So Now You're the Boss

"If there’s one big workplace lie that any new manager should wise up to fast, it’s 'There are no office politics here.' ... There’s no workplace on the planet where fostering good relationships isn’t key to getting things done.

And now that you’ve become a boss, it’s even more important that you “get” the political environment of your office and learn how to work effectively with higher-ups, peers, and direct reports...

Understand How Your Role Has Changed...
Know What You Don’t Know...
Master the Unwritten Rules...
Be Loyal, to a Point...
Build the Support You Need to Get Things Done..."

"Make a graceful exit from your old position...
Create good relationships early on...
Speak the language of inclusion...
Show trust in your staff...
Utilize your new employees' strengths...
Lead by example...
Don't get bogged down in details...
Be sensitive to corporate culture.Resist the temptation to change standard operating procedures too quickly, before you fully understand the environment...
Develop a style of management that is fair and consistent...
Seek out a new set of professional peers and mentors...
Strive for personal balance..."

Read more in this article from BNET and this article from Monster.com from which the foregoing were quoted.

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Free Business and Entrepreneurship College Courses

Through open courseware programs, you can access course materials from a wide range of top universities. Whether you decide to take these courses on your own time or just skim through the information, www.bschool.com compiled a list of 100 business and entrepreneurship courses you can take for free.

Here is a sampling of what is included in the list:

Accounting and Finance
These free courses can give you some tips on managing money and making sound investments in your business.

Introduction to Financial and Managerial Accounting: This course is designed to help business owners make investment decisions, access managerial performance and place a value on other firms and businesses...

Economics
Make sure you understand the larger factors that are at work in affecting your businesses profits and losses by educating yourself on economics through these classes.

Real Estate Economics: Whether you want to work directly in real estate or just need some information to help you make a better decision on purchasing office space, this course from MIT can provide instruction on real estate markets through a study of demographics, location, and government behavior....

Communication
Getting ahead in business without good communication skills can be hard, so give yours a boost with help from these top-tier courses.

No Sweat Speaking: Check out this short online seminar from Columbia University to help you overcome your fear or nervousness about public speaking. You’ll get access to a series of videos that can offer you some tips and pointers on feeling at ease in front of a group of coworkers, clients or anyone else...

Management
Management plays an essential role in keeping any business running smoothly. Ensure you and your employees are working to their full potential with some advice from these free courses.

Optimization Methods in Management Science: In this course, you’ll learn about the theory, algorithms, and applications of optimization to help you better control the logistics, manufacturing, transportation, marketing, project management, and financial issues of your business...

Leadership
These courses can help you be a better leader by teaching you important skills like working as a team, ethics, and how to work with a diverse group of people.

Cross-Cultural Leadership: This course explores what constitutes effective leadership across cultures. It can be especially valuable for business owners who are working in a global environment...

Marketing and Advertising
If you’ve got a product or service to sell, you need to get your name out there. These courses can give you some helpful ways to better market your business.

Brand Leadership/E-Seminar 1, Brand Identity and Strategy: Professor Bernd Schmitt of Columbia Business School explains the steps businesses must take when marketing themselves to develop a successful brand identity in this online seminar, using real companies to illustrate his points...

Product Development and Launch
These courses can give you some help on successfully developing new products and getting them out to your buyers.

Managing the Innovation Process: Get a handle on the research and development going on in your business through this course which analyzes the process through through five levels: individual, team, network, organizational, and industrial...

Technology
No business can run without technology these days, so ensure you have a handle on the IT technologies it takes to keep your business in good shape through these courses.

Practical Information Technology Management: If you feel you don’t have the background to make sound business decisions about IT, give this course a try. You’ll gain insight into how to implement, maintain and manage these systems to the benefit of your business...

Law
These courses can help you make sure you know the legal rights and regulations that apply to your business.

Law for the Entrepreneur and Manager: Through his course, you’ll gain a basic understanding of legal issues that corporations and businesses face when organizing, getting financing, protecting intellectual property, working internationally and more...

Field Specific
These courses cover a range of more specific business topics...

The Software Business: If you have an interest in starting a software company, this course can be a good place to get some introductory information...

