A topic that has been of interest to me for some time now is the idea of Leadership in as much as it relates to running a National “people based” organisation.  I am sure that like me, most people in business will have read any number of books on the subject of leadership, after all the key to the principle of ‘leverage’ is about getting the best out of one’s team. 

The book shelves are full of books offering advice along the lines of “What Great Leaders Do” however to me they all fall short of what true leadership is really about.  How do you really get the best out of your team?  Do great leaders have their finger on the pulse of everything that goes on - should everything be systemised in the fashion of Michael Gerber or is it ok to have a more free flowing management style. Many of the books I have read seem to have their feet firmly planted in the basis of fear based - hierarchical leadership.  How to make sure your “team” is doing what you want them to do - How to stay in control! 

As part of an international franchise operation - I am told every year at our annual conference that “It is better to ask permission than to beg forgiveness” - however in his recent book “Tribes” - Seth Godin tells us that in fact the opposite is true.  In “Family ,Village, Tribe - The Story of Flight Centre” we hear of a different approach to leadership - one where each office is given a degree of autonomy and a sense of ownership.  Rather than seeking to try to get people to fit into the ever changing mould of an international company - individuals are set up to succeed by allowing them to work in the  way that they want to work - based on an anthropological model of small family like teams. 

It seems to me that so long as the boundaries and expectations are clearly defined - that it is ok to step back and allow one’s “team” to run things without the feeling that they are constantly being “managed”.  The only way to optimise your organisation and to encourage the free flowing of creative ideas is if they have a sense of pride and ownership in the organisation.  Leadership of this kind requires a degree of faith in human nature. It has been referred to as Servant Based Leadership and is more about cooperation and sharing than seeking to control people.  Rather than seeking to micromanage the teams - the style is “What can I do to help you to succeed?”.   A friend of mine had a great opportunity to see this style of leadership in action recently.  She was invited to attend an event at Necker Island - hosted by Sir Richard Branson.  One of the things that particularly impressed her on this retreat was the way that he waited on his guests.  Rather than adopting the role of the head of a huge organisation - surrounded by servants, Sir Richard instead adopted a humbling position - waiting attentively on the guests.  It seems to me that there is a lot to be said for this approach  - both to business and to life. 

About Graham Southwell:

Graham Southwell is the National Director of BNI New Zealand - the world’s leading Business Referral Organisation.  Graham is passionate about Business Networking and launched BNI in New Zealand at the beginning of 1999 - there are now over 2,200 members in over 100 chapters. BNI NZ has twice been recognised for its achievements in the Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards winning the One on Many category and in 2007 also received a Business Excellence Award in the Waitakere Business Awards.

Website: www.bni.co.nz
Blog site: www.bniblog.co.nz

I remember running a leadership workshop on values. I wrote on the whiteboard: -

“If I tell you something I am aware of I am telling you the truth.
If I tell you something contrary to my awareness I am lying.
If I don’t tell you something I am aware of I am withholding.”
Will Schutz

 A man said “Yes but you can’t tell the truth to everyone all the time can you?” A woman said, “I heard somewhere that we have to lie several times a day to prevent being alienated socially.”

We explored how leaders must hold the truth as a precious commodity. Yet every leader in that group admitted bending the truth or withholding information regularly. Amazingly, every leader also expected 100 percent truthfulness from their reports, even if that truth was not what the report thought the leader wanted to hear.

I was struck by the hypocrisy and asked, “What are you modelling that those around you are emulating?” Silence filled the room. One of the most powerful effects of leadership is to set up conscious and unconscious behaviour copying.

During our dialogue, it became clear that leaders can’t function without honest communication. Yet, they all lied and withheld information regularly. Historian Arnold Toynbee claimed that despite technical development our moral and spiritual capabilities have undergone a wilful sterilization.

I probed further. Some of the motivation for not telling the truth was that leaders didn’t want attract disapproval or to be thought of as reactionary or negative. This sounds convincing doesn’t it? Or is it a veneer of excuses to hide a failure of leadership?

One woman said sometimes she was fearful of truth telling and didn’t know how to manage the fear. Another said that truth telling sometimes took too long! She was asked how long it took to rebuild her reputation and had no answer.

