zmotion

~ “Management is doing things right . . . Leadership is doing the right things.”  Peter F. Drucker

Being a leader means that an individual has made some quality decisions to move in a certain direction and to accomplish well-defined goals. A leader identifies all the specific tasks required and every skill set required to complete the process. Leaders possess the wisdom to know that a company of individuals must be assembled to be able to accomplish the multitude of details which are necessary to produce the quantity and quality of workmanship to achieve sustainable results in this enterprise.

Leaders are absorbed in designing a master plan, orchestrating the intricacies of that plan and motivating others to help accomplish that plan. Knowing that it would be impossible to oversee every detail of the plan alone, a leader must entrust the execution of the plan to other leaders who are empowered with the delegated authority to oversee their respective areas of the plan. At the same time the leader is responsible for every aspect of the plan as it develops. “Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too.” Robert Half

Leadership has its styles. Fortunately or unfortunately, leadership style or philosophy has everything to do with the end result of a project or enterprise. What I am about to share with you represents my views on leadership and what is necessary to have successful projects within a successful enterprise.

Understand the Task ~ “Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.” Aristotle. Everyone involved in a project has a series of tasks to perform. A leader must understand the end result of each task. Since the leader knows the end result of the task, he will have to communicate effectively with the one assigned to the task in order for it to turn out like the leader conceptualized it. If the right individuals are assigned to the jobs for which they are best suited, understanding the specific tasks will be easily grasped, the execution of the tasks will be accomplished and both leader and workers will eventually come to a mutual understanding of how the task is best accomplished.

Give Autonomy ~ Theodore Roosevelt said, “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” While individuals all need guidance from time to time, they need to feel that they can be trusted to do what needs to be done and that they have the intelligence and ability to draw on their experience to solve challenges as they arise. “Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” George S. Patton. People will surprise you with their initiative when given the opportunity. If the leader, however, is negatively surprised with the results, it can be a growth opportunity for the worker –- or not.

Innovate Constantly ~ One of the first signs of the decline of a company is that everything is the boring same, day after day drudgery. There are repetitive procedures that are essential to the success of a project. Hopefully, they could be performed by a machine. Part of the dynamic of a successful company is its ability to produce new and better products or services on a continual basis. Today, much of the innovation should involve the company in socially responsible thinking.

This only happens where the personnel of a company have motivation to grow and learn and develop. The same is true of a leader. A constant exposure to market trends, new ideas, the innovations of competitors and, sometimes, just experiencing real life situations, stimulate innovative thinking and application to the project at hand. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Steve Jobs

Focus on Quality ~ Quantitative results can be impressive, but at the expense of quality, they can be disastrous. Quality involves high level workmanship and consistent product excellence. When I was younger, I worked on an assembly line of an automobile manufacturer. I had the task of being the first on the line to build the seats to the car. If a seat frame was twisted or damaged, it was my decision to begin building the seat with an imperfect frame or throw it under the line to be replaced later by quality control. There were a few times I threw a distorted frame under the line only to have somebody tell me to pull it back on the line, saying that it didn’t matter, because it wasn’t a top of the line car. I didn’t work there long, but I decided to never buy one of those cars. Quality matters –- in any task you’re doing. “Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.” Tony Robbins

Continuously Learn and Teach ~ “Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.” Benjamin Franklin. A leader has to be a few steps ahead of those he’s leading, which means constant study. Well-informed employees do better work, help solve more problems, offer more creative suggestions, come up with more intelligent solutions than uneducated employees. Of course, you’re not going to have a PhD doing unskilled labor, but if that employee came into the company with an elementary level education, the employee can be promoted to a more responsible position as higher levels of education are attained. It’s good to have a well-informed workforce, especially if the educational opportunities came from the company. It will prove to be mutually beneficial to the employees and the company.