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Expand the Pie Before Dividing It Up

"Many managers who view themselves as the heroic guardians of shareholder interests—the no-nonsense, tough-as-nails guys who run their businesses by the numbers, who pride themselves on their hypercompetitiveness, and who think that "organizational culture" and "shared values" are irrelevant fantasies concocted by out-of-touch academics—may be inadvertently running their companies into the ground and systematically destroying the wealth of their investors...

"The most successful organizations understand that the purpose of any business is to create value for customers, employees, and investors, and that the interests of these three groups are inextricably linked. Therefore, sustainable value cannot be created for one group unless it is created for all of them. The first focus should be on creating value for the customer, but this cannot be achieved unless the right employees are selected, developed, and rewarded, and unless investors receive consistently attractive returns...

"Why do managers so often choose not to focus on value creation and instead make decisions that systematically decrease the long-term value of their businesses? One reason may be that their training and education lead them to define their organizations' interests too narrowly... If management defines the organization's self-interest (and consequently its goals) too narrowly—for example, to maximize this year's or this quarter's reported earnings—it will view that interest as being at odds with the interests of customers and employees...

"This approach is based on 'win/lose' or 'zero-sum' thinking: The underlying assumption is that there is a fixed pie of value to be divided up among customers, employees, and investors, so the interests of the three groups must be traded off against one another...

"Companies that act on this myopic conception of self-interest may stumble into a downward spiral of poor decision-making that is difficult to reverse. For example, as reduced employee training and compensation lead to low employee morale and poor performance, and as underfunded R&D allows a product line to age, customers can become dissatisfied and begin to defect... When customer do defect, profits shrink, tempting management to cut back even further on training, compensation, and R&D, thus accelerating the spiral of customer dissatisfaction and defection...

"Alternatively, if managers define their company's interests broadly enough to include the interests of customers and employees, an equally powerful spiral of value creation can occur. Highly motivated, well-trained, properly rewarded employees deliver outstanding service, while effective R&D investments lead to products that enjoy a significant value-adding advantage and generate higher margins. Satisfied, loyal customers (and new customers responding to word-of-mouth referrals) drive revenue growth and profitability for investors...

"An 'expanding the pie' approach to management requires that a company alter its thinking along several dimensions...."

Read more in Value Creation and Business Success by Paul O'Malley from which the foregoing was quoted.

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Who's Winning in Your Workplace?

"Are competition and cooperation at play in your work environment? The Olympic Games are a great example of how dynamic forces balance and reinforce each other in large systems. At the same time that national pride pushes countries to compete aggressively from sport to sport, so too is a spirit of cooperation in evidence as individual athletes demonstrate sportsmanship and countries agree on standards regarding everything from scoring practices to drug testing.

"When you look around you at work, can you determine who's winning the medals? Can you identify who champions the importance of working together?

From Leverage Points newsletter.

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Is Business Ethics an Oxymoron?

Peruse a few of the vast numbers of articles and resources at BusinessEthics.ca and decide for yourself and your organization.

One example of the excellent available information is Incorporating Ethics into the Organization's Strategic Plan summarizing a presentation made by Robert Finocchio, former president, CEO, and chairman of Informix Corp.

:

Management guru Peter Drucker was famous for asking his consulting clients the basic strategic question, "What business are we in?" To integrate ethics into the strategy, businesspeople have to add three more questions...

What do we stand for?
What is our purpose?
What values do we have?

...While ethics should be part of the company's mission statement, long-term strategic plan, public pronouncements, and codes of conduct, unless it is also a "cornerstone of the organizational culture," it will not be effectively integrated into the business strategy, he said.

To really incorporate ethics, he presented these "prescriptions":

1. Don't be in an unethical business in the first place...
2. Obey the law and spirit of the law everywhere you do business.
3. Articulate a complete strategy, including purpose.
4. Explicitly articulate values as a key component to the strategy. 5. Values must also be real, and must reflect actual behavior, especially among the organization's leaders.
6. Don't rely on auditors, ethics officers, compliance officers, cops, regulations, manuals, and audits as the vehicle to insert ethics into the strategy.
7. Emphasize principles more than rules. (This is the best way to be more demanding of the organization.)
8. Individual ethical responsibility and accountability are never trumped by some corporate or organizational imperative.There is no "my company said it was ok" defense.
9. Be totally transparent with your constituents, and make that part of the strategy.
10. Have a framework and process for the resolution of ethical issues.
11. Have the right organizational structure.
12. Have rewards based on the right metrics.
13. Make employee development part of strategy and make ethics training part of employee development.
14. Encourage all employees to be challenging and demanding in the ethical domain (of everyone in the organization, including the bosses).

