A case study of Leadership

How Does Alexander The Great Measure Up To The 7 Points Of Leadership?

In my other Article, I have written about 7 points which a leader must take note of. Here I am using the example of Alexander the Great to see how many points he would score

1. Always have a vision
Good or Great Leaders have a vision that can be shared and appreciated by your staff would enable him to motivate the staff in getting the goal achieved. In the case of Alexander, his vision is that to right the wrongs done by the Persians on the Greeks and ultimately replace the Persian Empire with his own. At that time, his vision was thought to be bold, out of this world and basically impossible. His success in projecting this vision of his could be seen in history where he became king of an empire that was not exceeded by the Mongols.Hence we can draw a lesson from this is that via successful projection of a vision, nothing is impossible.

2. Do not focus on negative
A good leader basically should try to see and find the positive or good in the bad or negative and essentially take advantage of it. Again for Alexander, it is his sense of invincibility or good tactical sense that often bought his success against overwhelming odds in battles verses the Persian Empire or later in India. Here we got a leader where no matter how bad is the situation, he always or often turn it to his advantages.

3. Mood Management
A good leader should learn to keep one's feelings or moods to oneself and let nothing out if possible as to affect his staff. This is something which Alexander does not do very well as leader. Maybe in his case, the Greek Culture brings out emotions, feelings and moods more directly of men then. Hence we should not really fault Alexander as it should be said that being a Ancient King, he was entitled to his moods.

4. Core Values Communication
A good leader would make sure that his or her values are evident to all stakeholders involved while being able to align values or policies of the organization to those of the employees. Here is something which Alexander does very well. In history, he always managed to win the respect and loyalty of his men regardless of the situation. Proof of this can be seen is that he would not ask his men to do anything he would not do himself. And always before battles or after battles, he would go among his men to listen and encourage them.

5. Concentrate on the Big Picture
A good leader should always look at the big picture and think of it as the most important item. Alexander has never lost sight of his vision and the situation at hand during his short reign. One example is his destruction of Thebes after his accession to the Macedonian throne was a step in his vision where he hoped to cow any Greek opposition into submission before setting out to fight the Persians. Another example is that during the conquest of the Persian Empire, he often confirmed surrendered Persians in their posts. This allowed the governing of the regions to continue unbroken while reducing the need to garrison every province. He did make a precaution where only Macedonians are placed in charge of the garrison.

6. Crisis Management
Crisis Management is critical to being a good leader. If a crisis can be handled without losing control of the situation, a leader would be able to shine then. He or she should never be overwhelmed by the scope of the crisis. There was no bigger scope of the crisis or situation which Alexander faced. He was up against the largest Empire and its seemingly inexhaustible manpower. However through his calm and superior leadership, he managed to resolve most of the crisis to an advantageous ending.

7. Stop Gossip
A good leader should always avoid listening or believing in gossip unless one witness for himself or herself the event in question. Here is another fault of ancient times, where Kings are always suspicious of their powerful or successful subjects with deadly results. In the case of Alexander, gossip or rumors caused the death of Parmenion and Philotas. Hence he did not really manage to keep his actions clear of rumors or gossip.

Conclusion
Although Alexander does not score well for 2 of the 7 points, he can still be considered a good or even great leader as per his actions and achievements in history. Hopefully, this case study on Alexander would enable all to understand the importance of above seven points of leadership.

PS: Article has been posted on EzineArticles.

Some Business News around the world where Martel has apologized to China over toy recall. The reason is that the recall was caused by design flaws, rather than production problems.

Although that was cleared up, but more storm clouds are there for china since a recall of millions of baby crib after the death of two babies. What would be next?

RE: 5 Key Points to Being a Successful Sales Person

In the past, I have always faced problems of conducting sales to people. However as I grew older, I have learnt many things. Hence the below, can be summarized as my experience which I would like to share you.

In order to be a successful sales person, it is not that difficult. By applying or following the following five key points, one can be one.

1. Direct Selling Approach

Most of the time, people would not want to hear excuses or being forwarded from department to department on their problems or concerns. What is critical to them is that they are able to have their issues, problems or concerns solved directly.

Hence this applies to selling too. Being direct and honest, would be a better way of selling instead of covering up facts which would be found out eventually. Do not beat around the bush. Selling of the core benefits of the products and services is the key point here in sales.

2. Setting Goals (or Targets)

Never forget that by setting goals or targets, one gives direction to whatever he or she would hope to achieve. This is important as then he or she would know what would be needed to be done to achieve the goal. And furthermore, the prospects of self satisfaction from achieving goals and targets are highly tempting or provide motivation to a person.

3. Sales Pitch

With experience, one would be able to analyse his or her arsenal of sales pitch where those that do work would be focused on. Hence by focusing on those sales pitch that works, the selling skills can be honed and sharpened. With each selling experience, confidence and belief in one's selling skill would be built up to the level of being able to cope with any sorts of customers.

