Bossitive Attitude! How About Your Boss

Boss - the four letter word which inspires, motivates, de-motivates, frightens, depresses the employees worldwide. Very few will have positive feedback about their boss. Most of the neutral say that 'boss is always right' ! These kind of passive people are not willing to take risk by talking negative about boss as they fear victimisation by the 'gossip-mongers' in the work place. Why people spread only negative things about boss? Why there is so much literature available on 'managing boss' ! Is there no positive thing to spread about boss? Are you aware that you are creating an aura behind an ordinary person with your 'negative talking' about boss and making him a 'personality' ! Many of the bosses don't know on what kind of image they are having among their employees? Once I asked my boss 'Do you know what people are thinking about you'? My boss simply told me 'I am not bothered'! As I have accepted him my mentor, I loved to pester him and asked to explain further. He simply said 'I have to satisfy my boss by getting the things done through my core team. Though I will just ratify the decisions taken by my core team, very few decisions are directly taken by me. As I am leading the organisation, people attribute all decisions to me and their emotions towards me are always fluctuating due to their levels of imagination. A manager may get disturbed with his image among the employees; but a Leader should never get disturbed with his image in the organisation. An employee is always interested in his pay and perks. But a leader who is running the organisation works in the interest of every employee associated with the organization'.

Boss vs. Employee:

Then what is the remedy to avoid this kind of imagination about Boss? One should not imagine things when they are working in organisations, as organisations always run on some laid down policies and procedures. Employees should follow them diligently without fail to enhance their performance quotient and to have an impressive appraisal.
One has to face facts after joining an organisation. Bosses always insist on general discipline for which employees feel that they are being controlled unreasonably. When you are paid to perform, you are expected to perform without fail. One should not bring our cricketers 'losing attitude' to the workplace and finally making it a national attitude. Everyone in the team should have the will to win and to contribute to the team as a whole to reach the common goal. Bosses always want to take their team along with them on a winning path. If the team loses ultimately 'boss' loses whether in the workplace or in the game of cricket.

Boss and communication :

Generally, in any organisation there would not be any communication from top to bottom. During my more than two decades of experience in various industries, I heard many of my bosses saying 'you have to pay the price' ........ of course - it is for the poor performance or no performance at all. But this kind of language from the bosses annoy the employees and over a period of time, employees don't care about the communication of the boss, and finally they will make the boss feel that they are disobeying him. 'Communication is the key to success' is not just theory or just a sentence to chant again and again, to enjoy the effect of the same. It is literally true whether you are a leader, manager, peer, subordinate or a boss. Bosses should communicate well to manage their team effectively and also to get the things done in time.

Employees' alertness - Boss's success :

Employees must be alert to the needs of the boss in the workplace and they must develop their 'listening skills' to facilitate their boss effectively in a professional manner. A team without good listening skills is a waste of time to work with. Your listening skills are directly related to your performance levels and range of reciprocation to the instructions of your boss. Listening carefully to what boss says will always give you edge over others. You must be assertive while communicating with your boss at the professional level, if you wish to become a courageous follower in a phased manner. You cannot become 'courageous follower' overnight and fall prey to the negative forces at the workplace.

Emotional intelligence leads to peak performance :

Sam Pitroda -- Chairman, National Knowledge Commission, India, and Chairman, WorldTel, based in Chicago, USA, is having altogether another story to tell about employees of India. Once Sam said that 'Indian employees take everything personal; if you tell them your work is not up to the mark, they feel that they are not up to the mark. I had terrible problems with this kind of attitude of Indian employees in the workplaces'. This is one more thing one has to understand when you are working in an organization. One should not take bosses' words personally and must strive to perform in a better manner to give their best. This may sound as preaching, but if you are interested in building your career, irrespective of the behaviour of your bosses, you must perform or get ready to perish. Even our BCCI is following the HRM policies by dropping non-performers from the team and taking performers again back into the team without much hesitation. Let us wait and watch whether this change will instill 'killer instinct' and 'winning attitude' in our cricket team!

How bosses behave with their team?:

One day I told my boss that our Personnel Manager is not having good image among the employees. Whoever I met, everybody is scolding our Personnel Manager. My boss retorted - 'Naturally! He is directly dealing with the employees. In fact, we have to give him promotion, that he is getting more scoldings, because he is managing people well and with the discipline required to help them build their productive attitude.' Finally, our Personnel Manager got promotion to my utter amazement. Then what is the learning : Manage your team to delight your boss !

