The Basics of Leadership

There is much debate, theory and confusing jargon surrounding the issue of leadership. What is it? Who does it? How to do it well? If you are only a newly promoted team leader then there is only a few things you need to know to start leading and take control.

When you first get promoted and are put in charge of the performance of a team you become a leader. But nothing inside you has changed to make you a different person ready for this role. In fact, it will probably take you over a year to get used to your new role and start to really get the best out of your team.

You’re a leader because your team put you there and treat you like one, if you lose their support you have no other power left.

It may seem weird but when you become a leader your power actually reduces. As a team member you have the power to put in more effort and do a better job to increase your performance. When you are a leader you’re responsible for the performance of a group and the group ultimately decides your performance. They choose whether to act or not and how much effort they will put in.

When you become a leader your power may go down but you have gained influence with your team. Your team looks to you and what you say and do  and adjust their behavior based on that.

The result is that you use your behavior  to influence the behavior of the people in your team to achieve your goal.

Achieving your goal is not your only role as a leader. Caring for your team and looking out for them is also a big part of leadership, you rely on them so you should also look out for them.

It can be possible to achieve short term results without caring for your teams well being. But in the long term your success will be worse as team moral and other issues cause your people to work at a minimum standard.

Overall you can measure your leadership based on those two criteria. Did we reach our goal? Is my team better off because of it?

Source Leadership Quotes

Building a Successful Business Team

Building a successful business team is probably one of the most difficult parts of creating a successful business. Whether you’re one of a team of three business partners or the leader of a team of ten people in a larger department of a large business, building a successful business team is important.

Since you’re working with people here, building a business team can be a bit unpredictable. There’s no such thing as a perfect business team, but a good team will be a blend of people with different work traits and personality characteristics that tent to balance one another out so that your team can work effectively.



While it will take some time to make your team truly successful, these five secrets can help you speed the process along. Here’s what you need to know about creating a successful business team:

1. Set Expectations

One of the main problems with business teams and gauging their level of success is that no one defines what “success” means. This secret is twofold: you need your team to understand the overall objectives of your business, and you need the team to understand what is expected of them as far as performance and outcomes go.

This may be something you aren’t quite sure of yourself yet, particularly if you’re just starting out a business with a small team of people. However, it’s worth spending some time thinking about. What are the actual goals of your business? Of course, you want to make money, as all businesses do, but think beyond that. How are you going to make money? What actions and attitudes are going to make that process better and easier? Creating a clear, concise, and meaningful statement of purpose can help you move this thought process along, though this can, in itself, be a difficult thing to do!

Just as you need to figure out the goals of your business, you need to figure out the goals of your business team. If the team is the entire business, then this will be pretty easy. If the team is part of a larger organization, it may be more difficult. However, you’ll have no way to tell if your team is successful unless they’re working toward specific, meaningful expectations.

2. Evaluate Frequently

Another secret to building a successful business team is to frequently evaluate that team. Once the team has goals in place, figure out how close the team is coming to meeting those goals on a regular basis. If the goals aren’t being met, what can be done to change this?

Obviously, there are different ways to evaluate the success of a team. You do want to look at actual output and performance, but this isn’t all you want to look at. You’ll also need to examine the interpersonal relationships within the team. If there is a block or problem within one interpersonal relationship, this could lead to frustration or burn-out in specific team members, which is a sure way to get the entire team crumbling down.

Do evaluations using the observations of the team leaders as well as objective, anonymous evaluations by team members. Using evaluations on a regular basis can help you figure out how you can make even a good team even better.

3. Work on Communication

One of the biggest problems you hear about from business teams is lack of communication. Many of these problems occur because someone is making assumptions about communication rather than actually talking to team members. The problem may be within the team, but it could also be between the team and its leader or between the team and the larger business.

Set protocols for communication, and make sure important pieces of information are communicated in several ways. The key here is balance. Sending fifteen emails about the same thing is a sure way to waste time and get your team members very frustrated. On the other hand, failing to ensure that each team member receives and understands a message is another way to create frustration. Talking to team members about their preferred methods of communication is a good way to start creating communication protocols that can help your team talk with one another more effectively.

