Can Akdeniz's Blog, page 85

What makes a leader successful?

Leadership is something that we understand at a very young age. From parents to teachers to our very first boss, we comprehend the value and the respect that a leadership position holds. It is a reassuring force, an authoritative measure of control, or a trailblazing individual that we can confidently follow. In the complex world of business, strong leadership has also had a long tradition of great men and women that have moved our world forward in technology, industry, marketing, infrastructure, and innovation. As the world has moved forward, so too have the responsibilities of leadership, but in the 20th century, there was a distinct drop off in leadership innovation, replaced by the unavoidable demands of productivity, profits, and the almighty market share. Leadership became more of a burden than a mantle, resulting in a decline in risk-taking, ambition, and creativity.

Fortunately, recent years have seen a revitalization of leadership, and we have once again placed great faces in front of our most respected and admired companies. The question is, what changed? Where did this new generation of leaders come from, and what ideas are they employing that suddenly changed the game all over again? It is perfectly fitting that the popular culture idea of being cool bled into the philosophy of business, and that is precisely the word that defines modern times’ greatest leaders. They are cool bosses, dedicated to not only thinking outside the box and advancing their companies’ vision forward into a profitable future, but also for changing the way that global culture functions through their interest in innovation, risk, change, evolution, and overall advancement of the human experience. Those might be bold words, but they are hardly mine. They are evidenced by the actions of the most influential and respected minds in business theory, who are, as we speak, changing the landscape of humanity. Business has come to the forefront of human progress and change, and it is an undeniable trend of being cool that we see leading the charge. We identify with these leaders, raise them up on pedestals previously reserved for movie stars and rock gods. These CEOs and business leaders have fan clubs and imitators, because they are the ones who are changing the world.

It is essential to remember that these same great leaders simply adopted carefully crafted and thought out philosophies for their behavior and attitudes, then implemented them in their business strategies. The great secrets of their success are not heavily guarded secrets; they are being studied and emulated by thousands of other people around the world. If they want the world to advance as much as they say they do, these leaders are obviously not shy about explaining the methods to their madness, and hoping that other leaders and thinkers pick up the torch and find new and exciting ways to innovate and drive the great human endeavor of creativity forward. My book, Cool Boss, is a tool to share those cutting edge strategies and techniques that have raised companies to such unprecedented heights by keeping their employees loyal, their consumers enthralled, and the markets guessing over what groundbreaking idea they might pursue next. It is the responsibility of burgeoning businesses, as well as companies that have been established for some time, to consider the implications and value that their company will have on the world at large if they don’t use some of these leadership strategies. The choice of whether to think differently isn’t a matter of being a good leader or a bad leader; it is about whether someone deserves the title of ‘leader’ at all. A leader is someone who others follow, but if they are simply walking over the same ground as others have already tread, then how can they justly be called a leader?

The cool bosses of this new era continue to change the world every day, and the paths that they have traveled are inspiring hundreds more to change their leadership strategies as well. Cool Boss is a way to get ahead of the curve, and fulfill the responsibility of every great leader in history – finding new solutions to old problems, and leaving things better than how you found them. This book is the tool to start you on that journey; the rest is up to you.

by Can Akdeniz

Why we need happy companies

Change will always be an intimidating idea for certain companies. It requires a refocusing of attention, a slightly higher risk, and a good amount of time and energy. However, it is also essential. Furthermore, when that change is towards something as beneficial and logical as company happiness, then the decision should be simple. Unfortunately, that common sense conclusion is not true for every business working in the world today. During my time consulting with and advising dozens of companies around the world, I saw the need for a philosophical change in terms of company happiness, but a lack of information on how to do it efficiently and effectively. Mediocre companies can’t become good, nor can good companies become great, if they don’t make satisfaction and happiness a prominent, perhaps even primary, goal.

I saw companies struggling for a variety of reasons, but many of their inherent problems could be traced back to a fundamental problem of not pursuing or achieving happiness in some facet of their business. Some pieces of my advice to the companies I worked with are reflected in this book, but those words of wisdom had never been put in a concrete or comprehensive form like this. After extensive research and the real life experiences of watching companies implement happiness strategies, I felt confident enough to write a handbook for others. A lack of happiness in a business is a major, negative factor, although it is easy to overlook or misdiagnose as a company’s underlying problem.

