You Can Be A Great Leader

To become a great boss or business owner you need to take the time to breathe and reflect on what you want from your business. The importance of reaching outside the box to gain business is essential and easier than ever with the Internet, but effective principles must be in place. There is probably more advice available on how to be an effective business owner than on almost any other subject. Such as:

• "The Effective Executive," by Peter Drucker,
• "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," by Stephen Covey.

These are timeless classics. Respectfully, the authors do not attempt to create any modern theory or expound on any particular business or market trend. There are just simply based on observation of effective people. None the less they are still important guidelines

Basically these books, especially Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” are summed up as follows:

Habit 1: Be proactive.
Change starts from within. Most people react to external forces. To lead effectively, you have to overcome that natural tendency.

Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind.
You cannot lead unless you know where you want to get to.

Habit 3: Put first things first.
This is similar to what Drucker recommends. You need to have a very clear view of what is important, so that you know what to spend time on. Note that this often means leaving your comfort zone by acting on tasks that you don't naturally like or feel competent in performing.

Habit 4: Think win/win.
Seek agreement and relationships that are mutually beneficial. In cases in which a win/win deal cannot be achieved, accept that agreeing on "no deal" may be the best alternative. In developing an organizational culture, be sure to reward win/win behavior among employees, and avoid inadvertently rewarding win/lose behavior.

Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
First seek to understand the other person, and only then try to be understood. Stephen Covey presents this habit as the most important principle of inter-personal relations. Effective listening is not simply echoing what the other person has said through the lens of your own experience. Rather, it is putting you in the mindset of the other person, listening empathetically for both feeling and meaning.

Habit 6: Synergize.
Through trustful communication, find ways to leverage individual differences to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Through mutual trust and understanding, people can often solve conflicts and find better solutions than would have been obtained through either person's own solution.

Habit 7: Sharpen the saw.
Take time out from production to build production capacity through personal renewal of the physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Maintain a balance among these dimensions.

Obviously, there is more to becoming a great boss or business owner, but by taking the time to breathe and reflect on what you want form your business the leadership will come.

Today’s market place is ever changing and becoming tougher for “rock and mortar” businesses. To keep your business and even gain business in this economy one needs to focus efforts online. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a term coined around 1997, according to Industry analyst Danny Sullivan. It was used when Site owners started to recognize the value of having their sites highly ranked and visible in search engine results, creating an opportunity for SEO practitioners. Now it has become a must in any online marketing campaign.

So, think clearly, make the best of every tool you have and your business will do fine.