Personally, I think that these reasons are not good enough. Roshi Susan Murphy sums it up: 

“[As our awareness grows]…it becomes more difficult to fudge things. Even to tell a non-harming but self-protective white lie just feels less acceptable, even when you assure yourself it is purely to protect the feelings of the other. When you really look closely, any lie offers some measure of injustice to the other and is a breach in connectedness; and a withdrawal of trust, for you are unilaterally deciding that the other is not wholly to be trusted with what you know is really so. A lie of any colour sidesteps the present moment and what is actually happening by substituting a greater or smaller contrivance of reality that we secretly hope will ease our way, or help us get what we want. Could what is true to experience, presented in the way of least harm, actually be simpler, more interesting, and eminently worth risking?”

The outcome of the workshop was shocking. All committed to seeking the truth, making the conditions right for others to tell the truth to them safely, and speaking the truth in ways that cause least harm. They agreed to pursue integrity above and beyond all other qualities. 

Why is this shocking? Because if we all did likewise we would be radically different people and better leaders! 

© 2008 Tim Roberts

About Tim Roberts:

I am here to gently stretch you and your teams and to invite you to safely step into those tough conversations that make the difference between good leadership and transformative leadership. If you want to be the best you can be self-awareness is not optional. Contact Tim at: Tim@TimRobertsLtd.co.nz

There is so much rhetoric in leadership but occasionally we get to see what great leadership looks like. Like many, I am touched by the historical event of the selection of United States of America’s first African American President. I feel there are so many salient points here as to what good leadership is that it is worth reinforcing.

1) Great leadership embodies a spirited vision, which transcends current circumstances and is able to instill a legacy of hope, be a guiding light and give its followers something to aspire towards. Think of Dr. Martin Luther King’s heartfelt speech, “I have a dream….” A dream, which many, many years later has now come to be realized.

2) Great leadership is able to inspire and motivate. It’s able to touch the hearts, minds and spirit of everyday people. The Obama campaign began at the grassroots level with little funds but his followers willingly dug into their pockets, got the ball rolling and did what they could. People were so inspired; they also turned out in record numbers to vote. In our organizational context, think employee engagement and the discretionary effort that is waiting to be tapped.

3) Great leadership holds a promise. This is a promise that the followers resonate with. In the American presidential campaign, there was the promise for America…the promise of change. This is a promise that people felt in their “being.” It seems that the overriding consciousness was one of “we can’t carry on in the world as we have been. Things have to be different.” Leadership promise is more than rhetoric. It’s real and people “get it.”

4) Great leadership is based on solid values. The values of progress, (different from the past) and unity not just within America but the possibility of engaging in dialogue so the world can come closer again, came across powerfully and engaged even the disengaged! Great leadership unites people to a common goal and is based on values which embrace and contribute to others. It’s more than “just about me.”

5) In defeat, great leadership is gracious. As was John McCain in his speech. We get judged not just when we are riding the wave of success but also how we deal with challenges and defeat.

And finally, leadership is a constant work in progress. How you get there can be just as important as achieving those results.

About Jasbindar Singh:

Jasbindar Singh is a business psychologist, executive coach, author and speaker.  Her expertise is in the areas of leadership development, career and life fulfillment and harnessing EQ and SQ for higher performance and employee engagement.  She is the author of No Body’s Perfect and Get Your Groove Back. To have her speak on this or related topics at your conference you can also contact her at www.sqconsulting.co.nz. You can also subscribe to her free six-weekly SQ-zine at http://www.SQconsulting.co.nz/form.php.

Guest Author: Ann Andrews CSP

The career challenges of the 21^st Century….

My grandfather was a stonemason, trained in the days when building with stone was a craft which took many years to learn, yet enabled him and his peers to build houses and churches which would stand for centuries. He learned his skills on the job and was taught by master craftsmen.

In the later stages of his career, houses became mass-produced and stone went out of favour as being too expensive and too slow, and my grandfather and his wonderful skills became virtually obsolete. He found himself working out what was left of his career as a labourer on a building site under the supervision of engineers half his age, building what he considered, to be sub-standard houses. These were a new breed of ‘builder’ - young men with degrees who had learned their skills at university. A serious clash of codes.

My grandfather never swore and rarely lost his temper; however, one day in utter frustration at the way he was being treated, he was heard to mutter, ‘These folks with fancy degrees, they could find the square root of a banana and wouldn’t bloody know how to peel it!’

Sadly, what happened to my grandfather is happening with alarming regularity even to the people with degrees. I understand that when a medical student is in his/her fifth and final year of medical school, everything they learned in the first year, is obsolete.

So in this age of technology, unless we are all taking responsibility to stay at the leading edge of our particular craft or profession, then like my grandfather, we too, risk obsolescence.

