By John C. Maxwell

It happens all the time.

Successful leaders- people with great business acumen, great teams and great vision- are moving along, growing their companies when, all of a sudden, they fall flat on their faces.

Their businesses start hemorrhaging money. Their best people start jumping ship. Their families start falling apart.

And they sit at their desks with their heads in their hands wondering, “How did this happen?”

I’ll tell you how it happened. They were blown up by a problem they never saw coming.

I call these problems “leadership landmines” because unless you’re consciously looking for them, they’re nearly impossible to spot. They’re buried in the grind of daily life, quietly waiting to injure and perhaps even destroy the next unsuspecting leader who steps on them.

Before I go on, I need to tell you that what I’m writing is based on personal experience. At one time or another in my career, I’ve stepped on landmines like the ones I’m about to describe. In some cases, I even have the scars to prove it.

If you’re moving and active, you’re bound to have a painful encounter with a landmine every now and then. It’s just the nature of leadership. But there are certain landmines that will absolutely wipe you out if you’re not careful, and those are the ones that really deserve our attention.

A friend once told me, “If I could kick the person most responsible for most of my problems, I would not be able to sit down for a week.” From my own life and the lives of the leaders I’ve observed over the years, I have found that to be absolutely right. Most leaders I watch don’t need to worry about the competition beating them. Instead, they need to be concerned about doing something stupid in the race and disqualifying themselves.

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By John C. Maxwell

Sometimes you have a minute to make a difference, sometimes you have a few seconds to make a difference. If you are lucky, you have an hour or maybe a day or two to make a difference. Time crunches in on you when a disaster like the terrorist attack on September 11th strikes. At that time, leadership emerges. Whether it is your greatest hour or your worst is up to you.

In every age, there comes a time when a leader must come forward to meet the needs of the hour. Therefore, there is no potential leader who does not have the opportunity to make a positive difference in society. Tragically, there are times when a leader does not rise to the hour.

The following are seven leadership practices seen in times of crisis:

Stand up and be seen.

Justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done. The same goes for leadership. This is not the time to lock yourself away in strategy sessions. It is time to be visible.

Embrace brutal optimism.

In the end, the best leaders combine two countervailing messages. Jim Collins, a management thinker and the author of “Good to Great”, sometimes describes this as the “Churchill paradox.” On the one hand was the Prime Minister’s grim promise of “blood, toil, tears, and sweat” in the near term. On the other was his upbeat certainty that England would prevail “however long and hard the road may be.”

Stick to the facts.

Nothing is scarier than a leader who offers reassurances that fly in the face of the facts. Few believed Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill when he cheerfully predicted a quick economic recovery, nor did Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson inspire trust when he speculated that the first anthrax victim got the disease by drinking from a stream.

Tell a story in a statement.

Abraham Lincoln’s story in 1861:

“The Union stands for liberty, secession would destroy the Union, and therefore secession is a threat to liberty.”

Winston Churchill’s story in 1942:

“This is not the end; it is not even the beginning of the end, though it is perhaps the end of the beginning.”

George W. Bush’s story in 2001:

“They may not come to justice, but we will bring justice to them.”

The bottom line comes second.

We should not have to tell you what comes first. “The most important thing is to have people know that they’re secure and cared about – that they’re not just cogs,” says Dee Soder, an advisor to top executives
and the founder of the CEO Perspective Group in New York City.

Link the ordinary to the extraordinary.

In the wake of events, employees are apt to ask themselves searching questions about their careers and
priorities. With national security at stake, the thought goes, how important can my little job be? Probably
not as important as the work of firefighters and Army Rangers, granted. However, creative leaders find ways to connect the humdrum of people’s jobs with the larger causes on their minds.

Do not overreach.

You have done everything right, you have earned your leadership merit badge, and now your people are giving you a standing ovation. Next piece of advice: They are not really cheering for you. They are cheering for themselves – and for the group’s ability to unite and persevere under threat. Lose sight of that, and you violate the delicate compact between leaders and led.

I think as you reflect on these seven practices, it’ll help you to be a better leader to other people who are depending on you to walk slowly through the crowd and make a difference.

This article provided by [http://www.christianbusinessdaily.com]ChristianBusinessDaily.com – The Online Network for Christians in Business.  Your source for news, articles, and commentary from a biblical perspective.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Leadership-Practices-in-Times-of-Crisis&id=452921] Leadership Practices in Times of Crisis

Simply brilliant let your light shine!

