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Three Ways Successful Leaders Stay Grounded

Written by Andrew Spence - andrewspenceonline.com

Being in charge of people, an organization, and the most important outcomes of that organization can be the most rewarding but also the most challenging of all roles.

Truth be told, there is no shortage of stress for leaders whether they are in charge of a team of two or a company of twenty. While heading a team at the workplace, they also have roles to play in their families at home and within their own social networks.

Yet the most successful leaders are those who have the ability to balance it all—to maintain a sense of passion and vision at work and to remain authentic in their personal lives.

This is what successful leaders do to stay grounded in the face of the many challenges of leadership:

They balance out their sources of motivation

There are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Due to the nature of leadership, many leaders derive their motivation largely from extrinsic sources—from being praised by others, accumulating material possession, accomplishing more and more, or taking on more projects.

These external factors are great and they offer personal validation. However, they are also very fleeting. If you are no longer able to receive a large paycheck or people are no longer validating you as you wish they would, would you break? Would you lose your passion and your leadership vision in times of cutbacks or organizational adversity?

Grounded leaders are not only motivated by external elements; more importantly, they are driven by intrinsic values such as personal happiness, morality, and care for others.

Just because you care about your sense of inner happiness does not mean you are softie—it actually means that you are adequately self-aware to be able to conscientiously deal with challenges.

They have a strong support network

No man is an island; this euphemism has never been truer for leaders. More than anyone, a leader requires a trustworthy team of people that he can go back to for support during good and bad times.

A leader’s support network typically entails many people including a significant other, family members, peers, business advisors, mentors and coaches.

Without a network, it can become very difficult to effectively manage emotions, deal with difficult decisions, and lead with perspective.

Just knowing you are not alone is enough to give you the courage to go on with your work, knowing someone has your back.

They nurture their emotional wellbeing

To quote Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, emotional intelligence (EI) is the ‘sine qua non of leadership.’ While technical skills and intelligence are important to perform the job, Goleman found that:

Goleman’s five components of emotional intelligence include:

1. Self-awareness- the ability to know your weaknesses, strengths, emotions, drives, and needs
2. Self-regulation- The ability to control emotions and impulses and to channel them in a useful a way
3. Motivation- The drive to achieve beyond expectations, regardless of the circumstances
4. Empathy- The ability to consider other people’s feelings while making smart decisions
5. Social skill- The ability to find common ground with others and then inspire them to move in the same direction

All five of these skills are extremely valuable especially when a leader is faced with a personal affliction and still expected to play the leadership role, and during work-related crises where your team still looks up to you to give guidance.

How to Stay Grounded

It is a time of great change — there are so many opportunities for entrepreneurial ventures, so many young people are getting into the workforce, and technology has broken seemingly insurmountable barriers. But it is also a time when the economic outlook is unstable and workplace dynamics are changing fast. There is a great need for leaders to practice habits that enable them to stay grounded in the face of all these good and challenging times. These grounded leaders are the ones who will be able to transition their teams to better times ahead.

http://www.andrewspenceonline.com/3-ways-successful-leaders-stay-grounded/

Meet The Mums Who Are Setting Up Their Own Businesses

"The term 'mumpreneur' dates back about 15 years to a feature in Practical Parenting magazine, I think," explains mother, entrepreneur and writer Antonia Chitty, author of many books, including 129 Brilliant Business Ideas for Mums and The Mumpreneur Guide. "When I started writing, 'work-at-home mum' was another often-used term, but that didn't tell the full story."

Chitty says the number of mothers with babies and young children who run businesses has grown enormously in recent years. "It's become mainstream and more recently there's been a bit of a backlash against the mumpreneur label, because women want to be seen as businesspeople in their own right."

Such women come from all walks of life, but, according to Chitty, they all share a determination to make a better life for themselves and their families. "Many women are spurred on to start their own business because their employment circumstances aren't sufficiently family-friendly. Self-employment gives mums the control they need over their working hours, while enabling them to generate income. And many of them come up with business ideas after finding solutions to challenges they face as a parent."

Mother of invention

One such example is Surrey-based Cara Sayer, 41-year-old managing director of Really Simple Ideas Ltd, whose most successful trademark is SnoozeShade, an award-winning range of sun and sleep shades for prams. She started her business in 2008, following a 20-year career in marketing and events and the birth of her daughter, Holly.  "I got fed up with blankets falling off Holly's pram when we were out and she needed to sleep, so I decided to make my own shade. Other people thought it was great and wanted one, so I had a prototype made and took it to a trade show.

"The response was overwhelmingly positive – I even secured an order from JoJo Maman Bébé, a leading baby and toddler retailer started by the mother and entrepreneur Laura Tenison. I had to quickly go into full-scale production to achieve their four-month delivery deadline."

Sayer also impressed buyers from John Lewis, Mothercare and others: "It just sort of snowballed," she smiles. Guided by customers' feedback, she developed 10 products in three years. The business now turns over more than £250,000, selling more than 40,000 units to customers in 20 countries.

