Take Charge Of Your Business With This Great Leadership Advice

A leader is respected when he tries to help others succeed. A good leader allows others leadership opportunities. The ability to delegate is critical to good leadership.

If you want to learn better leadership skills, start with honesty. Your team needs to be led positively. Your followers will see your honesty and will appreciate it. By employing honestly will all colleagues, you will inspire them to do the same.

Don’t think your employees are going to be able to read your mind. Clearly communicate expectations if you want tasks to be carried out correctly. Maintain and open-door policy. Also, an open door policy ensures staff members can also voice their concerns and also ask for advice.

Work to communicate the vision of the team among the workers. Sometimes, they have difficulty communicating among themselves. Make sure your actions show the company’s values. Let your team understand the big picture and how they are contributing specifically. This helps provide direction and also helps you build relationships.

It is important for a leader to be honest. If your team doesn’t trust you, they won’t work well for you either. When you work on your leadership skills, try to set a standard of trustworthiness and honesty. If they feel they can trust you, they will gain respect for you as well.

Stay transparent. Hiding business issues used to the normal thing to do, but many good leaders do just the opposite. Want to know why? The world has become quite communicative. The truth will come out whether you like it or not. A good leader is in control at all times. Great leaders stay on that path.

Don’t counter your morals to compete. If your competition is behaving in an uncomfortable manner, look for an alternative so you can compete. You can still be successful. If you figure out a fresh way to stay in the game, you’ll be happier.

Keep things as simple as you can. Focus on the most important goals as a leader. After you have accomplished that, then you can begin setting priorities. Simplify whatever you can. Also set some time aside for thinking and brainstorming.

Take care to avoid doing anything that may appear to be devious or deceitful. Follow through with all of the promises you make to be trusted as a leader. If you tell others that your business provides great service, you have to make sure your workers know how to provide this.

Give rewards when work is well done. While it is true that people get paid to work, they will put in even more effort if they have a reward goal to aim for. When an employee makes an extra effort, let them know you notice and encourage them with a reward. Don’t cheap out when buying gifts.

Make sure that you have goals set for your business as a whole. Setting goals helps your team rich for the stars. However, it is important that goals are able to be met. Have meetings about goals every month, and make everyone on the team responsible for accomplishing them.

Look for talent in your team. When you are in the process of looking for people to help you, it should be simple for you to decide who would give you the best benefit. This is important when needing to hire or contract for small jobs.

Don’t be a poor leader. Understand all the things that make a bad leader, but know what it takes to be a good one. Wanting to do things properly and the desire to learn will make a world of a difference. It’s up to you to decide what to do.

Top Leadership Tips To Take Charge Of Your Business

You must learn about leadership and apply the skills. Good leaders continually better their skills. Keep reading to understand how to become an effective leader.

A good way to better your leadership skills is to be confident in your decision-making. You’re going to be responsible for making many of them. If the people on your team offer different opinions on a matter, it is your job to make the right decision.

When you are leading, focus on those involved and work will be completed almost effortlessly. Find out how to inspire and encourage those who are working for you. Don’t micromanage; spend your efforts on motivation, instead.

While leading, keep things as simple as possible. Concentrate on the important things. Start setting your priorities then. You must simplify the work as much as you can. You should also give yourself and others time to think.

Always tell others how much they, and their work, mean to you. It doesn’t take long to write something that says thank you or good job, and that may mean quite a bit to those that work hard all day long. This helps lift up a person’s spirits, and it costs you nothing.

Good work can flow more readily in the presence of strong incentives. While you may be paying them a decent salary, incentives can increase morale and productivity. Recognize when your employees perform exceptionally well, and reward them with a gift or bonus. A good leader isn’t cheap.

Set missions and goals for everyone in your company. Everyone enjoys striving for things, and leaders try positioning yearly goals for their team. Don’t just set them up and let them disappear over the year. Review the goals on a monthly basis, and make each team member accountable for attaining the goals.

Honesty is a crucial element of great leadership. Great leaders are trustworthy ones. Always be open and honest with your team. When people know they can trust and rely on you, they will grow to respect you as a leader.

