Vague Dilutes Leadership

I am bound to furnish my antagonists with arguments, but not with comprehension........ Benjamin Disraeli

Zeroing in on small innovations leads to big breakthroughs and that is the hinge for doing more with less. Instead of becoming obsessed with big, ask yourself questions like, “What’s the smallest change we could make in our product, our delivery, our distribution, our organizational structure, or our communication?”

Questions that force you to add by subtraction: “What could we take away from those same areas to make them better and simplify the process?”

Lets look at communication:

Fuzzy writing allows fuzzy thinking;

Clear writing uses well-organized, active-voice sentences to explain what is happening, what ought to happen, and what people need to do.

Conversely, inexact and passive language reflects gaps in thinking.

Requesting clear, direct, active language has two benefits. It forces writers to think through what they really mean and the arguments they can use to support it. If you prize clarity, the clear thinkers will rise to the top.

A culture of clear writing makes managers more productive while vague writing dilutes leadership.

Case Study -
CEO Marissa Mayer email to staff on the sale of Yahoo to Verizon: “…our incredibly loyal and dedicated employee base has stepped up to every challenge along the way….The teams here have not only built incredible products and technologies, but have built Yahoo into one of the most iconic, and universally well-liked companies in the world….I’m incredibly proud of everything that we’ve achieved, and I’m incredibly proud of our team. I love Yahoo, and I believe in all of you.”

That’s four uses of “incredible” or “incredibly” in a single paragraph. It all reads like misdirection and the happy, vacuous language certainly would not inspire the workers to stay. (The rest of the email is similarly vague.)

Clear leadership, expressed in writing, creates alignment and boosts productivity.

For example,
In writing email; the CEO down to the managers must set an example by communicating exactly what they want, clearly, in the subject line or title and the first two sentences of everything they write.

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Why Businesses Remain Small

There is a danger in being persuaded before one understands........... Bishop Thomas Wilson

As a leader, if you mature with the discipline to build an organization that can grow and scale, then you can go the distance.

An organization is essentially the sum total of its physical, financial, human, intellectual, and relationship capital. Different industries and different business models have always maintained different percentages of these asset types.

Manufacturers invest most of their capital into physical assets, while high-tech firms invest in R&D to create new intellectual capital.

So why would a $100 million organization be trapped in the body of a $30 million company.

Why?

- They confuse growth for scaling. Growth means adding revenue at the same pace you are adding resources; scaling means adding revenue at a much greater rate than cost.

- They let their identity be formed by the biggest customers rather than in-depth strategy work;
For example, Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry, lost its market leadership position because it didn’t move beyond its traditional corporate customers; it failed to understand the mobile app market.

- They think to quickly multiply successes is the same as building for sustainable growth;
Taking the time to design an organization that can sustain growth is what distinguishes great executives from those that eventually get swept away by the wave. In today’s market, tech platforms enable relationships to scale rapidly, and at near-zero cost.

This is the phenomenon that has led to exciting platform businesses like Facebook, LinkedIn, Uber, and Airbnb. Even when these firms rely on physical assets, like cars for Uber, they own the technology, not the physical asset.

- They fear that standardizing approaches to work will neutralize entrepreneurial freedom and stunt creativity;
But this is rarely the case. Standardized processes liberate creativity because they free up distracted energy that’s consumed by reinventing approaches every time something is done.

Organizational transformation must begin with a leadership transformation

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Lifestyle Choice of Business Executives

Swift instinct leaps; slow reason feebly climbs.............. Edward Young

It is time to make your body fit for a healthier lifestyle in order to perform better in business.
Taking care of your own body also maintains a healthier mind while improving your quality of life.

What if you do not enjoy going to the gym?

Then you should.........

Turn your Android Phone into the Ultimate Fitness Tracker

Here are the best apps for your android mobile.

1  Water Drink Reminder
Do you drink enough water throughout the day? this app simply reminds you to drink water and tracks your water drinking habits.
This app contains customized cups that helps you to stay motivated towards drinking water, it also sets the start and end time to drink water throughout the day. Drinking enough water is the best way to stay in shape.

2 Calorie Counting: MyFitnessPal
With the largest food database, it is amazingly fast and easy to use calorie counter which helps you
take those extra pounds off. This is one of the best and well known app that counts up the calorie that you had taken in.
This app is being now used by lots of gym trainers.

3 Strava Running and Cycling GPS
Millions of runners and cyclists use Strava to record their activities, compare performance over time, compete with their community and share the photos, stories and highlights of their activities with friends

4 7 Minute Workout
This app is exercises based that comes with a virtual trainer to motivates you. This is the perfect app for those who are looking for losing weight as soon as possible. This provides the 7-minute training per day and it allows you to train your Abs, chest, thighs and legs. It has the complete set of exercises that are very popular in terms to loose weight fast.

5 Pocket Yoga
This is simply a yoga instructor as it gives you positions, sequences and exercises according to each body part. It divides each yoga into levels and every level has alternate duration to follow. It contains over 200 illustrated posed images that will guide you throughout each session. It also tracks your progress.

