Up Market

---

• 6 Traits of a Leader
• 5 Marketing Myths Messing Up Your Business Success
• CityMaps Turns Cities Into Logos
• In the Presence of Greatness

6 Traits of a Leader Posted: 29 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PDT Popular opinion tells us that there is one key to leadership: and that's yelling.  If there's a second key to leadership, it's being a jerk. But is this really the case?  Do you need to rant and rave like Donald Trump or have blood vessels bulging from your neck like Bob Knight? Fortunately the truth turns out to be a bit different than reality television would have us believe.  Leadership isn't about being famous.  It isn't about yelling or being a jerk (in fact yelling harms creativity).  It's about creating change, spurring innovation, or managing consistency.  It's about making sure you get the job done.  So how do you do that? Research has shown that great leaders have 6 traits. Decisiveness: Leaders must make decisions.  A lot of them.  Once you do, do you stick with your choice?  Or do you change your opinions periodically?  Or worse, frequently?  The more decisive a leader, the better they are. Competence:  If you aren't any good, then don't expect to be a leader.  Great leaders don't mess up a lot. Integrity:  How do you treat others?  Do you act with ethics?  While sometimes we get the impression "leaders" all cheat on their spouses, swindle investors, or are otherwise unscrupulous, the truth is great leaders act with integrity. Vision:  The ability to see future possibilities and create a path for getting there. Modesty:  We almost always think of leaders as arrogant and having "look at me" personalities.  But in reality, great leaders are modest.  They're quick to acknowledge the work of others and their own shortcomings.  It's no wonder that Jim Collins made this (and persistence) central themes in his book, Good to Great. Persistent:  This shouldn't come as a surprise, but great leaders are able to stick through the hard times.  It turns out persistence is often what separates leaders from non-leaders.  As an added bonus, researchers have found that if you're having trouble sticking with it, try tensing your body.  Even after 5 minutes people have reported more "will power". This isn't some esoteric list of skills that you must travel to the furthest reaches of the Himalayas to master.  They are also not skills you must go to Harvard to grasp.  These are all basic, human qualities, that all of us have the capacity to learn. In other words, if you want to become a leader, you can. While leadership is more complex than just these 6 traits, it's often not as complex as we make it out to be.  In fact, these 6 characteristics show up time and again in research. Don't let someone tell you that you "can't" be a leader.  Don't believe the lie that leaders are born.  They're not.  Leadership is learned, and it's worked for.  Leadership may come easier to some.  But you can still be a leader, as long as you're willing to do these 6 things.  The question is, are you up to the challenge? Photo Credit: twenty questions

5 Marketing Myths Messing Up Your Business Success Posted: 29 Mar 2012 03:00 AM PDT Ironically, the key to success in business is actually doing the hard work needed to make most of these marketing myths the reality, rather than an illusion.

CityMaps Turns Cities Into Logos Posted: 28 Mar 2012 02:00 PM PDT We've all been there: You're in a new city, and all you want is a cup of coffee. To the left looks pretty deserted, and to the right is the expressway. So where do you go? CityMaps solves this age-old quandary for you, using brand logos to create detailed maps of our favorite cities. "Just a glance at the map and you can get a feel for all the small, medium, and big businesses in your city without ever needing to make a specific search query," Elliot Cohen, one of the two founders of CityMaps, told Fast Co.Design. "Visual search also helps people remember those hidden gems they might have walked by in the past, but don't remember the name of." Over the past two years, the maps' founders have detailed San Francisco, Austin, and New York City, creating street-level representations reminiscent of the city in Logorama, the 2009 Oscar winner for animated short. Click on a store, and its address and phone number pop up. For movie theaters, you get show times and for parking garages, rates. The maps also feature tiny flashing circles to indicate that a particular store either has a Twitter account or is offering a discount. "We want to amplify that messaging," Cohen told The New York Times. "You don't sit down and follow 30 bars on Twitter." Best of all, the maps incorporate FourSquare reviews from previous customers–the good and the bad. When I clicked randomly on China Fun in lower Manhattan, a tip from FourSquare user Mike popped up: "The veggie dumplings are their best." According to Cohen, the New York map includes every street-level store in Manhattan—all 34,000+ of them. Time for some educated exploration. Photo Credit: iTunes

In the Presence of Greatness Posted: 28 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT Some of the most enjoyable performances I've had the opportunity to experience have been Springsteen concerts.  The Boss.  I've been one of the thousands of people standing in sold-out stadiums before the show started, waiting eagerly for the music – and the magic – to begin. And Springsteen really does create magic.  In a matter of minutes, he effortlessly transforms the entire building and everyone in it into a portal that vibrates with possibility, energy, and spirit.  Throughout the rest of the evening, he takes his audience right into the music with him so that everyone becomes a part of it.  I have never left a Springsteen concert feeling anything less than incredibly inspired and renewed – as though some part of me I didn't even know I had awakened while I was there and begged to be released into the world. The last time I saw Bruce in concert I was musing over the fact that he, like all of us, has at one time or another most likely ordered a hamburger at a fast food restaurant or stood in line at the grocery store.  And I reveled over what it would be like to be standing there behind him – perhaps before he recognized his own inner genius and believed in it enough to write and record the music that would inspire others to give life to their own. Would I know that I was standing in the presence of greatness?  Could I somehow feel it?  Or would I move through the rest of my day unaware of how close I'd come to magic? And then I began to wonder about the people I actually do stand in line behind in the grocery store these days.  Who's to say that one of them isn't destined to touch the lives and transform the world with their own unique talents and passions? In December of 2007, the Washington Post persuaded Joshua Bell, one of the finest classical musicians in the world to be part of a social experiment.  On a cold January morning, this internationally acclaimed virtuoso stood leaning against a wall next to a trash can in a Washington DC metro station with a baseball hat on his head playing some of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth over $3 million dollars. He played for a total of forty five minutes, during which a total of 1,097 people passed by this musician who only two days prior played a sold out theater in Boston's Symphony Hall where the average ticket price was $100.  Only seven people stopped and stayed – most of them only for a minute or two.  Twenty seven gave money, mostly change, for a total of $32 and some cents.  Each of his pieces ended with no applause, no acknowledgement of his performance – or even his existence. If people could be in the presence of someone like Joshua Bell while he was performing without stopping to appreciate and savor it for even a moment, perhaps it is also feasible that we are in the presence of greatness every day in some way – without even knowing.  It could be in the person who serves you your morning coffee, the guy in the cubicle next to you, one of your own children.  Maybe it could even be the person who stares back at you in the mirror. Photo Credit: Cifo aka Big Cif

You are subscribed to email updates from Upmarket To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610