Yeast, the Sun,

and Leadership.

I get (and agree with) what Paul Ryan’s advice to Mr. Obama was all about when he visited the White House yesterday and reminded the man that “leadership starts at the top,” but I take some exception to the semantics of what that advice might suggest as it is applied to the rest of the world. 

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Leadership, like yeast, like the sun on the horizon, rises from low places. It starts, often below the surface, and grows to recognition, then to love and respect or –sadly, in many cases– to fear and loathing, with little room left in-between those two extremes for tolerance and apathy. The problem is that yeast and the sun are fairly predictable.

Some aspects of leadership are also predictable.

Qualities like being able to inspire and motivate others, for example, are part of almost every description of leadership since the beginning of time.

Truth and reality, however, measure all leadership by one word alone.

What’s your best guess?

What single word sums up “leadership” most definitively?

Surely you know the word if you think about it enough. It’s authenticity. Authenticity of character, of personality, of purpose, of attitude, of responsiveness, of courage, of self-image, of the nature of the people involved, of the nature of the tasks to be done. It cannot be manufactured, pretended, stolen, replaced, avoided, dismissed, disregarded, or disarmed.  

Almost never to be found near government or political enterprises or management: authenticity. And rarely does it appear in corporate life when it isn’t guarded — easy to understand when UN-authentic people hovering at the top feel threatened. Yet, say many, true authenticity must also be free, so how could it be guarded?

Okay, so cross off corporate authenticity. And what are we left with? Family life and small business. Why? Because there is less need to lie, make excuses, and cover one’s butt, and because entrepreneurial attitudes are not so affected and convoluted by status-ladder-climbing and artificial allegiances.

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TEN EXAMPLES of authenticity:

1. Giving credit where credit is due.

2. Speaking up for what you believe in and supporting others who share your purpose.

3. Accepting responsibility without excuses.

4. Acknowledging screw-ups and owning up to your mistakes, also without excuses.

5. Taking immediate corrective action when called for instead of analyzing and seeking blame.

6. Being focused on the present “here and now” moment as much as possible.

7. Always acknowledging the human factor in every decision and action, even when others pass it over. Business transactions are impacted by illness, injury, and family issues.

8. Nurturing (and cultivating) positive and productive behavior and attitudes consistently.

9. Soliciting and respecting the opinions of others . . . praise in public and criticize (constructively) in private.

10. Treat every employee and every customer like the special people they are, the way YOU want to be treated, every day, all of the time, without exception.  

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How do you measure up, stack up, size up, match up? What three steps do you need to take now to give rise to more of that authenticity you have inside you? Can you take that first step right now?

It is, you know, a choice. 

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Entrepreneurs?  No!  It’s the

9-5 folks who sell their souls!

I read a Tweet today, oh boy, and all it said was:

“Entrepreneurship is risky!”

Ah, such sweet naivety!

Corporate life is risky, not entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs take only reasonable risks, and –in the process– maintain strong contact with and control of their destinies.

Corporate types are the ones who risk.

They risk losing their souls.

They give up their spirits to security.

Far greater risks indeed than those that entrepreneurs take by investing in themselves! 

Having a nine to five job with guaranteed benefits and a pocketful of perks is like feeding a bagful of sugar cubes to a horse. It will love you and run around in circles until it drops from exhaustion. But never accomplish anything.

• If you believe life is all about who can drink and BBQ the most on any given weekend, be the 5-mile-run talk of the neighborhood and pay the way through college for kids who ought to be earning it themselves, you may want to just stay where you are. That white shirt and tie fits your sterile, fair-weather-friend, control-freak personality.

• You’ve been kissing corporate political butts so long to get to the next rung on that ladder to the stars, that you’ve forgotten there are other ways to achieve (like, for example, creating new jobs or innovating new revenue streams with product and service line extensions that are simply introduced and sold instead of swallowing them up in corporate analysis paralysis.

• You probably should just hang onto that corporate job.

• You’ll never survive with pursuing your own business. It will be too much work, too many hours, not enough pay, no security, and never enough time to do weekend runs and BBQs. You’ll be searching futilely for vacations, weekend time, 401k deposits, dental plans, sick days, bonuses, and a pension.

Entrepreneurs live every minute of every day with a burning desire to make their ideas succeed, and will work 24/7 when necessary to do that.

They are NOT big risk-takers.

In fact, I’m quite sure if you start counting up gamblers, you’ll find the overwhelming majority are corporate moguls.

People who work hard to build and maintain their own business don’t bet the farm because they have no income/benefit guarantees to back up their losses (and they work too hard for their money!).

Entrepreneurship is about passionate determination to step out where others cower. Corporate life is about protecting yourself . . . having a ready-made excuse for every action, every decision, and never working longer or harder than is required or expected.

Getting ahead personally is more important to corporate employees than gaining success with or for the product or service one represents.

The differences are huge.

If you’re on the streets and you think like a big-business employee, get some more education and training and find yourself a safe, secure job.

If you’re in college and think like an entrepreneur, get out! Stop wasting your time and money. College will not teach you how to believe in yourself and your business ideas, and make them work.

Only “doing it” does it!

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931.854.0474 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”   [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!