Q: What are the keys to insuring a strong start in a leadership position? Christopher Finlay, Chicago 

A: You could fill a book—in fact, you could probably fill dozens—with all the ways to get off to a good start as a leader.

Get to know your people and learn what makes each one tick. Don’t pretend you know everything about the job; ask a lot of questions and really listen to the answers. Figure out what it takes to win. Familiarize yourself with the competition. Worry about what market changes could kill you, if not next year, the year after. Pay visits to the customers who keep you alive. Pay longer visits to the customers who have recently kissed you goodbye.

The list goes on and on.

But one thing you have to do as a new leader—and from then on out—is define yourself. Make sure your people know what you stand for. Under no circumstances, no matter what the size of your company or the business you’re in, should you ever let your team guess about your principles or why you make tough calls the way you do. Tell them yourself, and tell them again and again.

Now, we’re not saying you need to spend every minute of your day making a stump speech about your platform. Communication at its best is two-way, and leaders should always be engaged in dialogue with people throughout the organization.

But in times of change or crisis, if you don’t talk openly about your reasoning, you’re in trouble. Take, for painful example, the mess earlier this month involving US President George W. Bush and his veto of a budget increase proposal for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

This column is not about the merit (or not) of SCHIP, a state-federal health insurance subsidy program that Democrats and some Republicans were pushing to increase by $35 billion over five years, adding four million people to the 6.6 million already participating.

It is about how the president blew a massive leadership opportunity by staying quiet about his reasons for opposing the program’s expansion. As the Associated Press reported, “In only the fourth veto of his presidency ... the White House has sought as little attention as possible.”

No, no, no!

Especially when it comes to controversial decisions, leaders must communicate more, not less. Sure, President Bush explained his veto in his weekly radio address. That’s when he said he blocked the expansion of SCHIP because it was too costly, and, in replacing private coverage with government payouts, represented a dangerous move toward socialized medicine.

But the SCHIP veto was a huge principle vote, not only for the Bush presidency, but for his party going into the 2008 elections. For those reasons, President Bush had to get out there. He could have, for instance, appeared on national TV and explained, in the simplest possible language, what principles motivated his decision. In any medium, he should have communicated beyond a doubt that his veto was about deeply held values and building a better America.

Instead, President Bush created a leadership vacuum. Worse, he gave his opponents a lay-up, and they easily scored, depicting him as heartless toward children. You won’t likely face such hardball in your new leadership role, but somewhere along the way, you’re sure to discover what’s true in politics is true in business. If you don’t define yourself, especially in tough times, you can be sure someone else will do it for you.

Q: I’m a large-account sales guy who loves what he does and wants to keep doing it until he retires. But what can I do to stay excited and current in this job, so I don’t become “the old guy”? Name Withheld, Hartford, Connecticut. 

A: Here’s one surefire way: become a great mentor.

Keep selling, of course, you’re obviously good at it. But to avoid that “old guy” label, take all that love you have for selling, and all that insight you’ve gained over the years, and spread them around. Coach, teach, inspire. You’ll feel younger every year.

Omer Murphy is the perfect example. He was one of the best salesmen that General Electric Plastics was ever lucky enough to employ, adored in equal measure by his customers, managers and peers. He closed every deal with everyone feeling good.

Then, in his early 50s, Omer asked to not just sell but coach young salespeople. He went on customer calls with them and, afterward, constructively critiqued their presentations. Over time, he created what came to be known as “Omer’s Army,” a legion of energized followers who performed at new levels thanks to his mentoring.

The relationships energized Omer, too. Until he died in 2001, he remained young at heart.

If you take his lead, so will you.

ValueIT

ORGANIZATIONS have conventionally relied on commercial software products to back up their operations. But rising software costs has brought the value of commercial software into question.

Winning: Key lessons for new leaders

Q: What are the keys to insuring a strong start in a leadership position? Christopher Finlay, Chicago

A: You could fill a book—in fact, you could probably fill dozens—with all the ways to get off to a good start as a leader.

Going paperless

The advent of modern office devices and digital technologies has presented many opportunities for today’s businesses to achieve greater productivity, save on both costs and office space, and easily share information.

The forbidden fruit

SHIFTEE Velasco is one of those who are itching to try the Apple iPhone, which combines a mobile phone with the company’s iconic iPod music player, even before its debut next year in Southeast Asia. “I just want to be a braggart,” he says blithely.

Making gender issue history

FIRST of all, let me thank the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (Ejap) for this privilege to speak before a distinguished group of journalists, people from government and from business.

Passport to success

AMERICANS, the joke went, spent millions of dollars to produce a pen astronauts can use in space; the Russians, on the other hand, used pencils.

Selling beauty

Another cosmetic surgeon battles it out in crowded market

The current rage for beauty and wellness has led to an assortment of clinics offering surgical and nonsurgical procedures to make clients look good and feel good.

