Friday, March 29, 2013

Just Say No to Micromanaging


Just Say No to Micromanaging

Micromanagement could have a huge long- and short-term negative impact on your ability to be effective as a manager.



Micromanagement. It may seem like a little thing that's isolated to a few managers, or staff in your company, but the effects of micromanagement could have a huge long- and short-term negative impact on your ability to be effective as a manager, and your ability to achieve or exceed your company's goals. Take a second to think about these questions:

    Do you tell your employees what to do?
    Do you oversee all aspects of their projects?
    Do you direct rather than empower?
    Do spend more time on day-to-day tasks vs the growth of your company?

If you answered yes, to one or more of these questions, you may just be a micromanager, so I'll ask another question... at what cost?

What You Want

You want things done a certain way. The "right" way, and maybe even your way. I get it. But, when you tell employees exactly what you want, how you want it and when you want it, you're basically just telling them to execute. And, unless they don't enjoy thinking very much, they won't be satisfied for long.

The bigger question to ask yourself, or that micromanager you've got is, "can you articulate what you want the outcome to be, but let your employee chart how they get there?" Letting them become part of the journey can pay off big-time because, not only will they feel more valued, but you may actually get a better end product because you'll have more people generating ideas and solutions. Even though you're the boss, you may not always have all the best answers.

What Your Employees Want

So we know you want things done and you want them done a certain way. As I discussed, allowing employees to be a part of the journey can have a far-reaching positive impact because we know employees don't just come to work for a paycheck. They come for so much more including a sense of belonging and having a purpose, being productive, learning and contributing to a common or shared goal, having engagement and maybe even some recognition.

When you do all the thinking for them, you cut their legs out from under them, possibly robbing them of their creativity, ability to problem solve, their trust and ability to be flexible.

Just Say No to Micromanaging

The good news is, you can start to shift the habit of micromanaging by identifying why you or a manager does it, and make a few easy changes.

1. Identify Why

Do you have a new team that you don't know well, haven't established trust and confidence in? Do you have folks who don't carry through, or miss deadlines? Identifying the why will help you address the root cause and take action to help curb feelings of distrust, lack of confidence or other things you have identified.

2. Accountability With a Capital A

If you want your team be accountable, then make sure you work this into SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-sensitive ) goals for them that are realistic. If people aren't held accountable, they may never know they aren't meeting your expectations. At my online marketing company VerticalResponse, we work off of periodical reviews to make sure that what we want for our business is what our teams know they need to do. It's pretty cut and dry.

3. Let Go

Knowing when to step back and give your team the space they need to explore a problem, brainstorm, come up with solutions and execute on them is at the very core of every good manager. If you overstep your boundaries, give your team the right to give you feedback so you know how much rope to give them and respect when they tell you to scram. When I'm in a meeting and a decision needs to be made, many times the team will look at me and ask what I think? A lot of times I turn it around on them and say "What do you guys think?" This way they know they have a say.

Have you had to step back and let go? How did your experience play out? I'd love to hear some real-life examples.


By: Janine Popick

Source: Inc.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Entrepreneurial Success Depends On Optimism--And Perfectionism


