As the great Edward Murphy (no, not the actor) once said, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”. Well, if I ever got the chance to meet Mr. Murphy, I’d have to tell him how much I dislike him and his little saying!

Yesterday, was the 2011 Minisink Valley Cheerleading Competition – an event that we’ve covered for a few years now and our second event in as many weeks at the High School in Slate Hill, NY. Each event was the same – an onsite printing area setup for portraits and action shots with a full display of our products and viewing stations for the images. Nothing fancy but something that we’ve done numerous times and can almost do with our eyes closed.

Well, Mr. Murphy’s saying caught up with us a few days before the start of the cheerleading competition. At the event the week prior, someone accidentally broke our poster display stand – which wasn’t a big deal because we could easily order another one. Since the one we wanted isn’t usually stocked at any store, we ordered it online and waited for it to be shipped. The night before the competition, UPS arrives with a smaller than usual box and upon opening it, we were slightly disappoint to see that we had received a nice, bright yellow “Wet Floor” sign. Though the sign was really nice looking, it wasn’t going to help us out much.However, I guess that was to be taken as a sign from above regarding our samples that had been shipped from the lab – which included an incredible looking 24×36 poster we had designed. Since it had been snowing on and off all day Friday, UPS decided not to deliver the samples to our business partner. So not only did we not have the poster for our wet floor sign, but we were also without all of the other cool products we wanted to show off to all of the players and participants.

Fast forward to the day of the event …

Most of the booth had been setup the night before, so there was only a minor amount of work that needed to be finished before everything began. I showed up right as the doors were unlocked at 6AM so we could be ready for the start at 9:30. Just after the first group finished their routine, Mr. Murphy decided to pay us a visit again and stop all network communication between our onsite servers, workstations and viewing stations – basically halting our operations both internally and to our customers as well. As it turns out, one of our switches needed to be replaced. Thankfully, I had a backup waiting for just such an occasion!

But wait, there’s more! Not long after getting our network operations back up and running, the workstation that was being used to edit all of the images shutdown abruptly. I was amazed at how long we all stared at the black screen thinking to ourselves WTF? (What Technology Failed?). The servers were still up, the printers were operational and all looked OK … so now we started scratching our heads until a little red light gave us a clue. As it turns out, having numerous computers, a couple printers and strobe lights for portraits and action plugged into the same circuit as the judges tables and (we think) the DJ – doesn’t bode well for all things electrical. As we were investigating the cause of the problem, our portrait photographer fired off a couple shots which drained just enough power to kill the one workstation and set off the little red “Building Wiring Fault” light on our power strips. So, with more power cords in hand, I ran around, moving our action strobes to a completely different outlet and our portrait strobes over to a battery unit we always take with us. Finally, problem solved.

All in all, despite all of the problems, the staff made everything look like it was running perfectly and by the time the morning session ended and the afternoon one was beginning, all of the major issues had been addressed and things were running much smoother. However, I would still like the opportunity to meet with Mr. Murphy over some lunch to discuss his “law” and exactly what I think about it!

Update: Another article on Ted was recently published on how this YouTube video has helped him land a new job! http://on.msnbc.com/enMyfB

Anyways, half way through, Wood Harris, the actor who plays Julius Campbell, had a conversation with another player and says “attitude reflects leadership” – something that was not only the turning point in the movie but is true of the business world today.

As a business owner, manager or supervisor of others, your leadership style has a direct impact on those who you depend on you. Poor leadership qualities lead to poor attitudes from your employees which lead to an unproductive work environment filled with negativity. A successful leader has a clear vision on where they need to go, a firm grasp on success and how to achieve that success. A good leader must have the discipline to work towards their vision individually as well as the ability to direct their actions and those of the team toward the goal. However, leaders must exhibit qualities to be able to inspire those working for them. Here are some of the qualities that make a successful leader …

1. Integrity

   Being able to trust and have others trust you is key. As a successful leader, you have to be able to integrate your inner values with the actions you display towards others. Honest dealings, predictable reactions, well-controlled emotions and an absence of harsh outbursts are all signs of integrity.

2. Dedication

   Doing whatever it takes to accomplish the tasks at hand, a successful leader inspires dedication by example. By providing an example and setting a precedent, leaders can show followers that there opportunities available to achieve something great.

3. Openness

   No one person ever has all of the answers. Having an open mind to the ideas of others not only shows that you value their thoughts, ideas and opinions, but that you are willing to explore other avenues to achieve the same end result. Being open also helps build mutual respect between the members of your team

4. Fairness

   Being a successful leader means that you have the ability to deal with others consistently and justly. You cannot pass judgment on anyone or anything where there isn’t sufficient evidence. When employees feel they that are being treated fairly, they will be loyal and dedicated.

5. Assertiveness

   This is not to be confused with aggressiveness. The ability to be assertive ensures that you can give directions to others clearly so that there is no  misunderstanding when it comes to what you expect and what is expected of you.

While there are a lot of qualities that define a successful leader, these are ones that I feel create the foundation that the rest are built upon. With the existence of these basic qualities, a leader can easily be found and nurtured!