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What Do Modern Leaders Need To Do?

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Everybody these days talk about leadership but what it actually is will vary from one individual to the next. It is really important that we understand various basic concepts associated with leadership in order to actually be able to become a more competent leader. Envision Experience and other organizations to offer lectures about leadership but if you do not know the basics, you will not gain any benefit.

People that are in charge of companies are managers but they are expected to also lead. Leading and managing are quite different. Managing basically involves properly using available resources like systems, schedules, tools, equipment and supplies. You need to have administration abilities but working with people is not something that is needed. Managers that lead will influence staff performance, making people perform better, as a collective and as an individual. Things are managed and people are led.

Remember that leadership is not strictly connected only to the managers or executives. Most leadership books talk about CEOs and generals but they rely on strategic things that could be done. In practice, leadership skills are necessary for absolutely everyone. Every single manager has to have strong leadership skills. In fact, whenever you work with people you have to be sure that you are a good leader so that everything is done better.

If you want to improve leadership skills, you need to work on them. You can do this in the following ways.

Develop

Know-how is highly necessary in order to work at full potential. Managers have to optimize abilities by helping people get better at the job done. Developing leadership and skills is the responsibility of the leader when managing a team. You do this by clearly stating expectation. You have to set an example, offer instructions, feedback and coaching.

Inspired

The team members may know exactly how to do something but they do want you to contribute. The influence you have on their wish to work with the team is huge. Contrary to popular belief, you cannot inspire through monetary incentives. You have to set an example, understand values, interests, needs, express team vision and assign appropriate tasks to all the right people. Appreciation has to be shown for the job that is well-done.

Support

You need to give your team members what is needed in order to succeed, allocate resources, information and remove barriers. Everything starts with delegation as guidelines, authority and responsibility are shared among team members, all along with assignments. Support should be offered while the work is done. As team members trust their leaders that they will get the support they need, work will always be better.

Encourage

Working is not easy. People almost always encounter mistakes, adversity-problems, failures and shortfalls. As something bad happens, people could quit or lose energy. You should always offer timely encouragement as a leader in order to help people work through adversity, all while continuing striving. Every single leader needs to be responsible and be an example for every single person that is encountered.

Huge Mistakes Beginner Investors Often Make

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Most people from around the world want to make successful investments with the purpose of accumulating wealth. The problem is that this is not at all easy to do, especially in the beginning. Most beginners actually end up losing money. Experience is needed to make great investments and everything starts with avoiding mistakes. Gregory Lindae mentions the most common ones below.

Speculation Confused With Investments

Speculation is often confused with investments. So many beginner investors act based on hot tips or just pick stocks in the heat of the moment. This is not investing. When you invest you need to do it based on a decision you are fully comfortable with. The best investments are long term.

Not Conducting A Good Research

If you want to make a really good investment, research is key. If you do not research the investment, you make a huge mistake. Through research you properly understand the instrument you put money in and you basically know exactly what you get into. For instance, when you invest in stocks, you need to research the company and the business plans it has for the future. Only when you know a lot you can be sure that you are going to make a very good investment.

Lack Of Time Horizon

Whenever making an investment, setting a time horizon is really important. When you plan to accumulate enough money to purchase a real estate property, we are looking at medium-term. If you want to cover the college education of your child, the investment is more long-term. Always look for investments that are suitable to the time horizon you have. Putting money in something inappropriate only leads to mistakes.

Improper Balance Of Risk And Return

Every single return you expect from your investment will come with an attached risk. When investments offer really attractive returns, you have to analyze risk profiles. Also, you need to understand exactly how much money you might end up losing in the event things go wrong. Never invest more money than what you can comfortably afford to lose.

Lack Of Consideration For Personal Risk Aversion

Risk tolerance practically relates to the personal capacity of an individual to take risks. Every person has a personal risk tolerance that is different than that of others. It is really important that you take into account this when you trust investment advice. When you cannot stomach volatility it is better that you do not invest in something like the stock market or cryptocurrencies. In this situation it is much better to put your money into a firm that is established. When you invest in startups there is a huge possibility you will make bad decisions.

Lack Of Diversification

Investing everything or most of your money in just one thing is a really bad idea. When you diversify you manage to avoid overexposure. You practically make to create a portfolio that includes multiple investments. One might end up losing money but you still manage to make a profit since others go up. Diversification is always the key to successful investments.

Nenadi Usman – Why the Future of Politics Revolves around Women 

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I have been recently reading about the truly phenomenal story of Nenadi Usman, Usman is the female Senator to Kaduna South in Nigeria and fought her way from a school teacher to a political inspiration.  The fact that she has had such a successful political career in a very male dominated field is staggering.  If that isn’t impressive enough, she uses her position for the empowerment of women and children in her country.

What is very encouraging is that there are a lot of women around the world like Nenadi who are fighting to change the landscape of politics.  Politics has been a male dominated for far too long and thankfully this is changing.  This is the exact reason why I think that women are the future of politics.

Suppression

One of the main reasons that women’s rights have progression so much is recent memory is simply because of women are sick of being suppressed.  Even though a lot has changed, there is still a long way to go.  The result of this is that women want to be heard more than ever, there is a massive number of women who want to make a change.  Equality is what all of us want to strive towards and more women in politics will get us across the finishing line.

