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To understand where the company stands financially is especially important. Being aware of how much income leaves the business and how much comes to the business is a necessity. without having the generated information, comparing, checking and planning for the health of the business in the future would not be possible. This short video goes over 3 of the 4 categories of ratios that are vital to analyzing the health of a company and gives examples for better understanding of profitability ratios, leverage ratio, and liquidity ratio.

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🔴  3 Minutes! Financial Ratios & Financial Ratio Analysis Explained & Financial Statement Analysis

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Strategic, Tactical, and Operational Control M8

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Strategic, Tactical, and Operational Control M8

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Operational control was my main objective to discuss, but I found something better. This website goes over more than just the definition of operational control, but the definitions of others that may tie into operational control and how it functions. overall it goes over at least from my understanding, how these terms ( strategy, tactics, control, and operational control) are generally implemented in a facility.

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Empowering families to navigate the immigration system more confidently, rapidly, and affordably.

We are a team of immigrants and experts who have struggled with our own journeys through the complex, high-stakes United States immigration system. Just like millions of other families, we've had to choose between paying thousands of dollars in legal fees or spending months trying to figure out how to do everything ourselves. We knew there had to be a better way. That's what we're building, after hundreds of conversations with families, immigration lawyers, and government officials-a trusted partner and guide for your entire immigration journey.

Boundless guides you through the entire marriage green card process for a flat $750 fee, including:

A step-by-step online tool to complete the green card application package with confidence.

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Independent immigration attorney review, with opportunities to ask questions.

A ready-to-submit green card application package, assembled precisely how the the government prefers, and mailed to your doorstep

Tracking and helpful updates on your case status, all the way until you get your green card.

100% satisfaction guarantee.

You can get started now for free, and pay only when your application package is ready for independent attorney review.

Want to learn more? Check out our free immigration resources.

Want to make a meaningful difference in people's lives? Join our team!

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Empowering families to navigate the immigration system more confidently, rapidly, and affordably. We are a team of immigrants and experts who have struggled with our own journeys through the complex, high-stakes United States immigration system. Just like millions of other families, we've had to choose between paying thousands of dollars in legal fees or spending months trying to figure out how to do everything ourselves.

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So many people disagree with automation, but then others think it is a better way to get things done. In my opinion I believe yes automation puts people of of work but at the same time I think it produces products faster than the average human. Automation exactly, is the replacement of human effort by electromechanical devices. I found a website that shows the advantages and disadvantages of automation, and from the looks of the good outweighs the bad but only just.

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In the past 20 years, technology has changed the nature of manufacturing. In the old days, manufacturing and fabrication were all done by hand by people. Now that computers and technology have penetrated the industry, automation has become the competitive advantage in today's manufacturing world. Automation has allowed for companies to mass produce products at outstanding speeds and with great repeatability and quality. Automation has become a determining factor in whether or not a company will remain competitive within the manufacturing industry. Although automation is constantly setting the standards for the industry and has many advantages, there are also some negative aspects about automation.

Reduction in production time - having a machine that is automated definitely speeds up the production time since no thinking is needed by the machine, there is better repeatability, and less human error.

Increase in accuracy and repeatability - when an automated machine is programmed to perform a task over and over again, the accuracy and repeatability compared to an employee is far greater.

Less human error - no one is perfect, and we are all prone to making mistakes. Which is why a machine that performs repeated tasks is less likely to make mistakes than an employee.

Less employee costs - by adding automated machines to an operation, means less employees are needed to get the job done. It also indicates less safety issues, which leads to financial savings. With having less employees, there are numerous costs that are diminished or reduced such as payroll, benefits, sick days, etcetera.

Increased safety - having automated machines means having less employees who perform tasks that can be dangerous and prone to injury, which can make the work environment safer.

Higher volume production - investing in automated equipment creates a valuable resource for large production volumes, which in turn, will increase profitability.

Less versatility - by having a machine that can perform a certain task limits to the flexibility and variety of tasks that an employee could do.

More pollution - different types of machines operate using motor which may require gases or chemicals in order to operate. This can cause an increase in pollution in the workplace.

Large initial investment - automated machines can be one of the most costly operating costs for a company. With automated machines running anywhere between thousands and millions of dollars depending on the type and degree of automation.

Increase in unemployment - by increasing the amount of automation, there are less employees required causing high unemployment rates.

Unpredictable costs - there can be several unpredictable costs that may exceed the actual cost saved by the automation itself. Some of these costs could include research and development costs of automating a process, preventative maintenance costs, and the cost of training employees to operate automated machines.

While automation has become a resource for remaining competitive in the manufacturing industry, there are definitely some factors to be considered in order to be competitive and to get a return on the investment. Depending on the operations, automation may or may not be a good fit. If it is a small operation with low production quantities, the initial investment of purchasing an automated machine would not be economical. On the other hand, if the operation has a larger facility with many employees on the shop floor two fabricate medium to large runs, automated machines would be better suited.

Here at Vista Industrial Products, Inc., we have had the opportunity to invest in automation to increase our productivity, repeatability, quality, and provide shorter lead times. Due to the size of our operation and state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, automation has been a great fit for our business model. We have a great ratio of automation and employees to cater to our customers' needs. Given that we can fabricate low mix/high volume and high mix/low volume runs for our customers, we have the flexibility we need to get the job done.

If you are looking for a company with a wide range of automation for your fabrication needs, please keep us in mind. We have automation for sheet metal punching, forming, and machining. Please contact us today for a quote!

Thanks for reading along and stay tuned for our next blog post!

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Automation in Manufacturing

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In the past 20 years, technology has changed the nature of manufacturing. In the old days, manufacturing and fabrication were all done by hand by people. Now that computers and technology have penetrated the industry, automation has become the competitive advantage in today's manufacturing world.

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Who plays a vital role in any business? Well, the operations manager. They deal with financials, communications, goal setting, resources and etc. There is so much that they do and they help the business gain profit smoothly and efficiently. Assuming she has been in the role or has had direct contact with it, Karen Farnen Goes over the role of an operations manager.

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The operation managers duties depend on the structure and size of the company -- but generally, the operations manager budgets and manages resources.

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To make something happen is one thing, but to make something happen the way you want to make it happen is another; power verses control. Dr. Bill Gould explained power and control totally different than what I have previously learned and what I expected. He said " Power is earned on a daily basis. Control is taken". This make perfect sense, the only way you can obtain power is if it is given to you, where as if what something you initially take control so you can have it. The article is short but it is worth reading.

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when controlling a group, a project, or even a department there are rules and guidelines that need to be followed and set in place. There are also steps in which one should take, the website posted is considered a management study guide. It elaborates on a few steps that can make controlling more efficient. Having the understanding of what is takes to control any and everything in your path makes the end outcome reliable and effective

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Providing good reason why employees should get a job done is only one step, Showing them and getting involved is the next. If a manager or project leader wants good performance then they must set the tone for it. No one will do it or get involved if there is no motivation. With that being said don't expect good performance if you are not going to get involved either. This article be Forbes goes over how exceptional companies create high performance cultures and it has great advice, take heed.

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For years, as an employee of a variety of organizations ranging from small consulting firms to the US Army, I've been increasingly fascinated with the way in which groups functioned. How some could quickly align around a common set of practices that added tremendous value, while others could not. How some organizations were able to coordinate and integrate efforts across the globe by setting clear values, expectations and processes in place where others seemed to be operating behind the curve every step of the way.

A decade later, having spent the majority of my professional career in the organizational culture space, I continue to be driven to understand how leaders and organizations are able to achieve significant and lasting performance that catapults them ahead of the competition (or not). Why do these leaders and organizations succeed while others just seem to lag or cease to exist altogether?

While there are a lot of variables that come into play in each situation, one common root always seems played a key role - the culture.

If culture is defined as "the way things get done around here," the way of doing things that organizations develop through trial and error, over time, are the things that drive behavior and performance.

Organizations that are able to set very clear and aligned values and processes will consistently outperform those that cannot. Furthermore, leaders who understand when it's time to do things differently in order to stay relevant are those that are best able to adapt their organizations to changes in the business environment.

While it sounds simple in theory, its much more difficult to pull off in reality- ask any business leader out there.

So, how can leaders make this happen? How do you intentionally create a sustainable culture of high performance in your organization?