The Industrial Age is dead.

In America right now, the entire manufacturing needs of that country are supplied by 10 percent of the working population; their entire food needs are supplied by two percent of the working population. The big questions is, ‘What are the other 88 percent of the working population of America doing?’ If I asked that question on a factory floor, the reply would be, unemployed!

The other 88 percent are actually very gainfully employed, either in the service or technology sectors. The brilliant news, is that in both those sectors, new jobs are coming on line daily. The tragic news is that, there aren’t enough people with the right skills and attitudes, to fill most of those positions. Nearly every company I come into contact with tells me the same story - we can’t find good people. 

The problem for the workplaces of the 21^st Century, is that most of the world’s thinking and skills are stuck in the Industrial Age; the ‘jobs for life’ type thinking; the expectation that ‘my company will look after me, re-train me, plan my career for me’. What I call Parent/Child thinking. There is light at the end of the career tunnel - but it does require a shift in these obsolete paradigms.

Everyone, top to bottom, must embrace a willingness to buy into life-long learning; often at the individual’s own expense - because if we are not seriously committed to our own career longevity, then why should our organisations be expected to give a damn?

It comes down to attitude - walking away from school or university with a ‘that’s it - school is out, I don’t have to do any more studying’ mentality; or worse, ‘someone (boss, government) will look after me’, will absolutely guarantee that we become obsolete.

So the first thing you could do for yourselves at the start of this New Year, is to limber up that brain of yours, and take up the challenge to learn something new. If you are a right-brained person consider taking a course in accounting or business strategy; if you are a left-brained person, try a few sessions of art or pottery. It doesn’t actually matter what you are learning, so long as you keep your brain working and growing, and by utilising the opposite side of your brain, you are doubling the capacity of your grey matter. And if you really want to challenge yourself, if you are a physical person, try meditating, if you are a sedentary person do something physical!

The other thing we can do for ourselves, if we are serious about our careers - is to start volunteering for ‘projects’. Be willing to stretch, to take on new challenges, to step out of comfort zones. Yes it’s scary; yes we will have to be prepared to make a few mistakes, but how else do we learn anything if not by trial and error?

I worked with one organisation where I suggested the ‘volunteer’ theory and one man told me that he never volunteered for anything; my suggestion was to give it a go. He told me several months later that he took me at my word; he volunteered for a project in another part of the country; he quietly confided that, not only had he learned many new skills, he was selected to be the team leader; thereby learning even more skills. He now volunteers for EVERYTHING.

The skills we require as we go forward into the Technology Age are decision-making; problem-solving; the ability to chair meetings; to communicate effectively in a multi-cultural, mixed gender work-place. The ability to resolve conflict and to work effectively in short term project groups. Above all else, today’s employees must develop an attitude which says ‘I am prepared to become a life-long learner, because at the end of the day I am 100 percent responsible for my career.’

About Anne Andrews:

Ann Andrews CSP is a team facilitator and the author of four books - Shift Your But, Finding the Square Root of a Banana, Did I Really Employ You? and My Dear Franchisees.

She is also a contributor to - You don’t Make a Big Leap Without a Gulp, The Power of More Than One and Mum’s the Word.

Ann is a professional speaker, consultant on human resource issues, and MD of The Corporate Tool-box - www.thecorporatetoolbox.com

Ann can be contacted at ann@thecorporatetoolbox.com

Not everyone wants to make their business worth millions but if you seriously like the idea of having a larger organisation tap you on your shoulder and give you millions of dollars to go away then please read on as I share the two keys that many of my clients have used to unlock the door to financial independence.

In 1995 I discovered that there are two things -and only two - that you need to need to do in order to make your business worth millions of dollars: you need to create a better strategy and you need better execution of that strategy.

Since 1995 I’ve shown literally hundreds of clients how to do these two things and many of them have gone on to sell their business for millions of dollars.

But please understand that without exception the clients who have gone on to sell for millions have followed the following 5 steps…

Step 1: Figure out a better strategy

Choose a small niche - either a product niche or regional niche or a target market niche - that is not specifically targeted by other organisations.

Step 2: Execute your strategy and become the market leader

This means that within that niche you make more sales than anyone else and you do that because you do a very good job of finding out the specific needs of your niche and targeting your branding, your packaging, your marketing and your product to the needs of that niche.

Step 3: Expand your niche

Once you have established yourself as the market leader then it’s time to get more sales by expanding geographically or expanding your product line or expanding your target market or expanding all three.

