Thomas Jefferson, Steve Jobs, and the Rule of 3

Carmine Gallo, Contributor

I cover leaders who are exceptionally persuasive communicators.

This week America celebrates the three inalienable rights voiced in the U.S. Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Life, liberty, and happiness might very well be the three most important words in American history. The words are so eloquent, so impactful, they warrant their own Wikipedia entry. According to Wikipedia the phrase is considered by some as the “the most well-crafted, influential sentences in the history of the English language.”  Those three words inspired other countries, most notably France, to seek its own freedoms from oppression and to delineate the rights of its citizens into groups of three. The French motto “liberty, equality, and fraternity” traces its origin to the French revolution.  The list of countries that were directly inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence is so large, I don’t think it’s a stretch to argue that those three words might very well be the most important three words in human history.

Why did Jefferson choose three rights instead of, say, twelve? Jefferson was a skilled writer and his famous phrase reflects a rhetorical technique that can be traced to ancient Greece—a figure of speech using three words to express one idea.  As a communications coach, I strongly recommend using the ‘Rule of 3’ in all areas of communications: marketing, pitches, and presentations.

The most persuasive number in communications.  It is well established that we can only hold a small amount of information in short term, or ‘active,’ memory. In 1956, Bell Labs reached out to Harvard professor George Miller who published a classic paper titled, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two.” Miller argued that we have a hard time retaining more than seven to nine digits in short-term memory. Now you know why a phone number is 7 digits. Contemporary scientists, however, have put the number of items we can easily recall in short-term memory closer to three or four “chunks” of information. Think about it. When someone leaves a phone number on a voice message, you’re more likely to recall the first 3 digits before having to listen to the message again for the remainder of the number.

Since three is easier to remember than four, or seven, I suggest sticking to the Rule of 3 whenever possible. If your listener will only remember about three things from your conversation, presentation, or email, why overwhelm them with twenty-two key messages? Longer lists are complex, confusing, and convoluted.

The Rule of 3 is everywhere. The next time you are standing in the security line at a U.S airport, pay attention to the TSA instructions. The “3 simple steps to security” are: Show ID and boarding pass, take out liquids, and take off shoes and jackets. A former Air Force pilot approached me after a presentation on improving communication skills and said it reminded him of the “3 rules of surviving captivity”: fellowship with other prisoners,survive, and return with honor.

The TSA and military branches know that listing tasks in groups of three is more easily processed and, therefore, easier to follow. Great speeches are often divided into three themes, plays are often divided into three acts, and the same technique applies to persuasive presentations—tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them.

Steve Jobs’ love of threes. Two hundred years after Jefferson’s words sparked a revolution, two young men launched a computer revolution from the garage of a nondescript house in Northern California. In 1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple Computer to build tools that would empower everyday people. Wozniak was the engineer; Jobs was the visionary and the marketing genius who understood the role communications would play in launching the revolution.

Steve Jobs using the Rule of 3

Steve Jobs applied the Rule of 3 in nearly every presentation and product launch. In 2007 Jobs introduced the first iPhone as the “third” of Apple’s revolutionary product categories (the first two were the Macintosh and the iPod). He even said that Apple would be introducing “three” revolutionary products—a new iPod, a phone, and an Internet communications device. Jobs repeated the three products slowly until the audience finally figured out he was talking about one device capable of handling all three tasks.

In 2010 Jobs introduced the first iPad with a slide showing the new tablet as a “third device” between a smartphone and a laptop. The iPad, he told the audience, would also come in “three models”: 16, 32, and 64 GB of flash storage.

In 2011, Jobs introduced the iPad 2 as “thinner, lighter, and faster” than the original. The three adjectives so accurately described the new device, thousands of blog and newspaper headlines included those three words.

Try to apply the Rule of 3. Divide a presentation into three parts. Introduce a product with three benefits. Give me three reasons to hire you! The rule of 3—It worked for Jefferson, it worked for Jobs, and it will work for you.

Carmine Gallo is the communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. He is a popular keynote speaker and author of several books, including the international bestsellers The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. His new book, The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty is the first book to reveal the secrets behind the stunning success of the Apple Retail Store. Follow Carmine on Facebook or Twitter.

