Four Capacities Every Great Leader Needs

The following is a great article on leadership that was sent my way. It is written by Tony Schwartz.

Develop a work environment that compels employees to give the highest value to your company. by Tony Schwartz


WHEN I WAS a very young journalist, full of bravado and barely concealed insecurity, Ed Kosner, editor of Newsweek, hired me to do a job I wasn't sure I was capable of doing. Thrown into deep water, I had no choice but to swim. But I also knew he wouldn't let me drown. His confidence buoyed me.

Some years later, I was hired away by Arthur Gelb, the managing editor of The New York Times. This time, I was seduced by Gelb's contagious exuberance about being part of a noble fraternity committed to putting out the world's greatest newspaper.

Over the last dozen years, I've worked with scores of CEOs and senior executives to help them build more engaged, high-performance cultures by energizing their employees. Along the way, I've landed on four key capacities that show up, to one degree or another, in the most inspiring leaders I've met.

1. Great leaders recognize strengths in us that we don't always yet fully see in ourselves.

This is precisely what Kosner did with me. He provided belief where I didn't yet have it, and I trusted his judgment more than my own. It's the Pygmalion effect: expectations become self-fulfilling.

Both positive and negative emotions feed on themselves. In the absence of Kosner's confidence, I simply wouldn't have assumed I was ready to write at that level.

Because he seemed so sure I could - he saw better than I did how my ambition and relentlessness would eventually help me prevail - I wasted little energy in corrosive worry and doubt.

Instead, I simply invested myself in getting better, day by day, step by step. Because we can achieve excellence in almost anything we practice with sufficient focus and intention, I did get better, which fed my own confidence and satisfaction, and my willingness to keep pushing myself.

2. Rather than simply trying to get more out of us, great leaders seek to understand and meet our needs, above all a compelling mission beyond our immediate self-interest, or theirs.

Great leaders understand that how they make people feel, day in and day out, has a profound influence on how they perform.

We each have a range of core needs - physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Great leaders focus on helping their employees meet each of these needs, recognizing that it helps them to perform better and more sustainably.

Arthur Gelb helped me meet not just my emotional need to be valued, but also my spiritual need to be engaged in a mission bigger than my own success. Far too few leaders take the time to figure out what they truly stand for, beyond the bottom line, and why we should feel excited to work for them.

3. Great leaders take the time to clearly define what success looks like, and then empower and trust us to figure out the best way to achieve it.

One of our core needs is for self-expression. One of the most demoralizing and infantilizing experiences at work is to feel micromanaged. The job of leaders is not to do the work of those they lead, but to serve as Chief Energy Officer - to free and fuel us to bring the best of ourselves to work everyday.

Part of that responsibility is defining, in the clearest possible way, what's expected of us - our concrete deliverables. This is a time-consuming and challenging process, and most leaders I've met do very little of it. When they do it effectively, the next step for leaders is to get out of the way.

That requires trusting that employees will figure out for themselves the best way to get their work done, and that even though they'll take wrong turns and make mistakes, they learn and grow stronger along the way.

4. The best of all leaders have the capacity to embrace their own opposites, most notably vulnerability alongside strength, and confidence balanced by humility.

This capacity is so powerful because all of us struggle, whether we're aware of it or not, with our self-worth. We're each vulnerable to believing, at any given moment, that we're not good enough.

Great leaders don't feel the need to be right, or to be perfect, because they've learned to value themselves in spite of shortcomings they freely acknowledge. In turn, they bring this generous spirit to those they lead.

The more leaders make us feel valued, in spite of our imperfections, the less energy we will spend asserting, defending and restoring our value, and the more energy we have available to create value.

All four capacities are grounded in one overarching insight. Great leaders recognize that the best way to get the highest value is to give the highest value.

Tony Schwartz is the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of The Way We're Working Isn't Working.

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The Value of Email Marketing In A Social Media World

Today's post is an article written by Go-to-Market Strategies. Trying to determine the right marketing mix is on most business owners minds today and the information below on email marketing and social media will help give you some guidance.

Despite the surging popularity of social media, experts agree that email marketing is here to stay. What remains mysterious for many marketers, however, is how to make room for both email and social media in their marketing strategy.

Many companies have a clear preference for social media; they believe email is too competitive and easy to overdo. Other companies are sticking with their email strategy, maintaining that social media doesn’t give them enough control over their message...and can't be easily measured.

They’re both right.

We have a few tips that are easy to implement to get you started on the important task of combining the strengths of these tactics to maximize your reach.

• Create relevant and compelling (or “shareworthy”) content. The best way to ensure your email will be read and shared within the social media channel is to include valuable content in virtually every email promotion. Giving your email recipients information they can use will build credibility and interest. Nothing improves your email campaign results more than your trustworthiness. So make sure you earn it every time with great content.

