16 Most Significant Business Lessons from my 40 Year Career

Significant business lessons from my 40 year career? It is tough to name just one as I have done much learning over the years and I will never be done.

Being such a business manager is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning and renewing lessons you have learned. Every great manager always looks for ways to improve their ability to improve their leadership qualities and attributes.

If you read ten books on business management, you could easily build a checklist of 50 or more management lessons for future business managers. But more is not necessarily better for the best lessons to study and apply.

The following lessons represent my favorite lessons on business management I have learned over my 40 years. They are the ones that have made the biggest impact on my success:

I have been in management and leadership positions in the military and business world for forty years and I often get asked what the best lessons I have found. Surprisingly (or not) my list of lessons probably have varied to a degree, depending on when in my career it was constructed.

The following lessons represent my favorite lessons on business management that I believe could make the biggest impact. If I was starting my career over and could take what I learned back in time with me, these are the lessons I would choose:

Create an environment of continuous learning

It is absolutely necessary that business people be good learners. They need to instill this in all their team. They must learn from their mistakes. To be most successful, managers must acknowledge, understand, and improve on their shortcomings. And they must encourage their team to also focus on continuous learning.

Be a multiplier

Multiplier business managers know that at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is NOT the lone genius. Rather, it is the genius who knows the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone in the team.

Build connections

Both managers and leaders know their job with their teams is about building lots of connections. They make people feel they have a stake in common problems.

Encourage feedback

It is vital that you let your team know you are interested and will listen to their concerns and ideas and contribute to solutions to any and all problems.

Embrace change

Change is the only constant in business, so make it your competitive advantage. Initiate change rather than react to it, and give clear instructions to help the team understand why the change is necessary, and how it will make the situation better.

Manage risk

After my first 3 years as a business executive, the business I ran was going great guns … we seemingly couldn’t lose. So I continued to ‘double down’, so to speak. The game finally caught up with me, as we got far ahead of our talent. Not a good place to be, believe me. Learn not to be greedy.

Offer recognition and always share success

Focus on building team confidence by publicly recognizing their efforts and achievements. Think of it this way; anything is possible if you share the glory. Giving others a chance to claim credit is an easy, and effective, way to magnify results.

Foster teamwork

Peter Drucker is a silent mentor for our small agency. We are big fans. He once made an interesting point when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say ‘I’ He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit. They don’t force themselves to say ‘we’. ‘We’ is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.

You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.

So the next time you interview someone with a resume that states, ‘I accomplished x’ or ‘I did x’, it should send up a few warning signals.

Be decisive

One of the key jobs of a manager is to be an effective decision maker. Employees are never comfortable with managers who make slow decisions and the frequently change their minds. Quality managers make decisions quickly and stick with them.

Building and maintaining trust

Always do what you say and set good examples. Demand from yourself the same level of professionalism and dedication that you expect from others. Trust, once broken, is seldom restored to its original state. It is the most fragile yet essential attribute of leadership and management.

Doing the right thing

Always listen to your inner voice. If it “feels wrong” it is. It is never wrong to do the right thing. It is never right to do the wrong thing. The ends DO NOT justify the means

Take care of employees

Love your people. If your end users are viewed as people who are “clicks” or just customers you will fail. If you care about them, you will make the product that will actually make their life better or easier. You both win. Most companies are upside down.

Trust people

Don’t be precious and protective of things. Let people showcase their expertise and benefit collectively. Welcome people into the team with open arms, don’t be suspicious of their intentions. Ultimately you and the team are the beneficiary. You will meet lone superstars so find ways to connect whereby the partnership is mutually beneficial.

Keep learning

Don’t be afraid to ask stupid questions especially when you are new and fresh, its the best time to do it anyways.

When choosing work, don’t focus on what you CAN do, focus on what you WANT to learn to do.

Focus on results

You will encounter barriers, blockers but you must focus on getting results. Many instances in your process, you will be told “No” often but it is up to you to respond to it by taking whatever action possible to keep driving your project forward.

Do you need to ask for help? Do it. Can you re-negotiate by bringing certain people together in a room? Set it up. Do you need more time to make a decision? Ask for it.

Everyone is expendable

I have seen many people, whom I thought were indispensable, asked to let go. One failed initiative, an altercation with the boss, a year of under-performance is enough to undermine years of your contributions.

So don’t be complacent. If you are not evolving constantly to maintain your competitive edge, someone will catch up to you and make you redundant.

The bottom line

The moral of this story is that the best business lessons should have a great influence on team development and teamwork. If these different thoughts are possessed by your current management or leadership team, or your emerging leaders, you will be in a good position for the road ahead.

More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Build an Effective Team by Being a Talent Hound

Success Enablers of Highly Creative Leaders

Secrets to Becoming a Remarkably Mindful Leader

Leadership Characteristics That Improve Influence

Corporate Culture: 33 Business Lessons from 40 Years Experience

I have been in management and leadership positions in the military and business world for forty years, and I often get asked about my corporate culture experience and my best business lessons. Surprisingly (or not) my list of business culture lessons probably have varied to a degree, depending on when in my career it was constructed.

