History has been built by our most accepted leaders who are remembered primarily for their talent to implant courage and inspire confidence beyond a single speech. Just think how different this world might be without the calming reassurance of FDR’s fireside chats or Churchill’s defiant eloquence. President Kennedy once remarked that Winston Churchill had the ability to take the English language to war.

Whether you’re conducting a private interview, motivating a small sales team or delivering a speech to thousands or more, your success as a leader is defined by your ability to persuade with clarity and passion.

Effective Communication

The art of effective communication is the basic building block to persuading a person or people to take action from your words. Believe it or not, there are 6 important steps to one successfully communicated thought. Yes, it may be a little overwhelming at first, but before you know it, successful communication will be another part of you that comes naturally with practice.

The sender, the person initiating communication must:

1. Think of the meaning or purpose of the message.

2. Thinks of the meaning with words and or symbols.

3. Transmit the message through words or a letter.

The receiver, the person choosing to listen to the message must:

4. Receive the message through words or a letter.

5. Translates the given message through words or a letter.

6. Understands and accepts the meaning presented.

For every message you sent, if you were able to write down every step, the goal would be to have Step 1 match Step 6. To have Step 1 and 6 match, it is important that Step 3 and 4, the actual communication process, are delivered as planned and received clearly. Sometimes, there are circumstances out of your control with steps 4-6, such as a receiver having a bad day or is tired and chooses to not listen or their minds are preoccupied with other matters. In a work environment, the next principle is important to practice.

Ability to Properly Present One-self (Public Speaking and Public Image)

The ability to properly present your self is important to effective communication for the above Steps 4-6. Often, there is break in communication because team members, or people employed by you, choose to not listen to you for reasons including general dislike of you, ignorantly not honoring your expertise, or they find no quality in your messages, etc. As a leader or manager, your schedule is often busy; the skill of effective communication must flow seemingly for optimum work results. The goal is to have team members gravitate to you through your words and to achieve this; your messages must be clear with quality and passion.

Here are some important qualities of a leader who earns respect:

1. Maintaining Good Eye Contact – A leader who engages his audience will obtain more listeners. If you can, stray away from speeches that use many props like power point presentations and many handout papers.

2. Body Language – People will consciously or subconsciously read body language. If you are trying to deliver a message, it is important to appear accepting and full of action by speaking to people with open arms. Crossing your arms is viewed as defensive and insecure. It is equally as important to stand up straight and if you want to look like you are very interested and passionate, lean slightly forward. Leaning slightly forwards makes a person appear engaging.

3. Inspire Trust – To inspire trust, a person must appear to be an authority and credible. It is just as important if not more important to be generally liked and viewed as an honest, hard working individual. Only then, will people begin to trust you and drop what they are doing to receive any verbal or written messages you deliver.

Eloquent Use of Facts

When speaking, people chose to listen for several reasons, among these important reasons are giving facts and statistics that give listeners or buyers without a doubt reasons to buy your words and/or your product. It is important to use your facts wisely and research them thoroughly, because some people only give you one chance to prove trust and you want to appear very credible. Use facts to call people to action and prove your authority.

Inspire Calm, Confidence and Courage

To inspire these three important feelings, you, the leader, must first deliver your message already feeling calm, confident and courageous. A good speaker knows that to deliver a message with these three feelings, a listener will acquire trust in your words.

1. Calm – To understand the importance of calm, let us look at the alternative which is to be over anxious or nervous. To feel over anxious, others will pick up on those feelings and question the intent of your message. Some will think you are hiding something. To be nervous, some will question trusting your words or judgments. Calm is the initial gateway feeling to earning trust. When you are calm, others will be calm.

2. Confidence – Appear confident with your message and others will feel confident with the message they receive from you. Confidence will inspire trust in you and your words. Confidence is the building block for Courage.

3. Courage – Once you inspire confidence, the receiver will feel the courage to accept your message and buy into your words and/or product. Confidence and courage go closely hand in hand with one another. One will not function properly without the other. Instilling courage without confidence could be a manipulative version of forceful tactics that will discourage people to not come back to buy from you or speak to you. To inspire confidence but not courage, a seller or leader has not completed his purpose which is to persuade the listener to call to action.

What’s In It for Me?

