How To Be A Better Leader In Just 5 Days

Article picked from Forbes Online Magazine, written by Mike Myatt, Contributor on leadership subjects.

What if you could improve your leadership effectiveness in only 5 days? No really – what if? What if there were no costs, no strings attached, no hidden agendas, no complex curriculum, but just a simple set of instructions for you to follow over the next 5 days that will change your world as a leader? Well, I have a 5 day leadership challenge for you which will do just exactly that – You in?

Here’s the deal – leadership has very little to do with what you can do for yourself, but it has almost everything to do with what you can do for others. If I do away with all the management speak and complex theory, leadership can actually be distilled down to one very tangible measurement; the quality of your relationships.

Let’s be honest, fractured relationships adversely impact culture, cause stress, infringe upon your thought life, waste time, and inhibit performance. Healthy relationships, on the other hand create synergy, establish good will, engender confidence, foster trust, encourage loyalty, and build healthy cultures. The bad news is unhealthy relationships are in fact a reflection of your leadership ability. The good news is there isn’t a single person reading today’s column incapable of improving their strained relationships. Therein lies the challenge…

We all suffer from living with relationship gaps that can be and should be narrowed, if not closed altogether. It doesn’t matter whether these gaps are positional or philosophical, whether they exist because of your pride or their ego, or whether you need to build a bridge or mend a fence due to a wrong committed by you or against you. The simple fact remains that troubled relationships impact your ability to lead. The question is not whether you have fractured relationships, but if you recognize them, and if so, what you will or won’t do about them. Smart leaders don’t allow fractured relationships to disrupt healthy behaviors and attitudes.

Here’s the 5 DAY challenge:

Day 1: Identify one relationship in need of improvement. Determine their needs, assess their positions, perceptions and opinions, and identify how you can help them. The goal isn’t to win, to prove how smart you are, to be vindicated, or to be right. The goal is to engage, to build trust and rapport, to reach an understanding, to move forward, and to become a better leader.

Day 2: Now comes the hard part…extend an invitation to meet in person - no phone calls, emails, DMs, or Facebook messages. Get face-to-face.

Day 3: Have the meeting, ask questions, process, and listen. Remember this is about them and not about you. Treat them like you’d want to be treated.

Day 4: Evaluate the meeting and the response of the person you met with. Follow-up and follow through. Do what you said you would do. Close the gap, improve the relationship – LEAD.

Day 5: Start the process over again with a different person. Want to bite-off more than one relationship? Be my guest, but remember you can still improve as a leader one relationship at a time.

This process will work for anyone in your value chain – peers, subordinates, customers, vendors, partners, etc. It only requires effort on your part and a sincere desire to better serve those within your span of awareness, or your sphere of influence. Do yourself a favor and start improving your relationships today…

Source: Forbes Online Magazine

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What’s the Right Age to Give Your Kid a Cell Phone?

Article from TIME Online Magazine, written by Bonnie Rochman.

The most popular age at which parents give their kids cell phones is 12. Are teens ready to handle the responsibility of their own digital link to the world?

My 9-year-old son doesn’t have a cell phone. I don’t think it’s occurred to him to ask, which puts me in the blissful company of other pre-tween parents whose kids have yet to hound them for what’s become a standard accoutrement of childhood.

Just because he doesn’t have his own phone doesn’t mean he’s not using one, of course. He and his younger sisters take turns clamoring for my iPhone or settling for the iPod Touch — now-indispensable devices with which earlier generations didn’t have to contend. (Walkman, anyone?) It’s that overwhelming availability and access to technology that’s the subject of TIME Magazine’s “Wireless Issue,” in which I wrote about when to give your kid a cell phone.

Partly, the question revolves around concerns about radiation. I always make my kids put a pillow between any wireless device and their laps; when they chat with their grandparents on a cell phone, I insist they turn on the speakerphone. I want grandchildren someday, and the effect of the non-ionizing radiation emitted by cell phones remains unclear.