The list of lessons is based on real world experiences as well as managers and leaders I studied (including many bosses). For example, Dwight Eisenhower was only one of many I studied over those many years.

Being such a business manager is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning and renewing lessons you have learned. Every great manager always looks for ways to improve their ability to improve their leadership qualities and attributes.

Related: 10 Entrepreneur Lessons You Need to Know

If you read ten books on business management, you could easily build a checklist of 50 or more management lessons for future business managers. But more is not necessarily better for the best lessons to study and apply.

The following lessons represent my favorite lessons on business management I have learned over my 40 years. They are the ones that have made the biggest impact on my success:

Corporate culture … people first

No matter what the job is, leaders always want to look for the best people and then take care of them. A business is just a group of people working on various creations and inventions. People are your business. It is as simple as that. It’s all about the people. They are the lifeblood of the business.

When you’re leading a business or an organization, you’re leading people. It makes sense that leaders need to take care of their people. Many leaders work to have relationships with their employees. Taking them out for coffee and getting to know them better is common among leaders. Putting people first is an important element in being a leader.

Competency

Whatever you do, be competent in your current job. It’s the only true currency you have. That being said, no amount of competence will protect you when the next re-organization comes.

Corporate culture examples … relationships

Never forget that relationships in business should be business relationships. You may have a friend or lover at work, but the relationship will end the moment the opportunity to advance in the business is placed between you and your friend or lover. By the way, I strongly recommend keeping romance outside of the workplace.

Be a multiplier

Multiplier business managers know that at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is NOT the lone genius. Rather, it is the genius who knows the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone in the team.

Corporate politics

Understand that politics is a fact of corporate life, and learn to deal with it. That means you take time to understand the views of the people involved in corporate conflicts, as well as the conflicts themselves. There will be times when you have to choose between being in the right or being employed. It’s your choice.

Establish clear direction

Getting people on board, aligned and pointed in the right direction is vital for an organization. If each person is going in a different direction, it can be chaos in an organization.

Keeping people coordinated and aimed is a continual process. You’re the luckiest leader in the world if this happens by default. Two ways to ensure people are coordinated and aimed is setting milestones and having multiple coaches and promoters for your employees.

Do what you can to make sure people enjoy what they’re doing. If people aren’t passionate about the business and love what they’re doing, they are more likely to be going in a different direction and susceptible to becoming disengaged. Certainly not a good thing.

Types of corporate culture … build connections

Both managers and leaders know their job with their teams is about building lots of connections. They make people feel they have a stake in common problems.

Pay attention to culture

Understand the culture of the organization, especially their expectations of what makes a good employee. They all say they believe in teamwork, dedication, hard work, etc. But look at the employees who are successful, who get the recognition, who rise quickly – they represent what the company is looking for. What do they do that you can do?

Build and maintain trust

Trust is a key element we all need to set aside vulnerability, but it is hard to build, and easy to lose. It is not built on words, but through actions and evidence. Only when it works can a team address the necessary issues to win.

Corporate experience meaning … conflict and consensus

Conflicts and fights are not the same thing. Conflicts are normal and required factual push backs in business, whereas fights are emotional, often personal, disagreements which do not lead forward to consensus.

corporate environment — Corporate environment.

Embrace change

Change is the only constant in business, so make it your competitive advantage. Initiate change rather than react to it, and give clear instructions to help the team understand why the change is necessary, and how it will make the situation better.

Establish a level of structure and control

The challenge of structure and control is to strike the right balance. With none, things fall into chaos, but too much can have the effect of stifling innovation and creativity.

Make decisions

In general, any decision is better than no decision. Usually, a blended approach is the best, between independent decisions, and collaborative decisions factoring in the best team input. Picking the best team members is a right starting decision.

Foster continuous communication

Communication is the glue that forms the bond between leaders and teams and holds great teams together. Credibility is a required base.

Corporate experience … provide recognition

Recognition drives motivation and human behavior, and human behavior drive results. Recognition validates people and their purpose. Intangible rewards can have an even greater impact than tangible ones, but they must be relevant.

Create learning experiences

We all have a desire to learn and grow. The best learning opportunities are experience and sharing.

Make your boss look good

Understand what your boss regards as a priority, and help him or she accomplishes it. Make sure that you document what you’ve done. Your boss needs the accomplishment, but shouldn’t get the credit for the work you’ve done.

Train your replacement. You won’t be able to get a promotion if there’s no one else to take your job.

Corporate environment … foster teamwork

Peter Drucker is a silent mentor for our small agency. We are big fans. He once made an interesting point when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say ‘I’ He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit. They don’t force themselves to say ‘we.’ ‘We’ is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.

You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.

So the next time you interview someone with a resume that states, ‘I accomplished x’ or ‘I did x’, it should send up a few warning signals.