Winning: Competence trumps corporate bias

Q: I am seeking a rewarding career, having recently completed my bachelor’s degree in management. What obstacles will I likely need to overcome in the corporate world being an older, five-foot tall, African-American woman? Name Withheld, Houston 

A: When we first received your letter, we put it into a file labeled, “How To Succeed In Business While Looking Different.”

Looking backward

At a union hall in Detroit packed with 800 members of the AFL-CIO and their families, Democratic presidential candidate and New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton promises to break the mold on trade.

It’s Greek to me

NO one in the UN picked a quarrel with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when she told that great assembly that the Philippines is the most democratic nation in Asia. It would have been pointless; the UN is not the forum for a debate on political theory and practice, but over here, there were some voices which greeted the President’s boast with not much enthusiasm.

Best teachers, worst practitioners

EIGHT executive directors of the World Bank were here in the Philippines on the very first day of the Senate hearings into the national broadband network/Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Co. Ltd. (NBN/ZTE) contract. The executive director for the Philippines, a Brazilian national, was part of the team. They were here to learn about World Bank projects in the Philippines.

Are you delegating so it sticks?

You know that a key part of any executive’s or manager’s job is helping subordinates develop professionally—including honing their problem-solving and decision-making powers.

How to teach pride in ‘dirty work’

Managers in occupations that the public considers repellent can use an array of techniques to help their employees cope with and indeed feel proud of their work, according to a study that drew on interviews with 54 managers in 18 stigmatized occupations, including exterminator, “exotic” entertainer and prison guard.

When companies do good

HO CHI MINH CITY—Alongside the march of globalization is the swelling grudge of people who are being affected by this sweeping trend have against private businesses, which they blame for exacerbating their plight.  “First, a company is a predator to be shot.

Future of business

Apollo Enriquez isn’t one to stand in the way of development.

In fact, when a restaurant he partly owns in Cebu had to be torn down to give way to an Ayala Corp. real-estate project, he even led the operation.

SAVE ME

TWO pillars of the country’s financial safety net are rigorously working to increase the amount of savings derived from remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). 

Banking on the poor

It is a concept that invites bemused skepticism from those who regard banking as a profit-making pursuit that leaves no room for the interests and welfare of the poor. A typical comment goes: “Social banking? Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?” 

Winning: Generation Why Not

Q: As a baby-boomer executive with 30 years of experience, I encounter many young people entering the business world today pretty sure they know it all. What is your opinion about Gen Y’s sense of entitlement? Chris Perkins, Vandalia, Ohio                 

A: We don’t get it. That is, we don’t get why everyone is so down on Gen Y.

iCLONES

SHANGHAI—At the end of an alley in Taiwan’s most violent city, a black Mercedes-Benz sedan blocks a sliding- glass door that opens only from within. Inside, technophiles can buy iPhone knockoffs for two-thirds the legitimate price.

Fake iPhones reach Filipinos

EVEN before genuine iPhones reach Asian shores in 2008, knockoff units from China are already being sold in online auction and shopping web sites, including the Philippines.

The quotable Marxists

THERE are two quotable Marxes or Marxians, one of whom, Karl,  the prophetic economist and philosopher, would not call himself a Marxist, while the other one, Groucho (of the Marx brothers fame), wouldn’t have minded very much what you call him as long as you pronounced his name right.

The generals who would be kings

To understand the unrest wracking Burma, consider a new town built in the lush hills northeast of Mandalay. It’s near the British-built hill station of Maymyo, where Burma’s old colonial masters went to escape the heat and dust of the plain. Maymyo still boasts red-brick mansions covered in ivy and pleasant gardens with roses, which flourish in the almost alpine climate of the hills.

Leading Change in Latin America

While it may be tempting for companies in developing countries to focus on growth and profits before they even begin to address climate change, our organization is finding that sustainability actually confers competitive advantage. At Masisa, the $886-million forestry and wood manufacturing company in Chile where I oversee social and environmental responsibility, a key part of our strategy is to engage business-to-business customers in our efforts to become greener.

CONVERSATION:  Alyson Slater, Global Reporting Initiative’s director of strategy, on how disclosing emissions benefits companies

Carbon-emissions reporting is a laborious undertaking that publicly exposes potentially serious liabilities and risks facing your business—and it’s voluntary. So why do it? We explored that question with Alyson Slater, the director of strategy at Global Reporting Initiative, an Amsterdam-based organization that has developed the most widely used framework of reporting principles, guidance and standard disclosures on environmental, social and economic performance.

UPS at 1OO

On the occasion of United Parcel Service’s (UPS) 100th birthday, many people have asked me how a company that began as a small US messenger service evolved to become a world leader in transportation and logistics.