Overcoming Obstacles to Achieve Success

Women are making great strides in the business arena, but they still have a long way to go. More than 40 percent of small business owners are women, according to the business website StartRunGrow.com, and women are hailed for their unique style of leadership. That unique style, however, is not enough to fully overcome overt gender discrimination, false beliefs and stereotypes that still run rampant in the workplace.

In many cases, men still receive higher pay than women for doing the exact same job. Men are also more likely to receive promotions and move up the corporate ladder, especially in firms where false beliefs and stereotypes about women remain engrained.

One false belief is that women do not want to work in the first place. If they do work, there is no way they are as dedicated to their jobs as guys are. This means, of course, women are not willing to do any overtime or relocate.

People often think women’s dedication to their families detracts from women’s dedication to their careers. This means women will always put their families before their jobs – even if the women are single with no children. The topper is that women are too emotional to lead. After all, they do tend to cry at sappy greeting card commercials and chick flicks.

The macho attitude also comes into play when men who hold firm to their stereotypical beliefs are stuck with a female boss. Such a situation actually has the power to make a man feel ashamed that he must answer to a woman in the workplace.

Other pseudo fears men have about women bosses include the woman’s lack of knowledge and confidence in the business arena, a woman’s inability to perform complicated tasks and the fact that they are so hard to please. The latter false belief makes an especially dandy excuse for men who turn in shoddy work. If she’s telling me my work is not right, a man may think, it must mean she’s never satisfied no matter what type of job I’ll do.

Another false belief is that women must act like men in order to successfully lead. This belief was strong in the 1980s and resulted in masculine-styled “power suits” with obnoxiously overstuffed shoulder pads. Women thought they needed to keep up with football scores – or look like a football player – to compete in a man’s world. On the flipside of the issue, if a woman dresses more feminine at work, she can often be labeled a sexpot or worse.

While some of these beliefs are laughable, they still prevail, as does the flack women often receive for being assertive in the workplace. Women are often seen as not being aggressive enough – yet when they exhibit aggressive behavior, they are often labeled a witch, to put it mildly. On the other hand, when women lead in a manner that is nurturing and kind, they are often seen as spineless, weak and incompetent – although great for a chat around the water cooler.

Tips for Overcoming Stereotypes and Achieving Success

Rather than trying to lead “like a man” or “like a woman,” GenderSmart Solutions President Jane Sanders suggests women kick out the set styles altogether and lead with flexibility as each situation merits. She notes that sticking with a single leadership style can perpetuate the stereotypes rather than help eradicate them.

Another major key for overcoming the stereotypes is for women to just be themselves. If a woman is naturally outgoing, her leadership style should reflect that, just as an introspective woman should lead with her natural abilities in mind. Women can do well by not trying to live up what style is expected, but rather by focusing on their strengths and leveraging them to their advantage in the business arena.

Women can also pay attention to the way they interact and communicate in the workplace. Certain behaviors may also be reinforcing the stereotypes without women even realizing it, Sanders notes. These include exhibiting a lack of confidence by seeking validation at every turn as well as adding disclaimers to your work. “This is a good idea, right?” exemplifies the former while “I would have done a better job on this but…” exemplifies the latter.

Other changes women can make include getting rid of constant apologies, taking credit for their work and otherwise making sure their progress in the workplace is known. Providing a boss with regular updates on a project can work well, which is a way to show you are working toward a solution or answer to an issue. Making decisions without the consult of several other people is also a plus, showing a woman’s independence, self-confidence and ability to think for herself.

Women who are succinct, to the point and confident about their work are seen as much stronger and more effective than those that ramble on aimlessly or cower in the face of conflict. When conflict does arise, women can exhibit even more confidence by dealing with directly but also with a touch of empathy, Sanders says. When a woman has center stage she needs to learn how to keep it. She should not tolerate interruptions, although a polite response to “please hold that thought while I continue” works better than an abrupt or curt comment.

Keeping a personal life personal is another must for women. Since the stereotype about family already prevails, keeping talk of them out of the workplace may help diffuse the false beliefs. Women also do well by keeping other personal details private, such as weekend plans, new boyfriends or trouble with the hubby. Any mention of drinking, sex or redecorating the kitchen can and may be used against her.