Entrepreneurial Success Depends On Optimism--And Perfectionism


The following guest post was written by Millie Tadewaldt, co-founder and CEO of CakeStyle, an online personal styling company. In her previous incarnations, she taught herself to code, studied law at Harvard, was a management consultant at BCG, and helped create the Foundry at Sandbox Industries.
I recently gave a new CakeStyle team member two projects: first, create a slide for an investor deck demonstrating our strengths in managing inventory for our business; and second, create a slide for our company meeting explaining how we should improve our inventory management function. The result: confusion.
As an attorney by training (and a natural-born debater), it hadn’t occurred to me that learning to “debate” your own startup can be an acquired skill.  A necessary skill, to be sure, but something that doesn’t come easily for everyone.
Lawyers generally have very little control over which “side” they will end up on, so they have to be prepared to advocate for their client either way.  In law school, we are taught how to see the strengths of both sides of an argument, and even practice arguing both sides.  This has been the most useful skill I transferred from my legal education to my life as an entrepreneur.
There are two lenses that a good entrepreneur needs to learn to use interchangeably, and he/she also needs to learn which lens to use for which audience.  And, as I will explain, I mean “lens” in the sense of true, honest perspective, not in the sense of a slimy defense lawyer trying to get his clearly-guilty client acquitted.
Perfectionism: This is your daily working lens, used to help you motivate your team, receive guidance from your board and mentors, and define your own to-do list.  This is what keeps you up at night.  Startups are all about incremental improvements, and striving for “perfection,” though rarely achieving it.  A good entrepreneur is a perpetual critic.  She sees where improvements can be made (pretty much everywhere!), devises strategies to improve, and then isolates and prioritizes the most impactful ones. In CakeStyle’s case, this means determining how we can improve inventory management by increasing turn, more quickly identifying which SKUs are “dogs” and liquidating them in season, reducing damaged inventory rates and improving our buying function.
Optimism: This is the lens of the pitch, often used for interviews with press, recruiting new employees, getting the team (and yourself) pumped up, and pitching investors. This is what wakes you up in the morning, why you’re always excited about your business, why it’s special, why your customers love you, and how the data proves it.  For CakeStyle, this means showcasing how our inventory management metrics beat retail and ecommerce benchmarks, how strong our team is, and our ability to profitably sell or liquidate literally everything we buy.
Even if seeing both sides at the same time doesn’t come naturally to you, practice looking through each of your lenses and communicating with appropriate measures of perfectionism and optimism depending on your audience.
And, to be clear, the truth must exist in both of these lenses.  You should always be honest with the press, your team, your investors, your board and yourself.  A good entrepreneur should be optimistic and energized about her business (when optimism is warranted), but also able to clearly see where improvements should be made next.  And improvements are always warranted.


By: Millie Tadewaldt

Source: Forbes

Friday, March 22, 2013

Eight Leadership Lessons From The World's Most Powerful Women





Eight Leadership Lessons From The World's Most Powerful Women



Today I had the great pleasure of speaking at The Innovation Enterprises’ 2013 Women in Strategy Summit, which brings together 75 high-level women in marketing and strategy, about the leadership secrets of the world’s most powerful women. With women comprising just 4% of corporate CEOs, 14% of executive officers and 20% of America’s government officials, we’re facing a persistent leadership gap at the highest echelons. To move forward, we must first take stock of what is working. The following eight leadership lessons, synthesized and updated from a keynote I gave last year, come directly from the women who know what it takes to get to the top.

Stay Determined
The world’s most successful women really want it–and remain determined even in the face of obstacles. They have the skills, and they put the time in. But more importantly, they have the desire to do something great. Beth Brooke, global vice chair of Ernst & Young, was diagnosed with a degenerative hip disease at age 13 and was told by doctors she may never walk again. Before going into surgery she promised herself she would walk—no, she would run—and aspired to become one of the best young athletes the world had seen. Not only did she walk, she went on to play several varsity sports at her high school, earned multiple MVP awards, and later played Division I basketball in college. She made up her mind, and she didn’t quit. She brought that same determination to her career and today ranks among the 100 most powerful women in the world.

Be Courageous
Women at the top aren’t fearless. They move toward their fear to continually challenge themselves. That takes courage. In 2011, Beth Mooney, CEO of KeyCorp, became the first woman ever to lead a top-20 bank in the U.S. Mooney began her career as a secretary at a local Texas bank, making just $10,000 a year, but soon realized she wanted something more. In 1979, she knocked on the door of every big bank in Dallas and asked for a spot in their management training programs. At the Republic Bank of Dallas, she refused to leave the manager’s office until he offered her a job. After waiting for three hours, he finally agreed to give her a chance if she earned an MBA by night.

That was a turning point in her career, one of many, powered by a courageous call to action—to champion herself and what she knew she was capable of. Later, she had the courage to move into roles she’d never done before, to pick up and move across the country, and to stick with it for three decades. If you’re not a little bit scared every day, you’re not learning. And when you’re not learning, you’re done.