Understanding what is important to your audience—what they’re feeling about your topic, where are the roadblocks for them, what knowledge/experience do they already have with your topic, do they have the motivation, power and ability to do what you’re asking of them—will guide you in choosing the most appropriate persuasion method for each segment of your presentation.

Close Powerfully!

This is your final chance to cement your message, make the audience care and call them to action. Don’t let your close fade away by asking if there are any questions or thanking the audience for their time. Close with powerful language—a quote, a statistic, a story—and make it clear to your audience what you want them to do.

Incorporate these persuasion methods as a powerful way to move your audience to embrace your message. Aristotle no doubt would have agreed with 19th century British politician and essayist, Thomas Macaulay who said, “The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.”

Persuade With Passion

This is a tool the most memorable speakers in history use, which is often what most public speakers, managers and leaders, are lacking. In our society, our slogan is “Give Us the Cold Hard Facts”. According to Harvey MacKay, author of the book Swim With the Sharks, “The No. 1 skill most lacking in business today is public speaking.” Speaking to your followers, your staff and even your family is important to build connections and inspiring motivated actions. Often organizations fail because they have not paid enough attention to the importance of reaching people with passion and the human spirit. With all the different types of people out there, only a percentage of them respond to only the cold hard facts.

Because this is a very powerful tool to use, there is a section dedicated to using this tool. Visit The Inspiring Leader – Public Speaking to learn more.

In today’s world of business, the anticipated difficult questions are a daily obstacle. Knowing this, the knowledge to positively respond to these difficult questions is priceless to a business person.

In the following message, the difficult questions often presented to a business person can be categorized under 7 different types.

1) Hostile

Question: Whoa! You are trying to tell me that your product is going to save me money, but your shocking price is twice as much as what the competition is asking. That’s ridiculous! Where do you get off asking for so much?

Standard Answer: When you consider the total cost for the purchase and the return you will receive, you will end up spending less money in the long run.

Unfortunately, answering this way is equivalent to telling your potential buyer that he or she is wrong. After all, the clear implication in the question is that you are charging too much, and the clear implication in your answer is that you are not charging too much. If you answer in that way, your customer will perceive you as controversial, an inference that is highly unlikely to persuade them in your favor.

Positive Answer: What is our pricing rationale? Why have we chosen this price point? How did we arrive at the price?

The above reply has paraphrased the initial question. By answering in this manner, you have taken a hostile question and have answered it while neutralizing the hostility without being viewed as argumentative or guilty of accusations. The key is to take out all words that are negative. Do not paraphrase by saying “Why do we ask for so much or why do we ask twice as much as the competition?” The echo of the questioner’s words will tend to validate their accusations. The goal is to address the price without any mention of how low or how high it is. Practice your response so you are viewed as knowledgeable, confident and competent.

2) Negative

Question: This is the age of mergers. Banks are consolidating. Manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies are joining forces. Everybody’s throwing their lot in with others. Instead of going out there and trying to be the Lone Ranger, why don’t you throw your lot in with one of the larger companies in your sector? You can either get acquired, merge or partner.

Standard Answer: Why do we choose to not merge with other companies?

The “why don’t you” questions will probably become one of the most common forms of negative questions presented to you. Like mentioned before, do not echo the words of the questioner or you may validate their question or you may be viewed as argumentative.

Positive Answer: Why are we remaining independent?

To persuade others in your favor, focus on the positive versus the negative. To win an argument by bashing the other option rarely is as effective as persuading an audience to see why your option is more desirable. A great example is during Obama’s presidential campaign debates with McCain; Obama never appeared negative by criticizing McCain’s viewpoints. Instead, Obama always appeared calm and competent by persuading people to believe his views and not criticizing any views that were not a part of his campaign. When you risk criticizing a viewpoint you also risk losing gain with people who believe in those views.

3) Irrelevant

Question: How come your logo doesn’t have a space between the two words?

Standard Answer: The question is irrelevant to the subject matter. Let’s move forward.

The question will usually elicit a smile, a snicker or a frown by the presenter. The standard answer often will vary.

Positive Answer: “What’s behind the logo design or why the logo style?”

When you’re presenting, there is no such thing as an irrelevant question. Every question from every audience member is relevant and appropriate. If they ask it, you must answer it. This is a fail safe way to not upset anyone or to welcome more irrelevant questions for people who want to watch you lose your calm.

4) Multiple Questions

Question: How much did you spend on Research & Development last year? What percentage of your revenues does that represent? And what is your Research & Development model going forward?