I have dedicated my career to fixing problems and providing solutions for business professionals, so writing this book was a way of continuing that dissemination of knowledge and business expertise to thousands of companies. When companies increase happiness, productivity increases, consumer satisfaction rates go up, economies thrive, motivation surges, and innovation occurs. This sort of large-scale progress benefits industries and companies across the board, so there is no need to hide the secrets of company happiness from anyone that can benefit. If the consumers, leaders, innovators, stakeholders, and consumers of the world were happier for one reason or another, the business landscape might be a very different place. By choosing to involve yourself in the business world, you are putting yourself in a position to make sweeping, positive changes to culture, technology, commerce, and business theory. You are doing a disservice to your company and yourself if you do not include happiness as a prominent focal point of your strategy. That is what this book is truly about, and that is what I hope my readers will take away from it. There is no reason for happiness to be ignored or discarded in modern business structure; in fact, it should be the responsibility of a company to spread and embrace happiness as an avenue towards greater success and a better world.

I wrote  Happy Company as a way to reach the largest possible audience, in order to make some of these techniques and strategies universally accepted and aspired to. Sharing my business knowledge and spreading the wisdom of others whom I have come in contact with is my passion, and this latest book is only one in an ongoing series of manuals and guidebooks for smarter business, stronger leadership, and a happier, more creative life. These are some of the undeniable directions that modern business and culture are headed; I wanted to make sure that Happy Company was a valuable part of that knowledge economy. As we continue to move forward in this next generation, happiness will remain an integral part of company success, and the lessons within this book will become even more sought after and significant. For me, there was no choice but to write this book, because seeing problems and finding happy solutions is at the very root of success for both business and life. Those of you reading this book will soon understand that just as well as I do. Once you possess and understand the tools that can lead to company happiness, the potential for positive change in your business is limitless; keep moving forward.

by Can Akdeniz

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Order Happy Company on Amazon!

New Book Release: Happy Company

by Can Akdeniz

This book will change the way you understand business, strategy and organisational development.

Google, Facebook, Zappos, Amazon, Coca Cola, Ernst & Young, VW, Nike, Apple, GE, and Intuit: Something unites all of these high profile companies in an essential way – a new business mentality. They have earned such spectacular success and respect by setting happiness as a primary goal, knowing that with a foundation of joy, creativity, and excitement, nothing is impossible.

In Happy Company, Can Akdeniz shows that the business mindset has changed forever. He explains the new mindset, and shares strategies and methodologies for creating a culture of happiness, and explains the impact that such an ideological shift can have. By learning from this book, you can draw on relevant inspiration from these global icons and apply it to your own business model, to begin experiencing the same success, respect, and loyalty that they have enjoyed for years.

Buy on Amazon Today!

Happy Company will teach you:

Company vision management
Developing employee and consumer loyalty
Maximizing stakeholder trust and support
Standing out from the competition
Sustainable and realistic approaches to building company happiness
Spreading the “happiness effect” to all corners of your business
Inspiring workers and motivational techniques
Creative compensation strategies
The role of companies within the community
The importance of visionary and inspiring leadership
How happiness leads to profits and success
How profits do not necessarily lead to happiness
Dozens of real world examples of successful happiness strategies
An introduction to short-term vs. long-term thinking
The new paradigm of a company as a happiness machine
An outline of healthy workplace guidelines to maximize productivity and employee satisfaction
How social contributions increase happiness
Tips for increasing consumer satisfaction and guaranteeing loyalty
New approaches to customer service
Out of the box leadership strategies
Guidelines for Infrastructure evolution
Work-Life Balance Techniques
The importance of company reputation
Boosting job control and employee independence
How to use old techniques for new challenges
Possible issues and limitations for pursuing company happiness
The obstacles to company happiness and the tools to get around them
Knowing your limitations and maximizing the potential for improvement

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The Passion Factor in Leadership

by Can Akdeniz, Author of Cool Boss: Master 11 Qualities of Today’s Greatest Leaders

There are plenty of people who decide to go into business because it is a “logical choice” given their academic background, familial motivation, or natural interest in supporting themselves financially. To be successful in the past, many business leaders simply needed to be intelligent, wily, and patient to achieve their goals. Once they reached a certain level of success, they became comfortable and complacent, satisfied with what their company was doing, the profits that were coming in, and their reputation in the market. However, that recipe for success often lacked one essential component. Passion.

Without a determined spark to excel and continue to achieve great things, business leaders cannot hope to remain relevant or successful in today’s cutthroat world of business. Innovation is the name of the game, and genuine dedication to company vision and progress is a professional imperative in staying ahead of the competition. CEOs and business leaders are not figureheads any more, and they lead from within, inspiring the rest of their workforce and management team with their own tireless drive to move forward. Being passionate about what you do not only stimulates the rest of your employees to challenge themselves and come out with better and brighter ideas, it also keeps you invested in the ultimate goals of your own company.