Think Bigger
In order to achieve big success, you have to have big impact. When Michelle Gass, who is now leading 33 countries for Starbucks, started at the coffee chain, she was asked to architect a growth strategy for a just-launched drink called the Frappuccino. Her mantra: “Let’s think of how big this can be.” After countless hours testing ideas, she decided to position it as an escapist treat and added ice cream parlor fixings and new flavors. What began as a two-flavor side item is now a $2 billion platform with tens of thousands of possible combinations. Gass repeated her go-big-or-go-home strategy when she took over Seattle’s Best Coffee. She decided to take the sleepy little-sister brand to new heights by partnering with Burger King, Delta, Subway, convenience stores and supermarkets. In one year, the brand exploded from 3,000 distribution points to over 50,000.

Take Calculated Risks
As CEO of Kraft Foods and now Mondelez International, Irene Rosenfeld is very familiar with this one. A couple years ago she completed a hostile takeover of British candy company Cadbury. Not long after, she surprised the business community again with a plan to split Kraft into two separate companies, a North American foods company and a global snacks company. To move the needle, you have to make a big bets—but never rash—always based on a careful study of the outcomes. You have to know what you have to gain, and if you can afford to take the hit if it doesn’t go your way.

Remain Disciplined
It takes discipline to achieve and maintain success. You simply can’t do everything, and the world’s most powerful women stay focused on the areas that will have the biggest impact—from both a leadership perspective and a career management perspective. Sheri McCoy, the new CEO of struggling Avon Products, is currently implementing a huge turnaround at the century-old beauty company. Interestingly, when I asked what the biggest challenge would be, she said: “Making sure people stay focused on what’s important and what matters most.” It is very easy to get distracted by new trends, new markets, new projects—but when you extend yourself too far, the quality of your work suffers across the board.


Hire Smart
Over and over again women at the top say their best strategy for success is to hire people who are diverse, passionate and smarter than themselves–and then listen closely to their perspectives. Hala Moddelmog, president of Arby’s Restaurant Group, believes surrounding yourself with people of different backgrounds—including gender, race, geography, socio-economic and personality types—will help round out your conclusions. “You really don’t need another you,” she says. Similarly, staying open to different viewpoints keeps you ahead of the curve. Claire Watts, the CEO of retail and media company QVC, schedules open door times every Tuesday, so that anyone in the company who wants to come talk to her, ask her a question or share something they’ve noticed can do it then.

Manage Your Career
Denise Morrison, the CEO of Campbell’s Soup, knew from a very young age she wanted to eventually run a company, so she asked herself what are the kinds of things I need to do to prepare for that? That might mean management experience, global exposure or revenue responsibility. She always looked at her career as: Where have I been? Where am I now? Where am I going, and what are the right assignments to get there? If her current company would work with her to deliver those assignments, she was all-in. But if it didn’t, she knew she needed to move on. “We apply these skills in business, and yet when it comes to ourselves we rarely apply them,” she said.

Delegate At Work And At Home
The most successful women have learned that they have to have help, and they have to have faith in the people around them—at work and at home. It’s not easy, but it’s critical over the long-term. Katie Taylor, the CEO of hotel brand Four Seasons, admitted to me that she is a bit of control freak, but for the good of her and everyone around her, she tries to delegate. “Sit on your hands, if you have to,” she said. “Get yourself to that place.”




By: Jenna Goudreau


Source: Forbes

Monday, March 18, 2013

4 Reasons Great Leaders Get Overlooked


4 Reasons Great Leaders Get Overlooked 
Despite all your best efforts are you failing to get the recognition you think you deserve? Here's what's going on.


There you are: battling away month after month in difficult surroundings, giving it your all (or nearly your all), saving everyone else's hides, thinking so far outside the box that the box is barely visible, delivering added value faster than a speeding train... basically, you're laying waste to every leadership metaphor there is.
And yet, despite all your best efforts, you might as well be working down a coal mine for all the recognition you get.
Ever felt that way?

Despairing that your obvious talents are going to waste--or at least are not being recognized? Fearful that the time and effort you're putting in isn't yielding the leadership recognition that you'd hoped for?