4. Taking positive from negative

In sales, it is not always possible to conduct a sales. Be it the wrong sales pitch or unsuitability of the product or service, it should be not disheartening to the sales person. The reason is that as above under point 3, take it as a learning experience where by analysing what went wrong with the pitch or method. Thus by remembering the mistake, one should or would not make in the future.

5. Mistakes

No is prefect where he or she does not make any mistakes where starting a sales job. There is no need to dwell or linger on mistakes, but take them as learning experiences to reduce or prevent them from happening again. Slowly, the number of mistakes would be reduced or prevented.

And do not be afraid to apologize for any mistakes made. Always be prepared to make amends to them.

Lastly, always reflect on the set goals or targets and update them if necessary.

Hopefully the above can help you in overcoming your sales problems and to be on your way to be a more successful sales person.

PS: Article has also been posted on EzineArticles.com

Also read on for some business news where the Bank of England agreed to emergency funding to Northern Rock after it had fallen prey to the liquidility squeeze in the banking sector.

RE: Some Business News from around the world

First up, OPEC has agreed to increase overall output by 2% next month, but market could remain tense for the remainder of the year. A sign of this is that oil prices remain close to the record price of USD$78.77 per barrel.

According to US Treasury Secretary Paulson, there is no quick fix to the credit crisis in the US. This may result in poorer stock exchange today. To check out more on what he said, read on

Lastly, GM is looking at a family of electric cars sharing the same parts. Hence it is a move in the right direction as it would also cut down on cost and it may result in modular customization in the future. Great!!

RE:Things To Avoid For Any Affiliate Marketing Program

Here are some avoidable errors one can seriously avoid while starting or promoting Affiliate Marketing Program.

- Never post ads on forums. True, forums are used or can be used to promote an affiliate program or website, but only in a proper manner. Posting of banners or urls are very similar or equal to spamming and can easily draw the ire of forum administrators.

- Do research before any promotion of the program to a prospective customer. As it is futile effort to promote things to uninterested people, hence do not waste time and effort here if possible.

- Avoid Copyright infringement in all cases. Always use original content or seek the necessary permission before using text, content or images found on other websites.

- If possible, try not to submit programs to free sites. As they are free, the chances of being noticed by Search Engines can be quite low and this would affect the ranking of the programs.

- Avoid using or focusing on animated banner ads as they would only take up or use up bandwidth; causing a slow loading of pages.

- Avoid advertising off line as most people would rarely check on websites found in newspaper or magazines. Hence save the money and use it for online advertising such as Google Adwords.

- Avoid hosting the website or program on a free website or using a free e-mail accounts. This is essential as it would give an unprofessional or negative impression to visitors.

- Always remember to respond on all queries sent by visitors as soon as possible. The reason is that even a slight delay may cause a prospective customer to be lost.

- Avoid pop-up ads during webpage construction. Most surfers would close their browser if pop-ads appear.

- Always maintain a good tracking system. This would enable accurate tracking of responses for review or necessary changes.

- Always focus on a theme as a highly focused site would more likely to attract visitors than a disoriented site.

- Avoid or try to use minimum Caps on the webpage. Usage of caps are equal to shouting, hence strategic use of caps to capture attention should be applied.

- Finally, do homework and research properly. Then implement and persist with the plan as it would take time to achieve results.

Author's Note: Never give up if you fail once. Remember practice make prefect. When you do not succeed the first time, does not mean you would not the next time.

PS: Article also is posted on EzineArticles.com

RE:The Creation of an Effective Newsletter for Internet Marketing

The creation of a successful newsletter (NL) would be extremely rewarding where online sales, customer relationship and brand loyalty would grow and bring in high conversion. But how do you create a successful and effective newsletter? Here are some simple steps to help one create such a newsletter.

Define the newsletter

Always start with defining the purpose of the newsletter as one would send time and energy in creating it. Without a clear definition of the purpose, the newsletter could fail even from the start.

Name of Newsletter

Determine something that one's reader can relate to and stay with it. It is important as one would need to build a link with the readers.

Subject Line

Never forget the subject line is what would put the readers to read your mail. Hence spending some time to come up with an interesting or intriguing title is essential to capturing the attention of your reader straight away.

Style / Format of Letter

Think about it. Would you read something that is complex or untidy? Hence keep the style and format of the NL simple and neat.

Content

Figure out what readers would want to know or are interested in. Then give such information to them. Getting feedback from readers and monitoring click through rates can help to determine the popularity of the articles.

Another balancing point is how much information to give to the reader. The key is to give the readers information on the latest developments and keep them on top of the trends as no one wants to hear about old news.

Also try not to hard sell one's products and services. Instead try to empathize with the readers in trying to solve their problems via the NL.