Accessibility

Even though it is not yet worldwide, it is the greatest time for women to become involved in politics.  This means that like Nenadi Usman women can gain a high political position and use their voice to make a difference.  This will create a knock-on effect to the younger generation of females, who will be inspired to take a role in politics.

Representation

There are a lot of women around the world that feel that they are not truly represented by male figures in power.  This causes a disconnect between political parties and the people they are representing.  This is encouraging political parties to push for more female members, this is fantastic as it will put women into a position in which their voice can be heard.

Caring

I think that now more than ever women care about politics, marches and protests are really taking women’s rights to the next level.  There has always been a need for change but now is the time that, that need can turn into a reality. With more and more women getting involved in politics, equality will be the next step.

So many inspirational women have lead the way in terms of making politics a more habitable place for women where they will be accepted and they can make real change. The door has most certainly been broken down, but the hard work really begins now, as more and more young women look to take female politics to the next level, until we get the equality that we are all looking for.

Daniel DeKoter Attorney at Law, On Why Crime Is Higher In Big Cities Than Small Towns

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My friend Daniel DeKroter attorney at law in Des Moines Iowa, is a resident of the tiny Osceola County, Iowa like myself. We were speaking last week about crime, and why big cities seem to have a higher amount of crime than smaller areas, rural or otherwise. I know that there are many examples of crime rates which you could point to that indicate crime per head is lower in some urban areas than some rural, but generally speaking the majority of crime is taken up by the big cities. Dan studied this at college and told me the following on this subject.

People

The first ting to look at is the number of people which cities hold, this is not to say that more people equals more crime, because we look at this based on crime per person. With this being said however, the crime of one person is far more likely to inspire another crime from another person in contact with the first criminal. Think about gangs for example, if a gang was created in a small town it seems less likely that it would grow at the scale that it could in a city, because there are more people who can be affected and influenced.

Rich and Poor

In many big city sin the US there is a huge disparity between rich and poor, and very often these neighborhoods are side by side. Add to the mix the fact that many people who are living below the breadline have less opportunities, frustration can grow, and people without, see those with, and want to find a way to get it, often looking at crime as the answer.

Socio-Economic

It is far more probable that in big cities you will have a wide mixture of races, cultures and backgrounds, than you would do say in a small rural town. As history has shown us, often these races and religions can collide, thus inspiring more criminal activity.

Competition

There is far more competition inside a major city, competition to succeed, competition to earn money, and competition for opportunities. The result of this heightened competition is that many people end up failing, and therefore look at other ways to make money, other ways to find opportunities, crime often being the perceived answer.

Community

Most communities that exist in big cities are small sections of people from similar backgrounds, belief systems or ethnic origins, these make up several small communities rather than one large community as you would find in a small town. The erosion of community is a huge factor in increased crime rates, and it is no surprise that in location where there is a tight knit community and a support network for the residents, that there is also much lower crime rates in these areas.

BonWorth on Female Communication

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BonWorth, America’s favorite mother-daughter store, is about so much more than BeBonworthBeautiful. They are about community, about empowerment, and about making a difference. For COO Gurumoorthy Gurusankar, it wasn’t just about regular promotional offers, sales, and encouraging people to make savings. Rather, it was about making the community of Henderson, NC, and in fact North Carolina as a whole, a better place for everybody. And one area on which he focused in order to achieve that, was that of female employment. By now, a huge percentage of Bonworth employees are women, something that has inspired others across North Carolina. Indeed, the state now ranks as one of the best for diversity. One of the main reasons why Gurunsakar felt this was important, is because women are such fantastic communicators.

Bonworth on Women and Communication

It has been scientifically proven that women are better communicators. They use more words than their male counterparts and they have greater empathy and emotional intelligence. This means that they are much better at managing through difficult tensions. Their strong emotional skills are hugely important during interview processes as well. Indeed, the University of Western Ontario has completed a study that showed women were better capable of handling the stress associated with interviews. This means that they are also likely to be better at handling stress in the workplace. Indeed, although many people think women have a tendency to freak out, the reality is that they are incredibly good crisis managers.

Womens’ emotional skills also make them stay on top of their game when going through a hiring interview process. A study published by the University of Western Ontario found that women can better handle interview stress – which is a good predictor for more efficient workplace stress management. Against common misconception that women tend to freak out more than men in crisis situations, science shows that we fare far better during the actual event. In Henderson, NC tornados are quite frequent, so this is an important fact.

Because women are both better communicators and better stress managers, and it quickly becomes obvious why so many businesses, including Bonworth, are increasing diversity in their workforce. Be it in negotiations, sales, inter department relationships, PR, management, promotional outreach, or any other field, women employees simply do better. And they do more for the community as well.

Women listen better as well, and this is why they are so good at managing customers as well. Sensitive tasks, such as business pitches, sales, and customer service, are much better left to women. However, women do have to learn how to maximize their skills. Hence:

  • No matter whether they want to work for a company like Bonworth or for a multinational conglomeration, they must make sure they focus on their communication skills and relax before the interview.
  • It is possible for anybody to increase their emotional intelligence. Training to be better at managing, negotiating, and working is possible for everybody, regardless of their gender.

Bonworth is proud to have so many female employees, befitting of their image as most loved mother-daughter store.

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