The good news is, you're not alone. I meet similarly frustrated leaders all the time. The bad news is, you're not alone. Your first challenge is to distinguish yourself from them.
If it feels like your leadership efforts aren't resulting in the recognition you deserve, run down this list of possible reasons. I guarantee it'll save you a lot of time, and will point the best way out of your current dead end:

1. You're not as good as you think you are. Yep, it happens. Maybe you arrived at the organization with an inflated sense of your own ability. Maybe your helicopter parents convinced you that you can do no wrong. Maybe you've never really played in the big leagues until now.
Whatever the underlying cause (and there are many), by far the most common reason I see leaders get frustrated by lack of recognition is that they're simply not as competent at leadership as their self-image leads them to believe.

Here's the easiest way to test that this might be the case: Ask your boss what you need to do to get a promotion.

If she gives you one or two specific, precise pieces of feedback, you're fine. If she looks away, blushes, chokes or changes the subject, you're probably in this camp.
How do you fix it? Well, you could start by asking to undergo a 360 assessment. Make sure that you chose a wide range of people as raters, including people you don't naturally like or get on well with. Then find a mentor or coach to help you work with the opportunities (we used to call them "weaknesses" until it become politically incorrect to do so, but that's what they are, all the same) it throws up.

2. Your company doesn't value leadership skills. Let's assume you're not in the first category and that you actually are a good leader. In that case there are only two possibilities as to why you're not receiving the recognition you deserve. 
The first possibility is that your organization quite simply doesn't value leadership, full stop. You'll know if this is the case. You'll see it in a lack of innovation and creativity; there'll be a lack of a challenge function at higher levels of leadership, and you'll probably have noticed that good leaders don't hang around too long.

The solution? Get out. There's nowhere to go in an organization that doesn't value leadership, and there's no point kidding yourself that the culture is going to someday change. It won't.

3. What you've achieved doesn't align with your organization's goals. If you are in fact a strong leader, but aren't receiving the recognition you deserve, the second possibility is that what you're achieving doesn't align with the organization's core goals.
I see it regularly: A hot-shot executive knocks a couple of projects out of the park, then wonders why no plaudits appear. The reason is usually that the projects in question aren't central to the organization's core goals, and are therefore perceived only in the C-suites peripheral vision, if at all?

The answer? Get closer to the core. Volunteer for projects that are plumb in the middle of the organization's strategic interests. Ask for a transfer to a more central department or division. Find ways to connect what you're doing to key functions in the company. If you can't get transferred to the software division, or the warehouse, or the manufacturing floor--wherever the pulse of your organization beats, at least connect what you do to them, as much as possible.

4. You're not actually leading. One final thought. Don't allow yourself the luxury of thinking you're not getting the recognition you need because your boss is stealing all your glory. Leaders don't get overshadowed, only managers do.
If someone is stealing your glory, it's precisely because you're not leading, you're managing.


By: Les Mckeown

Source: Inc.


Friday, March 15, 2013

6 Habits of Remarkably Likable People


6 Habits of Remarkably Likable People

They're charming. They're genuine. And they can make an entire room full of people smile.


When you meet someone, after, "What do you do?" you're out of things to say. You suck at small talk, and those first five minutes are tough because you're a little shy and a little insecure.
But you want to make a good impression. You want people to genuinely like you.
Here's how remarkably likeable people do it:

They lose the power pose.
I know: Your parents taught you to stand tall, square your shoulders, stride purposefully forward, drop your voice a couple of registers, and shake hands with a firm grip.
It's great to display nonverbal self-confidence, but go too far and it seems like you're trying to establish your importance. That makes the "meeting" seem like it's more about you than it is the other person--and no one likes that.

No matter how big a deal you are you pale in comparison to say, oh, Nelson Mandela. So take a cue from him. Watch how he greets Bill Clinton, no slouch at this either.

Clinton takes a step forward (avoiding the "you must come to me" power move); Mandela steps forward with a smile and bends slightly forward as if, ever so slightly, to bow (a clear sign of deference and respect in nearly every culture); Clinton does the same. What you have are two important people who put aside all sense of self-importance or status. They're genuine.
Next time you meet someone, relax, step forward, tilt your head towards them slightly, smile, and show that you're the one who is honored by the introduction--not them.

We all like people who like us. If I show you I'm genuinely happy to meet you, you'll instantly start to like me. (And you'll show that you do, which will help calm my nerves and let me be myself.)

