Infinite - One of Chicago’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For!

 Infinite team is happy to announce we were recognized as one of “Chicago’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For” for second year in a row! 

This recognition is given to companies that are dedicated to the well-being of its employees and demonstrate best practices in human resources. Multiple criteria is considered including compensation, benefits and employee solutions; employee enrichment, engagement and retention; development, employee achievement and recognition; among others.

Of the hundreds of nominations received, Infinite was considered one of the top 101 companies awarded in the entire Chicago region. 

Infinite is pleased to receive such an impressive recognition again this year. Infinite’s goal is to provide an excellent work environment and demonstrate appreciation to its team members for all the hard work they do. 

Infinite’s Opportunities Continue to Grow!

Elizabeth Gouwens was recently promoted to leadership. This is no surprise a result of her hard work and dedication. Elizabeth shared:

When I got promoted to leadership I felt extremely honored. My consistency in the field and hard work has shown through and I proved to myself and others my capabilities.

What motivates me in the field is knowing I am competing against everyone else in the office. I know that my goals are entirely up to my work ethic and mentality.

My future goals are to finish my senior year at Saint Joseph’s College this fall, and then move to the city working at a job pertaining to marketing and/or public relations. 

 I wanted to thank Infinite for giving me this opportunity to experience the ins and outs of the business and to further develop my work ethics. I have already prospered in many ways this past month and look forward to the challenges that I will face.

Again, congratulations on your promotion Elizabeth! Keep showing us what you are made of!

http://myinfinite.net/

Infinite Team is Growing!

Infinite is happy to announce Haajra Narmawala was promoted to “Leadership” this past week. We are very happy for Haajra's opportunity and Infinite wanted to share some of Haajra's words:

It feels incredible to be promoted to leadership as a result of hard work and staying consistent in the field during training. As a leader, I am even more motivated to compete for success among the other leaders and work harder than the rest. It is a great opportunity to learn and build up management skills that set you up for success in every field. As a leader, it means that I will be taking more initiative to set myself as a good example for the trainees by working hard, following the system and being prepared that will allow me to stay consistent in the field. I plan to stay consistent in the field and gain responsibilities and opportunities to build a successful team. Through the process, I will also be developing training and interviewing skills. This promotion is not the last milestone; it is an opportunity to collaborate with other leaders, learn from them and enhance their leadership skills.

Great job Haajra!  Team Infinite is very excited for your opportunity and we know you can accomplish anything you set your mind into. Keep it up!

http://myinfinite.net/

Loyalty: The Key to Consistent Victory

By The John Maxwell Company

March Madness got its name because the NCAA basketball tournament provides stunning upsets each season. Unpredictability is big part of the tournament’s appeal. At any point in the competition, an unknown squad can suddenly catch fire, hitting shot after shot, to knock off a heavily favored opponent.

However, if you were filling out an NCAA tournament bracket from 1967 to 1973, then you should have chosen the same champion every single year. Coach John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins won seven consecutive titles! No other men’s collegiate team has won more than two NCAA tournaments in a row.

Why did John Wooden’s teams win so often? Obviously, they had talented players, but what set UCLA apart from the competition was their commitment to loyalty. UCLA’s players were intensely loyal to their leader, Coach John Wooden, as well as to their fellow teammates.

How to Earn Loyalty:

1) Make your values visible.
Leaders attract who they are. If you want a cohesive team, one that’s loyal to a common cause and to one another, then be clear and candid about your values. John Wooden arranged his values into a visual aid that he called the “Pyramid of Success.” The pyramid consisted of fifteen building blocks Wooden believed were essential to success in life, and he taught these values to his players. He placed loyalty as the building block at the center of the pyramid’s foundation.

2) Be loyal to yourself.
Coach Wooden liked to quote a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “To thine own self, be true.” His coaching philosophy wasn’t just a strategy to win games; it flowed directly out of his deepest beliefs about life. John Wooden not only believed in the principles of success he instilled in his players, he also exemplified them. He inspired loyalty because his players knew that he was the real deal—he authentically practiced the values he professed.

3) Give loyalty to your people.
Leaders cannot demand loyalty; they have to earn it. However, leaders should give 100% loyalty to their people from day one. People need to feel your trust, care, and commitment to them. As Wooden wrote, “People do not arrive at your doorstep with loyalty. It comes when those you lead see and experience that your concern for their interests and welfare goes beyond simply calculating what they can do for you—how you can use them to your advantage.” Once you give loyalty, you open up the channel to receive it in return.

Thought to Consider
In an economy where individuals bounce from job to job, quickly moving in and out of relationships, how can a leader be expected to build loyalty? Coach Wooden is proof that loyalty doesn’t take a decade to develop. He led in a climate of constant turnover, where players stayed only a few years, at most, before graduating and moving on. To inspire loyalty, a leader simply must dare to go against the grain of contemporary business culture. Look to invest in people rather than to wring productivity out of them.  Instead of asking, “what have you done for me lately?” inquire: “what can I do to add value to you?”

Read the full article and others from John Maxwell online.

Top 10 Qualities That Make A Great Leader

by Tanya Prive Contributor, Forbes

Having a great idea, and assembling a team to bring that concept to life is the first step in creating a successful business venture. While finding a new and unique idea is rare enough; the ability to successfully execute this idea is what separates the dreamers from the entrepreneurs. However you see yourself, whatever your age may be, as soon as you make that exciting first hire, you have taken the first steps in becoming a powerful leader. When money is tight, stress levels are high, and the visions of instant success don’t happen like you thought, it’s easy to let those emotions get to you, and thereby your team. Take a breath, calm yourself down, and remind yourself of the leader you are and would like to become. Here are some key qualities that every good leader should possess, and learn to emphasize.

