Author of

Low Carb Leadership

And

Budgeting for Current Times

Injecting the Juice into Leadership

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all the people in my life who have inspired me to be all that I can be. The inspiration from family, friends, and acquaintances is the lasting force that helped encourage me to find that successful and rewarding life.

Just to mention a few of the special influential people in my life are my parents, Nick and Zelma Malouff who raised me in a business environment where I learned the essential key ingredients of business success with a caring attitude towards customers and others. My parents also taught me the importance of doing what I love and loving what I do.

I would also like to acknowledge my loving family who has given me support and encouragement along the way; Manuel Vallejos, spouse of 38 years, Son, Richard Vallejos and daughter, Sherry Vallejos. My two grand children, Brooke and Dion Vallejos are also an encouragement to me knowing they are the future leaders of the world and realizing the essential part of training for new leaders.

Cheryl L. Vallejos

© 2004 Cheryl Vallejos, Prime Leaders.

All rights reserved.

Contents

Introduction: Leadership…………………………………………..…………... 1

You might think leadership is about motivating others in your life, but it is

really about the nurturing, nourishment and character growth yourself.

Chapter One Leadership Ability……..…………….………….…………. 3

Intrinsic ability is the nucleus that determines a person’s level of

effectiveness and this can be developed.

Chapter Two Principles of Leadership…………………..…………… 6

Learn fundamental principles for successful leadership. Unfold the trust,

confidence and communication so necessary to succeed as a leader.

Chapter Three The Leadership Environment………………………… 11

Great leaders set very high standards in all areas of a company’s existence.

Your influence will increase with your greater understanding of the environment.

Chapter Four The Models of Leadership……………………………….. 14

An effective leader is a catalyst and servant whose leadership style is

support, advocacy, and empowerment.

Chapter Five The Process of Great Leadership………….….…… 16

Great leaders challenge the process, inspire a vision, enable others to act,

model the way for others, and encourage the hearts of others.

Chapter Six Getting Clear and Getting Results…….. 17

By creating a business plan that includes timely and realistic goals,

you will develop a blueprint for action.

Chapter Seven Getting Clear Worksheet………………………..…..… 22

On this worksheet, identify your personal and business wants, and

get a clear picture of your goals.

Chapter Eight Best Leadership Toolbox………………….…………… 23

Learn the five essential elements of coaching. The S.M.A.R.T. way will

guide you through goal setting, motivation, results, and success.

Chapter Nine Leading and Goal Setting……………………………. 26

Your ability to think creates a vision for your company (or for your team

within the company) and it is what gives the tasks purpose

Chapter Ten Six Steps for Setting Goals….…….………………… 28

Examine your desire to create the next grand idea for the company and

name it My Vision For The Future.

Chapter Eleven Inspire Your Staff……………………………..…………… 31

We inspire ourselves every time we inhale. The body requires a fresh

intake of air to continue, and so do projects, tasks, goals and objectives.

Chapter Twelve Power, Force and Leadership………………….…… 33

Leadership is about the proper use of authority. Learn about the different

forms that authority takes as it works in our lives.

Chapter Thirteen 10 Tips for Success in the Workplace… 36

Listen, acknowledge, simplify, be consistent, work quickly and follow

your leader. Strategize the process for your improvement.

Chapter Fourteen Modern Business Ethics…………………………..…. 40

Are they legal, balanced, and fair?

Chapter Fifteen Bridging the Gap into Leadership……..………… 42

Building your employee’s self-esteem is critical to your success as a Leader.

Chapter Sixteen The Character of a Leader……………..……………. 46

Your high standards of trust, ethics and vision set an example for your staff.

Chapter Seventeen Building a Result Oriented Team…………………. 50

Everything you always wanted to know about building a great team but were

afraid to admit you didn’t!

Chapter Eighteen Coaching Your Team to Success………..….…... 62

A Team goal and planning tool

Chapter Nineteen The Art of Questioning to Get Results……....… 64

When you ask open-ended questions, you assist your team in self-discovery,

stronger motivation, and improved productivity.

Chapter Twenty Inspire and Motivate a Team………………..….. 65

Highly effective employees are aware of what motivates them to act and how to

leverage that self-knowledge to achieve professional and personal goals.

Chapter Twenty One Your Active Listening Skills………………..…… 69

Learn to overcome the obstacles of communication by advancing your listening

skills and techniques.

Chapter Twenty Two Direct Your Own Paradigm Shift……….…. 71

Redefine the practice of leadership to empower the workforce to

reach its goals and objectives.