Staff development

Many companies follow the motto: “Hire for the character, train for skill.” You hire people that are eager to learn. They don’t have a ton of skills; but as a leader, you teach them, and they become better. They grow with your company and contribute to its success.

You see this with football coaches. In football coaching, it’s almost unheard of for someone with no experience to be hired as the head coach of a team. Most people start in a low-level position and gradually move up.

The same occurs in business. George Bodenheimer is the former president of ESPN. He started out working in the mailroom of ESPN. It would have been very difficult for him to rise to the presidency if he hadn’t had a boss who wanted to help him grow and succeed in the company.

Everything communicates

How you dress, how you stand, how you speak, etc. If you want to succeed in a corporate environment, you have to communicate that you are the kind of employee that represents the corporate success story.

Do not rest on past successes

There is nothing more dangerous to life’s success than a last great result, is there? We are ‘only as good as our next result’. Stay paranoid.

Make yourself a project

Hairdressing icon Vidal Sassoon was famous for having said: “The only place you’ll find success coming before work is in a dictionary.” We have to work on ourselves. Put pressure on ourselves. Critique our days. Give back to society. Be our very best coaches and cheering squads. All of this applies as much to our personal lives as for our business lives.

Continue to add to your connections and be a continuous learner

Woody Allen said: “85% of the secret of success is just turning up.” Turn up to events. Make that phone call. Read that book. Do that training? Have the courage to ask that question. Make the effort. Stay connected to what’s happening around you.

Be a priority ‘ninja.’

Getting more of the important things done every day. Be obsessed with getting priorities rights, on what’s really important, every day, and make sure you spend the majority of your day on these priorities.

Embrace change

Darwin said it was not the strongest of the species that survived, but the ablest to adapt to change. There will be more change in the next five years than we’ve seen in the past 50. Get excited by change. Be part of the most movements that you can. Help shake things up.

Be decisive

One of the key jobs of a manager is to be an effective decision maker. Employees are never comfortable with managers who make slow decisions and the frequently change their minds. Quality managers make decisions quickly and stick with them.

Provide sound guidance

Be available for your staff members and show interest in their career development within the business. Don’t hesitate to offer guidance along the way.

Building and maintaining trust

Always do what you say and set good examples. Demand from yourself the same level of professionalism and dedication that you expect from others. Trust, once broken, is seldom restored to its original state. It is the most fragile yet essential attribute of leadership and management.

Present the big picture

Consistently show the team how their projects fit into the larger goals and objectives of the business. You can never be too detailed on communicating the big picture.

Be patient but persistent

Delivering strong managerial skills takes time and practice. Seek guidance from mentors, colleagues, your boss, and your network.

Deliver confidence

Having and being able to deliver confidence counts. Most managers are self-confident. The real skill and ability are to extend faith to others. You must be good at recognizing and believing in the talents of others.

Accept learning is never done

You have worked hard to get to this point. Rely on your experience but accept there is still much to learn. Learn from everywhere you can, including your team.

What a business represents

For all of the reputation that corporations are soul-sucking, back stabbing, political jungles where you can only rise by stepping on the heads of others, they also provide employment, benefits and a bit of security that support millions of people and their families worldwide.

They are not democracies, not charities, and not therapy centers. They exist to make money, and they hired you to help them make money. That’s the deal.

Keep that in mind every day, keep your emotions in check, do your job, and if you find you don’t like working there anymore, don’t complain – just keep it professional, and move on.

The bottom line

The moral of this story is that the best leadership lessons should have a great influence on team development and teamwork. If these different thoughts are possessed by your current management or leadership team, or your emerging leaders, you will be in a good position for the road ahead.

Looking to create a smashing brand image?

Which of these management lessons stand out to you like the most critical? Do you have any other thoughts of effective managers worthy of mention? Leave a comment and share your insights with other readers and us. We would be most interested in your thoughts.

Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of collaborative innovation. And put it to good use in adapting to changes in your business environment.

It’s up to you to keep improving your learning and experience with innovation and creativity efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.

Check out these additional articles on business lessons from our library:

The Business Intelligence Process Part 3 Competitive Analysis

10 Entrepreneur Lessons You Need to Know

Collaboration and Partnerships Are Key to Business Growth

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

Small Business Owner: 13 Greatest Hacks for a Successful Business

To lead is to measurably help others succeed. Are you looking to move into a management position? Or perhaps you are currently a new manager looking to build your skill base. Skills and lessons to practice and learn for a future small business owner should be a priority, yes?

While there is always the argument about the differences between management and leadership, management, leadership, and teamwork go hand in hand, don’t they?

So to build a strong team you need to be the type of manager that will measurably help others succeed, don’t you think? Future business managers certainly need to grasp this fact and understand the concepts of the best management and leadership qualities and attributes don’t they. Spot on.

I have been in management and leadership positions in the military and business world for forty years and I often get asked what the best lessons for future business managers I have found.

Surprisingly (or not) my list of lessons probably has varied to a degree, depending on when in my career it was constructed.