Honesty

Whatever ethical plane you hold yourself to, when you are responsible for a team of people, its important to raise the bar even higher. Your business and its employees are a reflection of yourself, and if you make honest and ethical behavior a key value, your team will follow suit.

As we do at RockThePost, the crowdfunding platform for entrepreneurs and small businesses I co-founded, try to make a list of values and core beliefs that both you and your brand represent, and post this in your office. Promote a healthy interoffice lifestyle, and encourage your team to live up to these standards. By emphasizing these standards, and displaying them yourself, you will hopefully influence the office environment into a friendly and helpful workspace.

Ability to Delegate

Finessing your brand vision is essential to creating an organized and efficient business, but if you don’t learn to trust your team with that vision, you might never progress to the next stage. Its important to remember that trusting your team with your idea is a sign of strength, not weakness. Delegating tasks to the appropriate departments is one of the most important skills you can develop as your business grows. The emails and tasks will begin to pile up, and the more you stretch yourself thin, the lower the quality of your work will become, and the less you will produce.

The key to delegation is identifying the strengths of your team, and capitalizing on them. Find out what each team member enjoys doing most. Chances are if they find that task more enjoyable, they will likely put more thought and effort behind it. This will not only prove to your team that you trust and believe in them, but will also free up your time to focus on the higher level tasks, that should not be delegated. It’s a fine balance, but one that will have a huge impact on the productivity of your business.

Read the full article online. 

20 Little Tips For A Big Career And Life-- from Forbes

by Bruce Kasanoff Contributor

I structure my career and life around a simple sentence:

Be generous and expert, trustworthy and clear, open-minded and adaptable, persistent and present.

To keep this sentence in the front of my mind, I look for specific tips that support these qualities. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Day after day, be a little bit kinder and a tad wiser than you were the day before.

2. Both for your company and your family, be better at saving money than you are at spending it.

3. Contrary to how some misinterpret what Jim Collins says, it is a better strategy to be consistently good than occasionally great.

4. Read more. Nothing else will so quickly make you wiser.

5. The more interconnected our world becomes, the more important your reputation will be.

Always do the right thing, even when you think no one is watching.

6. Never forget that most people will do what you pay them to do, not what you tell them to do.

7. It is okay to be more generous than other people, just as it is okay to feel better about yourself than you used to feel.

8. Most of the answers you need already exist in someone else’s head; find those people.

9. The greatest challenge each day is to regulate your ego; too little of it, and you waste your potential, but too much of it and you waste everyone else’s potential.

10. Sometimes technology is going to hurt you, and other times it is going to help you. Be sure you are fully aware which is most likely at the present moment.

Read the full article online... 

Infinite Awarded National Recognition for Sales Performance

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20131112005164/en/Infinite-Awarded-National-Recognition-Sales-Performance

November 12, 2013 06:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

DES PLAINES, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Infinite, an outsourced sales and marketing company headquartered in Illinois, announced that they have earned a prestigious sales trophy for their excellent performance on behalf of a major national telecommunications client during the third quarter of this year.

    “We are honored to be recognized for our dedication and hard work.”

Infinite was chosen to receive the campaign trophy based on their leading quality indicators and sales performance. Selected among 13 offices eligible for the award, Infinite is planning to meet the winning criteria for the final quarter of this year. Infinite was also the recipient for the fourth quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013.



“Our team is happy to receive this award,” said Kaitlin Moore, Director of Human Resources at Infinite. “We are honored to be recognized for our dedication and hard work.”

Specializing in marketing and sales for leading clients in various industries, Infinite works to bring long-term customers in on behalf of the client. Infinite employs an in-person, business to business approach to sales, providing dependable growth opportunities for the client. Infinite was nominated as one of Chicago’s 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in 2013.

Like Infinite on Facebook and check out their blog.

About Infinite

Infinite is a premier outsourced sales and marketing company that provides cutting-edge solutions to their clients. Representing well-known companies across North America, Infinite is committed to providing outstanding service and results to the client, effectively growing their customer base. For more information, call 224-567-8502 or go to http://www.myinfinite.net/.

Contacts

Infinite
Kaitlin Moore, 224-567-8502

21 Ways Rich People Think Differently

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/21-ways-rich-people-think-differently.html?page=1

By Mandi Woodruff | Business Insider – Tue, Sep 4, 2012 10:50 AM EDT


World's richest woman Gina Rinehart is enduring a media firestorm over an article in which she takes the "jealous" middle class to task for "drinking, or smoking and socializing" rather than working to earn their own fortune.

What if she has a point?

Steve Siebold, author of "How Rich People Think," spent nearly three decades interviewing millionaires around the world to find out what separates them from everyone else.

It had little to do with money itself, he told Business Insider. It was about their mentality.

"[The middle class] tells people to be happy with what they have," he said. "And on the whole, most people are steeped in fear when it comes to money."

Flickr / C. Pajunen1. Average people think MONEY is the root of all evil. Rich people believe POVERTY is the root of all evil.

"The average person has been brainwashed to believe rich people are lucky or dishonest," Siebold writes.

That's why there's a certain shame that comes along with "getting rich" in lower-income communities.

"The world class knows that while having money doesn't guarantee happiness, it does make your life easier and more enjoyable."

2. Average people think selfishness is a vice. Rich people think selfishness is a virtue.

"The rich go out there and try to make themselves happy. They don't try to pretend to save the world," Siebold told Business Insider.

The problem is that middle class people see that as a negative––and it's keeping them poor, he writes.

"If you're not taking care of you, you're not in a position to help anyone else. You can't give what you don't have."