Finocchio went on to offer two practical suggestions for implementing his prescriptions: making an ethics performance evaluation part of the organization's standard end-of-year assessment and creating a strategic plan ethics checklist for the coming year...In planning for the next year, the company would ask itself a series of questions, including:

*Is our purpose sufficiently well articulated?
*Do we face new legal requirements?
*Do we have new constituents?
*If we acquire another organization, how will it be ethically assimilated?
*Are our rewards structures appropriate?
*Is there any need to change the mechanics (constituent communication, employee training, organizational structure, issue resolution processes)?
*How will we measure our performance?
*Do we have new goals/objectives in the ethical domain?

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The Change to a Partnership Organization

This excellent and comprehensive article by Riane Esler and Alfonso Montouri explains that, "beginning to recognize and acknowledge Partnership in ourselves and in others, and finding creative alternatives for Dominator thinking and behaviors is a first step towards building a Partnership organization." Continuing in pertinent part:

Eisler (1987, 1995, 1997, Eisler & Loye 1998) have addressed these issues by identifying two contrasting models of social systems: the Dominator Model and the Partnership Model. Dominator systems are fear-based, characterized by rigid hierarchies of domination (where power is equated with giving orders that must be obeyed), an ethos of conquest (including the “conquest of nature”), a high degree of institutionalized or built-in violence, male domination, and contempt for “soft” or stereotypically feminine values. Partnership systems are trust-based, and characterized by equalitarianism and “flatter” organization, flexible hierarchies of actualization (where power is guided by values such as caring and caretaking), by a naturebased spirituality, a low degree of violence built into the system, and gender equality and equity...

Today, this “command-and-control” model is not only inappropriate; it is becoming increasingly dysfunctional. Bureaucratic rigidity is deadly for organizations that wish to navigate successfully in a rapidly changing environment where innovation and flexibility are key factors...The shift to partnership systems is essential if we are to bring about the changes in organizations and society at large needed for the 21st century...

We can see that much of what is happening today is the conflict between a shift towards partnership systems, countered by dominator resistance. We can also see that much that is today being advocated in the organizational development field is a move toward an overarching partnership model.

1) Flatter, less rigid hierarchical organizations.
As the economic and social environment becomes ever more complex and rapidly changing, the rigid bureaucratic structures of bygone days have become maladaptive. Innovation, flexibility, and individual initiative were inhibited by such structures...

2) Change in the role of manager, from “the cop” to a facilitator, supportive role...

3) From Power Over to Power To/With...
This is a shift from domination to co-creation, or from coercive power to generative power. Power-over is designed to either work one’s way up the hierarchy of domination or to fend off contenders. It is the single most important contributor to that vast, unspoken shadow that hangs over all organizations: office politics. In a dominator system, most political relationships are viewed in terms of the acquisition of power-over. In partnership systems, the orientation to “ power to” or actualizing power and “power-with” leads to a very different attitude, one that starts off by asking, “how can we best work together to solve problems?”

4) Teamwork...
5) Diversity...
6) Gender-balance...

7) Creativity and Entrepreneurship...
In dominator systems, there is an ambiguous relationship with creativity: it is viewed a great gift, and at the same time potentially enormously disruptive, a threat to the established order. In partnership systems, creativity is both highly valued and rewarded. While partnership creativity does not exclude dramatic creative changes, it also fosters creative relationships and creative approaches to everyday problems...

Dominator thinking is polarizing thinking. It leads to the kind of thinking that does not allow for possibilities beyond either/or and all/nothing. Polarizing blocks us from exploring possibilities beyond black or white, and prevents us from making creative changes...sometimes it is hard to see into the real-life implications of Partnership if we're stuck in a polarizing Dominator logic. Some basic and common misconceptions include:

Myth: Its a dog-eat-dog world, and there's nothing we can do about.
Reality: The world is what we make it, and human relations are socially constructed...

