. Don't wait for somebody to give you permission to become successful.

Analyze your situation and see how this principle can work for you. Do it yourself.

You must lead your life.

And never surrender.

Keep practicing the principle until it works.

It takes time to master success principles. Like when you start driving your car, it took time to be a good driver.

It needs practice until you get positive results.

And here comes the benefit of having a mentor in your life. He can guide you through your journey and support you in every step. And, he can teach you these principles and how to master them.

Read success books and you will gain life time experience from the expert authors.

Attend success and personal development seminars and courses to get close to success mentors and learn from their experience.

Success Principles always work if you work them. Keep practicing the principles until you master them.

You too can become successful with the same principles used by all successful people in the world.

Start living the life of your dreams.

My friend you can make a difference.

I believe in you.

Mind Power: Tap the Magnificent Power of Your Subconscious Mind!

I am sure those of you who have read self-help books, hypnosis books, probability of you encountering this mysterious word called “subconscious mind” are pretty high. So, you hope that the book that you are reading will provide you with a satisfactory explanation to what subconscious mind is. Unfortunately, the book does not touch on the topic on subconscious mind. Do not go sleepless over this question, as this amazing article will tell you what you really need to know about subconscious mind. So, what in the world is subconscious mind?

Another name for subconscious mind is sleeping mind or the unconscious mind. Both names arises due to the fact that you have completely no awareness that your subconscious mind exists. Your subconscious mind is a very hardworking mind as it stores almost every single experience in your life. The information that it stores can either be helpful or destructive as the data in your subconscious mind ultimately forms the foundation of your belief system. The beliefs that you have will determine how you lead your life. Now that you have a brief understanding of what subconscious mind is and the power of it, I shall tell you how to make full use of your subconscious mind.

Creative Visualization

Before you head off to your dreamland every night, spend 5 minutes everyday visualizing your goals and ambitions. Imagine yourself already achieving it and feel the emotions that you will feel when you achieved it. This simple and easy exercise is super effective in eliminating any negative emotions that hindered your path to obtaining your goals. The time before you head off to sleep is the perfect time to do this exercise as this is the time where your mind is most willing to accept new information. The next step to unlocking the potential of your subconscious mind is doing positive self-affirmations.

Positive Self-affirmations

Every single morning, repeat your life aims to yourself with an enthusiastic tone. You need to say it passionately as only this way that your brain will register what you say. The longer you practice doing positive affirmations, the more you believe in your goals and you already have reprogrammed your subconscious mind that you can achieve it.

Subliminal Programming

Spend about 10 to 20 minutes everyday listening and watching subliminal videos or audio tapes. Subliminal CDs are readily available in your local CD stores. These CDs can improve your life but you need to listen to them on a regular basis. The downside is that the effect is temporary so you need to listen to them daily. They are also very convenient to listen as they are portable. You can place them in your mp3s and listen to them while working out. While driving your car, you can also listen to them.

Creating a Positive Environment

Choose a place where you regularly work. This could be your study room or your workplace. Then, put up positive and motivational posters. The more posters you put up , the lesser the negative thoughts you will think of and the faster your subconscious mind will internalize those positive beliefs. Your mind is an unbelievable thing; it will go on a autopilot to pick up those positive phrases in your posters. Soon, you will feel yourself easily energized in your workplace and get things down quickly. Do the above faithfully and I can assured you that you will see results very soon.

An Age Old Secret For Accessing Knowledge

Over the centuries, human beings have developed many techniques to gain access to their inner wisdom and improve learning.

One technique that many people have found very beneficial is to have an imaginary guide that they can call on for advice and insight.

A modern variation of this technique has been developed by intelligence researcher Dr. Win Wenger and it is detailed in his book “The Einstein Factor”

This exercise is sometimes called “Putting on the Expert’s Head”

This technique enables you to access some of the enormous untapped potential that resides in the mind of every individual. This technique can even accelerate your ability to develop a new skill. It gives you access to parts of yourself that you are normally not aware of.