SOURCE:  www.forbes.com

Richard Branson's 5 Rules for Good Business

BY RICHARD BRANSON 

During a recent radio interview on the BBC, the host asked me what advice I would give to young people who want to start their own businesses. In the 46 years since I launched Student magazine, the world has certainly changed. The uncertain economic outlook and the relentless pace of technological advances make replicating Virgin’s success much more challenging for today’s young entrepreneur.

At Student magazine, we expressed our opposition to the Vietnam War and the Cold War; these days, governments now face the more nebulous threat of terrorism and instability in the Middle East and Africa. Back then, American and European markets were generally stable; today, the economic power of Western nations is being challenged by the fast-growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, and growth opportunities and new markets can be found around the world.

There is also marketers’ new ability to bypass traditional channels -- TV, radio and newspapers -- and build a strong following online for their companies via Twitter, Google+, Facebook and new applications such as Path and Klout. This means that most startups are able to launch with smaller marketing budgets, and that entrepreneurs can break into new markets fast. It also means that successful companies must defend their positions, because their products can go out of fashion just as quickly as they caught on.

But during the radio interview I found myself arguing that while the world may be changing quickly, the steps to building a good business have not. The five simple guidelines we followed when we started the magazine and then Virgin Music remain as valid and useful as they were in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

1. If you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it. You must love what you do.

2. Be innovative: Create something different that will stand out.

3. Your employees are your best asset. Happy employees make for happy customers.

4. Lead by listening: Get feedback from your staff and customers on a regular basis.

5. Be visible: Market the company and its offers by putting yourself or a senior person in front of the cameras.

Virgin Media founded its Pioneers program to promote aspiring business people and help them to network. One of our best known pioneers is Jamal Edwards, the founder of SB.TV, an online music and lifestyle channel, whose company and business model remind me of Virgin’s in our early days.

When Edwards started out, his company was just himself and his camera; he started posting videos of rap performances for his online followers. He was doing what he loved, and soon he developed a cult following for his passionate, innovative and authentic early videos of musical events.

Once he had established a brand and a following, Edwards and his team extended SB.TV’s reach into more areas, including music and lifestyle, merchandise, clothing and even a record label. Traditional brands like Puma and Nando’s (the fast-food chain) started calling, wanting to discuss deals and endorsements.

Edwards has also made his own luck by spotting talent. In 2010 a struggling singer-songwriter sent a video to SB.TV that was accepted and placed on the company’s YouTube channel. The views kept racking up, and eventually the rapper Example offered the unsigned young singer a chance to tour with him. This was none other than Ed Sheeran, whose career was effectively launched by SB.TV.

Edwards remains very busy and very visible, promoting SB.TV and himself wherever he can -- on his website, in partnership with Google Chrome and in the media, he tells the story of his company and their dreams and successes, getting the message out. And he knows that good business depends on backing your people and being a good listener. Despite his early successes, he remains down to earth, always willing to listen and constantly trying new ventures.

If you have the right idea and execute properly, your startup’s launch date does not matter. While the business environment has changed, the basic rules remain the same. Rather than getting nostalgic about how things used to be, embrace the new opportunities and challenges available to you now.

SOURCE: www.entrepreneur.com

SKILLS

Use these skills from a former trial attorney to increase your ability to negotiate a deal.

Life is negotiation. So much of our daily lives revolve around this practice, and yet so few of us spend any time truly learning what it takes to become great at this requisite skill.

Think about it: How much of your life involves negotiation? Most people don't realize when it is taking place. But it surrounds us. It is who we are.

Sure, everyone knows that you have to negotiate to buy a car. Some may even know that almost every retailer—if pushed—will negotiate a better price for an item. But what about the more subtle forms of negotiation? Do you even recognize when these occur?

Have you ever said to your spouse, "I'll take out the trash. Can you load the dishwasher?" Negotiation. When you ask for a raise? Negotiation. Who's driving? Negotiation.