That passion can manifest in any number of ways, perhaps creating a culture of risk-taking or daring in your own industry, because you firmly believe in the ideas and ambitions that your company can turn into a reality, no matter the cost. Other leaders show their passion by actively involving themselves in projects, sponsoring unrelated business ventures that might contribute to the philosophical goals of a company like changing the world. Without passion, a company stalls and sputters into obsolescence because there isn’t a central, driving force that keeps them in the running with other competent and determined corporations.

One of the most interesting developments of this new passionate characteristic of cool young leaders is a realization of their mortality, both physically and professionally. If you care enough about your company, or the achievements it is striving to reach, than at a certain point, a leader must be able to relinquish control and let it develop on its own. Many successful leaders of today can step away from their companies if they need to because they have successfully structured a company that is not dependent on any one person. The vision of a company cannot hinge on any individual, even the founder of a company, and if the passion of that leader is strong enough, they’ll realize that they are not the focal point of the mission any longer.

This ability to let your passions run wild to inspire your workforce and bring you genuine pleasure in what you do is a fundamental quality of the new generation of cool leaders, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. There are many other vital aspects of leadership that must be emulated in order to reach a truly successful point in today’s business world.

Great leaders are selfless

When most professionals start out, their goals are relatively similar; reach the top, change the world, and make a lot of money doing it. These aren’t necessarily bad things, within reason, and in the past, many business leaders ended up achieving those goals. At that point, however, an important personal choice must be made. That decision is whether to selfishly revel in the lifestyle and financial freedom that wealth and power inevitably bring, or to embrace humility and use your abilities and advantages to help others, both within your business and around the world. Vast personal wealth may be a stereotypical trait of many business moguls, and in a volatile and profitable global marketplace, that is not something to necessarily condemn. However, there is a certain standard of implicit responsibility that modern business leaders are being held to, and the most successful, cool leaders of today are keeping their feet on the ground, despite being at the top of the world.

Recent decades have shown the consumers of the world the ugly corruption, decadence, and greed in certain industries, and in this age of transparency and instant communication, the old style of disconnected and practically invisible leaders living their lives in luxurious isolation is nearly impossible. Business leaders are role models, a very important quality for the new generation to adopt, and they are looked at to set an example at least for their workforce, if not for the general public and the world. Giving back to the communities, consumers, and nations that have raised certain companies to spectacular heights seems to be the growing trend, and philanthropy is on the rise. The consumer public does not want to feel condescended to by their corporate idols, they want to relate to them, and admire their achievements. By following in those beneficent footsteps, they too can make the world a better place.

We see the challenges of the world today in high definition; there is no hiding from the truth that the world can be a cruel place, and there are severe problems that need to be faced and solved. Business leaders have huge amounts of influence in terms of popular opinion and the structuring of behavioral systems, so the example that they set in terms of humility and service to others is tremendously important. A cool modern leader stands up for what they believe in, and uses their prominent position in society to urge others to follow them, just as they lead their workforce on the professional side of their behavior. That power to change minds and spur social change is one of the most useful perks of being a business leader, and the new generation of leaders seem to be well aware of that.

Perhaps you see yourself as a potential leader, and would like to have that same sort of influence to positively change the world. Humility and selflessness are just two of the qualities that define the evolutionary shifts in business leadership happening in recent years.

by Can Akdeniz, author of Cool Boss: Master 11 Qualities of Today’s Greatest Leaders

The power of supportive leadership

When it comes to most parts of life, being independent is a valuable trait. You can fend for yourself, handle your own issues, and are not constantly counting on someone else to take care of you. In the old style of doing business, the less questions you asked, the better. If you could quietly clock in, and go about your 9-5 job without bothering anyone else or ticking off your boss, it was considered a good day at work. Communication between different levels of employment was discouraged, interdepartmental projects were often deemed too time-consuming, and the power of collaboration was largely ignored. Furthermore, from the time you stepped in the door to the time you left, you were a worker, not a person with errands to run, schedules to keep, children to feed, or a hot new date to impress. Your personal life was distinctly separate, and you were encouraged to leave all baggage, literally, at the door.

As someone who wants to become a cool leader in the modern era of innovative and dynamic business theory, this old way of viewing members of your work force must be eliminated. Employees are, first and foremost, people, and as such, their individual needs, ambitions, personalities, strengths, and weaknesses must be understood to help them realize their full potential. Some of the most successful companies of today have managed to find a healthy balance between hierarchy and equality, life and work, and the all-important controlling vs. enabling. Employees must feel that they are not only valued as assets to the company, but also supported as individuals that have lives outside of the office. The amount of support that is given to your workforce can be positively correlated with their productivity and job satisfaction, which obviously works in the company’s favor.