Turns out I’m not crazy. Last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission asking it to reassess its radiation standards for children. Kids “are not little adults and are disproportionately impacted by all environmental exposures, including cell phone radiation,” wrote AAP President Dr. Robert Block, noting that the average radio frequency energy deposition is two times higher in kids’ brains and 10 times higher in the bone marrow of their skulls, compared with adults.

Yikes. Nothing like talk of compromising baby brains to make you reach for the nearest hands-free device. It’s best to proceed with caution even as we continue to learn more about how cell phones affect us. There’s been some concern that the nighttime glow from digital screens devices may cause depression, for example. But as far as worries about eye strain go, pediatric ophthalmologist James Ruben, chair of the AAP’s section on ophthalmology, says it’s “probably much ado about nothing.” He’s seen no uptick in vision problems related to cell phone use in his practice in Roseville, Calif.

As for the impact of radiation, studies have been inconclusive, though the National Cancer Institute notes on its website that “in theory, children have the potential to be at greater risk than adults for developing brain cancer from cell phones.” Spanish researchers are currently evaluating that risk. The good news? One of the best things kids can do to avoid radiation zapping their developing brains is something they’re already embraced en masse: texting. Tapping out cell-phone missives keeps the phone away from their heads.

Alas, too much texting isn’t so great either, says Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and co-author of iBrain. “Our brains evolved to communicate face-to-face,” he says. “A lot of this is lost with texting.” Empathy and the ability to home in on social cues can also take a hit, says Sherry Turkle, an MIT professor and author of Alone Together, about the drawbacks of social media use. “There’s a difference between an apology and typing, I’m sorry, and ‘send,’” says Turkle. “Texting takes the messiness out of human relationships. It’s not our job as parents to tidy up the world and deliver it in little soundbites.”

Yet even before they can spell — somewhat of a must for texting — kids are becoming savvy with cell phones. More than 1 in 10 kids between the ages of 6 to 10 already have their very own cell, according to data collected during the first six months of 2012 by YouthBeat. The most popular age to bequeath a phone to a kid? Twelve.

Whereas older kids view their phones as their social lifelines, younger kids, like my 5-year-old daughter, use them to play games and watch video. Recently when I pried my iPhone from her hands, she huffed: “If you won’t give me your iPhone, I’m going to buy my own.”

According to Gwenn O’Keeffe, a pediatrician who authored an AAP report last year about the potential pitfalls of digital technology, my daughter’s got plenty of time to start saving. Most young kids don’t need a phone — the exception may be children with allergies or medical conditions — but that changes once kids leave elementary school. “Middle school is the clear-cut time in my mind,” says O’Keeffe, who bequeathed phones to her girls then. “There’s a huge developmental leap between fourth and eighth grades.”

Much before then, kids may not be sufficiently responsible to keep track of a device or handle the complexities that can arise from being constantly connected to a cell phone — cyberbullying, sexting and overtures from strangers, to name a few. But don’t sit tight until that point; it’s up to parents to start early teaching kids how to play nicely in the digital world. “Well before you give them a cell, you have to start laying the groundwork,” says O’Keeffe. “It will go very smoothly if you help them acclimate.”

Source: TIME Online Magazine

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5-Part IQ Test for Investors: Are You Market-Smart?

An article from Smart Money, written by Paul B. Farrell. Enjoy reading it and try to do all the suggested IQs...sure you have something to prove.

How successful are you as an investor? You a winner? If not, why not? Are you too smart? Maybe too dumb? Too irrational? Uninformed? Deck stacked against you? Too manipulated to invest successfully in today's uncertain, volatile, insane markets?