Getty Images3. Average people have a lottery mentality. Rich people have an action mentality.

"While the masses are waiting to pick the right numbers and praying for prosperity, the great ones are solving problems," Siebold writes.

"The hero [middle class people] are waiting for may be God, government, their boss or their spouse. It's the average person's level of thinking that breeds this approach to life and living while the clock keeps ticking away."

4. Average people think the road to riches is paved with formal education. Rich people believe in acquiring specific knowledge.

"Many world-class performers have little formal education, and have amassed their wealth through the acquisition and subsequent sale of specific knowledge," he writes.

"Meanwhile, the masses are convinced that master's degrees and doctorates are the way to wealth, mostly because they are trapped in the linear line of thought that holds them back from higher levels of consciousness...The wealthy aren't interested in the means, only the end."

I Love Lucy screencap5. Average people long for the good old days. Rich people dream of the future.

"Self-made millionaires get rich because they're willing to bet on themselves and project their dreams, goals and ideas into an unknown future," Siebold writes.

"People who believe their best days are behind them rarely get rich, and often struggle with unhappiness and depression."

6. Average people see money through the eyes of emotion. Rich people think about money logically.

"An ordinarily smart, well-educated and otherwise successful person can be instantly transformed into a fear-based, scarcity driven thinker whose greatest financial aspiration is to retire comfortably," he writes.

"The world class sees money for what it is and what it's not, through the eyes of logic. The great ones know money is a critical tool that presents options and opportunities."

7. Average people earn money doing things they don't love. Rich people follow their passion.

"To the average person, it looks like the rich are working all the time," Siebold says. "But one of the smartest strategies of the world class is doing what they love and finding a way to get paid for it."

On the other hand, middle class take jobs they don't enjoy "because they need the money and they've been trained in school and conditioned by society to live in a linear thinking world that equates earning money with physical or mental effort."

8. Average people set low expectations so they're never disappointed. Rich people are up for the challenge.

"Psychologists and other mental health experts often advise people to set low expectations for their life to ensure they are not disappointed," Siebold writes.

"No one would ever strike it rich and live their dreams without huge expectations."

BarackObamadotcom via YouTube9. Average people believe you have to DO something to get rich. Rich people believe you have to BE something to get rich.

"That's why people like Donald Trump go from millionaire to nine billion dollars in debt and come back richer than ever," he writes.

"While the masses are fixated on the doing and the immediate results of their actions, the great ones are learning and growing from every experience, whether it's a success or a failure, knowing their true reward is becoming a human success machine that eventually produces outstanding results."

10. Average people believe you need money to make money. Rich people use other people's money.

Linear thought might tell people to make money in order to earn more, but Siebold says the rich aren't afraid to fund their future from other people's pockets.

"Rich people know not being solvent enough to personally afford something is not relevant. The real question is, 'Is this worth buying, investing in, or pursuing?'" he writes.

11. Average people believe the markets are driven by logic and strategy. Rich people know they're driven by emotion and greed.

Investing successfully in the stock market isn't just about a fancy math formula.

"The rich know that the primary emotions that drive financial markets are fear and greed, and they factor this into all trades and trends they observe," Siebold writes.

"This knowledge of human nature and its overlapping impact on trading give them strategic advantage in building greater wealth through leverage."

12. Average people live beyond their means. Rich people live below theirs.

"Here's how to live below your means and tap into the secret wealthy people have used for centuries: Get rich so you can afford to," he writes.

"The rich live below their means, not because they're so savvy, but because they make so much money that they can afford to live like royalty while still having a king's ransom socked away for the future."

richkidsofinstagram.tumblr.com13. Average people teach their children how to survive. Rich people teach their kids to get rich.

Rich parents teach their kids from an early age about the world of "haves" and "have-nots," Siebold says. Even he admits many people have argued that he's supporting the idea of elitism.

He disagrees.

"[People] say parents are teaching their kids to look down on the masses because they're poor. This isn't true," he writes. "What they're teaching their kids is to see the world through the eyes of objective reality––the way society really is."

If children understand wealth early on, they'll be more likely to strive for it later in life.

14. Average people let money stress them out. Rich people find peace of mind in wealth.

The reason wealthy people earn more wealth is that they're not afraid to admit that money can solve most problems, Siebold says.

"[The middle class] sees money as a never-ending necessary evil that must be endured as part of life. The world class sees money as the great liberator, and with enough of it, they are able to purchase financial peace of mind."

Kim Bhasin / Business Insider15. Average people would rather be entertained than educated. Rich people would rather be educated than entertained.

While the rich don't put much stock in furthering wealth through formal education, they appreciate the power of learning long after college is over, Siebold says.

"Walk into a wealthy person's home and one of the first things you'll see is an extensive library of books they've used to educate themselves on how to become more successful," he writes.

"The middle class reads novels, tabloids and entertainment magazines."

16. Average people think rich people are snobs. Rich people just want to surround themselves with like-minded people.

The negative money mentality poisoning the middle class is what keeps the rich hanging out with the rich, he says.

"[Rich people] can't afford the messages of doom and gloom," he writes. "This is often misinterpreted by the masses as snobbery.

Labeling the world class as snobs is another way the middle class finds to feel better bout themselves and their chosen path of mediocrity."

Flickr / Wei Tchou17. Average people focus on saving. Rich people focus on earning.

Siebold theorizes that the wealthy focus on what they'll gain by taking risks, rather than how to save what they have.

"The masses are so focused on clipping coupons and living frugally they miss major opportunities," he writes.

"Even in the midst of a cash flow crisis, the rich reject the nickle and dime thinking of the masses. They are the masters of focusing their mental energy where it belongs: on the big money."