Build a team whose members have diverse backgrounds and mindsets. This broadens the creativity process.

Each person will contribute different thoughts and ideas, which lead to unique conversations when everyone comes together. The education, background, and experience of individual members lead to a creative group.

Team members will learn from one another. Different perspectives lead to new skills and effective innovation strategies. The result is a stronger team equipped to take on new challenges and quickly solve problems of all sizes.

Every bold new business idea starts with a success story. Either it is a single organization or an aggregate sample that implemented a particular strategy and achieved outstanding results. That solid track record helps to convince others to adopt it, yet somehow the new management fad fails to deliver as promised.

The list of lessons is based on real-world experiences as well as managers and leaders I studied (including many bosses). For example, Dwight Eisenhower was only one of many I studied over those many years.

Being such a business manager is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning and renewing lessons you have learned.

Every great manager always looks for ways to improve their ability to improve their leadership qualities and attributes.

If you read 10 books on business management, you could easily build a checklist of 50 or more management lessons for future business managers.

But more is not necessarily better for the best lessons to study and apply.

The following lessons represent my favorite lessons on business management that I believe could make the biggest impact.

Applying state-of-the-art tools and processes is widely seen as a mark of excellence. So, perhaps not surprisingly, “best practice” is one of those terms that you constantly hear in corporate circles. Managers often see implementing them as key to their performance.

Yet many experts point out that adopting so-called best practices can stifle your ability to innovate. After all, once you designate a particular way of doing things as “best,” who is going to question it? And if nobody questions it, it won’t be improved.

Still, even keeping those objections in mind, best practices can be immensely valuable, if approached with open eyes and good sense. The truth is that much like any business process, they’re only as good as the managers who implement them. While many do use best practices as a crutch, they can also be used as a platform from which to innovate.

If I was starting my career over and could take 13 leadership lessons back in time with me, these are the ones I would choose:

Create an environment of continuous learning

It is absolutely necessary that business managers be good learners. They need to instill this in all their team. They must learn from their mistakes.

To be most successful, managers must acknowledge, understand, and improve on their shortcomings. And they must encourage their team to also focus on continuous learning.

Small business owner … be a multiplier

Multiplier business managers know that at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is NOT the lone genius.

Rather, it is the genius who knows the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone in the team.

Build connections

Both managers and leaders know their job with their teams is about building lots of connections.

They make people feel they have a stake in common problems.

Small business owner ideas … encourage feedback

It is vital that you let your team know you are interested and will listen to their concerns and ideas and contribute to solutions to any and all problems.

Offer recognition and always share success

Focus on building team confidence by publicly recognizing their efforts and achievements. Think of it this way; anything is possible if you share the glory.

Giving others a chance to claim credit is an easy, and effective, way to magnify results.

Communicate clearly and often

Language is a manager’s most powerful tool, whether it is written or oral. Always keep your people informed of team goals, priorities, and schedules.

Without the ability to communicate, managers can possess all the other attributes and still fail to have an impact.

Be decisive

One of the key jobs of a manager is to be an effective decision maker. Employees are never comfortable with managers who make slow decisions and they frequently change their minds.

Quality managers make decisions quickly and stick with them.

Provide sound guidance

Be available with your staff members and show interest in their career development within the business. Don’t hesitate to offer guidance along the way.

Building and maintaining trust

Always do what you say and set good examples. Demand from yourself the same level of professionalism and dedication that you expect from others.

Trust, once broken, is seldom restored to its original state. It is the most fragile yet essential attribute of leadership and management.

Present the big picture

Consistently show the team how their projects fit into the larger goals and objectives of the business. You can never be too detailed on communicating the big picture.

Be patient but persistent

Delivering strong managerial skills takes time and practice.

Seek guidance from mentors, colleagues, your boss, and your network.

Deliver confidence

Having and being able to deliver confidence counts. Most managers are self-confident. The real skill and ability are to extend faith to others.

They must be good at recognizing and believing in the talents of others.

Working teamwork: Small Company … 20 Struggles that Are Easily Understood

Accept learning is never done

You have worked hard to get to this point. Rely on your experience but accept there is still much to learn.

Learn from everywhere you can, including your own team.

Key takeaways

The moral of this story is that the best leadership lessons should have a great influence on team development and teamwork.

If these different thoughts are possessed by your current management or leadership team, or your emerging leaders, you will be in a good position for the road ahead.

It’s easy to look at someone like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk and imagine that their success was inevitable. Their accomplishments are so out of the ordinary that it just seems impossible that they could have ever been anything other than successful. You get the sense that whatever obstacles they encountered, they would overcome.

The truth is that genius can be exceptionally fragile. Making a breakthrough takes more than talent. It requires a mixture of talent, luck, and an ecosystem of support to mold an idea into something transformative. In fact, in my research of great innovators what’s amazed me the most is how often they almost drifted into obscurity. Who knows how many we have lost?