Seriously, are you really good at finding and analyzing the right information in today's overdose of market data ... unstable global economies ... emerging markets ... death of equities ... new normal ... fiscal cliffs ... political gridlock ... trading algorithm glitches ... billionaires versus middle class ... austerity ... no-growth economics ... big oil lobbying ... Fed stimulus ... social media IPOs ... doomsday cycle ... 2012 elections ... Euro default ... China's apocalypse ... runaway population ... global commodities wars ...

Head spinning? Let's slow it down. Let's start with a simple "5-Part IQ Test" for investors. You grade yourself. Then decide. Armed with a new sense of self-awareness, you focus, get centered, pick the right strategy, a new one that'll work best for you. Power, confidence, self-knowledge creates winners.

The best investing strategies are simple, timeless, obvious, transparent ... and too often ignored. Yes, ignored. Why? Because most investors have trouble making decisions. They rely on the random flow of breaking news, biases, weak data and so-called experts.

Unfortunately, in processing an overwhelming tidal wave, the investor's brain has reprogrammed itself to process high volumes of short-term information that significantly discounts long-term data and overrides timeless principles. And yet the best investment advice still is incredibly simple and obvious. But because this process forces us to ignore breaking news and take personal responsibility, many investors freeze, can't decide, vacillate and lose their self-confidence.

What if you're in a double-bind, indecisive, dithering?

Here's every investor's best advice, something the Buddha said 2,500 years ago: "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who said it, not even if I said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." If investors took Buddha's advice, Wall Street would be out of business, and you'd be in control! 

But be careful, if you do take this advice, you'll fall into a classic double-bind! Yes, you'll know you can never trust another so-called expert. But how do you know if you know "enough" to trust yourself? 

Years ago I discussed this esoteric field of investing metaphysics with financial adviser Paul Merriman and came away with a sudden awareness that the investor's problem is not "out there." It's not too much information or too little of what's going on "out there" on Wall Street, in the markets or economies across the world. 

No, investors' biggest problem is what's going on inside their own brain. Period. So here's a short five-part quiz we designed to help you find out how to sort that out for yourself and make better investment decisions:

#1. Accurate? Information tested accurate and truthful (20 points) 

 

We'd all love to have tomorrow's newspaper today. Unfortunately, investors are historians not futurists. And we're overloaded. Even with the best data available, for example the data in most fund profiles, you're dealing with 10,000 funds, each with 100 data points that are actually old news, usually 3-to-6 months old, some a year old. So you oscillate between a false sense of being well-informed, and insecurity about the truth. Give yourself 20 points if you believe you get the honest-to-god's hard facts here.

#2. Biased? Facts you believe are true but are false (20 points)

 

Behavioral finance guru Richard Thaler says Wall Street "needs investors who are irrational, woefully uninformed, endowed with strange preferences, or for some other reason willing to hold overpriced assets." The game's rigged and the house always wins. Wall Street's army of behavioral economists, securities analysts, cable talking heads, industry pundits and ad execs all know your brain tunes into upbeat positive news, screens out contrary data. They easily manipulate your internal belief system. 

In our desire for clarity about the future, we tune into what reinforces preexisting beliefs. We believe that listening to MSNBC or FoxNews, reading one more newspaper, or researching one more stock, you'll discover tomorrow's truth. Max of 20 more points if you're certain you get the whole truth

#3. Denials? You know the truth, but refuse to accept it (20 points) 

 

Our minds are masters at denying the truth, even when it's staring us in the face. Nouriel Roubini sees this phenomenon a "White Swan" in "Crisis Economics." In fact, financial crises actually occur in predictable patterns that masses of investors still deny and ignore. For example, for four years leading up to the 2008 Wall Street crash, we reported on dozens of credible warnings. We questioned denials by the Treasury secretary and Fed chairman. The need to be right leads us to deny contrary data, like P/E ratios. We con ourselves with clich s: "This time it's different, a new economy." 

Sorry, but you cannot trust either optimism or pessimism, not yours, not theirs, nor mine. Even when you're certain you're right, you may be dead wrong, yet unable to let go of a bad idea. Max 20 points.