They embrace the power of touch.
Nonsexual touch can be very powerful. (Yes, I'm aware that sexual touch can be powerful too.) Touch can influence behavior, increase the chances of compliance, make the person doing the touching seem more attractive and friendly.

Go easy, of course: Pat the other person lightly on the upper arm or shoulder. Make it casual and nonthreatening.

Check out Clinton's right-hand-shakes-hands-left-hand-touches-Mandela's-forearm-a-second-later handshake in the link above and tell me, combined with his posture and smile, that it doesn't come across as genuine and sincere.

Think the same won't work for you? Try this: The next time you walk up behind a person you know, touch them lightly on the shoulder as you go by. I guarantee you'll feel like a more genuine greeting was exchanged.

Touch breaks down natural barriers and decreases the real and perceived distance between you and the other person--a key component in liking and in being liked.

They whip out their social jiu-jitsu.
You meet someone. You talk for 15 minutes. You walk away thinking, "Wow, we just had a great conversation. She is awesome."

Then, when you think about it later, you realize you didn't learn a thing about the other person.
Remarkably likeable people are masters at Social Jiu-Jitsu, the ancient art of getting you to talk about yourself without you ever knowing it happened. SJJ masters are fascinated by every step you took in creating a particularly clever pivot table, by every decision you made when you transformed a 200-slide PowerPoint into a TED Talk-worthy presentation, if you do say so yourself...SJJ masters use their interest, their politeness, and their social graces to cast an immediate spell on you.

And you like them for it.
Social jiu-jitsu is easy. Just ask the right questions. Stay open-ended and allow room for description and introspection. Ask how, or why, or who.

As soon as you learn a little about someone, ask how they did it. Or why they did it. Or what they liked about it, or what they learned from it, or what you should do if you're in a similar situation.
No one gets too much recognition. Asking the right questions implicitly shows you respect another person's opinion--and, by extension, the person.We all like people who respect us, if only because it shows they display great judgment.
(Kidding. Sort of.)

They whip out something genuine.
Everyone is better than you at something. (Yes, that's true even for you.) Let them be better than you. Too many people when they first meet engage in some form of penis-measuring contest. Crude reference but one that instantly calls to mind a time you saw two alpha male master-of-the business-universe types whip out their figurative rulers. (Notliterally, of course. I hope you haven't seen that.)

Don't try to win the "getting to know someone" competition. Try to lose. Be complimentary. Be impressed. Admit a failing or a weakness.

You don't have to disclose your darkest secrets. If the other person says, "We just purchased a larger facility," say, "That's awesome. I have to admit I'm jealous. We've wanted to move for a couple years but haven't been able to put together the financing. How did you pull it off?"
Don't be afraid to show a little vulnerability. People may be (momentarily) impressed by the artificial, but people sincerely like the genuine.
Be the real you. People will like the real you.

They ask for nothing.
You know the moment: You're having a great conversation, you're finding things in common... and then bam! Someone plays the networking card. 

And everything about your interaction changes. Put away the hard-charging, goal-oriented, always-on kinda persona. If you have to ask for something, find a way to help the other person, then ask if you can.

Remarkably likeable people focus on what they can do for you--not for themselves.

They "close" genuinely.
"Nice to meet you," you say, nodding once as you part. That's the standard move, one that is instantly forgettable.

Instead go back to the beginning. Shake hands again. Use your free hand to gently touch the other person's forearm or shoulder. Say, "I am really glad I met you." Or say, "You know, I really enjoyed talking with you." Smile: Not that insincere salesperson smile that goes with, "Have a nice day!" but a genuine, appreciative smile.

Making a great first impression is important, but so is making a great last impression.

And they accept it isn't easy.
All this sounds simple, right? It is. But it's not easy, especially if you're shy. The standard, power pose, "Hello, how are you, good to meet you, good seeing you," shuffle feels a lot safer.
But it won't make people like you.

So accept it's hard. Accept that being a little more deferential, a little more genuine, a little more complimentary and a little more vulnerable means putting yourself out there. Accept that at first it will feel risky.

But don't worry: When you help people feel a little better about themselves--which is reason enough--they'll like you for it.

And you'll like yourself a little more, too.