3 Qualities of High Performance

Now that "culture" has been recognized as Merriam-Webster's word of the year, the role of culture in a high performance organization seems to be coming of age in business. This new awareness has given me the opportunity to meet a variety of people who have shared their own ideas about how culture drives performance. One such person is Olli Laurén, who leads the Global Machinery and Engineering segment of Egon Zehnder 's Industrial Practice.

I had a chance to spend some time with Olli recently to talk about his recent research paper, " How Exceptional Companies Create a High Performance Culture. " Together, we discussed 3 core abilities that an organization must possess in order to reach high performance:

1. The ability to stop and take a hard look in the mirror. In today's rapid-fire business environment, taking a minute to press pause and think can seem like a death-sentence. Unfortunately, organizations that operate in this fashion may continue to spin their wheels with the same old ways of doing things to try to solve problems that have changed or evolved over time.

Olli calls this quality "a passion for renewal." Organizations that are able to stop from time-to-time to really understand why they are doing these things are better positioned to identify the need to change in order to keep pace with the market and continue to drive results.

2. The ability to include all stakeholders in the conversation. Culture is a collective concept- a phenomenon that forms and evolves through the norms of the group. While many people view culture as the responsibility of leadership alone, the most successful organizations I've observed and worked with over the years are those that understand and value the input of their stakeholders.

Olli recognizes the need for transparent and trusting relationships throughout an organization. By fostering trust and transparency at all levels, stakeholders are given a safe environment to provide input and take an active role in shaping the organization's culture.

3. The ability to let go of the existing behaviors and practices that are no longer serving the organization's success. Knowing you should lose ten pounds and actually changing your behavior to do it are two very different things. Getting people to understand that some ways of doing things are no longer effective and actually getting them to change is similar. In both cases, you must take the time to change behaviors that are no longer supporting your desired goals.

Humility is a key concept here, for leaders and employees alike. It takes a lot for people to be comfortable with giving up the way they've always done things. Some take it as a statement that what they've been doing all along was wrong. Others fear that they may not be able to succeed if asked to do things differently. Still others hear that there is a need to change but their leaders don't role model the new expectations, which makes it easy to stay in the same old habits.
Can You Create a High Performance Culture?
The challenge that leaders face in creating high performance cultures is overcoming the deeply rooted assumptions and behaviors that aren't doing their organization any favors.

Does that mean it's impossible? Absolutely not.

If my experience has taught me anything, it's that any organization, no matter what size or industry, has the ability to build and sustain a culture of high performance. To make that happen, you, as a leader, must be willing to take a hard look in the mirror with your colleagues, dig deep into what needs to change, and help your entire organization let go of the behaviors that are no longer serving its goals.

Change doesn't have to be an attack on the past. It's simply a stepping stone on the path to your organization's long-term success.
Chris Cancialosi, Ph.D., is managing partner and founder at gothamCulture.

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How Exceptional Companies Create High Performance Cultures

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For years, as an employee of a variety of organizations ranging from small consulting firms to the US Army, I've been increasingly fascinated with the way in which groups functioned. How some could quickly align around a common set of practices that added tremendous value, while others could not.

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Becoming a manager takes a lot of skill and will power, but to be a great manager one has to be able to handle it all and on top of that have a good team under them that will strive for excellence. The article that I posted show the difference between a bad, good and great manager. A Manager takes on a lot of responsibility and not everyone is up for the  task. "Bad managers tell employees what to do, good managers explain why they need to do it, but great managers involve people in decision making and improvement."  Mark Garban. The way I see it is if you can do all three, then hey your set to keep your job a lot longer than the average manager.

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5 min read

A Note From The Editor

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
LinkedIn Influencer, Mark Graban, published this post originally on LinkedIn.
A key thing I've learned in my career and my own work experience:

"Bad managers tell employees what to do, good managers explain why they need to do it, but great managers involve people in decision making and improvement."

There might be more to management to that, but I think that's a pretty good start. " Lean management," or the Toyota management style, encourages leaders to live in that "good to great" range ( with apologies to Jim Collins).

Bad managers bark orders. They are directive and tell employees what to do, without any explanation or context. I saw that style of management quite often during my first two years at General Motors (read my previous post about that experience) and the workplace was incredibly dysfunctional as a result.

There are top-down, "command and control" managers in every type of workplace, unfortunately. Managers who are controlling and have all the answers want their employees to " check their brains at the door," and often say so quite explicitly - or they spread that message in more subtle ways.

At GM, front-line employees complained that they were "hired for their backs and their arms, not their brains." In hospitals, healthcare professionals (even those with master's degrees) have complained, "They just want us to do what we're told." This is not a recipe for quality, productivity, or good customer service.

A friend of mine lives in a high-rise condo building. One example of "telling" was the general manager telling employees that the doors to the resident gym must now be kept closed at all times. For years, previously, the doors had been left open unless a resident wanted privacy and chose to close them.

My friend asked one of the employees, "Why are the doors closed all of the time now?" The employee replied, "I don't know, [the manager] just told us to."
Related: Why Every Patient Deserves the Care & Caution that Surrounds the American Ebola Patients (LinkedIn)
It's disrespectful to just give directives without letting people understand the reason(s) why. There might have very well been a good reason why the doors were now to be kept closed. Had the manager taken just a few minutes to share a reason why, the employees would feel better about themselves and would more likely keep the doors closed. If employees are following directives out of a fear of being "written up," they aren't in a position to provide great service.

A good condo manager would explain why the doors now need to be closed. And, if there wasn't a good reason why, they wouldn't force the change on a whim.

A great condo manager would involve the employees in coming up with solutions to whatever problem is being solved by keeping the doors closed. The employees, when being posed with the problem, might come up with the idea of "close the doors" or they might come up with something better. Either way, they would feel a greater sense of ownership over the idea since they were involved in its creation.

During my time at GM, the better of the two plant managers I worked for taught us that Lean leaders (in the style of Toyota leaders) will always explain why something must be done, in those rare instances when they have to give a directive. The dynamic changes from "thou shalt wear safety gloves (because I'm the boss and I told you so)" to "you must wear safety gloves (because it's necessary for your safety and we don't want you to get hurt, even though you might think there is little risk)."

Bad managers tell. Good managers explain why.

Great managers go beyond this.

Great managers might engage the employees in figuring out how to reduce the safety risk that makes gloves necessary in the first place. Maybe an employee would suggest that a different, but equally effective, chemical be used. We don't know unless we engage our employees.

In 90% of workplace situations, I'd guess, the manager shouldn't be telling people what to do, even if they are making the effort to explain why. Great managers engage people in designing their work and they continue to engage them in ongoing improvement. As I learned from former Toyota employees and the books of Taiichi Ohno, work procedures " should not be forced down from above but rather set by the production workers themselves."
Related: The VA Scandal: Problems Caused by the System (Targets & Incentives), Not Bad Individuals (LinkedIn)
This mindset and approach requires that leaders set aside their egos and century-old habits. of top-down management. Managers won't have all of the answers. Instead of dictating how things get done (and expecting obedience and compliance), managers need to work together with employees to define how the work is done. Managers need to ask employees what ideas they have for improving the workplace, through the practice of " Kaizen."

Our employees are adults and they deserve our respect. They deserve great leaders who can work together to help everybody succeed and do what's best for their customers (or residents).

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What Bad Managers, Good Managers and Great Managers Do

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5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. LinkedIn Influencer, Mark Graban, published this post originally on LinkedIn. A key thing I've learned in my career and my own work experience: "Bad managers tell employees what to do, good managers explain why they need to do it, but great managers involve people in decision making and improvement."

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Managers and leaders are not the same thing. However, it is possible that they could be. If this was the case managers would be more likable and employees would not feel so forced to get things done but more so privileged to have the opportunity. This mini cartoon video goes over the differences between the "boss and the Leader". It's simplicity allows one to grasp an understanding of how a manager and a leader should conduct themselves in the work place.

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Increasing productivity for any business is beneficial. Learning how to produce goods and services with limited resources keeps a business strong as it is not coming out of pocket for more resources to produce unnecessary goods and services. To have more going out than what's coming in limits the retention of profits the company obtains. This article goes over all that contributes to productivity.

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Success as a small-business owner depends on the ability to get things done with limited resources. Productivity is a measure of how efficient a business is at utilizing its resources to produce goods and services, calculated by dividing total output by the total resources, such as labor and capital, devoted to production. When a company increases productivity, it is able to produce more with the same amount work and equipment, which can lead to several important benefits.

