1) Treat everyone the same-   It is human nature to be drawn to certain personalities more than others, but as a leader, you need to treat all in your team equally.  Try to avoid going to the same person for advice or to share a laugh.  Make yourself available to all of your team.  You do not want to be accused of playing favorites.  You handpicked each member of your team to work with you to make a better business.  Working all together as a team will build loyalty and will help you gain the trust of your team.

2) Give Back to the Community- Remember that your business is bigger than the four walls of your building.  Each of us has a responsibility to our community as a whole and you should foster that within your business.  Pick an organization to support..not only through monetary means but find something you can go and do as a team.  Walk in the Avon breast cancer walk to support a team member or organize a bake sale this May to raise money for pediatric cancer through www.cookiesforkidscancer.org .  The ideas are limitless but pick something that is important to you and your team.  A team member who values social causes will be motivated to lead this initiative too and you will be using team member’s strengths!

3)  Be There!  Above all BE THERE.  To make all of these tips successful, you need to be present to your team.  When a team member talks to you stop emailing, texting, or whatever and look at them.  Be in the moment.  Be there to make a difference in the lives of your team and you will be building leaders for the future!

Next:  Tips on strategic planning.  Please give us a call at Winning Ways if we can help you and your organization.

Last week you read about doing an leadership audit, keeping current with your reading, and challenging your team.  Remember to give us a call if we can help in anyway.

1) Don’t Give Up on Change! Like so many diet resolutions I make year after year, too quickly our New Year’s resolutions are gone by the time the Super Bowl Party rolls around. Make it a point to revisit your resolutions at least once a month and see how you’re doing. Add it into your Outlook calendar if that helps remind you. Just because you haven’t done as well one month doesn’t mean the whole year is wasted. Start again or pick up where you left off.

2) Stop it! Find at least two things that you’re doing today that waste your time, energy, effort or money and actually stop doing them. None of us operate at 100-percent efficiency, but the more “less-than-critical” activities we can shave from our day, the better. Keep a diary of your daily activities for one week. What’s extraneous to your success? What’s nice to do, but isn’t getting you anywhere? What can you cut without it coming back to bite you? Then cut it!

3) Make em Laugh!  We have all heard that laughter is the best medicine.  Humor can go a long way in easing tensions and breaking the ice.  If you and your team are more relaxed, the work will flow easier and you will have happier people in your office.  Make sure the office does not turn into a comedy club with keeping the air lighter will benefit you big in the end!

4) Have a “What if” Session- Invite your team or break your team up into groups and have a lunch together to consider the possibilities of the future.  Be open to all of the ideas that are brought forward.  Your next big idea may be developed over a turkey club!  Letting your team in on helping direct the business into the future will create unity and they will feel ownership in the business as well.

Stay tuned next week for the final set of resolutions

With the New Year upon us, it is time to look back and see what went well in 2010 and make it better. It is also time to look and see what did not work so well and change it. You as a leader, have both an awesome responsibility, but also a terrific opportunity, to lead your team to excellence in 2011.

1) Do a Leadership Audit. Ask your employees and colleagues and even competitors: What makes a great leader? Look at top-performing companies. Why is Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Time Magazine Person of the Year? Why is Facebook worth more than most other US companies? Now look at yourself. What things can you change to make yourself a stronger leader?

2) Read something. Get out of your own safety zone and read something that will challenge your thinking. Great leaders are always seeking out new ideas. Try (former Indianapolis Colts Coach) Tony Dungy’s The Mentor Leader, where he details his seven-step plan to help his players be better. Or you might consider Stephen Denning’s The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace for the 21st Century. Denning principles simultaneously inspire high productivity, continuous innovation, deep job satisfaction and client delight. Denning puts forward a fundamentally different approach to management, with seven interlocking principles of continuous innovation: focusing the entire organization on delighting clients; working in self-organizing teams; operating in client-driven iterations; delivering value to clients with each iteration; fostering radical transparency; nurturing continuous self-improvement and communicating interactively.

3) Challenge Your Team. Offer — and pay for — a class on leadership for all of your managers, or even all of your employees. Too often, we choose the best do-er to become our next manager. But management and leadership are vastly different skills from those of a salesperson or a technical staff member. Sometimes we do a good job of preparing our managers and staff to be leaders, but most times we don’t. Take the initiative this year to give your employees the tools to be successful too. Click on Workshops (above menu) for more ideas on classes offered locally).

Stay tuned for more resolutions next week!