Which of these leadership lessons stand out to you like the most critical? Do you have any other thoughts of effective leaders worthy of mention? Leave a comment and share your insights with us and other readers. We would be most interested in your thoughts.

Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?

Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitte r, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

Is Your Small Business Coping With Technological Change?

Like this short blog? Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.

13 Remarkable Lessons for Small Business Owners

Are you looking to move into a management position? Or perhaps you are currently a new manager looking to build your skill base. Skills and lessons to practice and learn lessons for small business owners should be a priority, yes?

To lead is to measurably help others succeed.

While there is always the argument about the differences between management and leadership, management, leadership, and teamwork go hand in hand, don’t they?

So to build a strong team you need to be the type of manager that will measurably help others succeed, don’t you think?

Small business managers certainly need to grasp this fact and understand the concepts of the best management and leadership qualities and attributes don’t they? Spot on.

I have been in management and leadership positions in the military and business world for forty-five years and I often get asked what the best lessons for future business managers I have found. Surprisingly (or not) my list of lessons probably have varied to a degree, depending on when in my career it was constructed.

It can be hard to make the most of your time when you’re running a business, especially when you’re wearing a lot of different hats and trying to complete a lot of different tasks.

There are others who have been there, and they’ve found some methods to improve productivity.

The list of lessons is based on real-world experiences as well as managers and leaders I studied (including many bosses). For example, Dwight Eisenhower was only one of many I studied over those many years.

Being such a business manager is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning and renewing lessons you have learned. Every great manager always looks for ways to improve their ability to improve their leadership qualities and attributes.

Here is a favorite example of mine. Anthony Trollope was in the business of writing books and writing a book is a big project. It is not the type of task that you can complete in a day. In some cases, merely writing a chapter is too big a task for a single day.

However, instead of measuring his progress based on the completion of chapters or books, Trollope measured his progress in 15-minute increments. This approach allowed him to enjoy feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment very quickly while continuing to work on the large task of writing a book.

This is a big deal for two reasons: Small measures of progress help to maintain momentum over the long-run, which means you’re more likely to finish large tasks. The faster you complete a productive task, the more quickly your day develops an attitude of productivity and effectiveness.

I have found this second point, the speed with which you complete your first task of the day, to be of particular importance for maintaining a highly productive output day after day.

Related: The Zen of Distinguishing Your Leadership Behaviors

If you read 10 books on business management, you could easily build a checklist of 50 or more management lessons for future business managers. But more is not necessarily better for the best lessons to study and apply.

The following lessons represent my favorite 13 lessons on business management that I believe could make the biggest impact. If I was starting my career over and could take 13 leadership lessons back in time with me, these are the ones I would choose:

Create an environment of continuous learning

It is absolutely necessary that business managers be good learners. They need to instill this in all their teams. They must learn from their mistakes.

To be most successful, managers must acknowledge, understand, and improve on their shortcomings. And they must encourage their team to also focus on continuous learning.

Be a multiplier

Multiplier business managers know that at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is NOT the lone genius. Rather, it is the genius who knows the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone in the team.

Build connections

Both managers and leaders know their job with their teams is about building lots of connections. They make people feel they have a stake in common problems.

Encourage feedback

It is vital that you let your team know you are interested and will listen to their concerns and ideas and contribute to solutions to any and all problems.

Offer recognition and always share success

Focus on building team confidence by publicly recognizing their efforts and achievements. Think of it this way; anything is possible if you share the glory. Giving others a chance to claim credit is an easy, and effective, way to magnify results.

Communicate clearly and often

Language is a manager’s most powerful tool, whether it is written or oral. Always keep your people informed of team goals, priorities, and schedules. Without the ability to communicate, managers can possess all the other attributes and still fail to have an impact.

Be decisive

One of the key jobs of a manager is to be an effective decision-maker. Employees are never comfortable with managers who make slow decisions and they frequently change their minds. Quality managers make decisions quickly and stick with them.

Provide sound guidance

Be available with your staff members and show interest in their career development within the business. Don’t hesitate to offer guidance along the way.

Building and maintaining trust

Always do what you say and set good examples. Demand from yourself the same level of professionalism and dedication that you expect from others. Trust, once broken, is seldom restored to its original state. It is the most fragile yet essential attribute of leadership and management.

Present the big picture

Consistently show the team how their projects fit into the larger goals and objectives of the business. You can never be too detailed on communicating the big picture.

Be patient but persistent

Delivering strong managerial skills takes time and practice. Seek guidance from mentors, colleagues, your boss, and your network.

Deliver confidence

Having and being able to deliver confidence counts. Most managers are self-confident. The real skill and ability are to extend faith to others. They must be good at recognizing and believing in the talents of others.

Accept learning is never done

You have worked hard to get to this point. Rely on your experience but accept there is still much to learn. Learn from everywhere you can, including your own team

The bottom line

The moral of this story is that the best leadership lessons should have a great influence on team development and teamwork. If these different thoughts are possessed by your current management or leadership team, or your emerging leaders, you will be in a good position for the road ahead.