The above three questions are near the same subject and could make it easier to answer. The problem is when the multiple questions given are not at all alike. Often, a presenter will start to answer one question and forget the rest, then respond with “What were your other questions?” The person who asked the question could assume you weren’t listening.

Don’t overwhelm yourself with trying to remember all the questions. Pick the question you want to answer first whether it’s the easiest, hardest or one that caught you off guard. Answer the question then politely state “You had another question.” Most likely the person has forgotten his questions, they will say, “you answered it already” or they will tell you the other question they had. The key is the initial reaction given when you ask versus state they had other questions. When you state, “You had another question”, often this puts the questions in queue for you by the questioner. When you ask in the form of a question it lets others think before they answer and one of the thoughts could be, you didn’t remember. To state they had another question will form a faster response and lead the way through your stream of multiple questions.

5) Statement

Question/Statement: Your new solution appears to be very effective, but you’ve only just released it. You don’t know if it has any kinks. I’d like to see it field-tested, before I commit. It’s not for us at this time.

Standard Answer: Ok, well, here is our number if you would like to contact us at a later date.

The previous answer is not too bad if you are ok with not making a sale. Most likely, they will not call you back!

Positive Answer: “Why adopt our new product now?” …………..

This will be your last chance to make a sale. A good direction is to persuade them to be the first on the block with this new gadget. “Once, this product hits the market hard, the price margins will go up or the market will be overly saturated for the new comers.”

6) Material Previously Covered

You’ve probably witnessed this common occurrence: A presenter delivers a thorough explanation of a new product, only to have someone in the audience ask a question about one of the product’s features — a topic covered thoroughly in the presentation. At an internal company meeting, this usually results in audible groans from other members of the audience. At an external meeting, other audience members, being discreet, stifle their groans.

Standard Response: As I said before……………

Usually, the negativity collected from the audience will rub off to the speaker, in result a nasty comment such as this one comes forth. This will fuel the negativity in your campaign and possibly lose potential buyers.

Positive Response: Absolutely! Our product performs this action better than any other in the market.

Pretend as though you haven’t repeated yourself. Take advantage of your opportunity to recap on previous material, but obviously do not go into as much depth as the first time.

7) Guilty As Charged

Question: There are dozens of little start-ups doing exactly what you’re doing. Then there all those big guys, with their entrenched market share. It’s a jungle out there, and you’re only just getting off the ground. What on earth makes you think you can survive?

This final question type is perhaps the toughest of all, as it concerns a difficult issue about which you or your company are “guilty as charged.” The underlying issue posed by the question is true. Startups do have a difficult challenge, but you don’t have to plead guilty and surrender the point.

Here are a few more productive ways to respond: Start by paraphrasing: “How will we compete? …”Agree with the point: “You’re absolutely right; it is a jungle out there. …”Don’t agree too long; step on the brakes and make a sharp U-turn: “But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for a new entrant. …”Supply evidence: “Those large companies are top-heavy and have multiple interests, while our agility and sole focus have netted us 15 major customers in our first year of operation. …”Conclude positively. “So we’re confident that we not only can compete effectively, but will succeed in this market.

Carefulness: Do you have a tendency to think and plan carefully before acting? This helps with reducing the chance for costly errors, as well as keeping a steady work flow going.

Disciplined: This idea includes the ability to keep on a task and complete projects without becoming easily distracted or bored.

Drive: Businesses want employees who have high aspiration levels and work hard to achieve goals.

Good Attitude: This has been shown to predict counterproductive work behaviors, job performance and theft.

Goodwill: This is a tendency to believe others are well-intentioned.

Influence: Groups need strong leaders to guide the way. Influence includes a tendency to positively impact social situations by speaking your mind and becoming a group leader.

Optimistic: A positive attitude goes a long way toward productivity.

Organized: “Where did I put that?” A tendency to be well organized helps employees to work without major distractions or “roadblocks.”

Originality: You’ve heard of “thinking outside the box”? Employers want innovative people who bring a fresh perspective.

Safe: Employers want people who avoid work-related accidents and unnecessary risk-taking in a work environment.

Savvy: This isn’t just about job knowledge, but knowledge of coworkers and the working environment. It includes a tendency to read other people’s motives from observed behavior and use this information to guide one’s thinking and action.