4. Understand Roles and Responsibilities

As was noted earlier, one of the keys to building a successful business team is having a balance of people on the team. Individual genius is great, but only when it actually helps the team. You want to put together a team of people that are good at different things and that think in different ways. If the entire team thinks alike, you’ll either have a dearth of great new ideas or a lot of head-butting from people who are too much alike.

One way to avoid problems like this is to delineate individual roles and responsibilities within the team. This works best if you allow it to happen organically within the team. If you’ve done a good job of selecting team members, it’s more likely to happen on its own, as people inevitably fall into certain slots within the team’s overall work load. However, at times, you may have to step in with a bit of direction, particularly if a certain job isn’t getting fulfilled or if two people are stepping all over one another trying to do the exact same thing.

5. Fun Outside Work

While many employees complain about team building seminars and workshops, there are ways to make them fun and beneficial. While your team members don’t necessarily need to be best friends, it is helpful if they can see one another as more than fellow employees. Understanding that other team members are multifaceted and lead complex lives can lead to better communication, more cooperation, and more job satisfaction.

Even things like retreats and office parties can be helpful here, as long as they are looked forward to instead of dreaded! Team building activities can also help build communication skills, reveal the roles each team member is likely to take, and even uncover latent frustrations that need to be worked through for the team to continue to be successful. Often, hiring a professional to come in and help your team with this is the best way to get things going, and regularly allowing your team to have fun together is one way to make sure that more work gets done.

Source Entrepreneur Secret

Strive for Success

Setting Goals and objections for achieving any level of success are universal in nature.

Work smarter, not harder. It's not how much you do, but what you do and how well you do it. There are better ways to run your business than by brute force. Create a work environment where people are recognized not only for their results, but also for their character and integrity.

Strive for accuracy first, then build momentum. Since you do not have a second chance to make a good impression, it is important that you always do things right the first time. It is much better to introduce an excellent product a little later than originally planned than it is to release something pre-maturely that you know has problems. Your work is your signature, make sure it’s worth something very valuable!


Find a niche. Some goals and objectives sound simple enough, but this one can be tough to achieve. Start by becoming an expert in your field. Stick to what you do best. It may not be necessary to invent something brand new yourself. Take something that is already in the marketplace and improve it enough so that you can call it your own. Provide the simple twist to the product that will outsell all others.


Build your reputation on integrity, quality and value. Don't do anything that might compromise your integrity. Once your reputation is tarnished, it is difficult to redeem yourself in the eyes of your customers as well as your employees. Maintaining your good name must remain at the top of your goals and objectives.


Always better your best. Constantly strive to improve your products and services. If you have a good idea, rest assured others will work to make a product that’s even better. In order to not be outdone by others, you must continue to seek to improve your own product or service.


Be creative. Adapt and apply innovative techniques from outside your specific field. Step out of your comfort zone. Your goals and objectives for business should be no more intense that your goals and objectives for your personal life. Continuous learning is key to your sense of self-fulfillment and personal growth.


Listen and respond to your customer's needs. Success comes when you give your customers what they want. Communicate with your customers and ask them what you can do to improve your product or service. Users of your product know exactly what you need to do to make it even better. They’ve already wished it could do more. Ask them to tell you about their wish-list/upgrade ideas. Sell solutions, not products.


Plan for Success. Know where you are going and how you are going to get there. Too many businesses exist day-to-day without any long-range plans, goals and objectives. Decide where you want your company to be in one, three and five years and draw up a specific plan of action to get you there.


Take advantage of change. Changes in your market are inevitable - use them to your advantage. Be a leader, not a follower. It is far better to error on the side of daring than to error on the side of inaction or complacency.


Think before you act and spend time wisely. There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. Don’t spend your time on small items that are time-suckers. Focus on the BIG issues and do those first.


Always promise a lot... and then deliver even more. Provide your customers with more than they expect. Go the extra mile to give exceptional quality, exceptional service and exceptional value. Your customers will notice and reward you with their continued business and pro-active referrals.

Incorporate these into your daily routine and watch your results multiply!

Source Leadership Tools

The 2 Most Important Keys to Effective Leadership

According to a study by the Hay Group, a global management consultancy, there are 75 key components of employee satisfaction (Lamb, McKee, 2004). They found that:

• Trust and confidence in top leadership was the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction in an organization.