Which of these leadership lessons stand out to you like the most critical? Do you have any other thoughts of effective leaders worthy of mention? Leave a comment and share your insights with us and other readers. We would be most interested in your thoughts.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?

Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 45 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on Twitte r, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Leadership Characteristics that Improve Influence

10 Leadership Competencies You Should Not Live Without

Building Collaboration and Sharing Skills in your Staff

How to Create the Best Leadership Accountability

Remarkable Business Experiences I Have Learned From

It’s been close to 50 years that I have been working in the corporate world. There were three years as a US Naval officer, 30 years at Lockheed Martin, seven years at Northrop Grumman, and seven years as a small business owner. So there have many remarkable business experiences that I can share.

There are many similar lessons in each of these businesses. Let’s examine these many remarkable business experiences.

Remarkable business experiences … stay ‘discreet’

This is the first rule to survive in the corporate world. To explain the meaning of the word ‘Discreet,’ this analogy will hold good

– If you are wearing a discreet gray suit, it is unlikely that anyone at that business meeting will notice you (Source Vocabulary.com).

No matter which profile you are in, always stay low-key. Use your words judiciously. If you do so, trust me, half of the battle is already won.

Let your results do the talking

It’s pretty simple – Either you know how to flatter people, or you don’t. All my corporate life, I have been fighting this bitch – ‘FLATTERY.’ I can’t learn it. It’s my handicap.

BUT, I learned one thing with the course of time – if you are good at what you do, if your work is good, you will survive. It will make you virtually ‘indispensable.’ But if you are neither, it’s time for some introspection.

Remarkable business experiences … always keep your cool

This is a very important rule in the corporate world. There will be circumstances when you feel like ‘Enough is enough. Now, I cannot take it anymore’. In such circumstances, you need to tread your path very carefully.

Never lose your temper in front of anyone. Talk regarding only facts and figures. Get your emotions out of your way.

If you have a spat with your colleague or a subordinate or a person from a different team, jot down your points on a piece of paper and put these points politely in front of him/ her.

Try to get one more person with you in that meeting (especially your boss).

Now, here is the key – Stay polite and calm when you speak. It will irritate the other person even more. Then, it’s a cake walk.

No matter how much right a person is, if he/she loses his/her temper, everything will go against him/ her.

Therefore, stay polite and composed, and everything will fall in your stride. People should say that that person shouted at you or lost temper on you, not the other way around.

Why We Need New Leadership for These Turbulent Times?

Use ‘Thank you’ more often and ‘Sorry’ less often

If someone does something for you which he/ she was supposed to do such as creating a report, sending an email to a client, etc., say thanks to him/ her.

That person will admire it and more importantly, will remember you as someone who values him/her. At the same time, don’t say ‘Sorry’ very often.

Remarkable business experiences … there is no meritocracy

Shakespeare once said, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.” – and there was never a truer word.

Being very hard working or being very good/knowledgeable at your job is useful but only that.

What will matter more in the corporate world is where you are seen, what you are saying, and your ability to manipulate other people into doing what you want them to do.

The entire thing is ultimately one long psychological game. This was one of the very hardest lessons I’ve personally had to learn.

Create an environment of continuous learning

It is necessary that business people be good learners. They need to instill this in all their team. They must learn from their mistakes.

To be most successful, managers must acknowledge, understand, and improve on their shortcomings.

And they must encourage their team to also focus on continuous learning.

**Remarkable business experiences … b*e a multiplier***

Multiplier business managers know that at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is NOT the lone genius.

Rather, it is the genius who knows the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities of everyone in the team.

Related material: Lessons Learned in Life … Class Continues Daily

Build connections

Both managers and leaders know their job with their teams is about building lots of connections. They make people feel they have a stake in common problems.

**Remarkable business experiences … e*ncourage feedback***

It is vital that you let your team know you are interested and will listen to their concerns and ideas and contribute to solutions to any problems.

Offer recognition and always share success

Focus on building team confidence by publicly recognizing their efforts and achievements.

Think of it this way; anything is possible if you share the glory. Giving others a chance to claim credit is an easy, and effective, way to magnify results.

**Remarkable business experiences … b*e decisive***

One of the key jobs of a manager is to be an effective decision maker. Employees are never comfortable with managers who make slow decisions, and they frequently change their minds.

Quality managers make decisions quickly and stick with them.

Building and maintaining trust

Always do what you say and set good examples. Demand from yourself the same level of professionalism and dedication that you expect from others.

Trust, once broken, is seldom restored to its original state. It is the most fragile yet essential attribute of leadership and management.

Remarkable business experiences … know the expectations

It’s so easy to launch yourself into a project, to get straight to business when working with a new boss, and think that we’re productive.

Taking the time to clarify expectations upfront, however – whether that be regarding the work itself, i.e., which projects are the most important.

What’s the scope, and so on; or regarding the working relationship, i.e., how you can work most effectively together – can avoid a whole lot of time wasting.

