7 Qualities of Leadership

Remember, when you are looking for a good leader don't be too quick to count yourself out of the running. The leader you are looking for may be you.

The seven qualities you need to be a leader or perhaps the qualities you look for and expect, in others.

Let's say you need to find a candidate who can not only lead and transform your organisation but also motivate, drive and carry all before them.

You have to be;

1. Smart and insightful when dealing with complex problems (cognitive complexity)
2. Mature and emotionally stable. Able to deal with ambiguity and complexity
3. Strong willed and possess self-awareness and self-management skills
4. Strong people person with great interpersonal awareness and interpersonal acumen
5. Able to build flexible and robust solutions
6. Able to instill confidence in others
7. Continually learning, growing and looking for ways to improve one's self, others and the organisation.

Leaders can follow others. Practice supporting and leading from behind, at a distance or remotely. Trust people to do their job and to know better.

Leaders treat change as an opportunity, an adventure and an experiment to carry you to the next level.

Change is something to embrace, to learn from, rather than something to fear, or fight against and conquer.

Allow your people the courage to try and fail. Be there to gather them up, put them back together and then let them try again but this time with more guidance.

Recession's Impact on Recruitment

Where can I find a profit

'When you eliminate the obvious, then what remains, albeit improbable, must be the truth.

The times are tough, the going rough, the customers are in defensive mode and profits are a difficult thing to find. So, where do we look for profits? Consider there habits. Where have they been found in the past and where will they be found now?

The answers may differ from business model to business model but profits have always come from exploitation and RISK. You must exploit opportunities and take risks if you want to really be in business i.e. developing and profiting, no matter what the economic environment.

It is now, more than any other time in your lifetime, that those who have the courage will be able to take advantage of and exploit some of the greatest investment opportunities in this century. It is a buyers' market, whether you are in retail, stocks, real estate or a venture capitalist taking the biggest risk of all, looking to invest in a new business.

"I never guess. It is a shocking habit and destructive to the logical faculty."

There is an old adage in the business world that says “Be thoughtful and hesitant when others are greedy and be quick to exploit when others hesitate.”

Most business markets are based on a pack mentality. They cling together for protection and this 'pack' is currently hesitant and fearful in its approach. Not daring to be the first to break ranks, in case they are followed, found to be wrong and are pillaried and expelled by their peers. They have much fear and much to fear. Consequently, they are acting with a fearful mob mentality, hesitant, irrational and unpredictable in most cases.

If you have the courage and expertise to take some well measured and calculated risks at this time, you could become the new pack leader. The trend setter that sniffs out the route to safe and steady profit. Resulting in some, much or great profit in the months and years to come.

Your issue is what Risks do I need to take to make this vision come true and how best should I measure these risks?

"London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis is a well-known method for describing a business or business propositions in terms of those factors that can have the maximum impact. The business owner does this analysis in order to improve the current position of the business. The Strengths and Weaknesses of the business are considered to be the internal aspects of a business, such as the quality of the product or the managerial skills. Whereas the Opportunities and Threats are the external factors, like the development of a completely new market or the arrival of new competitors.

The strengths and weaknesses of a business can be found in the following:

Management sector: The over dependence of an employee on a manager or an owner is one of the major weaknesses in a business that often leads to the requirement of more managers. This area needs to be worked upon in order to reduce the expense of the organization and to improve the business.

The work force: The difficulty in finding skilled staff as well as the employee turnover has to be handled efficiently to help a business grow successfully.

Sales: The strength of sales, how dependent your sales are on external factors, and cyclical sales are some of the factors that affect the business.

Financial: The factors affecting the financial condition of your business determine its strengths and weaknesses. The major aspects related to finance are the flow of cash, time to collect on invoices, and the ease of obtaining loans.

Operations: Strengths and weaknesses are also determined by the internal efficiency as well as the speed of manufacture and delivery of goods.

Opportunities and threats are found in the following categories:

Threats posed by the new rivals in the market: A new entrant in the market, selling a similar product or service, is considered to be one of the greatest threats, as you might not have a patent that could put a brake on new competitors.

Bargaining power of suppliers: Suppliers can pose a major threat for the business as they might force you to take large deliveries. Many times they are also difficult to find, or the supply may not be available.

Customer influence: There are some businesses that rely on a handful of customers, which include a lot of late payers. In addition, many customers bargain for lower prices. In such cases, the business tends to either face the threat of loss of customers or of being unprofitable.

Substitution: People often get bored using a particular brand of product and tend to opt for a change. The market usually has a number of similar products of similar quality. So the major threat is that people might try a product other than yours, and eventually end up substituting your product with it.

You can use two methods to grade these strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats, namely, pictorial and numerical.

If you opt for the pictorial way, you need to first create four sectors on a writing pad, putting the titles Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in each sector, and a large question mark in the center. Now place each of the SWOTs in each sector, with the most problematic factors being farthest away from the question mark, and the better factors closer to it. The closer the display is bunched towards the center of the grid, the better the shape of your business.

However, if you pick the numerical method of assessment, you need to rate each item from 1 to 5 according to how important each is to your business. In this rating, 5 is considered to be the most important. Besides, each factor should also be rated from A to E according to its impact on the business, where E would indicate the highest impact. Then, check how many Es and 5s you end up with. If there are bad factors then you need to change or work on them. And, if there are strengths and opportunities, then it is important to build upon those factors. This would help to boost your business.