As a motorcycle rider and all-around adrenalin junkie, it occurred to me that leaders could apply a lot of the same rules to their business as one does when navigating the world on 2 wheels.

Here are 3 tips on how to keep your business “shiny side up”:

1. Look Through the Curve: As a rider, you’re taught to stretch your eyes around the curve. Why? Because shortsighted riders typically misjudge turn radii thereby taking less efficient or sometimes disastrous paths through. All too often, business leaders are focused on the day-to-day not looking ahead to the future. It’s important to know where you stand today but you won’t move a business in any meaningful way without a firm vision and clear goals.
   
2. Keep Your Eyes Up: When riding a motorcycle, wherever you look is where your bike (and body!) will end up. This advice is fairly easy to follow except when you find yourself off-balance and beginning to falter. Naturally, the first place you want to look is down. But if you keep your eyes there, guess what? You’ve sealed your fate. The same goes for leaders. It’s especially true in a time of recession where the tendency may be to lead from a place of fear and scarcity. The leaders who are finding success in these tough times are the ones remaining optimistic, building confident cultures, and adjusting with the times.
3. Speed is Your Friend: Anything on two wheels or one, long plain requires speed for stability. Ever try to stay aboard your bicycle at a stoplight? It’s not easy. As with many things, momentum is a driving force in achieving long-term, sustained success. Leaders who are timid and gun shy to pull the trigger on decisions are typically not long for this world (the corporate world, that is). Don’t be caught up in “analysis paralysis”, find a way to make informed decisions while keeping your team moving. As Google says, “Fail fast, fail smart.”

These are just a few applicable lessons learned from being a responsible rider. What tips would you share?

The other day, I ran across this blog post by Mitch Ditkoff about thought leaders being replaced by “feeling leaders”. He had attended the World Innovation Forum and witnessed several top-notch presenters. What he observed was that the truly compelling presentations were made by those speaking from their hearts, not their heads.

This makes perfect sense for several reasons but here are 3 that illustrate the point rather well:

1. Psychology professor, Daniel Kahneman, was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize for Economics after his studies proved that we behave emotionally first, rationally second.
2. According to research, IQ accounts for only 4-10% of career success! Perhaps up to 25-30% within certain industries but, even so, it remains a fairly low overall percentage.
3. 75% of executives derail due to lack of emotional competencies.

Given this rich data, it’s no surprise that we prefer to be in the company of those who move us emotionally. If you are a leader who continues to leave your emotions at the door, it is only a matter of time before your career stalls out or the brilliant minds around you choose to follow another leader home.

I was reminded of this quote by Maya Angelou during a recent Presentations Training class I attended. Candace BelAir, our instructor and a former CNN broadcast journalist, reads it before every speech she delivers:

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Yep. It matters. Time to plug in and lead with your heart.

In an industry where winning is quite literally everything, the Washington Nationals are doing something a little different. Having signed Stephen Strasburg, the #1 MLB draft pick in 2009, the last-place Nationals have landed themselves a phenomenal pitcher. One that is breaking rookie records while striking out the toughest hitters in baseball.

All of this adds up to dollars and wins for the Nationals. Every time they put Strasburg in they stand to gain another “W” in the win column along with significantly increased revenues – improved ticket sales, concessions, advertising revenue, and merchandise sales. Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. Not to mention the nice overall marketing “bump” in what has become a fascinating story to watch in major league baseball. (more…)

We react to the economic crisis with layoffs, travel restrictions, forced leave, reductions, cutbacks, pointing fingers…(you fill in the blank). Bad strategies? Maybe not. Some of these responses may be warranted in the short run, but if you are concerned with measuring success by long term results, then these solutions alone aren’t enough.

It seems we love to place blame by pointing at events, corporations, and people…sub-prime lending, Enron (remember?), the auto industry, Bernie Madoff, banking executives and their huge bonuses. And we’ll probably sign into more legislations like Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), although signing that in 2002 didn’t keep what happened in 2008-2009 from happening. Why do shareholders (by the way that’s us) demand short-term results and LOVE layoffs and cutbacks? It’s because someone is doing something… Hooray!!!! (more…)

Susan Scott and the Fierce team would like to thank you for your tremendous support.

We are THRILLED to announce that in its debut week, Fierce Leadership: A Bold Alternative to the Worst ‘Best’ Practices of Business Today has been ranked:

• #4 on the Wall Street Journal’s Hardcover Business Bestseller List.
• #11 on Wall Street Journal’s Hardcover Nonfiction Bestseller List.

(more…)