The Habits of Highly Successful Business Leaders

If you need information about leadership and you pick up any book on leadership, and you're sure to read about empowerment and teamwork and inspiring creativity. But Highly successful leaders don't always stick with the advice repeated over in these leadership books. In fact, they often have their own weird habits that help them get things done. Here are some of the most interesting.  
1. Mark Zuckerberg: yearly resolutions 

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sets tests of discipline for himself each year. In 2009 his challenge was to wear a tie to work each day, and in 2011 it was to personally kill any animal he ate. This year's challenge is to read a new book every two weeks. 



2. Steve Jobs: foodie 

Steve Jobs was famous for eating only one type of food for weeks at a time. He once became so convinced of the virtues of eating carrots that his skin was reported to have turned orange from eating so many of them in a short period of time.  



3. Marissa Mayer: micromanager 

Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, is reported to personally approve every new hire in her company of more than 12,500 employees.  




4. Mark Parker: brain balancer

 Nike CEO Mark Parker has a notebook that he uses to keep the two sides of his brain balanced. While one page in the notebook is devoted to business brainstorming, the opposite page is used for sketches.  




5. Donald Trump: germophobe 
 
According to reports, real estate developer Donald Trump has a phobia for germs. He avoids shaking hands with the people he meets, he will not touch an elevator button, and he once passed out bottles of hand sanitizer to reporters at a press conference.






6. Bill Gates: rocker 

Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was known for rocking in his chair during business meetings. The more excited he was (in a good or bad way), the more he rocked.  




7. Jeff Bezos: memo writer 

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos requires senior executives to draft six-page memos in advance of meetings. These memos are then read in silence during the first 30 minutes of every senior executive meeting.  






8. Henry Ford: weed eater 

Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford reportedly savored sandwiches made from "roadside greens"-weeds grown in his yard.  








9. Martha Stewart: demanding boss

 Martha Stewart is reported to allow only red or black ink to be used in her offices, and that employee desks be completely clear at the end of each business day

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Business Creativity

In any business, it is important that there is a leader that knows how to turn on their business creativity to incorporate in their plans and ventures. This is because there are going to be many issues that one must face in every business and if the leader is not creative, they are not able to get out of a sticky situation. This article provides a few tips on how a business owner or manager can create a dynamic balance to facilitate their creativity. First off, you must set an intention and purpose of your company from the business and human perspective. The creative process in human beings is organic and they contain passion and inspiration which in turn brings out the creativity within us. If you wish to let this creativity grow within you, then you must be able to create catalysts that will trigger this into reaction. Participating in the business plan, design and facilitating it, you are able to tap into more creativity faucets as you try to support the business in many angles. If you focus only in one aspect or task, you are limiting the potential of your creativity. Once you truly focus on what you can give instead of what you can acquire, those people that are participating in your project are able to pick that up much easily and are more receptive towards you. Second off in the list is focusing on the aspect of awareness which allows you to become flexible. It is important to know what is going to happen in the business as it can be one of the most powerful parts, integrating the knowledge learned and it serves as a bridge for the things to come. Focus on what is going on in the inner and outer part of your business in the debriefing process. Being self-aware increases your chances of developing your business creativity like a workshop. Third of is the understanding of how resistance navigates our production output. If you do not know yet, resistance is a healthy part of the creative process in human beings. It only becomes unhealthy if it is emphasized often or a lot of energy is spent to engage it that it already blocks the process. Fear is often the reason why resistance is being brought up by individuals. It can come out in forms such as sarcasm and distraction. These are some negative traits that should be pushed down and avoided if you want to let that creativity in you flow and expand throughout your career. As a final note, be prepared to be self-organized when going into a project with your people. This is an inherent trait in being creative and it always exists in any group. The only question is how well you are organized enough to put in the initiative to set things into place. There should be a dynamic balance and business creativity between you and your people in order to create a structure and flow wherein everyone can work on to become the best that they are.
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The meaning of the "Right" Decision?

When we're faced with those ambiguous choices where the "right" path is unclear or will produce some painful consequences, where do we turn? First and foremost, we must turn to our own code of conduct, the values and ethics we regard as important to us personally.