Trying to talk people out of their stereotypical beliefs generally does not work, notes StartRunGrow.com. Some of those beliefs may be so instilled it would be easier to draw water from a rock. Action always speaks louder than words and women should instead keep a positive attitude and not be afraid to proudly display their strengths. Such action can allow their true talents and value to the workplace shine through.

Essential Skills & Qualities of an Effective Leader

Being an effective business leader is not just about having a good idea, but about having a set of skills that will allow you to make it happen and lead others in joining with you to make your business the best it can be. Many people have some of the business skills naturally, but you can also work to develop the skills that you notice you are lacking or are not as strong in.

Some of the best ways to develop skills are to study and to practice. Doing one without the other is often ineffective because you either do not understand what it is you need to be doing or you don’t actually know how to do what you grasp conceptually. Therefore, you should balance study of a skill through reading or taking a class with practicing the skill in your business. Of course, the longer you work in business, the more potential you have to be a truly skillful and effective leader.

In addition to benefiting yourself, knowing the skills of an effective leader can also help you identify employees in your small business who should be promoted to positions of leadership. People who demonstrate most of these characteristics will probably help your business grow if you give them the opportunity to step up and take responsibility over some aspects of the business. Therefore, keep an eye out for these important skills in the people you hire, and give them the chance to demonstrate these skills and grow in them so you will eventually have a business full of people who can effectively take leadership on projects when you need them to.

Communication
Leaders who are off in their own little bubble and cannot communicate effectively with those around them ultimately do not have their ideas put into practice well. As a leader, you must be able to interact well with the people you work with, and this can be done through written or verbal communication. Verbal communication skills are a must-have, because you need to get a message across when you are working with others. Written skills are also helpful because you can create materials that effectively supplement your verbal communication to drive the business onward.

Listening
Closely tied to communication is the skill of listening. Being a good listener is the first step toward communicating well because it keeps you from talking past each other when you aren’t on the same page. Practice listening to people and hearing them out before assuming you know what they are thinking. Use reflecting questions to confirm that you are hearing what the person is saying. Often people will come to you with problems and think you solved them, but really you just lent a listening ear and allowed the person to talk through the issue and come up with a solution.

Charisma
A charismatic leader is one who can rally people in support of a business idea. In addition, once the ball is rolling, the leader can keep people on board through good times and bad by maintaining energy with a charismatic personality. If you don’t naturally have much charisma, practice energizing yourself before beginning work every day, especially if you have to lead meetings or talk with clients. In addition, pay attention to engaging your own and others’ emotions to be more charismatic in your business leadership.

Vision
Without vision, your business is not going to go anywhere. As a leader, you need to be good at looking ahead and seeing where the company is going. You also need to have an idea of what it is you want your business to accomplish. One of the best ways to have vision as a leader is to write a great vision statement for your business. This statement should describe what the business will look like in five years. If you refer to this statement regularly, you will be able to use it in making decisions and have it pervade your leadership of the business.

Foresight
Closely tied to vision is the skill of foresight. In addition to seeing where you want to go, you also need to be able to identify what obstacles you might face in the coming months and years. This big-picture thinking is partly based on a solid education in the realm of your business and an attention to the overall trajectory of your field, but it is also based on intuition. A great leader has a gut feeling of what might go wrong, and can adjust for it even when the intuition is not a conscious awareness.

Strategic Planning
Leaders need to make strategic planning decisions and guide other people who work for the business in acting according to these strategic plans. After getting a grasp on the situation, the leader needs to be able to create a plan that will actually work. Much of this is based on an intimate knowledge of the industry and an education in basic business practice. However, the leader also needs to have creativity to think up a plan that will work better than the standard business practice in situations that require something new, not the same old plans that all of the competitors are using.

Adaptability
Plans don’t always go the right way, so the next skill an effective leader needs is adaptability. You must be able to gauge how a plan is going and adjust it on the fly to meet the changing demands of the situation. One of the hardest things for many leaders is being able to let go of a plan that is going awry, despite having poured time, energy and resources into it already. As a successful leader, you must gauge when a plan is a lost cause and when it is wiser to transfer your resources to a modified approach.