Myth: There is no hierarchy in the partnership organization.
Reality: The partnership organization has hierarchies of actualization-based not on force, but on competence, temporal priority, values, and other criteria.

Myth: Partnership is just working together, it means alliances, or collaboration.
Reality: Collaboration occurs in both partnership and dominator systems, but patterned differently in each. Partnership collaboration stresses mutual benefit-and not just to the collaborators, but to those affected by the collaboration...

Myth: In partnership everything is done by consensus.
Reality: Doing everything by consensus can lead to more subtle but just as pervasive forms of domination. Partnership requires give and take. Compromise can be creative.

Myth: In partnership there is no conflict, no differences.
Reality: There are always differences and conflicts. But how they are viewed and dealt with are different in a Dominator or Partnership context...

.

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Now Hear This - Better Listeners Make Better Managers

"The Journal of Business Communication published a recent study disclosing that good listeners hold higher-level positions and are promoted more often than those with less effective listening skills. Many executives believe listening skills are vital to the success of an organisation. Lee Iacocca, CEO of Chrysler, said that listening could make 'the difference between a mediocre company and a great company.'

Unfortunately, a number of experts note that managers and executives tend to become better talkers than listeners -- because they are used to 'being listened to'...

These six tips can help though.

One: Observe the speaker...
Two: Be attentive and avoid distractions...
Three: Think, revise and stay interested...
Four: Make notes...
Five: Paraphrase what the speaker says...
Six: Do not assume...

Remember the old poem:

A wise old owl lived in an oak
The more he saw, the less he spoke
The less he spoke, the more he heard
Why can't we all be like that bird?

Read more in Good listeners = Better managers?.

For a more comprehensive treatment, see self study exercises for business listening skills that breaks the topic down into 3 parts and states:

"Your skill as a listener can make or break your success in leadership, teams, customer relationships, and negotiation...

Part I, Strategies for Business Listeners sets out a simple model explaining how an effective listening style changes ordinary conversations. The central premise is that you will get more out of conversations by first knowing your conversation goals, then narrowing your focus to 3 choices: talk or listen; focus or clarify; and listen attentively or not...

Part II, How to Listen (Attentive Listening Skills) provides the nuts-and-bolts tactical complement to the listening strategy proposed in Part I. Subjects include: 'Get Over Yourself, Give Them A Solo', which speaks to the power of not interrupting in any one of a multitude of ways; 'Stop Multi-tasking', about the importance of focus; and finally, 'Recap Regularly', 'Use Supportive Words', and 'Use Body Language' which show how to establish a tangible connection between yourself and the person you talking to...

Part III, Asking Questions / Listening Self-Study covers the art of asking non-leading questions which contribute to, rather than morph, what a speaker is saying. Part Three also provides exercises and resources you can use to sharpen your listening skills."

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A Great Pick-Up Line

"Playing pick-up basketball is more than good exercise and camaraderie. It's a microcosm of society in general and the business office in particular...I constantly find myself evaluating employees and new contacts against the same criteria that I value in good teammates on the basketball court. Are they team players or are they selfish? Do they understand their own strengths, weaknesses, and role? Can they put points on the board? Will they take on tough assignments? Do they help others out? Are they good communicators and a positive influence? Are they winners or whiners?

However, there's more at play here than personnel profiling. There are a number of leadership principles that translate from the basketball court to the business office...here are my top five:

See the court...
A true leader is not only constantly looking for the new opportunities, but they're also looking to get the ball to teammates who are best positioned to take advantage of the situation...

Score points and keep score
Pick-up basketball is all about winning the game and holding the court. It's no different in business....

It's OK to wear short pants and canvas sneakers.
Sure, the young players can run faster and jump higher, but old-school fundamentals may be more necessary today than ever...

The whole is greater than the parts...

Don't lose touch.
Your job, your skin color, and your bank account mean nothing in a pick-up basketball game...I know how easy it can be to become disconnected. Playing pick-up ball reminds me of the constant need to stay in touch..."

