What has leadership got to do with becoming wealthy: Part 1

Answer: Everything!

Leadership, or more importantly good leadership underpins your ability to succeed.

As a great leader, you are the inspiration, visionary and literally the soul of your business.

Click here to listen to the full recording Leadership and Wealth Part 1

It applies equally across the spectrum should you be the CEO of a multi national corporation or a solopreneur with a red hot idea.

The most reliable way to creating wealth is to build up a business that turns over significant dollars and selling it as a viable concern, or have a business model that can be replicated many times over, then licensing these as franchises.

The caveat here is that your business must provide exemplary value for a service and/or product that is second to none, and that the consumer is willing to pay top dollar for what you offer.

I use the example of your toothache and your smiling dentist, Dr Fang.

If you had a toothache you’d probably ignore it for as long as it is possible. Show me a person who enjoys sitting in the dentist’s chair with a high speed drill on their teeth and I will show you someone who is flat lining.

However, there will come a time when all the pain killer tablets in your bathroom cabinet will not stop the sharp shooting pain that makes you want to grab a hammer and hit your toes with it because that is the only thing that will take your attention away from your toothache. This usually occurs round about 9 PM on a Sunday evening.

At this stage you will not care if you have to take a second mortgage on your house to have your toothache dealt with.

Dr Fang is more than happy to oblige, fixes your toothache and makes the pain go away (for a fee).

Dr Fang knows that toothaches do not occur between the hours of 9-5 on weekdays only. In fact, he/she has noticed that if their dental surgery was open 24 hours a day 7 days a week, there would not be a shortage of patients in their waiting room.

Because Dr Fang cannot be at more than one place at a time, they hire other dentists and support staff to replicate their service across town or even the country.

Their secret weapon is that they are able to leverage their time. Another equally important component is that they aim for staff members to have the same passion and work ethic.

If you are a heart centered businessperson, not only will you be looking at a bottom line of increased profits or revenue, but as importantly, that increased productivity has not come at the expense of your employees’ well being.

Put yourself in Dr Fang’s shoes and ask yourself, how do I get my staff to share my big picture goals and visions for my business?

Here’s where effective, strong and good leadership becomes vital to a business not only surviving but thriving, GFC or no GFC.

Just reiterating, as a great leader, you are the inspiration, visionary and literally the soul of your business.

Essentially, leadership is firstly knowing yourself (and being wholly comfortable and accepting of who you are).

Secondly having a clear vision of what your (business) goals are.

Thirdly, it is being able to clearly communicate this vision to your staff and getting total buy in from them. They have to do this voluntarily or else it will not work (think Captain Bligh and the mutiny on the HMS Bounty).

This includes building trust, getting your workers to function as a cohesive unit and motivating them to perform at their highest level, and to do so on a consistent basis.

Impossible, you say?

Not if you are an emotionally intelligent leader.

People are not motivated by money as much as feeling that their contribution is worthwhile and publicly acknowledged.

More on this in my next post; until then

Yours in health, wealth and happiness