By: Jeff Haden

Source: Inc.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Secret to Becoming a Resilient Entrepreneur


Secret to Becoming a Resilient Entrepreneur 

This one activity can give you the mental toughness and a will to win that every entrepreneur needs.



Lately, there have been questions raised about the merits of wrestling as a sport both on the collegiate and international level. While several prominent ex-wrestlers, such as Vladimir Putin and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, have risen to wrestling's defense, I'd like to add the voice of an underrepresented constituency--the poor-to-mediocre high school wrestler. In fact, I owe much of my success in business to the failure and adversity I endured as a high school wrestler.

In case anyone challenges my credentials as a bad wrestler, I humbly share that my record in my first season was 1-10, (there was a vacancy in one opposing team's line-up, so I "won" the forfeit). Today as I lead a company generating more than $100 million in retail sales, I still rely on the lessons I learned fighting off my back.

Could there be a more entrepreneurial activity than wrestling? What other sport forces you to step into the arena virtually naked, and rely only on your mind and body to make things happen? And just as it is with an entrepreneurial business, while knowledge and skills are always helpful, mental toughness and a will to win are at least as important.

Wrestling taught me the importance of bouncing back from pain and failure. I got pounded my first season--back injuries, bloody noses and struggles to make weight while I was in the middle of a growth spurt. But I always managed to put up a fight and by senior year I had worked my way up to a .500 record. And yet as anyone who has endured high school wrestling will tell you, the impact of the sport is much more profound than win-loss numbers.

When I launched Honest Tea out of my house back in 1998, I started with very little resources, including no experience or contacts within the beverage industry. I begged dozens of distributors to deliver our drinks because it doesn't matter how tasty your drink is if people can't buy it. The few distributors who deigned to return my calls gave every excuse imaginable--our drinks weren't sweet enough, too expensive, too grassy. Early on, we were part-owners in a bottling plant that was bleeding hundreds of thousands of dollars. While the combination of rejection and failure was painful and threatened my life's savings, the fear and pain were trifling compared to those winter nights squeezing tennis balls in a steamy bathtub (to cut weight) and then staring up at the ceiling unable to sleep as I tried to figure out how I was going to avoid staring up at the ceiling from the mat the next day.

If we want to build a nation of resilient entrepreneurs, we need to raise young people who experience failure. With today's generation of helicopter parents protecting their kids from every kind of adversity, wrestling is one of those rare sanctioned opportunities for young people to experience humiliation, pain, disappointment, which aren't fun at the time but when administered in conjunction with a supportive coaching and parenting environment, can be life-defining.

When my oldest son decided to take up wrestling, I found myself going through all the same anxieties before his matches. His wrestling career was far more successful than mine, eventually taking 5th place in the Maryland state tournament. Of course I felt a sense of pride, and relief, but also a sense of remorse--there's no question he worked hard, but was he cheated of the privilege of suffering? I have a feeling he'll do fine--as U.S. national champion Dan Gable said, "Once you've wrestled, everything else in life is easy."



By: Seth Goldman

Source: Inc.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Are You Practicing Excellence?


Are You Practicing Excellence?


Are you approaching your work with excellence as your primary goal and outcome? If you are what you repeatedly do, as Aristotle famously said, are you practicing the habit of excellence?
It’s easy to be mediocre. If you look at a bell curve, you’ve got very poor performance on one side of the curve and excellent performance on the other. Mediocrity takes up the massive bulk in the middle. It’s easy to be mediocre. It’s easy to be neither good nor bad.
What is more difficult is being excellent. Being excellent takes more effort. It takes more energy. You have to try a lot harder. To be mediocre you just have to do the work. To be excellent you have to do the work with an unmistakable passion and energy. You also have to do the work with the desired outcome being excellence.

What About You?