Profitability

A business needs to make a profit to keep its doors open in the long run. Increasing productivity lets a firm make more products without increasing costs. Producing more creates the opportunity to make more sales, which in turn offers the potential to increase profits. Higher productivity can increase a company's profit margin in addition to raising total profits. Profit margin is measure of how much profit a company makes for each dollar it spends.

Business Growth

Increasing productivity can give a firm opportunities to grow. If company is just barely scraping by or losing money, managers might not be in a position to take risks or expand. High productivity and revenue can give companies the cash flow necessary to take risks, make investments and pursue new projects. Boosting productivity can also increase the incentive to hire new workers and buy new equipment.

Meeting Consumer Demand

The demand small businesses face can come and go in spurts, which makes it difficult to plan exactly how many workers and how much equipment is necessary. Increasing productivity can improve a firm's ability to respond to shifting demand without having to take on new employees or expand. For example, a business with very productive workers might be able to meet unexpected demand by having current employees work overtime, instead of scrambling to hire temporary workers, contractors or adding more full-time employees.

Competitiveness

Increasing productivity can boost the level of competition in a market. When one firm is able to be more efficient with its resources, it encourages other companies to improve productivity as well in order to compete. A high level of competition between firms can reduce prices, which is good for consumers and can draw new customers into the market.

About the Author

Gregory Hamel has been a writer since September 2008 and has also authored three novels. He has a Bachelor of Arts in economics from St. Olaf College. Hamel maintains a blog focused on massive open online courses and computer programming.

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The Advantages of a Firm of Increasing Productivity

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Success as a small-business owner depends on the ability to get things done with limited resources. Productivity is a measure of how efficient a business is at utilizing its resources to produce goods and services, calculated by dividing total output by the total resources, such as labor and capital, devoted to ...

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Managing a group takes a special skills, as you must first find bright and skilled individuals who uses both sides of their brain; logic and creativity. To have them specialized in different areas in which is beneficial to a projects success. This article goes into how to improve group dynamics. The effectiveness of the group one puts together must be high. This article also goes over what what cause poor group dynamics and strategies to improve it.

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Imagine that you've brought together the brightest people in your department to solve a problem. You have high hopes for the group, so you feel frustrated when people can't come to a decision.

Several factors are holding the group back.

To start with, one person is very critical of colleagues' ideas. You suspect that her fault-finding is discouraging others from speaking up. Another has hardly contributed to the sessions at all: when asked for his opinion, he simply agrees with a more dominant colleague. Finally, one group member makes humorous comments at unhelpful times, which upsets the momentum of the discussion.

These are classic examples of poor group dynamics, and they can undermine the success of a project, as well as people's morale and engagement.

In this article, we'll look at what group dynamics are, and why they matter. We'll then discuss some examples of poor group dynamics, and we'll outline some tools that you can use to deal with them.

What Are Group Dynamics?

Kurt Lewin, a social psychologist and change management expert, is credited with coining the term "group dynamics" in the early 1940s. He noted that people often take on distinct roles and behaviors when they work in a group. "Group dynamics" describes the effects of these roles and behaviors on other group members, and on the group as a whole.

More recent researchers have built on Lewin's ideas, and this work has become central to good management practice.

A group with a positive dynamic is easy to spot. Team members trust one another, they work towards a collective decision, and they hold one another accountable for making things happen. As well as this, researchers have found that when a team has a positive dynamic, its members are nearly twice as creative as an average group.

In a group with poor group dynamics, people's behavior disrupts work. As a result, the group may not come to any decision, or it may make the wrong choice, because group members could not explore options effectively.

What Causes Poor Group Dynamics?

Group leaders and team members can contribute to a negative group dynamic. Let's look at some of the most common problems that can occur:

Weak leadership: when a team lacks a strong leader, a more dominant member of the group can often take charge. This can lead to a lack of direction, infighting, or a focus on the wrong priorities.

Excessive deference to authority: this can happen when people want to be seen to agree with a leader, and therefore hold back from expressing their own opinions.

Blocking: this happens when team members behave in a way that disrupts the flow of information in the group. People can adopt blocking roles such as:

The aggressor: this person often disagrees with others, or is inappropriately outspoken.

The negator: this group member is often critical of others' ideas.

The withdrawer: this person doesn't participate in the discussion.

The recognition seeker: this group member is boastful, or dominates the session.

The joker: this person introduces humor at inappropriate times.

Groupthink: this happens when people place a desire for consensus above their desire to reach the right decision. This prevents people from fully exploring alternative solutions.

Free riding: here, some group members take it easy, and leave their colleagues to do all the work. Free riders may work hard on their own, but limit their contributions in group situations; this is known as "social loafing."

Evaluation apprehension: team members' perceptions can also create a negative group dynamic. Evaluation apprehension happens when people feel that they are being judged excessively harshly by other group members, and they hold back their opinions as a result.

Strategies for Improving Team Dynamics

Use these approaches to improve group dynamics:

Know Your Team

Tackle Problems Quickly

If you notice that one member of your team has adopted a behavior that's affecting the group unhelpfully, act quickly to challenge it.

Define Roles and Responsibilities

Teams that lack focus or direction can quickly develop poor dynamics, as people struggle to understand their role in the group.

Break Down Barriers

Focus on Communication

Open communication is central to good team dynamics, so make sure that everyone is communicating clearly. Include all of the forms of communication that your group uses - emails, meetings, and shared documents, for example - to avoid any ambiguity.

If the status of a project changes, or if you have an announcement to make, let people know as soon as possible. That way, you can ensure that everyone has the same information.

Opinionated team members can overwhelm their quieter colleagues in meetings. Where this happens, use techniques such as Crawford's Slip Writing Method, and make sure that you develop strong facilitation skills.

Pay Attention

Watch out for the warning signs of poor group dynamics.

Pay particular attention to frequent unanimous decisions, as these can be a sign of groupthink, bullying, or free riding. If there are frequent unanimous decisions in your group, consider exploring new ways to encourage people to discuss their views, or to share them anonymously.

Key Points

The term "group dynamics" describes the way in which people in a group interact with one another. When dynamics are positive, the group works well together. When dynamics are poor, the group's effectiveness is reduced.

Problems can come from weak leadership, too much deference to authority, blocking, groupthink and free riding, among others.

To strengthen your team's dynamics, use the following strategies:

Know your team.

Tackle problems quickly with good feedback.

Define roles and responsibilities.

Break down barriers.

Focus on communication.

Pay attention.

Keep in mind that observing how your group interacts is an important part of your role as a leader. Many of the behaviors that lead to poor dynamics can be overcome if you catch them early.

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Improving Group Dynamics: Helping Your Team Work More Effectively

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Imagine that you've brought together the brightest people in your department to solve a problem. You have high hopes for the group, so you feel frustrated when people can't come to a decision. Several factors are holding the group back. To start with, one person is very critical of colleagues' ideas.

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Like the book, this website goes over leadership traits or characteristics. Unlike the book, the website also goes over the limitations and problems of the trait approach. what was so interesting to me was that fact that some people who portray the characteristic of of a leader choose not to take the position. I feel as though if you have what it takes to change a business for the better step up and allow the company to hold you to your word.

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Everyone knows that effective communication is a key component to being successful. It is especially essential when leading an organization, a group, or making a decision. This website explains what interpersonal communications is and defines the elements within this form of communication.

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Develop your interpersonal communication skills. Learn about the communication processes and how to develop your verbal, nonverbal, listening and other skills.

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All in all, emotional intelligence is the capacity of people to recognize their own feelings and the feelings of others, to motivate themselves , and to manage their own emotions as well as their emotions in relationships with others. Now this site acknowledges the five categories of EQ and defines what it means and how to apply it.

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For most people, emotional intelligence (EQ) is more important than one's intelligence (IQ) in attaining success in their lives and careers. As individuals our success and the success of the profession today depend on our ability to read other people's signals and react appropriately to them.

Therefore, each one of us must develop the mature emotional intelligence skills required to better understand, empathize and negotiate with other people - particularly as the economy has become more global. Otherwise, success will elude us in our lives and careers.

"Your EQ is the level of your ability to understand other people, what motivates them and how to work cooperatively with them," says Howard Gardner, the influential Harvard theorist. Five major categories of emotional intelligence skills are recognized by researchers in this area.

Understanding the Five Categories of Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

1. Self-awareness. The ability to recognize an emotion as it "happens" is the key to your EQ. Developing self-awareness requires tuning in to your true feelings. If you evaluate your emotions, you can manage them. The major elements of self-awareness are:

Emotional awareness. Your ability to recognize your own emotions and their effects.

