Newsletter: Farrier Industry Report | February 2006

Four Leadership Crucibles | by William Cottringer
Today, success in any business requires what fellow author Jim Collins calls, “going from good to great.” Doing this involves understanding and practicing transformational leadership behavior. There are four crucibles of such behavior to learn and apply in being successful in your business.

Be A Perpetual Learner
If you don’t read one business book and several trade journals every week, participate in one monthly professional organization and attend a yearly professional development seminar, you are going to fall so far behind the learning curve that you will soon be obsolete. Good business leaders know a lot and maintain efficiency; great leaders keep learning and improving what Peter Drucker calls effectiveness—doing the right things in the right way. Make a firm commitment to keep learning and become a great business leader.

Being committed to lifelong learning and improvement requires one important attitude. This attitude is what the successful basketball coach John Wooden identifies as, “You don’t know anything until you know how much you don’t know.” Put another way in the common admonition by authors of books such as “Business Think,” “check your ego at the door.” Or an earlier human potential pearl of wisdom is appropriate too, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Learn, learn and keep learning, and grow from good to great.

Boost Your Thinking IQ
Thinking expert Robert Sternberg came up with the term successful thinking. This is thinking that combines analytical, creative and common sense thinking to get the best results. There are several practical ideas on boosting your thinking IQ, including learning how to ask good questions, looking below the surface to understand all the inter-relationships that are going on, actively validating assumptions, consciously looking for evidence to disprove your favorite beliefs, and learning to tolerate ambiguity and tentativeness. Mental flexibility is the key.

The bottom line is that you don’t have to be born with an IQ of 150 or graduate with a Ph.D. from Harvard to be smart. Being smart is just using what you know and can learn to help you get to where you are going, faster and easier. Sometimes you don’t need more information. You just need to use what you already know in more clever ways. Quality thinking will always result in successful behavior.

Explore Your Creativity
As children, we are all born with a good supply of creativity, but schools and society subtly discourage creativity because it is so difficult to judge fairly and accurately. Fortunately, there are unlimited ways to re-invent your creativity as an adult. Start with how you define creativity.

Try this simple definition: Creativity is the simple process of looking at ordinary things and seeing important truths to communicate clearly to others. As John Maxwell says, “creativity can also just be adding something new and different to someone else’s ideas.” Of course we all know that the real challenge of our creativity is to see new light sources during the dark times, like business failures and lean economic times.

Many leadership books today focus on principles. Pick up any general psychology book and see the many practical psychology principles that years of research have uncovered for your use in creatively resolving common business problems like sales stagnation, employee turnover, customer complaints and organizational communication. Also take the time to list all the operating principles that govern life and people that you have learned over the years. Then explore your own creativity by looking for new and unusual ways to apply some of these principles to resolve real life problems in your current business.

Become More Likable
Many researchers have amassed a mountain of data showing the connection between a person’s likability and success. There are several characteristics that influence people to perceive others as either likable or unlikable. The top five likability characteristics are sense of humor, attractiveness, up-beat positive attitude, honesty and good listening ability. The five characteristics generally producing a perception of unlikability are dishonesty, rudeness, inability to control negative behavior, arrogance and insensitivity towards others.

Becoming more likable is something definitely under your control and a worthy personal and business goal. Do an inventory on yourself as to how well you stack up against the likability research, start getting some honest feedback about how others perceive you, and then contract with a trusted friend to pay him or her $10 every time you display an unlikable behavior. You should have it under control within 21 days according to the best behavioral change research.

Practice these four leadership crucibles and take your business success from good to great.

Bill Cottringer is a business success coach and college teacher in Collinsville, Ill., and is author of “You Can Have Your Cheese & Eat It Too.” This article was adapted from a lecture given at the Boeing Leadership Center and reprinted in Executive Excellence Magazine.

© St. Louis Small Business Monthly, The Source for Business Owners July 2003.

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Letter from the President
With the Holidays behind us, it is time once again to work on planning clinics, printing catalogs and stocking the shelves for the New Year. If the healthy state of the horse industry and stabilization of steel prices are any indication, I expect that 2006 will be another successful year for our industry.

The upcoming AFA/FIA Tradeshow in Omaha promises to be one of the biggest ever, and we hope to see many of you there. Both the FIA and the AFA will be celebrating anniversaries, which means that there will be several events celebrating these special occasions. In addition, the horse owning public has once again been invited to attend the convention and MarketPlace on Saturday. This went over very well in Chattanooga last year, and more of these folks are expected to attend in Omaha.

You will not want to miss the membership breakfast meeting on Friday morning. This will be your opportunity to cast that last minute ballot, find out about this year’s business conference and enjoy another great speaker after a nice breakfast. We will also have an open-floor discussion should you want to voice your thoughts.

Your FIA leadership is working for you, and we encourage your input and suggestions to make the association even better. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any concerns you may have.

Respectfully,
Remco van der Linden
President

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MarketPlace News
Can you believe; only 6 weeks until we all meet in Omaha, Nebraska to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Farrier Industry Association and attend the FIA/AFA MarketPlace. Booths have been going fast. We have less than 10 left, so if you have not reserved your space, now is the time!  Don’t be left out on what is assured to be another great MarketPlace.

A special note to those who will sell at the MarketPlace: Sales Tax forms must be completed prior to the convention. Anyone who sells and collects sales tax must complete a form and submit to the state to receive a temporary tax license. The forms were sent out with the confirmations so please check that you have the proper paperwork filled out before your arrival.

As usual, we will be moving in the trailers and trucks first before the carpeting is laid down. Should you have any special needs for move in, please contact me in advance if possible and we will do everything we can to accommodate your needs.
There is plenty of room for moving in but please note that the facility will not provide dollies, pallet jacks, etc. but we can bring our own so plan ahead.

We look forward to seeing you on February 22 for move in. If you have any questions regarding move in or move out, please contact Kathy at the FIA office or myself. See you soon.

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FIA Business Conference Report
Now that the tan has finally worn off from the last conference, we are in the process of planning our next great FIA business conference. For those of you that gave our new format a whirl and attended the 2005 Conference on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, you already know what a great adventure and learning experience  it was.

For those that may have been hesitant about sailing the seas, we are planning a land-based conference for this year. Have no fear … we are not reverting back to the old sterile boardroom.

It will be held at a resort that will offer fun and learning for members as well as entertainment for the rest of the family. If you are planning a trip to the AFA convention in Omaha, please plan on attending the membership breakfast meeting. There will be brief presentation which will offer more details of the upcoming conference.

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New FIA Members
Afton Farrier Supply
Blackwater Forge Inc.
Bloom Forge
Five Star Forge Farrier Supply
Hammer Industries
J H Forge
Palm Beach Farrier Supply, Inc.
PonyW'air Inc
Ridley Nutrition Solutions
Tucson School of Horseshoeing
Way Better Apron Makers