• Effective communication by leadership in three critical areas was the key to winning organizational trust and confidence:
  
  
  
  1. Helping employees understand the company's overall business strategy.
  
  
  2. Helping employees understand how they contribute to achieving key business objectives.
  
  
  3. Sharing information with employees on both how the company is doing and how an employee's own division is doing — relative to strategic business objectives.
  
  
  
  

The Ability to Lead with Integrity

Leadership is about character, integrity and courage more than being the smartest, strongest or the best at something. The foundation of a leader is integrity and must be displayed. The dictionary states integrity as; soundness of moral character; honesty. Simply put integrity means true to your word, owning up to your mistakes, not making excuses and taking responsibility for your actions. Courage is doing the right thing, for the right reasons even when no one is around. The ability to act is truly courage, action is how you are courageous to go against all the odds when you know something is right.

Do what you say. The saying, lead by example, are the actions of a leader. Think of someone you have personally known who you thought was a good leader, but it turned out they were not. They were saying all the right things and you probably believed them, but their actions did not reflect what they were saying. These are the actions of a leader who have their own agendas and do not possess the courage to do what is right for their people.

Leaders never give up on something, once they have chosen their dream. Many leaders have failed countless times, that is how they have learned. If you try to avoid failure, you will also be avoiding action. The ability to persevere and never give up is how you become a leader.

Integrity, lead by example and perseverance these are the qualities of a great leader. The greatest leaders are also compassionate towards others, but are not easily influenced. I will now leave you with a quote that shows the power that a single leader can produce. “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion”… Alexander the great.

Source successfuleducation.com

Are you asking yourself the right questions?

Are you asking yourself the right questions? Inspiring minds want to know. The right question can be just the right prompt to inspire you to action, gain better perspective, or help you make the most of any situation. But it's up to you to make sure you ask yourself some of these questions.

Here is a set of 101 questions that can help shape your day, solve a problem, figure out next steps, or get “on the right path.”

1. What’s the way forward?


2. What do you want your life to be about?


3. Who do you want to be and what experiences do you want to create?


4. How does that serve you in terms of who you are and who you want to be?


5. Are you giving your best where you have your best to give?


6. What do you want to accomplish?


7. What do you want to do more of each day? … What do you want to spend your time doing more of?


8. What do you want to spend less time on?


9. If this situation were to never change, what’s the one quality I need to truly enjoy it?


10. If not now, when?


11. If not you, who?


12. What’s right with this picture? (if you always ask, “What’s wrong with this picture?”, this is a nice switch)


13. How can you make the most of the situation? … If there are no good options, what’s the best play I can make for this scenario?


14. Who else shares this problem? … Who would solve this problem well? (a great way to find models and learn from the best)


15. What would <famous or interesting person XYZ> do?” … How would I respond if I were Bob Hope? … Leonardo da Vinci? … Guy Kawasaki? … Seth Godin? … etc. (this is a great way to come up with new ideas or plays for your situation)


16. What are you pointing your camera at? (a simple way to direct your day on a scene by scene basis)


17. What’s good enough for now?


18. What can you be the best at in the world?


19. What’s the most effective thing for me to focus on?


20. Are you asking the right question? … Is that the right question?


21. How is that relevant?


22. What’s that based on?


23. What’s the goal? … What are the goals?


24. What would success look like?


25. What do you need to be successful? … What do you need to be successful in this situation?


26. Is it working? … Is it effective?


27. What do you measure? … What are the metrics?


28. What are the tests for success?


29. How do you know it’s working?


30. How do you know when you’re done?


31. What did you expect?


32. Are you creating the results you want?


33. Does it matter?


34. Will it matter in 100 years?


35. Is it worth the effort?


36. What actions have I taken? … What steps have I tried? ( a great sanity check when you’re testing your ability to take action)