Self-confidence. Sureness about your self-worth and capabilities.

2. Self-regulation. You often have little control over when you experience emotions. You can, however, have some say in how long an emotion will last by using a number of techniques to alleviate negative emotions such as anger, anxiety or depression. A few of these techniques include recasting a situation in a more positive light, taking a long walk and meditation or prayer. Self-regulation involves

Self-control. Managing disruptive impulses.

Trustworthiness. Maintaining standards of honesty and integrity.

Conscientiousness. Taking responsibility for your own performance.

Adaptability. Handling change with flexibility.

Innovation. Being open to new ideas.

3. Motivation. To motivate yourself for any achievement requires clear goals and a positive attitude. Although you may have a predisposition to either a positive or a negative attitude, you can with effort and practice learn to think more positively. If you catch negative thoughts as they occur, you can reframe them in more positive terms - which will help you achieve your goals. Motivation is made up of:

Achievement drive. Your constant striving to improve or to meet a standard of excellence.

Commitment. Aligning with the goals of the group or organization.

Initiative. Readying yourself to act on opportunities.

Optimism. Pursuing goals persistently despite obstacles and setbacks.

4. Empathy. The ability to recognize how people feel is important to success in your life and career. The more skillful you are at discerning the feelings behind others' signals the better you can control the signals you send them. An empathetic person excels at:

Service orientation. Anticipating, recognizing and meeting clients' needs.

Developing others. Sensing what others need to progress and bolstering their abilities.

Leveraging diversity. Cultivating opportunities through diverse people.

Political awareness. Reading a group's emotional currents and power relationships.

Understanding others. Discerning the feelings behind the needs and wants of others.

5. Social skills. The development of good interpersonal skills is tantamount to success in your life and career. In today's always-connected world, everyone has immediate access to technical knowledge. Thus, "people skills" are even more important now because you must possess a high EQ to better understand, empathize and negotiate with others in a global economy. Among the most useful skills are:

Influence. Wielding effective persuasion tactics.

Communication. Sending clear messages.

Leadership. Inspiring and guiding groups and people.

Change catalyst. Initiating or managing change.

Conflict management. Understanding, negotiating and resolving disagreements.

Building bonds. Nurturing instrumental relationships.

Collaboration and cooperation. Working with others toward shared goals.

Team capabilities. Creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals.

What factors are at play when people of high IQ fail and those of modest IQ succeed?

How well you do in your life and career is determined by both. IQ alone is not enough; EQ also matters. In fact, psychologists generally agree that among the ingredients for success, IQ counts for roughly 10% (at best 25%); the rest depends on everything else - including EQ.

A study of Harvard graduates in business, law, medicine and teaching showed a negative or zero correlation between an IQ indicator (entrance exam scores) and subsequent career success. Three examples illustrate the importance of emotional competencies.
Learn More: How the Four Traits of Emotional Intelligence Affect Your Life The Benefits of Emotional Intelligence
What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ)?

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By Michael Akers & Grover Porter ~ 2 min read

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What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ)? | Psych Central

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For most people, emotional intelligence (EQ) is more important than one's intelligence (IQ) in attaining success in their lives and careers. As individuals our success and the success of the profession today depend on our ability to read other people's signals and react appropriately to them.

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This website has 10 principles of change management layed out for your viewing. Of course every method and principle does not fit every business but it provides a bit of "Business Template" to allow you to see the framework of what change management in your business could be.

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Updated: 10 Principles of Leading Change Management

This classic guide to organizational change management best practices has been updated for the current business environment. To read the newest article, click here. Or, to watch a related video, click on the play button above.

Way back when (pick your date), senior executives in large companies had a simple goal for themselves and their organizations: stability. Shareholders wanted little more than predictable earnings growth. Because so many markets were either closed or undeveloped, leaders could deliver on those expectations through annual exercises that offered only modest modifications to the strategic plan. Prices stayed in check; people stayed in their jobs; life was good.

Market transparency, labor mobility, global capital flows, and instantaneous communications have blown that comfortable scenario to smithereens. In most industries - and in almost all companies, from giants on down - heightened global competition has concentrated management's collective mind on something that, in the past, it happily avoided: change. Successful companies, as Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter told s+b in 1999, develop "a culture that just keeps moving all the time."

This presents most senior executives with an unfamiliar challenge. In major transformations of large enterprises, they and their advisors conventionally focus their attention on devising the best strategic and tactical plans. But to succeed, they also must have an intimate understanding of the human side of change management - the alignment of the company's culture, values, people, and behaviors - to encourage the desired results. Plans themselves do not capture value; value is realized only through the sustained, collective actions of the thousands - perhaps the tens of thousands - of employees who are responsible for designing, executing, and living with the changed environment.

Long-term structural transformation has four characteristics: scale (the change affects all or most of the organization), magnitude (it involves significant alterations of the status quo), duration (it lasts for months, if not years), and strategic importance. Yet companies will reap the rewards only when change occurs at the level of the individual employee.

Many senior executives know this and worry about it. When asked what keeps them up at night, CEOs involved in transformation often say they are concerned about how the work force will react, how they can get their team to work together, and how they will be able to lead their people. They also worry about retaining their company's unique values and sense of identity and about creating a culture of commitment and performance. Leadership teams that fail to plan for the human side of change often find themselves wondering why their best-laid plans have gone awry.

No single methodology fits every company, but there is a set of practices, tools, and techniques that can be adapted to a variety of situations. What follows is a "Top 10" list of guiding principles for change management. Using these as a systematic, comprehensive framework, executives can understand what to expect, how to manage their own personal change, and how to engage the entire organization in the process.

1. Address the "human side" systematically. Any significant transformation creates "people issues." New leaders will be asked to step up, jobs will be changed, new skills and capabilities must be developed, and employees will be uncertain and resistant. Dealing with these issues on a reactive, case-by-case basis puts speed, morale, and results at risk. A formal approach for managing change - beginning with the leadership team and then engaging key stakeholders and leaders - should be developed early, and adapted often as change moves through the organization. This demands as much data collection and analysis, planning, and implementation discipline as does a redesign of strategy, systems, or processes. The change-management approach should be fully integrated into program design and decision making, both informing and enabling strategic direction. It should be based on a realistic assessment of the organization's history, readiness, and capacity to change.

2. Start at the top. Because change is inherently unsettling for people at all levels of an organization, when it is on the horizon, all eyes will turn to the CEO and the leadership team for strength, support, and direction. The leaders themselves must embrace the new approaches first, both to challenge and to motivate the rest of the institution. They must speak with one voice and model the desired behaviors. The executive team also needs to understand that, although its public face may be one of unity, it, too, is composed of individuals who are going through stressful times and need to be supported.

Executive teams that work well together are best positioned for success. They are aligned and committed to the direction of change, understand the culture and behaviors the changes intend to introduce, and can model those changes themselves. At one large transportation company, the senior team rolled out an initiative to improve the efficiency and performance of its corporate and field staff before addressing change issues at the officer level. The initiative realized initial cost savings but stalled as employees began to question the leadership team's vision and commitment. Only after the leadership team went through the process of aligning and committing to the change initiative was the work force able to deliver downstream results.

3. Involve every layer. As transformation programs progress from defining strategy and setting targets to design and implementation, they affect different levels of the organization. Change efforts must include plans for identifying leaders throughout the company and pushing responsibility for design and implementation down, so that change "cascades" through the organization. At each layer of the organization, the leaders who are identified and trained must be aligned to the company's vision, equipped to execute their specific mission, and motivated to make change happen.

A major multiline insurer with consistently flat earnings decided to change performance and behavior in preparation for going public. The company followed this "cascading leadership" methodology, training and supporting teams at each stage. First, 10 officers set the strategy, vision, and targets. Next, more than 60 senior executives and managers designed the core of the change initiative. Then 500 leaders from the field drove implementation. The structure remained in place throughout the change program, which doubled the company's earnings far ahead of schedule. This approach is also a superb way for a company to identify its next generation of leadership.

4. Make the formal case. Individuals are inherently rational and will question to what extent change is needed, whether the company is headed in the right direction, and whether they want to commit personally to making change happen. They will look to the leadership for answers. The articulation of a formal case for change and the creation of a written vision statement are invaluable opportunities to create or compel leadership-team alignment.