18. Average people play it safe with money. Rich people know when to take risks.

"Leverage is the watchword of the rich," Siebold writes.

"Every investor loses money on occasion, but the world class knows no matter what happens, they will aways be able to earn more."

Flickr / Ibrahim Iujaz19. Average people love to be comfortable. Rich people find comfort in uncertainty.

For the most part, it takes guts to take the risks necessary to make it as a millionaire––a challenge most middle class thinkers aren't comfortable living with.

"Physical, psychological, and emotional comfort is the primary goal of the middle class mindset," Siebold writes.

World class thinkers learn early on that becoming a millionaire isn't easy and the need for comfort can be devastating. They learn to be comfortable while operating in a state of ongoing uncertainty."

20. Average people never make the connection between money and health. Rich people know money can save your life.

While the middle class squabbles over the virtues of Obamacare and their company's health plan, the super wealthy are enrolled in a super elite "boutique medical care" association, Siebold says.

"They pay a substantial yearly membership fee that guarantees them 24-hour access to a private physician who only serves a small group of members," he writes.

"Some wealthy neighborhoods have implemented this strategy and even require the physician to live in the neighborhood."

Getty Images21. Average people believe they must choose between a great family and being rich. Rich people know you can have it all.

The idea the wealth must come at the expense of family time is nothing but a "cop-out", Siebold says.

"The masses have been brainwashed to believe it's an either/or equation," he writes. "The rich know you can have anything you want if you approach the challenge with a mindset rooted in love and abundance."

From Steve Siebold, author of "How Rich People Think."

Infinite Wins Q4 Cup For National Campaign Being Recognized For Outstanding Performance

We are so proud of our team here at Infinite.  The company has been recognized as the nation's most profitable, productive vendor for our client. 

Throughout the last few months, the team at Infinite has been in negotiations to continue to evolve the relationship with our client.  Due to these negotiations, we were able to outperform every other vendor in the nation.

We doubled in size in the last month and the new promotion to our executive team, Alex
Huynh, will allow us to take on an even larger client load.  We expect to open an additional location in the next few months.

Great job team!

A New Year’s Resolution for Business Success: Build a Better Leadership System

http://lasvegas.informermg.com/2013/01/07/a-new-years-resolution-for-business-success-build-a-better-leadership-system/

 By Dr. Ray Benedetto and Tom Walter

What are you going to do to make your company better in 2013?  Shooting for financial targets is hardly enough.  Chasing financial goals is futile if the company lacks the human talent necessary to achieve such goals.  In brief, making any company better depends on how leaders retain and leverage their human assets as a distinctive competitive advantage.

Our research has shown how entangled companies sustain distinctive competitive advantages in various industries by building unique and enviable cultures that stimulate creative thinking, constantly generate new ideas, motivate high performance, and consistently delight customers.  Leaders of high-performing companies view their business as a system that requires the synchronizing of key subsystems.  Great leaders know that the future success of any enterprise rests on the strength of their leadership subsystem, which includes the current and future direction of the enterprise and their leadership pipeline—how tomorrow’s leaders are being developed today.

The leadership pipeline is a lot more than merely planning for leadership succession. The pipeline is a set of integrated steps that begins with having the right people on board, extends to daily reinforcement of right behaviors, and manifests itself in discretionary thinking and exceptional performance. If you want to do better in 2013 and beyond, assessing your leadership subsystem is a good place to start. The following questions spanning eight key areas can help you begin:

Core values.  Does the company have a set of explicit core values? Was staff from all levels of the company involved in creating these values?  Are the values easy to understand?  Does the set of core values, taken together, convey the spirit of the company?  Are the values conspicuously displayed throughout work areas to remind employees about the values the company holds most dear?

Code of conduct. Have employees created a code of conduct that exemplifies how core values appear in daily behaviors?  Do employees hold themselves and others mutually accountable for right behaviors? Does the performance evaluation and management system recognize and reward employees for exemplifying core values?

Organizational Purpose.  Does the vision for the company’s future inspire suppliers and key partners as well as employees? Does the company mission clearly state daily commitments in serving the stakeholders?  When employees meet formally to conduct company business, do they review and reinforce the organizational purpose (values, vision, and mission)?

Leadership Philosophy.  Does each employee understand the difference between leadership and management? Is every employee viewed as a leader who has influence upon others?  Does each employee have a defined circle of influence through which he or she can affect change?

Trust and Caring. Is each employee trusted to act as a responsible adult? Have the company shed a 20th century command-and-control management approach for a 21st century trust-and-track leadership approach? Does each and every leader work on building relationships based on trusting and caring for others?  Does the performance evaluation and management system recognize and reward leaders for relationship building? Are leaders who fail to meet this standard assessed, counseled, and coached to develop these skills?  Are leaders who fail to respond to positive development efforts relieved from duties and encouraged to find employment elsewhere?

Learning and Growth. Are employees at all levels taught how to read company financial reports and to assess functional performance related to cost and expense management and revenue generation? Does each employee understand how his or her daily performance contributes to company goals and objectives? Does each employee have an individual development plan that identifies three strengths to be leveraged as well as three improvement areas for the next performance year?

Transparency. Are employees receiving all the necessary daily and weekly information from which to make decisions?  Do employees receive routine, comprehensive reports of company operations they can use to improve service to their internal customers?  Are employees engaged in decision-making at the lowest levels related to cost and expense management as well as revenue generation, if appropriate?

Accountability. Is each employee held accountable for meeting objectives?  Does each employee provide a formal accounting of performance, such as weekly huddles (The Great Game of Business -1992 – by Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham, New York: Currency-Doubleday)?  Responsibility without accountability results in less than optimal performance!

Although answers to some of the above questions may not be easy, they provide a starting point for improving the leadership system within any company.  The eight areas above serve as a framework through which leaders can work during the course of a year.  Some areas are sequential, such as the code of conduct following establishment of core values, while others can run concurrently, such as learning and growth along with transparency.  The keys to success are doing honest assessments, confronting the brutal facts, and pursuing solutions for each response that lacks a definitive “Yes!”

Dr. Ray Benedetto, DM, is a retired USAF Colonel. He founded a consulting firm that helps leaders build high-performing, character-based cultures in addition to his teaching leadership and strategic planning for the University of Phoenix Chicago Campus MBA program. Tom Walter is a serial entrepreneur and nationally recognized speaker on entrepreneurship, leadership and business culture. They are the co-authors of It’s My Company Too! How Entangled Companies Move Beyond Employee Engagement For Remarkable Results. For more information, please visit, www.ItsMyCompanyToo.com.

Secrets of Leadership Success Introduction to the Leadership Success Series

By Susan M. Heathfield, About.com Guide

http://humanresources.about.com/od/leadership/a/leader_success.htm

Key leadership success secrets set the great leaders apart from the so-so leaders in today's organizations. Leadership style is learned from mentors, learned in seminars and exists as part of a person's innate personal leadership skill set developed over years, and existing possibly, from birth. Nature or nurture is a question often asked about leadership. I answer, "yes," because I believe the combination of natural leadership skills and nurture through leadership development defines your leadership style.

Working from personal experience and research, I will define the characteristics of leadership that make great leaders. I envision a series of interlinked articles, each of which focuses on one aspect of leadership.

Leadership differs from management and supervision although some people and organizations use the terms interchangeably. While the definitions of the terms differ, an individual may have the ability to provide all three.

    Supervision means that an individual is charged with providing direction and oversight for other employees. The successful supervisor provides recognition, appreciation, training and feedback to reporting employees.

    Management means to conduct the affairs of business, to have work under control and to provide direction, to guide other employees, to administer and organize work processes and systems, and to handle problems. Managers monitor and control work while helping a group of employees more successfully conduct their work than they would have without her. A manager’s job is often described as providing everything his reporting employees need to successfully accomplish their jobs. One famous quote from Warren Bennis, Ph.D. in On Becoming a Leader distinguishes management from leadership: “Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing.”

    While a supervisor and a manager may also exhibit leadership skill or potential, true leaders are rare. This is because the combination of skills, personality and ambition essential to leadership are difficult to develop and exhibit. According to Don Clark, on his excellent leadership resource, Big Dog's Leadership Page, Bernard "Bass' theory of leadership states that there are three basic ways to explain how people become leaders. The first two explain the leadership development for a small number of people. These theories are:

    Some personality traits may lead people naturally into leadership roles. This is the Trait Theory.
    A crisis or important event may cause a person to rise to the occasion, which brings out extraordinary leadership qualities in an ordinary person. This is the Great Events Theory.
    People can choose to become leaders. People can learn leadership skills. This is the Transformational Leadership Theory.”

The Transformational Leadership Theory is the one I believe is correct for most leaders today. This belief forms the basis for my thinking about leadership.
The Key Leadership Trait

The first, and most important characteristic, of a leader is the decision to become a leader. At some point in time, leaders decide that they want to provide others with vision, direct the course of future events and inspire others to success. Leadership requires the individual to practice dominance and take charge. If you choose to become a leader, whether in your workplace, community or during an emergency, the discussion of these characteristics will help you formulate the appropriate mix of traits, skills and ambition. Successful leaders choose to lead. Unlike Keanu Reeves as Neo in 1999’s smash hit, The Matrix, you get to decide whether you are “the one.” The first characteristic of a leader is Choice - leaders choose to lead.
Characteristics of a Successful Leadership Style

Much is written about what makes successful leaders. I will focus on the characteristics, traits and actions that, I believe, are key.

    Choose to lead. (Current article - you are here.)
    Be the person others choose to follow.
    Provide vision for the future.
    Provide inspiration.
    Make other people feel important and appreciated.
    Live your values. Behave ethically.
    Set the pace through your expectations and example.
    Establish an environment of continuous improvement.
    Provide opportunities for people to grow, both personally and professionally.
    Care and act with compassion.

How Successful Companies Sustain Innovation By Faisal Hoque

http://www.fastcompany.com/3002324/how-successful-companies-sustain-innovation

Innovation is widely regarded as the single most important ingredient in today’s economy. But innovation as a destination isn’t enough.

Sustained innovation is a high-productivity state in which an organization strives to innovate in all aspects of its business, including management, divisions, operations, customers, and suppliers. It requires a seamless, structured management approach that begins with board- and CEO-level leadership and connects all the way through technology investment and implementation. Above all, sustained innovation is a journey, not a destination. The enterprise doesn’t stop innovating after attaining one goal; it’s engaged in a continual process of reinvention, invention, and discovery.
Consider the following three examples:

• The one-hit wonder: The smartphone market is red-hot, with Apple and Samsung engaged in the most fierce race for dominance via product innovation. But let’s not forget the once ubiquitous handheld of choice for most employers and business people: the BlackBerry. A mere five years ago, Research In Motion was one of the most celebrated technology companies in the world, as the BlackBerry, or “CrackBerry” as it became known, led the smartphone market. But the meteoric rise of the iPhone and Android devices has made R.I.M. and its big innovation a relic in a world of constant reinvention.

• Rising from failure: In 1919, Cornelius Vander Starr was the first Westerner to sell insurance to the Chinese, and he did so successfully until Communism drove him and American International Group back to the U.S. in 1949. AIG quickly grew it business globally, and in 1962 Starr gave management of the company's slowing U.S. holdings to Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg, who revitalized the company by moving from personal insurance to high-margin corporate coverage and selling through independent brokers rather than agents to slash those salaries. The company went public in 1969 and continued to thrive until 2005, when AIG became the high-profile subject of fraud investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Justice Department, and New York State Attorney General's Office. Greenberg was booted amid an accounting scandal in February 2005 and the company was battered by a liquidity crisis when its credit ratings were downgraded below "AA" levels in September 2008. Thanks to government bailouts in 2008 and 2009, AIG has bounced back and regained its status as a vital American multinational corporate titan. AIG isn’t taking its rescue for granted. The insurer unveiled a new corporate logo as part of a major rebranding overhaul aimed at its continued growth and success.

• Ongoing success: Pfizer, the world's biggest pharmaceutical company by revenues, constantly develops blockbuster medicines and vaccines with household names like Zithromax, Lipitor, and Viagra. Founded in 1849 as a manufacturer of fine chemicals, Pfizer's discovery of Terramycin a year later launched its successful and ongoing expansion into a research-based pharmaceutical company. The drug maker has augmented its research by building its brands, pipeline, and profile through a series of major acquisitions. The company continues to lead the market with treatments for myriad maladies. Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer’s Bosulif, which treats a rare type of leukemia that usually affects older adults.

3 Principles for Sustained Innovation

Sustained innovation is powered by people who come together to share ideas, compare observations, and brainstorm solutions to complex problems. Enterprises with a strong focus on sustained innovation share three common principles that act as the glue binding people together in productive collaboration. They are:

1. Converged disciplines: Ideas aren’t isolated; they’re celebrated in groups that enable the entire organization to act as one entity. Of particular importance is the convergence of business and technology management to ensure that no one unit or division is missing the opportunity to capitalize on new ideas and possibilities.

2. Cross-boundary collaboration: No enterprise operates in a vacuum. Every manager, employee, and contractor potentially has a piece of the puzzle to create a new breakthrough business opportunity. Suppliers, partners, distributors, and customers are an equally valuable source of information and ideas.

3. Innovative business structure: Not every organization can empower an unstructured development culture like the Lunatic Fringe who led innovation at groundbreaking tech pioneer Texas Instruments; most require structure that compels convergence of disciplines, management, and operational units.
To bring these principles to life, enterprises operating with sustained innovation focus on three distinct, intimately related practices that require business/technology/management convergence to perform at a high level of organizational maturity.

Sustained Innovation Playbook

Designing and operating organizations capable of sustained innovation requires a playbook that demands a systemic process constructed around the following core steps:
• Listen broadly for ideas through vision, innovation, and external networks. Listen to the customer. Listen to the front lines in your organization.
• Understand who your actual and potential customers are, what they want and need, what they will need, and why those needs have not yet been met.
• Organize the innovation team to include those with a stake in the innovation, organize the innovation program, and organize the resources and investments needed to address the problem.
• Create an environment and capability for innovation by giving the team the ability to fail. Create many alternative solutions by leveraging the cascaded innovation lifecycle.
• Experiment and learn from failure. Conduct many experiments in parallel, using prototyping and other iterative, feedback-driven techniques.
• Listen again to the customer to help them imagine. Use prototypes to elicit feedback. Listen to customer acceptance/buying criteria. Listen to what could go wrong, but don’t let the devil’s advocate take control.
• Design the concepts to address customer-centric values, such as cost, intuitive use, ease of change, and sense of enhancement.
• Implement the final go/no-go decision. Consolidate or eliminate competing alternatives to a manageable number. Send concepts back for reinvention, retesting, or redesign. Implement the second stage of the innovation lifecycle: manifestation
.
Get Out of the Garage

Sure, some people work better alone. But most people are more prolific as part of a team or extended community of ideas and talents that fosters some of the world’s most important inventions. Garage inventors can’t possibly compete with myriad breakthroughs born from sustained, systemic innovation. The first single chip microprocessor publicly introduced by Intel in 1971, the first car safety air bags offered in the 1973 model Chevrolet, and the depression game changer drug Prozac in 1988, are all considered great innovations developed and perfected by teams, not individuals. Even Oppenheimer needed the Manhattan Project team to create the atomic bomb. The true test of sustained innovation isn’t the invention itself, but the ultimate and ongoing benefit produced by the innovation for the business.

Discipline and innovation are not opposites, but complements. Establishing an innovation culture consumes a great deal of organizational energy in overcoming the forces of inertia and entropy. But once an idea has been successfully commercialized, respected champions emerge to drive new sources of the energy, creativity, discipline, and resources that sustain and grow an enduring culture of innovation. Successful organizations manage innovation from concept to commercialization so that good ideas not only get created, but also continually find their way into the products and services portfolio.

--Faisal Hoque is founder, chairman, and CEO at BTM Corporation and founder of research think tank BTM Institute. His newest book is The Power of Convergence. Follow him on Twitter @faisal_hoque.

Inside the Successful Leader's Mindset

As a business leader, you are mired in the everyday details of your company's success. You're worried about your bottom line, your sales goals, or your next board meeting. Amid the chaos, it's easy to forget that intangibles -- like your beliefs -- play an important role in your success.

The most successful entrepreneurs share a set of core beliefs that help them persevere as they grow their businesses. These four tips will promote a positive mindset and increase your chances of success:

1. Trust that you'll adapt to new challenges. Successful entrepreneurs approach uncertainty with confidence. When faced with an unfamiliar challenge, they think of similar situations they've handled before or skills sets that might apply. "Focus on the abilities you do have and apply your general knowledge to whatever comes your way," says Matthew Della Porta, a positive psychologist and organizational consultant.

