If every decision you face 

is a coin toss, you’d make a 

good referee. But business 

and life decisions demand

 L  E  A  D  E  R  S  H  I  P. 

     Referees toss coins and make judgement calls about physical actions and movements within physical boundaries. Small business owners and managers must make informed decisions about psychological, mental and emotional  behaviors as well as physical ones, and business has no boundaries.

     Business owners and managers focus on accumulating coins, not tossing them. Referees need 20/20 vision. Business owners and managers require leadership vision. Referees put together all the pieces of a complex, moving jigsaw puzzle. Business leaders never have all the pieces.

     According to the likes of great minds as diverse as Albert Einstein and Henry David Thoreau, all we ever have is limited knowledge. Certainly that’s no truer anywhere than it is in business, especially because daily business decisions revolve around how others think, and we can never know all of what others think.

     Customers, associates, employees, suppliers, competitors, prospects, referrers, professional advisers are all focused groups of individuals with common interests but uncommon (i.e., unique) minds and brainpower. This depth of differences (and the selective perception filters of each) call for decisions that are customized and personalized as much of the time as possible if they are intended to have impact.

     Other than mathematicians, accountants, and engineers, not many careers thrive on rational, logical, objective, unemotional decision making. And EVERY purchase decision–no matter how rational, logical, objective and unemotional (even rocket-ship parts!)–is in fact emotionally-triggered.

     What all this means is that business decision making needs to go FAR beyond refereeing into the land of leadership that recognizes the individuality of emotional platforms and experiences, and that addresses those with respect, grace, and finesse. Decisions are the lifeblood of leadership.

     Making decisions that motivate others to strive wholeheartedly to achieve is what great leaders of the universe have done through the ages. The dynamics apply equally to Washington, Lincoln, Churchill, Eisenhower, and Reagan as they do to Gates, Jobs, and the owners of the successful “Mom and Pop” deli down the street from your home or office.

     It’s probable that there are hundreds if not thousands of factors to be weighed in every small business decision, from investor and government influences to inventories and service supply lines, to the demands of unions, communities and the weather.

     We can only decide based on what’s available to weigh, our related base of experience, the input we get, and our gut instincts. True leaders decide, then move on. Make-believe leaders (usually those of political and big business persuasion) analyze to death then drag out decisions past the point of relevancy.   

     If you own or manage a business, you are paid to make decisions. Coin tossing is simply another form of knee-jerking and winging it. “None of the above” produces decisions that cultivate consistent high impact, long-term results. But leadership does.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

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Yep! History In The Making… 

This being a thankful week, I thank you for joining me today.  With anticipation of my blog post #200 coming on Thanksgiving Day, YOU now have the chance to be part of history in the making . . . 

     I am asking all my friends and blog followers to write favorable comments in the window below that I can take with me to Washington. 

     I will print out your comments and hand them over as accompanying support for my request to be granted a real, honest-to-goodness, taxpayer-dollars-paid-for government bailout. 

     This financial relief will enable me to continue writing blog posts that benefit society without putting any compensation burden on me to have to sell advertising banners, or pay myself a salary with money that I’m just not earning right now. 

[Of course the future will be different, and I’ll only need annual bailout money for possibly seven or eight more years until my, ahem, ship comes in!]  

     I don’t think this is asking too much.  After all, I have a great many years under my belt of paying taxes at great personal sacrifice.  It’s probably time to get some of that back, maybe even more than what I’ve paid in. 

     I have also accumulated significant business debt that came about as a result of my focus change to write helpful business and personal growth hints for others instead of to make sales for myself. 

     Being accustomed to a $900,000 a year lifestyle, I imagine it would be awfully hard to get myself under that to qualify for those campaign-promised tax cuts so I wouldn’t have to be paying into the bailout kitty — let’s see, was it a $250,000 level according to one candidate, or $100,000 level promised by his running mate?  Hmmm.  Well, a hundred, two hundred and fifty, not much difference. Whatever. 

     Paying for incompetence with bailouts funded by taxes.  Now that’s a unique idea.  But, hey, that’s what government is for anyway, isn’t it?  I mean, who else could I turn to?  You might find this surprising, but no one I know of has the ability to pump $3,000,000,000,000+ into shoring up sinking businesses.

(Oh, and, don’t kid yourself: considering that absolutely no one on this planet has even the slightest clue about how many billions and trillions are about to get shell-game shifted around, or by whom, and to whom, and what for, and for how long, and where it’s all coming from, it could be the + on top of that three trillion that’s the real kicker!).

     Of course, I’m sure I will need to unionize first to qualify.  It’d be wonderful to add a dozen or so employees to my blog staff (maybe I could write posts twice a day!) just so I could collect. 

     None of the union folks would actually do anything, but what else is new?  They provide qualification clout.  That works.  Why, it’s almost like being able to get more food stamps by adding more kids to the family!       halalpiar     

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