I want to extend many thanks to Mike Michalowicz and Scott Bradley for including me in such a well respected group of women entrepreneurs in their TPE post today:  Women Entrepreneurs:  The Next Wave of Leaders.  I encourage you to check out the post and the biographies of the women posted…as I said…indeed an honor to be included in this group.

Mike Michalowicz has a great post today on The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur blog:  163 Ways How to Become an Entrepreneur.

This is a great list…and I will add one more:

Develop and strengthen your leadership skills.

As an entrepreneur, you are going to be faced with hundreds of opportunities and challenges to get people to go with you in the direction of your vision, which will require you in one way or another to be a great leader.  People will be much more likely to follow you if you are role model, persuasive and if you live in integrity.  And…as an entrepreneur, you will quickly see from Mike’s list that flying solo is not the approach.  You have to be willing to network and collaborate with others, which again…can be tricky if you are not honing your leadership skills.

So, check out the list today…and work on your leadership skills.  Mike suggests working with a coach…I could not agree more!

I am a news junkie…I admit it.

But I have found myself recently not turning on the news…or should I call it the “olds?”  The same old, same old stuff.  Madoff takes off with billions of dollars, AIG is begging for million dollar bonuses, and Anna Nicole Smith’s boyfriend and doctor are in trouble for prescribing medications for her to the point of stupification.

As an executive coach, I am always looking for the bigger message.  From where I sit, the problem is not with the actions (although they are staggering)…the problem is with our DNA.  As Americans, we have this code being woven into our DNA that reads:

1) Do anything to get ahead

2) To be successful, you must be rich!

3) Go to extreme measures to either be a celebrity or be around a celebrity

4) Bend the rules…just this one time, becuase you deserve it

5) So what if I get a $1 million bonus while the economy is falling apart…you HAVE to have me, so PAY ME!

You see, the issue is that we don’t have integrity sewn deeply into our DNA.  Even our government is having problems with integrity, and it is like a twisted maze to see how to get out of this.

We are going to have to start practicing some behaviors and holding people accountable to:

1) Telling the truth

2) Following the rules

3) Being transparent

4)  Disclosing information to our customers and constituents

5) Doing the right thing when no one is looking

6) Enforcing consequences when the above 5 are broken

Sounds simple, but this is so difficult to follow.  Somewhere along the way, we went down a path as a nation that was built on greed, sex appeal, power and manipulation.  And, the more we have of these things, the more we crave them.

Today, as you are reading this post, I encourage you to take one step…a step in the direction of walking closer to the line, telling the truth and disclosing more of what you need to.  If each person in our world just took one step to get back to some strong core values of integrity and doing the right thing, our world would be a much better place.

I think it is an understatement to say that we are living in uncertain times.  Each time I turn on the news, there is more bad news about our economy and turmoil abroad.

So, as a leader, what do you do during these times to keep people inspired and moving in the direction of profitability and sustainability?  These 5 strategies will help to get you started.

1) Challenge your historical models. If you are leading or managing your business using leadership models or measurement tactics used in the past, you are probably missing a huge part of the bigger picture.  Uncertain times show us that we are moving into a new economy/new world.  New times call for new leadership models and new ways of measuring results.

One Step: Get brushed up on how to lead a virtual team.  With virtual teams, you have to assume that the way you lead in a traditional work environment just won’t work.  You must be willing to mega communicate, form allies across borders and learn how to get people who work independently to work as a unified team.

(more…)

In the March issue of Harvard Business Review, Philip Lay, Todd Hewline and Geoffrey Moore make a strong case for using provocation-based selling during a down economy as a way to get your customers to see clearly how YOU can help them solve a critical issue. It’s the “You may not think you need me, but let me tell you why you MUST have me right now!”

So, today in this blog post, I am going to identify the BIG problem I see with many of my current clients and my provocative point of view.

Big Problem: A large number of decision makers are cutting out coaching and training right now, because it appears to be a luxury expense in their budget.

Big Risk: Without coaching and training, your existing employees (those few you have left) are probably not growing and becoming stronger. Right now, with the economy as it is, you want to have the best and brightest people on your staff who can help your company make more money, save more money and be more productive (saving time WILL save you money!)

Big View: Executive Coaching is not a luxury! It is a requirement for your competitive advantage in the marketplace.  Without Executive Coaching, your team stands the risk of falling apart over the next year.

How I Can Help You Get Stronger and NOT Fall Apart: With the type of Executive Coaching I offer, I can help your team become the strongest team in your industry by teaching them how to:

1. Build  intellectual horsepower
2. Increase their ability to think strategically
3. Garner new clients
4. Use Web 2.0 tools (which are free) to “listen” to what your competition and the world are talking about
5. Diagnose their biggest shortcomings and teach them how to turn these into strengths for your company

If you are serious about staying ahead during this down economy, you need me!  Send me an e-mail to beafields@beafields.com, and I will show you how I can help you get stronger while your competitors are losing market share and quite frankly falling apart.