Since I was a child, my parents have always told me I was good at manipulating others. Negotiation. Perhaps it was inevitable that I went into law, at least initially. A profession that heightened my abilities at reading people and knowing how to react to the tells they were giving me.

After half a lifetime of negotiating and learning the techniques to do so better, here are a few of the secrets I have picked up:

Basic Skills

1. Listen

To negotiate, you must learn how to listen and apply what you hear to formulate your next move. Every word has a purpose. Every statement a hidden tell. If you listen carefully, I mean really carefully, you will be able to hear and understand what your opponent in the negotiation truly wants. Listening is the bare minimum skill you must have to start building your abilities as a good negotiator.

2.  Be Willing to Walk Away

When two sides are negotiating, one of the other most basic skills you must retain is the ability to walk away if the deal does not satisfy your requirements. Some may think this is axiomatic, but it is not.

Once I was assisting a friend in negotiating the purchase of a new car. At the end we were close, but the dealer refused to remove some extra charge that was just more fat on the bone for his sales price. After much back-and-forth over this item, we reached an impasse: The salesman would not take it out of the price, and I would not move on him taking it out. I stood up, politely thanked him for his time, and said to my friend, "Let's go."

To my surprise, my friend remained seated, turned his eyes toward me, his expression quickly changing to that of a child's wanting a toy in a toy store, and said, "But I really want the car." At that point, any chance of continuing to negotiate a better deal evaporated like a puddle on a hot Southern summer afternoon. If he would have stood and walked, we would have never made it to the door before that item was taken off the cost. But by not being willing to walk away, we gave the other side a critical advantage: He knew we would not walk. Always be willing to walk away from a deal, and let it be known in either a subtle or not so subtle manner, as the situation dictates.

Intermediate Skills

1.  Feign Indifference, Don't be Indifferent

Obviously we care about the thing we are negotiating for, otherwise there would not be a negotiation. But just as we must be willing to walk away from the deal, equally as important is that you must never let the other party know how much you want or need to make the deal.

For example, for anyone who is familiar with my other writings you may recall that I am a trial attorney who has tried hundreds of cases in my career and litigated thousands more. At some juncture during the course of litigation, the parties will discuss settlement. Irrespective of my client's concerns and directives, I always feign indifference during settlement discussion. Why? Because if the other side ever gets a whiff that you are not willing to try the case, it will have a decided advantage over you in the negotiation process.

So no matter if my client is ready to take the case to the mat or can't afford or does not want to move forward anymore, opposing counsel gets the same routine from me every time: "We can try to settle the case or just go to trial. I'm good with whatever." The goal in feigning indifference is to be as difficult to read as a blank page. In the end, however, it is a valuable skill to have in any negotiation. So you may not be indifferent, but never let them know.

2.  Have the Ammunition You Need

In litigation, this is about having your case ready to go to trial if it does not settle and making sure the other party knows you are ready. In other negotiations, such as in real estate, it's about letting a prospective purchaser know you have another buyer on the line and that if he does not meet your terms, you'll just sell it to the other guy. In any negotiation that involves an alternative action if the terms are not met, you must let the other party know you can, and will, do a specific act it does not want you to do in the event terms are not met. In short, let the other party know that you have your ammo and are willing to use it.

Many years ago, my then firm represented a man who had been horrifically injured by a product. Our firm was brought in to represent his interests against the manufacturer. Because of certain confidentiality provisions, I cannot mention the product or even the type of product it was. Suffice to say, however, it was the first case of its kind and had significant national exposure on not only a media level but political as well. Well, as in any litigation case, the parties are required to exchange documents whether they are detrimental or not to your case.

We knew that the defendants were holding out on us and saying that these specific very damaging reports did not exist despite the fact we had witnesses that testified to the contrary. We knew if we got our hands on these reports, they would be shaking in their boots. Well, to make a long story short while referencing a great episode from Seinfeld,we employed a special team of people to "retrieve" the reports for us, and "yadda yadda yadda," we appeared at pretrial with these ultra-damaging reports in hand. The case, one of the most contentious and longest I had ever been involved in, settled minutes later. Why? Because we had the ammo.

