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Browse every published article connected to Chris Ruisi, with exact attribution and full-archive search.
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Browse every published article connected to Chris Ruisi, or search within this exact expert archive.
Recently I came across the following John F. Kennedy quote – “There are risks and costs to a program of actions. But they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” There have been several articles about comfortable inaction, so I thought I would take a shot at it also.
Over the course of my corporate career, as well as my career as a leadership keynote speaker, I have had the opportunity to observe, work for and learn from some great business leaders. From my experiences with the “best leaders” I have known, I have compiled what I believe is a list of some of the most important leadership characteristics that make for an effective leader.
Hey! “Keep Your Eye on The Ball”! How any times have you heard that expression? Was it as a kid at bat for the first time? It could have been any sport really where one needs to focus “on the ball”. Or, maybe you’ve shouted it out to your child during their little league baseball or softball game. Regardless of whether you heard it or said, it is probably the universal call to pay attention, focus and avoid distractions.
You are your business and your business is you. But, the real question is - Is that a good thing? Trust me; you need to know the answer to this question – now. Let’s look at some indicators that will help you answer the question. If you answer “yes” to at least two of these questions, then you can describe your professional life (and maybe even your personal life) in the following way – “the bad news is you’re lost but the worse news is you’re making great time”. Okay, you know the drill – answer the question based on reality, not what you might “hope” it would or could be.
From my own business experiences, I have learned that one of the most important tools a leader has at their disposal is trust. Without it, you’re not leading; you’re just going for a walk in the park. Think about it, if your team doesn’t trust you, why would they follow you or even listen to you? As a professional keynote speaker, I often explain that without their trust, a team will not respond to even the simplest request from their leader, let alone the hard ones. The fate of a business can be tied to the level of trust a team has in its leader.
If you’re like me, you recognize that becoming an effective leader demands hard work and commitment. It requires more than just reading but actual “doing” and learning from your experiences. Sometimes when we are in the “doing” mode we forget some of what we have read and then realize after the dust settles that there was a different or additional technique that you should have tried. At times like this, I wish that I had a “pocket reminder” so that when it gets confusing I would have a simple guide to help me.
The recent actions of politicians can never be described as leadership Over the course of the last several weeks we have witnessed a comprehensive display of what leadership is NOT by our elected officials at all levels across all party lines. I have had the opportunity to observe, work for and learn from some great business leaders. I also worked for some (not many fortunately), who held a leadership “title” on an organization chart but had no clue about what it takes to be a real leader. They were an “empty suit”. They looked good, but there was no substance.
“Make no mistake; your team will determine your future success. A leader is only as good as the team he or she assembles; trains; cares for and leads.” - Chris Ruisi “The Coach” Apply These Five Simple Steps to Boost Your Team's Performance
Your future success is a choice; you have to choose to want to be successful Just before he died, renowned playwright George Be ard Shaw was asked to name a famous deceased man whom he missed the most. Shaw replied “the man I miss the most is the man I could have been”. This was an interesting response from Shaw in his final days.
787 Dreamliner or Nightmare – Boeing Has A Crisis Over the last several weeks, we have read about the problems with Boeing’s new state-of –the-art 787, which has resulted in the FAA “grounding” the entire fleet of this new airliner. The center of the storm is focused on the new lithium-ion batteries used in the construction of the 787.
It’s Monday morning, the beginning of a new week. Let’s start off with a story: “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning, a lion wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or the gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” – Author Unknown
Stop! Put the phone down – there is no need to call the ASPCA! I am not a supporter of any form of animal cruelty. In fact, as I wrote this message “Riley Rose” our golden retriever and “Toby”, our West Highland Terrier were under my desk having a grand old time with their favorite chewy toys . The title is meant to get you to read on to learn more about how to make tough and unpopular decisions. Why? Because to be successful, there will be times when you will be faced with difficult decisions.
10 Easy Things You Can Do That Will Create Significant Results In keeping with my own rule (see #5), let me get to the point: here are 10 simple steps that you need to take to improve your personal results as well as the results of your business (or department). Per rule #5 again - the next steps are for you to read each of the 20% rules and adopt them. 1. 20% of your clients/customers should be fired. They are a pain in the butt and are costing you time and money (and happiness). Plus, for every one you dump, there is room to find a better one. Stop being a victim.
How Many of the Top 6 Do You Encounter? There is never enough time during the course of typical day to get to everything that you want to get done. What makes it worse is the many distractions you will encounter to get tasks from your in-box to your out-box with enough time left that you can have some form of a personal life. Distractions can be killers. Here is a sample of the top 6 distractions that all of us face and what you should do about them: 1. Do you find that during any particular week you waste time and money and still miss opportunities?
“There is only one way to solve a problem – the right way” – Chris Ruisi, The Coach and Business Motivational Speaker of Choice “Get the cows out of the creek” is an expressio I first learned about when I read an article about Meg Whitman, the then CEO of E-Bay (and now the new CEO of HP). She used the expression to describe her approach to problem solving. This approach is based on a 3 step process once you have learned that you have a problem that must be dealt with – i.e. the cows are stuck in the creek and cannot get out. Step 1 – first, get the cows out of the creek
Albert Ellis, was an American psychologist, who in 1955 developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) once said, "The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny".