Business Plan For Action

The Better Leaders Are Always Learning

Becoming a better leader isn’t easy. The fact is, not everyone can or will become a great leader. However, everyone can become a better leader than they are today – if they make the choice to do so. Becoming a better leader requires hard work and focus, but it is far from impossible.

The one common trait shared by those who desire to become a better leader is a commitment to continuous and ongoing learning. They want to be better and they work at it every day! They just don’t talk about it; they act on it every day. They put personal growth and development at the top of their daily and strategic agenda. Becoming a “better leader” is an ongoing effort.

The next area “better leaders” focus on is how to add to their knowledge base by learning new skills that will help them deliver even better results. How do they accomplish this? Consider some of these points: Continue reading →

Success Habits: You Management

Do you think you need better “time management” skills? Or do you need better “YOU management” skills? Without clarity of goals, there’s no way you can ever manage your time. Learn what you need to do to better manage “you” in this video.

 

Chris Ruisi Behavior

Attitude vs. Skill: It’s All in the Behavior

As more and more people find employment during this growing economy it is creating a burden for employers trying to fill open positions. Highly and even moderately skilled workers are being hired at a rapid pace creating a challenge for all employers trying to fill their open positions.

Part of the solution for this challenge is for employers to willingly relax their skills requirements and begin to place greater emphasis on a candidate’s attitude. A rule of thumb which I have always followed simply states that you can always teach someone the required skills for a job, but you can’t teach them the right attitude. Hence, if forced to choose, I would always take attitude over skills.

In order to properly evaluate a candidate’s attitude, the interviewer needs to use more of a behavioral style of interviewing versus asking the typical questions that most of us use. In a behavioral interview, you are attempting to evaluate how the candidate will respond in different types of scenarios like working with other team members, handling problems, handling less than happy customers, avoiding conflict in the workplace and many other situations. All of this puts a big spotlight on the questions asked and how you prepare for the interview.

However, as I will explain, using a behavior-driven interviewing style is probably a good thing and something you should be doing more of regardless of the “hot” employment environment we are currently experiencing. Continue reading →

Building a Winning Team

Chris Ruisi Driving Business Growth Podcast

Every leader thinks they have a winning team. But do they? Ask yourself, “Do I have a team that wants to win or just a group of folks who show up, do no more than what they are asked to do, collect a check and do the same thing again every week?” In this episode, Chris explains the 8 characteristics of a winning team and how to develop these characteristics in your team. Listen in to learn how to stop managing your team and start leading them, so that they become the most unstoppable competitive advantage that differentiates your company in the marketplace.

 

 

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Focus: Can It Be This Simple?

My daily routine involves reading the Wall Street Journal while having my first cup of coffee. During my “read”, I always find my way to the daily “Pepper…And Salt” illustration (yup, it’s a cartoon). This past week addressed the concept of focus in a very powerful yet simple way.

While wearing “The Cone” may not be a fashionable approach, the message – being focused – is important for each of us. What do you do each day to establish and maintain your focus on getting the right things done?

For starters, stop doing things that don’t make any sense. Focus – discipline yourself – to start each day working on those tasks that have the highest reward/payoff. The fact is, you can only properly focus on only a few “key” tasks at one time.

Here are the 4 simple steps you can take to stay focused and get the “right” things done: Continue reading →

Success Habits: The Importance of Ongoing Self-Development

As the leader, when you get better, your business gets better. How can you build your world of knowledge? What are you doing to make that happen? What are you going to do tomorrow to make you that much better today? Chris shares some advice.

 

Some People - Chris Ruisi Leadership articles

It’s All About the Selection (Of People)

I have several clients who are each trying to hire the “right” person for key positions within their companies. Today’s tight labor market makes this important task that much more challenging.

I’m always amazed how everyone agrees that the quality of your team will determine the quality of your business. Yet many still approach the hiring and selection of employees as a burden or something you “have to do.” Or, even worse they just want to get it behind them and hire the first person they “think” is the right one.

Well, here’s a fact: Selecting – not just hiring – the right person is something you must do! And you had better be doing it right if you want to avoid mistakes, lost money and productivity and causing your customers to go elsewhere.

Let me share with you the advice that I give each of my clients which works.

To start with, here are 3 sure-fire ways to make certain that you can hire the wrong employees. Here’s the point (just in case you need to hear it): Do the opposite! Continue reading →

Feedback: Some leaders don’t like it, but every leader needs it

Chris Ruisi Driving Business Growth Podcast

Most leaders “say” they want feedback, yet leaders today struggle with how to provide it in an effective and constructive way. But for our purposes today, Chris’ podcast will focus on how you as a leader can ask for it and accept it. Why is this important? Simple really: because the true mark of a courageous leader isn’t measured by how many tough situations are handled, but in how they create openness in their company that encourages the giving and accepting feedback at all levels.

 

 

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Chris Ruisi

Tough Decisions: Be The Leader Your Team Wants and Needs

To be successful as a leader, there will be times when you will be faced with making tough or difficult decisions.

Some often delay making tough critical decisions because they fear criticism, making people angry or that they will be disliked because of their action. They’re right! There will always be someone who will be unhappy or angry. But that doesn’t change the fact that the decision needs to be made.

Yet, despite this, some will jump through hoops to avoid taking timely and complete action. I (you) see this struggle all of the time. This approach can be a fatal error for a business leader in situations where success sometimes hangs in the balance based on their ability to make tough decisions on not-so-perfect information.

When you have a tough decision to make, first be clear about the outcome you want to achieve and then second, take deliberate and focused action. Get tough decisions behind you so you can focus on moving forward. It takes bold action to achieve bold results. Nothing ever gets better by ignoring it.

Here are six proven steps that will help you “be the leader” needed to make tough, important and usually unpopular decisions: Continue reading →