6 Google Fit- Fitness Tracking
The app is from Google Inc. it can track any activity that you perform while holding the phone. 
As you walk, run or whatever throughout the day it keeps the records. It also gives real-time status for runs, walks, and rides which help to stay motivated on the field. This is the must have app if you are looking for a fitness tracking app.

7 5K Running Trainer
The app was designed for inexperienced runners who are just beginning an exercise routine. The plan’s structure prevents new runners from giving up and at the same time challenges them to continue moving forward. This app works because it starts with a mix of running and walking, gradually building up strength and stamina to fully running 5K.

8 Instant Heart Rate
This app tells your heart rate or your pulse rate and you can easily judge the workout level according to that stats. It does not need any external hardware. Use it for optimizing your exercise and tracking your progress.

9 RunKeeper
The RunKeeper is the perfect app for those who like to run. It records information about your activities and shows detailed statistics, distance travelled, time taken to complete the run and even your heart rate during exercise.

10 Check Body Fat: BMI Calculator
The best app that will count your BMI easily and give the accurate results. Body fat percentage is estimated from BMI by formula derived by Deurenberg and co-workers.

Turn Your Android Phone into the Ultimate Fitness Tracker and you can easily maintain a healthy body.

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Truth and Brexit

Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it..... Andre Gid

To put it bluntly, during the 20th century Germany twice failed to achieve a dominant position on the European Continent by brutal military force. Following World War II, and thanks to their special relationship with the U.S. and its business community, Germany gained hegemony in Europe without firing a single shot.

For Britain now defiantly concentrated on the preservation of its Empire, the wartime special relationship with the U.S was slowly eroding. Denying these new postwar realities, British memory of the special relationship became a myth. Margaret Thatcher never admitted how dependent her government had become on the U.S. With the Empire still shrinking, she also ignored that Washington had urged her predecessors to join the European Economic Community. She opposed the reunification of Germany in 1990 but had to fall into line when George H. W. Bush decided to pave the way for it.

These setbacks highlight a bitter irony: It was Germany that the U.S. forged a special relationship with after the six years of war against Hitler. After 1945 U.S. experts quickly discovered that West Germany, Allied bombing notwithstanding, still had greater industrial potential than Britain. This potential, if mobilized, could be used as the engine for the growth and modernization of Western Europe.

As the American-German special relationship blossomed, with export-oriented, highly adaptable
German industries taking advantage of the Open Door, Germany greatly benefited from what eventually became the European Union.

Britain needs reality check.

Northern Ireland Protocol- The Northern Ireland Protocol, which was designed to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland (an EU member state), will create tensions and challenges. May lead to the implementation of checks on goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, sparking political disputes and concerns about its impact on trade and stability in the region.

Overall, the full extent of Brexit's is still unfolding, and its long-term consequences will depend on various factors, including future trade negotiations between the UK and the EU, as well as the UK's ability to forge new trading relationships with other countries.

Beware of half-truth, you may get hold of the wrong half......

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Great Leadership Mastery

Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. Frank Zappa

Great leadership grow their organizations by deliberately working on three areas:

1.They wisely manage the present, anchoring in purpose and values.
2.They selectively let go of old values, beliefs, and behaviors that no longer serve them or their organizations.
3.They purposefully create the future by adopting new aspirations, values, beliefs, and behaviors.

Lets take case studies of the three values:

Abraham Lincoln:
learning from the success of his recent letter-writing campaign to enlist the support of the British public for the Union, Lincoln implemented a successful public letter-writing campaign in his own country. Five-hundred thousand copies of one of his letters alone were in circulation and were reportedly read by at least 10,000,000 people.

Lincoln’s public outreach was effective in communicating his purpose and values which helped him
keep significant public support during the remainder of his presidency from 1863 until his assassination in 1865.

Sales to delivery:
Over the years, showcased cars rarely match the preferences of customers, who are reluctant to pay for options they do not require. Dealers are then forced to sell cars at discounts.

By relying more on big data forecasting techniques, we estimate that manufacturers globally could significantly boost their margins by as much as $600 billion. They can forecast the effective demand for models and options at individual dealers even more precisely and sell cars more quickly with fewer discounts. All can be achieved by incorporating real-time information from sources such as third-party research data, customer-relationship managements systems, competitor information, and online forums.

Machine Operators:
With real-time monitoring and improved analytics, operators will no longer be replacing parts too early or too late. Instead, they can bring their stock levels more in line with actual needs.
By using 3D printing to obtain parts “on demand” with very short lead times, they will avoid keeping a large stock of spare parts on hand.

For Great Leadership in Business  -
The cases help highlight a few general principles:

•The value derived from the analytics piece can greatly exceed the cost of the infrastructure.
•Big data is less about size and more about introducing fundamentally new information to prediction and decision processes.
•The new information is often buried in detailed and relatively unstructured data logs known as a “data lake”

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Launch Into the Deep

For with God Nothing shall be Impossible......