 

#4. Wishful thinking? Unpredictable future, you're guessing (20 points) 

 

In your mind, you know you really can't know much about tomorrow. There's a reason financial insiders insert a warning in their research: "Past performance cannot predict future results." Yes, you tune it out, they're protected. You're in fantasy land with a lotto ticket. 

Every day the press and media blabbers on with hundreds of market gurus, economists, CEOs, and advertisements galore. We counted them one day, over a hundred predictions, contradictions, oxmorons, dilemmas, paradoxes, a relentless torrent of conflicting data about future unknowns, unpredictable, speculations and guesstimates. We obsess, anxiously trying to figure out what you can never really know, until after the fact. 

Another 20-point max: But only if you have a solid track record predicting the future. 

#5. Black swans? Disasters we could plan for, but don't (20 points) 

 

Black swans are unknown future events. There are so many data points, macroeconomic possibilities and uncertain risks beyond our human comprehension. And yes, experts use sophisticated game-theory strategies to predict probabilities of unpredictable events. 

But too many unknowns slip through the human mind, catch us by surprise. Nassim Taleb, an options trader, mathematics professor and author of "Fooled By Randomness," says black swans are rare events with three defining characteristics: They are improbable, unpredictable and will have "massive consequences." And afterwards "experts" will tell us all the reasons the events were predictable, not random. 

Yes, we may never see these historic turning points until after the fact, when it's too late to prepare. But all too often the risks of sudden "unexpected" events, like market crashes, natural disasters, currency collapses, pandemics, terrorist attacks and nuclear wars are predictable but discounted as too costly to prepared for. 

Such as events like the 2012 Knight Capital HFT programming glitch, Wall Street's 2008 crash, hundred-year floods and the next Big Oil spill. The best and brightest can predict but chose instead to take the risks, hope nothing happens and get richer. Max out with another 20 points here. 

What's your "Investors I.Q. Score?" Will you succeed in 2013?

 

Folks, the biggest decision every investor must make is taking total responsibility for their investment strategy and performance. Most waffle. But you'll never mature by default, by following the "experts." You must take charge of the good, the bad and the ugly in this increasingly dangerous world. 

It's your money, your retirement, and in the end, you, not the gurus you follow, are stuck with the gains or losses. Remember the wisdom of Lao Tzu another great investment adviser 5,000 years ago: "He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened." Which are you? 

One final warning: If you take this "Investors I.Q. Test" and get over 50%, you've still got some denial about the world and yourself. Get honest with yourself. Then rework your investment strategy.

Source: Smart Money, Online Magazine

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5 Ways Leaders Must Build a Family Environment to Achieve Excellence

An article from FORBES Online Magazine, written by Glenn Llopis, a freelance writer.

At a time when organizations are looking for new ways to build high-performance teams, perhaps they should be considering a family approach to business that emphasizes trust and values.  A team work environment where camaraderie means having each other’s back and not judging one another.   A workplace culture that celebrates opportunities, transparency, and  the opinions of all to enrich conversations and diversity of thought. 

According to a McKinsey report, one-third of all companies in the S&P 500 index are family-controlled, and many are outperforming their competitors.    A study at Texas A&M further reveals that family-owned businesses beat other firms in revenue and employment growth and have a longer-term view of investment; they’re more stable, and inspire more trust and commitment in their employees.  In fact, the top 10 family-owned businesses – including MARS, Ford, Walmart, Cargill and Koch Industries – collectively generate annual revenues of one trillion dollars.

The success of family-owned businesses runs much deeper during turbulent times.  Because family-owned companies tend to take a much more conservative approach to debt, leverage becomes an advantage.  As noted in the McKinsey report, average family businesses in the U.S. and Western Europe had a debt-to-equity ratio of only 25 percent going into the financial crisis of 2008, compared with 40 percent for non-family firms.

