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The road to success certainly looks different to each individual that embarks upon the long journey, but those that have since traveled this road come out with tips and tricks that often inspire others who aim to set out on a similar endeavor. We as leaders often think that we know it all, but the best step one can take to becoming a more effective leader is to learn directly from those that have risen to the top.
Since strong leadership is so vital to any individual or business, we gathered some unique leadership tips from some of the most renowned businessmen and women in order to assist you in maximizing your very own success story!
Brain Hack: Profitability = Productivity
Getting and staying profitable marks lasting success for any and all businesses, but often leaders are looking in all the wrong places, costing them the chance to reach and remain at their peak profitability performance. This starts with increasing your bottom line. Profitability = Productivity. In order to keep your profits in check, it is important that you track your revenue hours with the overhead costs accordingly. If you are able to produce more items then the overhead, your overall cost per item drops.
“Be more productive. If you sell more you may make more but there are many companies that have high sales but struggle to be profitable because they don’t understand these issues.” – Ruth King
Profitability Master Ruth King’s mission is to have a positive, profound impact on peoples’ businesses and lives by giving them the tools/systems they need in order to get and stay profitable. King reveals in her book series, The Ugly Truth about Cash, just how brazen thieves capture information and falsify/steal/alter YOUR QuickBooks® record, and why the crime may not be discovered for weeks or even months.
Brain Hack: Follow Your Passion
The most effective leaders are the ones who are the most passionate about their life’s work. Although it may be sad to say, many of us are not necessarily working within the field of our dreams, and that is our greatest mistake. This brain hack stresses the importance of assessing what is meaningful and passionate for you and making your life’s living off of that passion. This allows for a stronger work/life harmony that flows more naturally, reducing the impact of stress. If you are making money and simultaneously enjoying your work then don’t let anyone tell you that you should be doing otherwise, even if what your work seems silly to them.
“Taking note of the things you enjoy and dislike will help you discover what you truly want to do.” – Paula Black
Paula Black is one of the world’s leading business development coaches for lawyers, entrepreneurs and service providers. She teaches her clients how to attract more clients and grow their businesses while still having the personal life they really want. Paula was voted one of the Top Legal Business Development Coaches and is a member of the Forbes Coaching Council. She is an award-winning and bestselling author of The Little Black Book series and has recently published, A Lawyer’s Guide to Creating a Life, Not Just a Living.
Brain Hack: Look at Life as A Book
This brain hack stresses the importance of writing your own original life story, personally and professionally. The one thing we all share in common within our book of life is our first and last chapters; birth and death. The remaining chapters in our book of life can be composed in whichever way we desire and can be based on the legacy we want to leave. The world’s most profound leaders are the ones who write their own stories and refuse to allow them to be written by someone else. These leaders make an impact by setting their pace, implementing the rules they want to follow, living in the moment and refusing to dwell on their past failures or the impending “what ifs” that lie within the future. Write your own story…
“Write your own story, don’t let others write it for you” – Dr. Dee Carroll
Dr. Dee Carroll is a speaker, coach and consultant, and Author of Emotional Emancipation: Step into Your Freedom, Reinvent Your Challenges and Move Beyond. She has 28 years of experience in HR and Management, owned her own multi-million dollar firm and holds degrees in Psychology and Business Administration and Management.
Brain Hack: Turn Inward
The strongest leaders are those that are emotionally in touch with themselves, and unfortunately, many of us often forget to do this routine emotional check-up. Luckily no doctor is required, all we need to do is look inward and pay attention to the emotions we are experiencing in the present moment, right as we feel them. These emotions or “gut feelings” often grant us with warning signs when our emotions start working against us, or when our emotions work with us, they can lead us to uncover our otherwise untouched great ideas.
“It’s all about truly feeling our feelings. They are giving us messages. They are telling us our response to the world and our life.” – Dr. Ronald Frederick
Ronald J. Frederick, PhD is the co—founder of the Center for Courageous Living in Beverly Hills, California, a founding and senior faculty member of the Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) Institute, and the author of Loving Like You Mean It: Use the Power of Emotional Mindfulness to Transform Your Relationships (Central Recovery Press, 2019). He has provided innovative and experiential therapy to individuals and couples for over twenty years and actively teaches and trains psychotherapists internationally. Frederick’s writing has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, Clinical Psychiatry News, and the American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology. He has appeared on KARE11 News and Twin Cities Live in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, has been interviewed on FOX News Radio and Montel Across America, and quoted on CNN.com. Frederick is a recipient of the American Psychological Association’s Maylon-Smith Scholarship Award for his research on the fear of intimacy. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Brain Hack: Cultivate Relationships
One of the most valued traits that sets a strong leader apart from a weak leader is the connection that said leader forms with the team that is surrounding them. This comes directly in hand with getting to know your employees. When a team can sense that their leader really cares about them and is expressively passionate about the project they are working on together, they are that much more inspired to do the hard work that is ultimately required of them. This type of collaborative and excitement based leadership hack instills a strong sense of teamwork within any team, big or small, making for an unbreakable force of employees.
“If you want others to follow your lead then you need to show them you can be trusted.” – Dr. Howard Fero
Dr. Howard Fero, The Leadership Doc, is a sought after speaker who is recognized as an ‘inspirational, motivational, and innovative facilitator’. As a speaker, author, and executive coach Dr. Fero inspires and empowers participants to cultivate their leadership, identify and focus their motivations, and create high performing teams. He is also the Author of, Lead Me Out to the Ballgame: Stories and Strategies to Develop Major League Leadership.
Brain Hack: Quit Playing the Victim
This brain hack stresses the importance of understanding exactly why you do what you do. This is a trait that all great leaders should understand about themselves, as most people tend to procrastinate on their tasks rather than focusing on the motivational factor that is driving them to complete it. So ask yourself something like, “What is holding me back?” Rather than asking questions like, “Why did I miss that deadline?” When we ask ourselves the hard-hitting questions we may not always get the answer we want, but at least we can determine the root of our fears that often results in toxic behaviors such as procrastination.
“Act on your fear or procrastination. Asking yourself questions is the best way to stop it. You need to find out what is behind your procrastination tendencies, and more often than not, it is fear induced.” – Margaret Bradley
Margaret Bradley is an excuse-prevention expert, business psychologist, and the Author of, Wouldacouldashoulda: Rapid Results. No Excuses. She speeds up leadership success by preventing excuses.
Brain Hack: Connect with the Customer
The phrase “the customer is always right” is something that effective leaders implement daily. This is a vital skill to obtain in order to ensure that your company or product is properly fit within its market. The best way to do so is to speak directly to your consumer. Outside sources like those found in focus groups are not passionate about your product, but rather the paycheck that comes with being a participant. However, when you bring in those direct customers that lie within your target market they are going to tell you exactly what they need and want from your business or product. When the customer’s requirements are met, the increase you see in sales will speak for itself.
“Create a feedback loop. It is a way for customers to tell you how well things are going and how well the product is fitting within the market. Make sure you have a lot of conversations with your customers as they can lead you to what they want.” – Dean Gebert
Dean Gebert is the CMO of Atmos Home, as well as a Startup Advisor and an Angel Investor. He has 20 years of experience of launching and scaling companies. He’s fortunate to have been part of 3 exits as a co-founder, or member of the management team. He also discovered a Facebook Ad hack so effective, they changed the bidding algorithm.
Erin Proud is currently a Junior at the University at Buffalo, pursuing a degree in Communications. She previously was a writing intern for Glitter Magazine, and currently is a PR/Marketing intern at Farrow Communications.
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