If you focus on your current skills and your ability to learn new ones, you'll be less likely to feel overwhelmed. "Trust your ability to adapt," Della Porta says.

2. Attribute your success to hard work, not luck. Successful leaders believe their achievements are due to hard work, not just lucky circumstance. "That's a result of self-efficacy," Della Porta says, meaning that people who believe they've worked hard trust their ability to master new or unfamiliar skills.

Leaders who are confident in their ability to learn are more likely to seek out and persevere through tough challenges, increasing their chances of success.

3. Believe that you are unique. Every great entrepreneur stands on the shoulders of giants, but successful leaders champion their individuality. In other words, they don't try to become "the next Steve Jobs." To be successful, learn from the people you admire but don't try to emulate them.

"You need to focus on being the first you, not the next someone else," Della Porta says. If you foster the unique strengths that you bring to the table, then you will be far more likely to stand out in a crowded industry.

4. Challenge your negative beliefs. If you want to succeed, stamp out negative beliefs that might be holding you back. "People have a tendency to self-handicap," Della Porta says. For example, an executive who believes he won't meet his sales goals is more likely to prioritize other tasks, giving him a preemptive excuse for a poor performance. His belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Notice the goals or tasks that you shy away from and articulate your beliefs about them. Challenge any negative thoughts by reminding yourself that you will succeed if you apply yourself. When your beliefs are confident and positive, your actions will promote success.

Employee Recognition of the Week

Congratulations to Alex, Jamie, and Christopher! for being nationally recognized in the top 20 most productive reps in the country. Great job, Keep up the good work!

This Month's Employee Recognitions

Congrats to on your recent promotions Alexandra, Gary and Doug! Great job stepping it up. We look forward to what you will accomplish in the coming months. Keep up the great work!


Congratulations Jamie for being the top performing client representative in the nation! Great Job!! Keep up the good work!


Congrats to the entire team at Infinite for bringing our client more revenue than any other vendor in the nation. 

We are looking forward to a strong finish to the year!

 

Infinite Partipates in Charity Dodgeball Tournament for Operation Smile

Infinite traveled to Miami for an annual retreat hosted by its client broker.  The weekend was hosted at Miami Beach's Eden Roc Hotel.  In addition to client hosted dinners, talent contest and awards ceremony, attendees participated in a charity dodgeball tournament.

The tournament raised $3600 for Operation Smile.

Operation Smile, a non-profit organization founded in 1982, is an international charity for children.  The organization is a mobilized group of doctors and nurses who provide reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate.

Since inception, Operation Smile has created a presence in over 60 countries and has helped more than 2 million people with evaluations as well as conducted over 200,000 free surgeries.

The dodgeball tournament involved several teams of 6 competing in a best out of three bracket style competition.  Each team paid an entry fee of $100 to play.  One hundred percent of the donated entry fees went to Operation Smile.  

Congrats Jess! On Winning The National Talent Show At Client Conference

Congrats to our talented Human Resource Director for winning first prize in the talent show at the Eden Roc.  Great Job!!

Have fun with your $1000 grand prize!

Infinite Travels To Miami For Business, Charity, And Fun

Infinite with Execs from across the country hanging out on the beach in Miami

Jess winning the national talent show!  Good job!

From the Battlefield to the Boardroom: A Navy SEAL's Guide to Business Leadership Success

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2012/09/18/from-the-battlefield-to-the-boardroom-a-navy-seals-guide-to-business-leadership-success-part-1-of-3/

Former Navy SEAL combat veteran and passionate entrepreneur, Brent Gleeson, is the co-founder and CMO of Internet Marketing Inc. You can follow him on Twitter at @BrentGleeson.


I spent five years as a Navy SEAL supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom and the war on terror. During “capture or kill” missions in Iraq and clandestine operations in Northern Africa, I gained a unique perspective on teamwork, leadership, and what it takes to succeed in a competitive and challenging environment. What I didn’t realize at the time was that my experiences in combat had given me a highly valuable and applicable set of tools that translated well to entrepreneurship and leadership in business.

In Part 1 of this blog series, I will focus on six important aspects of military leadership that are critical to building a business, a driven team, and profitable organization.

    Mission Communication: Defining Reality for Your Team - There are three things you have to do well to be a SEAL operator: Move, shoot, and communicate.  While all three are important, communication is the most crucial. When we would call up the chain of command saying “pass the word,” that meant, “tell us what the hell is going on!” Sound familiar? When the team understood the big picture and everyone knew their specific roles in accomplishing the mission, we were always set up for success. In a business, when the team has a clear vision of where the company has been and where it’s headed, and more importantly how their contribution to the end goal matters, they will have a much deeper sense of ownership.

    Mission Planning: Strategizing in a Chaotic Environment – Many factors affect the outcome of any great plan. However, a great plan is worthless without proper execution. Planning for contingencies is imperative in combat as well as in business. There are many factors at play in our new economy. These externalities we face in running a growing business include the impact of emerging technologies, economic shifts, generational gaps among employees, and dynamic industry conditions. These factors can create a chaotic environment in which planning becomes even more critical. Any great special operations team or professional athlete will envision what winning looks like before they go on their mission or start their race.  Define what winning really looks like to your team outside of just the financial aspects.  I am a big believer in a one-page business plan that keeps things simple, focuses on your top priorities, and leaves flexibility to change as conditions evolve.