Step 4: Repeat

Grow your business in a secure and sustainable way by repeating this process over and over.

(Caution: do not expand until you are the market leader in a niche and you are very profitable! This is critical to your success. Expansion prior to profitability will send you broke! Stay in the niche until you profitably dominate it or walk away and find a new niche and start again.)

Step 5: Sell!

If you follow the above steps it’s a matter of time before you start to make a nuisance of yourself by eating into the market share of a larger organisation. That tends to get their attention.

You’ll then be approached to accept a lot of money and go and lie on a beach somewhere or take a two year world trip or go and help an aid organisation or spend more time with your family or whatever you wish because now you will have enough money for at least one lifetime.

Working hard and working long will never take the place of figuring out how to be in more demand than your competitors (better strategy) and then bringing that plan into life in the market place (better execution).

Follow the above steps if you are serious about growing your business into a wealth creating asset.

About Tom Poland:

Tom Poland is the founder and director of The 80-20 Circle which specialises in showing business owners how make their business worth millions.

At last count Tom had helped 1,476 clients across 56 industries and 4 continents to rapidly increase the value of their businesses. He has been published in 27 countries and now lives in the hinterland of the very sunny Sunshine Coast of Australia. His email address is tom@tompoland.com and you can visit www.8020Preview.com if you would like more information on how to make your business worth millions.

I entered into business late in my career path after a successful run in education…many ask and are surprised to find out there isn’t that much of a difference between helping a teenager to succeed in academia and helping a young start-up company drive their business onto the global arena.

They both take a lot of time, patience, commitment and a whole lot more money than you imagined when you started out!

After 10 years in business and starting from a not-for profit background as a fund manager, then founding Valentine Addis in 2000, I have learnt that companies seeking venture capital or private investment are often not looking for money in isolation.

When I first meet with a company the last document I ask for is their financial documents. There are far stronger signals than a good looking or disaster ridden end of year result that tells an experienced advisor if the company has growth potential or indeed is under performing.

The key issues are:

- Are you creating cash flow out of the business in its current form?

- Do you continually prop up the business financially, rather than make it pay for itself through income producing activity?

- How much time do you actually spend on your company’s core business?

- Who is responsible for your company’s growth? (If you are the owner director or the majority shareholder who is working in the business, then the answer is simple - YOU!)

I find a very easy way to take the ‘temperature’ of a company i.e. see how healthy its heart beat is and if there is life in them thar bones. Simply carry out a simple self assessment that you and your key reports can complete to see what the current state of the nation is.

1.  Rate yourself out of ten for personal leadership
2.  Rate yourself out of ten for relationship to the business

If you asked all your key reports to do this and you got over five for leadership but under five for relationship and your sales figures or company performance is not what you wish it to be, then you need to address these issues.

Of course there are far more comprehensive ways to test this kind of relationship to the organisation but leadership and emotional attachment for a start-up company or a company under five  years old going into high growth is a critical life sign for the owner and it will also tell you how long your crew will be with you over the next five years.

What has this got to do with raising funds?

Often people will come to a company like mine and say “$500,000 NZD will sort everything out.” That tells me and most venture capital advisors that $50,000 will sort out the key issues today… but if the company got $500,000 they wouldn’t necessarily make $5 million in five years -  which is what an investor would expect a reasonable amount of capital to produce.

You attract who you are in both life and business… take a moment to get hold of that… so we need to set our companies up to attract an intelligent investor.

After over eight years of raising capital, I stopped wanting to plug a problem with capital. I’ve learnt that getting a strong strategy going for a company and giving strong foundations to the business allows the company to self fund its most urgent needs. Then attract an investor that has either some specific acumen in the same industry, or the ability to add value in an advisory capacity as a successful entrepreneur or innovator with a strong track record.

As a company owner you need a partnership model with any investor if you are a start-up or company under five years old. Someone that will join with you to help you be the best you can be with a strong strategic outlook and an appreciation of the value you have already created. That’s what creates the win/win between investors and companies over the long haul.

About Yvonne McLaren:

Yvonne is Director of Valentine Addis. Yvonne has spent seven years building a strong venture catalyst company and has now begun the process of moving to the UK to begin Venture Co Partnership in London.

Her main talents lie in deal procurement, business modelling and sourcing high networth and seasoned investors.

Her key focus in the venture capital market has been to promote New Zealand high networth and seasoned investors taking equity positions in New Zealand’s fast growing start-up market.