37. What’s next?


38. What do you want to do?


39. What’s best for you?


40. What’s the best thing for now?


41. What’s your next best thing to do?


42. Is that a good idea?


43. So what? Now what?


44. What’s the problem?


45. What’s the threat?


46. What’s the concern?


47. When do you want it by? … You want what by when?


48. Who needs to do what when?


49. Who needs to do what differently?


50. Who should do what when?


51. What would you have them do differently?


52. What’s wearing you down?


53. What’s lifting you up?


54. Why do you get up in the morning and come to work?


55. What do you want to experience? … What do you want to experience more of?


56. What are you trading? … What are you trading up for?


57. What did you learn that you can use next time?


58. What would you do differently next time around?


59. Where’s the growth?


60. What would people pay you for?


61. Do you want to run towards or away from the problem?


62. How big is the pie, how big is your slice?


63. Does it make business sense?


64. Is it business critical?


65. What’s our capacity?


66. What’s our constraint?


67. What are the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)?


68. What’s our core business?


69. What does the market want?


70. Is it push, pull or indifferent?


71. What’s the trend?


72. What to cut back on?


73. What does the pro know that you don’t? (this is a good way to figure out if knowledge or insight can make a difference)


74. Now what are you going to do about it?


75. Can you teach it to someone else?


76. How can I use this?


77. What do you want to say?


78. What’s the right thing to do?


79. Is now the right time?


80. Is this the right forum?


81. How much time do you have?


82. What are you making time for?


83. How much time should you make for it?


84. What can you do all day long?


85. What are you spending the bulk of your time on?


86. Does your schedule reflect your priorities?


87. If you had all the time in the world, how would you spend your time?


88. If you had all the money in the world, how would you spend it?


89. Where are we on the map?


90. What would make life more wonderful for you?


91. How can you chunk it down?


92. How fast can you do it?


93. What’s the impact?


94. What would you like to have happen? … What would you like instead?


95. What’s the opposite of that?


96. How might that be true?


97. What are you seeing that I’m not?


98. What did you see, what did you hear?


99. What’s the writing on the wall?


100. What’s their story?


101. Who’s stopping you? … What’s stopping you? … What’s holding you back?

What questions drive you? … Share your favorite question in the comments.

Source Sourcesofinsight.com

The Makings of an Effective Leader!

Sandra Larson, previous executive director of MAP for Nonprofits, was once asked to write her thoughts on what makes an effective leader. Her thoughts are shared here to gel other leaders to articulate their own thoughts on what makes them a good leader.

Passion

An effective leader is a person with a passion for a cause that is larger than they are. Someone with a dream and a vision that will better society, or at least, some portion of it. I think a very key question has to be answered: Can someone who is a charismatic leader, but only to do evil or to promote herself, be a leader -- especially if she has a large following?” I would say no, she is a manipulator.

Also, without passion, a leader will not make the necessary courageous and difficult decisions and carry them into action. This is not to imply that all decisions are of this nature. But you can be sure, some of them will be. The leader without a passion for a cause will duck.

Holder of Values

Leadership implies values. A leader must have values that are life-giving to society. It is the only kind of leadership we need. This then also implies values that are embedded in respect for others. So often we think of people skills or caring about people as being “warm and fuzzy.” I think a leader can be of varying ‘warmth and fuzziness,” but a leader has to respect others. You can’t lead without it. Otherwise we are back to manipulation. Respect means also that one can deal with diversity -- a critical need for a leader in today’s world -- probably always has been, although diversity may have been more subtle in the homogenous societies of the past.

Vision

This is a bit different than passion, but in other ways it isn’t separable. If one doesn’t care about a subject, an issue, a system, then one won’t spend the time thinking about how it could or should be different. Yet, one could have strong feelings about something and not good ideas, particularly if she didn’t spend a good deal of time studying the topic. Thus a leader has to have some ideas about change, about how the future could be different. Vision then is based on two components that leaders also need: creativity and intellectual drive.

Creativity

One has to try to think out of the box to have good visions and to come up with effective strategies that will help advance the vision. I’d also add here the need for a sense of humor. It’s a creative skill that is in great need by leaders. We should read the funnies more!

Intellectual Drive and Knowledge

I believe a leader has to be a student. In general it is hard for a leader to be around enough other leaders to pick this up just through discussion, so I think a leader has to be a reader and a learner. Furthermore, I can’t see someone leading in a field they know nothing about.

Confidence and Humility Combined

While one can have a great vision and good ideas for change, and even passion for it, if one isn’t confident, then action will not occur. Without action, there is no change. Yet, paradoxically, a leader needs to have humility. No matter how creative and bright one is, often the best ideas and thinking are going to come from someone else. A leader needs to be able to identify that, have good people around who have these ideas. This takes humility, or at least lack of egocentricity. The leader is focused on the ends and doesn’t have to see herself always as the conduit or creator of the strategy to get to that end.