Three steps should be followed in developing the case: First, confront reality and articulate a convincing need for change. Second, demonstrate faith that the company has a viable future and the leadership to get there. Finally, provide a road map to guide behavior and decision making. Leaders must then customize this message for various internal audiences, describing the pending change in terms that matter to the individuals.

A consumer packaged-goods company experiencing years of steadily declining earnings determined that it needed to significantly restructure its operations - instituting, among other things, a 30 percent work force reduction - to remain competitive. In a series of offsite meetings, the executive team built a brutally honest business case that downsizing was the only way to keep the business viable, and drew on the company's proud heritage to craft a compelling vision to lead the company forward. By confronting reality and helping employees understand the necessity for change, leaders were able to motivate the organization to follow the new direction in the midst of the largest downsizing in the company's history. Instead of being shell-shocked and demoralized, those who stayed felt a renewed resolve to help the enterprise advance.

5. Create ownership. Leaders of large change programs must overperform during the transformation and be the zealots who create a critical mass among the work force in favor of change. This requires more than mere buy-in or passive agreement that the direction of change is acceptable. It demands ownership by leaders willing to accept responsibility for making change happen in all of the areas they influence or control. Ownership is often best created by involving people in identifying problems and crafting solutions. It is reinforced by incentives and rewards. These can be tangible (for example, financial compensation) or psychological (for example, camaraderie and a sense of shared destiny).

At a large health-care organization that was moving to a shared-services model for administrative support, the first department to create detailed designs for the new organization was human resources. Its personnel worked with advisors in cross-functional teams for more than six months. But as the designs were being finalized, top departmental executives began to resist the move to implementation. While agreeing that the work was top-notch, the executives realized they hadn't invested enough individual time in the design process to feel the ownership required to begin implementation. On the basis of their feedback, the process was modified to include a "deep dive." The departmental executives worked with the design teams to learn more, and get further exposure to changes that would occur. This was the turning point; the transition then happened quickly. It also created a forum for top executives to work as a team, creating a sense of alignment and unity that the group hadn't felt before.

6. Communicate the message. Too often, change leaders make the mistake of believing that others understand the issues, feel the need to change, and see the new direction as clearly as they do. The best change programs reinforce core messages through regular, timely advice that is both inspirational and practicable. Communications flow in from the bottom and out from the top, and are targeted to provide employees the right information at the right time and to solicit their input and feedback. Often this will require overcommunication through multiple, redundant channels.

In the late 1990s, the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Charles O. Rossotti, had a vision: The IRS could treat taxpayers as customers and turn a feared bureaucracy into a world-class service organization. Getting more than 100,000 employees to think and act differently required more than just systems redesign and process change. IRS leadership designed and executed an ambitious communications program including daily voice mails from the commissioner and his top staff, training sessions, videotapes, newsletters, and town hall meetings that continued through the transformation. Timely, constant, practical communication was at the heart of the program, which brought the IRS's customer ratings from the lowest in various surveys to its current ranking above the likes of McDonald's and most airlines.

7. Assess the cultural landscape. Successful change programs pick up speed and intensity as they cascade down, making it critically important that leaders understand and account for culture and behaviors at each level of the organization. Companies often make the mistake of assessing culture either too late or not at all. Thorough cultural diagnostics can assess organizational readiness to change, bring major problems to the surface, identify conflicts, and define factors that can recognize and influence sources of leadership and resistance. These diagnostics identify the core values, beliefs, behaviors, and perceptions that must be taken into account for successful change to occur. They serve as the common baseline for designing essential change elements, such as the new corporate vision, and building the infrastructure and programs needed to drive change.

8. Address culture explicitly. Once the culture is understood, it should be addressed as thoroughly as any other area in a change program. Leaders should be explicit about the culture and underlying behaviors that will best support the new way of doing business, and find opportunities to model and reward those behaviors. This requires developing a baseline, defining an explicit end-state or desired culture, and devising detailed plans to make the transition.

Company culture is an amalgam of shared history, explicit values and beliefs, and common attitudes and behaviors. Change programs can involve creating a culture (in new companies or those built through multiple acquisitions), combining cultures (in mergers or acquisitions of large companies), or reinforcing cultures (in, say, long-established consumer goods or manufacturing companies). Understanding that all companies have a cultural center - the locus of thought, activity, influence, or personal identification - is often an effective way to jump-start culture change.

A consumer goods company with a suite of premium brands determined that business realities demanded a greater focus on profitability and bottom-line accountability. In addition to redesigning metrics and incentives, it developed a plan to systematically change the company's culture, beginning with marketing, the company's historical center. It brought the marketing staff into the process early to create enthusiasts for the new philosophy who adapted marketing campaigns, spending plans, and incentive programs to be more accountable. Seeing these culture leaders grab onto the new program, the rest of the company quickly fell in line.

9. Prepare for the unexpected. No change program goes completely according to plan. People react in unexpected ways; areas of anticipated resistance fall away; and the external environment shifts. Effectively managing change requires continual reassessment of its impact and the organization's willingness and ability to adopt the next wave of transformation. Fed by real data from the field and supported by information and solid decision-making processes, change leaders can then make the adjustments necessary to maintain momentum and drive results.

A leading U.S. health-care company was facing competitive and financial pressures from its inability to react to changes in the marketplace. A diagnosis revealed shortcomings in its organizational structure and governance, and the company decided to implement a new operating model. In the midst of detailed design, a new CEO and leadership team took over. The new team was initially skeptical, but was ultimately convinced that a solid case for change, grounded in facts and supported by the organization at large, existed. Some adjustments were made to the speed and sequence of implementation, but the fundamentals of the new operating model remained unchanged.

10. Speak to the individual. Change is both an institutional journey and a very personal one. People spend many hours each week at work; many think of their colleagues as a second family. Individuals (or teams of individuals) need to know how their work will change, what is expected of them during and after the change program, how they will be measured, and what success or failure will mean for them and those around them. Team leaders should be as honest and explicit as possible. People will react to what they see and hear around them, and need to be involved in the change process. Highly visible rewards, such as promotion, recognition, and bonuses, should be provided as dramatic reinforcement for embracing change. Sanction or removal of people standing in the way of change will reinforce the institution's commitment.

Most leaders contemplating change know that people matter. It is all too tempting, however, to dwell on the plans and processes, which don't talk back and don't respond emotionally, rather than face up to the more difficult and more critical human issues. But mastering the "soft" side of change management needn't be a mystery.

Author Profiles:

John Jones is a vice president with Booz Allen Hamilton in New York. Mr. Jones is a specialist in organization design, process reengineering, and change management.

DeAnne Aguirre (deanne.aguirre@strategyand.us.pwc.com) is an advisor to executives on organizational topics for Strategy&, PwC's strategy consulting business, and a principal with PwC US. Based in San Francisco, she specializes in culture, leadership, talent effectiveness, and organizational change management.

Matthew Calderone is a senior associate with Booz Allen Hamilton in the New York Office. He specializes in organization transformation, people issues, and change management.

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John Jones, DeAnne Aguirre, and Matthew Calderone

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This classic guide to organizational change management best practices has been updated for the current business environment. To read the newest article, click here. Or, to watch a related video, click on the play button above. Way back when (pick your date), senior executives in large companies had a simple goal for themselves and their organizations: stability.

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I seem to fancy cartoons more than that of real humans, I tend  to stay more engaged in the information being shared.  This video goes over what it means to be in the human resource department. The roll that an HR plays in any organization. From my understanding having HR Management is VITAL to any organization, For they take on a multitude of tasks. In the video it lays out quite a few things that's on an HRs to do list and you understand their contributions to an organization.

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This website is a great resource, it helps understand the importance of organizing functions and goes into detail behind its components. Further down the web page there is the principles of organizing. These are key when managing or running an organization. I feel as though the more you know about these two the better off you will be in you line of work. It forces you to think like that of a manager or owner and see how it formulates with your business.

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Organizing function helps in achieving effective administration by clarifying the authority and responsibility amongst superiors and subordinates.

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I understand why so many people do not delegate task, they are assuming the job will not get done, yet alone get done right. Therefore, that leaves room for being over stressed, overwhelmed and constantly under pressure of not not meeting dead lines. Although delegating varies from business to business there is a way to delegate effectively. This video sheds a little light on that.

