What does it take to be a good leader? This, and many questions about good leadership have been discussed many times and in many places. For sure, there is no simple answer to good leadership.

To add just one more morsel to the soup, here is a little story which I hope will shed just a little more light to the subject. It is a little vague to protect the identities of the people involved.

One day, this lady, let’s call her Ms C, heard that there was a complaint about her performance in one of the classes she was teaching. So, she consulted with her partner and they decided to approach their supervisor. Without saying anything, he simply told them that they should adhere closely to the teaching principles and promptly passed them the “Manual”. Both of them pored over the “Manual” and were puzzled. As far as they could tell, they have followed the protocol and stuck to the recommended practices in almost every case. Not able to discover the source of the complain, and since no one brought up the issue, it was decided that the issue was closed.

What do you think?

Obviously, the leader felt that he had dispensed his duty by reminding the two hapless teachers of their duty. But without a clear explanation, with no resolution to the matter, no follow up, not even an inkling of what the original complain was about; how can you expect your staff to improve?

There are many duties expected of a leader. Leadership is not only about being the front man. It is not only about giving orders. It is not even about taking the blame. Good leadership is a demanding, all rounder role that requires commitment, skill, intelligence and most important of all, leadership qualities.

How’s that for coming around in one big circle?

When things go wrong, the bosses blame the workers, and the workers blame the bosses. When things go right, the bosses take the credit and the workers do the clean up work.

Yes, many of you will say that the above is a cliched scenario that no longer happens today. Well, dream on.

All managers want to have good subordinates. A lot has been written about this topic. It is not only about the authority of the boss, but in many cases, it is about the ability to lead. Leadership is so very different from being bossy.

Some bosses think that good leadership means that they set a good example. If they set a good example, they are good leaders. I think that is a little too simplistic.

Recently, I overhead this discussion and I want to share it with you. Names, places and some details were changed to maintain anonymity.

One manager was joking about another colleague who got his iPhone and only knew how to use it to receive and make calls, nothing else. After a nice round of chuckles, one of the directors suddenly asked “Where did he get the iPhone?”

Apparently, the iPhone came as part of the package when the corporate mobile phone plan was renewed. Immediately, the director then said, “That iPhone belongs to the company, he should surrender it since the company is paying the phone bills.”

Interesting, isn’t it? What would you have done?

By the letter of the law, that last statement is not wrong. However, think about the message that you are sending to your people. Here are a few points to consider as a leader:

1. The guy is working FOR you. That phone is already being used in service of the company.
2. The guy did not break any rules or bent any to “get” the iPhone, it was simply a part of the Corporate Plan which the company was subscribing to.
3. Taking away the iPhone and keeping it in the cupboard would appear to be a spiteful, petty “management” action that does not seem to have any bearing on improving productivity or any thing positive.

Is this how you would inspire your subordinates? By demonstrating how legalistic and by-the-book you are?

Would you be surprised if the guy told you that he knocks off at 5pm and refused to lift a finger to answer the phone at 5.01pm? After all, you set the example.

If you want good subordinates, you must first be a good leader. That leadership extends to many aspects of your interaction with and your management of, the people.

This is probably worth a case study, but since this is just a blog, let us leave it at that. Your comments would be most welcomed!

I had an interesting conversation with someone yesterday, and it got me thinking. You see, an acquaintance of mine quit from his old job and wanted to get a new one. Naturally, he was asking around.

Of course, I had to ask him what type of jobs he preferred. As a trained Project Management professional, he naturally preferred program or project work. When I asked him how he felt about a business development role, his answer was quick and predictable.

“I don’t do sales. I have done some marketing work before and it was quite ok.”

So, marketing is not sales, and sales is not nice, marketing is acceptable. Good.

But if you looked around you today, there are a lot of jobs with the title “Marketing Something” and a lot of what they are expected to do are sales. Phony.

So, marketing – what exactly constitutes marketing? Let’s try to make a list

• Brochures
• Road Shows
• Putting up Ads (print, outdoor, TV, online…)
• Talking to Ad Agencies
• Trade Show participation
• Promotions and Events
• Direct Mail

So, for the sake of argument, let’s assume the above list is correct. Now, we need to ask ourselves, what is the purpose of all those activities? Well, let’s make another list, this time, about what marketing is all about:

• Brand building
• Awareness
• Customer Relationship (loyalty, repeat sales…)
• Improve sales

Again, let us assume this is correct for now.  So, all the marketing folks are happy. You see, these are the things that marketing does.

Recently, there has been a trend towards accountability. What with the economy and the other disturbances, every penny saved is a penny earned. More and more attention is now being paid to the Return on Investment of Marketing Dollars.

Now, management wants to measure the results of marketing in a more tangible way.  For years, decades, marketers have been using brand awareness surveys, top of mind brand recall, customer loyalty index and so on to justify their spendings. But with the crunch on businesses, that has somehow become insufficient.

As most bosses will tell you, all the statistics are fine; but when it comes time to pay the salaries, a 20% increase in brand awareness with no money in the bank means absolutely nothing.

Marketing today needs to produce real, tangible results. Tangible usually refers to the area between the thumb and the forefinger. Most traditional, old school marketers clinging to their old ways disagree. Bringing in the cash is sales. Marketing paves the way. How can marketing be held responsible for poor sales?

Let’s examine the list of things marketing do once again:

• Brochures
• Road Shows
• Putting up Ads (print, outdoor, TV, online…)
• Talking to Ad Agencies
• Trade Show participation
• Promotions and Events
• Direct Mail

Why give a brochure to someone if you don’t expect them to buy? Why waste time and resources at a Road Show if no sales are expected? Why advertise if you have nothing to sell? Why go to huge Trade Shows if you do not expect huge orders? Why run promotions and events if you expect no one to buy your products or services? Why waste the stamp money if you don’t expect a cheque in the mail?

Say what you like, when marketing becomes selling, it is an indication of two possibilities:

a) lousy marketing (your message must be pretty crude)

b) really effective marketing

What say you?

This is not about marketing. I have started, out of personal interest, a simple site for those who are interested in writing fiction or just writing anything, to contribute to. The site is http://www.mywritingblock.com, sort of like your own little space to carve out your own little story.

It is mostly empty now, but if you drop in, do sign up and also contribute some of your own writings. Any ideas or suggestions to make the site better would of course be most welcome.

Over the past weeks, other than the buzz surrounding the Lunar New Year celebrations in Singapore, another buzz was happening. Resorts World was going to open its doors. It is now 2010. What started out as a dream in 2005 is slowly but surely becoming a reality.

How will it stack up with the other more famous gaming destinations in the world?

Frankly, no one knows at this time. But from a marketing perspective, you can see that Singapore has always been able to find just the right angle. From the world famous “Singapore Girl” to small wins like the “tallest man-made waterfall” in the Jurong Bird Park, Singapore has always managed to find something to attract tourists.

I am sure that soon, you will be reading more about comparisons, most certainly with the nearest destinations like Genting and Macau.

In the online world, comparisons have always been rife. In the world of online slot machines you will be sure to read one slot machine rvm or another at some point. How accurate these reviews are, will be a matter of personal opinion.

Many people prefer the hubbub of a real-life casino while others prefer to play their game of chance in the privacy of their own homes. In marketing, we call this segmentation. In business, I guess its called opportunities.

Whatever your preferences, I am sure someone some where will pander to your whim. As I watch this development, I cannot help but wonder if everyone feels the same positive vibes about Resort World or even online slot machines. After all, while gambling is probably one of the oldest past-times in the world, it is also one of the most frowned upon.

The Chinese have a tradition of visiting relatives during Chinese New Year. While there, what do you think is a common activity? Yes, you guessed right. Mahjong, Black Jack, Gin… you name it, they will probably play it. After all, the New Year is supposed to bring good luck and good fortune. What better way to put this to the test than to hit the tables?

Here’s wishing all our Chinese friends from all over the world a happy and prosperous Lunar New Year!

For many small business startups, cost savings are important. So, I would like to share with you this Hostgator coupon in case you are considering getting a web hosting plan.