Sociability: How much you enjoy interacting with coworkers affects how well you work with them.

Solid: This means a tendency to maintain composure and rationality in stressful work situations.

Supportive/Cooperative: Willingness to engage in interpersonal work situations is very important in the workplace.

Vigor: This is a tendency to keep a rapid tempo and keep busy.

There are 4 general types of temperament styles and every single one of us is born with one of these temperaments ruling above the others. Each style requires a different approach or communication strategy. If you are a leader, manager or even a parent, it is vital to occasionally adapt to others to ensure your vocal or written message is effectively received and accepted.

Aggressive Temperament (Workers)

These people want the bottom line and the cold hard facts. They are results-oriented and motivated through achievement. Aggressive people fear losing control.

When speaking to an aggressive person say words like:

Control * Flexibility * Work * Bottom line * Power * Challenge * Speed * Money * Functional * Results * Goals * Options * Hands on * Quickly * Freedom * Immediately

Expressive Temperament (Talkers)

These people are emotional and expressive. They are people-oriented and driven by recognition and public image. Expressive people fear loss of prestige.

When speaking to an expressive person say words like:

Fun * Entertaining * Creative * Friendly * Simple * Incredible * Exclusive * Improved * Prestige * New * Ultimate * Spontaneous * Exciting * Enjoyable * Cash * Adventure

Passive Temperament (Watchers)

These people are passive and harmonious. These people are service-oriented and value appreciation and a calming atmosphere. Passive people fear conflict.

When speaking to a passive person say words like:

Support * Service * Family * Harmony * Dependable * Caring * Cooperation * Helpful * Easy * Sincere * Love * Kindness * Concern * Considerate * Gentle * Relationship

Analytical Temperament (Thinkers)

These people analyze, evaluate and are viewed as cautious. The people are quality-oriented and value accuracy and right decisions. Analytical people fear being viewed incompetent.

When speaking to an analytical person say words like:

Safe * Scientific * Proven * Value * Learn * Guaranteed * Save * Bargain * Economical * Quality * Logical * Reliable * Accurate * Perfect * Security * Precise * Efficient

There are a few magic phrases that appeal to all people if you are trying to sell a product:

*Guaranteed success

* Live your dreams

* Fast, easy access

* Unlock your potential

* Accept no substitute

* Time tested

In many ways, a business cutting costs is like a person starting a new diet. When a business decides to freeze a department or cut it permanently, it can be compared to the new fad diet that cuts out carbohydrates completely or cuts out all sugar products including fruits. Yes, these new diets will do a quick fix by shedding off unwanted pounds quick, but in the long run most people are worse off than before with metabolisms going out of whack or a lack of energy that will eventually cause more weight!

In this tough time of economic distress, many business owners are looking for short-term relief of budgetary costs without affecting the long-term growth. Unfortunately, the fastest and seemingly easiest way to shave off operation costs will do little to ensure no long-term negative effects. Protect your future and choose to cut cost the right way! Shave costs in every department in a strategic manor. Get the sales and management teams together and brainstorm the long term effects of drastic cuts, what you can afford to lose and what you cannot.

Sometimes, the most overlooked key to success is your pricing strategies. Are your prices up to date? Would you buy your product for the amount set? Consider conducting response research to see which price potential customers are responding best to. To slowly shave prices in hopes to beat the lowest competitors without sinking too low is often not the way to increase your sales, but may potentially cheapen your product.

Often, companies are too busy running the business there is no available time to sit down and plan for the future. Are you and your employees updating spreadsheets and charts manually to maintain business administration? Do you have to re-invent the process every time something changes? Consider looking into finding new ways to automate your business with newer forms of technology. The extra time allows your sales team to conduct more sales and upper management has the opportunity to look to the future, which means more short term sales and eventual long term sales!

The unfortunate reality is the business world we knew is predicted to never be the same. If your goal is to make drastic cuts, wait out this drought and in time swim in rain we call money, your dreams are more than likely will NOT be answered. Economists do not foresee a quick turn-a-round nor do most believe the business world will return to the way it was. For most all businesses, a very in-depth, well-thought re-structuring is in order. Be amongst the first prepare for the future business market. The best time is now!

