Examples Of Leadership Qualities

When Tony Fernandes wanted to start a budget airline seven years ago, he couldn't get a license or anybody to buy his idea. You see, the idea of a discount carrier couldn't sell since everybody had the mindset that flying is only for people who can afford it. He then sold his idea to the Prime Minister at the time. He envisioned how a discount carrier would revolutionize Asian air travel, at a time when airlines worldwide were still struggling from the impact of September 11 terrorist attacks.

 

He took a substantial risk by buying the airline for a token of 26 cents, as well as inheriting its debt of roughly $11 million. He only saw one outcome. He could not afford to fail. Fernandes learned to think like an entrepreneur from his mentor, Sir Richard Branson. He imitated and emulated what Branson was doing and followed his successful business model. Fernandes had a remarkable influence on the shaping of government and airline mentality in Southeast Asia and beyond. Previously, neighboring countries had never had any kind of open-skies agreement. He knew exactly what he wanted and had a clear idea and vision of how to achieve it.

 

In order to do just that, focus on what the person you want to emulate is doing right. Emulate his method from the planning process to the development phase. If you need to, modify the steps to suit your own personal goals. What may take a few years to accomplish could even be shortened to a few months if done properly. Do note that sometimes, you can even do things better than your mentor. This is because most of what your mentor has done was based on trial and error. You can do better because you have already seen the impact and experienced the results of what has become of his plan. Therefore, you can plan better and definitely attain better results.

 

Once you have set your sight on the step-by-step process of how to achieve each goal with specific details, ACT ON IT. Get into the action habit. Start with a smaller goal or task and follow the step-by-step process that you have written down. After all, these are your own handwritten instructions and who else will better understand them than yourself? Stick the piece of paper or spreadsheet somewhere visible to you when you wake up, before you go to work, while at your daily routines and before you go to bed at night.

 

Get it ingrained into your memory and read it out loud at least five times a day. Make a commitment to yourself (and others if required) to set a specific amount of time each day to achieve the goal you have come up with. You will notice that an amazing thing will happen. You will find yourself become more aware of your current surroundings, more aware of how much time you have to yourself. Why? Because you keep track of your goals that you have set. Don't just take ray word for it! Try it! Repeat this for each of the goals that you have listed in the short, medium and long-term columns.

 

Procrastination

Procrastination is the common enemy, which every man must conquer. It is the habit of putting off and delaying certain tasks and responsibilities that you know you should have done. This happens because your goals are not clear or specific enough so that even when you list them, you don't know how to start achieving them, thus delaying action until the last minute. This leads to mediocre results. Procrastination can also happen when you underestimate the complexity of the issue at hand, hence no adequate research is done before setting a reasonable and realistic plan and time frame to achieve the goal.

 

Every one is guilty of procrastinating at one time or another. No one, and I mean no one, can operate at 100% productivity all the time. All of us need a break to avoid burn out, The key is to recognize when you are procrastinating, and what you can do to avoid it. Ask yourself these questions: do you keep putting off tasks and/or responsibilities which you know you must complete by a certain time, or do you wait until the very last minute when you have no other options? Are you very indecisive, change directions and make different decisions at the first sign of trouble? Do you need to wait for a special occasion or time of the day, for example after lunch, after dinner or worse still, an anniversary, a best friend's birthday and so on, before starting a task? If the answers to these questions are mostly yes, then you are indeed a procrastinator.

 

To beat procrastination, you need to be able to prioritize things that need to get done each day. Having a list of goals in a step-by-step process is a start. Developed a spreadsheet with the time line. After completing each of the items on the list, you must reward yourself with a break or time out session. Ensure that these breaks are included in the time line to avoid unnecessary delays in achieving your goals.

 

Beating procrastination is all about properly managing your time and effectively using time to get more things done. Keep a time log so that you are aware of how much time you have spent on each activity every day during the course of the goal achievement. To keep a time log, include information such as the tasks that you do daily or weekly depending on your particular goal: short, medium or long-term. See the example below for information you may require:

• Name of the task that you want to get done.

• How long you estimate it will take and the actual time taken. This is to gauge accuracy of the time that you have allocated to each task.

• Interruptions, if applicable. If yes, include what the interruptions were and how long.

• Is there anyone else involved? Are you capable of completing the task? Is completion of tasks dependent on a third party?

 

Next, you need to be able to categorize your activities into meaningful areas such as family, career, hobbies, passion, friends, and so on and so forth. You can distribute these categories by deciding how many hours you plan to put in for each. Note that this doesn't mean you have to allocate a certain amount of time each day for each category. Some categories may only come in during the weekends, like hobbies or passion.

 

After having done this for a few days, you will find that a lot of the time you spend each day is wasted on unproductive activities. You can then decide whether to eliminate those activities and free up more of your time to complete your goals and tasks on time. However, at the end of each day, ensure that the amount of time allocated to each category you have specified, is realistic and in accordance to what you believe and value. To find out more, you can check out Examples Of Leadership Qualities.

 

 

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