There is clearly something to say about running a business with a family approach. Not all of them are perfect, but that is not the point. Taking a family approach means establishing a foundation of trust and a cultural promise to unite as one; to perform with purpose and the healthier whole in mind. In the end, it’s about leadership and the ability to manage the moving parts and sustain momentum.

Here are five ways a leader can build a family environment to achieve excellence in the workplace:

1.     Give Your Team a Sense of Ownership

Too many times, leaders demand that their employees just “do” what they say – and thus don’t give them a sense of belonging to a team.   At a time when employees want to be a part of something meaningful, leaders need to spread the wealth of ownership and with it the responsibility – i.e., apply more accountability to performance.

To build a family environment, make everyone on the team feel as if they are a “board member” in your department.  Establish boundaries, but elevate their sense of purpose.

2.     Everyone Must Protect One Another

Lead with kindness and intention.   Leadership by fear limits the growth of your employees and the opportunities for achievement.   Treat your employees like family.   Have each other’s back and always help one another improve; talent discovered and used in the right situations can seize opportunities rightly.

3.     Instill Values to Enable a Trusted Culture 

When you can define the standards of performance based on  an understanding of what you, the department and / or the company stands for – it is much easier to establish expectations.   These expectations should be based on a set of core values that everyone can embrace in order to build a trusted culture that is fair with no surprises.   Your team  will operate most efficiently with a clean state of mind knowing that their momentum will not be disrupted with “political road-blocks.” An uninterrupted game plan  means they can focus on results.

4.     Encourage People to Speak-up

Enable people to express their voice and allow their perspectives to be heard.   People shouldn’t feel that they require permission to express their opinions. The goal is to activate the team, not restrict their participation. The more people you get involved in the conversation, the more you can benefit from a family environment that embraces differences. This builds loyalty, grows confidence and solidifies a foundation of trust. Additionally, the expression of multiple voices allows for the discovery of opportunities previously unseen.

5.     Develop a Succession Plan

 

Everyone on the team should be aware of their succession plan.  Be clear in establishing a road-map to get employees excited about the next stage of their careers.  Be transparent with everyone’s plan and allow others to participate in the plan.  With everyone pulling for one another’s success in this family environment, it eliminates traps and cultivates a culture of winning.

Leaders require maturity and trust in themselves to build a family environment. Those businesses that fail typically are a result of envy, lack of trust and /or  an inability to work together. Those leaders who can successfully build a family environment in their department will not only achieve more in the short term, but will build a foundation of hard work, determination and perseverance for the long run.

Source: FORBES Online Magazine

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The Facts About Life Insurance

Human life has always been risky from the Stone Age period till today. Life insurance coverage is supposed for giving safety to human life towards the unsure incidents and risks. Very long time in the past, insurance coverage was meant for stopping piracy on the sea. This was enacted in China and supposed for safeguarding the ships from being captured or destroyed by the pirates. In reality, the actual safety was given to the consignment loaded on the ship.

On the opposite side, insurance coverage was meant for protecting the caravans that transported items of the traders and retailers, in Babylonia. At that time, the insurer used to provide loans to the shipper which needed to be returned to the company with curiosity after the products had been efficiently and safely delivered. In Rome, insurance coverage was meant for offering financial assist to cowl up the funeral bills of the insured. At the moment, there were no insurance companies but the undertaking was achieved by the burial clubs. In a while, this technique was abandoned after which few companies emerged to assist people by providing life insurance to cowl up risks like incapacity, death, theft, hearth, etc.

Through the golden time, life insurance was meant for safeguarding people while travelling. Since there was a high threat involved whereas migrating or travelling from one place to a different, insurance was to only factor that might provide protection to the individuals, at that time. After the fantastic Revolution of 1688, life insurance coverage was introduced in England. To avoid the risk against life, insurance coverage became popular and was helpful for the individuals of all classes. At that time, there weren’t many corporations who offered insurance but right now, there are millions of insurance firms all around the world.