She has been a member of New Zealand Venture Capital association for five years and has recently been accepted to Oxford University, Saiid Business School to complete her executive MBA.

Her previous roles have included Educator, Not for Profit Fundraiser, Fund Manager, Company owner and managing director.

Thinking is crucial in business to solve problems, develop new strategies, deal with customers and manage staff issues. It fuels creativity. It improves decision making. It creates value. So when do you think?

A recent US study asked senior executives where they are most effective in personal thinking.

• 58% say at home,
• 50% say commuting to work,
• 45% say at the office and
• 38% say during brainstorming sessions.

Would the results differ for New Zealand executives? I doubt it. It’s staggering to consider that so many executives believe their businesses are unsuitable places for thinking. If this reflects your reality, consider how you can harness your thinking when you actually do it. You won’t be sitting in front of a computer. Therefore, what tool can capture your thinking to create value for your organization?

Forget the electronic toys and invest in a quality note book and turn it into your ‘idea journal’.

Use the first two or three pages to answer this question: where do I need innovative thinking? Write down a version of this question in big letters on the first page to prompt you to pick the problems in need of solutions, the products waited to be created, the staff issues needing to be resolved, and so on. Think of this as your contents pages. Number each challenge.

The second stage is to take each challenge and write it across the top of a new page. If you start with four challenges, then use four separate pages.

Whether you are sitting at home or driving, pick one of your challenges and think about it. Don’t be worried if the big idea does not come right away. Start by asking…
• Why does this problem exist?
• What assumptions have we made about this situation? Are they still valid?
• Have we tried to solve this in the past? Why did the solution fail?
• Do we need a better solution or a totally different solution?

The goal is to capture your observations, insights and conclusions. Sometimes nothing comes to mind. Don’t fret as it takes time to develop ideas. The key is keep advancing toward a solution.

This final aspect is the hardest. It takes discipline to invest small amounts of time each day. Our productive time is too valuable to waste. I look for opportunities to steal time for my ideas when I am forced to waste it. Waiting for a doctor’s appointment or at the airport are perfect opportunities to invest 10 minutes of thinking into your challenges. I confess that I have used my idea journal during dull meetings. I focus one eye on my challenge while keeping the other on the meeting. People may think I am making meeting notes when I am actually developing my ideas.

The research does raise some interesting questions: why do we manage our business without building in time to think? Perhaps you can think about when you drive home tonight.

About Ed Bernacki:

Ed Bernacki is based in Ottawa and started his concept of the Idea Factory in 1996.

The Idea Factory is a management philosophy that stresses the development of ideas and innovation as the key to business growth.
- A system that instils an equal sense of urgency to create revenue opportunities and to solve business problems.
- A tool kit to improve brainstorming by focusing on reaching a particular “result”.
Ed believes that most “good” business ideas already exist in the heads of staff, suppliers or customers. However, few businesses use a system to leverage the knowledge that exists or to enhance it further. As a result, many ideas remain buried and often stifled.

Website: www.wowgreatidea.com
Email: info@wowgreatidea.com

Do you wake up in the morning thankful that you are still breathing?  Or does your mind immediately kick in with the day’s to-do list or wish-list?  Really, we have so much to be grateful for in life.  We live in a free and beautiful country with a lot of opportunity.  We all have people in our lives that we love and who love us.  On the world stage we are all extraordinary wealthy. 

When I need to be reminded of this, I think of my friend Radmila.  I met Radmila when we were both living in Melbourne.  She arrived in Australia as a refugee with her husband and two teenage kids.  They had fled Bosnia during the civil war and had been living in Serbia for 8 years in a refugee camp.  She described the place that they lived as an old hotel that had been resurrected to provide refugee accommodation.  The four of them lived in one room.  In Serbia they didn’t have the right to work so they survived selling black market goods.  It was a difficult life.  When she described it to me I found it difficult to comprehend such intolerable circumstances.  She said she considered herself lucky.  At least they were all together.  Her husband, Goran has been forced to fight in the war and they had been separated for a year not knowing if each other were alive.