You could be excellent when you’re making your prospecting calls by focusing on creating value for your dream clients—even when you’re asking them for the first commitment (their time and attention). It’s a lot harder to be excellent at prospecting and winning appointments than it is to be mediocre and face certain rejection.
You could be excellent during your sales calls and interactions, giving your entire focus to your dream client and being deeply engaged. But because you’ve made a lot of sales calls before it’s easy to be mediocre.
You could deliver what your client expects of you, and that might even be enough. But you could also invest the energy and passion to deliver something better than what’s expected. You could deliver excellence.
Mediocrity gets lost. No one talks about mediocrity. They talk about excellence.
Excellence provides meaning. It’s built on passion, and it generates even more passion from both you and your clients. Excellence defines. It differentiates. If you are going to do the work there is no reason not to go all the way and practice excellence.

Questions

How different would your results be if you focused on excellence instead of simply doing the work?
What would your dream client say to other people about you if you delivered standout, excellent performance that defined the rest of your category as mediocre?
How do you deliver excellence when you are prospecting? What would you change?
How do you deliver excellence during sales interactions? What would have to change?
How could you change what you do to produce results that define you as excellent?


By: Anthony Iannarino

Source: The Sales Blog

Monday, March 4, 2013

The World's Youngest Billionaires: 23 Under 40


The World's Youngest Billionaires: 23 Under 40


There are 1,426billionaires in the world this year. They are the wealthiest of the wealthy. But only 23 members of this elite list are under 40 years old, with that exciting combination of money and youth.
Those 23 have a total of $68 billion between them. Eight come from the technology sector, including four from social networking giant Facebook. Nine come from the United States, the rest from countries abroad. Three are newcomers to the billionaire ranks. Read the full list below.