These values are always based upon what we've observed and learned, either at home or school or work. After all, we aren't born knowing how to behave ethically-nobody in the delivery room gives us a code of ethical behavior! We all have to learn how to act ethically. Through the years, we assemble a hodgepodge of values and ethics based upon the sum total of all that has gone before us in our lives-all the people, experiences, relationships, etc., that have contributed to the development of our value system. Whether the influences were religious, ethnic, political, or cultural, they play a key role in the development of who we are as individuals. The journey of life has instilled in us a variety of perceptions, attitudes, values and insights. If that journey has been one of positive influence, we must stay true to it. If our journey has had some negative influences, however, we may need to check our values to make sure they are leading us along the high road. Unfortunately, not every influence in our lives points us in the right direction. Once I caught a student cheating on the final exam for the ethics course I was teaching. (Cheating on an ethics exam!-what does that tell you?) The student and his father came into my office, and when I showed them the student's cheat sheet, the father was visibly upset. For at least five minutes he berated his son, "How dare you cheat? How dare you cheapen your dignity?" Finally, feeling pushed against the wall emotionally, his son screamed, "What's the difference between me cheating on this test and you cheating on your income tax for the last five years?" I believe values are caught, not taught-that is, how people behave and the decisions they make speak much louder than anything they may say. So we may have been taught the Golden Rule, but if our parents and teachers lived more by the rule, "Every man for himself," which rule do you think would have more impact on our lives? Luckily, we are not forced to live by the values we've been taught, if those values lead us away from the high road to success. We are free to choose our own values. We are in control of our own values and rules, and we must build our own ethical code of conduct, our road map for the high road to success. How do we do that? We must begin by consciously selecting and embracing the ethics and values we regard as essential for the kind of life we want to lead. I believe these ethics and values should be based not just upon what we've learned from parents, teachers, friends and society, but also upon the great ethical truths of the past-truths which are taught by religious/philosophical texts, the Magna Carta, the Constitution, etc. When we begin with the great truths as our basis, we can then examine our own experiences in the light of these truths and then create our own personal ethics system, a code we will be proud of and help us always try to make the "right" decision.
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How To Change Performance Culture ?

What can we learn about culture in the workplace from the study of our expectations? In 1968 the work of two psychologists Rosenthal and Jacobsen studied the effects of tutor expectations on the performance of their students.

They took intelligence pre-tests with the children and then told teachers the names of twenty percent of them who were showing "unusual potential for intellectual growth" and predicted they would bloom with the academic year. They then sat back and watched what was to unfold. Unknown to the teachers these children were randomly selected with no relation to the intelligence test. Eight months later they re-tested the children and the results showed that the randomly selected children who the teachers thought would bloom scored significantly higher. They called this the "Pygmalion Effect". The results from this study (and since there have been hundreds of studies done in this same area) showed that positive expectations of others influence performance positively and negative expectations do the opposite. "When we expect certain behaviors of others, we are likely to act in ways that make the expected behavior more likely to occur." (Rosenthal and Babad, 1985) You may have noticed this effect taking place on yourself when you think back to being in school or more relevantly in your professional life if you have ever worked for a boss who has believed in you and your ability and as a result you stepped up to meet their expectations. The message is simple. Be careful what you expect from others and be careful what others expect from you. Have a look around and notice if it is having a positive or negative effect. Building a high performance culture is almost impossible if the expectations are not positive. This is such an easy mistake to make. A common behaviour trait of being human is that we adapt to the environment we find ourselves in and subconsciously we will fit into that environment in the best way we can. It is hard to stand out when we have a strong drive to feel accepted by those around us. Pay attention to the environments you spend your time in. Have a look around and notice what the expectations are. Notice the subtle impact of this on the performance of both yourself and others. It is much easier to fit in than it is to initiate change but the world and especially business needs people who are willing to be the catalyst for change. Change is all around us at a pace faster than ever before and it is much easier to be at the forefront of this change than finding yourself on the receiving end.
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How to Choose the Right Weighing Scale for Your Business ?

Industrial scales by far, have found their rightful place in the field of business. These weighing tools are considered the most suitable solution when it comes to calculating the weight of the loads, fulfilling all your industrial requirements, providing you with accurate and well balanced weighing solutions, and more. However, the commercialization of these scales has put a great impact on the overall functioning of businesses. In general, there are ample of options available when it comes to choosing the right weighing scale for your business. Some most used ones are mentioned below. Counting • Bench Platform Floor Shipping Pallet Crane • Digital, and more. All the above written weighing scales can be used for various purposes in industries like agriculture, transportation, pharmaceutical, medical, petrochemical, food, etc. Moreover, these scales are categorized on the basis of size, design, capacity, style, and price, so it's better to make an appropriate choice in order to achieve high-efficiency and avoid unnecessary hassles, which may include wastage of both time and money. Written below are a few points that you may think of considering in order to buy the one that fulfills all your industrial needs and requirements at first place. a) Identify your business needs - it is important that you determine all your business related needs first, which includes considering factors like loading and cost. Once you're done with the identification part, then you can easily move on to the next step, i.e. evaluating different options. b) Evaluate different options - you must look out for different options that are available in the market these days and choose the one that satisfy all your identified requirements. Also, you can request for quotations, explore endless opportunities, and can even compare prices of your different selected options. c) Request for a demo - no doubt choosing an appropriate industrial scale is a daunting task to carry out; therefore it is important that you ask for a demonstration whenever you go out to buy an industrial scale. Moreover, many dealers provide a free demo to their customers, so it's better to approach those companies first and then think of buying the one as per your needs. d) Proper consultation - No matter what your requirements are, it's better to consult someone who has immense knowledge in this field, or you can even do a bit of research before starting up with the next BIG task, i.e. buying the right scale for your business.
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