Chapter Twenty Three Embracing Diversity ……………………………… 73

Empower people to work effectively together by capturing the strengths of each

employee and manager.

Epilogue A Summary of Points ……………..…………..…..….. 88

About Learn about the author………………………..… 90

Introduction ~

Leadership

So, you want to be a better leader? You only have two things to accomplish and you will be there:

· You need to inspire trust and confidence in your employees

· You need to clearly communicate the plan and the goals to them

You might think that leadership is about motivating others in your life, but it is really about your own nurturing, nourishment and character growth. My goal in writing this book is to allow you an e-ticket admission on a train journey, and it is about to pull out of the station, so hurry aboard!

The process of becoming a Leader is complex and it can be great fun. We would like to encourage you to dig in your heels for the long haul, promise yourself to be brutally honest with yourself and with your staff, and make the commitment to consider an ongoing education in the following areas: beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills because those are the inner items that need addressing on this path to becoming a magnificent leader. You are noticing that we haven’t talked yet about those folks who report to you, right? Well, this book isn’t about them; it’s about you.

· Being in charge of them gives you authority to accomplish tasks together.

· Being in charge of you gives you authority to motivate them to action because they want to cooperate and follow your lead.

· The first role addresses the “cart”; the second addresses the “horse”.

In your role as leader, you will be observed in what you do. So let’s look at how a leader is born:

· It’s true; some folks are born leaders. Their personality traits automatically foster a leadership role.

· Sometimes a crisis or important event triggers an ordinary person to become an extraordinary leader.

· Or, if genetics or crisis was not your trigger, there is always choice: you can transform yourself into a great leader by choosing to become one. This book is about the latter, but you genetic or crisis leaders can read along too.

So, what are the real building blocks of leadership? Folks, it is about character. And character is something you can build. It is about honor, trust, dedication, commitment, ethics, direction, and your skill set. It is also about caring too: caring about the company and its results; caring about your staff and their successes.

Remember what we said earlier about trust and confidence as well as communication? In a nationwide survey, trust and confidence in top leadership was the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction in an organization. Effective communication in three critical areas was the second qualifier in that same Hays survey:

· Helping employees understand the company's overall business strategy

· Helping employees understand how they contribute to achieving key business objectives

· Sharing information with employees on both how the company is doing and how an employee's own division is doing - relative to strategic business objectives

Got it?

• Trust and Confidence
• Communication of the company vision

Leadership Ability

I often talk to leaders about the core of leadership so this is where I will begin. Leadership ability is the nucleus that determines a person’s level of effectiveness. The lower a person’s ability to lead, the lower the rating will be on the person’s potential. The higher the leadership’s ability, the greater the effectiveness and the rate of success you will have. Let me give you an example: if your leadership effectiveness is at a seven, your effectiveness will never be greater than six. If your leadership ability is only a four, your effectiveness will not be higher than three. So, for better or worse, the ability determines both the effectiveness and the potential impact on an organization or your own business.

I believe that success is within the reach of just about everyone. I also believe that a person’s personal success without leadership ability brings only limited results and effectiveness. The impact is only a fraction of what it could be with good leadership skills and training. If you want to climb high, you will need more leadership knowledge. If you want to make a greater impact in a leadership role, the greater your influence needs to be. This all boils down to your ability to lead others, and whether you are satisfied where you are or if you would like to climb the ladder.

This book is written with tips, suggestions and proven ways to achieve effective leadership abilities. By ‘Injecting the Juice into Leadership’ you learn the ways to manage better, lead with more confidence and plan for better results. By ‘injecting the juice’, you feed your mind with ways to become a better leader.

Remember, the higher you want to climb, the more you need to sharpen your leadership skills.

What Leadership is not

There are many misconceptions about leadership. When someone hears that a person has an impressive title or an assigned leadership position, he/she assumes that the person is a leader. Sometimes that is true. But titles may not have much value when it comes to leading. True leadership cannot be assigned, awarded or appointed. It comes only from the ability to influence, and that cannot be mandated. It must be earned. The only thing a title can buy is a little time. This will either increase your level of influence with others or erase it. The leadership skills will or will not shine through.

Breakthrough leadership

The secrets of breakthrough leadership are to:

· Inspire commitment to mutual goals

· Light the inner fire of excellence in a team

· Build energy and enthusiasm among all team members

The secrets of breakthrough leadership present a model for self-directed leaders, which is useful in leading yourself, your group and your organization. Self-directed leadership is based on your ability to understand and utilize the three core components of leadership.