Coaching
If your business employs anyone other than yourself, another critical skill to have is the ability to coach or mentor those who work for you. Unless you are really lucky or have a lot of money, you probably won’t be able to hire the best employees right away. Instead, you need to find people who have potential and work with them to develop that potential and make them into effective employees for the work you need them to do. As the leader, you need to be able to coach your employees and give them input and direction, while also giving them the freedom to try new things and learn on their own rather than being completely dependent on you.

Teamwork
A leader cannot stand alone all the time. Instead, the leader must rely on others in the team to do their part to make the business successful. As a leader, you need to surround yourself with others who you trust to do their jobs well and propel your business forward. If you are good at identifying people who have the skills that you are weak in, this will help your team to be stronger. In addition, you must be good at delegating tasks and leading sessions in which a team can work together to come up with a better idea, plan and execution than you could have done on your own.

Integrity
One last leadership skill to focus on is integrity. Having this will ensure that your business operates with honesty and ethical behavior in a world that encourages the opposite. Although integrity might not seem like it will put you ahead in the short term, in the long run, it will help your business’s reputation greatly. It will also help you develop a loyal following of employees and clients. Before acting, always consider whether what you are going to do captures the spirit of integrity, and if not, modify your plans until they show integrity.

The Sibling Effect: Does It Really Make A Difference?

When you are charged with leading an organization, it helps to understand where your strengths and weaknesses lie and where your motivations come from.

All of us become who we are through the sum of our experiences, but sometimes there are other factors at play, factors that we might not first think about when it comes to who we’ve become.

I recently came across a book called, “The Sibling Effect” by Jeffrey Kluger that talks about how the order in which we are born plays a role in developing the person we turn out to be.

So as the youngest in the family, how did my birth order shape me, if it shaped me at all? Or was the fact that I was a girl in a patriarchal family play a bigger role in who I became, and how does this all relate to my development as a leader?

I have an older brother who was the center of my family’s world when we were growing up. He was a fantastic athlete, a great student. Weekends would be spent watching him play cricket or soccer and the world was expected of him.

On the other hand, I was uncoordinated and while I did well in school, math and science weren’t my strong suits. I was more the creative type. My family was certainly male-centric and nothing was really expected of me, certainly in the business world. And I can’t blame them. There weren’t really many women taking the world by storm in those days.

Girls were expected to dip their tow in the corporate world but only until they married and had to stay home with the kids. For some people this could be a recipe for disaster, but for me it was the spark I needed.

Nothing motivates me more than being told I can’t do something.

I wasn’t a prodigy like my brother seemed to be. I was just a quiet girl who loved animals and books and creativity and I was never really a needy kid when it came to seeking the approval of my parents, because it wasn’t very forthcoming.

As I read “The Sibling Effect” I was struck by the fact that I was never a typical younger child. I didn’t develop into a person that uses their charm to get ahead and I don’t tend to be an instinctively empathetic person, which are two traits of younger children.

Instead what I learned from being a younger child was that you had to work hard to get ahead in life and nothing would ever simply be given to you. These were incredibly valuable lessons, which made me work as hard as I could to become the person I wanted to be.

So think about the role you played in your family growing up. How has it helped to make you the person you are today? Did that role motivate you to become better in your life and in growing your business?

Does the Power of Your Vision Make You A Leader?

It’s been 100 years since he was born and more than a decade since he died, but David Ogilvy continues to influence the world we live in. Ogilvy was known as “The Father of Advertising” and he pushed the boundaries like no other advertising executive before him.

What Ogilvy did was make advertising interesting. He said, “You cannot bore people into buying your product, you can only interest them in buying it,” and if you look at advertising that came before Ogilvy, you can see that was a groundbreaking notion when Ogilvy came up with it.

But Ogilvy isn’t just an important figure because of the impact he made on advertising, he remains important because of the impact he made as a leader, not only changing the face of the industry he worked in, but leading the change of the society around him.

Much has been written about Ogilvy and he was, depending on what you read, a snob, a perfectionist, rude, impatient and even egotistical. No, Mr. Ogilvy was not a perfect person. But he was, in many ways, a perfect leader.