Posted in Business Builders Tagged: business, cost, costs, cut, cut business costs the right way, economy, future, money, planning, right, save, the, way ]]> http://theidealreality.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/cut-business-costs-the-right-way/feed/ 0 theidealreality http://theidealreality.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/business-development-in-an-economic-downturn/ http://theidealreality.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/business-development-in-an-economic-downturn/#comments Sun, 01 Feb 2009 06:07:54 +0000 theidealreality http://theidealreality.wordpress.com/?p=91 ]]>

Our nation is going through a time of transition. From the banking breakdown to the stock market frenzy, a shift in our business community has taken us to new places that require new thought processes. Rethinking the way some organizations do business may be their ticket to success. For some businesses, a restructuring of leadership is needed to change the overall direction of a company to achieve success. For other businesses, it means restructuring the sales process, in an effort to maintain sales in the short term while positioning the company in the long term for new customer acquisition. Whatever the change need be, building or rebuilding a business during a slow economy will be a long and sometimes painful project, but it can also be exciting and innovative with the right mindset.

Traditionally, businesses are measured by bottom-line figures. However, in today’s shrinking economy, profit margins for most companies will be at an all time low, making bottom-line figures a poor way to measure performance. A business owner will need to discover new ways to evaluate productivity. Additional to measuring performance with sales and figures, consider measuring performance with customer satisfaction or by building long lasting relationships. Widen your skills as a business and offer more to your customers. After you have built a trusting relationship, selling more than one product to a faithful customer will be easier than finding many new customers.

In today’s economy, people are being fired from their jobs everywhere you turn for the sake of keeping cost down or staying up and running. If you are a company that requires a long term investment, like a vehicle for instance, consider putting together an opt-out plan. Hyundai Motors did exactly this in an attempt to attract buyers who were concerned about purchasing a new vehicle. Hyundai teamed up with an insurance company to offer potential buyers assurance for the life changing events. If you have lost your job or have to file for bankruptcy, Hyundai will take back your car without damaging your credit up to a year after the purchase date. This offer is not for everyone, but this offer may be comforting for those that are anxious about purchasing a car at this time. In fact, an MSNBC poll showed that 47% of respondents say this program would make them more likely to buy a Hyundai.

This explains how a company can succeed with a little understanding of the current market. Get your sales team together and have a large board meeting. Discuss ways to appeal to the market without hampering service or quality. A little goodwill can go a long way to increase sales and long term standing.

When giving a speech, your body language is just as important as the words. You should appear confident in your convictions, your words should just roll off your tongue like they are second nature to you, your arms should not be fidgety but a part of your speech, maintaining good eye contact will capture your audience and you should respect whomever you are in contact with. People watching you speck will not respond well to attacking or negative gestures. People who follow you want to believe you are strong, confident, competent, and trustworthy. Just remember to listen to what your body is saying!

Present Hope

There have been many great inspirational leaders in our time. Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy are a few to name. The newest amongst the ranks is our new president. Obama uses hope to motivate and inspire people into taking action. In a speech on Jan. 8, 2008, Obama said, “We know the battle ahead will be long. But always remember, no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change… We have been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.” Inspiring leaders remind people why there are reasons to be optimistic. Use this tool and people will believe in you.

Vocal Expression

Have you ever listened to a speaker with a dull voice? Then you will know how hard it is to stay away. Stay away from a monotone voice!

Try these few ideas:

Volume: Every now and then change the volume of your voice to fit the message you are trying to deliver. When you are passionate, speak louder. When you are expressing sadness, speak softer.

Tempo: Changing the speed of your speech will help deliver your message. When you are excited, speed up the pace. When you upset, speak very slow.

Pause: When you want to make a part of your speech very memorable pause right before you deliver.

Use Rhetorical Speech

1. Parallel Structure – Martin Luther King often used this tool. It simply means repeating the same word or expression at the beginning of successive sentences or phrases. His most famous line is “I have a dream……” Obama often uses this tool in his speeches too. One phrase is “Yes, we can.” Use similar phrases as a way to inspire others to listen and to act.

2. Alliteration – King, Kennedy and Obama are fans of this type of speech. Alliteration means to string words together of a similar sound. At the 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote speech that brought Obama to prominence, he said, “Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?” In 2005, during a commencement speech at Knox College, Obama described America as “a place where destiny was not a destination, but a journey to be shared and shaped…” When speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in August, 2006, Obama proclaimed, “The history of America is one of tragedy turned into triumph.” In January’s New Hampshire speech, Obama used alliteration again: “We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics.”