The first step is to decide what knowledge or skill you would like to develop in yourself. What are you interested in that you would like to do better? You might wish to improve your skill at archery, portrait painting, doing mathematics, or playing a musical instrument.

Once you have decided what skill or knowledge you would like to develop, take some time to think about those people you consider an expert in this chosen field. Whose skills do you admire? Who do you think of as a great role model and expert in the field?

The person need not be currently living. Before you move ahead with this exercise, you may wish to research the life of the person you have chosen.

You might even decide you want to see the world from the perspective of your favorite animal or bird, such as a wolf or an eagle.

When you are ready to do the Expert’s Head exercise, prepare yourself by deeply relaxing your body and your mind. Take some time to get comfortable in a place where you will not be disturbed. Internally scan your body for tension, and allow your muscles to relax. Breathe calmly and smoothly in a relaxed way.

Now think: is there a particular place where you would like to meet your imaginary expert? You might want to meet this guide in your own home, but feel free to imagine another site. For example, you could visualize meeting in a beautiful garden, in a forest, on top of a mountain, or some other location.

You can improve your ability to visualize imaginatively by speaking out loud your inner impressions to a tape recorder, or to another person. Eventually, even the slightest glimmer of imagination will be reinforced and amplified by consistent practice of this exercise.

If you are not yet able to easily imagine a location in which to meet your chosen expert, don’t worry. Simply move forward to the imagined encounter with this person, whenever you are ready.

Your imaginary encounter may go exactly as planned, or there may be surprises in store for you. Perhaps someone you weren’t expecting shows up. Perhaps your chosen expert does not want to participate. If no one appears in your mind’s imagination, ask for someone to come forward, and then wait.

When your imaginary guide appears, handle the encounter with as much politeness and respect as you would a real life encounter with a real person. Do you feel comfortable in the presence of this expert? Do you have the sense that the expert feels comfortable with you?

Even if these guides are figments of your inner mind, you still need to be sure you are accessing a part of yourself that wants to promote only the best for you.

If you get any sense of discomfort between you, thank the expert for coming, and politely dismiss him or her. Think of another expert you admire in your chosen field and create an imaginary encounter with that person. You may even have to create a totally fictitious character to be your imaginary expert.

Once you have established a meeting with your chosen expert, mentally picture yourself and your visiting expert standing facing each other in an attitude of great respect. Gently put your arms out and slowly remove the expert’s head from his or her body. Since this is only an imaginary person or animal, the head should come off quite easily.

Place the expert’s head above your own, facing the right way, and lower it over your own head. Now believe that you are looking out at the world through the eyes of your chosen expert, hearing through the expert’s ears, smelling through the expert’s nose.

Take the time to allow the expert’s mind to slowly merge with your own mind. Now gently pull the expert’s body towards you, and step into it. Feel as if it fits you perfectly. Feel that you have merged with the expert’s body and can feel and do the same things.

When you feel that you are actually in the expert’s body, notice what seems different to you. Does the world look different in any way? Do any of your attitudes feel different? How does your body feel different? Can you feel the confident attitude of the expert? Memorize the sensation.

Focus on the differences you notice and start to talk about them out loud. Spend at least five minutes doing this step. When you have finished, gently step out of the borrowed imaginary body and carefully remove the expert’s head from you own. Respectfully return the head and body to the expert. Thank that person for allowing you to have this experience.

You can use the Expert’s Head technique to improve your skills at some desired activity, or to accelerate your ability to learn to do something you have never done before.

First spend a few weeks performing the Expert’s Head exercise daily to familiarize yourself with it. Once you are accustomed to the process of donning the expert’s head, you are ready to use this technique to accelerate your skills development.

First spend a few minutes performing the desired skill entirely in your mind. Feel as if you are actually performing perfectly it and that you really know how to do it. Then move to the Expert’s Head exercise, and spend about 10 –15 minutes, performing the activity in real life, but mentally be the character of the expert, wearing the expert’s head and body.