Frequency

If one does not or could not turn up a quality newsletter every week, then the target should be fortnightly one. The reason is that one can research on the material needed and focus in coming up with something of quality. Remember it is not the quantity, but the quality of the NL that would keep the readers.

Personalize

At minimum address the reader by name. Giving the NL a personality, allows the reader to identify with the NL.

Use simple vocabulary

Remember that the readers could come from a wide spectrum of education levels; hence keep the vocabulary to the most simple and layman terms. This is essential in reaching out to the masses. However in dealing with a niche market, keeping it simple would reduce the amount of mistakes made.

Test

Always, always test the NL on some email addresses before sending it out to the entire distribution list. This would allow one to pick out for any errors and issues before committing it out.

Checklist

Lastly make sure that in the newsletter, the following are included

- Table of Contents

- Hyperlinks for readers to get more information on the topic

- Exciting secrets, tips or offers related to the product or service

- Contact Information

And the last tip is to have the newsletter in plain text and HTML e-mail to cover the range of readers.

PS: Article also posted on EzineArticles.com

There is no fixed method of leadership in getting things done. Different situations warrant a different approach; a good leader should know when to change or adapt his style to the demands warranted by the situation.

My seven pointers to assist a leader in adapting to the situation:

1. Always have a vision (if possible)
Vision would allow one to know where one is going or what direction should he be taking. It is like a goal. Having a vision that can be shared and appreciated by your staff would enable a leader to motivate the staff in getting the goal achieved.

2. Do not focus on negative things
A good leader would not waste his time and energy in always looking for he negative aspects of things. He should instead try to see and find the positive or good in the bad.

3. Mood Management
As a leader, his or her words, nuance or gesture would be interpreted by all his or her staff or bosses. Hence any choice he or she makes would almost has an unintended side effect. Keep one's feelings or moods to oneself and let nothing out if possible.

4. Core Values Communication
A good leader would make sure that his or her values are evident to all stakeholders involved while being able to align values or policies of the organization to those of the employees.

5. Concentrate on the Big Picture
A good leader should always look at the big picture and think of it as the most important item. Losing sight of it would cause him or her to lose track of proceeding and could have serious effects.

6. Crisis Management
Crisis Management is critical to being a good leader. If a crisis can be handled without losing control of the situation, a leader would be able to shine then. He or she should never be overwhelmed by the scope of the crisis.

7. Stop Gossip
In the work place, gossip is always destructive and unproductive. Even listening to gossip and even worse acting on it would create workplace tension. Hence avoid listening or believing in gossip unless one witness for himself or herself the event in question.

With the 7 short points in mind, one can achieve good leadership. However, bear in mind, leadership is most effective as a partnership between employers and employees, and not being a solo show for the employer as the boss.

Author's Note: This article has published at EzineArticles.com

Importance of Back-End Selling to an Internet Marketer

Think about it, an Internet marketer would spend considerable effort in getting customers for the products he market. One can design killer web pages, work the bum off for high search engine rankings (or paying for them), submit classified ads and other things to note, but is still not able to sell enough to even cover the costs. This is where the principles and theory of back-end selling comes in handy.

Most Internet Marketers are successful because they have applied back-end selling into their marketing efforts. Back-end selling is when one would sell other products or services to existing customers after the initial purchase of a product.

It would be always easier to sell or recommend products or services to these customers because a relationship have been developed or built with them when or after the initial sales of a product to them. The cost and effort of selling to existing customers are found to be less expensive than selling to new customers as one would have to start all over all.

The conversion ratio hence would be much higher with existing customers. Every time, a product or service is sold via back-end selling, a life-long relationship would be continued to be developed between the Internet Marketer and the customer. One should always try to source for new back-end products or services to introduce or sell to the existing pool of customer.
In practice, many business would forgo or lose profits on front end products or service as to maximize on the profits from back-end selling. Some of the business would not care on losing the profits as long as the back end profits are high profitable.

Hence how do one makes back sell sales then? There are several ways to it. Many companies would implement a strategy of attaching a catalog along with an order. Or place the customer on a mailing list and send him new catalogs periodically. And finally attaching of a sales letter for another product to the customer.

For this strategy to work on the internet, the sales pitch for the backsell item can be placed or inserted into an confirmation email for an order to the customer. Even better, if there is an online catalog, a link can be inserted into it.

For even a faster response approach, the offer for a back sell product can be inserted into the "Thank You" page that is generated by a credit card sales. Think about it, the customer would still have his credit card on hand at this moment as he has just bought a product, hence reinforce on the opportunity by asking for another purchase while he is in the mood. In the situation where one only carries one product or service, affiliate programs would be handy. Hence back sell products can be promoted via affiliate programs too.

Back end selling can be integrated with up selling wherein a more expensive product or services can be introduced to the customers in similar ways to the above. Hence the importance of back end selling to an Internet Marketer.