Treat Workers as Assets ~ You could put employees on either side of the balance sheet — and you should. Wages are an expense, but good employees increase the value of a company because they consistently do high quality work with high efficiency and they generate high quality products and services. Perspective can change the ordinary to extraordinary.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams

Lily pads multiply exponentially. They begin growing in the spring with very sparse coverage and by late summer they can look like this. One day you could come to the pond and where you saw gaps yesterday, the whole pond is covered today.

The recession has made living a greener life more fashionable. People are cutting back on driving, exercising more, eating healthier and even taking up gardening to save money –- or just to be current. Making that a more enduring lifestyle is easier than changing the marketplace, but only because of individual initiative. The energy of that initiative could just be the catalyst that propels us into a greener society.

We may be on the cusp of a real paradigm shift that will take us back to organic healthy practices, lift us up to be more responsible citizens and launch us into the creativity of more efficient, greener products that advance us to greater heights of achievement and quality of life.

At the moment less than 20% of our Fortune 500 corporations have really made green strides, even though all companies have at least dabbled in green or have fulfilled the required greener compliance adjustments. What we are beginning to discover, however, is that there is a fresh approach to the marketplace. A common awareness of the problems associated with a non-green mindset and the possibilities that greener products and practices provide is becoming the correctional modifier that engenders spontaneous collaboration of management, workforce and consumers to set new standards and, simultaneously, create real growth in the economy. It would not be the first time that remediation measures resulted in a pressure cooker environment that re-invigorates a fresh approach to a quagmire of repetitious activity and gives birth to a sustained renewal.

Trade shows are mushrooming with green ideas that have been turned into green products and innovative solutions. If you haven’t been to one recently, take my suggestion to attend and make a mental note of all the innovative ideas that are being brought into the marketplace. Yes, there’s much work yet to be done, especially in the US. The average American still consumes twice as much fuel each year as the average European. We’re pretty spoiled. We have large houses and several cars and we use them to make lots of trips to buy any little thing and shop for the next thing that catches our eye.

Not that those things are so bad, but if we could convert some of that energy into personal productivity and consciously seek ways to green up, we could absolutely regain what has been lost in our economy. At the same time we would live longer, healthier, happier lives. What we would find is a new passion for living emerging from within. Creative juices would begin to surprise us with new ideas and innovations. Sensitivity for the burdens of others would cause us to make a real difference in our home, our workplace and our community.

Even now, this can be witnessed to some degree in corporate America. More companies are working on sustainability standards for their own company and then assuming the leadership to show their suppliers how to make greener products, biodegradable packaging, greener, less toxic chemicals and other areas that are still being defined.

A good illustration of this is triple-concentrated laundry detergent. It does a better job cleaning, costs less and is chemically less toxic to the environment than the product it replaced. On the shelf it might look like it costs more, but if you do the math you will see the savings.

Green advancements in lighting is another area where leaps are taking place. LED’s (light emitting diodes) are super-efficient bulbs that use 10 to 30 times less energy than incandescent bulbs. They may seem a bit pricey, but they last for 35,000 hours –- at 3 hours a day average, that’s over 25 years. Incandescent bulbs last only about 1,000 hours. Even if you were to spend $20 for one of these 6-watt bulbs (equivalent of a 60-watt incandescent bulb), you are saving money in just a very short time.

That, my friend, is crossing the rubicon of irreversible green momentum. One green idea sparks another and one day, when you least expect it, economic and environmental recovery becomes a reality.

The Benefit Corporation is an answer to an evident problem. Corporations rise and fall with the quarterly earnings report. Corporate directors and executives are responsible for only one thing – a nice fat bottom line for the shareholders. It is a driving force and when safety and the environment would urge more cautious progress — as we have been witnessing with the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster — all the warnings get cast aside to bring in the mother lode.

The game takes some effort and ruthless determination, but the rules are simple: push the profits up and push the cost of doing business down — you win. Let profitability slip a few points below forecasts — you lose. The pressure is so high that you might find yourself on the street looking for a new job because of an unexpected bobble. It doesn’t matter if the public or the environment or even your own employees suffer because of your decisions that fatten the company coffers. You have not broken any laws and, most of all, you have satisfied the one criteria that reflects the goals of corporate perfection.