Ogilvy knew that if your ideas were powerful enough, you must lead, and his ideas were not only powerful, they were groundbreaking. He made advertising smarter, more interesting and something people would talk about at the dinner table.

Along the way he obsessed on details, he was certain about virtually everything and he had a huge ego, but he was also the smartest person in the room (when it came to advertising) and everyone knew it.

The people who worked for him may not have liked him, but they loved him because they respected him, his knowledge and his vision.

What does Ogilvy’s story tell us about what it takes to make a leader? Often leaders aren’t made, instead people become leaders because they are in the best position to lead, whether it’s because they have the most knowledge, passion or attention to detail.

David Ogilvy had all three of those qualities and whether the people that worked for him liked him or not was irrelevant. They trusted his vision and his ability and their commitment showed in the work produced by Ogilvy’s agency over the years.

So if you are in a leadership position, ask yourself, does your team follow you because of your vision and ability, or because you sign the checks?

How Can We Develop More Women Leaders?

There is far more opportunity in the world today for women than there was a generation ago, but there is still a long way to go until men and women are truly equal at the top of the business world.

The equality that women have found in most aspects of life seems to end at the boardroom. Women are increasingly making up a larger percentage of the work force and are more likely to graduate from college, but the same percentage, if not less, are reaching the upper echelon in terms of their careers.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg gave an interesting speech on the topic in December 2010 at that year’s TED Conference and she offered some things women can do to reach their career potential.

I saw the speech again recently and I felt what she had to say about women reaching their potential was interesting.

Too often women are dismissive of their own successes and abilities and, as she says, “No one gets to the corner office by underestimating their abilities.”

By underestimating their own abilities, many women fail to “Sit at the table,” as Sandberg puts it, and aren’t taken seriously when it comes to leadership and decision making.

This becomes even more interesting when we consider that, while success and likability correlate positively for men, they negatively correlate for women. As one writer on the topic put it, in our culture, good girls are taught to be nice, while good boys are simply taught to be good.

In the competitive world of business, nice just doesn’t always equate to capable or successful or to a leader. And when you combine the cultural undertones of what makes a “good boy” versus what makes a “good girl” with the difficult choices many women have to make when it comes to the balance between work and personal life, it’s easy to see why so many women choose to leave the playing field rather than compete with men.

So how do we change this scenario?

First, as the working force changes to more and more women, there is little doubt that new companies and corporate cultures will emerge that focus more on the woman entrepreneur, her skills, talents and aptitudes and how she works.

Secondly, as women we have to take a role in changing the culture itself. As a CEO myself, I feel it’s very important to empower the women who work for me to reach their full potential and grow.

Finally, we have to teach the next generation of women that being nice isn’t the same as being good and there will be times when difficult choices have to be made between your cultural identity and delivering on your potential, and that’s it’s okay to choose the later.

Are You Nominated for the Business Excellence Awards?

The Business Excellence Forum will take place on August 19 and 20.

The Forum will feature the Business Excellence Awards Ceremony, which will honor some of the best companies and entrepreneurs in the world of small business on Saturday August 20.

Awards will be given in 19 categories ranging from Most Innovative Company to Entrepreneur of the Year.

If you know a business that has done a terrific job in 2010, it couldn’t be easier to nominate them.

Just click here and follow the instructions and nominate your business today.

Are You Attending the Business Excellence Forum?

The Business Excellence Forum will be hosted at the world famous Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, Florida on August 19 and 20 and it promises to be one of our most exciting, newest global initiatives.

The Business Excellence Forum will be an outstanding time for small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to network with and learn from successful business people in one of the most beautiful settings in the world.

Of course, the Forum wouldn’t be complete without the Business Excellence Awards Ceremony, which will honor some of the best companies and entrepreneurs in the world of small business on Saturday August 20.

All in all, the Business Excellence Forum promises to be a “Can’t Miss” event for any small business owner, entrepreneur or Business Coach.

Indeed, anyone who is involved in a small business will get tremendous value from the training, workshops and speakers scheduled for this event.

For more information on the 2011 Business Excellence Forum, just click here.

The Importance of Coaching for a Cause

The nature of the work ActionCOACH Business Coaches do is a help to local communities by making small businesses profitable.