How to take real ownership of a project

At school, we had parents and teachers telling us to do our homework – at work, not so much (especially when we’re freelancers or business owners)!

Of course, we have our managers and clients, and if we don’t deliver our projects we’re going to hear about it; but what we’re not going to have is someone leading us by the hand and telling us exactly what to do.

We’re responsible for getting the job done in the time that we have and in whatever way we deem appropriate.

Even then, though, there are different levels of project delivery, and taking real ownership means going beyond just the bare minimum.

Remarkable business experiences … be responsible for your development

At IBM, we changed assignment every two years, giving us an opportunity to gain experience in different aspects of our function (in my case, what we called marketing “design” and “delivery”) as well as different business units.

In doing so, I looked for something that would challenge me and let me learn new things while exposing me to different people and giving me broader experience that would stand me in good stead for future roles.

Focus on strengths, not weaknesses

Training and development are great, but while it’s admirable to try to get good at everything this is not possible, and both you and the business will be better served if you learn to focus on your areas of strength.

Of course, when we first start in a company or a role, there will be certain things we need to learn to do – project management, time management, and so on – but beyond that, there will always be some freedom to discover what we’re good at and use that to our advantage.

IBM did this well: in our annual rating sessions we were asked to highlight our three biggest strengths and only one weakness, and even then we didn’t call it a weakness but an “opportunity.”

So you’re good at public speaking and delivering training workshops? Maybe you’re a number-crunching guru and a superstar at drawing up possible scenarios?

Or what about creative brainstorming, getting the team excited behind a common vision, or mentoring interns?

Find opportunities to use your strengths, and you will shine.

Remarkable business experiences … prioritize business communications

I was amazing at writing at school, in fact, I was so good that my English teacher would make copies of my essays and hand them out to the rest of the class.

On top of that, an international environment where most people were not native speakers meant that simple and unambiguous communication was crucial.

Effective business writing had a specific objective, used clear and concise language, active tense rather than passive; it wasn’t about sounding clever or being poetic.

Learning to write an effective business document – a recommendation, a report, or just an email for that matter – will allow you to get your message across quickly and effectively, to influence people with a more persuasive argument, and to impress people with your convincing business results.

The ability to distill complicated matters into a clear and well-thought-out message is a useful skill in all areas of life, above and beyond the corporate world.

Digital Spark Marketing’s Firestorm Blog

Need some help in finding ways to *grow your customers**? Such as creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers? Or perhaps finding ways to work with other businesses?*

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So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of collaborative innovation. And put it to good use in adapting to changes in your business environment.

It’s up to you to keep improving your learning and experience with innovation and creativity efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

Check out these additional articles on business and its performance from our library:

Retail Design …11 Ways Businesses Are Responding to the Future

7 Surprising Things to Know About the Zillow Business Model

10 Lessons for Successful Entrepreneurs You Need to Know

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

The list of lessons is based on real world experiences as well as managers and leaders I studied (including many bosses). For example, Dwight Eisenhower was only one of many I studied over those many years.

Being such a business manager is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning and renewing lessons you have learned. Every great manager always looks for ways to improve their ability to improve their leadership qualities and attributes.

Related: 10 Entrepreneur Lessons You Need to Know

If you read ten books on business management, you could easily build a checklist of 50 or more management lessons for future business managers. But more is not necessarily better for the best lessons to study and apply.

The following lessons represent my favorite lessons on business management I have learned over my 40 years. They are the ones that have made the biggest impact on my success:

Corporate culture … people first

Competency

Whatever you do, be competent in your current job. It’s the only true currency you have. That being said, no amount of competence will protect you when the next re-organization comes.

Corporate culture examples … relationships

Be a multiplier

Multiplier business managers know that at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is NOT the lone genius. Rather, it is the genius who knows the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone in the team.

Corporate politics

Establish clear direction

Getting people on board, aligned and pointed in the right direction is vital for an organization. If each person is going in a different direction, it can be chaos in an organization.

Keeping people coordinated and aimed is a continual process. You’re the luckiest leader in the world if this happens by default. Two ways to ensure people are coordinated and aimed is setting milestones and having multiple coaches and promoters for your employees.

Do what you can to make sure people enjoy what they’re doing. If people aren’t passionate about the business and love what they’re doing, they are more likely to be going in a different direction and susceptible to becoming disengaged. Certainly not a good thing.

Types of corporate culture … build connections

Both managers and leaders know their job with their teams is about building lots of connections. They make people feel they have a stake in common problems.

Pay attention to culture

Build and maintain trust

Trust is a key element we all need to set aside vulnerability, but it is hard to build, and easy to lose. It is not built on words, but through actions and evidence. Only when it works can a team address the necessary issues to win.

Corporate experience meaning … conflict and consensus

Conflicts and fights are not the same thing. Conflicts are normal and required factual push backs in business, whereas fights are emotional, often personal, disagreements which do not lead forward to consensus.

