Archive for the ‘Finance’ Category
Ten Relationship Traits And Skills For Good Leadership
As a leader how well do you relate to your people? Relationship is an important factor in having a motivated team that works together to achieve outstanding results.
An important aspect of good leadership is the ability to work and relate with others. When creating and building your unique leadership style consistently developing relational skills is a priority. There are ten qualities that characterize successful leadership in the area of relating and communicating with other people.
1.Availability
A good leader is available and in touch with people. An important leadership skill is the ability to recognize needs and be able to respond to them quickly and in the moment.
2.Facilitating Harmonious Relationships
A good leader realizes the importance of harmonious relationships and is proactive in creating a harmonious atmosphere. Successful results are born out of harmony rather than conflict. Good leadership will prioritize keeping conflict and disharmony to the minimum.
3.Approachability
A good leader is approachable and has an open door policy. Good leadership creates an environment where openness and honesty can occur in an atmosphere of fairness rather than judgment.
4.Appropriate use of authority
Sensitivity to the proper use and conversely the misuse of their authority is the whole mark of good leadership. A good leader will not use their position of authority for self gratification and promotion or in a controlling and domineering manner. Successful leaders use their positional power with wisdom and sensitivity to the appropriateness of the circumstances.
5.Confidentiality
Good leaders conduct conferences and meetings in an atmosphere of trust. They display appropriate confidentiality and respect towards others and about others.
6.Self Motivation and Development
Good leaders set and use goals to motivate themselves and others. They understand the importance of personal and professional development. Successful leaders do what is necessary to upgrade their knowledge and skills and be on the cutting edge in their field. Successful leaders not only motivate themselves in personal development but also motivate those around them.
7.Supportive
Good leaders are able to provide emotional support for those for whom they are responsible. They recognize the importance of encouragement and inspiring confidence and also give recognition of a job well done.
8.Maintaining Motivation and Team Spirit
A good leader provides incentives and motivators to improve the performance of their employees to challenge them to maintain quality results.
9.Clear Communication
A good leader is an excellent communicator. Their leadership involves communicating clearly the objectives and procedures required of a task. They set clear attainable and measurable goals.
10 An Understanding of Group Dynamics
A good leader understands the dynamics of group relationships. Successful leaders have the ability to lead groups without aggravating conflict and minimizing disharmony. They are inclusive and skilled in creating a sense of team unity. They are adept at balancing the strengths and weaknesses of the group for best results.
It is of prime importance to develop good relational skills as a leader. The way a leader connects and communicates with people will determine the level of success in achieving the desired results.
A good leader is able to create in his team a desire to follow his leadership wholeheartedly.
Take these ten characteristics as a checklist to determine the strengths and weaknesses in your leadership style. Celebrate your strengths focus on your weaker areas and start to work on them. In this way a good leader can develop into a GREAT leader.
About the writer:
Barbara White President of Beyond Better Development has over twenty years experience innbsp; leadership. Beyond Better Development works with organizations who wantnbsp; their leaders to develop towards their potential and stay on the cutting edge. More about Leadership Development at http://www.livingbeyondbetter.com
Supply Chain Management 101
Answering the question of what Supply Chain Management is is as simple as breaking down the phrase into its component parts. Supplies are those inputs that a company relies upon to produce the product that will ultimately reach its customers. The chain is the group of suppliers that bring those inputs to a company and the process whereby those inputs are integrated into the company. And finally management is the coordination and organization of all these inputs and their implementation. So put it all together and Supply Chain Management is the science and art of improving the processes that bring suppliers of raw materials together and move those materials through the company until they reach the endpoint the customer.
What SCM Involves
If defining the term takes a full paragraph to cover even in its most basic sense you can imagine how complex the industry surrounding Supply Chain Management truly is. It involves managers who map out the entire process and look for inefficiencies and others who develop and maintain relationships with suppliers to ensure a steady supply of inputs. It involves the actual process of manufacturing or value add in which those inputs become the products that will be sold as well as “logistics” or the process of getting those value added products to customers. And finally it involves dealing with and compensating for supply chain returns such as defective products. Supply Chain Management covers every aspect of the business from input to output and as such requires an extensive array of tools and strategies to help managers to coordinate and organize a company.