So it does not matter if it is litigation, real estate sales with an alternative buyer, or otherwise, always have the ammo—or appearance thereof—to support your side in the negotiation.

Advanced Skills

1.  What Motivates the Other Party? Use It

As a prerequisite, you must always listen. Listening, as stated above, is critical to hearing what the other side wants. But on a higher level, you must strive to understand why. What is motivating the why? If you can listen between the lines to understand that which truly motivates the other party, you will gain a decided advantage in the negotiation of the deal.

Let's take an example from McDonald's, the iconic company that is now making significant inroads in China. A few years ago, I watched a special on McDonald's that was fascinating. It went through the company's history, business philosophies, and plans for expansion. In regard to expansion, the company has at least one team of individuals canvassing China looking for great locations for future McDonald's.

In this show, McDonald's found and built a restaurant on a relatively undeveloped plot of land on the outskirts of an industrial city. Why? Because McDonald's had done its research and knew that within three months of the purchase or lease of that land the local development authority would be approving a mixed-use high-rise community situated adjacent to McDonald's new location that would house over 20,000 residents. So, sure, McDonald's wanted the land to build a restaurant.

But if you were the owner of that land, wouldn't you find it helpful to understand what motivated the selection of that site? Armed with that knowledge, is it not reasonable to ask for a higher price in the negotiation process? That what in this instance is McDonald's desire to acquire the property. The why, however, and a more thorough understanding of the why, is what would really drive the deal.

So listen and figure out what motivates the other side. It will give you a leg up in the negotiation.

2.  Lead Them to the Water and Let Them Drink

A good negotiator knows you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. Despite your best efforts, the horse must drink on its own.

In litigation, our clients are often frustrated at the length of time it sometimes takes to settle a case out of court. Sometimes this frustration even boils over into demands that we speed the process up or make the other party sign or respond to an offer of settlement.

At the end of the day, however, no amount of complaining, yelling, or otherwise can make the other party sign an agreement. In the end, you can negotiate the deal but the final negotiation—where you ultimately get the party to sign on the dotted line—well, that is all up to them.

You cannot hold their head underwater until they sign. But you can subtlety remind them that every day the agreement is not signed they are just racking up more attorney's fees. Heck, I like to even throw in a little humor referencing the fact I will soon be sending two kids off to college, and I certainly don't mind if they take their time; they are just helping with my kids' college-education fund.

So as in any negotiation, you must be tactful and subtle and lead them to the deal but always mindful you cannot force a deal to be made. A strategy of repeated subtle influence in this regard is often required.

3.  Accent Morphing

Familiarity breeds comfort. Comfort leads to a heightened ability to get a deal done. Let's face it, we are comfortable around those with whom we feel some common bond. Years ago, when we got out of a lengthy negotiation, my co-counsel turned to me and said, "Never realized you had a Southern accent before." As the day wore on, my accent dissipated, and I returned to my normal manner of speaking.

Well, it seemed that I had, during the course of negotiation with the opposing counsel, started speaking in a slight to moderate Southern accent during our marathon discussions before a court in Western Virginia. The opposing counsel himself was a large, imposing Southerner much like Fred Gwynne's portrayal of Judge Chamberlain Haller in My Cousin Vinnie. Well, it seems that somewhat subconsciously after hours of stalemate in this heated discussion I had started adopting the accents of the opposing counsel and the judge, a local legend himself. I know this may sound crazy, but we traced when the ice broke in regard to the settlement talks back to around the time I started speaking in a more gentile, Southern manner.

And so began a practice of mine of sometimes morphing my accent, ever so slightly in some instances, more so in others, to create a bond of familiarity between myself and the person with whom I am negotiating. Now, I'm not saying if you are from the deep South and are negotiating with someone from Brooklyn you should suddenly lose your drawl and go all Vinnie Barbarino on them. Rather, slight almost imperceptible changes in your accent to mirror your opponent in the negotiation can create an unconscious feeling of familiarity with you without the other side even realizing it, to the extent that it can, and often does, assist in the negotiation of a deal.

