Dear ETR Reader,

Don't take everything you read in the business mags as gospel. Today, Michael Masterson explains how some of those "facts" can actually do you damage.

- Suzanne Richardson
ETR Managing Editor

www.earlytorise.com
Monday, March 27, 2006
Message #1687

WEALTHY: The only two "signals" that make sense
HEALTHY: Love conquers all … and we do mean all
WISE: Dwight D. Eisenhower on leadership

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

The hard truth about soft leadership

Techno help for the direction-impaired
Have some fun with "spoonerisms"

*Highly Recommended *

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Forget the Noise and Pay Attention to the Message

By Andrew Gordon

When the price of your stocks keeps shuttling back and forth from one nearby price point to another, you need to do something that is very difficult: Nothing.

Your portfolio's value vacillates like this about 80 percent of the time. Much of it has little to do with the intrinsic worth of your stocks. And a lot has to do with fretful institutional investors reacting to all the noise coming out of Wall Street. Focus, instead, on the two most important signals that stocks send your way:

A solid company with stock that is selling at a discount to its true worth is sending you a "buy" signal. So seek out those value stocks – stocks that are trading for significantly less than they are worth. Value investing gives you an edge over other investors and has made more money than other investment strategies. Value investing has worked for Warren Buffett and Sir John Templeton … and it can work for you.

Only when a stock has reached or exceeded its fair value is it sending a "sell" signal. Once you've invested your money, forget the noise and take a long-term perspective. You want to give your stock plenty of time to make its move and mature into a profitable investment.

[Ed. Note: Andrew M. Gordon and his staff, along with Dr. Erik Epp, have created a new free e-letter called Money Insight: Useful Ideas for Growing Your Money Quickly and Safely. Every week, they decipher the best safe-money strategies from the deluge of mainstream financial news and uncover undervalued opportunities for quick profits. Check it out.]

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Two Myths About Leadership

By Michael Masterson

Did you know that the average age of the people who write for Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, and The Wall Street Journal is something like 29 years old?

Don't get me wrong. I read these publications. And I understand the necessity of hiring young, inexperienced writers. But because I have been on the inside of the business-publishing world, I'm skeptical about what I read in the business press … and especially so about advice that is given.

Such is the case with the advice I read about leadership. For the most part, the ideas seem wrong to me. They don't correspond to anything I've experienced myself, and they don't equate with practices I've seen as a consultant to business owners.

It's not a conspiracy. It's the process that's the problem. I know how secondhand information works. It gets misunderstood, oversimplified, and distorted. And if that's not bad enough, it also gets cleaned up, edited, prettified. Not, in the latter case, by the writers, but by the experts who are being interviewed. (When asked about the secret to his success, what business leader wouldn't want to give motivating credit to his troops?)

Good business writers know how to recognize an interesting idea and present it in a clear, convincing manner. That is good – so long as the idea itself is good. But if the idea is wrong … then the good writing only serves to waste your time (or do you harm).

There are a lot of myths about leadership floating around out there. And if you take those myths as truth, you can seriously damage your business. Let's take a closer look at two of them, find out why they're wrong … and what techniques the REAL leaders use.

MYTH #1: "Soft" Leadership Skills Work

I once read an article in which a spokesman for Office Team, a business consulting firm, said "If companies want to be successful in the future, they'll have to adopt soft leadership skills." By this, he meant that you should be listening to your employees, sharing feelings with them, and keeping an open mind "to all kinds of ideas – even bad ones."

If you don't learn these soft skills, the consultancy says, you will be in trouble. Because these softer skills will soon "completely replace the older, harder skills of planning, persuasion, and discipline." Office Team says: "The future office environment won't allow for command-and-control focused management style. Employees want to contribute to decisions and offer creative solutions."

This sort of thinking completely contradicts my own experience. From what I've seen, most employees want leadership. And leadership to them means that someone else solves the problems and tells them what to do about them.

As a leader in your business, you are earning big bucks to do the hard thinking, to make the tough decisions, and to get the job done – even if that means pushing the weight uphill. Yes, you should be open to new ideas. Yes, you should talk to the rank-and-file workers. Yes, you should pay attention to your employees. But the big decisions about where to go and what to make and how to solve the company's problems are ultimately yours.

This requires vision, knowledge, skill, and (most certainly) good ideas. But even more important is an understanding of how to get people to embrace your ideas and work to achieve them … even in the face of criticism and adversity.

So how do you do it? By making the work worthwhile.

For a perfect example, look to some of the great religious leaders of history. From Jesus Christ to Gandhi, these leaders were able to persuade large groups of people to do all kinds of great and difficult work, merely by creating the idea that the work itself was good. (Yes, there may have been some bribing going on there – the promise of heaven, and all that. But I can't imagine that so many people would have made so many sacrifices without believing that the work itself was worthwhile.)

MYTH #2 "Allowing participation is more important than sharing your vision."

This myth is another gem gleaned from an article in a prestigious business publication. The premise seems to be that, when it comes to setting goals, leaders should focus on fostering and improving employee participation rather than on creating a plan for better business.

That is just silly. Utterly silly. But it was a serious recommendation offered up in sober language by some earnest young writer quoting from some ex-tough-guy businessperson who wanted to sugarcoat his career.

Back here in the real world … a leader can delegate a great deal of responsibility if he surrounds himself with good people. But the one thing he can never delegate is the job of establishing goals and creating a vision. Unless, that is, he wants to cease being a leader.

Dreaming about what your business can accomplish, thinking about how far it can go and how great it can be, is the most important job you can do. If you are a leader, now or in the future, you must spend much of your spare time doing that.

Yes, you can ask questions. Yes, you can seek advice. But when it comes down to deciding where you want your business to go and what you want it to achieve, you've got to do it yourself. Then … you've got to share your vision.

It is not easy to inspire work. Those who can have one thing in common: They have a keen ability to create and communicate a compelling vision. This is essential for effective leadership. Most real authorities on leadership recognize this. You can be fairly limited in other intellectual qualities but strong in audacity and the ability to communicate a picture – and still be a successful leader. (Ronald Reagan proved that, didn't he?)

The same can be said for leaders of social causes. When ordinary citizens work tirelessly to respond to a crisis or natural disaster, they do so not for any of the normal reasons that employees work. They do it because they feel that they are compelled by a vision. They feel engaged in a worthwhile process.

Think about religion today. All those apostles you see at airports. Why do they work like that? Why do they submit themselves to that kind of indignity? It's not for the money; they get none. And it's not for public approval; they get the opposite. They shave their heads, put on robes, and spend countless hours begging … because they believe that what they are doing is good. It's as simple – and as powerful – as that.

To be a great leader, you have to:

Spend time thinking about how you can make things better.

Make people believe in the goodness of your ideas.

If you can do both of these things, your employees will gladly work for you. They will beg for you. They will fight for you. And in extreme cases (not that this is something you'd hope for), they may even die for you.

To become a leader is to become powerful and important. To become a leader is to put yourself in a position of authority and influence. To become a leader is a responsibility and a privilege. It can change your life faster and further than just about anything else you can learn to do. And the way to do that is to create a compelling, worthwhile vision and inspire your employees to follow through with the work itself.

Today's Action Plan

The above essay is an excerpt from Michael Masterson's new book, Power and Persuasion. There's much more information in the book that's devoted to showing you how to create and implement an inspirational vision for your business. Pick up a copy.

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Healthy Marriage, Healthy Life

By Jon Herring

Why do happily married couples experience lower rates of cancer and heart disease, have a lower probability of depression, live longer, and generally enjoy a greater sense of well-being than their single counterparts? A recent article published by the Mayo Clinic gives several reasons. For one thing, when a person feels responsibility to a spouse, healthy activities increase while risky behavior is generally curtailed.

Perhaps more important is that happily married couples experience less stress – and are better equipped than single people to contend with the stress they do experience. That's because married couples tend to have a stronger network of support. They also have greater financial stability because of the advantages of cohabitation and pooled resources.

The harmful effects of stress are well established: Stress has been shown to contribute to heart disease, disrupt the hormonal system, and deplete the immune system.

Of course, this doesn't mean you can't enjoy superb health as a single person – or that being married will automatically improve your health. But it is more evidence as to just how important it is to your health to have close, meaningful relationships and overall peace in your life.
 
(Reference:Healthy Marriage: Why Love is Good for You)

It's Good to Know: Mobile Maps

By Suzanne Richardson

No map? Hate to ask for directions? You'll be glad to know that technology is ready to step in and fill the void.

OnStar

OnStar is perhaps the best-known GPS satellite and cellular system to help you navigate while driving. Many GM vehicles already include this feature, and it will be standard in all GM cars, trucks, and SUVs by 2007. To get the OnStar "directions and connections" plan, you'll have to shell out $34.95 a month.

MapQuest Mobile

For a small monthly fee (about $3.99), you can access all of MapQuest's features – including reverse directions, recent address recall, and step-by-step driving instructions – through your cellphone. The MapQuest website lists multiple cellular providers (including Verizon, Cingular, and T-Mobile) and cellphone models that are compatible with its Mobile service.

Portable GPS Systems

Pick up one of many options, from the Magellan Portable RoadMate (for just under $700) to the Garmin StreetPilot (just under $500 on Amazon.com), that you can take with you, in the car or on foot.

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Word to the Wise: Spoonerism

A "spoonerism" is the ludicrous transposition of (usually initial) sounds in two or more words. "Spoonerism" comes from the name of the Rev. William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), a kindly but nervous Anglican clergyman who supposedly said all of the following:

"We all know what it is to have a half-warmed fish [half-formed wish] inside us."

"The Lord is a shoving leopard [loving shepherd]."
 

"It is kisstomary to cuss [customary to kiss] the bride."

"Is the bean dizzy [dean busy]?"

"When the boys come back from France, we'll have the hags flung out [flags hung out]!"

"Let me sew you to your sheet [show you to your seat]."

Michael
Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2006

Have a Question for Michael Masterson?

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