We met in Melbourne when I signed up to be a volunteer mentor with a program assisting refugees to prepare for the workforce.  She had been in the country for 18 months at that point and spoke very little English.  When we first me she was petrified.  She came to my office on the 39^th floor of Commonwealth Bank building in central Melbourne.  She could not comprehend why I wanted to help her.  She told me she wanted to study accounting so I helped her enroll in a diploma course.  I’ve never seen anyone study so hard.  For the first 6 months she had to translate every word into her own language so she could understand. We met regularly and we soon became part of her family.  She always said to me ‘Hayley I am so happy.  I am so fortunate to have this life.  What does it matter that we have little money.  Who cares!  We have enough, a simply life is best.  If you are happy in your heart then you are happy in any situation.  Even in a refugee camp.  Sure life can be hard but that is normal.  Just be happy Hayley, it is simple’.  Before I left Melbourne Radmila achieved her diploma and I helped her get a job in the company I worked for.  She has now been there 2 ½ years, has been promoted twice and is studying again. 

I’m not sure who benefited more from our relationship, her or me!  I learned a lot about gratitude.  Whenever I find myself being precious about myself I think of her.  What are you grateful for in your life?  Take a minute to think about this.  Who are you grateful to?  Really feel how fortunate you are. 

When I take a moment to stop and think about what I feel grateful for my energy instantly shifts.  That is how I work with my coaching clients, helping them to shift their internal energy from one of raging tornado to a more calm and clear energy.  When we can do this we shift our experience of life without necessarily having to change anything on the outside.  If you need to tame your internal tornado, talk to me about Energy Coaching www.energycoach.co.nz 

About Hayley Nicholls:

When Hayley’s previous career in higher education with a job traveling internationally proved to be hollow and exhausting she was motivated to hire a coach to make some changes in her life. Hayley discovered fulfillment and happiness were possible if she was open to it and ready to learn. Her experience working with a coach was so powerful she decided to train as a professional coach herself and transition to a new life helping others to make similar discoveries about themselves.

Hayley went on to found Energy Coaching, a life coaching practice specialising in assisting women to get clear on what is meaningful and valuable to them in order to create the best possible experience in their life. Hayley’s work is based on empowering women to take control of their lives and do it with gusto. She is also an experienced leadership facilitator and public speaker.

As a woman in business you need to watch your ability to build ‘infrastructure’ in your life.

In the dictionary ‘infrastructure’ is described as the foundation to undertake action and good ‘infrastructures’ create time and flow in your life.

A good example of a bad infrastructure is a congested motorway system.

However what I noticed is that women are not good at building good infrastructures; so we lose out on having a life when we run our own business.

To illustrate what I mean I tell you a little story.

We all know that having a cleaner is bliss and I’d say it is a good infrastructure for busy women.
But for a long time something in me refused to give up the hard life I had created for myself with a business, a social life and providing for a clean house full of clean clothes.

Often after busy weeks my partner and I sit in bed on Sunday morning sipping coffee and then a voice, my voice, snarls; “Fine for you to slouch around in bed” followed by a big sigh.

The partner, knowing better, continues drinking his coffee, still hoping all will be well, until my voice snarls again: “If you stay in bed all day I can’t change and wash the sheets. We have to get up.”

The rest of those Sundays a bad witch takes over, who cleans and thinks it is all for everybody’s good.
And then one day the partner, sick of this performance suggests a cleaner.

That however hits a brick wall.

“Why do you think I am doing it all myself?”

Partner actually would like to know that, but doesn’t get the dialogue he would find useful.

”I can use the money better myself than giving it to a cleaner”.

This one is a classic and I am still cringing when I realize I honestly said this one. “What is there to clean for her, I do it all myself anyway. And I cannot let somebody else clean our toilet??!!”

So you can see that building an infrastructure to make life easier is not that simple with an attitude like that.
To have a life and a business it might be useful to think about your attitude that might prevent you building infrastructure.
1. Can you delegate?
2. Do you know how to build and use systems?
3. Do you make a task list and when it is done can you relax and stop?
4. Are you prepared to spend money on good business tools?
5. Can you give up being in control all the time?
6. Are you prepared to look at the jobs and roles you have taken on in your business and at home and can you let some go?

If this resonates, you might realize why your life is so busy! Your infrastructures need looking at.

About Wilma:

Wilma Ham has an e-learning company with innovative thought leading and very effective online courses and has a blog www.wilmasblog.com where she writes about how to build an amazing life.
The course teaches how to leverage your time, skills and money by building infrastructures which make your business, relationships and home life flow in a way you could not have imagined.
You will end up with great business systems, clear know how about setting up agreements with suppliers, customers and staff and with time for yourself, your relationship and family.
If this is hard to believe read her blog and visit the website.

Wilma has two grown up daughters and lives with her partner John Channings in Waipu, leveraging her life by having built amazing infrastructures herself.