Author's Note: Hopefully after reading this, your sales and profits can be increased.

PS: This article has been published at EzineArticles.com

Simple Strategy For a Successful Newsletter Campaign For an Internet Marketer

Internet Marketing combined with newsletters is one of the most effective marketing strategies in the market. However the entire process of creating, design and implementing a newsletter campaign would involve considerable amount of planning.

Here is a step by step guide for one to make a newsletter campaign a success.

Step 1: Determine what product or service are you selling online.

Step 2: Determine what information is unique to your business. Do not forgive that every one is an expert in his own chosen field, hence expertise information would be of importance to others.

Step 3: Identify your target audience. Determine and Define your audience and where are their sources of information be it a forum or website. Narrow your audience to a niche if possible, and be an authority in it as to build up your traffic and name.

Step 4: Defining your content on your website and in your newsletter. Having relevant content would become your unique selling point. Never forget, that content works in defining your website as an online business or just an information site.

Step 5: Create and maintain your mailing list.

Step 6: Produce your newsletter. Email newsletter are great as links to webpage or website can be included. Note here is to make sure you insert in the http:// and try out the link yourself. You do not wish to send your prospective customer to a dead link.

Step 7: Make sure that the autoresponders are in place and turn on to answer often-asked questions automatically. Note: The subscribe and unsubscribe features should be also included; you would lose some usually and make it easy for people to be off your list may make them return in the future.

Step 8: Never spam. Spamming is a practice of sending information to people who did not actually ask for it and really do not wish to receive it. Although it has long been an accepted practice in Internet market, but due to over spamming, it had became a very sensitive issue. You could be switched by your ISP provider for it as they would not want to be listed as a SPAM server.

Okay, above is a simple guide to effective newsletter. Hope that after reading it, it would help you to achieve running of a successful newsletter campaign.

Author's Note: The above article has been published at Ezine Articles.

RE: Making Money Online - ProLogger Tips

Hi Guys,

I have came across this blog, http://www.problogger.net/, which is written by Darren Rowse. On it, I have found a lot of interesting articles and tips on make blogging a valuable tool in making money online.

Tips include:-
- 113 Must Read Blogging Tips
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- What is a blog
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Check it out if you are interested in making blogging pay for you.

Upcoming Articles

Look for the following upcoming articles:

- Simple Strategy for a successful newsletter campaign for an Internet Marketer
- Importance of Back-end Selling to an Internet Marketer
- 7 Points a Good Leader MUST take Note of

Catch up with them soon.

Whether thought of starting your own internet marketing business, join Wealthy Affiliates now for your chance to start earning real money now.

Latest News: Apple Revamps Ipod

For All apple I-pod lovers, news for you that Apple is revamping their I-pods. Catch it below

Visit Wealthy Affiliates for more information on earning from the internet right now.

RE: Some European Growth

A bit of gloom in European as the growth slows to 2.5 percent in 2nd quarter. Although this is not unexpected, but the slow growth just means that the investors and companies are reining in investments and a slow down even in the construction industry before start of the loan crisis.

RE: Review of Wealthy Affiliate 8 Week Training Plan

Hi,

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- How to get help (using help, site map, and contacting us…rules)
- Learn the inner workings of Internet marketing & Affiliate marketing
- What are Affiliate Networks, and how can you leverage them?
- The different "types" of Internet marketing
- Choosing your direction
- How to become an expert, not a generalist
- Choosing an industry and product to sell online
- Begin understanding consumers
- Setting up a Pay-Per-Click advertising account
- Understanding the uses of Squidoo.com
- Understanding the importance of market & keyword research
- Using keyword tools
- How to leverage your competition
- Understanding market research
- Hyper-Targeting consumers (understanding the WHY)
- Relevancy = Success (broad marketing vs. targeted marketing)
- How a website will benefit you as an Internet marketer
- Setting-up your FREE WA Hosting & choosing domains
- How to build a website
- Different types of webpages
- How to create landing pages that convert
- Using the feeder sites here at WA
- Creating free marketing campaigns (how to structure them)
- Creating paid marketing campaigns
- Organizing your campaigns using WA tools
- Creating long term income
- Should you become a merchant?
- Providing quality customer service
- Email marketing
- Creating “Your” business
- Success lifecycle
- Advantages to running an Internet business
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Phew! That's a lot, right?You bet it is... still, if you think you can be a success at IM doing it for 2 hours from the beach you can always spend a fortune on the next 'Guru' scam... and the next... and the next...Or you can get a reality check and join WA and get help every step of the way...

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RE: The Biggest Airshow in Asia Takes Off

Whoa...the biggest airshow in Asia takes off in Hong Kong...Poor Singapore losing out here. But never mind, there is always next year.

RE: Some Good News for Asia

At least some good news for Asia in the middle of the American Sub loan issues and fluctuating share prices.