4.  Vilify, Unite, and Conquer 

Often we are placed in a position that no one wants to be in. A position that someone else has put us in. But the only way out is to negotiate a truce. This is often the case in law when you receive a preliminary ruling that does not support your case or, as is often the case, a ruling that makes trial more difficult for both parties. When this occurs, use the master technique of vilifying the third party, using it to unite those parties in the negotiation, and then conquer the deal through the aforesaid vilification and uniting of common interests.

For instance, we were once in a proceeding in which the judge made a ruling on evidence presented at trial by opposing counsel that was going to fundamentally change the outcome of the case. It was evidence the opposing counsel had offered and, upon our objection, should have been denied but the judge was new, did not know this area of the law very well, and let it in over very stern objections. Even the opposing counsel was stunned it was received.

At the end of the day, all trial counsel agreed that the party offering the evidence was actually in a very bad position. They would likely now win the case, but because the ruling on that critical piece of evidence was simply wrong, we had an absolute grounds for appeal that would be victorious years later, with the matter most likely having to be retried at significant cost and expense.

So what did we do? Vilify, unite, and conquer. Realizing our good fortune, we quickly vilified the court to the opposing counsel, making it appear like the enemy. We established that all parties were now in the same boat, having been sabotaged by this bad ruling. And we settled the case, because no one wanted a three-year appeal that would result in a new trial four to five years from the date of the current trial.

Vilify, unite, and conquer. It won't always be available for you. But when it is, use it to get a deal done.

Matthew Swyers is the founder of The Trademark Company, a web-based law firm specializing in protecting the trademark rights of small to medium-sized businesses. The company is also ranked No. 138 on the 2011 Inc. 500 list. @TrademarkCo

SOURCE: www.inc.com

True Secret to Success (It's Not What You Think)

If you're not exercising this emotional muscle, you're probably setting yourself up for failure.

I'm utterly convinced that the key to lifelong success is the regular exercise of a single emotional muscle: gratitude.

People who approach life with a sense of gratitude are constantly aware of what's wonderful in their life. Because they enjoy the fruits of their successes, they seek out more success. And when things don't go as planned, people who are grateful can put failure into perspective.

By contrast, people who lack gratitude are never truly happy. If they succeed at a task, they don't enjoy it. For them, a string of successes is like trying to fill a bucket with a huge leak in the bottom. And failure invariably makes them bitter, angry, and discouraged.

Therefore, if you want to be successful, you need to feel more gratitude. Fortunately, gratitude, like most emotions, is like a muscle: The more you use it, the stronger and more resilient it becomes.

Practice Nightly

The best time to exercise gratitude is just before bed. Take out your tablet (electronic or otherwise) and record the events of the day that created positive emotions, either in you or in those around you.

Did you help somebody solve a problem? Write it down. Did you connect with a colleague or friend? Write it down. Did you make somebody smile? Write it down.

What you're doing is "programming your brain" to view your day more positively. You're throwing mental focus on what worked well, and shrugging off what didn't. As a result, you'll sleep better, and you'll wake up more refreshed.

Reprogramming Your Brain

More important, you're also programming your brain to notice even more reasons to feel gratitude. You'll quickly discover that even a "bad day" is full of moments that are worthy of gratitude. Success becomes sweeter; failure, less sour.

The more regularly you practice this exercise, the stronger its effects.

Over time, your "gratitude muscle" will become so strong that you'll attract more success into your life, not to mention greater numbers of successful (i.e., grateful) people. You'll also find yourself thanking people more often. That's good for you and for them, too.

This method works. If you don't believe me, try it for at least a week. You'll be amazed at what a huge difference it makes.

Geoffrey James writes the "Sales Source" column on Inc.com, the world's most-visited sales-oriented blog. His newly published book is Business to Business Selling: Power Words and Strategies From the World's Top Sales Experts. @Sales_Source

SOURCE: www.inc.com

Make a Great First Impression: 7 Smart Tricks

People decide whether to work with you within two seconds of meeting you. Here's how to make an impact.

Research shows that customers decide whether or not they want to work with youwithin two seconds of meeting you face to face.