In case you did not know, this blog is hosted on Hostgator and I have been really happy with the service. The best thing that I liked was the responsiveness of the online chat help. Anytime you click on it, someone is bound to be on to speak with you. Without a big IT department and highly qualified staff, this is a really good option for me to manage my hosting.

Anyway, for the New Year, they sent a coupon code that would give you a 20% discount. Hope this will be useful for you: hgnews12. When you sign up for your Hostgator hosting account, type in this code to get the discount.

Here’s wishing everyone a very happy new year, may 2010 bring you close to your dreams.

OK, it is Christmas time, and somehow, in the midst of all the food and beer, I am suddenly reminded of a very old dream… six pack abs.

I tell you, the truth is, I went from scrawny to pot-bellied. I have no idea what happened in between. Seriously. My friend asked me to look at this Squidoo page which talked about this.

It is interesting that there are several issues that impact this. The lens has a sharing by Mike Geary who claims to have an answer, the truth, to our quest for the elusive six pack abs today. Maybe I will try it. Let’s see how it goes…

In the early days of the Internet, avatars were the “wow” factor for many new sites. If you had a site, and it allowed users to have an avatar… wow!

Those days came and went, or so we thought. Looks like now, avatars seem to be back again. I just realised this, so I must have been buried in work all this time (yeah, all true!). So, here are TWELVE, yes, 12 sites that allow you to custom create your own avatar. I saw this and thought to share this with you guys:

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/11-sites-to-create-cartoon-characters-of-yourself/

Yes, it is more than a year old. Bite me.

Friend of mine asked me to help spread the word, so here it is – the word!

The word is that Eran Katz, Memory Master who holds the Guinness Book of World Records for Best Memory Stunt will be in Singapore doing a half day seminar for students (lucky kids!) and it will help them perform better in school and enjoy studying… I guess because they spend less time studying and remembering more.

Anyway, you can read all about the seminar here: http://www.versacreations.com/84/super-student-sucess-seminar/

For those of you who don’t live in Singapore, well… I heard Eran speaks around the world, maybe he might visit you one day.

The latest trend today is to “go green”. That is good. Don’t really know if that help us avoid 2012, but well, we do what we can.

So, thought I seen it all, until I saw this – Organic Cotton BABY WIPES. I am a little too old for this, but it did bring out the giggles. I fully understand the motivation and the attraction of the idea, don’t get me wrong here. But well, baby wipes?

Used to be that Organic Marketing had a totally different meaning. Now, new term like Sustainable Marketing and Triple Bottom Line are beginning to become common. Will it every become mainstream enough that you will not need to Google it to figure out what it means? Who knows.

Will you be on this band-wagon?

How do you increase sales revenue? There are only 3 known ways to increase your business legally:

1. Get more customers
2. Increase price
3. Get existing customers to buy more

Usually, most companies focus on #1 – Get More Customers. This is intuitively the first reaction that any business person will think of. If I have more customers, I will make more money. Simple, straight-forward logic.

#2 – Increase Price seems to be the Freddy Kreuger of most busineses. No one dares to even think about it most of the time. Other times, this is entertained as a nice fantasy before getting on with the real business.

#3 – Getting existing customers to buy more is probably one of the most desired outcome for many business owners. Buy two get one free and other bundling offers is the epitome of this strategy. It is a good strategy, even though it does compromise margins, you make up for the shortfall in the bottom line by increasing the top line numbers. It could work in some cases.

The harsh reality is this – it is really hard to get more customers. It is easy to lose customers. This is food for thought. Let me ask you a question:

“Why does everyone prefer to think about how to do business the hard way?”

We have been taught that it is hard to succeed at business. So, if getting more customers is hard, then it must be the best way to improve business. There is no way that you can improve sales if you do not have customers. That is a given. However, once you are over that initial hump, do you really need to increase your customer base?

Getting existing customers to buy more is a no brainer. That will certainly increase revenue. Because they already buy from you, they KNOW that you provide a good product/service and they are willing to pay for it. They proved it once. They will do it again.

There is one sure way that we can increase price and ensure that customers buy more from us – provide a true and abundant value.

Giving more value than the customer expects is not about giving up margins. It is about buying good will. If we can learn to meet, and then exceed customer expectations, we will increase sales.

The problem is, how?