This page is inspired by a book by Stephen Covey (Principled Centered Leadership) and a book by Richard Farson (Management of the Absurd)

"Experience is a dear teacher, and only fools will learn from no other."
- Benjamin Franklin

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison

The reputation of an organization as an institution of integrity, as a compassionate workplace, as fair and honest competitor is a direct reflection of its leadership. The leaders of the institution set the tone for the way the organization and the people who work for it do business. Admirable character traits and leadership qualities foster admirable institutions. The opposite is also true.

Leaders distinguish themselves because of their selflessness rather than self-centeredness. They value people (over system and procedures) and have a capacity for nurturing and contributing to the lives of others. Leaders rejoice in the accomplishments of others. The process of caring for others also contributes to self-growth.

Our Principles, Values and Management - Leadership

First Rule of Management: Personal Integrity develops Strength of Character

Observing people at work and my own experiences have shown me that most of the times "the way we think" shapes "the way we see". If that's true, most of us usually see things a lot differently than most others based on our own different experiences and values.

We all would naturally like to value ourselves and to adhere to the highest purposes and principles that are the essence of highest humanity and foundation of good morality.

That people have a need to belong and be accepted, to join with others in common enterprises, to engage in win-win relationships, and to give and receive love. That people need to experience challenge, to grow and develop, and to be creative. That people have a need for purpose and meaning, to make a contribution, to have a work that is satisfying and motivating in the highest and deepest sense. That we all need to feel fairness, justice, and equity regarding our jobs and our lives.

Good Principles show you the way and bring vision and true directions.

When we align personal values with correct principles, we liberate ourselves from old paradigms. We become balanced, unified, organized, anchored, and rooted.

Changing the paradigm on Management theory

It is certainly true that many of our achievements are as the result of our rational and logical thinking. The limitation of this rational thinking has brought us to the idea of "Changing Paradigm". The idea of "Changing Paradigm" has served us well. It has taken us out of linear thinking. Most researchers agree that most significant breakthroughs are as the results of internal breaks with traditional ways of thinking.

To make this page short yet useful, here are the main points of my suggestions. The idea of all these bullet points is to create a noble personality, a balanced character, and a beautifully integrated individual.

You can also consider them a change of paradigm for management policies:

• It's always better to give up the techniques that the subordinates are not aware of.
• It is the ability to meet each management situation with openness that effects a genuine response from people.
• Be aware of the reciprocity rule: that if I have a low opinion of you, you will eventually develop a low opinion of me even though you think highly of me now.
• If you apply good principles aligned with good values, you will notice that the only way to treat people is how you want them to treat you.
• If you genuinely respect your people, those feelings will be communicated and they will be reciprocated.
• Effective managers are genuinely successful for their qualities such as passion, sensitivity, tenacity, patience, courage, firmness, enthusiasm, innovative ideas, credibility, and self respect.
• Make sure you understand the difference between problems and predicament.
• A problem can be solved, however, most managerial issues are predicament where there are no good solutions at hand.
• Predicament can only be coped with.
• Do not give up on your subordinates, people, yet understand that you have made a decision to hire and cope with your decision.
• A predicament is more likely to be created by one's own mistakes and most probably the conditions one highly values.
• Do not treat a predicament as a problem since you only make things worse.
• If you value communication, respect the aftermath.
• How many people do you know who were encouraged to go to their boss and clear the air, and soon to find out that they were fired afterward.
• Remember that communication is only effective when there is a balance of power.
• There is no balance of power between a manager and a subordinate.
• If you are an unlucky subordinate, forget about clearing the air if your boss is not ready.
• Organizations that believe all their troubles can be soon solved through increased communication may be in for a real surprise.
• If your people don't listen to you (as a manager) it might be for what they listen to is not what they need to hear.
• Praising people does not motivate them.
• Praise might be in fact be perceived as threatening.
• Praise might be perceived as a way of gaining status over people.
• When praise is demanded and given, it will no longer serve as praise.
• Use praise when it is constructive: once a junior assistance has a better solution to a problem than a Vice President has, a praise can work better if the position of VP is not threatened.
• Better to learn from our Own Failures than from Failures of Others; if your security is founded on the weakness of others, you actually empower those weaknesses to control you.
• And, be genuinely happy for the success and competencies of others.
• It's Good to know the 7 Habits of most effective people (a wonderful book by Stephen R. Covey), yet do your best to avoid the 7 Habits of most ineffective people (Read his book on Principled Center Leadership) :
  
  
  • (1) Be Reactive: doubt yourself and blame others,
  • (2) Work without any clear end in mind,
  • (3) Do the urgent thing first,
  • (4) Think win/lose,
  • (5) Seek first to be understood rather than seeking first to understand others,
  • (6) If you can't win, make all or both lose,
  • (7) Fear change and postpone improvements
    
    
• Escape the pull of the past, change the paradigm, and achieve meaningful change for better.
• Don't force good ethics and good principles to take a backseat to profits or selfish personal goals.
• Don't fill any voids in your life with meaningless and plastics such as alcohol, drugs or sex.
• Don't manipulate anything, especially figures, at the end of the year to make things look good.
• Don't look for Band-Aid or Aspirin for real life or managerial problems; they don't exist or if they do, they are very temporary.
• Most habits of ineffectiveness are rooted in our social conditioning toward quick-fix, short term thinking; avoid these traps all together.
• Remember The Law of The Farm and The Law of the Harvest: You must prepare the ground, use a good soil, pick good seeds, water it properly (not too much, not too low), watch it grow, weed it, and most important use good fertilizer :) ; there is nothing quick about this law.
• Good principles will help you keep a good positive mental attitude all the time.
• Remember that The Law of The Harvest always Governs.
• It's good to know and remember that no one can escape Natural Laws, Principles, and Rules.
• Stop using manipulative strategies and tactics to get other people to do what you want.
• The key to quality products and services is a quality person.
• The key to creating a total quality organization is first to create a total quality person.
• If there is no trust, there is no foundation for success.
• Think how you can unleash the energy and talent of your people; there must be more than one way.
• Show integrity to basic principles.
• No one can escape true principles such as gravity; these principles are woven into the fabric of every civilized society.
• So what are these Principles? They are:
  