• Make it easy for your audience to share your content with their network. Your email subscriber wants their clients to read your latest enewsletter. You’ve won them over—your content is shareworthy! What now? Include SWYN (Share With Your Network) links on all the web pages your outbound emails link to (see our Share with Facebook and Tweet This links at the bottom of this article). Also, post a link to your newsletter content on your Facebook and Twitter pages. This is the best way to reach a subscriber too overwhelmed by the contents of their own inbox. Or, in case a prospect finds you on Facebook first, make sure you have an link on your Facebook page to your enewsletter sign-up form so they can subscribe from there.

• Let your customers convince your prospects to buy. Social media conversation can inform your email content in a revolutionary way. By inviting customer participation in polls, surveys, and ratings within your social media channels, you can get immediate access to customer feedback. Then leverage what you have learned from this process in your email campaigns by including customer ratings and testimonials for the products or services you are promoting. There is nothing more powerful to a prospect than your customer’s own voice! (Tip: Consider testing this technique with subscribers who have opened your emails, but not yet purchased from you.)

The above ideas will help lay the foundation for your successful integration of email and social media marketing. As you get started, remember that content is king. Content that is relevant, timely, and valuable to your audience. The first step in any marketing strategy is to build quality content. Once you have quality content, do not restrict its use between your email and social media campaigns.

Savvy marketers must leverage the strengths of each approach to compensate for their weaknesses. Email and social media complement each other quite well, and if used effectively, will transform your marketing strategy.

Let us know what you are doing with email marketing and social media.

Small Biz Bill Becomes Law

While we wait to see if the Bush-era tax cuts are allowed to expire here are a few points on the Small Business Job Act of 2010 which was signed into law on September 27, 2010. The legislation contains several provisions designed to ensure that small businesses have access to adequate credit. The Act also contains targeted short-term tax relief for small businesses.

A $30 billion credit facility for community banks, backed b y the Treasury, is designed to goose lending conditions, while teh muscle of the Small Business Administration is being augmented throught eh expansion of the SBA's loan limits. Investors were also targeted through the legislation, as a provision was put in place for the balance of 2010 that will eliminate all capital gains on "key small businesses" as long as the investments are held for five years or longer.

Regarding the SBA program, the caps on both 7(a) and 504 loans were permanently escalated to %5 million from $3 million, while manufacturing related loans were bumped uo to $5.5 million from $4 million. Moreover, SBA Express loans were temporarily boosted to $1 million from $350,000.

Other components of the bill included an initiative designed to augment state programs providing credit to small businesses, on top of multiple tax cuts, 16 in all, meant to spur investment.

Specific tax changes include:

Increased IRC Section 179 expense limits - effective for 2010 and 2011, the maximum amount that a business is able to expense under IRC Section 179 is increased to $500,000 (without the legislation, the expense limit would have been $250,000 for 2010 and $25,000 for 2011). The $500,000 limit is reduced if capital expenditures exceed $2 million. The Act also temporarily expands the application of Section 179 to up to $250,000 of certain real property (for example, qualified restaurant property).

First-year "bonus" depreciation extended - The Act extends the additional 50% first-year depreciation deduction that was in effect for 2008 and 2009 for one year, to qualified property acquired and placed in service during 2010.

Small business stock exclusion increased - The Act temporarily increases the exclusion percentage for qualified small business stock purchased by individuals to 100%, and does not treat the excluded gain as an alternative minimum tax preference item. Therefore, subject to certain limits, you'll pay no regular tax or alternative minimum tax on the sale of qualified small business stock acquired at original issue after September 27, 2010, and before January 1, 2011, provided you hold the stock for at least five years.

Small businesses get enhanced general business credit - Eligible small businesses (generally, non-publicly traded corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships with gross receipts averaging $50 million or less) will be able to carry back excess general business credits up to five years (instead of one) in 2010, and will be able to use the general business credit to offset both regular and alternative minimum tax liability.

Health insurance costs will reduce self-employment tax - If you're self-employed and pay health insurance premiums for you or your family, you get a break on your 2010 self-employment tax (the tax that you calculate on Form 1040, Schedule SE). That's because, for 2010 only, the deduction you get for the cost of health insurance for yourself and your family will apply in calculating your earnings for purposes of self-employment tax as well as in reducing your income for tax purposes.

Cell phones no longer listed property - Effective 2010, cell phones are not considered listed property, significantly reducing the substantiation rules and depreciation limits that apply when cell phones are used for business purposes.

New reporting requirements for rental property expenses - With some exceptions, starting in 2011, if you receive rental income from real property, you'll be required to file an information return (Form 1099) when you make payments totaling $600 or more to a service provider (such as a plumber, painter, or accountant) for rental property expenses.

Portion of nonqualified annuity can be annuitized - Beginning in 2011, if you have a nonqualified annuity (an annuity that is held outside of a qualified retirement plan or IRA), you can annuitize only a portion of the annuity, provided the annuitization period is for 10 years or more, or is for the lives of one or more individuals. The portion of the annuity or contract that is annuitized will be treated as a separate contract, and the investment in the annuity will be allocated n a pro-rate basis.

For more details check with your CPA or tax planner.