After about fifteen minutes, gently remove the expert’s head and step out of the expert’s body. Thank the expert for the use of his or her body, mind and talent. Ask the person to continue filling your mind with more of their expert knowledge and ability even when you are not practicing this exercise.

Before the experience starts to fade from your memory, spend a few minutes writing down or speaking out loud everything you can remember. Write down or speak everything you can remember that was really different when you were in the expert’s mind and body, rather than as yourself.

When you wish to improve a particular skill, first spend about 15 minutes mentally doing it as yourself. Then slip into the expert’s head and body to continue the exercise in real life for another fifteen to thirty minutes. If you repeat this process about three times a day, you will experience a greatly accelerated ability to master the skills you desire.

Please realize that advice and knowledge received in this manner is not infallible. Do not feel obligated to act on any advice received from your inner dialogue with your imagined guides unless you are absolutely convinced it is appropriate for you at this time.

This technique can greatly increase access to your inner creativity and wisdom, but you will still need to make informed and reasoned decisions about what you do.

Dare To Be Different

There is a secondary school not far from our home, and I often see the students either walking to school or waiting at the bus stop. Over 1500 students attend this school, and yet when I see them there is a similarity that identifies them as belonging to that school. After some thought I realized that it is their appearance that is similar. Although there is no school uniform, it is their choice of clothes that almost creates a uniform in itself. The colours of choice tend to be limited to three colours none of which stand out or appear distinct. Almost all students carry a backpack. It is rare to see a student who stands out by wearing brighter colours or a different style of clothes.

This is a well known example of the power of peer pressure, such an influential force in the lives of children growing up. Ironically the teen age years are the period of time when
Children are trying to find out who they are, how their identity is unique from family members and role models of their previous childhood years. The ridicule and even persecution of fellow students at school causes all but the secure and bold of heart to conform or be ostracized at school.

There are many forms of conformity out in the big wide world; subtle expectations and pressures that create environments and communities which conform to ‘acceptable patterns of appearance and behaviour.

However success and notoriety come to those who stand out from the rest by their creativity, uniqueness and ability to stand out from the crowd.

A recent example of this is twenty one year old Alex Twe from England. In August this year Alex was about to start university. Being only too aware of the fact that many students end up finishing their education with huge debts to repay, he decided to try and generate sufficient funds to cover his expenses whilst studying using the power of the Internet. He created ‘The Million Dollar Home Page’. The basic concept was that website owners could buy advertising space on the home page of the site at a cost of $1 per pixel. The smallest advertising block you can purchase is 10x10 pixels, hence a cost of $100. There are a million pixels available for purchase, thus if Alex succeeds in selling them all, he will have raised a cool $1million!

On the face of it, this is a crazy idea - why would anyone want to pay to put a tiny graphic on a page of thousands of other tiny graphics on the off-chance that someone might click on it? I’m sure if he had taken advice from Internet experts he would have been strongly advised not to bother even to attempt such a ludicrous notion as would not have a hope of succeeding.

Alex launched the site at the end of August and right away started to try and generate press interest. This approach worked superbly and he has had International press coverage over the past couple of months which has helped to spread the word about his site in the viral manner that is only possible via the Internet. Result? After a very short time Alex had sold over half a million pixels - that means he has generated over $500,000 in income in just 2 months! At this rate he will achieve his target of selling a million pixels by the end of the year and even if he doesn't sell another pixel, he has still done superbly well. To read the blog of Alex’s adventure and see the site visit his website http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com This week he is visiting the U.S.A. on a media tour. Within weeks of this site being launched and seeing success, there were over 400 copycats trying to make a quick fortune by copying a unique idea.

What does it take to be different, to stand out from the crowd, become influential and experience success? What qualities make innovative leaders rather than followers?

Here are some of my thoughts:
 Courage to follow your heart and intuition
 Security and self confidence to stand by what you believe
 Not concerned to gain the approval of others
 Creativity
 Willingness to be the first and take a risk
 Determination to follow through on your ideas

What do you think?