Communicator

None of the above assets will work for a leader if she can’t speak or write in a way to convince others that they should follow along, join the team, get on board. All the above gets to the old adage that a leader knows how to do the right thing and a manager knows how to do things right. But a leader has to be a manager, too. I don’t think these skills and abilities can be separated out very easily. Both need to be in the mix.

Thus a leader has to be some of the following, too:

Planner/Organizer

Someone who can see what needs to be done and help the team plan and organize the getting it done. Management is getting things done through people. While a writer or other visionary person may be very influential, even seminal for the cause of change, this is not quite my definition of a leader. A leader means to me, someone who is taking action, trying to get others to do something they want to see done.

Interpersonal Skills

Leaders must have the ability to act in an interpersonally competent manner, yet they also need to learn the techniques of good listening, honest and open communication, delegating, conflict resolution skills, etc., to actually get work done and keep the whole movement/organization/project together.

Other Business Skills

While in some arenas you may be able to get by with only some of these skills or none of them (if you can hire good enough people to do it for you), generally speaking you must have at least some skills in financial management, human resources, information management, sales, marketing, etc.

If I were to sum it all up, I’d say a good leader has to have a purpose that is larger than they are and the balanced personality and skills to put that purpose into action.

Copyright Sandra Larson, Minneapolis, MN.

Solving the Leadership Puzzle

Many of the challenges we face as a leader seem tough, unusual, and perhaps unsolvable.  Many puzzle enthusiasts, working on puzzles as diverse as Sudoku,  crosswords, video games (and more) thrill for puzzles with those same descriptors.

Perhaps our leadership lesson from them starts from recognizing their attitude and it’s important to ultimate success.  Rather than procrastinating or ignoring a tough problem, puzzlers get started.

Once they get started they likely use a three step formula (consciously or not) to help them get going.

1.  Look for patterns.

2.  Find the way in.

3.  Build on your success.

These three points were in the May 2009 issue of  Wired Magazine (the issue isn’t online at this writing).  The points are attributed to Dvora K. Klaviatura, head of the Belarus Enigmatology Institute, and you can see how they make sense to a puzzle.

When considering a challenge or problem you as facing as a leader, make these steps part of your next leadership activities:

1.  Recognize that problems and challenges come with the territory. Rather than lamenting or procrastinating, take the puzzlers approach and dive in.  Not only do you stand to solve the problem, but you will also learn something and gain confidence and excitement from success!

2.  Look for patterns. Ask yourself questions like:  What about this situation looks or seems like past challenges or problems?   What else does this situation remind me of?

3.  Find the way in. Look for an entry point – something to try, someone to talk to, a way to begin a conversation, a question to ask.  Finding the way in, helps you take action and get started.

4. Build on your success. Once you have gotten started, be persistent.  Use what you have learned up until this point to help you be more successful.  Apply what has proven successful so far as you move forward (without becoming blinded by success – remember the challenge you face may be pretty complex!)

Consider these steps as you solve a leadership puzzle – and recognize these as building blocks to your effective leadership skills

Source Kevin Eikenberry

Life isn't Fair...Get use to it!

Common Sense Rules from Bill Gates!

Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Here's to the Misfits, The Rebels and The Trouble-Makers!

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Author Unknown

I know a few people in my circle of friends who are crazy enough to help me change the world or at least our surrounding!!!!

Let's get ready for the journey!!

Regarding the Attitude!

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.


Charles Swindoll

What does your attitude say about you?

The Characteristics of a Successful Leader!

There's plenty of information written about leaders and what makes them successful. A successful leader will exhibit many characteristics, traits and actions that will cause people to follow them. Here are a few thoughts on what I believe are key to a successful leader.

• Lead because you want to

• Lead with compassion and truth

• Deliver a message that inspires and motivates

• Live by the code others will emulate

• Provide a vision for the future. Offer hope

• Provide those you lead a chance to shine

• Make other people feel important and appreciated

• Live a life of integrity. Not only by words, but by your actions as well

• Set the standard others are willing to follow

• Cultivate the talents of those you lead

• Continuously learn and educate

• Create an environment of constant development

• Set the pace through your expectations and example

• Provide opportunities for people to grow, both personally and professionally

• Care and act with compassion

• Everyone has potential. Look beyond their short comings. Even if its difficult to do so

• Remember! The title doesn’t make you a leader

Scholarship Opportunities,,,Where to Look for Them?