Read more in Shirts and Skins found via this post from Be Excellent™.

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Change Management Primer

Change Management 101 provides a detailed overview of the concept of “change management.” It was written primarily for people who are coming to grips with change management problems for the first time and for more experienced people who wish to reflect upon their experience in a structured way, stating:

"Organizations are highly specialized systems and there are many different schemes for grouping and classifying them. Some are said to be in the retail business, others are in manufacturing, and still others confine their activities to distribution. Some are profit-oriented and some are not for profit. Some are in the public sector and some are in the private sector. Some are members of the financial services industry, which encompasses banking, insurance, and brokerage houses. Others belong to the automobile industry, where they can be classified as original equipment manufacturers (OEM) or after-market providers. Some belong to the health care industry, as providers, as insureds or as insurers. Many are regulated, some are not. Some face stiff competition, some do not. Some are foreign-owned and some are foreign-based. Some are corporations, some are partnerships, and some are sole proprietorships. Some are publicly held and some are privately held. Some have been around a long time and some are newcomers. Some have been built up over the years while others have been pieced together through mergers and acquisitions. No two are exactly alike.

The preceding paragraph points out that the problems found in organizations, especially the change problems, have both a content and a process dimension. It is one thing, for instance, to introduce a new claims processing system in a functionally organized health insurer. It is quite another to introduce a similar system in a health insurer that is organized along product lines and market segments. It is yet a different thing altogether to introduce a system of equal size and significance in an educational establishment that relies on a matrix structure. The languages spoken differ. The values differ. The cultures differ. And, at a detailed level, the problems differ. However, the overall processes of change and change management remain pretty much the same, and it is this fundamental similarity of the change processes across organizations, industries, and structures that makes change management a task, a process, and an area of professional practice."

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Mother Lode of Board of Director Resources

"A corporation, whether for-profit or nonprofit, is required to have a governing Board of Directors. To explain, a corporation can operate as a separate legal entity, much like a person in that it can own bank accounts, enter into contracts, etc. However, the laws governing corporations require that a corporation ultimately is accountable to its owners (stockholders in the case of for-profits and the public with nonprofits). That accountability is accomplished by requiring that each corporation has a Board of Directors that represents the stockholders or the public...

Governing Boards can have a variety of models (configurations and ways of working), for example, "working Boards" (hands-on, or administrative, where Board members might be fixing the fax one day and strategic planning the next), "collective" (where Board members and others in the organization usually do the same types of work -- it's often difficult to discern who the Board members actually are), "policy" (where Board members attend mostly to top-level policies), "Policy Governance" (trademark of Carver Governance Design, where there are very clear lines and areas of focus between Board and the CEO), etc. All of these models are types of governing Boards.

Boards can have a broad range of "personalities." For example, Boards of large for-profit and nonprofit corporations might be very formal in nature with strong attention to Parliamentary procedures, highly proceduralized Board operations, etc. In contrast, Boards of small nonprofit or for-profit corporations might be very informal in nature. Some people believe in life stages of Boards, including that they 1) start out as "working" Boards where members focus on day-to-day matters in addition to strategic matters, 2) evolve to "policy" Boards where members focus mostly on strategic matters, and 3) eventually become large, institutionalized Boards that often have small executive committees and maybe many members some of which are "big names" to gain credibility with funders or investors..."

The above gives a basic overview sketch of the role of a governing Board. The Free Complete Toolkit for Boards from Carter McNamara provides more information about the roles and responsibilities of Boards and Board members, including job descriptions for each of the common positions on a Board and much, much more.

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Accountability is Key

"Here is the seven-step formula you can use to create accountability and achieve extraordinary results in any organization:

Step 1: Establish the organization’s top three objectives...
Step 2: Assign each team member his or her respective objectives...
Step 3: Ask each team member what he or she needs to win...
Step 4: Agree on what the leader will do to help....
Step 5: Follow up...
Step 6: Share lessons learned...
Step 7: Reward results..."

Read more in this ChangeThis manifesto from Bob Prosen.