Motivation – The ability to harness one’s own drive and succeed at having individual needs met in step with achieving organization and group goals. To inspire and motivate comes both from within you and from outside sources. This support encourages everyone’s best contributions. Leadership and followship change hands easily, and the focus is always to inspire and motivate as you lead.

Influence – This is the ability to cause others to willingly take a course of action and accept responsibility to pursue an outcome you desire. The power to influence others is at its best when listening and responsiveness to individual and group needs combine to produce actions that achieve goals. These goals benefit the organization, the business, and the team.

Action – This is the ability to initiate strategy and change that serve the business, which can align the efforts of the team. This will produce results that meet or exceed organizational, individual and team goals. Action creates results that reflect a company’s vision, values and business. Each action of leadership encourages a new action in others. Leadership strives for leveraging all positive actions together. This makes a great leader. As a leader, the question to repeatedly ask yourself is: “Are we doing the right things?”

Good leadership requires one to have a keen navigational sense to guide where the work is going. The key questions here relate to asking, “What does the marketplace need?” And, “How can we best provide it according to our capabilities and resources.”

Leadership anticipates future needs and communicates incentives to the organization and the team for change and transition. Peering into the future, a leadership sense asks, “What trends will evolve and how can we position ourselves to be there first and fast?”

Leadership requires one to explore ‘outside the box’ and to influence others to do the same. It is the opposite of control, which is geared to retaining on to power. Positive influence is empowering and inspiring others. Here, a leadership perspective is asking, “What if we didn’t always do things this way?”

· y with legitimate requests. 

· Expert Power - Influence based on special skills or knowledge. This person earns respect by experience and knowledge. Expert power is the most strongly and consistently related towards effective employee performance.

· Referent Power - Influence based on possession by an individual or desirable resources or personal traits. You like the person and enjoy doing things for him or her.

Which one are you currently using? Would you like to upgrade? Do you know how?

If employees perceive that power is being misused in the company, they develop feelings of powerlessness and productivity plummets. So, while you may see your use of power like this:

Politically Perceptive Labels in Leadership

What you may see:	What your staff may see:
o Fixing responsibility o Developing relationships o Political Minded o Delegating authority o Documenting decisions o Encouraging innovation o Teamwork o Planning ahead	o Powerless Label o Blaming others o Kissing up o Cunning o Passing the buck o Covering your rear o Creating conflict o Building clicks o Scheming

You must continue using good leadership skills to keep the powerlessness sense from spreading throughout the department. Consider:

ü Power focuses on intimidation, while leadership requires goal compatibility and congruence.

ü Power maximizes the importance of lateral and upward influence, while leadership focuses upon downward influence.

ü Power focuses on tactics for gaining compliance, while leadership focuses on getting answers and solutions.

Inject the Juice!

	"I feel inspired and encouraged when working with Cheryl. She has a way of building me up and she makes me see the good points that enable me to appreciate myself more, plus enjoy life. Cheryl has been great support for me and my business and is great in time of crisis as well as being there for support when needed. I have made many good changes in my business and feel things have improved in many areas after working with Cheryl. " Susan          Demith Chiropractic          Chiropractor

About Cheryl

Cheryl Vallejos is CEO and President of Prime Leaders, where she works with business and personal clients who wish to advance their careers, meet business and personal goals, and start or expand their business. She is a professional speaker, certified professional business coach and consultant, and an author. She provides a leadership community for business professionals who want to advance their careers.

Cheryl was a medical service director for 108 providers in Arizona where she supervised and worked with hundreds of employees and managers. Her dynamic leadership moved the company forward by increasing profits, developing team peak performance, and acquiring the competitive edge in technology. Cheryl recognizes

the core of work place challenges and she makes that important connection with an audience, client, or company.

Cheryl has more than 22 years of organizational business management experience where she improved operational development and staff accountability, and company profits soared. She was the first female store manager in the state of New Mexico for a large grocery chain--even though she was warned by many that it couldn't be done.

Combining extensive business management experience with her highly regarded talent as a certified coach, Cheryl inspires and guides her clients to new levels. She is also certified in Communication and Professional Behavioral and Value Assessments, which is a pioneering approach to developing a result-oriented team.

Cheryl has successfully started, owned and operated 3 businesses as well as authoring the books Low Carb Leadership and Budgeting for Current Times.

I wish you the best in your leadership success!!!