US corporate law states that it is the legal obligation of the directors and officers of a company to serve the interests of its shareholders. The only way to protect the public from avaricious corporate behavior is to change corporate law. A handful of states have adopted a new category of corporation called the Benefit Corporation. It made its debut in 2008 and over 300 companies have signed on to become a Bcorp. To instill public confidence in corporations, we will most likely see more and more states offering the B corp designation and very likely by 2011 hundreds more corporations will be opting for the alternative to get their B badge.

What does it mean to be a B Corp? ~

So who wants to be a B? A list of corporations that now have official B status are proudly displayed on bcorporation.net. A Benefit Corporation will be rewarded with tax incentives and it will maintain its status through its commitment to responsible and sustainable business practices, efforts to care for the environment, participation in community projects and the general safety and benefit of its employees. Its leadership is still expected to be profitable and to achieve short term goals, but more importantly, to focus on long term goals.

Innovation should result in the benefit of all. Whatever benefits a community will ultimately benefit the individuals in the community. Whatever benefits the environment will at some point benefit humanity. Whatever benefits humanity will result in sustainability.

Two prime examples of Benefit Corporations are Greyston Bakery ~

and Southern Energy Management ~

An investment should be more than just an instrument to gain personal wealth. Of course, if you didn’t believe it would be profitable, it wouldn’t be a wise move. Right? What if you were to think of your investment as an action/belief statement about your core values? What you do with your money actually says more about what you believe than what you say.

If you know that the capital you invest is going to result in harm to innocent people, but you do it anyway because it is reported to give a good return — well, you know what that is. It’s just wrong! Something doesn’t have to be illegal to be wrong. Why not make a quality decision to invest in ventures that accomplish what you believe in?

I believe that I can only commit the resources at my disposal – time, energy, money – into products or businesses that are sustainable, life-giving and socially responsible. I wholeheartedly recommend that you do the same. I have put a great deal of thought, research and soul searching into ideas that will benefit the world we live in and future generations. I believe that we must turn the corner – effect paradigm shifts and make the hard decisions that our grandchildren will enjoy and, hopefully, we will be able to enjoy.

Want a great example? Meet a company that has become a world leader in solar energy manufacturing and installation — First Solar, headquartered in Tempe, Arizona. They are a publicly traded company and I quote from their own company release, “Protecting the environment and conserving natural resources are at the forefront of First Solar’s mission and core values.” Over 2 gigawatts of solar electric power has been produced by them and they just had a record-breaking year.

Because of their commitment to manufacture and install low-cost, high output, high longevity products, they are not only a major producer of renewable energy products, but they are pushing toward the goal of lowering the cost of solar panels to under $1/watt. Additionally, they have established an aggressive program to recover and recycle damaged or replaced product from previous installations so that sustainability is inevitable.

Green building practices, green agriculture, green energy, green industry, fresh water projects are all sustainable endeavors for the economy of future generations. Markets will reflect the decisions that investors make. We haven’t even begun to see what can happen in 10, 20, 50 years if we make up our minds to do it and to devote whatever resources we can into it.

Green is here to stay. It’s not just a hot fad. It is key to the future of all life on earth. The real question that should be asked and is being asked more and more is “How do we plan and how do we invest so that we grow an economy that is truly sustainable?”

Because demand is outstripping production, the petroleum industry will dry up and give way to the growth of green energy. This is inevitable, regardless of my opinion or yours. Peak Oil studies done 50 years ago are playing out in current events today. I believe renewable energy resources such as wind, solar and geothermal are clearly the most promising alternatives, but bio-fuels and biomass technologies may also play important roles in future markets.

As recent as 60 years ago, enormous tracts of land were deteriorating from fertile timber growth to barren land because of deforestation practices. There was no plan for reforestation. There was no forethought of soil conservation practices. Soil erosion further complicated the reversal of this natural dilemma and made it difficult to reforest on degraded soil. Fortunately, the timber industry began to plan and develop strategies that were not only green, but financially sustainable. The result – green investments systematically transformed the timber industry into one of the most stable markets on earth.

Nature has phenomenal recuperative abilities, but the unrelenting extraction of natural resources has demonstrated that some resources can never be replaced.  Once consumed and turned into carbon gases and particulate matter, there is no recycling of petroleum-based fuels. Implementing every possible plan to encourage the use of renewable fuels is a step towards rebuilding global economics. Just as a methodical reforestation plan to replace cut timber with new trees and better growing and harvesting methods, energy plans can do the same thing. There are some situations where there is no possible means of a reversal, but there are paradigm shifts that can avert disaster and create growth.

Every plan has its subtle differences, but the common thread is the intentional strategic investment of time, energy and capital that captures the vision of perpetual growth and viable sustainability. There will always be consumable products, but the industries that produce consumables must exercise wisdom and understanding. They must employ green business practices and socially responsible thinking to assure the continuity of the natural resources that feed their industry.

It is my belief that these types of business strategies make green money a good investment. These good investment practices create sustainable financial markets. The industrial revolution may have turned us all into consumers, but we can become conscientious consumers. Why not, then, go ahead and make the effort to become producers, providers and investors in a green economy?

Small Loan Programs for Budding Entrepreneurs

Repaying loans gives people dignity and confidence. It stimulates goal setting and creativity.  It boosts the integrity of the recipient with a greater chance for responsibility and respectability. Accepting donations makes people feel dependent and powerless. These simple truths have attracted many to get involved in microcredit programs. It is key to the sustainability of thriving communities.

You can see it in the eyes of the borrowers as they complete an application, qualify for and receive a loan, run a small business, repay the lien and apply for another loan. It is a cycle that gives borrowers a strength they could never get from a handout. Microcredit organizations like Grameen Bank, Kiva and Accion are already changing the lives of thousands with these small loans. The initiative of microcredit is capable of establishing the financial health of communities and nations.

We are not far from the day when both small and major investors can have the satisfaction of knowing their money is financing the expansion of sustainable entrepreneurial endeavors as well as paying a return. The International Financial Advisory Group to the Microcredit Industry, which has members with backgrounds in accounting, finance, business and microcredit, is committed to making that possible.

After financing a number of entrepreneurial endeavors the next step is tapping the larger funding sources. Most microcredit organizations depend on donations when they start, but once an organization is a few years old and has documented its ability to recover loans, it can raise money in the financial markets. To do that microcredit organizations must keep meticulous records in accordance with standard accounting practices. A common accounting framework is the CAMEL system, which documents the Capital, Assets, Management, Earnings and Liquidity of an organization.

With accountability in place a relatively small organization with reliable contacts in foreign locations could be financing a multitude of entrepreneurs and revolutionize the economy of targeted regions.

Until very recently, the overwhelming opinion of the financial world has been that green energy is a great idea but the real money is still to be made in fossil fuels.  That viewpoint is beginning to see the first indicators of change.   Some leaders in financial markets are making bold statements like this:

“For a number of years there has been talk about the importance of sustainable energy, but targets have not been achieved when it comes to creating it. The tide is, however, changing. Government initiatives have an important role to play. We expect renewable energy markets to grow significantly in 2010 and thereafter following the introduction of favorable incentive schemes.”  (6-22-09, Roberto Cominatto, current manager of the Julius Baer Energy Transition Fund.)

This is my first post.  My zmotion vision is to provide a forum where communities can develop micro economies that will help them compete in local markets, overcome natural challenges and thrive in their region.  I look forward to seeing health, technology, energy, agriculture and business transformations that will achieve sustainable life for more and more people.  I am a follower of Jesus and His Spirit is my constant Guide and Protector on my journey.  Will you go with me?