Whatever your heart is telling you!

Whatever your passion is, let it take you there!

Your brilliance is so needed in the world around you.

Your uniqueness may be yet to be discovered.

What’s whispering in your ear?

What does the Lion Whisperer version shares to you?

Share your unique brilliance!

Let the world see the eternal Creator through you.

Only you can continually educate yourself like you can do!

Institution cannot serve the great designer like your brilliant masterpiece can!

Only you can really show your great creative design given by the creator of all things!

What if this man had allowed fear to take over his calling plan in life?

How did he train those lions without learning the ABC’s of training lions by an institution?

Are you being prompted to something but your fear takes over you? Fret not!

If there’s any time to do it – do it now with discernment against your whispering-enemies.

What would the world be missing to see and discover – through you?

Share today your brilliance too, you know you can!

Storytelling represents the virtual underutilized instrument in selling. Nevertheless storytelling not merely creates it comfortable for folks to get to experience, care and desire you, likewise step-ups gross revenue.
1. In your storytelling – follow this tested guide for most effective outcomes. T.E.S. means “trouble, execute, solutions”.
Express the trouble you’re confronted. What was not functioning, how did that sense? Narrate what execute you conducted. What represented the epiphany that shifted your spirit? What represented your “ah-ha” instant? What represented the solution of the execution you conducted? How to apply numbers and real life solutions? Narrate however you have sensed at present that matters are indeed distinguishable from whilst you experienced the trouble.
2. Most efficient stories drive the listener to discover envisions in their creative thinking. Those envision that glow in our retention and cause us to recall stories long time later on.
Choose a particular instant in time that comprises the crucial part of your story. Discard everything additional contributing up to that aim. At present, while you narrate the story produce envision in your creative thinking. Choose merely two particulars to narrate us virtually about.
Possibly it personified the closeness of your breath, the Green paint breaking off the room access you unfolded, the spongy auditory sensation below your shoes merely sufficient to unlock the key envision. Allow the listener conclude envision in their creative thinking.
3. The bountiful marketing secret narrates a story that likewise instructs a heart and soul thought behind your divine service, merchandise or platform.
Please see below to capture a full multimedia interactive presentation to create your own envision. You will probably recall more the precept behind storytelling how to narrate a story that sells. Please share how you are developing your storytelling message in comment post below.

Freelance writer wanted is the ad you would be putting out on the Internet if you were into affiliate marketing big time. With the advent of the Internet in the past few years many marketers online have made their millions, and continue to do so. But how do they manage to succeed where so many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of online entrepreneurs fail? Perhaps they have managed to get in at the right time and the right place, not to mention, marketing the right products! Then again, perhaps it is the online marketing strategy they have mastered.

A lot of their success comes from SEO. This is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization. No site will ever be found if it were invisible to the search engines on the Internet. To make these sites search engine friendly, they need to be constructed around a few very popular words and phrases that are cleverly woven into the content to make their occurrences throughout the site content seem naturally integrated.

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We know you’re likely busy (we all are, lol) but you should try to take a look at this virgin social network known as IMfaceplate.

It lets you create your own faceplate where you can showcase all your ideas, programs, or anything you like.

And best of all, you can create your faceplate and use this program absolutely for free. You can visualize what my faceplate looks like here …

It only launched in July and already it’s spreading like wildfire. And you know what that means … this thing is going to be huge in no time!

After you create your own faceplate, make sure to send me a quick message from inside the program so we can help you get around quickly.

Last morning I had the pleasure to download Maxblogpress Ninja Affiliate plugin…  and discover how EASY it is to turn any keyword into affiliate links that make money.

The best feature I like which is the core basis of this wordpress plugin is actually the option to automatically convert your blog keywords into links to the affiliate product of your choice; the best part is that even your old keywords can turn into money-making affiliate links.

Why would you want to convert old keywords into affiliate links? Just think about this for a moment – let’s say you’ve found a brand new affiliate program and you can’t wait to promote it to your blog. You don’t have to wait until you write your next post, just use Ninja Affiliate plugin and it’ll convert the keywords of your choice into affiliate links on auto-pilot. You work once, and all the keywords you input will be turned into links that make money, without you having to edit any post whatsoever.

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