That puts the burden on you to make certain that those two seconds really count. The only way to do that is to prepare ahead of time.

These tricks may help.

1. Keep Yourself Fit

Your energy level is dependent upon your overall level of health. If you tire easily, rest assured you're likely to look tired--especially under the stress of an initial meeting. And if you look tired, other people will make the snap decision that you're too tired to get the job done.

This does not mean that you need to be a bodybuilder or Hollywood thin. But you must be healthy enough to look alert, capable, and interested.

2. Research the Culture

Different industries have different norms about what's appropriate in terms of personal appearance and meeting behavior. For example, wearing an Armani suit to a meeting with a programmer is simply inviting silent ridicule. Similarly, different regions of the country (or the world, for that matter) have different norms. Women who wear even slightly sexy outfits can send the wrong message to managers from the Middle East, for instance. Find out what's expected before you meet.

3. Send Clear Signals

Your semiotics are the signals that your appearance immediately communicates to other people. People make snap judgments based on clothes, accessories, and more: watches, jewelry, briefcases, makeup, skin tone, facial expression, and so forth.

As far as is practical, make sure you are consciously creating a set of visual signals that is most likely to communicate that you're the kind of person that's it's appropriate to do business with.

4. Create the Best Greeting

There are three parts to your greeting: your smile, your words, and your handshake (or your bow, in some parts of the world). These vary according to situation.

Research is key: For example, some cultures view toothy grins as vulgar. Your words should be appropriately formal (or informal). Handshakes should generally be firm rather than crushing or limp. (And bowing is very specific to the situation.) Do your homework!

5. Know Your Agenda

A huge part of a first impression hinges on whether you seem confident in yourself and what you've got to offer. People sense at gut level whether you're prepared for the subsequent meeting or just planning to wing it.

That's why it's important to know what you want to accomplish at the meeting and be ready to accomplish it. Being thoroughly prepared creates a poise that silently communicates you're credible and reliable.

6. Rehearse Your Entrance

Now that you've put all the parts together, do a dress rehearsal of how you'll enter the room--or, if it's the other person who's entering, how you'll stand and deliver your greeting. Rehearse it enough times so that it all becomes second nature, rather than merely rote memorization. If possible, practice with a colleague and get feedback.

7. Measure and Adjust

Since first impressions are so crucial to success, you'll want to track the results of your efforts. After each initial meeting, note the response of the people you've just met. Pay attention to facial expressions, statements, and subsequent behavior.

If the meeting also included a trusted colleague, ask for feedback. Did the first impression you made help or hinder? Where is there room for improvement?

Geoffrey James writes the "Sales Source" column on Inc.com, the world's most-visited sales-oriented blog. His newly published book is Business to Business Selling: Power Words and Strategies From the World's Top Sales Experts. @Sales_Source

SOURCE: www.inc.com

What's an Entrepreneur? The Best Answer Ever

This classic 25-word definition pares entrepreneurship to its essence and explains why it's so hard. And so addictive.

As an entrepreneur, you surely have an elevator pitch, the pithy 15-second synopsis of what your company does and why, and you can all but repeat it in your sleep. But until recently, I’d never seen a good elevator pitch for entrepreneurship itself—that is, what you do that all entrepreneurs do?

 Now I've seen it, and it comes from Harvard Business School, of all places. It was conceived 37 years ago by HBS professor Howard Stevenson. I came across it in the book Breakthrough Entrepreneurship (which I highly recommend) by entrepreneur and teacher Jon Burgstone and writer Bill Murphy, Jr. Of Stevenson’s definition, Burgstone says, “people often need to say it out loud 50 or 100 times before they really understand what it means.” Here it is:

 Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.

 I talked to Stevenson about his classic definition this weekend. Back in 1983, he told me, people tended to define entrepreneurship almost as a personality disorder, a kind of risk addiction. “But that didn’t fit the entrepreneurs I knew,” he said. “I never met an entrepreneur who got up in the morning saying ‘Where’s the most risk in today’s economy, and how can I get some? Most entrepreneurs I know are looking to lay risk off—on investors, partners, lenders, and anyone else.” As for personality, he said, “The entrepreneurs I know are all different types. They’re as likely to be wallflowers as to be the wild man of Borneo.”