"Anyone who says juggling being a mother and primary childcarer with running a business is easy is either fibbing or has a full-time nanny. It's a struggle to balance time spent on the business and time with Holly. However, as a businesswoman, I hope I'm setting a positive example for her. She's very proud of her mummy and loves the fact she's pictured on the packaging."

Maternal instinct

Another successful entrepreneur and mum (to Barnaby, 10, Maisy, 8 and Monty, 3) is 39-year-old Wendy Shand, who runs Lincolnshire-based Tots to Travel, a family-friendly holiday villa company.

"I set the business up in 2006, following a near disastrous holiday in 2005 to France with my husband, son and baby daughter. Barnaby was two-and-a-half and fell into an unenclosed swimming pool, but thankfully he came to no harm," Shand recounts. "The property wasn't equipped for small children, while having to take so much stuff from home with you is a logistical nightmare for parents.

"I recognised the business opportunity – and was certainly looking for one. I'd worked in PR and marketing and had got married to my husband, who was in the RAF, so I had to move away from London. I needed something that offered greater flexibility, so I became a reception teacher for a while, but working in the public sector was very frustrating.

Greater flexibility

"I always wanted to run my own business and was just waiting for the right opportunity. I knew it had to be something that was scalable. If you are to successfully combine your career with children you need flexibility, but often you don't get it while working for someone else."

Initially, Shand's startup offered family-friendly breaks to nine carefully selected gîtes in France, but now customers can choose from almost 400 child-friendly properties in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Canaries and the Balearics. The business has turned over £4m in seven years and now employs six office-based staff in the UK, with six representatives overseas who carry out property inspections.

Enormous opportunities

"I've grown my business slowly – deliberately so – because development has been planned 

around having and bringing up my children. The older they became, the more time I could dedicate to my business. Balancing both roles is difficult at times, but you have to keep plugging away.

"You must have a good business idea, but you don't have to come up with something entirely new, just something that's better. I didn't invent the holiday lettings business, I just created a business tailored to a market that wasn't being catered for. There are enormous opportunities out there for mothers who want to start their own business."

 http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/may/31/meet-mums-mothers-small-business-mumpreneur

What Traits Do You Need to Start Your Own Small Business ?

Jeff Burnham is a freelancer and business owner who writes about careers, personal finance,
and tips for making money on the side.

For the longest time, I thought that the best path to career and financial success was to get in with a company and slowly but surely climb the corporate ladder. I did that in several industries, and although I did achieve some successes, I never was in a position that I truly enjoyed. Then it occurred to me that I’ll never get rich by working for someone else. Although I don’t consider myself to be wealthy financially, I have launched several small businesses and earn a comfortable living with a lot of flexibility.

When it comes to starting your own venture, there are certain character traits that are essential. Here are five traits you need to successfully start your own small business:

1. Work Ethic

You’re going to need a solid work ethic for two reasons: First, if you’re smart, you’ll begin your small business while still working at your current career. That takes a ton of pressure off you in the beginning regarding revenue generation. Many businesses take some time to turn a profit, so it helps to keep cash flow coming in from another source until that happens. And second, starting a small business requires a ton of hard work – regardless of any overnight Internet sensation success stories you may have read about.

2. Time Management

Again, if you start your biz while at your current job, you’ll need to maximize each and every minute of your working day. Create a to-do list, cut off all Internet distractions such as social media or fantasy sports leagues, and take care of personal errands like grocery shopping or dry cleaning on your daily trek to and from work. Proper time management is crucial, as every minute you can free up is one more minute you can devote to your small business.

3. Passion

If you don’t truly believe in what you’re doing, your chances of success are minimized. My passion is helping others with personal finance issues (among other things), but if you’re not supporting a cause you truly feel enthusiastic about, you’ll have a hard time staying motivated. Often, the joy it brings you is the only thing you’ll have to fall back on when times get hard.

4. Ingenuity and Flexibility

Being creative and ingenious are also parts of small business success. You might think about starting a landscaping business, but later find that organic gardening is more popular than landscaping with ornamentals. If you thought your ticket to success was social media marketing, but that hasn’t worked out, you might have to branch out into other advertising options. Being willing and able to change is a key asset in small business success.

5. Perseverance

Unless you’re extremely lucky and find success rather early on, you’ll need to be patient. I wrote a book about personal finance and paid for it to be published myself, yet never generated much revenue. However, about six months following publication, I was recognized and eventually hired by a more popular personal finance website – and that’s where I draw the majority of my income today. Realize that patience is a virtue when it comes to launching your small business idea.

If you’ve thought about launching your own small business, but have neither the funds nor the time to devote to it, consider using Fiverr^® to get yourself out of the starting blocks. It’s a stellar strategy if you want to get into small business ownership while still working at a traditional career, and you never know what might come of it. Although there are certainly other methods to small business success, don’t discount Fiverr as a way to break into the world of entrepreneurship.

http://blog.fiverr.com/traits-need-start-small-business/