I Thought I should share Steve Harrison's Story

"It’s been more than 14 years since this happened but I still remember it like it was yesterday... One cold winter day in February 2002, I left my office in the middle of the afternoon and walked to a local park. I found myself standing on the pitcher’s mound of a Little League baseball field. I looked up at the sky with tears in my eyes.

“God, why is this happening to me!” I cried.

No answer came. But in that moment of raw honesty, I sensed someone had at least heard me. My company’s sales had nose-dived with the economy in the months after the 9-11 tragedy. Our credit cards and credit line were maxed out. Even though I’d helped many authors and experts promote their books, grow their businesses, and make a lot of money, I was now in a situation where I was almost broke.

I was scared, angry, and didn't know what to do. How was I going to explain to my loyal employees that I could no longer pay them? What would I say to my wife and three young kids? I went back to my office uncertain about what to do. A few days later, my brother and business partner Bill said, “Steve, we’re really in trouble financially.

 If you don’t come back from LA with at least twenty-thousand dollars we’re going to have to close up shop.” He was referring to a conference for aspiring authors in Los Angeles where I was scheduled to speak the following week. I spoke every year and people would tell me how much they loved my talk. But I was lucky if I brought in $2,000 to cover my expenses. How was I possibly going to bring in TWENTY-THOUSAND???? Fortunately, Bill and I have always had the habit of continually investing in coaching, seminars and trainings.

 In fact, even today, I pay five different coaches and consultants to help me be at my best. I started to recall some of the things one of my coaches had taught me about how to give an effective speech without making it some kind of heavy-handed sales pitch. I made a few adjustments in my presentation and flew to Los Angeles. As I was being introduced to the audience, my heart was beating 1,000 beats per minute.

This could be the final hour of my business and nobody knew but me. I said a quick prayer with my eyes wide open and began. It wasn't a GREAT speech. My PowerPoint stopped working in the middle of the talk. I stumbled over the details of one of my stories. But somehow I felt the audience was with me. I also incorporated the advice I’d received from my marketing coach.

A few minutes before I was going to finish, a woman in the audience stood up. She got out of her seat, came down the aisle and was heading very quickly straight toward me. What was she doing? Did she have a complaint? Then I noticed she was holding the yellow order form I had handed out. She simply smiled and handed it to me.

Then another person came up... and another... Before I’d even finished speaking, dozens of people in the audience had come forward and were handing in completed order forms for the $1,700 package I was offering. I couldn't believe my eyes. In that very moment something else happened which usually doesn't happen to me. A picture came to mind. I remembered a story in the Bible where Jesus tells a bunch of skeptical fishermen, who hadn't caught anything after fishing all night, to put their net on the other side of the boat. They obeyed reluctantly.

Suddenly so many fish were pouring into their nets that the nets started to burst. As strange as this might sound, I now felt like one of those fishermen experiencing a miracle. I didn't bring in $20,000 that day. I brought in $67,000!!!!! And as great as that felt, I had something even greater: a profound experience of the truth that God sees me and loves me.

I’m convinced that even if I hadn't made any money that day, God would have figured out some other way to help me and provide for my needs. If you were to say to me, “Steve, your results changed dramatically simply because you improved your speech and the way you marketed what you do.” I would say, “That’s true but it’s not the ENTIRE truth!" I believe both God AND my improved marketing deserve the credit. But you don’t have to agree with me.

You can achieve all your goals, sell millions of books, touch millions of lives, and make millions of dollars without believing in any kind of higher power whatsoever. But in sharing this story, I wanted to make sure I told you the whole truth from my vantage point. That success set me on a whole new path of showing authors, speakers, experts and entrepreneurs how to achieve their dreams – whether they’re struggling like I was or simply want to multiply their current success.".......

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Feudalism

"A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain." - Robert Frost

Feudalism refers to a system of social, political and economical control which is best represented by the Western European societies of the Middle Ages

Feudalism was a combination of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labor. An early form of feudalism existed in the Frankish lands of Western Europe in the 8c. 

All land was traditionally the property of the monarch, therefore prospective tenants had to petition the king for a benefice or land grant, which lasted for one lifetime.

Gradually the concept of providing land in return for acts of service emerged, allowing a king or lord to retain ownership of and access to the land they granted. Benefices were soon to disappear altogether, replaced by hereditary fiefs as royal power increasingly gave way to regional dynasties.

Key Concepts:

Lords- Noble landowners who held fiefs from the Crown.

Vassals- Warriors who swore loyalty to lords, serving them militarily.

Peasants- Bound to the land, they toiled, paid homage, and shared produce with lords.

Reciprocal Obligations:

Lords protected vassals, who, in turn, defended the realm.

Peasants worked the land, sustaining the entire system.

Manorialism:

Beyond warriors, feudalism encompassed all three estates:

Nobility- Lords and vassals.

Clergy- Spiritual leaders.

Peasantry- Those who lived off the land.

This broader definition is sometimes called a feudal society.

The system spread south and east as it matured and became the dominant European social and military structure. The crusades carried it as far as Jerusalem and the Normans brought it to all of the British Isles

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