Companies that remain as a disconnected group of anonymous workers that are simply showing up for a paycheck and little else are beginning to fail, if they haven’t already. There should be a sense of community, support, and empathy in the workplace, because at the end of the day, everyone has an outside life, and sometimes, it needs to take precedence. If you can build your company’s culture to make your employees feel well taken cared of and respected, as well as supported professionally in their goals and individual projects, than you have all of the elements of an extremely loyal and dedicated work force in place. Cool leaders are humble enough to realize how essential their employees’ happiness truly is, and therefore strives not only to relate to them as unique people, but also to facilitate their happiness through support and understanding.

A supportive environment is one of the many qualities that are beginning to shape modern business theory, and the most successful leaders of today epitomize most, if not all, of these traits.

by Can Akdeniz, author of Cool Boss: Master 11 Qualities of Today’s Greatest Leaders

Why we need innovative leaders

Changing the world is often the lofty goal of business leaders, yet in the past, it was the exception rather than the rule. Fortunately for the world, and for those living in this modern generation, that sad fact of stagnant business procedures and snail’s-pace change is being eliminated. Innovation and progress are the cornerstones of cool leadership and the new age of business theory. As a leader of today, innovation should be a major goal in the complex structure of your company vision. Even in the past decade, the world has watched as companies have experienced meteoric rises on the back of great ideas, while others have plummeted to bankruptcy and obsolescence because they simply can’t keep up with the rate of change.

A strong leader that wants to keep his company relevant and in the public eye of consumers needs to push the envelope and think outside the box as a rule, not the exception. That complete shift from the old way of thinking may be frightening, and the inherent risks are enough to dissuade plenty of leaders from going down that ambitious path, but if you take a hard look at those leaders who are legitimately changing the world, they are doing it through constant progress and a tireless effort to think in new ways. A simple example is the proliferation of social media platforms, and how many of the early websites and programs are now barely a memory because they established their style and stuck to it, unwilling or unable to keep up with the changing demands that seem to shift every month or quarter in the market. Facebook, however, manages to stay relevant and successful because it is a company that operates in flux, trying new things, analyzing their success and readjusting, only to begin the process all over again.

That exhausting, but worthwhile, dedication to change and progress is what will keep your business moving forward, and help it keep pace with the other companies that are doing the same thing. A common phrase in the past was to call an idea “ahead of its time”, but that span of time may have been years, or even decades. In today’s transient and fickle global marketplace, being “ahead of its time” may mean an idea gained a few months on the competition, so there is barely time for celebration before something new must be developed and launched. It is a fast-paced world, but the key is to inspire your workers with your own ideas, capitalize on your innovative employees, and construct a culture of advancement that seeps into every corner of your business. There is no time for standing around and congratulating one another on staying in business for another year; the only direction to move is forward, the only time to relax is once perfection has been reached. That being said, the smartest leaders know that perfection can’t be reached, only reached for.

Being innovative is integral to success, but there are many other qualities that modern leaders must possess and employ in order to find and maintain excellence in their industry.

by Can Akdeniz, author of Cool Boss: Master 11 Qualities of Today’s Greatest Leaders

Why we need accessible leadership

One of the biggest changes that the modern world of business has had to adapt to are the ramifications of the digital age; namely, instantaneous communication and hyper-connectedness that most people are already taking for granted. The impact of the Internet cannot be overstated in how businesses are run, but what it actually reveals is the lack of communication and connectedness that used to characterize the old style of doing business. Compartmentalization of ideas, lack of opportunity for collaboration, and a small contributing force of innovators do not promote healthy growth or industry-leading progress. A cool, modern leader must open up the lines of communication between his or her employees and be an active part of the company.

This sort of involvement will not only make you likeable and respected, but also give you an intimate working knowledge of the variable aspects of your company. Furthermore, it will allow you to pull ideas from unlikely sources, which, if history has taught us anything, is where most brilliance emerges. When you are cut off or separated by endless lines of red tape of hierarchical gaps, how can you fully explain your vision to the employees, and how can you understand any inherent problems that might be hampering productivity? The “telephone game” that often plagues hierarchical structure means that you might miss out on vital opportunities to streamline efficiency and ensure employee satisfaction.

You became a leader for specific reasons, and luck was probably not a major factor; your ability to see potential, inspire others, and parse through dozens of ideas to find the great ones are far more likely to be a part of your backstory. In this modern era, put those skills to use and share them with others. By being accessible to management and general employees, you can get to know your workers, analyze their strengths, redirect them if necessary, and increase your company’s efficiency to its full potential. Sitting behind a desk in a restricted office and holding close door meetings with select managers once a month will no longer suffice. The word leader implies that others will follow you, and for that, you need to be visible, involved, and empathic to their needs.

by Can Akdeniz, author of Cool Boss: Master 11 Qualities of Today’s Greatest Leaders

Why we need cool and admirable leaders

The evolution of modern leadership is an ongoing process that is sweeping across the business world and changing the way that the most successful companies perform and moderate their practices. Leaders are changing their approach to running their business and altering the way that they are seen both within their companies and to the general public. One of the most important ways that this is being done is reinventing their position as a role model for their employees and other leaders of their industry.

The old style of leadership was more disconnected, with the CEO or upper management behaving as figureheads, providing general oversight and being the ultimate decision maker, but otherwise being relatively distanced from the general populace of the workforce. Today, a leader is in the public eye to a much higher degree, and must inspire their workers with their own behavior. In other words, they must lead by example. The most successful modern leaders are the first to arrive and the last to leave, and their life in the office and outside of it is heavily connected to the vision and goals of the company.

Their employees look up to them as the embodiment of company vision, and as the primary driver behind progress. They motivate and lead from the center, welcoming other contributions, but still maintaining a firm direction towards the ultimate goals of the business. Those leaders are genuinely passionate about their product and company, and are more interested in the effect that it has on society as a whole and the innovative standard that they are setting, rather than on massive profit margins and self-serving ends.

Without this change in focus, businesses will begin to fall behind their competitors, because there is an increasingly small space in the market for apathy or profit-driven progress. Consumers should also look to a leader as an admirable individual that they trust, and who they can see standing in front of the company and communicating its vision, new ideas, and up to date relevance in a way that the common man understands. As technology moves forward and products become more necessary, and subsequently more expensive, consumers want to be confident in their investments and purchases, and much of that comfort and confidence stems from their visceral feelings toward the way the business is run, and the personality of its respective leaders.

by Can Akdeniz, author of Cool Boss: Master 11 Qualities of Today’s Greatest Leaders 

How to make leadership admirable?

by Can Akdeniz, Author of Cool Boss: 11 Qualities of Today’s Greatest Leaders

Why cool leaders are more successful: The Admirable Factor

The evolution of modern leadership is an ongoing process that is sweeping across the business world and changing the way that the most successful companies perform and moderate their practices. Leaders are changing their approach to running their business and altering the way that they are seen both within their companies and to the general public. One of the most important ways that this is being done is reinventing their position as a role model for their employees and other leaders of their industry.

The old style of leadership was more disconnected, with the CEO or upper management behaving as figureheads, providing general oversight and being the ultimate decision maker, but otherwise being relatively distanced from the general populace of the workforce. Today, a leader is in the public eye to a much higher degree, and must inspire their workers with their own behavior. In other words, they must lead by example. The most successful modern leaders are the first to arrive and the last to leave, and their life in the office and outside of it is heavily connected to the vision and goals of the company.

Their employees look up to them as the embodiment of company vision, and as the primary driver behind progress. They motivate and lead from the center, welcoming other contributions, but still maintaining a firm direction towards the ultimate goals of the business. Those leaders are genuinely passionate about their product and company, and are more interested in the effect that it has on society as a whole and the innovative standard that they are setting, rather than on massive profit margins and self-serving ends.

Without this change in focus, businesses will begin to fall behind their competitors, because there is an increasingly small space in the market for apathy or profit-driven progress. Consumers should also look to a leader as an admirable individual that they trust, and who they can see standing in front of the company and communicating its vision, new ideas, and up to date relevance in a way that the common man understands. As technology moves forward and products become more necessary, and subsequently more expensive, consumers want to be confident in their investments and purchases, and much of that comfort and confidence stems from their visceral feelings toward the way the business is run, and the personality of its respective leaders.

Being a role model is only one of the many qualities that current leaders must adopt if they intend to stay at the top of their industry, as well as a quality that young, cool leaders must embody in their early efforts to break into an increasingly competitive global market. In my new book, “Cool Boss: Why cool leaders are more successful and 11 Qualities of Today’s Greatest Leaders ”, the most important qualities are outlined and explained, and real world examples are provided to show how others in similar industries to yours have already put certain techniques into practice and found great success with them. The world is changing fast, but with a comprehensive guide to getting ahead and staying there, like “Cool Boss”, you will have a vital tool in your shift towards being a modern, successful leader in the new generation of business.