By focusing on entrepreneurship as a process, his definition opened the term to all kinds of people. Plus, it matched the one demographic fact HBS researchers already knew about entrepreneurs—they were more likely to start out poor than rich. “They see an opportunity and don’t feel constrained from pursuing it because they lack resources,” says Stevenson. “They’re used to making do without resources.”

 The perception of opportunity in the absence of resources helps explain much of what differentiates entrepreneurial leadership from that of corporate administrators: the emphasis on team rather than hierarchy, fast decisions rather than deliberation, and equity rather than cash compensation.

 What would you expect, asks Stevenson: When you don’t have the cash to boss people around, like in a corporation, you have to create a more horizontal organization. “You hire people who want what you have and not what you don’t have,” Stevenson says. In other words, entrepreneurs offer their team members a larger share of a vision for a future payoff, rather than a smaller share of the meager resources at hand. Opportunity is the only real resource you have.

 Or, as Burgstone puts it:

Every time you want to make any important decision, there are two possible courses of action. You can look at the array of choices that present themselves, pick the best available option and try to make it fit. Or, you can do what the true entrepreneur does: Figure out the best conceivable option and then make it available.

And that, folks, is what makes entrepreneurship so friggin' hard. And so friggin' necessary.

Eric Schurenberg is the editor of Inc.com. Before joining Inc, Eric was the editor of CBS MoneyWatch.com and BNET.com and managing editor of Money Magazine. As a writer, he is a winner of a Loeb and a National Magazine Award. @EricSchurenberg

SOURCE: www.inc.com

10 Leadership Lessons from the IBM Executive School

August Turak, Contributor

I write about Service and Selflessness: the Secret to Success.

But failure was not an option for Mobley, and after many a dark night of the soul he hit upon the answer that turned IBM into the fastest growing and most admired corporation in the world…

In 1955 IBM’s legendary CEO, Tom Watson Jr., gave my mentor, Louis R. Mobley, a blank check and carte blanche to create The IBM Executive School. Fresh from successfully implementing IBM’s first supervisor and middle management training programs, Mobley confidently set about churning out executives as well.

The first thing he did, in conjunction with GE and DuPont, was hire the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the same company that still does the SATs, to identify the skills that make great leaders great. Once these intellectual skills were identified, Mobley and his colleagues at GE and DuPont assumed that spitting out executives would simply mean “training to the test.”

ETS dutifully rounded up a bunch of proven leaders and tested them every which way from Sunday looking for their common skills. The results were astounding and more than a little disturbing. As Mobley put it, “No matter what bell shaped curve we drew, successful leaders fell on the extreme edges. The only thing they seemed to have in common was having nothing in common. ETS was so frustrated that they offered us our money back.”

But failure wasn’t an option for Mobley, and after many a dark night of the soul he finally hit upon the answer. Unlike supervisors and middle managers, what successful executives shared were not skills and knowledge but values and attitudes. And over time Mobley identified the values and attitudes that great leaders share.

1) Great Leaders Thrive on Ambiguity. While most of us like black and white decisions, successful leaders are comfortable with what Mobley called, “shades of gray.” Great leaders are able to hold apparent contradictions in tension. They use the tension these paradoxes produce to come up with innovative ideas.

2)   Great Leaders Love Blank Sheets of Paper. Supervisors and middle managers use a framework of policies and procedures to guide them to the proper decision. They want a plan that reduces their job to filling in the blanks or what Mobley called “following the bouncing ball.” By contrast, leaders create the blanks that managers fill in. Like some business Einstein intent on reinventing the universe, every great leader relishes the opportunity to “think things through” from scratch.

3)   Great Leaders are Secure People. Successful executives thrive on differences of opinion. They surround themselves with the best people they can find: people strong enough to hold a contrary opinion and argue vociferously for it. Great leaders crave challenges, and this means hiring the most challenging people they can find with no regard for whether today’s challenger might be tomorrow’s rival.