There are many scholarship opportunities available, so never limit yourself to applying for just one. Research as many funding sources as you can, and learn which ones you may qualify for, then apply promptly.

Find at least two search engines with which you’re comfortable--use both to search for scholarship opportunities. Three good examples include http://www.collegeanswer.com/, http://www.fastweb.com/ and http://www.scholarships.com/. International students, be sure to search http://www.internationalscholarships.com/. Remember to check the schools that you are applying to. Many schools offer scholarships to students that seek them.

Use your parents/family members! Many companies offer scholarships solely to the children/relatives of employees.

If receiving lots of e-mail from a search engine bothers you, set up a scholarship-only email account. This will keep all of your scholarship information in one place, your regular inbox won’t be overflowing, and when you use your scholarship e-mail, you are more focused on searching for scholarship information.

Organize the information in a way that makes sense to you. For example, when using Fastweb, click on the “deadline” heading to sort the scholarships according to deadline.

Look where you’re going! If you are headed for a specific field, look at the leaders in that field or industry, check their websites for scholarship opportunities. For example, a pre-nursing or pre-med student should check out websites for drug manufacturers or companies that do medical research. Most companies’ websites are searchable. Try searching “scholarships.” If that doesn’t yield results, try “foundation” or “philanthropy.”

You can also check the websites of major companies for scholarship opportunities.

Look at local organizations/groups such as churches and recreational centers

Emineo Media
 
Fast Web

Keep Life Simple!

Keep Laughing

Keep Finding Humor

Keep Learning

Keep Dreaming

Keep Writing

Keep Networking

Keep Building Opportunities

Keep Life Simple

Excellent Scholarship Resources!

1. Adventures in Education: Use this quick search engine to learn about 15,000 scholarships available to a wide variety of students and college needs.

2. Broke Scholar: You don’t need to be broke to find scholarships at this search engine, home to over 850,000 scholarship award listings. Fill out a profile that provides information about you and your goals, and you can define your search to fit your specific needs.

3. Careers and Colleges: You can register for free to search through over seven billion dollars in college scholarships and grants at this online search engine. Careers and Colleges also offers a $2,000 monthly scholarship giveaway.

4. CareerOneStop: This career site provides a search engine that links to more than 5,000 scholarships, fellowships, loans and other financial aid opportunities. The search is divided by award type, residence preference, study level and affiliation restrictions.

5. College Board: Find scholarships, internships, grants and loans that match your education level, talents and background. This database contains over 2,300 sources for college funding.

6. College Data: Find scholarships that match the eligibility criteria you enter for your grade point average (GPA), gender, residency, ethnicity/heritage, religion and area of study.

7. CollegeFunds.net: Sign up to receive information about student loans, scholarships and other financial aid resources.

8. CollegeToolkit: Enter to win one of this site’s $1,000 scholarships and search through their resources to find more scholarship opportunities.

9. EdFed 2010: America’s top student loan provider also provides a search engine to find scholarships for your online or on-campus education.

10. Education Planner: Search through scholarships available to graduate and undergraduate students at this site, powered by Peterson’s.

11. FAFSA: The Free Application for Federal Student Aid maintains a search engine to find scholarships. Filling out this application for aid also can help you define your answers to many scholarship questions and may provide you with many government resources for student financial aid. You must register to use this resource.

12. FastWeb: This popular college funding resource provides information on 1.3 million scholarships worth over three billion dollars. FastWeb has been assisting students and parents for nearly fifteen years.

13. FindTuition: Register to gain access to over 1.7 million scholarships with a free scholarship search tool that allows users to search, research, target, and manage scholarship opportunities via specific college, athletic, and major targeted searches.

14. Fresch! This free scholarship search engine allows users to fill out a profile and create a custom search for scholarships.

15. Mach25: Enter a series of keywords to find all scholarships that contain those same words in the name or description. You also can fill out a personal profile to find matches for your educational needs.

16. NextStudent: This resource includes consolidated, private student, PLUS, private consolidation and Federal Stafford loans and also runs Scholarships 101, a database filled with over 5.9 million scholarships and grants from over 69,000 sources.

