Jim’s Post on the National Association of Realtors Leadership Lab Blog:

Volunteerism Builds Leadership Skills
Jim Hirshfield, author of Fortune & Freedom: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Success and the now-retired founder of cable company Summit Communications, shares his ideas on how to become a better leader.

Q. What makes a good leader?
Hirshfield: I define leadership as the ability to accomplish things through others. Those others can be employees, or they can also be peers or vendors. Getting vendors to cooperate is a better indicator of leadership than getting employees to do so. If people work for you, they’re supposed to do what you say, but getting vendors to go out of their way to help you, I think that demonstrates leadership.
Q. Can you learn to be a leader?
Hirshfield: I believe leadership is a skill you develop. And you should start at an early age. You don’t want to start to open a business when you’re 45 years old and have never worked on your leadership skills.
Q. How can you practice your skills?
Hirshfield: If you want to hone your leadership skills, my advice is work on getting a group of people who aren’t always that motivated to get a job done. You might want to managing a shift at a fast food restaurant, or volunteer to lead a committee at a charity or an association. All these positions give you a chance to try out and improve your leadership abilities.
Q. What does it take to lead others in a volunteer situation?
Hirshfield: To lead and motivate volunteers, you have to give them a well-defined task and set a time limit on both the number of hours of work you expect and when that work has to be completed. People want control of their lives, but they’ll give you a little piece of those lives if you define specifically what’s expected. What doesn’t work is just calling a meeting and then asking for ideas and input. Volunteers know then that they are going to be sucked in. You have to give them a specific timetable.

See the posting at

“http://narblog1.realtors.org/mvtype/leadershipacademyblog/”

“Almost everything we do involves making a sale.”

This point I make in Fortune and Freedom is never challenged. Interviews, presentations to supervisors, employees, parents, and community groups all require us to articulate a message and present benefits of doing something within a specific timeframe.

Yet selling to potential customers frightens people more than death.

Many firms have even decided that sales departments should not be referenced on their respective org charts.

“Business development” and automated systems designed to avoid contact with other human beings are popular. I find the most successful companies and business leaders still acknowledge that sales is a learned skill. Respect for this skill usually follows.

Jim Hirshfield

Author

www.fortuneandfreedom.biz

As the political season heats up I find it helpful to address the connection between politics and business. In Fortune and Freedom I refer to government as an entrepreneur’s silent partner. I discovered this early in my career as I encountered a series of political partners that had a sizable financial interest in my endeavors.

All business owners discover over time that governments generally take more from your business in dollars than you make after taxes.

Of course regulations that demand experts like attorneys and accountants sometimes cause even more headaches.

How should one deal with the overwhelming task of understanding how government works?

My recommendation is to volunteer your time to a campaign. Few people offer their time and they miss out on the strategy sessions and perspective that political candidates and their handlers showcase.

You might come away jaded, confused, or excited but at least you will have the opportunity to learn about the process and how politicians perceive their “partners” in the business world.

As a close friend of mine once said: “Politicians and regulators find it much easier to nail people they do not know rather than to nail someone who is a friend.”

Jim Hirshfield

Author

www.fortuneandfreedom.biz

In “My Losing Season”, author Pat Conroy says ” . . . I mourn for the quicksilver racehorse passage of time. Its swiftness has caught me with the same ineffable start that comes to every man and woman who lives long enough. It remains as the single great surprise of any life”. I cannot say it that well, but this point is a key in my book “Fortune & Freedom”.

Take a look at the FnF quiz. The link is in the center of the home page.

Jim

Do you ever think in halves and doubles? I mean, when you were half as old as you are now, what were you doing? My son is 30, working on his career, so half a life ago he was 15, in high school. Double his age and he would be 60, his career and personal life largely on the record.

Halves and doubles are a useful way to get past the invincibility that most young people feel as they come out of their teens. It helps with the task of thinking about your life, planning what you want your life to be. Double your age and picture yourself. Where will you live? Married? With children? Doing what? The prime wage earner in your personal family unit? And we could ask a lot more questions in the “doing what” area.

Now picture yourself “halved” – that is, at half your age. What were you doing? Where were you living? And so on. Think about the progress you have made in the second half of your life to date. Are you moving along? If you keep up the pace, are you likely to arrive at the place you pictured when your age has doubled? If so, can you fine tune things to be even better? If not, what needs to change?

Jim