But ActionCOACH’s Coaching for a Cause program is a global initiative that truly focuses on spreading the principles of gratitude and abundance by applying “for profit” systems to the non-profit and charitable world.

Through Coaching for a Cause, ActionCOACH business coaches teach non- profit organizations how to operate like businesses, how to build systems and implement them and how to make the most of each and every contribution they earn.

Last year the program helped increase donations to non-profits and and participating charities by more than $3 million.

This year, we expect to teach even more non-profits how to be successful.

To see how Coaching for a Cause works and how it has created success for participating organizations, just click here.

Winners Announced at 2010 Asia Pacific Conference

The 2010 ActionCOACH Asia Pacific Conference took place at the Sofitel, Broadbeach in Queensland, Australia.

During the conference, dozens of coaches were honored with awards signifying their outstanding results and achievements throughout 2010.

The award winners were:

Coach of the Year: Bruce Campbell

Rookie Coach of the Year: George Zenon

Most Improved Coach: Nick Ikonomou

Best Client Results: Brett Burden

Best Awarded Client: Andrew Masi

Best Client Retention: Hank de Smit

Associate Coach of the Year: Christine Beard

ProfitCLUB Award: Rueben Taylor

ActionCLUB Award: Business Coaching Sydney

GrowthCLUB Award: Simon Harris

Master Licensee of the Year: Vic Ciuffetelli

Coaches’ Choice ActionCOACH: (tie) Gavin Bassett and Craig Brewster

Coaches’ Choice AbundanceCOACH: Gerard Liddy

Coaches’ Choice SeminarCOACH: Craig Brewster

Coaches’ Choice NetworkCOACH: Terri Billington

Coaches’ Choice BrandCOACH: Gavin Bassett

Coaches’ Choice MarketingCOACH: Ben Fewtrell

Coaches’ Choice SalesCOACH: Ashley Thomson

Coaches’ Choice TeamCOACH: David Guest

Coaches’ Choice Forum Poster of the Year: Cynthia Wihardja

ActionMAN Awards:
Mark Blum
Mike Rady
Wayne Gillan
Andrew Laurie
Paul Henshall
Leon Bingham
Anil Puri
Nathan McDonald
Blair Harding
Ariel Inigo
Rob and Faye Caughey
Maresa Ng
Steve Leach
Maylani Wiaji

Congratulations to all the winners and we are looking forward to what each and every one of you accomplish in 2011.

Business Coaches Are the Big Winners at 2010 EMEA Conference

At ActionCOACH, we believe in results and rewarding people when they achieve outstanding results. This philosophy helps make us the leader in the world of business coaching today.

The 2010 EMEA Conference took place at the Sheraton Skyline in London, England. At the awards ceremony, dozens of coaches were honored, signifying their achievements throughout 2010.

The award winners were:

Coach of the Year: Shweta Jhajharia

Rookie Coach of the Year: Kent Rhodes

Most Improved Coach: John Cottrell

Best Client Results: Neale Lewis

Best Awarded Client: Parag Prasad

Best Client Retention: Peter Boolkah

ProfitCLUB Award: Stuart Johnson

ActionCLUB Award: Rene de Murard

GrowthCLUB Award: Pascale Joly

Coaches’ Choice ActionCOACH: Hayley Erner

Coaches’ Choice AbundanceCOACH: Kevin Stansfield

Coaches’ Choice SeminarCOACH: Jas Darar

Coaches’ Choice NetworkCOACH: Stuart Johnson

Coaches’ Choice BrandCOACH: Eric Hilario

Coaches’ Choice MarketingCOACH: Gil Devlin

Coaches’ Choice SalesCOACH: Shweta Jhajharia

Coaches’ Choice TeamCOACH: Tim Rylatt

Coaches’ Choice Forum Poster of the Year: Christina Jackson

ActionMAN Awards:
Andrew Kureishy
Stephen Unwin
Mike McGuire
Tony Hoskins
Richard Cullen
Derek O’Dwyer
Simon Williams
Nigel Jew
Graham Corrigan
Roger Pemberton
Humphrey Sherwood
Andy Sleet
Ryan Veal
Gary Mullins

Congratulations to all the winners and we are looking forward to what each and every one of you accomplish in 2011.