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My son plays the clarinet. I don’t know if you’ve seen one up close, but it’s a beautiful instrument: a glossy black wooden tube, encrusted with silver stops and levers.

But it takes time to learn how to play. (It takes time to learn how to put it together!) Everything to do with this beautiful instrument takes time.

One thing I found particularly amazing, when my son started learning how to play the clarinet, was the instructions he was given on how to practise. And I thought I’d share them with you because - in terms of getting better as a manager or leader - they could also be useful guidelines for you.

The notes start like this:

1. “Establish a routine,” they suggest. “You can even practise before you go to school.”

How many of us regularly set aside time to become better managers? Not many I guess. So set a routine. Five minutes a day, an hour a week.

2. “Always practise soon after your lesson so that you can remember what you have to do and how the music goes.”

This is a really useful piece of advice for us as managers or leaders. Practise before you forget the lesson. Too often when we’re trying new skills, new tactics, we just don’t practise.

3. “Leave your instrument out at home where you can always see it.”

I love that suggestion. Leave your notes, your books, whatever it is you’re trying to practise, out so that you can see it, so that you can be reminded to try new things. Too often we don’t; we go back to the old ways of doing things.

4. “Practise the bits you can’t play.”

I love this point, too. Practise the bits that you can’t play, not the bits you can. Too many of us get trapped in the routines and rituals of success. The things that made us successful are the things we keep on doing.

You need to practise the elements of leadership that you can’t do.

5. “Learn to do pieces of cake,” the notes say. By that they mean practise the small bits over and over and over again.

So too with your work. There are key elements of your work - hiring people, firing people, motivating people - that you need to be able to do almost without thinking about them. Practise them again and again and again, until you get them right.

6. “Learn how to practise slowly,” the notes suggest.

I think that’s a fabulous piece of advice - practise slowly. Don’t just rush it through, don’t skim-read some notes on a new way of managing or leading. Practise slowly.

7. And the final point, “Remember that some practice is better than none.”

Please don’t assume that you, as a manager, have finished learning. You need to understand that you have to practise leading. Leadership is possibly the most complex interpersonal human skill that there is. You’d better be sure you’re good at it.

Practise. Develop your self. Develop your skills. Develop your style. And remember that some practice is better than none.

If you want the leadership success you deserve, get the leadership training you deserve. Download more free articles and leadership training videos from Steven Sonsino, an international business school professor and author of the Amazon bestseller “The Seven Failings of Really Useless Leaders”
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You must agree to the fact that leadership skills play a great role in heightening the possibility of your getting a high profile job. If you have leadership qualities, things are much easier for you when you are facing an interview or participation in a group discussion as a part of the interview or selection test. If you are eager to develop your leadership skills, and if you are in search for some tips and suggestions that will help you to develop characteristics, here are they. Follow them and make your leadership skills more effective.

The first step to develop your leadership skills is to know the features that the successful leaders have. Try to develop those skills so that you can become a successful leader with unique and effective leadership skills. The features of the successful leaders have been discussed below.

Sense of responsibility: This is one of the basic features that the successful leaders have. You should always be aware of what your duties are. Doing excellent work should not be sufficient for you. If you can ensure that all the team members of your team are doing their best, you can think that you have acted up to your responsibility. If you know something has to be done, either do it or ensure that it is done duly.

Taking risk: in order to be an efficient leader, you have to have the courage to take risks. Do not take risks irrationally. If you are sure that you can manage the whole thing if you and your teamwork hard, you can take the risk.

Trust in your men: since you want to develop your leadership skills. You cannot think of your existence in your profession without your team. You have to have faith in your men. You should believe that they are capable of doing the hardest job of they are led in the proper way and if they are inspired duly.

Lifelong learners: you have to believe that you can learn things from each and every incident in your personal and professional life. You have to refine and update your knowledge and understanding of things and human behavior continually.

Efficient dealing with complicacy: you cannot expect that you will go through the whole of your professional life without ever going through hard times. You are sure to face some tight situation that you have got to handle prudently and efficiently. You have to keep in mind that if you are worried in a complicated situation, your team members will also feel unsecured and unconfident.

Communication: you should ensure that there should be no communication gap between you and your team members. If communication is excellent, your team is sure to perform better than ever before. You should be clear in saying what you expect from your team members. You should also understand their problems if they are real.

The most important thing for a person having excellent leadership skills is to be efficient in his or her own job. It is the performance of the leader that inspires other team members of the team.

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The problem most people face is they make the sales process too complicated. By so doing, they place barriers between themselves and their prospects. The prospective buyer can almost see dollar signs floating out of the eys of the business person. Once this is sensed, the sale dies.

However, once you make the sales attitude switch, the rest is relatively easy. It actually becomes fun to meet new people, exchange ideas and have a lively conversation to find if there is a potential match to do business.

Let us take a step-by-step look at how we make friends and translate the strategy to selling:

Take an active interest in the other person.
When we initially meet people, we like to know their background, if they are single or married; if married, how many years. We ask what type of work they are in, how they got there, how long they have been in that position. We may ask them what it is like to work at their company.