  
  • Fairness, without heavy handedness
  • Equity, without saying "We are all equal, but some of us are more equal"
  • Justice, without Razzle Dazzle
  • Integrity without back doors or loopholes
  • Honesty without white lies
    
    
• What happens when you follow these principles?
  
  
  • You communicate easily
  • You understand effortlessly
  • You feel instinctually
  • Most important you strengthen your self-esteem
  • You will develop virtues
  • You will understand others first
    
    
• How do you empower your people? How do you inspire your subordinates? How do you lead your people?
• An empowerment style of management creates more innovation, foster initiative, and commitment.
• If your people watch you follow true principles, they will follow you.
• Principles are empowering, inspiring, uplifting, fulfilling, and leading.
• Principles are natural laws that your people yearn for; they bring stability and self validating.
• The roots of most societal declines and corporate disasters (Enron) are foolish practices and lack of respect for harmony with correct principles.
• Without CORRECT PRINCIPLES and self-esteem, we tend to be emotionally dependent on others.
• Replace your prejudice (the tendency to prejudge and categorize people in order to manipulate them) with a sense of reverence and discovery in order to promote empowerment, learning, achievements, and excellence in your people.
• Courage brings trust.
• If there is no courage to adhere to correct principle there is no strong character.
• If there is no strong character, there is no trust.
• Practice courage.
• Trust is the emotional bank account between two people that enables them to have a win-win performance agreement.
• Believe in your people; believe in your people potential; feel grateful for their blessings, and feel to compassionately forgive and forget the offenses of others.
• Don't carry grudges.
• Don't let the pressure to appear powerful, successful, and fashionable to make you manipulative, cunning, tricky, and to forget your principles.
• Remember the common denominator of success is a strong, empowering, guiding, inspiring, uplifting manager.

• I strongly suggest you write down what correct principles you are going to follow.
• Read what you wrote down every day for one week.
• I assure you that you will follow them if you write them down yourself.
• It's just like creating your own religion.
• Just reading this page won't help you.

Management Tools

• Integrity: Integrity is to honestly matching words and feelings with thoughts and actions, with no desires other than for good of others, without malice or desire to deceive, take advantage, manipulate, or control.

• Persuasion: Asking, questioning, telling why, what, a commitment to stay in communication. Looking for mutually satisfying outcome.

• Patience: Maintaining a long-term perspective and staying committed to long term goals.

• Gentleness: Not harshness, hardness, or forcefulness.

• Teachableness: That we all don't have all the answers, and all the insights. Valuing the differences in view points, judgments, and values.

• Acceptance: Giving the benefit of doubt and withholding judgment. Knowing and accepting the differences on values and ways we make decisions and go about all daily lives.

• Kindness: Sensitivity, caring, thoughtfulness, and kindness.

• Openness: Understanding desires and motives of others, giving full considerations to their intentions, motivations, values, and goals.

• Confrontation with compassion: Accepting errors, mistakes, and the need to make corrections with genuine care, and warmth.

• Consistency: It is a set of non temporary values, personal codes, manifestation of character and a reflection of who you are.

Change Your Managerial Paradigm

Changing your paradigm is to change your scheme for understanding and explaining certain aspects of reality.

It was paradigm shift that gave birth to this land of freedom. When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that government drives its just powers from the consent of the governed, he and those who signed that document set up a new pattern of government. There would be no divine right to rule on this land, no imposed overlords. The only public officials would be those chosen by the voice of the people. Out of that paradigm has come the freest people and the most prosperous country in the history of the world.

Changing paradigm is to change your frame of reference; to change how you see things, how you think about people, how you view your subordinates, how you explain results and failures, how you value other accomplishments. How you give credit where credit is due and how you accept responsibility where and when you did not.

Changing paradigm is to empower those who you neglected before.

Paradigm shift is a move ahead in a major way for better.

Since this website is a marketing and managerial website, let us focus more on shifting paradigm on managerial skills.

Using managerial paradigm shift we manage people by a set of proven principles. These principles are the natural laws and governing social values that have characterized every great society. They surface in the form of values, ideas, norms, and teachings that uplift, ennoble, fulfill, empower, and most important inspire. Paradigm shift managers see their people with more creative energy, resources, and initiatives than their job presently allow.

We all know what positive synergy is. Synergy is when the sum of the parts is greater than individual combinations. How about negative synergy. Unfortunately most old and ex-managerial paradigm is based on negative synergies where sum of subordinates actually reduces the output. Isn't that true? That is why team building is an art. How many fail building teams? The answer is many. The formula for positive synergy is:

Involvement + patience + good principles + kindness + fairness + building trust + .... = Commitment from everyone

How can you have commitment from everyone when one is not treated fairly. How can you have commitment from everyone when one is not trusted.

Embrace principles of fairness, kindness, understanding different values, yet adhere to correct principles, and unleash the natural talents of people to increase efficiency.