    Mission Team: Maximizing Engagement and Inspiring Innovation – One of the most interesting differentiators about the special operations community, and specifically the SEAL teams, is they are rather flat organizations. The traditional military is more like corporate America, where special ops is similar to the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship. Team guys, as SEALs often refer to themselves as, are generally very well educated (most enlisted SEALs have college degrees), freethinking professionals who have an unstoppable will to succeed. We, as leaders, must learn how to inspire our team members within our organizations to have the same drive and enthusiasm that we do. As Dwight D. Eisenhower once said: “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because they want to do it.”

    Mission Structure: Respecting the Chain of Command – The special ops’ community is known for its casual culture and the common respect shared between all team members whether enlisted or officer. Everyone follows the same grueling path to become a SEAL.  That said, chain of command is still critical especially when bullets start flying. Having a team of free thinkers is good, but the direction still needs to come from the top. Respecting the chain of command is not just a bottom-up philosophy. It is just as important for senior leaders to respect the chain of command from the top down. Not doing so by going around middle management not only destroys the fabric of authority, but also causes mass confusion. Never disrespect the chain of command by going around your middle managers.  If you find yourself doing so you most likely need to examine your personal leadership style or ask yourself if you truly trust middle management.

    Mission Debrief:  Allowing Your Team to Have a Real Voice and Offer Transparent Feedback - One of the things that really builds camaraderie in the SEALs is that we can always count on our fellow team members to tell us when we screwed up! There is always an after action review or mission debrief…always a review of the tough lessons learned from each mission. This is how we have constantly improved our tactics. In the same way, successful business leaders learn as much from their failures as their successes. But as long as you collect the right intelligence and properly apply what you have learned to the next situation, you can ensure more successes than failures down the road.  Build a culture around transparency and encourage anonymous feedback with 360 degree reviews.

    Mission Training:  Preparing for the Next Mission - Always be learning and always be training.  A SEAL team will rehearse every single mission prior to execution without fail.  As mentioned above, once the mission is completed, one of the most important elements in the mission debrief is the discussion of “lessons learned.” What are we going to take away from this operation to help us improve as a team and always develop as an organization?  The most successful companies are often the most innovative.  So how do they become innovative? They do so by encouraging and supporting growth, providing resources for constant learning, and rewarding creativity.  People succeed when they are inspired and excited to come to work.  When we love what we do, it’s not work.  This is what we want from our talent and it’s up to us as leaders to ensure they have it.

How to be Successful Before Breakfast - Tom Fox

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-fox/how-to-be-successful-befo_b_1846255.html

Laura Vanderkam is a nationally recognized writer whose focus is on helping her readers rediscover their true passions and beliefs in pursuit of more meaningful lives. She is the author of the new book What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast. Vanderkam spoke with Tom Fox, who writes the Washington Post's Federal Coach blog and is the director of the Partnership for Public Service's Center for Government Leadership.

Can you share some of your favorite anecdotes about how successful people use their mornings to accomplish tasks?

I learned that successful people know that mornings are a great time for getting things done. They are the high-impact activities that are important but aren't urgent--like exercise, strategic career thinking, creative work and even focused time with your family.

One of my favorite anecdotes came from a university administrator who had trouble getting things done because of her open-door policy. People would come in her office every few minutes. She figured out a way to fix this. Her daughter played water polo, so she had to be at the pool before 7 a.m. Rather than just bring her daughter to practice and then go home, she decided to go to work.

She would use that early morning quiet time to do focused, big tasks she had to get done because no one was interrupting her at 7 a.m., and then later in the day she would deal with email. She joked that she was doing more before breakfast than she used to get done in a week.

What tips do you have for federal employees who may not have a daughter playing water polo?

Often times, we are not aware of how much time is passing between when we wake up and when we actually start work. I tell people to picture what the perfect morning would look like. What are things you're not doing in your life that you'd like to be doing more of? And are there ways that you can make those things happen in the morning? Work through the logistics and map out a morning schedule. The harder part, of course, is turning it into a habit.

What obstacles do leaders face in implementing this sort of morning plan?

I think the biggest problem is that people wake up in the morning and don't want to get out of bed, and often that is because they've gone to bed too late. The solution to morning problems lies in the night before. The evenings can get away from you. We get distracted on the Internet, watching television or puttering around the house. It is better to give yourself a bed time and then you can reclaim some of those morning hours for something that really would move your life forward and help you achieve your goals.

From your experience, why do so many people struggle with time management?

Since the hours will be filled by something no matter what we do, sometimes it's easier to just go with it and let life happen to you. A lot of problems with time management stem from not thinking about how we'd like to use our time. We just accept that our time is what it is, as opposed to viewing it as a result of the various decisions that we've made over the years.

To quote the late Stephen Covey and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, begin with the end in mind. People don't think about how they spend their time and what their big goals are. The biggest time management problems are not spending too much time on Facebook or running errands. People often ask things like "How can I spend less time emptying the dishwasher?" That's not what time management is about. It's about getting the big things right and making sure that you're investing the right number of hours in things that are important to you.

What keys to success can federal managers learn from highly productive people?

Keep a time log so you can see where the time really goes. From looking at the time logs of extremely successful people, I've learned that they focus on three categories: nurturing their career, nurturing their family and nurturing themselves. As much as possible, they ignore, minimize or outsource everything else. It's not that these people are racing around from one thing to the next. Instead, they are choosing to do things in their down-time that are meaningful and important to them.

Who do you consider to be your role models?

She's not a household name, but I've gotten to know an entrepreneur named Amanda Steinberg. She runs an email financial newsletter called DailyWorth. What I find so fascinating is that she started the company basically the same week she gave birth to her second child. She has shown how you can build a successful small business while also spending a lot of time with your children. Just seeing how people make time for everything that really matters to them has helped me to realize there is nothing incompatible with achieving great things in your personal and professional lives at the same time.

This post was originally featured on The Washington Post's website.