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The Personal Style Model

In this video from BetterManagement.com , join Dr Michael O'Connor as he talks about how the "personal style model" can be used to explore a person's:

"Goals & fears
Natural talents
Development opportunities
Performance work practices

Use this knowledge to understand a person's tendency to either "fight" or "take flight" when put under pressure or stress; and how to successfully influence others. Improve how you communicate, motivate and interact which each of the 4 DISC styles:

Dominant Directors
Interacting Socializers
Steady Relaters
Cautious Thinkers

By understanding these behaviors, managers can better coach and develop employees to perform better to positively and productively influence co-workers, customers, prospects and partners."

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Delegate Don't Abdicate

"People use many excuses for not delegating. Their reasons are usually unfounded. You'll get more done through delegation if you assume the opposite of the following statements is true:

I could do it better myself.
I don't know if I can trust her to do it.
He isn't qualified to do it.
She doesn't want any added responsibilities.
I don't have the time to show anyone how to do it.
There is no one else to delegate to.
He already has enough to do.
I don't want to give up this task because I like doing it.
I'm the only person who knows how to do this.
She messed up last time, so I'm not giving her anything else to do."

Read more in this article from getmoredone.com.

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Scan the Environment with a PEST Analysis

"A number of checklists have been developed as ways of cataloguing the vast number of possible issues that might affect an industry. A PEST analysis is one of them that is merely a framework that categorizes environmental influences as political, economic, social and technological forces...The analysis examines the impact of each of these factors (and their interplay with each other) on the business. The results can then be used to take advantage of opportunities and to make contingency plans for threats when preparing business and strategic plans...

In conducting PEST analysis, it is required to consider each PEST factor as they all play a part in determining the overall business environment. Some examples of topics include the following:

Political: (includes legal and regulatory): elections, employment law, consumer protection, environmental regulations, industry-specific regulations, competitive regulations, inter-country relationships/attitudes, war, terrorism, political trends, governmental leadership, taxes, and government structures.

Economic: economic growth trends (various countries), taxation, government spending levels, disposable income, job growth/unemployment, exchange rates, tariffs, inflation, consumer confidence index, import/export ratios, and production levels.

Social: demographics (age, gender, race, family size, etc.), lifestyle changes, population shifts, education, trends, fads, diversity, immigration/emigration, health, living standards, housing trends, fashion, attitudes to work, leisure activities, occupations, and earning capacity.

Technological: inventions, new discoveries, research, energy uses/sources/fuels, communications, rates of obsolescence, health (pharmaceutical, equipment, etc.), manufacturing advances, information technology, internet, transportation, bio-tech, genetics, agri-tech, waste removal/recycling, and so on."

Read more in this article from coursework4you.co.uk, which is also a great example of an article that provides an excellent executive summary of its topic.

Additional information on this topic is available in this summary from marketingteacher.com and this article and free template from businessballs.com (another good example of an excellent executive summary).

Technorati Tags: business, management, entrepreneurship, startup, legal

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Send in the SWOT Team

This wikipedia entry defines a SWOT Analysis as a "strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture or in any other situation of an organization or individual requiring a decision in pursuit of an objective. It involves monitoring the marketing environment internal and external to the organization or individual..."

This article from netmba.com explains:

"[Internal] factors should be evaluated across the organization in areas such as:

Company culture
Company image
Organizational structure
Key staff
Access to natural resources
Position on the experience curve
Operational efficiency
Operational capacity
Brand awarenes
Market share
Financial resources
Exclusive contracts
Patents and trade secrets...

The article identifies changes in the external environment in the following area may present opportunities or threats:

"Customers
Competitors
Market trends
Suppliers
Partners
Social changes
New technology
Economic environment
Political and regulatory environment"

This article from quickmba.com adds:

"Examples of...strengths include:

patents
strong brand names
good reputation among customers
cost advantages from proprietary know-how
exclusive access to high grade natural resources
favorable access to distribution networks

The absence of certain strengths may be viewed as a weakness. For example, each of the following may be considered weaknesses:

lack of patent protection
a weak brand name
poor reputation among customers
high cost structure
lack of access to the best natural resources
lack of access to key distribution channels...