Employees' expectations :

Employees always expect empowerment, encouragement, excitement from their job. Employees don't like anybody telling them to come in time. Employees do not like preachers in the workplace. Their ego mantra is 'papa.... Don't preach' ! That's why most of the employees do not attend training programs in the workplace and surprisingly some bosses also resist training their employees, saying that training hours are man hours wasted on unproductive task. I wonder why IT companies like Infosys, Satyam and placement consultants like Mafoi have started their own leadership training centers. Most of the employees feel that they know everything as far as organisational discipline and requirements are concerned. But very few follow them diligently without getting noticed by the HR policing.

Extract more work with less pay - Bosses Mantra for Success:

Bosses always want to push their employees to extract more work from them for less pay. In this process, Bosses want to impress their bosses that they are getting the things done in a result oriented manner and meeting deadlines effectively. This kind of imbalance in professional and personal relations create flutter and compel us to judge Boss immediately at personal level. This will start a gang of opinionated people who always spread opinions not just about their bosses, but all of their colleagues, peers and subordinates.

Do not impress - Express with your performance :

Another mantra for success in the workplace which would help to enhance your performance quotient is 'do not perform to impress your boss - for that matter do not work to impress anybody. Always work to satisfy yourself and at the end of the day pat your back that you have given the full day's work and did justice to your pay'.

Bosses are not super human

Once I asked our General Manager 'Sir ! What is our Boss doing!' Pat came the reply - 'He has just created a problem and is struggling to solve it to get the credit of being a problem solver!' Bosses are just human beings like us. They are not super human to find solutions for all organisational problems and they are not ready made remedies for our promotion, pay and perks. You have to promote yourself with your performance. Bosses cannot promote you. They may change your designation with one signature but you have to enhance your performance.

Organisations are permanent ........ not Boss !

When it comes to supporting boss or organisation, I will support organisations which are to stay here to serve the ever growing needs of the Society. Organisations are the reflections of the Society. As legendary IT Czar of India Mr.Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor, Infosys, rightly put it - 'Always fall in love with your work; never fall in love with your organisations; because you do not know when the organisation stops loving you'!

How to become a courageous follower?

One must be a courageous follower not just by following the instructions of boss, but to correct the boss whenever there is a need to make him right. One must be tactful in his communication while correcting the boss, following the principles of a courageous follower as propounded by Ira Chaleff (www.exe-coach.com) in his award winning book 'The Courageous Follower - Standing up to and for our Leaders'. I had the privilege of attending Ira Chaleff's workshop during his promotional tour to India. Some of the participants responded to his workshop saying that 'if we become courageous followers in our workplace; we will lose our jobs'! He smiled gently and said 'one must be tactful while talking to the boss; and more tactful while correcting him'! But as we are all aware, the ego levels of Indian bosses is legendary and they don't want their subordinates to become courageous followers and correct them. In my experience, many of my bosses allowed me to speak out with whatever courage I have, though with a bit of straightforwardness. Of course, you have to take risks with your career and it may lag behind compared to others who always follow your boss with a family pack of 'Amul butter'! Even then, you will have the soul satisfying experience for being one of the courageous followers and a class of your own!
Meditation on Followership
I conclude this with 'Meditation on Followership', and let us take an oath to change the world called our workplace.
For me, becoming a courageous follower, like becoming a good human being, is both a daily and a life-long task. Visualising a desired state helps to realize it. I share this meditation as one visualisation of the state I aspire to. You may want to refer it from time to time.

o I am a steward of this group and share responsibility for its success.

o I am responsible for adhering to the highest values I can envision.

o I am responsible for my successes and failures and for continuing to learn from them.

o I am responsible for the attractive and unattractive parts of who I am.

o I can empathise with others who are also imperfect.

o As an adult, I can relate on a peer basis to other adults who are the group's formal leaders.

o I can support leaders and counsel them, and receive support and counsel from them.

o Our common purpose is our best guide.

o I have the power to help leaders use their power wisely and effectively.

o If leaders abuse power, I can help them change their behaviour.

o If I abuse power, I can learn from others and change my behaviour.

o If abusive leaders do not change their behaviour, I can and will withdraw my support.

o By staying true to my values, I can serve others well and fulfill my potential.

o Thousands of courageous acts by followers can, one by one, improve the world.

o Courage always exists in the present. What can I do today?

(Excerpted from 'The Courageous Follower - Standing upto and for our Leaders' by Ira Chaleff)

Action speaks louder than words

Apply these principles of courageous behaviour in the workplace to enhance your image as a performer and become a brand loyal follower of your boss.

Last but not least --- Do not convince - Be convinced

As Zig Ziglar rightly put it - 'Life is too short to spend your precious time trying to convince a person who wants to live in gloom and doom otherwise. Give lifting that person your best shot, but don't hang around long enough for his or her bad attitude to pull you down. Instead, surround yourself with optimistic people.'

Understand What Motivates Your Boss

To get ahead at work, I say working toward organizational goals is admirable. But what really counts is understanding the needs of your Boss. It's all about power, affiliation, and achievement.

by RK GOPAL NANDURI.

What to do if I'm not allowed to be productive because of my manager's own self-interest? Should I just buckle down and try not to get noticed?

Letters from last column Productivity Means Working Smarter, Not Longer have been gratifying and surprising. Most unexpected was a theme I heard over and over: "My manager won't let me work smart. What do I do?" That's a real problem. Let's start by facing reality: In larger companies, your personal success doesn't necessarily depend on doing what's best for business.

Long-time readers will know your bosses should be setting direction, giving feedback, and helping you tap your internal motivation—but most don't. So take charge of yourself, face the reality of organizational life, and do what it takes to get your needs met.

You're there for the cash
Why do you go to work? If you're one of the lucky few, your work ignites your passion. It challenges you. It lets you accomplish what you find most worthwhile, provides community, and helps you contribute in a meaningful way. You'd keep working even if you won the lottery. Chances are, that's not you. Even if your job does some of that, you wouldn't do it if it weren't for the paycheck. That's fine. Almost everyone works for the money. So face that. Roll it around in your brain for a few minutes. Repeat after me: At the end of the day, even if you enjoy your job, you're there to get paid. So "working smart" means working in whatever way gets you paid.

Understand first that people decide what you get paid.

You've heard managers say they'll heap riches on those who do a good job. Ignore their words; watch their actions. Who do they really reward? Why? Mostly, we reward those who meet our needs, first and foremost. If you know what your managers really want, you can meet their needs while meeting the needs of the business. The late Harvard psychology professor David McClelland had an easy framework you can use.

McClelland said motivation comes in three flavors: power, affiliation, and achievement. Power People want things to happen their way. Affiliation People want to be popular and liked. And Achievement People want results. We're all part power, part affiliation, and part achievement.

Take Ratan Tata. ratan tata wakes up thinking, "What can I do today?" His day isn't complete unless he finishes something, preferably working at least a few hours with others. He tells his employees the outcomes he wants and lets them figure out the "how." That makes Ratn tata about 70 percent achievement, 20 percent affiliation, and 10 percent power.

Interestingly, we are taught that American business is all about achievement; it's all that matters. When we talk "productivity," "efficiency," "goal-setting," we're swimming in achievement language. We set achievement goals and base bonuses on achievement measures. But guess what—people don't actually behave that way, as your letters clearly show. They're also driven by power and affiliation. "Working smart" means getting results, but even more, it means satisfying your boss's needs for power and affiliation as well.

Manage your boss's real needs
If your boss wants you to get results, my advice on "working smart" holds. Get stuff done. Measure what you get done. Discuss the measures with your boss. Do, do, do. Your boss will be thrilled that by working smart, you can get more stuff done in less time. Then go home early, and have a life.

If your bosses want power, they want things done their way. Like bureaucrats, Power bosses often work this way. Following procedure and doing things the right way is more important than doing the right things.

Your job for a Power boss is helping her empire-build and/or helping her get things done her way. Be careful, though. Your boss may be bad at figuring out what needs to be done. So even if she's getting her way, her way just might hurt the business.

You often find this power game happening when a new executive arrives to take over the show. They axe old projects and start their own. But if the outgoing exec was doing great, maybe no changes need to be made. To an incoming Power Person, this won't do. They must change things simply to have the organization reflect their desires.

An affiliation-oriented boss wants to be homecoming king. He wants to be liked. Your job becomes helping smooth out relationships, being friendly with your boss, and helping him manage the people relationships. Emotional intelligence helps you meet the needs of an Affiliation boss.

When you hear "we're one, big happy family," that's affiliation talking. Affiliation puts relationships first. I like that; relationships bind organizations together. But affiliation can go too far. Keeping incompetents in powerful positions just because they're friends may honor relationships but tank the company. Even though your boss may not value it as much, make sure the work still gets done so you have someplace to work come next year.

Work smart by balancing all needs
All this comes back to working smart. If you're trying to work smart and your boss says sorting paper clips is more important than crafting a distribution strategy, you need to know what's happening inside your boss's head and find the real motivation. Is your boss usually an achievement junkie? Then maybe she has a real reason paper clips are important. Talk to your boss. Make sure you both understand and agree on priorities, based on what it will take to get the job done.

If you have a Power boss, He/she may be more concerned with having you sort paper clips his/her way than doing your job your way. You need to choose to own the business priorities yourself. Figure out those priorities and ask your boss how you can meet them. Since your boss needs to dictate the "how," you choose the right "what."

The affiliation-oriented boss may have relationship concerns. "We can't alienate our existing distributors. They've been with us for years! Joe and I go golfing every Wednesday." Here, you must factor the relationships into account. Approach your boss with a positive attitude and make sure you approach your distribution with the relationship goals in mind as well.

Line up your compensation
Even though you'll meet your boss's motivational style, you still need to get paid. Socially, we rarely acknowledge power and affiliation goals out loud. Those goals are considered unprofessional, even though they drive so many of us. So you need to frame your job in terms of achievement goals that will get you paid, while making it clear that you'll meet your boss's power and affiliation needs along the way. Trust me—as long as you're helping a power-oriented boss expand their empire, you'll be able to find a meeting of the minds about what you need to do to get paid and move ahead.

Notice that I've said very little about meeting the organization's needs. That's because only an executive who understands the link between their own needs and the organization's needs will value your attempts to do the right thing for the business. In the final analysis, it isn't between you and the company; it's between you and the people who will promote and pay you.

That group consists of more than just your boss. Your boss's boss and other senior managers may be watching. Your Power boss may report to an Achievement executive. If your efforts are visible to the exec, helping your boss achieve in a way that her boss recognizes might be your best strategy.

You can't have it all
At this point, you might be thinking that with all this strategizing about satisfying the three needs of management, it will be a miracle if you can juggle it all. Welcome to organizational life. If you have family or community needs, you can toss those into the mix. (This balancing act drives some people to self-employment. It was sure a factor when I set out on my own.)

The bad news is that you can't satisfy your needs, your boss's, and your organization's. After all, it's in the organization's best interest for you to forgo a raise while working an extra ten hours a week. You'll almost certainly need to sacrifice something. But the good news is that it's your choice. Choose wisely.

RK GOPAL NANDURI is Vice President of The Kadevi Industries Ltd , a firm that Manufactures Telecom and transmission towers and allied integrated products like Angles ,Channels ,Fasteners and all types of Generators ,,communication antennas.

6 Steps to become a successful CEO:

Six issues demand major-league performance at the outset to successfully adapt to the highest corporate office.

What follows is a view of the CEO's world from what is probably a somewhat atypical perspective. I was a relatively young chief executive--I got the job one month after turning 42. My company, K Steels Ltd , was hardly a giant among Heavy engineering companies in India. What's more, the ownership of the company was not at all typical of a publicly held corporation: About 80 percent was in the hands of the founding family, and, importantly, it was not my family. So while the demands and pressures of my job might be quite different and my total experience must surely pale in comparison to the years of service and experience of many CEOs, I have labored to distill some lessons from my early years as a chief executive that provide another bit of insight into the life of the CEOs about which so much has been written recently. A word of caution, though. No Universal Truths here, or, at least, none intended. If the truth be known, I have come to believe less and less in Universal Truths in any case and more and more in the situational relativity of things. So if I may borrow the remarkably apt term of one of my more memorable business-school professors, here are what I prefer to call some Currently Useful Generalizations. 1. Distance : The newly minted chief executive has the problem of creating some distance between himself and those who were formerly his organizational peers. The reasons for this are many and, to a large extent, obvious. The CEO will be called upon to make decisions that will affect the lives of others. He will sometimes be the final arbiter of disputes. He is the judge in the competition for corporate resources. He must occasionally make unpopular choices. These and others are difficult functions, and they cannot always be done "among friends." This is not to say that the CEO cannot have friendships with associates, but simply that there are limits to which one must be sensitive. The route one takes to the CEO job is important. Distance may be built in: The new CEO is recruited from outside the company or previously occupied a position in the company's management hierarchy with few or no peers. In such cases "distance" is not a problem. The corporate management structure from which I became CEO was relatively flat, and my relationship with many of those who would now report to me had been of the "we're all in this together" variety. Somehow the message had to be conveyed that as a management team "we're still all in this together," but now our relationship had to be different. The need early on for a clear symbol of change, without alienating all those one still must rely on, seemed to be there. The symbol chosen was compensation--not necessarily the amount of compensation, but the form. A new stock-related compensation program was installed, and the new CEO was designated as the only current participant. It got the attention needed to serve a communication purpose because it was a proxy statement item. It did not need to be communicated by me in what would appear to be a self-serving way. Also, standing procedures for additional compensation items such as stock options were changed. This wasn't done in a capricious way; I thought it needed to be done. But it also served to communicate the reality and necessity of distance because it involved redistribution of awards. The element of distance does not mean the end of friendly and cordial relations or becoming unapproachable. It simply means communicating that things have changed. As time goes on, the kind of relationships built with subordinates will serve to define the limits of the appropriate distance, which must surely vary with personalities, the size and complexity of the business, and the kind of working relationships with which the CEO feels comfortable. 2. Legitimacy: It strikes me that in today's corporate world there are few corporate hierarchies--even small ones--that respond lock-step simply because an individual is anointed the CEO by a board of directors. There is a need to establish one's legitimacy in the CEO role in order to be able to spend time getting the job done, rather than defending or proving one's "right" to be CEO. Surely, over time, the best proof of legitimacy is performance; but in the early days, it is a mistake simply to wait for time to establish one's legitimacy. One must face the realities of the organization's perception of the CEO's legitimacy. As with distance, the perceived legitimacy one begins with as CEO is closely related to the route he takes to the job. The new CEO may have been with the company longer than anyone else, may have more general experience--or more of a certain clearly needed kind of experience--than anyone else, may have run the largest or most important division in a clearly superior way, or may be from outside the company but an acknowledged industry leader. In these cases, the need to establish legitimacy early on is less pressing because there's a presumption of legitimacy or credibility which will either be reinforced or undone over time. On the matter of legitimacy, it's important to understand that the reasons for the board of directors choosing a certain individual to be the new CEO may not be well understood or even known by the organization. And even if they are known, they may be perceived as irrelevant. This is because a board has in mind certain implicit needs in naming a new CEO, and these rarely get translated into an explicit view of the future around which the organization can develop a consensus that the new CEO is clearly the best choice to address these needs. It is clear to all that a new CEO represents change--or at least is change--but as Bertrand Russell observed, "Change is one thing; progress is another ... Change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy." So whereas the organization may see only change, the board is reaching for progress. The new CEO must recognize the dynamics of these interactions and come to grips with the realities of his own situation in terms of how his position is viewed by the rest of the organization. In my case, when I was named CEO I had been with the company just over five years, which was less than half the tenure of the officer with the next-shortest service (except for one who was a recent arrival). In terms of age, there was about a 12-year spread between me and the next-youngest officer. During my five years, I had spent some time with certain corporate-wide duties and was responsible for making the company's largest acquisition, but I had spent most of my time with the company running one of its smallest (although fastest-growing) operations. Further, this job was essentially international marketing without significant manufacturing responsibility, which was not in the mainstream of the company's activities. My legitimacy problems were real. I dealt with them by focusing the company's efforts on articulating a long-term strategy, which inevitably highlighted the importance of new businesses and acquisitions for our future growth--an area in which I had immediate credibility. Another point regarding legitimacy. I assumed the CEO role from the CEO of the past 25 years. He had been successful in building the company and had the additional advantage of essentially controlling, with his family, more than 50 percent of the common stock (which was reduced to about 40 percent). He remained our chairman of the board. This situation placed a premium on my legitimacy and credibility because the other corporate officers were fully aware of his past level of control of the business and were constantly on the lookout for any signs that the new CEO was not "his own man." The former CEO and I did some symbolic things to help address this reality. The quarterly and annual reports were signed only by me. I presided over our annual shareholders meeting. The management meetings that were held twice a year away from headquarters were always his meetings; they became my meetings, and he didn't attend them at all. And although it's hard for others to get a sense of this, he no longer provides input on strategic or operating matters, budgeting, or goals unless asked. Naturally, the relationship between the past CEO and me was an important one for the company, and continued to evolve. Recognizing and dealing with the implications of this situation was important early on. I had to be recognized as "in charge," but also had to keep in mind the interests and expectations of our new chairman. 3. Perfectibility: I used to believe in the perfectibility of solutions: Given a problem, a basic solution could be formulated that would naturally be imperfect in terms of dealing with all facets of the problem, but with just a bit of tinkering, shaping, and honing, the solution could be "perfected"--could be made to conform to all dimensions of the problem. It always seemed to work for me, or at least nearly enough that a "perfect" solution was approximated. In the CEO job, I have concluded that far more important than the perfectibility of a solution is its simplicity. If there's a choice, simple is almost always better than "perfect"--even if perfection were truly attainable. I suppose this is just a belated recognition on my part of a principle articulated a long time ago by de Tocqueville, which probably comes as close to being a Universal Truth as anything I've ever read: "A false notion which is clear and precise will always have more power in the world than a true principle which is obscure and involved." It isn't so much that the problems one grapples with as CEO are more difficult than those confronted before and hence defy the perfectibility of a solution. That's part of the problem, since as CEO one typically faces larger and more complex problems affecting more people with more diverse interests. But more important, it's that even if a solution were perfected, it would likely be so complex that it would be impossible to communicate effectively and would lose whatever power you hoped it would have. And therein lies another lesson--the importance of communication. 4. Communication : Nothing has been more of a revelation to me in the CEO job than the importance of and the amount of energy that must be devoted to communicating well. I am struck by the triteness of my observation, by how often one reads or hears some version of the importance of communication, by the need I feel to make that observation at all. But the reality is that despite the intellectual understanding we may all have of the importance of communicating with others, being faced with the need to achieve a wide range of communication goals--from informing to advocating to inspiring--with a range of audiences places great demands on a CEO's time and can be the difference between success and failure. And it is one of the areas in which we are often least prepared. Good communication is ignored only at one's peril. I feel it's a mistake to think that the only communications that count by the CEO to employees are those that influence a lot of people at one effort. When I go to the plants, I do call people together for group sessions; and once a quarter I get all middle management together at headquarters and talk about results and other operational matters. But that's not enough. I often hand-write letters to people at all levels of the organization: the salesman named best of the month; a manager in one of our plants who comes up with something useful in a production process; someone mentioned in the employee newsletter doing something of particular note or personal importance. In terms of "productivity," that time may not seem very well spent. But it's the one letter here and there, the 10 minutes spent one-on-one when the opportunity arises, the accumulation of which sends a message to the organization. One-on-one communication may tend to get overlooked because it doesn't seem as powerful, but that's a real mistake. I do not mean here that communications glitter is more important than substance or competence. I do mean, however, that competence and substance are not enough. All levels of management must effectively communicate, and the example must be set by the CEO. An occasional meeting is not enough. There must be a program; there must be an ethic of informing and listening to people. 5. Ambiguity : It is, I suppose, an old saw that the higher one goes in management, the more one must be prepared to deal with ambiguity. In the CEO job, while one may have more power over corporate resources than ever before, there are also more factors over which one has no control and which affect one's destiny. In an anomalous way, at the same time you gain power you lose control. Even those factors that can be controlled are often no longer in your personal control, but are in the control of others in your organization on whom you must rely. More on this aspect of ambiguity in my comments below on leadership. The problem of imperfect information is a facet of ambiguity well known to all managers. It is compounded at the CEO level simply by the fact that the CEO has more areas in which he needs information to make decisions. Imperfect is a problem not only on the front end--that is in terms of input needed to make decisions--but perhaps more important, it is a problem in terms of the likely outcomes of various courses of action. Most managers have become accustomed to dealing with imperfect information on the input side and accept it as something one must live with. There is a great deal of reluctance, however, to accept uncertainty on the outcome side. It's much more comforting to be able to say, "If I do this, such and such will happen." We force alternatives into this formulation without recognizing that there is not one outcome if an action is taken, but a range of possible outcomes. Often, then, ambiguity is dealt with by denying its existence. The CEO cannot seek only convenient answers, but must insist that all reasonable outcomes are recognized in order to understand the possible implications for his company. Not to do so invites real surprise. Ambiguity is insidious because it may lead to inaction. This is particularly real at the CEO level because many decisions will affect people in some way, perhaps even their livelihood. There is always the feeling that some unpleasant result can be avoided simply by delay. This is rarely the case, and the organization is only the worse off for waiting, with its attendant uncertainty. Once one's homework is done, ambiguity or uncertainty cannot be allowed to be the only reason for inaction. 6. Leadership : Much of the life we spend as managers getting ready to be general managers is focused on "managing" better, getting better at bringing together and combining the various technical disciplines and resources--manufacturing, marketing, selling, financing, etc.--to achieve a certain result. Along the way, to be sure, we pay some attention to communication, but the goal usually is only to assure that everyone understands the game plan and is headed in the same direction. Certainly that's important, and it only gets more important as CEO. But this kind of communication, which most of us focused on in earlier management jobs, doesn't serve us as well as CEO, where the premium is less on managing--combining resources--and more on leadership: supplying vision, providing inspiration, and influencing action. In all of this, communication is critical. Not just communicating about what the strategy is, but making everyone feel a personal role in making it happen and a personal stake in the outcome. In moving from managing to leading, one essentially learns the difference between achieving goals and setting goals. There's an old line about the boss that observes that "Nothing is impossible for the one who doesn't have to do it." To be sure, all worthy goals ought to be difficult to achieve, but for poorly set goals, achievement may well be impossible, and that is counterproductive. The real difficulty, the challenge of leadership, is to set good goals--goals that are challenging enough to draw out the best one's organization has to offer, but achievable enough not to dispirit those who have to achieve them. It's a difficult balance to find without selling one side short. Leadership at the CEO level also requires high levels of trust. Whereas in many other management jobs, where factors that are controllable can often be controlled personally, as CEO you have to rely on others extensively. Your span of control may be broadened, but your capability to control myriad factors is greatly reduced. Delegation is no longer just advisable, as it may be in lower-level positions; it is critical. That brings us to another critical dimension of leadership--choosing the right person for the right job. The more trust and confidence the CEO has in his subordinates, the more comfortable he will feel about delegating. And the more comfortable the CEO is about delegating, the more his organization will achieve. Hopes, fears, and aspirations A common denominator that implicitly runs through all of these Currently Useful Generalizations is that virtually everything an organization achieves is accomplished through people. I have in mind here people on the production line as well as those to whom one says good morning every day in the executive suite. The CEO must genuinely care about the hopes and fears and aspirations of the people in his organization and must be equally willing to act on this concern, or in the long run little is likely to be achieved. The view from the CEO's seat is likely to be foggy indeed, because the only constant in much of what the CEO does is uncertainty. But nothing is clearer to me from my short time as CEO than that people make the difference. The CEO must care, and the organization must know through his actions that he cares. The CEO's attitude becomes the company's attitude, and everyone in an organization feels it and responds to it. No one summed it up better than eminent philosopher Yogi Berra. He was talking about baseball, but it applies here, too: "Ninety percent of this game is half mental."

5 Essential Attributes of Successful CEOs

Here are the keys to leading your business to success

Over the past twenty years I have had the opportunity to work closely with CEOs of companies, both large and small (start-ups). While each CEO brings a unique set of characteristics to the table, there are some commonalities between those that are able to steer their companies to success (whether through organic growth, acquisition, or an IPO) and those that fall short of their potential.

Below is a list of five essential attributes successful leaders possess:

1. Ability to focus on the vision and to communicate that vision to stakeholders.

2. Awareness of operational details, however, not involved with them.

3. On top of industry trends -- an avid reader.

4. Hires strong management teams and supports their decisions.

5. Meets with customers and can articulate customer needs, challenges and business goals.

1. Having a Vision

Being at the top of the pyramid, a great CEO must be able to clearly communicate the vision of the company in order to inspire staff, investors and customers. As the company flag-bearer, all eyes turn to the CEO for direction and example.

2. Macro Management

While it is key for the CEO to understand the every-day activities of the organization and how all the parts fit together to move the company forward, the best CEOs do not get dragged into the seductive lure of micro managing granular details. Instead they maintain a highly trained management team that is fully capable of handling these tasks.

This enables the CEO to remain focused on the primary duties of increasing revenues, and meeting the goals identified in the vision.

3. Leveraging Industry Trends

Staying on top of industry trends through reading, attending conferences and joining trade associations is essential for CEOs to ensure that the direction and vision for the company is on course. The ability to see into the future is invaluable for steering clear of potential threats and capitalizing on future opportunities.

This is especially important in the constantly evolving technology industry where the CEO needs to determine which changes will have long-term impact and which are merely fads with little real value.

4. Develop a Foundation of Strength

No company or CEO is successful without a strong management team. Each member must be a leader that knows and is accountable for his or her job responsibilities (and does not try to do the work of other team members).

Quality managers in turn, know how to mentor and acknowledge the accomplishments of their own staffs in order to keep them motivated, involved and on track to meet the business goals of the company.

5. Customer’s are at the Core

Successful CEOs look beyond their raw technology and focus on finding ways to help customers solve their problems. They describe their products in terms of how they address the needs and challenges of their customer’s instead of listing product capabilities.

Great CEOs use their own customers’ words and verbiage. Through weekly meetings with customers, CEOs have an endless supply of anecdotal situations to share with stakeholders that help create a better product and a more thorough understanding of the customer requirements for a successful business relationship.

How to be a successful CEO

RK GOPAL NANDURI.

This article provides 12 key action steps for CEO's of leading for-profit companies to propel their BUSINESS to the next level and achieve greater financial success! These steps are modeled after the real world activities of many of today CEO's of successful US companies. A bit of satire too? You be the judge. Please note, this article does not offer instructions on how to become CEO.

1.