3. Rich Imagery – This is a common tool used my many a persuasive speaker. Rich imagery is when a speaker creates a mental image for its audience. In his 2004 speech, Obama described what he meant by the audacity of hope: “It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs, the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores, the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta, the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds, the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.”

After reading this message, I’m sure you have come to the conclusion that an inspirational speech requires lots of planning and practice. After a few good speeches, it will come easier. Follow this model and inspirational speeches will soon be your forte!

The luxury of having a small staff involves fixing problems quickly with a lot of personal attention. Let us go over a quick three part process to rebuilding motivation to work from your team members.

Evaluate The Individual Member

First, recognize who amongst the staff is happy to be there and happy to live. Do a little analysis about those people. Does their happiness stem from working or from outside influences? You can even make every person fill out a little personal survey. Ask questions such as where does their motivation stem from? What do you hope to achieve in life? What do you like to do? What makes you happy?

If there is a feeling that a person on your team does not seem happy to live, get them some help soon.   This is important for two reasons, the most obvious reason is this person could endanger themselves in some form or fashion and this unhappiness will affect others and it will affect customer service if that is their position. Your options are to have patience and offer them help and watch for results,  put them in a position that does not affect anyone or you must fire them.

Beliefs, Values, Trust, Enjoyment and Energy are very important in the workplace, more so in a small workplace. Your team must thrive off one another. A weak link will attract followers.

Target Happiness

Next, you can now identify what makes people energized and enthusiastic about work. Even the smallest thing can change a person’s entire attitude about work. Let us say you work in a small Italian restaurant called Frio. One of your cooks, Chef Ben, does good work, but he could do better. On his survey he wrote he enjoys cooking for his family on Sundays and he also wrote he has a large herb garden in his backyard. After reading this and talking to Chef Ben, you invent a new tradition in your restaurant. Every Friday before opening is family dinner day for the staff of Frio. Food will be made by Chef Ben. Every Friday, Chef Ben cooks for the restaurant. All members of the staff become a little bit closer because this is their only opportunity to connect with one another without the hustle of a dinner rush and Chef Ben gets to showcase his talents. On top of that, now that you have tasted the quality of his home grown herbs he so nicely used in his cooking, you and some of the other people from Frio buy some of the herbs Chef Ben makes in his garden to give him a few extra bucks. Chef Ben’s productivity has nearly doubled since his new role in the restaurant. He has found his place that sets him apart from the rest.

Another example is you have a secretary who loves to draw. In every place of work there is a use for this talent. She is the assigned person for thank you notes, the bulletin board, you even let her draw little cartoon on the employee newsletter. To offer a person a designed role for enjoyment will bring happiness to their life and their health.

Continue to Inspire

The last step is to always continue to inspire your staff. Continually seek out avenues to recognize, promote, and involve people of your staff. The results will be worth the effort, especially if you are the business owner. Maybe you are the manager who looks to do these things. You better be ready for a promotion because work productivity will increase when you follow these simple steps. Remember, identify those you can make happy and those who may need some help, then find ways to use what makes your team member happy with their work and always continue to find ways to acknowledge them and involve them. As a leader, you have the power to inspire your staff to new levels of higher productivity. Inspiration stems from the human spirit. Tap into this and you can inspire easily.

Every great organization must outline a belief system that inspires continual, productive work from their team members. Once the beliefs have been decided, rules and regulations can then be documented, ordered and followed. An inspiring leader, who shares his thoughts, or what I like to call the inspiring leader’s mentality, can help others within the organization follow a belief system which will directly produce the work atmosphere that generates good or bad traits by team members. Every word and every action a leader gives will set a tone for others to follow. If you would like to learn which beliefs bring forth the highest productivity amongst team members then keep reading the rest of this message.

Trust

Let us look into the two extremities of a work atmosphere. First, there is the overly dominating managing team that watches every move and demands all rules are followed or punishment will be executed. Every piece of work will be correct because complete order is always in action. To some, this may sound like the perfect company. The truth is there are so many rules to follow and so little room to mess up; this form of management will inhibit worker’s motivation and the sense of ownership of work. Production will always be mediocre to barely there and this often builds a high labor cost. This form of leadership does not trust their workers.