4)   Great Leaders Want Options. Long before it became fashionable,Mobley was a huge proponent of diversity. However his definition meant a diversity of opinion rather than the kind we usually associate with political correctness. Mobley’s great leader constantly demands diverse options from his team, and uses these options to produce creative decisions.

5)   Great Leaders are Tough Enough to Face Facts. At heart Mobley was a spiritual man who valued the Truth for the Truth’s sake. Successful executives face facts, and this means being open to the truth even when it is not what we want to hear. One of the most successful executives I know offers cash rewards to anyone in his company who can prove him wrong. Great leaders have a nose for B.S and abhor it.

6)   Great Leaders Stick Their Necks Out. It is a natural human trait to fear being evaluated. We crave wiggle room so we can deflect blame and get off the hook when things go wrong. In business what is often passed off as a collaborative effort is actually just an attempt to avoid individual accountability. Great leaders want to be measured and evaluated. They continually look for ways to measure things that may seem immeasurable, and they cheerfully accept the blame when they are wrong or fail to deliver. The old adage that success has a 1000 fathers while failure is an orphan does not apply to great leadership.

7)   Great Leaders Believe in Themselves. While great leaders crave advice, options, and strong colleagues, they all share a profound belief in themselves and their judgment. Mobley described great leaders as “people stubbornly following their star who don’t know how to quit.” Holding this stubbornness in tension with a willingness to be wrong is perhaps the greatest trick that every great leader must perform.

8)   Great Leaders are Deep Thinkers. Managers get things done. Executives must decide on the things worth doing in the first place. Though very difficult to quantify, great leaders are deep thinkers. They constantly dive below surface “facts” searching for new ways to knit those facts together. Great leaders are generalists not specialists driven by an omnivorous curiosity. They know that the answers they are seeking will probably emerge from outside business and from disciplines that may seem utterly unrelated.

9)   Great Leaders are Ruthlessly Honest with Themselves. Self-knowledge is perhaps the most critical trait that all great leaders share. Leaders question assumptions and disrupt complacency by relentlessly asking the question: “What is the business of the business?” This exercise develops and refines the organization’s mission and purpose, and it is little more than the age old question “Who am I?” applied collectively. If you are not clear about the purpose of your own life how can you provide a sense of organizational purpose for others?

10) Great Leaders are Passionate. They may be loudly charismatic or quietly intense, but all great leaders care deeply about what they are doing and why they are doing it. Perhaps most importantly they care about people. Every business is a people business, and passionately caring about people whether they are employees, customers, vendors or stockholders is an essential leadership value.

Once Mobley compiled his list, he was faced with another even more difficult problem: How do you instill values and transform attitudes? He discovered that unlike supervisors and middle managers, executives shared another trait: They were constitutionally untrainable and reacted with hostility to any effort to “brainwash” them with “training.” Worse, Mobley discovered that values and attitudes are not only impervious to typical training techniques, but hectoring people to change often had the unintended consequence of hardening existing attitudes instead.

As the result some deep thinking of his own, Mobley eventually realized that what was needed was “a revolution in consciousness” rather than the kind of step by step curriculum that leads to a single “right answer.” Taking a leap of faith, he decided that the values and attitudes he was looking for could only be brought about as a side benefit or unintended consequence of what almost might be termed “spiritual work.” Rather than converging on a super set of skills, the IBM Executive School fostered the divergence that values uniqueness and individual authenticity.

The risk of failure was real, but if Mobley was going to produce people willing to stick out their necks he had to stick out his own first. He abandoned lectures and books in favor of games, simulations and other experiential techniques designed, not to “train,” but to “blow people’s minds.”

As for the personal accountability and measuring results, Mobley’s record speaks for itself. He ran the IBM Executive School from 1956-1966. It was his students that turned IBM into the fastest growing and most admired corporation in the world in the 1960s and 70s…

Follow me on Twitter @augustturak, Facebookhttp://facebook.com/aturak, or check out my websitehttp://www.augustturak.com/ for more tips and strategies for becoming a great leader – and to discover how service and selflessness is the secret to success in business and in life.

SOURCE: www.forbes.com