Who is leading your organization?

John Maxwell say’s everything rises and falls on leadership. His law of the lid states that our leadership ability determines our level of effectiveness and our level of effectiveness determine the success of our organization. The activity I see with so many small business owners is that we are so busy working in our business that we do not set aside time to work on our business. We are busy doing things right but we do not take the time to evaluate if we are doing the right things. Our markets and economies change so rapidly that the strategies and tactics that we have used the past 3 or 5 or 10 years may not be the most effective strategies and tactics today. Think about the advertising part of business, Google has taken the place of the trusted Yellow pages and where and how do we effectively use Face book, Linkedin and Twitter. Someone is making a million dollars out there using social media and someone is wasting a lot of time. What is the difference?

As small a small business owner and small business coach, I have had to work extra hard both networking with successful professionals, and reading up on what it takes to become successful in the ever changing small business market. Small business owners tend to isolate and insulate themselves from others who may have fresh perspective on what we are doing. My question to you is, who are you listening to and whom are you reading about that will help you become a more effective leader and/or small business owner?

I am subscribing to podcasts by people like Andy Stanley, Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller and Steven Levit. I am following Scott Stratten  and other social medial professions on Twitter.  I listening to CD’s while I drive by John Maxwell, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Tom Hopkins and more. I am spending my down time reading Magazines like Success and trade magazines as well as books such as Tony Dungy’s Mentor Leader, Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfuctions of a team and John Kotter’s Leading change. Things can’t change for the positive in your organization, if you as a leader are not open to change.  Things are always changing and the choice is ours.  We can choose to learn to make positive change or keep doing things the way we always have and take a chance. Choose to change. This makes good business sense and helps me have time to work on my business not just be in my business.

Check out some of the following book lists

Dave Ramsey book list