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Delegation is one of the most important business skills you can learn. Your ability to delegate, is largely shaped by your experiences. However there are core skills you can improve to fast track your effectiveness and help you to avoid the common pitfalls. For access to the full animated course visit www.learningheroes.com or call 020 8088 7700.

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In its simplicity this article goes over how strategic control is enforced in an organization. It breaks down the four operational controls which are premise control, implementation control, strategic surveillance, and special alert control. It explains them individually and use examples to explain the purpose behind them.

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Strategy is selected and implemented over a period of time. But strategies being forward looking and designed to accomplish the future objectives, it is necessary to enforce control over strategy.

Strategic controls, which can be enforced by certain operational controls, are enforced through:

1. Premise control

2. Implementation control

3. Strategic surveillance

4. Special alert control

1. Premise control:

Premise control is designed to check systematically and continuously whether or not the premises set during the planning and implementation process are still valid. For example, a bank may adopt an aggressive marketing strategy to achieve 15 per cent annual growth, on a planning premise that their non- performing assets would not be more than 10 per cent. Premise control should therefore ensure monitoring the non-performing assets at branch levels on a regular basis.

2. Implementation control:

Implementation control is designed to assess whether the results of overall strategy associate with incremental steps and actions. For example, an internationally known fast-food centre decided to maintain the ratio between company-owned outlets and franchisee outlets at 3:1, to ensure control over quality of foods, rates, etc. But the growing competition in this business later forced it to reverse the ratio to enable it to open outlets at new locations.

3. Strategic surveillance:

Strategic surveillance is designed to monitor a broad range of events inside and outside the company that are likely to threaten the course of the firm's strategy. For example, in the early years of its attempt to sell the CFA courses, the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) made its course more finance oriented, covering all conceivable finance papers, targeting the financial services sector as the prospective employers of their students.

Later on, since the financial services sector became highly unstable and volatile, ICFAI felt the need to target other sectors as prospective employers of their students, and therefore shifted its focus to PGDBA papers like marketing, HRD, information technology, strategic management, etc.

IBM adopted a similar shift in focus, while marketing its large expensive mainframe computers, from corporate houses to libraries, worldwide.

4. Special alert control:

Special alert control is the need to thoroughly, and often rapidly, reconsiders the firm's basic strategy based on a sudden, unexpected event. For instance, a likely political coup or internal disturbances in a country will create pressure on exporters to that particular country, who may have to thoroughly reconsider their export market strategy. Again, a sudden incident like a major air crash could have a devastating effect on the concerned air line company.

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Importance of Strategic Controls in an Organisation

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ADVERTISEMENTS: Strategy is selected and implemented over a period of time. But strategies being forward looking and designed to accomplish the future objectives, it is necessary to enforce control over strategy. Strategic controls, which can be enforced by certain operational controls, are enforced through: 1. Premise control ADVERTISEMENTS: 2.

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Is it inappropriate to use your intuition to make decisions?
Well, yes and no. How effective and efficient are you when you use your intuition? All of this is explained in this article. How it works, when is it appropriate, and how to use it to be effective are all explained. Don't get me wrong everyone can use their intuition but it is up to the pros to show you how to execute it properly. Every situations does not make it okay to use your intuition. If there are facts involved, utilize them.  Better yet, learn to combine them to make the most effective decisions yet.

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Cute video goes over the MBO program and how so many companies actually utilize it. Even within My text book do they explain that Peter Drucker popularized the means behind it. The video demonstrates the purpose of the MBO and the steps involved. If the two were combined, the video and the text book  Modern management (chapter 5), one can see how the fundamentals of the program are necessary to organizational objectives.

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Created using PowToon -- Free sign up at http://www.powtoon.com/youtube/ -- Create animated videos and animated presentations for free. PowToon is a free tool that allows you to develop cool animated clips and animated presentations for your website, office meeting, sales pitch, nonprofit fundraiser, product launch, video resume, or anything else you could use an animated explainer video.

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This article explains what the management process is and expands on the necessary knowledge to which is needed to go through this process at ease. Not only does it go over what the management process is but it list other plans that could be useful, however, it leaves it up to you to research the information behind the plans listed.

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The video breaks down strategies into three levels. Corporate strategy, Business unit strategy and team strategy are the different levels in which will allow a corporation to run smoothly if executed properly. The woman in the video explains the purpose of each strategy in laymen terms. So it is fairly easy to understand and you can see how it of course applies to the corporate industry.

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London School of Economics and Political Science

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What is Strategy? The Three Levels of Business Strategy

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To learn more about business strategy, go to: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/what-is-strategy.htm You've probably heard the term "business strategy" used a lot in the workplace. But what is strategy, exactly? And are you aware that you need different types of strategy at different levels within your organization? In this video, we look at some common definitions of strategy.

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This explains what planning really is and how to apply it to your upcoming business, already installed business and to your life. It really breaks down what planing is, of course people will interpret this different but look at it in totality. This web page pulls apart the importance of planning using the different portions in which it includes such as the flexibility, the continuous process, the primary functions of planning, and etc. It is necessary to internalize this in ways that will benefit you.

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This article has some insight on a few things that might be potential threats and they organize it to were you can see the risks. The article also provides an understanding of how to manage these potential risk through 6 steps. This highlights the WEF, world economic forum's and the top global risk. The article includes statements from Jim Traut, CPA, CGMA, an enterprise risk management consultant and president of Traut Consulting. They utilize his expertise in the matters of gaining knowledge of the risk that multinational companies may come against.

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Financial and economic crises are no longer the world's biggest threats. In 2015, geopolitical tensions and societal instability dominate the World Economic Forum's list of top global risks.

Multinational companies especially are likely to factor the shift in the global risk landscape into their forecasts, annual operational objectives, and strategic plans, said Jim Traut, CPA, CGMA, an enterprise risk management consultant and president of Traut Consulting.

As former head of enterprise risk management at a Fortune 100 company, Traut regularly distilled the WEF's annual list of top global risks into a briefing for the multinational's board of directors. Boiling down the 2015 list in a similar way, Traut zeroed in on how he sees the changes affecting business.

"In 2008 and 2009, the world was unified; certainly the central banks [were]; everybody was working together," Traut said. "Now, it feels like a lot of individual countries. [The US] is doing what we want to do. The Canadians are doing what they want to do. The Russians do what they want to do. It's worth thinking about [enterprise risk management] from the level of instability that's out there."

The global risk landscape the WEF lays out for 2015 shows interstate conflict as the most likely global risk and also one of the five risks with the biggest potential impact. The four other most likely global risks are:

Extreme weather events.

Failure of national governance.

State collapse or crisis.

Unemployment or underemployment.

Except for water crises, which the WEF determined is the global risk with the biggest impact, much of what threatens the world most in 2015 could trigger central bank policies specific to individual countries, Traut said. For multinationals with international supply chains, he said, that means fluctuating costs of currencies is a big risk.
Case in point: the Russian rouble
Renewed fighting between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian military forces in eastern Ukraine ended a cease fire and prompted NATO ambassadors to meet. The long-simmering interstate conflict flared up at a time when falling crude prices had already helped lower the sovereign credit rating of Russia, a country heavily dependent on oil and gas exports and vulnerable to energy price shocks, the WEF's sixth biggest risk by impact this year.

Russia's central bank recently changed regulations and decided to use lenders' credit scores and securities from before March 1st 2014, a date that precedes Russia's incursion into formerly Ukrainian Crimea. That regulatory change made it easier for Russian lenders to meet capital requirements when Standard & Poor's downgraded Russia's sovereign credit rating to below investment grade. Still, the rouble fluctuated heavily following the downgrade.

Considering that the euro has been dropping in value and the US dollar has been getting stronger, Traut said, "if you're an international company, you've got to be thinking [whether you are] sourcing in roubles, [US] dollars, [British] pounds, or euros." The decision could mean significant changes in the cost to manufacture, he added.
Six ways to manage potential threats
Several of the WEF's top global risks, which leaders from business, academia, and politics helped establish, overlap with the highest global concerns executives voiced in a 2014 WEF survey.

Fiscal crises in key economies topped the list of highest concerns for doing business, followed by failure of a major financial mechanism or institution. The effects of an oil price shock on the global economy ranked third. Liquidity crises came in fourth, and profound political and social instability was fifth.

To manage potential threats, companies worldwide use the WEF information to:

Develop scenarios.

Prepare crisis exercises.

Assess vulnerabilities and their potential for cascade effects.

Inform "sense-making" exercises in crisis situations.

Train top decision-makers.

