This may be the most important email you read today, especially because it is Friday and you can challenge yourself with this issue over the weekend.  

Almost every leader has made these mistakes...

• You promoted someone into a leadership role who has not been trained how to be a manager.  They are doing okay, but clearly could be much better if they had better leadership habits and processes.
• You have a seasoned manager who is not as productive as you would like or is causing unnecessary drama in your workplace.
• You are so busy and working so hard, but you have this nagging feeling your company could be doing better.
• You have issues with your partner(s).
• And here's the one that really hurts:  If you want to be candid, you are part of the problem, if not THE problem.  This is because you are a self-made leader.  You listen to advice, but have never engaged with a coach or mentor with full accountability to address your weaknesses and improve your strengths.

There is a solution to these problems, but it involves training and coaching for about two hours a week for six months.  

• Do you feel you could be better?
• How about each of your managers?  Could any of them improve?
• Most of us would answer "yes," if we are honest.

But you do not have time to train someone, and hesitate to make a 2 hour a week commitment in your already full schedule...

Ask yourself a simple question, and answer it! What is the financial impact on your firm if the leader(s) you believe could be better, actually got trained and improved? STOP and calculate the value of that improvement.

Is it...  one more sale? Happier clients and one more six figure project? The financial results of improving the productivity of an employee or team? The savings of retaining a good employee rather than lose him/her? The list goes on.  The financial impact of leadership is HUGE.

But...  your company has not developed management training or a mentoring program.

The answer is you practice what you preach:  Outsource the training to get the help you need to structure better accountability within your management team so your company can improve.

MANAGEtoWIN has the only Certified LEADER training program for managed service providers and another technology entrepreneurs. I would compare our program with the best from Google, HP, and any other tech leader.  

What do we teach?  I will send it out to you next Tuesday.  Do it on your own if you do not believe in outsourcing to experts. For now, students in our Certified LEADER program:

1. Confirm their strengths and work to expand upon them.
2. Identify weaknesses and learn new habits to overcome them.
3. Define and achieve an individual learning plan.
4. Take a test to earn their certification at the end of the program.
5. Join leaders who are attending because of the positive change they have seen in their peers who have become Certified LEADERS in our earlier programs.

Watch for my tips on what I believe are the core attributes of great leaders - the skills and habits we teach in our Certified LEADER program.  I will send these to you next Tuesday.

Our next Certified LEADER class is 30% full at the moment.  Sign-up to work on specific weaknesses you have in your leadership, and to further build upon your strengths.