You are no slouch; you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. You are better than almost everyone else alive today. Heck, you probably don't even put on you pants one leg at a time, but you still have to set key priorities. In setting priorities, consider who you need to make / keep happy. Shareholder and board members are two of the most important groups. Identify your key clients and key investors. Find out what they want to achieve, and set those as mission critical goals. Certainly your employees provide the products and services, but you are their lord and master. You lead and set the pace! Employees are like replaceable parts, but you are the what makes all the machinery work!

2

After setting priorities, you should develop targets for:

* - Sales and revenue growth
* - Cost Containment
* - Target stock price

Remember, the size of your bonus depends on how well the company performs. Your base salary of a million (or so) dollars is chicken feed. The company has to do well for you to cash in and earn $25 or $50 million.

3

To Achieve the sales and revenue growth, the company will have to stretch. Work hard to lure in new clients and SCHMOOZE them! Golfingexcursions at pricey resorts, tickets to the Super bowl, or business conference in the Virgin Islands are all excellent opportunities to win new clients. The actual delivery of goods and services is not the most critical element of signing new business deals. When it comes to signing up new clients, image and charisma are the keys!

4

Speaking of image, you are spending a lot of time face to face with clients, investors, and the media. You must look and feel great!! It is a business necessity. If you are getting older or grayer or fatter ... then you need to fix those problems. Get plastic surgery to lose some of the wrinkles, hire a physical trainer, get a tan (a light tan), do whatever it takes to look youthful and be energetic. Consult with your account and tax advisor on whether these expenses may be deductible or not.

5

Now it's time to focus on cost containment. It's not cheap to woo new clients and keep schmoozing to retain the existing ones. You must contain costs! Look within yourself and really look within the organization. Are there inefficiencies? You better believe it! Start by putting in place a travelfreeze and a hiring freeze (of course, neither are applicable to executives). Send out a memorandum to cut office supply purchases by 50%. Spin-up an employee action committee to insure that the only materials which are printed, are those with an absolute business necessity for marketing or retention purposes.

6

To stay ahead of the competition you must focus in on labor costs. There are probably way too many middle managers. Time to close ranks and cut the fat! Make sure you are leveraging offshore labor to the greatest extent possible. It doesn't matter that Joe Smith in Indiana has been a great business analyst for 25 years, he costs too much! Go for Jidal Sidahri in India, he costs only about a third of what Joe costs. You do have to be careful though not to offshore work that is regulated to be performed by a citizen, it is critical to avoid legal headaches and bad audit findings.

7

By now you should be winning new deals and reducing labor costs. It is important to make your US and European employees feel that it pains you to layoff jobs in those countries. Make sure that you look and sound empathetic to them. Of course you aren't one of them, but you can't have them all walk out on you at once... well, maybe you could, but it would look bad in the press. So, don't go there. Hold lots of employee town halls, and explain to them that these steps are necessary to drive down costs. Remind the ones who are left that we are all one team, and we must work harder than ever to achieve success.

8

Another way to cut costs is to start to review office space usage. Are there some floors that could be emptied out, and the employees moved elsewhere? Better yet, there may be some entire buildings that can be shutdown. Also, not every employee needs a cube. Encourage your workforce to become more mobile and try to get more of them to work from home. Be careful here though. Make sure that employees working from home will pay for their own Internet access and long distance charges. Set those as stipulations in the mobile workforce agreement (where legally viable).

9

Have you reduced Health and Medical Benefits yet? Well, better late than never. This step is easier than it seems. You move your employees into plans with deductibles and provide some preventative health incentives. You will need HR to produce a lot of material explaining how employees can achieve cost savings by managing their care. The material should show scenarios explaining how the average family comes out about the same on the new plan as the old plan.

10

When times are tough, the and the tough must get tougher! The tough part? Pay cuts, company-wide! Consider paycuts of 5 to 10 percent for all employees. Your employees are probably over paid any way. Executives must take a larger percentage cut in base salary, but don't worry about that because the bonus is what you are interested in. This move should really help to further lower overhead, so you will more than make up any lost salary with the ballooning size of your bonus.

11

The morale of your workforce may be a bit bruised with all of the change that has been happening. Consider firing up some employee recognition programs. These may inspire some employees to work harder and smarter. It doesn't even take a very big carrot to get them moving. Offering small cash incentives and written praise and recognition can get salary employees to put in a lot of overtime. You will be amazed at the increased productive.

12

By now, you should be seeing some significant stock price and profit growth. This is the best step of all, cash in! You've worked hard for perhaps two or three years. Time to pull the rip cord on that golden parachute! Alternatively, you may consider trying to find another company to buy the company you are running. This is where the big payouts can come from ... sometimes $50 million or more. Make sure to pat yourself on the back for all your efforts, because remember ... you are worth every penny!