New Business Ideas 4 U

Posts Tagged ‘Management Skill’

CEO Material

DA Benton, McGraw-Hill,  2009

Debra Benton is a successful consultant and author, with a long list of top drawer clients. She has previously written best-selling books including Executive Charisma, and How to Act like a CEO.

This book is sub-titled ‘How to be a Leader in any Organization‘ but could almost be sub-titled ‘Debra’s Book of Lists,’ because each chapter contains lists of characteristics and is filled with exhortations of what you should do if you want to to be regarded as a potential CEO. In her Conclusion chapter she actually lists 365 things you should do – one for each day of the year – to get yourself regarded as potential CEO material.

The author follows the same approach in each chapter. First, she gives a short bulleted list of key elements in the chapter topic. This bulleted list generally contains three points, each of which becomes a section heading a little later on. A couple of these lists are slightly longer. Then she lists the behaviors that a budding CEO should exhibit to demonstrate competence in the topic area. The list for Chapter 1 Have a Good Track Record, for example identifies 20 such behaviors, though this is the longest list in the book. Read the rest of this entry »

The next three ways that Larina Kase suggests to help turn your problems into opportunities are dealt with in this posting.

Build Supreme Motivation in Yourself and Others

As a confident leader, she suggests, you motivate yourself to get outside your comfort zone to get better results, but you also inspire others to move out of their comfort zones.

Mood is important and contagious and a harmonious climate leads to both inspiration and productivity. The better the energy level and mood of the team, the better the work performance.

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The second part of the book, The Confident Leader by Larina Kase comprises 10 chapters under the heading of How Confident Leaders Turn Problems into Dynamic Opportunities. Since it is likely that you have your fair share – or even more than your fair share – of problems, being able to turn a (significant) portion of them into opportunities seems a great thing to be able to do.

Let’s look at the first couple.

Focus on what’s Important

The first step in getting focused is to find what Kase calls your “Big It”, or what’s most important. This may seem obvious, but it’s not always apparent. An important – and seemingly silly – question is for whom is it important. Kase introduces the idea of the “Inner Committee’, which probably comprises all the people who have ever had an influence on your life. She asks: Do you want to do it, or is someone inside your head saying you ought to do it.

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GROWTH Step 6      Harness Your Strengths and Release Control

Make the change stick by using your natural strengths instead of overcompensating for your weaknesses

There’s some meaty stuff in the heading for this step. Let’s carve into it.

At first sight, the name of the step almost doesn’t make sense. How can you harness your strengths and release control?

As ambitious, achievement-oriented people, she says, we sometimes get caught in the vicious cycles of trying to control situations, and often what we think works is the opposite of what does. Control is paradoxical, and letting go of ineffective control is the key to change. If you’re unwilling to experience discomfort,you’ll probably have more discomfort because you’ll try to control it with actions that end up increasing it. If you try to make sure that something will not happen, it is more likely to happen.

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