Leaders believe that success will come from their ability to take clear aim at an objective that matters, getting ready by embracing the right team of passionate people, and then taking action with discipline. In short: Aim, Ready, Fire.

But after two global studies of executives, consultants Mark C. Thompson and Bonita Buell have determined that's the wrong sequence. To succeed, you must proceed in this order: Ready, Aim, Fire. Get the right team, figure out what to do, and act.

But it's even trickier than that. Each of those key words represents a different mindset leaders can apply, and each of us has a favourite, on which we tend to preoccupy ourselves. You must be willing to get out of your comfort zone and use the other two as well:

• Ready: Effective leaders know they're ready when the individuals on their team are doing what they love. You're ready when you have developed the talents and passions of your team.


• Aim: People who focus on this are concerned with making a difference and creating things that have a lasting impact. They are driven to serve a company or a cause that matters, and emotionally committed to a purpose that will outlast them.


• Fire: Action-oriented folks define success by the joy of getting things done. They value achieving goals, and have a natural tendency to look for closure.

"All three mindsets of success have strengths and weaknesses. Ironically, it's often necessary to adopt the two other mindsets to achieve your original ambition," they conclude in Executive Excellence magazine.

Whether you are launching a membership drive, soliciting donations, or selling tickets to a fundraising event, e-mail marketing can provide the biggest bang for your non-profit's buck. Here are five steps to help, from consultant Winston Bowden on MarketingProfs.com:

• Build your contact list: You need to be constantly adding to your e-mail list, from a sign-up form on the Web to having pen and paper at your front desk.


• Build buzz with a newsletter: Frequent newsletters with content relevant to interested members will keep them in the loop and engaged.


• Don't e-mail too often: Blanketing a general contact list with too many untargeted e-mails can backfire. Indeed, a recent survey by Convio found that 36 per cent of significant donors say they are more likely to donate again if the organization permits them to say how often they prefer to be e-mailed. So identify the unique frequency-based groupings in your list and make sure you are sending them exactly what they requested and when they requested the information.


• Keep the feedback loop open: Give your recipients a chance to talk back by requesting feedback from them on all your e-mails. Make the request short and simple, placing it near the bottom of your communications.


• Conduct regular surveys: Use your list for an occasional poll, keeping in mind these surveys take time to respond to and must not be frequent.

The list of 100 is a powerful technique to generate ideas, clarify your thoughts, or get solutions to any specific questions you're interested in. On Lightmind.com, Luciano Passuello advises you to state your issue or question on the top of a sheet of paper and then come up with a list of 100 answers or solutions.

You won't initially figure you can devise that many, but at some point your subconscious will kick in and some new and surprising ideas will be unearthed. Do it at one sitting, away from distractions.

Expect the first 30 notions to come easily but be unspectacular. In the next 40, you'll notice recurring patterns of thought. This is usually the hardest phase, as you struggle to let go of the original ideas on your mind. The last 30 will be where the gems come: You have exhausted most "logical" ideas and now your subconscious will express itself more freely and creatively.

You have now completed half the year. Marketing consultant Jay Lipe suggests dusting off your marketing plan for the year -- indeed, it could be any plans for the year -- and see how you're doing:

• What's working better than expected?
• What's not performing and needs a tweak?
• What have you neglected and need to tend to?
• What haven't you started that you meant to get going?

"You've got six months left in the year. What one thing could you do/fix/start/stop that would have the most impact on your business? Could you get started on it today?" he asks in his e-mail newsletter.

• Frances Hesselbein, who used to head the Girl Scouts of America, says her mentor Peter Drucker always used to tell her that her job was not to provide energy but to release it.
  (Source: Crucibles of Leadership)


• Nothing is worse than a negative comment in a positive atmosphere. If you're at a mixer, try to start conversations on a positive note so people don't view you as a sourpuss and want to bolt away.
  (Source: www.potential2success.com)


• "Negative" online headlines generate more clicks than their "positive" counterparts, according to consultant David Meerman Scott. His top list of negative words that arouse a reader's interest include "worst," "not," "don't" and "only."
  (Source: Get To The Point newsletter)


• Two of three people would work from home on days they call in sick. The study of 1,000 employees by communications firm NTL: Telewest Business found that travelling rather than working was often the barrier to coming to the office.
  (Source: Personnel Today)


• Save time, money and paper on fax coversheets by re-using the one you received from somebody else. Strike through the TO in front of your name and write FROM in its place. Similarly, change the FROM into TO, and you're set to go.
  (Source: Productivity Café)

Top of my list would be Extraordinary Circumstances by Cynthia Cooper. She was the whistleblower at telecommunications giant WorldCom, and this is her compelling inside account not just of her own journey but also of those around her who either aided and abetted the fraud she uncovered or helped her. It's humane and inspiring despite the topic, and has the ups and downs of a thriller. You won't learn any specific business skills, but it will be a heart-rending reminder of how ethics can be a slippery slope and the importance of honesty.

It's a hefty book -- around 400 pages -- so if you're looking for a quick read, try Go-Giver, a powerful fable about the importance of giving to get ahead, written by Bob Burg and John David Mann. If you're a golfer and have an interest in Canada's business and political elite, try Going For The Green, in which journalist Robert Thompson puts together some intriguing portraits of Canadian leaders and top Canadian golf courses while playing a round of golf with those prominent figures.

If you want to ponder management, but still with lighter summery reading fare, you might enjoy Wired news editor Leander Kahney's profile of Steve Jobs' management style in Inside Steve's Brain. Or, with A Class with Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the World's Greatest Management Teacher, join William Cohen in Peter Drucker's classroom back in the mid-1970s, getting a feel for the teaching style and provocative ideas of that management guru. Robin Sharma has some quick, inspiration messages on success in The Greatness Guide, Book 2.

Finally, if you want to consider how business can help re-shape the world through a new vehicle called social business, check out Creating A World Without Poverty by Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered Grameen Bank's microlending efforts.

Over the past few weeks we've been involved in a number of projects where their future success will depend significantly on how well the project leaders manage to overcome resistance to change. As John Kotter and Leonard Schlesinger pointed out some years ago, resistance to change may result from:

• a desire not to lose something of value,
• a misunderstanding of the change and its implications,
• a belief that the change doesn't make sense for the organization, and/or
• a low personal tolerance for change.

Each of those causes must be matched with different types of responses, such as education, training, communications, negotiation, or participatory involvement -- and usually a mix of more than one approach.

8020Info offers counsel to help your organization plan for effective communications and strategy during your change projects. We would be pleased to discuss your needs and welcome enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at watercooler@8020info.com.

"Your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think of you."

- John Wooden