Embrace change

Change is the only constant in business, so make it your competitive advantage. Initiate change rather than react to it, and give clear instructions to help the team understand why the change is necessary, and how it will make the situation better.

Establish a level of structure and control

The challenge of structure and control is to strike the right balance. With none, things fall into chaos, but too much can have the effect of stifling innovation and creativity.

Make decisions

In general, any decision is better than no decision. Usually, a blended approach is the best, between independent decisions, and collaborative decisions factoring in the best team input. Picking the best team members is a right starting decision.

Foster continuous communication

Communication is the glue that forms the bond between leaders and teams and holds great teams together. Credibility is a required base.

Corporate experience … provide recognition

Recognition drives motivation and human behavior, and human behavior drive results. Recognition validates people and their purpose. Intangible rewards can have an even greater impact than tangible ones, but they must be relevant.

Create learning experiences

We all have a desire to learn and grow. The best learning opportunities are experience and sharing.

Make your boss look good

Understand what your boss regards as a priority, and help him or she accomplishes it. Make sure that you document what you’ve done. Your boss needs the accomplishment, but shouldn’t get the credit for the work you’ve done.

Train your replacement. You won’t be able to get a promotion if there’s no one else to take your job.

Corporate environment … foster teamwork

You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.

So the next time you interview someone with a resume that states, ‘I accomplished x’ or ‘I did x’, it should send up a few warning signals.

Staff development

Many companies follow the motto: “Hire for the character, train for skill.” You hire people that are eager to learn. They don’t have a ton of skills; but as a leader, you teach them, and they become better. They grow with your company and contribute to its success.

You see this with football coaches. In football coaching, it’s almost unheard of for someone with no experience to be hired as the head coach of a team. Most people start in a low-level position and gradually move up.

The same occurs in business. George Bodenheimer is the former president of ESPN. He started out working in the mailroom of ESPN. It would have been very difficult for him to rise to the presidency if he hadn’t had a boss who wanted to help him grow and succeed in the company.

Everything communicates

How you dress, how you stand, how you speak, etc. If you want to succeed in a corporate environment, you have to communicate that you are the kind of employee that represents the corporate success story.

Do not rest on past successes

There is nothing more dangerous to life’s success than a last great result, is there? We are ‘only as good as our next result’. Stay paranoid.

Make yourself a project

Continue to add to your connections and be a continuous learner

Woody Allen said: “85% of the secret of success is just turning up.” Turn up to events. Make that phone call. Read that book. Do that training? Have the courage to ask that question. Make the effort. Stay connected to what’s happening around you.

Be a priority ‘ninja.’

Getting more of the important things done every day. Be obsessed with getting priorities rights, on what’s really important, every day, and make sure you spend the majority of your day on these priorities.

Embrace change

Darwin said it was not the strongest of the species that survived, but the ablest to adapt to change. There will be more change in the next five years than we’ve seen in the past 50. Get excited by change. Be part of the most movements that you can. Help shake things up.

Be decisive

One of the key jobs of a manager is to be an effective decision maker. Employees are never comfortable with managers who make slow decisions and the frequently change their minds. Quality managers make decisions quickly and stick with them.

Provide sound guidance

Be available for your staff members and show interest in their career development within the business. Don’t hesitate to offer guidance along the way.

Building and maintaining trust

Always do what you say and set good examples. Demand from yourself the same level of professionalism and dedication that you expect from others. Trust, once broken, is seldom restored to its original state. It is the most fragile yet essential attribute of leadership and management.

Present the big picture

Consistently show the team how their projects fit into the larger goals and objectives of the business. You can never be too detailed on communicating the big picture.

Be patient but persistent

Delivering strong managerial skills takes time and practice. Seek guidance from mentors, colleagues, your boss, and your network.

Deliver confidence

Having and being able to deliver confidence counts. Most managers are self-confident. The real skill and ability are to extend faith to others. You must be good at recognizing and believing in the talents of others.

Accept learning is never done

You have worked hard to get to this point. Rely on your experience but accept there is still much to learn. Learn from everywhere you can, including your team.

What a business represents

For all of the reputation that corporations are soul-sucking, back stabbing, political jungles where you can only rise by stepping on the heads of others, they also provide employment, benefits and a bit of security that support millions of people and their families worldwide.

Related post: Competitive Growth Strategy … the Story of In-N-Out Burger

They are not democracies, not charities, and not therapy centers. They exist to make money, and they hired you to help them make money. That’s the deal.

Keep that in mind every day, keep your emotions in check, do your job, and if you find you don’t like working there anymore, don’t complain – just keep it professional, and move on.

The bottom line

The moral of this story is that the best leadership lessons should have a great influence on team development and teamwork. If these different thoughts are possessed by your current management or leadership team, or your emerging leaders, you will be in a good position for the road ahead.

Which of these management lessons stand out to you like the most critical? Do you have any other thoughts of effective managers worthy of mention? Leave a comment and share your insights with other readers and us. We would be most interested in your thoughts.

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