Model risk external to the direct business environment.

Related CGMA Magazine content:
" Five Likely Threats That Should Keep Global Leaders Up at Night ": Threats that were keeping top experts and high-level leaders up at night in 2013 were the risks that are beyond any one company or even one nation to handle. A report from the 2013 World Economic Forum listed the most likely threats with the biggest damage potential.

" Five Ways to More Effectively Manage Supply-Chain Risk ": Most companies consider managing supply-chain risks important, but that doesn't mean they're all good at it. Here are five ways to boost your company's supply-chain risk management.

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Financial and economic crises are no longer the world's biggest threats. In 2015, geopolitical tensions and societal instability dominate the World Economic Forum's list of top global risks. Multinational companies especially are likely to factor the shift in the global risk landscape into their forecasts, annual operational objectives, and strategic plans, said Jim Traut, CPA, CGMA, an enterprise risk management consultant and president of Traut Consulting.

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In this article it highlights a few key characteristics in becoming a global management leader. These key features are defined further in order to have insight on what to expect when Obtaining these skills. Not only does adapting these skills allow one to be knowledgeable, it allows one to be effective in global management.

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If you want to succeed in today's volatile global economy, you must be prepared to do business all around the world. International businesses have operations, partners, alliances and senior managers representing virtually every global region. Many have more than one "headquarters," signaling the diversity of their thinking and perspective.

So, how do you learn to conduct international business effectively?

You acquire a set of skills that help you work across regional, national and subnational boundaries to propel your business forward. Those skills include the following:

Overseas experience

Deep self-awareness

Sensitivity to cultural diversity

Humility

Lifelong curiosity

Cautious honesty

Global strategic thinking

Patiently impatient

Well-spoken

Good negotiator

Presence

Overseas Experience

Many global executives understand what doing business in a flat world is like because they've lived overseas, sometimes for decades at a time. If you want to become a successful international business leader, transcending your own cultural perspective and learning how business is done in different contexts is essential.

Deep Self-Awareness

Understanding your beliefs and knowing where they might differ from others' is critical to global executive success. Without this key characteristic, you will not be able to adapt to and tolerate the deep-seated beliefs of others - and business opportunities will evaporate. Beware of the "I'm right; you're wrong" assumption.

Sensitivity to Cultural Diversity

Are you willing to eat raw fish? Snake? Raw monkey brains? Can you adjust your eating and sleeping habits to match the local executives' routines and patterns? In other countries, seemingly minor things can be off-putting, such as sticking your chopsticks in your rice or touching someone with your left hand.

Much of this insight comes from experience. You must have an intense interest in the lives and cultures of others, recognizing that your culture and background are not inherently superior, to master the global business arena.

Humility

Being interested in other cultures and how people in those cultures do things, especially with regard to business, implies a certain humility. Humility here means a belief that other lands and cultures have figured out very interesting answers to life's problems. As a good international business person, you must be open to and fascinated by those answers. This trait requires a willingness and ability to listen well and with real intention.

Lifelong Curiosity

The world is constantly evolving. Without an intense curiosity and a desire to learn, you will be left behind and increasingly unable to converse, much less keep up, with your peers. Staying abreast of new learning opportunities requires a humble awareness that what you know is not enough and that you always have more to learn.

Cautious Honesty

Surprisingly, the definitions of "honesty" and "truth" vary widely in the business arena. People sometimes omit information or only tell the truth they think other people need to know. However you design your ethics and morality in your personal life, in global business settings, executives need to know they can count on you. If you don't deliver on your business promises, your reputation will suffer. Effective global leaders can balance the need to be cautious in different contexts while demonstrating they can follow through.

Global Strategic Thinking

When you have a global perspective, you think strategically about managing business using the best people from around the planet. Much of your ability to do this comes from a lifetime of networking at the highest levels in global boardrooms and your aptitude for seeing how various pieces of global industries play out internationally. To make strategic decisions for your company, you need to understand how the business world works on a global scale.

Patiently Impatient

How do you become patiently impatient? You must be in a hurry and yet be patient enough to allow the local and regional processes to unfold as they are meant to. Time and pace are not the same in every country. Balancing the demands of hot competitive and technological trends with the pace of local cultures can be frustrating to the uninitiated.

Well-Spoken

Given the challenges of working via interpreters or fumbling through conversations in more than one language, the ability to say clearly what you mean is a key global business skill. If you converse with others in their native language, you usually earn brownie points - however, if what you have to say is obscure or unintelligible, you'll quickly be in a deficit balance. Clear communication is a powerful leadership trait to have on the global stage.

Good Negotiator

Doing business across ethnic, national and regional boundaries requires strong negotiating skills. If you can add these skills to an innate enjoyment of the gamesmanship involved in negotiating, you will become a highly effective negotiator.

Presence

A certain charisma surrounds you if you are an influential global leader. Part of it - but only part - is position or title. The bigger portion is dress, self-confidence, energy level, interest in other people and comfort with the challenges at hand. You may not want to believe these things matter, but they do.

As a global business leader, you must respect the identities and affiliations of others. Some people can do that; many or most cannot. Do you have what it takes to become a global business leader?
This piece is adapted from Level Three Leadership: Getting Below the Surface, by Professor James G. Clawson.

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11 Key Characteristics of a Global Business Leader

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If you want to succeed in today's volatile global economy, you must be prepared to do business all around the world. International businesses have operations, partners, alliances and senior managers representing virtually every global region. Many have more than one "headquarters," signaling the diversity of their thinking and perspective.

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This article embraces and promotes five commonly known benefits of gender diversity.  These are also found in chapter 3 of my text book " Modern Management". Being that they are so well known we as those seeking place in management can not afford to over look the importance behind the benefits of gender diversity. For they have been proven to improve the business itself and the cultivate the workplace.

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The people in this video understand the importance of the roles that both men and women play in gender diversity. They provide great information and solutions to help further women in there move to the top of the pay scale and explain how men can create the awareness of fair treatment towards women and other minorities.

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Gender Diversity in the Workplace: It's Time to Balance the Scales

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Equal pay for equal work. The same opportunities for women as men. A fair and welcoming workplace. Gender equality has made great strides around the world, but surprisingly, in the United States, the growth in female leadership has stalled, pay disparity persists, work life accommodations are few, and traditional stereotypes remain.

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"You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new." -Steve Jobs
The evolution of technology is forever advancing to the next level. More advanced, more appealing, more demand. I feel as though with this quote it gives a direction of what a company should do when dealing with customers. I believe just like he says you can't technically give customers what they ask for because as soon as something more appealing comes about, customers will discard what they once asked for , and look into getting what is now trending. once those in the market industry understands that, I believe they will be able to sustain in a world that is constantly changing.

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This too is very important. Within this article are various leadership practices that Steve Jobs left behind. The article  also holds information about what one as a manager or one in a leadership position should avoid. Jobs left behind guidelines to which should be utilized in the market business and used in planning when deciding to join the market industry. Not only can these tips be used but some are subject to change to best fit your companies needs.

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Like other visionary pioneers Steve Jobs also had his limitations - and how he led Apple employees - was surely one of them. His legendary impatience, relentless quest for perfection, domineering presence, and obsessive need to control (he had over 100 direct reports) fostered as much fear within the Apple culture as it did reverence and respect for his genius. Often described as smug, willful, brazen, demeaning, volatile, vindictive and manipulative, he lead the company in a manner far afield from the collaborative norm expected of CEOs running public companies. Reportedly, employees working at Cupertino, CA headquarters even avoided getting into elevators with him lest they be fired by the time the ride ended. And Apple colleagues have described his assessment of employees as the "hero or shithead roller coaster" and where anyone was on that roller coaster could shift in a nanosecond.

The binary perception of Steve Jobs's technological brilliance on the one hand, and his stark failing as a manager of people on the other persisted outside of Apple as well. While acknowledging his transformational accomplishments, a senior Google executive recently described him to me as a "complete jerk." Jobs's tantrums, maniacal pressure to realize his visions, and evangelistic oratory could embolden others' best efforts but there were people costs within the culture as well. However, the human resources dimension of leadership was never a focus for Jobs - and like his brilliant competitor, Bill Gates, he really didn't care about it. As we look back on Jobs's leadership over the years, there is much to glean from his example - points that CEOs should emulate and traits that should be avoided as all costs.