The Dilemma of SCM Software
One of the most innovative and revolutionary tools in use by managers involved in the supply chain is Supply Chain Management Software. While I have outlined five general sections that make up Supply Chain Management each of these sections is unique to a particular business. As such no single product has been developed to handle the software needs of a company from start to finish. As a result when industry insiders talk about Supply Chain Software they are really talking about a combination of many different programs that when applied together help manage the supply chain. While literally thousands of different products are on the market today they all fall into one of two broad categories Supply Chain Planning (SCP) or Supply Chain Execution (SCE) software. Supply Chain Planning software covers those programs which use advanced mathematical algorithms to map out the flow of products through a company and to identify any inefficiencies. The ultimate goal of this type of software is to help reduce faulty products to speed up the time to market and to reduce inventory. Supply Chain Execution software is designed to automate different components of the supply chain. For example Supply Chain Execution Software might update inventory listings in a central directory as soon as inputs are brought in from a supplier or are sold off to the customer. In this way SCE software eliminates the costly and time consuming task of tabulating the total current supply so as to know when to place the next order.
The Goals of Supply Chain Management
Ultimately the goal of Supply Chain Management is to bring greater efficiency to a company by reducing errors maintaining steady inputs and reducing excess inventories. With the growth of the internet however it is transitioning into a means of collaboration between companies. By concentrating their efforts on better communication with suppliers and customers inefficiencies are ironed out not only within the company but in those surrounding it as well. The internet has made the communication between firms necessary for this to take place possible. Consequently the hope for Supply Chain Management in the future is not only to create a more efficient and profitable business but to contribute to a more efficient and profitable global marketplace as well.
About the writer:
Dan Johnson enjoys writing about supply chain management. Visit http://www.scmlowdown.com/ to learn more.
Smart Real Estate Investors Reap Hefty Profits
Because Essayas the founder of Premier Real Estate Solutions LLC (www.ReadEstateMadeEasy.net) uses a different strategy he isn’t even breaking a sweat despite the slowing pace of home resales which were down 2.8 percent in January and the 5 percent drop in new home sales. In fact Essayas says that the market slowdown in major cities represents “the most exciting time for our business.
Utilizing private lenders Premier Real Estate Solutions buys properties in northern Virginia central Maryland and the District of Columbia at 25 to 50 percent below market value. The company then renovates the homes and resells them at market value.
Premier Real Estate Solutions makes its profit going into the deal through buying the right properties at the right prices. “As a rule of thumb we do all of our numbers right and build in our profit margin before purchasing the property” says Essayas. “We only buy two types of properties: those where we can quickly create equity through renovations and those where we buy equity from motivated sellers who need a quick sale.”
Now that the real estate market isn’t so forgiving Essayas says that buying the right properties at the right prices is key. “The numbers have to be right not only to ensure that our company makes a profit but to secure our private investors’ loans.”
Those numbers are providing hot returns on investments regardless of the price range of the home. For example Premier Real Estate Solutions purchased a home for 405000 spent 1000 in upgrades and sold the home for 599000. Similarly Essayas put 32000 of renovations into a home purchased for 229000 and sold it for 390000. “Recently within a three and a half week period we bought a home for 77000 spent 12000 fixing it up and found a buyer willing to pay 170000″ he says.
Using private investments to purchase and renovate homes gives Premier Real Estate an advantage over developers using institutional lenders in that the company can move nimbly when it finds a bargain. “The private capital we’ve been using has allowed us to close on these properties in as little as three days” says Essayas.
As for investors they appreciate being able to earn a better return through Premier Real Estate than they can with traditional investments. According to Harry Roupas who has made significant investments in Premier Real Estate Solutions properties over the past three years “The excellent returns I have seen on my investments demonstrates to me that Premier’s business model is sound. Buying properties below market value renovating them and selling them at a profit is the right approach for today’s real estate market but you need a Premier Real Estate to make it all work just right.”
And Premier Real Estate is hard at work planning to purchase between 50 and 60 properties in the Washington D.C. Metro area this year and looking to a future in larger development projects such as condominiums and hotels.
While Essayas anticipates that the market’s cooling trend will result in a longer turnaround time for sales he emphasizes that “we factor higher carrying costs into our equation before making an offer to purchase a property.”
He concludes “Because we never pay market value for a property to begin with we can continue to take advantage of the current real estate market to secure properties at prices well below market level renovate them and sell them at a profit.”
About the writer: