What makes a great leader? The answer is surely not quick or short. Commonly it is discussed if someone is a born or made leader. But what if it is neither and you or someone discovers you are a leader, and what kind of leader are you? This is the premise of Your Inner CEO by Allan Cox.

Your Inner CEO takes the reader through this discovery – literally. Stories of Cox’s own personal experiences with leaders he has met, know and consulted to are married with exercises throughout the book that take you through this journey. They are broken into 9 steps, each one building on the previous to paint a picture of the kind of leader you could be, the kind others desire to be and be around.

My greatest takeaway from this book is leadership is not just about you. Where the model has been and continues to be where workers follow what the leaders does solely to make the leader succeed, in reality we all gain from all of us gaining. The leader brings out the best in all of the team so that all of the team, including the leader, succeed. If it fails, the team fails, learns from its experiences and moves on. This is something I have always followed myself – and anyone reading who has ever worked with me, feel free to comment on that statement! As a sole proprietor transitioning my business to a true company, I need to shed the role of control-freak entrepreneur and be a true leader and mentor.

Speaking of mentoring, another takeaway is mentorship is not dead. In a world where it seems being a contractor is the way to go and all we should hire, mentoring people pays for both the mentee and the mentor, and this book gives several examples of how to do it well. Many leaders and managers and people in general do not follow this - they hired a specific set of skills where the reality is they hired a person.

A final takeaway is leadership may be in all of us. We need to want to and try to seek it. As I have written before that entrepreneurship may be in us already the same goes for leadership.

I recommend Your Inner CEO to leaders, people who are about to be leaders as well as people who work on teams. Read the book through once then go back and complete the exercises, which is what I am doing now. There are accompanying online resources to it, including a Web site, wiki and Facebook group, the latter is how I connected with the author and learned of the book.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Book Take-Aways • Business • (0) Comments • Permalink

The next likemind coffee will be next Friday, February 15 in dozens of cities around the world. In Chicago, it will be at Intelligentsia Coffee, 55 E. Randolph, at the corner of Wabash in the Loop.

I call likemind it a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, et. al. Coffee is gratis thanks to Anomaly.

This marks the return of likemind after several months, and now I am one of the coordinators. In addition to posts on The Hot Iron you are welcome to join the likemind Chicago Facebook group. Business • Technology • (7) Comments • Permalink

Earlier this week TECH cocktail 7 (or TC7) was announced. It will be held on Thursday, February 21, 2008 from 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm at John Barleycorn Wrigleyville in Chicago.

This event brings out many people in or affiliated with the tech community, and hopefully a few domainers will be in attendance as well! As this free event usually "sells" out, RSVP now. Hope to see you there.

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It has been a week since my last blog post, and that has been due to my unusual travel schedule. Though I am still on the road, I am getting reacclimated to a schedule I have some control over and getting some work done.

Earlier this week was DOMAINfest conference, a 3-day conference on the domain name industry in Hollywood, California. For those unaware, there really is a domain name industry! Though I write often on domain names, it only scratches the surface of all involved, much of it came to light this week. Everything from the value of domain names and how people choose them and monetize them to legal issues, it was a full conference.

DOMAINfest was run by Oversee.net, a company that owns many companies including registration, domain parking and aftermarket acquisition services. They have made acquisitions to make them a major player, consolidating the number of companies out there serving the industry. But isn’t that just business? Anyway, I will be pouring through my notes, photos and videos and writing more on this great event.

Prior to arriving on the west coast I was on the east coast for the AFC Championship Game, which was won by my beloved Patriots 21-12, earning them a spot in the Super Bowl against the New York Giants. It was a cold game but nothing intolerable, and though they had a rough start they came out on top in the end.

I haven’t talked much about the Pats here, more to keep The Hot Iron on topic and not throw anything in the face of my fellow Chicagoans, especially after how the Bears did (or didn’t do) this season. For that, visit my Web site, GoPats.com. Seeing them going perfect at 18-0 is about all I am planning to see, as the price of Super Bowl tickets is a little out of the range of this entrepreneur’s budget. Though if anyone feels generous, please feel free to contact me!

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Next Monday thru Thursday, January 21-24 is the DOMAINfest conference in Hollywood, California, and I will be there. I am eager to attend the conference for many reasons, more than just getting away from the cold and snowy northern US.

As many of you have seen I write quite a bit about domain names here on The Hot Iron. This is related to my own personal interest and the importance of domain names, going well beyond the selection of one for a Web site. Granted that is still hugely important, but the reasons for purchasing domain names are many, and this sector of the Internet has spawn its own publications and conferences, including DOMAINfest. I am excited about the topics covered and am hoping to meet in person many of the people whose blogs I read and have learned from their leadership in this area.

On a professional development front, it marks the first conference I have attended since I started Dunkirk Systems. Though the business has been thriving over the last 3 years, I have not sought out conferences to attend. Where I cannot go back, I can only go forward, and DOMAINfest is the first of hopefully many.

If anyone reading is going to DOMAINfest please comment and I look forward to meeting you in person next week. Here’s to clear skies so my flight gets there on-time!

Business • Domain Names • (5) Comments • Permalink