If you’re in search of protection of your life and wish to secure the way forward for your family or inheritor, you must hire an insurance company and get the insurance coverage done. Day by day, the insurance corporations are attempting to make it simpler for the folks to choose the sort and the amount of safety they require. Subsequently, we are able to find many types of insurance coverage protection within the insurance market, today. The insurance corporations are offering the very best coverage deal and diversified companies to assist individuals make their life secure. Once you have insured your life, you may remain completely rigidity free about your future. The beneficiary of your policy will obtain financial compensation after your death.

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What It Means To Be A Perfectionist

Article from Forbes Online Magazine, dated 27th July 2012 written by Hanny Lerner, a contributor

If you’re a perfectionist, you’ll agree that we inadvertently make life harder for ourselves because of our incessant need to have things done a certain way. Our way. Sometimes it’s to our benefit, other times to our detriment. But one thing is for sure: we care more about the details than the average person. I consider myself a perfectionist in a lot of ways, particularly in my career.

An Illustration of a Perfectionist

Growing up, I was an extremely competitive and scholastic student. I remember being in 1st grade, determined to get the highest grades in the class. That determination continued all the way through college, and all my teachers, Rabbis and professors knew how important academic achievement was to me. In my final semester of my senior year in college, my professor decided that he needed to teach me a life lesson. He called me into his office and said that he was giving me an A minus on my Asian Business exam. Not because my final paper didn’t deserve an A, but because he cared about me and wanted me to learn that there is no such thing as “Perfect” – that I shouldn’t think I am less smart, less capable or less successful because I didn’t graduate with a 4.0. He indeed gave me an  A-, and I graduated with a 3.98 GPA. As crazy as it sounds, I was absolutely devastated and it took me several months (and two CUNY appeals) to get over it.

We Can’t Do It All

My perfectionist nature played a big role when I co-founded my business. In the first few months of building MOD Restoration, I needed to do everything myself. God forbid I let someone else handle the bookkeeping, the customer service, the sales, the marketing, the web or graphic design. After all, who else would do it as well as I would? But I quickly realized the growth inhibitions and lack of free time that came along with doing everything (but the actual furniture restoration) myself. We worked till midnight every day and had zero social life. So, with the help of my business mentor, I slowly learned to let go. I hired people to replace me and started getting my social life back. At 26, I was taught Business rule 101:

You simply can’t grow a company doing everything yourself.

Details Still Do Matter

That same year, I decided to invest my money in real estate and bought a small apartment building in Brooklyn.  It was a foreclosure property, and required a complete gut renovation. My real estate friends tried to convince me to renovate it so that it was just “good enough,” and that the details didn’t matter. But boy, did they matter to me. I needed the doors to be 8′ high instead of the standard 6’8”, the hardwood floor planks had to be 6” wide instead of 3” wide, the door hinges to be stainless steel instead of gold, the toilets to be TOTO instead of Kohler, the tiles had to be 24” wide instead of 12”, the outlet covers had to match the exposed brick wall….the details were endless. It reached a point where I wasn’t sure whether I was doing all this for the prospective tenants, or for my own perpetual need for perfection. Looking back, I’m sure it was the latter. Today, I have 20 wonderful individuals living in the building who absolutely love their apartments – and I doubt they even notice the color of the hinges.

Balancing Perfection

Being a perfectionist is part of who I am as a business owner and I embrace it. In fact, I love that about myself. As long as we don’t let it control us, I believe that it enables us to build great companies that produce high quality results. Of course, I’d like to inspect every piece of furniture that my company reupholsters to ensure that it’s perfect, but I know that it’s not feasible (nor healthy). Instead, we have 3 separate sets of eyeballs that inspect each piece of furniture before it leaves our upholstery studio. Between them all, we’re bound to get it perfect – or I should say, almost perfect :)

Source: Forbes Online Magazine

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