If the other person works out of their home, we will ask how long they lived in their home, where they lived previously, and if they have a family. If they have children, we will ask their ages, where the interests of the children lie, and possibly where they might go to college.

There is absolutely no difference when you approach your prospects. Use the exact same process! You will be amazed how well your new prospect takes to you. You will have set yourself apart from your competition, and people will begin to describe you as a breath of fresh air.

Once you take an active interest in your new friends or prospects, they will reciprocate with a keen interest in you. The likelihood of conducting business will increase dramatically.

Pursue the relationship.
Once we believe we like the new person that we have just met, we invite them to coffee, a walk, or possibly a movie. In other words, we set the next step for getting to know the other a little bit better.

Likewise, the first business appointment is to learn about each other to see if you want to pursue doing business together. You will have asked each other questions to gain information. Usually in this phase, requests are made of one another to gain insight as to how the other operates and further determine if you are indeed a good match. The next appointment is set to pursue the relationship.

Follow-up promptly to keep your new friends.
You may say to your new friend, I will call you on Saturday. If you do not call, your new friend will begin to question whether or not you are trustworthy. The exact same thing is true of business relationships.

This is the step where most businesspeople fall down. They feel it is not worth their time. Contrary to this belief, follow-up is the most critical element for making or breaking a sale.

Follow-up is where you establish credibility and trust with your prospect, and sets in motion the process for doing business. Continual follow-up will help you reap repeat business, referrals and testimonials.

Lend a helping hand to your friends.
Readily providing a helping hand will make you a trusted friend and strengthen the bond between you.

In business, help comes in many forms. Becoming an expert in your field to support your clients, and readily sharing your network of experts will also bring you an abundance of business.

Show your new-found friend appreciation.
The easiest and most appreciated step in relationship building is to say, Thank you. Everyone appreciates a word of thanks. Take every opportunity you have to say, Thank you to your prospects and clients

By showing your appreciation at every turn, you will again increase the likelihood of gaining business, larger sales, repeat business, referrals and testimonials. You will be building a dynamic business and have conquered the 5 keys to relationship selling.

In my experience, the ultimate relationship selling experience is when your prospect asks permission to purchase from you. This comes about when your prospect has come to trust you and enjoy your friendship. As my experience has evolved, I have come to enjoy this type of Smooth Sale and it is a joyous one.

Additional Ideas to Build Business:
Routinely provide excellent follow-up, outstanding service, keep your sense of humor, give service with a smile, and ask if anything else is required. Your clientele will love you for it and reward you with much business.

Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC and Author, offers sales training,coaching,speaking and a full product line.

Smooth Sale Delivers: Professional Sales Training, Licensing, Coaching, Motivational Speaking and a Full Product Line.

Elinor’s book, Nice Girls DO Get The Sale,translated into multiple languages and sells worldwide.

Call 800-704-1499 or Sign up for Sales Tips ezine at Smooth Sale.

After studying Transformational Leadership for a while, you may come to the conclusion that there are a lot of technical things to remember to do, and even then you might not get it right.

So what is the magical ingredient to leading that makes it work? Well first of all, you probably know by now that there is no magic wand for life, or for leadership greatness. We can follow in the footsteps of those that came before us, and yet we might still not succeed.

Anyone that has ever attempted to create anything worthwhile knows that it is challenging, period. If it were easy, there would be little transformation of the person involved to create the result. It is often in the process and the journey that we ourselves transform, and that becomes the main reason why we succeed. We develop our own unique and special way of doing and being that really works, and creates the results we are looking for. Often a setback on a project can trigger a decision to do what it takes, pay the price, and get it right.

Being in a leadership position has many demands, some external, and other internal. Others and our own expectations we need to live up to - needing to be a certain way.
So as an example:
To be a transformational leader according to BASS and BURNS you need to be, have or provide:

1. Charisma or Idealized influence

2. Inspirational motivation

3. Intellectual stimulation

4. Individualized consideration or Individualised attention

or else you are not even playing the right game. But, you could do and be all of those 4 characteristics, and still not create the result you want.

You might ask why not? Good question.

Well, it’s also very important that you be yourself. This is called being authentic. In a world that is constantly trying to make us anything but our unique and creative self, this is paramount.

YOU are the magical ingredient. Without YOU, nothing happens. Your unique, and authentic way of being you, creates the energy, drive, passion, or whatever you want to call it, that makes all the difference. How you engage your energy, time, integrity and power makes a massive difference to the outcome. It’s like having a high performance car, and not using the best fuel. You will never get the best performance output if one aspect is lacking. You can have all the skills in the world, but if your execution is poor, so too will the results be.

It’s about how you develop and grow as a leader. The personal choices and commitments you make, and break. What you will and will not stand for. It is you that lives with the consequences of your choices and actions.

Being authentic can be daunting, yet it holds the key to real sincerity and power. It can give you the personal edge and insight that most only dream about. If you gain the world, but lose yourself, you lose the game of life.

Being a Transformational Leader can be challenging, and when you bring your authentic self forward, the journey becomes personalised, powerful, meaningful and more enjoyable. Others respond to the genuine nature that they see in you.

http://www.transformationalleadership.net is dedicated to unlocking your transformation and leadership potential. Developing Tomorrow’s Transformational Leaders Today.