No. 1: Dustin Moskovitz
Age: 28
Net Worth: $3.8 billion
Moskovitz, Mark Zuckerberg‘s former roommate, no longer works atFacebook, the social networking giant that he co-founded. A signee of Bill Gates‘ and Warren Buffett‘s Giving Pledge, Moskovitz bikes to work, flies commercial, and pitches his own tent at Burning Man.
No. 2: Mark Zuckerberg
Age: 28
Net Worth: $13.3 billion
Few CEOs of any age are under more media scrutiny than Zuckerberg (who’s only 8 days older than Moskovitz). Since taking Facebook public in May 2012, and getting married days later, the hoodie-wearing founder has seen his net worth rise and fall with every fluctuation of the stock price.
No. 3: Albert von Thurn und Taxis
Age: 29
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Albert von Thurn und Taxis first appeared in Forbes’ billionaire rankings at age 8 but officially inherited his fortune in 2001 on his 18th birthday. The eligible bachelor is also a race car driver and tours with a German auto-racing league.
No. 4: Scott Duncan
Age: 30
Net Worth: $5.1 billion
Duncan is the youngest of the four children who inherited the massive fortune of late energy pipeline entrepreneur Dan Duncan, founder of Enterprise Products Partners. Today the company owns more than 50,000 miles of natural gas, oil, and petrochemical pipelines.
No. 5: Eduardo Saverin
Age: 30
Net Worth: $2.2 billion
Facebook co-founder Saverin renounced his United States citizenship in 2011, news of which broke days before the company’s IPO and drew accusations of tax evasion. Saverin, immortalized in The Social Network as Mark Zuckerberg‘s onetime best friend, settled a lengthy legal battle with Facebook, apparently receiving a 5% stake. A Brazilian citizen, he now resides inSingapore and invests in startups.
No. 6: Huiyan Yang
Age: 31
Net Worth: $5.7 billion
Yang, the daughter of the founder of real estate developer Country Garden Holdings, is once again China’s richest woman. Her father transferred his stake to the Ohio State grad before the company’s IPO in 2007.
No. 7: Fahd Hariri
Age: 32
Net Worth: $1.35 billion
Hariri is the youngest son of slain Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He graduated from the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture de Paris in 2004. While still a student, he ran an interior design studio on the outskirts of the city, and sold furniture to clients in Saudi Arabia.
No. 8: Marie Besnier Beauvalot
Age: 32
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Marie, along with siblings Emmanuel, 42, and Jean-Michel, 45, inherited French dairy giant Lactalis, producers of popular Président brie among hundreds of other cheese, milk and yogurt brands.
No. 9: Sean Parker
Age: 33
Net Worth: $2 billion
Parker is revamping his much hyped start-up, Airtime, with the hopes that the video chat site will have the impact of his other Web companies. At 19, Parker skipped college to disrupt the recording industry with music swapping site Napster. He served asFacebook‘s first president at age 24.
No. 10: Ayman Hariri
Age: 34
Net Worth: $1.35 billion
Hariri is the son of slain Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He’s involved in running Saudi Oger, one of Saudi Arabia‘s biggest construction companies, and the source of the Hariri family fortune.
No. 11: Yvonne Bauer
Age: 35
Net Worth: $2.4 billion
Bauer owns 85% of her family’s publishing empire. She is the fifth generation of the family to run the Bauer Media Group, which was founded in 1875. It publishes 570 magazines in 16 countries.
No. 12: Yoshikazu Tanaka
Age: 36
Net Worth: $1.8 billion
Founder and CEO of social-network game site operator Gree, Tanaka has faced stiff competition this year from archrival DeNA and a game initiative by NTT DoCoMo, the giant cellphone carrier. To get back on track, Tanaka moved to partner with Yahoo Japan and went on a buying spree.
No. 13: Maxim Nogotkov
Age: 36
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Nogotkov got his start selling computer programs while in school and later began selling cordless phones. He dropped out of college in order to have more time to focus on building his business. He later founded cell phone retailer Svyaznoy.
No. 14: Alejandro Santo Domingo Davila
Age: 36
Net Worth: $11.7 billion
A Harvard history grad, Domingo Davila is the eldest son from his jet-setting beer magnate father’s second marriage. Now a managing director at a New York-based investment advisory firm, Alejandro sits on the board of theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
No. 15: Jack Dorsey
Age: 36
Net Worth: $1.1 billion
Dorsey made a name for himself as a cofounder and leader of 160-character microblogging company Twitter, but most of his fortune is derived from his stake in mobile payment company Square. The New York University dropout is a certified masseur known for his eclectic interests, which include, among other things, punk music and clothes.
No. 16: Serra Sabanci
Age: 37
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Sabanci is the daughter of Ozdemir Sabanci who was assassinated in 1996, and a board member of the large conglomerate Sabanci Holding.
No. 17: Nicholas Woodman
Age: 37
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
GoPro founder and CEO Nick Woodman built the first camera prototypes in his bedroom with his mom’s sewing machine and a drill. GoPro came out with its first camera, a 35-millimeter waterproof film version, in 2004. Today, the camera shoots full video in cinema quality HD, allowing anyone from professional surfer Kelly Slater to amateur snowboarders to capture their adventures.
No. 18: Chase Coleman
Age: 37
Net Worth: $1.4 billion
The hottest young money manager on the planet, Coleman cooled off a touch in 2012, but his Tiger Global hedge fund extended its impressive winning streak, finishing a third straight year with a net return in excess of 20%.
No. 19: Ryan Kavanaugh
Age: 38
Net Worth: $1 billion
Ryan Kavanaugh joins the billionaire ranks for the first time this year thanks to his movie studio, Relativity. Kavanaugh is making money by hitting singles and doubles like the recent Safe Haven, which cost $25 million to make and has grossed more than $50 million at the box office.
No. 20: Andrey Verevskiy
Age: 38
Net Worth: $1 billion
Verevskiy started trading in grain when he was 19 and founded Kernel Holding a decade later, growing it into Ukraine‘s largest sunflower oil producer. Last year, Verevskiy was elected to Ukraine‘s Parliament.
No. 21: John Arnold
Age: 38
Net Worth: $2.8 billion
Arnold shocked the hedge fund world in May 2012 when he announced he was calling it a career at age 38. Arnold and his wife Laura, who are signatories of the Giving Pledge, plan to devote much of their time to philanthropy. The couple have already given away more than $1.2 billion.
No. 22: Kostyantin Zhevago
Age: 39
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Son of a mining engineer, Zhevago took over Poltava Iron Ore, the largest exporter of pellets in CIS, at the age of twenty two, and in 2007 he took his mining company Ferrexpo public. An avid soccer fan, Zhevago owns FC Vorska football.
No. 23: Fang Wei
Age: 39
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Wei is best known for buying turnaround situations, especially those in the steel industry. Fangda Group now has more than 30,000 employees across more than 10 provinces in China.


By: Brian Solomon
Source: Forbes