11 Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader

Being likeable will help you in your job, business, relationships, and life. I interviewed dozens of successful business leaders for my last book, to determine what made them so likeable and their companies so successful. All of the concepts are simple, and yet, perhaps in the name of revenues or the bottom line, we often lose sight of the simple things - things that not only make us human, but can actually help us become more successful. Below are the eleven most important principles to integrate to become a better leader:

1. Listening
"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway
Listening is the foundation of any good relationship. Great leaders listen to what their customers and prospects want and need, and they listen to the challenges those customers face. They listen to colleagues and are open to new ideas. They listen to shareholders, investors, and competitors. Here's why the best CEO's listen more.
2. Storytelling
"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McAfee Brown
After listening, leaders need to tell great stories in order to sell their products, but more important, in order to sell their ideas. Storytelling is what captivates people and drives them to take action. Whether you're telling a story to one prospect over lunch, a boardroom full of people, or thousands of people through an online video - storytelling wins customers.
3. Authenticity
"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey
Great leaders are who they say they are, and they have integrity beyond compare. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of the authentic leader and create a positive, attractive energy. Customers, employees, and media all want to help an authentic person to succeed. There used to be a divide between one’s public self and private self, but the social internet has blurred that line. Tomorrow's leaders are transparent about who they are online, merging their personal and professional lives together.
4. Transparency
"As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier
There is nowhere to hide anymore, and businesspeople who attempt to keep secrets will eventually be exposed. Openness and honesty lead to happier staff and customers and colleagues. More important, transparency makes it a lot easier to sleep at night - unworried about what you said to whom, a happier leader is a more productive one.
5. Team Playing
"Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." -SEAL Team Saying
No matter how small your organization, you interact with others every day. Letting others shine, encouraging innovative ideas, practicing humility, and following other rules for working in teams will help you become a more likeable leader. You’ll need a culture of success within your organization, one that includes out-of-the-box thinking.
6. Responsiveness
"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." -Charles Swindoll
The best leaders are responsive to their customers, staff, investors, and prospects. Every stakeholder today is a potential viral sparkplug, for better or for worse, and the winning leader is one who recognizes this and insists upon a culture of responsiveness. Whether the communication is email, voice mail, a note or a a tweet, responding shows you care and gives your customers and colleagues a say, allowing them to make a positive impact on the organization.
7. Adaptability
"When you're finished changing, you're finished." -Ben Franklin
There has never been a faster-changing marketplace than the one we live in today. Leaders must be flexible in managing changing opportunities and challenges and nimble enough to pivot at the right moment. Stubbornness is no longer desirable to most organizations. Instead, humility and the willingness to adapt mark a great leader.
8. Passion
"The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." -Steve Jobs
Those who love what they do don’t have to work a day in their lives. People who are able to bring passion to their business have a remarkable advantage, as that passion is contagious to customers and colleagues alike. Finding and increasing your passion will absolutely affect your bottom line.
9. Surprise and Delight
"A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless." -Charles de Gaulle
Most people like surprises in their day-to-day lives. Likeable leaders underpromise and overdeliver, assuring that customers and staff are surprised in a positive way. There are a plethora of ways to surprise without spending extra money - a smile, We all like to be delighted — surprise and delight create incredible word-of-mouth marketing opportunities.
10. Simplicity
"Less isn't more; just enough is more." -Milton Glaser
The world is more complex than ever before, and yet what customers often respond to best is simplicity — in design, form, and function. Taking complex projects, challenges, and ideas and distilling them to their simplest components allows customers, staff, and other stakeholders to better understand and buy into your vision. We humans all crave simplicity, and so today's leader must be focused and deliver simplicity.
11. Gratefulness
"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -Gilbert Chesterton
Likeable leaders are ever grateful for the people who contribute to their opportunities and success. Being appreciative and saying thank you to mentors, customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders keeps leaders humble, appreciated, and well received. It also makes you feel great! Donor's Choose studied the value of a hand-written thank-you note, and actually found donors were 38% more likely to give a 2nd time if they got a hand-written note!

The Golden Rule: Above all else, treat others as you’d like to be treated
By showing others the same courtesy you expect from them, you will gain more respect from coworkers, customers, and business partners. Holding others in high regard demonstrates your company’s likeability and motivates others to work with you. This seems so simple, as do so many of these principles — and yet many people, too concerned with making money or getting by, fail to truly adopt these key concepts.
Which of these principles are most important to you — what makes you likeable?

7 Life Lessons Learned Making Gravy With My Grandmother

The icebreaker at a recent meeting of the Step Up Women’s Network national board, for which I serve as the vice chair, was to name a woman alive today that we’d most like to have a conversation with and why. As you might expect, going around the room, the names proffered were among the most notable in government, finance and business. Except, that is, for me. Try as I might, the only person who came to mind was my Grandmom Nina, better known among the family as the General or the Boss, who passed away in August.
Growing up, I spent most family dinners and holidays in the kitchen as her sous chef. I sliced and diced, chopped and mashed, mixed and kneaded, stirred and sautéed, and, post-meal, washed and dried. At Grandmom Nina’s side, I mastered the art of whipping meager leftovers into a gourmet feast. I also learned to prepare a dinner for 50+ while entertaining unexpected visitors. And, when she turned “juice mixologist,” I was her trusty taste-tester although, honestly, seldom did any of her concoctions yield a “tasty” result.
While we dipped, breaded and fried pound after pound of chicken cutlet, I learned as much about how to “put food on the table” literally as I did figuratively. You see, at age 40, my grandmother turned family breadwinner when she was widowed with seven children, then ages 5 through 16, to support. She worked three jobs to keep them clothed, fed and sheltered. As it turned out, she had as good a nose for business as she did for making “gravy,” even winning a sales award for a line of cleaning products sold out of her home.
For a woman whose only degree was from the “school of hard knocks,” my grandmother’s insights and instincts on what it takes to succeed in life and business turned out to be an inheritance more valuable than any jewelry or any amount of money. They provided a powerful inner compass that has enabled me to become the person and professional I am today. After her death, I jotted them down and distilled them into seven ingredients, which seemed fitting since she had seven children. They are:

1. Keep “gas in the tank”: keep your mind sharp by learning something every day.
2. Que sera, sera: focus on what you can control rather than on what you can’t.
3. Don’t look back: stop beating yourself over mistakes. Let go and move forward.
4. Know who you are and where you are going: act with integrity and purpose.
5. Mind your words: say what you mean and mean what you say.
6. Never say goodbye: don’t burn bridges behind you. Think long-term and strive to find a win-win.
7. The more you listen, the more you learn. The more you talk, the more mistakes you make.

I think of all the time we spent together and the many lessons that were left on the table, so to speak, because I wasn’t wise enough – or patient enough -- to catch them. I would give anything to hear my grandmother say one more time, “Linda, let me tell you a story.”

Purpose of humans: Destroy the world

It really intriques me about the purpose of humans on this earth.

What is the reason and what is the purpose of being the most developed creature in this world.

We give nobel prize for brilliant people. What we think is mind blowing and the best innovation is turning out that the same innovation is the cause of destruction.

How smart are we ?
How smart can we be ?

In my opinion the whole purpose of humans in this world is to destroy the world and to start all over again.
As the saying says there is nothing permanent accept change and this is the change what the world wants in some years to come.

We humans feel we are strong we are innovative we are superior then all the other creatures. There is no doubt about that. But our superiority, our innovation and our being strong will create destruction and create chaos in this world which will help the world to start all over again.