When Gates was still CEO of Microsoft, I received a call from his head of leadership development who offered me the opportunity to work with Gates's top "high potential" employees. Given other client commitments, I began to decline the engagement when she said, "We'll give you whatever you want - at least think about it over night and call me back."

Longer consideration helped me realize there was one thing I wanted - and wanted big time given that my life's work centered on the study of top business leaders' behavior. I called her back and said, "I'd have to start with Bill." After an audible gasp she said, "I'm not sure we can deliver on that condition, but I'll at least run it up the flag pole."

Gates's two word response was, "Not interested."

The juggernaut success stories of Microsoft and Apple surely confirm the fact that there are all kinds of leaders including "jerks" like Gates and Jobs. But unless your company is being lead by a jerk on a par with the potential of Gates or Jobs, it's a mistake to dismiss the serious consideration of how leaders lead and the implications of this for employee contentment and productivity.

From a behavioral "how" perspective, what did Steve Jobs get right as a leader? And, where was he the most wrong? We can consider these questions through the lens of three leadership types - Remarkable, Perilous, and Toxic. Rather than rigidly assigning one type per leader, I believe they move along a continuum from remarkable to toxic behavior.

Remarkable leaders are defined as the most fully evolved of these three types because they rate highly on four leadership criteria:

1. total brain leadership (TBL)

2. emotional intelligence (EQ)

3. productive narcissism

4. core leadership competencies (strategic thinking, driving results, managing people and executive credibility)

Perilous leaders can compare favorably to Remarkables, however, their underlying insecurity and chronic dissatisfaction with work - what I refer to as their sense of "unrequited work," produces erratic and confusing leadership behavior. Their negative and inconsistent behavior can cascade over their employees like sleet.

Toxic leaders are either so driven by getting their own needs met, or flawed given serious psychological issues - such as bipolar illness - that they are ill-equipped to lead effectively.

Based on these criteria, explained below, I would assess Steve Jobs as having moved along the behavioral continuum between Remarkable and Perilous with folklore level instances of insulting and demoralizing Toxic behavior. Given contextual factors and his restless state of mind, his leadership was compromised further by behavior that could vary significantly and change almost instantaneously. Such behavior would not be tolerated in most public companies, however, given Job's rare brilliance and the company's global success, my guess is his employees and other key stake holders - including board members - either just accepted it and/or became inured to even his worst leadership behavior.

The criterion of Total Brain Leadership-is the ability to merge left brain intellectual horsepower with right brain-based interpersonal capabilities. Jobs receives a mixed rating due to his innate strengths but significant interpersonal limitations.

The second criterion, emotional intelligence, is the awareness of both one's own and others' emotions and the ability to channel this emotional awareness to help achieve objectives. Jobs does not get high marks here. While he may have possessed some degree of self-awareness, he did not care about his negative effects on others. Attuned primarily to getting his objectives met, he had no interest in or empathy for the concerns, issues or aspirations of his employees. And finally, his relationships were primarily transactional with employees being expected to deliver exactly what he wanted and in the timeframes he set.

The third criteria is what Harvard psychiatrist, Michael Maccoby refers to as "productive narcissism," i.e., significant confidence in one's capabilities and the drive to channel them in the service of the organization versus pursuing one's selfish needs for ego gratification. If we accept that Jobs's over-arching motivation was to achieve his technological visions and in the course of doing so change the world, we can give him high marks for productive narcissism.

Jobs gets a mixed rating on the forth criteria of critical leadership competencies. He's a resounding YES on strategic thinking and driving results - even though we can raise serious questions about how he went about achieving results in Apple. Because of this, he'd have to get a failing grade on managing people. And while he could be a mesmerizing communicator, his behavioral inconsistency pulls down his rating on executive credibility.

So, from the perspective of the how dimension of leadership, to follow are the takeaways from Steve Jobs's career - and what other leaders should practice for success:

Relentlessly pursue bold ideas - Organizations must have the patience, courage, and foresight to encourage, provide resources, and remove barriers for their "wild ducks" to pursue and realize break-out ideas.

The customer rules - Organizations need to identify and accelerate the careers of high potential employees who are attuned to the marketplace in ways that drive products and/or services intended to always surprise and delight the customer.

Ego serves the organization - Leaders can have big egos, but their efforts are fundamentally channeled in the service of making organizations successful.

Don't confuse activity with results - Successful leaders leverage competitive drive to maintain traction/deliver distinctive excellence. They are not distracted from achieving the organization's strategy and primary objectives.

The 3 Rs - Strong leaders ensure that the right people are in the right jobs and that the right conditions have been created for them to succeed.

Truth-telling - Don't tolerate mediocre ideas, and be willing to take decisive action when people are not cutting it in their assigned roles.

Inspirational communication - Provide frequent and intensely motivational communication about compelling objectives, and the importance of speed to market.

Avoid the following pitfalls:

Prizing boldness to a fault - Don't push ideas at the expense of forming and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders; inducing unnecessary political problems both within and outside the organization.

Misreading the customer - Customers may or may not be ready for the next "shiny object." Objectively gauging customer readiness is key in the pacing and release of technological advances.

When ego doesn't serve the organization - Acting like the 800-pound dominant gorilla and/or always needing to be the smartest kid in the room can have intensely de-motivating and or dis-empowering effects on others.

Excessive drive for results - People will feel trampled, unnecessarily stressed, pushed beyond what is reasonable, neglected, or otherwise de-humanized in the name of achieving results.

The 1 R - Getting the people right, but failing to assimilate them well or supporting them fully, expecting them to solve organization obstacles that really require senior management intervention, and failing to mentor employees won't build talent bench strength within the organization.

Destructive truth telling - Excessive negative feedback that gets personal, and also the absence of "psychological paychecks" that recognize and affirm stellar efforts and results does nothing to drive results.

Un-inspirational communication - Messages that are diminished by a leader's hyperbole, grand-standing, and/or failure to help employees see their place in the journey leaves workers uninspired and lost.

In the final months before he died, Jobs reportedly met with his key business unit leaders and gave each one of them the innovation playbook intended to guide their efforts through the next decade. On the surface this may quell questions about Apple maintaining its innovation edge. However, the complexity and unpredictability of product execution and marketplace forces could not have been completely anticipated by Jobs.

Further, the Apple culture challenges of adjusting to his death, as well as of identifying its next set of behavioral norms cannot be underestimated. These challenges will require a Total Brain Leader who is self aware and attuned to the emotional tenor of the organization. He must also keep his own ego in check as he remains riveted on both the strategic and human resources needs of the organization.

All eyes will be on Jobs's successor, Tim Cook. Is this talented operations executive the right CEO for the current time? Impossible to assess this early. But he may surprise.

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The Real Lessons from Steve Jobs' Career

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Like other visionary pioneers Steve Jobs also had his limitations - and how he led Apple employees - was surely one of them. His legendary impatience, relentless quest for perfection, domineering presence, and obsessive need to control (he had over 100 direct reports) fostered as much fear within the Apple culture as it did reverence and respect for his genius.

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In this video Jobs stresses leadership and how running a business should not be based on hierarchy by on the creativity and ideas of the right individuals. I believe everyone should watch this video so they understand that placing one person in charge of everything is not always the smartest thing to do. Jobs asked in the video "why would you want to work for someone you can't learn anything from?". This makes perfect sense when you attempt to place someone in a position that they can not handle.

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Young Steve Jobs on how to hire, manage, and lead people - MUST WATCH

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This is completely necessary and obviously "not so obvious". If more people and businesses knew this, I bet newer companies that fail within the first 3 years would have sustained. Information like so should not go unnoticed as it is in terms vital to the success of a business. Although I am not quite in this line of work it , I believe this article is still useful for now and in the future and for those who are already in the market industry.

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Steve Jobs built the world's most valuable company, breaking just about every business rule in the process. He focused on simplifying things for the consumer and delivering the market what it wants without asking for it to tell him what it wants.

Ironically, if you sit through any sales or marketing lecture, you will hear the opposite - that the customer will tell us what they want. Jobs simply didn't agree.

For today's businesses large and small there are some lessons to be learned. However, not all of them are obvious. Here are 8 not-so-obvious lessons to be learned from the man that reinvented personal computing, music, and arguably the cloud.

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8 Not-So-Obvious Lessons From Apple's Steve Jobs - Millennial CEO

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Steve Jobs built the world's most valuable company, breaking just about every business rule in the process. He focused on simplifying things for the consumer and delivering the market what it wants without asking for it to tell him what it wants.