Are you street smart

Being “street smart” is an important part of being a leader. What follows are five areas you can develop to improve your innovation and performance as a leader.

Remember, as a people leader we do not do anything that will show a lack of humility, engender disrespect, or show a lack of trust:

1) Be Aware

– Trust your intuition

– Develop perceptiveness and the ability to anticipate

– Size up people quickly and accurately

– Take a helicopter view of situations

2) Have Confidence

– Be a continual learner

– Show confidence but don’t become insolent or arrogant

– Have a steadfast confidence in your ability

3) Be a Healthy Skeptic

– Don’t believe everything you see and hear

– Be hard to take advantage of

– Stay on guard…check out generalizations

– Give people the time and rope to either hang themselves or prove

their integrity and sincerity

4) Show Resourcefulness

– Think quickly on your feet

– Be persistent and consistent

– Be prepared and flexible

– Create relationships with experts & contacts

5) Be a Risk Taker

– Take risks but don’t bet the farm

– Minimize any possible down side

– Cut your losses and get out quickly if proven wrong

– Don’t fear failure…learn by your mistakes

You need to ensure that your newly acquired “street smarts” will not be perceived as arrogance.

A lot of the above thinking and actions are done  internally, so think very carefully in an empathetic fashion before taking any actions that could be misconstrued.

Email Ken – Ken@Engage4Results.com – for a free chapter on WOWing the customer from his Award Winning Book, “The People Pill”.

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