Some examples of...opportunities include:

an unfulfilled customer need
arrival of new technologies
loosening of regulations
removal of international trade barriers...

Some examples of...threats include:

shifts in consumer tastes away from the firm's products
emergence of substitute products
new regulations
increased trade barriers"

Technorati Tags: business, management, entrepreneurship, startup, legal

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Business Intelligence Lowdown: Lessons from the Lemonade Stand: 101 Common Sense Management Tips

Business Intelligence Lowdown: Lessons from the Lemonade Stand: 101 Common Sense Management Tips

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Leaders Lead; Managers Deliver

"Management is getting people to do what needs to be done. Leadership is getting people to want to do what needs to be done. Managers push. Leaders pull. Managers command. Leaders communicate." - Warren Bennis

So what makes a person excel as a leader or manager? The personal belief of Will Herman, serial CEO, is that:

"Management is a science and, for the most part, can be learned. Leadership, however, is an art. While some of the capabilities necessary to being a great leader can be acquired over time, much of what makes terrific leaders great is instinctive or, at the very least, was learned much earlier in life.

Natural leaders have the ability to think in an unbounded way, without limitations or having their thoughts overly restricted by the practicalities associated with implementation. This is not to say that great leaders don't understand what it takes to make things happen. They simply don't let such knowledge stand in the way of seeing what's ahead and choosing a path to take...

Great managers, on the other hand, are excellent planners and are, generally, very well organized. They, too, need to be good communicators, but with a much more focused, hands-on approach. The fundamental tools that a manager has include their ability to teach, guide, cajole, listen and and constantly refine...

A successful organization can’t exist without both strong leadership and great management. Over time, an organization will need to expand its team of managers to keep up with its increasing number of deliverables. The leadership team, however, will grow at a much slower rate or, perhaps, not at all. Too many leaders, like too many chefs, will really foul things things up. Too few managers will leave a huge implementation void. One type of person is unlikely to successfully fill in for the other. Keep this in mind the next time you're building a team to start a new enterprise or making changes to a team already in place."

Read more in this Will Herman post.

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Tutorial Guide to Financial Statements

Do you think a balance sheet is a parlor trick involving bed linens? Do your eyes glaze over when your accountant hands you the financial statements? Are you curious about what all those numbers mean?

Then, check out Baruch College's Guide to Financial Statements - Online Tutorial for a step by step, easy to follow, informative overview of the basics.

You need never fear an annual report again.

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Ten Schools of Strategic Management Thought

"The Ten Schools of Thought model from Mintzberg is a framework that can be used to categorize the field of Strategic Management.

1. The Design School...sees strategy formation as process of conception
2. The Planning School...sees strategy formation formal process...
3. The Positioning School...sees strategy formation as an analytical process...
4. The Entrepreneurial School...sees strategy formation as a visionary process...
5. The Cognitive School...sees strategy formation as a mental process...
6. The Learning School...sees strategy formation as an emergent process...
7. The Power School...sees strategy formation as process of negotiation...
8. The Cultural School...sees strategy formation as a collective process...
9. The Environmental School...sees strategy formation as a reactive process...
10. The Configuration School...sees strategy formation as a process of transformation..."

Read much more in this article from 12manage.com.

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Must Be 77 Ways To Motivate Your Workers

This NebGuide by John E. Barbuto, Jr.
identifies five sources of motivation and suggests 77 (yes, seventy seven) strategies leaders can use to get the best performance from their people, stating:

"What separates exceptional leaders from ordinary leaders is the ability to inspire and motivate employees. In recent studies, researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln examined sources of motivation of Nebraska workers in urban and rural settings. The results have demonstrated that five unique sources of motivation exist:

Intrinsic process - motivated by FUN
Instrumental - motivated by REWARDS
Self-Concept-External - motivated by REPUTATION
Self-Concept-Internal - motivated by CHALLENGE
Goal Internalization - motivated by the cause or PURPOSE

Each of the five sources requires different organizational and leadership characteristics to tap into them.

Exceptional leaders will find ways to tap into each source. Those who tap into just one or two will motivate only a small percentage of their workers and be less effective. However, leaders who understand the different ways that individuals are motivated will be able to effectively motivate their workers."

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