Business leadership is not about any single quality so much as it is about a number of qualities that come together to create something much stronger than any of those qualities alone. Business leadership is not so much about managing others and “taking charge” as it is about motivating by example.

So if business leadership is something that is difficult to pin down, what steps can you take so that you will find yourself recognized as a leader in this, the 21st century? What can you do to incorporate the principles of leadership into your life so that you will be able to achieve your goals and rise to the top in your organization or your career field?

One step is to look at those leaders who you admire. Whether you’re inspiration comes from political leaders - those who have been able to unite the people of their country during difficult times - or from leaders within your own field, when you are looking for information that will help you to take on a business leadership role, it’s important to understand what makes someone a leader.

In other words, when you are thinking about business leadership, it’s important to take the time to understand courage, determination, and to learn more about the ways in which leaders speak to those who follow them. Ultimately, what you will find is that by embracing those qualities within yourself, you will be able to persevere and to reach the goals that you have set for yourself and for those who you are working with.

Ultimately, what you are likely to discover is that, in order to differentiate yourself in the 21st century and to take on a business leadership role, you will need to:

* Learn to set aside excuses. The majority of people who are in business find a way to come up with a number of excuses when something that they have been asked to do isn’t done. Leaders, on the other hand, focus on getting the job done.

* Learn the value of making mistakes. When we make mistakes, it’s important to take advantage of the lessons that come out of them so that we can use that knowledge to move forward.

* Learn to lead from within. When you are looking at business leadership characteristics, you’ll see that those who are in a supervisory role are not just watching others and telling them what they do wrong; instead, when they see a problem they jump into the trenches and work with their staff, helping them to solve problems and to find creative solutions.

Business leadership is about working with others and motivating them to do more - to be more. When you’re looking for a way to differentiate yourself from others, one of the best things that you can do is to work well with others, put forth your best effort at all times and to make sure that - at all times - you’re making an effort to bring a team of people together.

Finally, remember this: business leadership is about having a willingness to try something new. To set yourself apart from the crowd, you need to look at the big picture - and then to get everyone else to see it too.

Copyright 2008, Cecile Peterkin.

Cecile Peterkin is a Certified Career and Life Coach. Feeling stuck in middle management or mid career? Claim your FR-EE Assessment and complimentary coaching session at our career guidance website.

With all the costs involved of running a business of any size, executive leadership coaching is low in the priority list for many business owners. But in reality, investing in executive leadership training is one of the best things you can do for your business.

Today’s economy is fickle and precarious and nearly all businesses are feeling the effects. Far from having the luxury of employing executive leadership coaching, many companies have to deal with deciding where to cut costs in order to make up for decreased revenues.

Unfortunately, some companies believe one of the easiest ways to do this is to cut their employee training budget. Deemphasizing or illuminating the costs of executive leadership coaching programs may prove to be a short-term gain, but businesses interested in long-term viability need to understand that to be successful they must continually develop their people, especially their leaders.

The American Society of Training and Development conducted a study surveying HR Directors at small, Chicago-based, start-up companies and found that leadership training was their number one professional challenge. Another recent study showed that companies with regular executive leadership coaching consistently outperform companies who do not train their people by about 35%. These findings are consistent with those of previous studies, and prove that proper executive leadership coaching is one of the single most effective ways to improve productivity at every level of a business.

There are all different kinds of executive leadership coaching programs. The best ones (the ones that have been proven to have most positive and lasting results) promote leadership in three phases;Plan for Leadership Development. The first part of planning an executive leadership coaching program is to examine what you currently have in place.

The next planning step is to begin identifying characteristics of people who are already successful leaders in your company. Every company has a unique culture that favors particular characteristics. The key to building a successful executive leadership coaching program begins with looking at successful people. Ascertain what it is about them that makes them successful. Chances are you will begin to notice patterns of common experience, educational background, training, communication skills, and interpersonal relationship skills.

The next phase is Practice Leadership Development.
Once you have decided on characteristics you want your leaders to emulate and have defined what “success” looks like, it’s time to implement the program. Start small, with one or two people. This will allow you to test your executive leadership coaching program and make adjustments. There are different ways to begin the program, but nearly all successful ones include elements of: Effective business communication,Conflict resolution skills,Team building,Relating to different personality styles,Time management,Delegation skills, Goal setting,Critical coaching skills,Other areas specific to your business.

The last phase is to Promote Leadership Development. Once you have refined your executive leadership coaching program by working with a couple of leaders, you are ready to start promoting the program. One way to start is by informing potential employees of your executive leadership coaching in the interview process. This ensures that all new employees start out with the company developing good habits.

Executive leadership coaching is absolutely critical to the success of business, especially small to medium sized companies. Successful companies understand that “people are our most valuable asset,” and therefore, developing people through effective executive leadership coaching is a most important investment. Smart companies are beginning to recognize that leadership development and people training is a process, not an event. So executive leadership coaching deserves more than just the annual workshop attention.

Executive leadership coaching (http://www.partnersinleadership.com/) is crucial for developing the personnel of any company. The author Art Gib is a freelance writer.