1. Leadership Is Learned While many people appear to have an innate ability to lead, most learn from their life and business experiences, then put these lessons into practice. Giuliani wrote, The greatest leadership you ever have is the ability to lead your own life.

2. Understand Good Leaders, Not Good Leadership Giuliani wrote, Read biographies of leaders you admire. That will tell you more about leadership than any leadership book.

3. Learn Throughout Life Education doesnt stop when you quit attending school. In Giulianis words: Thats how I ended up on the morning of September 12, reading a biography of Churchill. I was thinking, Im going to deal with something I havent dealt with before. Let me see if I can learn something.

4. Stand Up To Bullies Its important to have a sense of justiceto realize you have to stand up to people who take advantage of those who are weaker.

5. Discourage Yes-Men/Women As the saying goes, if we both have the same opinion one of us is unnecessary. Build the team in your small business with people who dont think exactly like you.

6. Reflect, Then Decide Before making important decisions, learn everything you can about the topic. Giuliani said as soon as he found out he had cancer he began collecting information and suddenly felt safe, because then he could go to work doing something about it.

7. Dont Listen To Critics Anytime youre in charge, there will be people chirping in the background. Giuliani didnt let them distract him from doing what he believed was right.

8. Become An Expert Giuliani wrote: When people come to you to ask for advice and information because you know more about a subject than they do, thats a sign of great leadership.

9. Be Respectful Use the Golden Rule: treat others as you want to be treated. People know when youre talking down to them, and they will not respect you, he said.

10. Stay Close To Your Customers In Giulianis case, this meant being with constituents, New Yorkers, in the weeks after 9/11. Remember him in the NYFD baseball cap and blue jeans, there to provide comfort and determination for all?

11. Communicate And Inform In all of his press conferences and briefings after 9/11, Giuliani provided facts and details, understanding the importance of candid statements at all times. Let your team know whats going on in your small business.

Copyright 2005 by Success Handler, LLC. All rights reserved.

David Handler

The Coach, David Handler, is the founder of Success Handler, LLC, and specializes in helping franchisees, franchisors and business leaders find clarity and take action. He understands the challenges of running a business, because he?s been there ? as a franchisee, franchisor, business owner, corporate leader and trainer. Much like sports coaches, his coaching will show you how to compete on a level playing field in your industry.

There are two ?I?s? in accountability ? You and Me! Together we will achieve your destiny.?

David worked with ABC Sports, ESPN and regional sports programmers HSE (now Fox Sports Southwest) and Raycom. He produced more than 700 live events, including NFL football, NCAA football and basketball, and Major League Baseball. Career highlights were broadcasting Nolan Ryan's 5,000th career strikeout and two of the 15 perfect games in MLB history (Mike Witt-1984 and Kenny Rogers-1994). The second earned a national Telly Award for best sports production and was nominated for an ESPY.

In 1988, David awoke in the middle of the night from a dream and wrote down four words: "Notre Dame, football, travel." Partnering with two lifelong friends, David helped Anthony Travel become the Official Travel Service of the University of Notre Dame, Disney's Wide World of Sports? complex and several other universities. Over one five-year period, Anthony Travel was named one of the 100 fastest growing privately held companies in Dallas on three occasions.

After selling his interest in the travel company in 1998, David joined the International Center for Entrepreneurial Development (ICED) - a family of franchises with nine brands and more than 1,000 locations around the world. As senior VP in charge of marketing, he developed creative programs that franchisees used to gain new customers and increase profits.

David founded Success Handler to utilize the skills gained during his 23-year business career in a coaching capacity with franchisees, franchisors and business owners.