The other form of management is offering very few boundaries or complete freedom. This will often bring many things to the work place. Maybe you will discover some highly productive members, some very lazy ones, some new ideas, no ideas, low labor cost or a high labor cost. There is no knowing because there is nothing for the team to model. The future of the company will rest on the rules placed by the workers which will probably always be changing. Chaos or constant change will always be the normality because there is too much trust without boundaries.

Trust is a delicate topic when it involves work and money. To offer trust, there must be some element of control. Rules and boundaries must be placed for people to move around, create and develop without feeling smothered. On the opposing end, to offer an abundance of breathing room will chance losing high production rates from team members. Finding the fine line, in some industries, will be a challenge. The goal is to give freedom to workers to speak their minds, take risks and make decisions while they are expected to speak the truth, are accountable for actions and learn from mistakes.

Hope

To receive the highest productivity from your highest performers, an element of hope must be present. High performers thrive off challenges that lead to a feeling of persevering and acknowledgement for their hard earned work. A good leader will always radiate hope to his or her workers as long as hope stems from a realistic viewpoint.

To lead someone with hope down an unrealistic path will possibly hurt their confidence in themselves and possibly their leader. An example is there is a fitness instructor who is approached by a lady who wants to lose 25 lbs. in 1 week. That is obviously an unrealistic goal. This lady must feel hope by the fitness instructor’s optimistic attitude while a realistic goal is set.

What do you do if your whole team has lost hope in a project? This is where the leader must step in. Sit your whole crew down and gather all facts to problems that require fixing. Approach your team with an attitude that inspires ideas and problems to answers from your team. Let your only goal be to promote the activity you would like to see from them. After the brainstorming session is in done, help decide on directions and timelines to achieve goals.

Enjoyment

People perform at their best when they enjoy what they do. Do not mistake enjoyment with lack of work. True enjoyment is when a team is intensely wrapped up in tackling a project that together they will persevere.

The goal as a leader is to maintain an aura of intensity with an aura of inner peace. Show your true enjoyment for your work; show how much you enjoy working with your team members, while you exert a level of cool and confidence in your abilities and your team. Your motto should be “if we give all that we have and support each other, we will persevere.”

On a different note, acknowledge those that are working more than others. Thank them for working 65 hours this week and let them leave early from work to be with their family.

Growth

To keep high quality people for a period of time room for advancement must be present. High performers need to always learn to stay motivated and on top of their game. A lack of growth will often make workers plateau in abilities and often regress. If your company allows it, let your employees train in several areas or rotate them around now and then. Keep them on their toes and acknowledge them often.

As a leader, you have the power to influence people and therefore their performance. If you believe in creating an environment where trust, optimism, enjoyment and personal growth are encouraged, then you will build a sustainable, high-performing team – and, in the process, create many new leaders. 

A lost magic cloak has been recovered that can make any wearer invisible to the human eye. If this cloak was under your possession, would you steal or cheat? Or would you always do what is right even though no-one would ever know if you did otherwise? The two previous questions are the basis of all systems placed on people. Rules and regulations within a company, business, organization and even a family are built around the leader and/or manager assuming the best of people or the worst of people. Placing a rewards and punishment system, assuming people work out of fear or for the money, will get quick results, but will they be lasting? To instill fear in people, the result is less creative thinking from your crew, in turn less communication and less money for you. To always criticize, the member’s confidence will minimizes, therefore work will be lesser, and motivating will become difficult.

Whether the management system is full of rules or has less to none, every inspiring leader builds the course to long term success or quick failure through one critical viewpoint. An inspiring leader must believe, in general, people are built of more charitable views of human nature to sustain the organization and allow it to grow in an era of constant change.

Every aspiring leader must act in ways that pull the human spirit forward with excitement and confidence. To pull the human spirit forward, a leader must believe that people are inherently good.

If you believe that people are naturally corrupt, think about the laws of attraction. To truly believe all humans alike and naturally lazy and dishonest, this lack of belief in the human spirit will radiate, and therefore bring forth these people who will attempt to work in the systems you have placed before them. Placing systems that assume the worst qualities of people will bring out the worst qualities in people. Stealing and cheating will become the aura of the workplace.

By choosing to believe people are naturally charitable and good, this will radiate, these people will find you and succeed in the systems you have built. These honest people will warn their leader of market changes, new niches and problems that could affect the business. Brainstorming and creative thinking session may be of use. Trust, Hope, Enjoyment and Opportunity are the continual auras of the workplace.