17. Sallie Mae: This search engine provides access to a scholarship database that contains more than three million scholarships for all types of students. You must register to gain access to this information. Sallie Mae also provides college loans.

18. Scholarship Experts: Register to receive information about the scholarships that might work for you as an online college student. Scholarship Experts has been helping parents and students find scholarships and free money since 2001.

19. Scholarship Monkey 2.0: Scholarship Monkey is a free service for students and parents wishing to obtain scholarship information for any academic pursuits. Register, fill out a profile, and gain access to over one million scholarships from over 4,000 sources.

20. Scholarships.com: Fill out a profile to find a scholarship that might fit you and your educational goals and create an application file that contains commonly requested information, save it to your computer and use it to complete future scholarship searches and applications at any Scholarship Data Standard site.

21. ScholarSite: This site is filled with detailed and up-to-date information on approximately 600,000 financial aid opportunities, with the ability to find scholarships by institution, academic discipline and more.

22. School Soup: This search engine will find scholarships that match your interests and profile by searching through $32 Billion worth of scholarships. Scholarships with the best matches are listed first.

23. Student Awards: This site contains a comprehensive database of awards offered by public and private sector and not-for-profit organizations. You also can find awards that are only available to studentawards.com members.

24. StudentScholarshipSearch: Register to search through free scholarship updates across a wide variety of requirements. The site not only focuses on national scholarships, but also includes scholarships by state and level of education. You might also visit the companion site, ScholarshipPoints to earn points for free scholarships worth up to ten thousand dollars.

25. SuperCollege: Register to search through over two million college scholarships, grants, fellowships and contests that can help you pay for your online college education.

Resource:

Online University Data

Emineo Media

Where can I find Scholarships?

High School Guidance Counselors – Counselor should be able to provide you with information regarding many scholarships. In addition to national scholarships, be sure to ask about local scholarship opportunities that may have a much smaller applicant pool.

College or University – Research the college’s website/catalog and financial aid office for information regarding scholarships they offer. A school may award these automatically when you are admitted or you may have to apply separately. Make sure you also contact them to ensure you are award of scholarships that may not be listed.

Online – Free scholarship search engines are the quickest way to search for scholarship opportunities. Once you provide a profile about yourself, you will be matched with scholarships you may be eligible to receive. Most of these search engines offer a large database of scholarships.

Local Business – Offer scholarships give provide students the ability to acquire funding for their college education without having to compete with a large number of applicants in nationwide programs. Check with business owners in your neighborhood to see if they have scholarship programs available.

Local Libraries – Visit the college resource section of your library. You should find a great selection of scholarship books in addition to other information related to the college application process.

Employers (Yours or Parents) – If you work, your employer may offer scholarship opportunities that you can take advantage of. Additionally, many businesses and corporations offer scholarships to employees and their children.

Public and Private Organizations – Many community service organizations, churches and national foundations offer scholarships. Some are based on financial need, but many others are based on academics, leadership, special talent, community service, or heritage. Others offer aid to students majoring in fields related to the company’s products or services. Check out every option. Do your own search and don’t forget to research those organizations with which you or your parents are affiliated.

The Journey.....

"It's not about the length of the journey but the people who inspire and motivate you along the way that help your dreams become a reality."

SF

Better Opportunities...

“Life is full of opportunities. Sometimes we stay working dead end jobs because we are fearful of our next step. We lose sight of dreams we once had and allow our circumstances to dictate our outlook on life. Survival mode takes over and our dreams never materialize because of fear. Never be afraid to take a chance because you fear making a mistake. Every mistake you make provides a valuable lesson and can make you just a little bit wiser. It can also help redirect you to the dreams you wanted to fulfill and in the process create better opportunities.”

JL

Taking Chances..

"Leadership is taking chances. Learn to step outside of your comfort zone and take the path of the unknown. The opportunities that follow might be life changing but you will never know unless you take that first step. Remember there are no failures- just experiences and your reactions to them. So believe in yourself and take risks that will lead you to greater opportunities."

JM

Persistence and Perseverance!

Demonstrating exceptional persistence and perseverance can open doors to success; make sure you take an in-depth look inside yourself and what you’re made of!!!


Nathan knew what he was made of!!! He went fishing and was the only one in the group who caught a fish! Isn't that why you go fishing? It was a good day! Grandpa Jim was proud!

OE