You will be judged by your subordinates on your decision making. These decisions such as the hiring and firing of employees, who you assign tasks to and how you hand out promotions all go into others forming an opinion about you. Demonstrating favoritism and failing to reward good work is sure to sink morale and hinder productivity.

Keep your eye on everything as a whole at all times. Understand what your goals are. Additionally, it is important to understand the goals of your business. Your personal goals and the goals of your company should line up. You must work on both simultaneously. If you are unable to do this, it will be evident in your low levels of enthusiasm for your work.

Own the things you’re telling others. Leadership means that you have to be held accountable for what you say and do. You’re the center of the company and what you say and do reflects them. Take responsibility for your mistakes and learn from them. Do not expect others to provide solutions.

You must recognize the different talents of your team members. As you look for people to work for you, this will help you decide. This can be very beneficial to things running on all cylinders.

Now is the time to put these leadership skills to use. You can now find out what you really need to do. The ideas presented in this article are the path you must follow. Any leader should continue to learn new techniques.

Effective Tips For Being The Most Effective Leader

Knowing what it takes to be a good leader is very important, and this includes knowing things that don’t work well. It’s sometimes hard being a leader since there are tough decisions to make. The advice below will help you turn your leadership skills into something special.

When working to hone leadership skills, you cannot go wrong by staring with honesty. Leaders should always strive to take people in better directions. Honesty is easy for the people you lead to see. When those you are leading learn how important honesty is to you, it will help to breed honesty in them as well.

Honesty is vitally important to a leader. Work every day to build trust with your employees. While you build your skills in leadership, try to keep a precedent of trustworthiness and honesty. When others figure out that you can be trusted and they can rely on what you’re doing, they will start to show you respect.

Communicate your team’s vision. Make sure your actions show the company’s values. Communicate this with your team and let them step into their roles to meet goals. It is a great way to offer direction and build a healthy professional relationship.

You must be able to spot talents in other people. When searching for people who can help you, look for the one that would be of the most benefit. This is important when needing to hire or contract for small jobs.

Let others know about possible problems. In the past, it was common to keep problems under wraps, but modern leaders know not to do this. What has changed? There is a lot of communication in the world today. The news will likely leak out somehow anyway. It is better to be the one who controls the message, rather than someone who just reacts to it, right? Being a true leader means you are on top of that message.

Do not do things that others may find deceitful. It is important to keep your promises if you want to be trusted as a leader. If you say that you’re giving the best service possible, then you have to teach the employees that work for you what it takes to give people great service.

Keeping things simple should be your goal while leading others. Make sure you focus on what is really important. Start setting your priorities then. The work needs to be as simplified as possible. Also set some time aside for thinking and brainstorming.

It pays to dedicate a specific amount of time daily to assessing progress of the team. You could even ask a few members of your team to join you in this assessment. They can make suggestions, discuss changes, and you can all become friends.

If you wish to lead others effectively, you have to know what your weaknesses and strengths are. If you are too sure of yourself, then chances are you will eventually fail. Stick to building your skills and working towards your goals.

Being a good leader means you have to be a good listener when talking with your subordinates. Employees can take goals and ideas and expand on them in ways you might not have considered. Let your team know what is expected and then listen to their suggestions.

One quality of a great leader is the ability to identify talent in others. Make sure your crew is diverse and offers many qualities. This is also good when you want to hire someone.

Though it is challenging, leading others carries high rewards. You help out other people in their lives; making a good impact is what being a leader is all about. So many people need leaders in their lives, and everyone can be a leader to others. Ensure that you are aware of how important you are to others.

Essential Leadership Skills You Need To Do Your Job Right

Leadership is not merely an academic pursuit, it must be put into action. A good leader should realize that there is always something new to learn. Read on to learn which skills a great leader needs.

Your employees are not mind readers. Tell people exactly what needs to be done for a job to be finished, when it should get done, and how it should be done. Also, you need to put a policy that’s open door into place. If you do this, you won’t have to micro-manage them once the task is theirs.

Keep your morals in mind. Be sure to will be comfortable with the decisions you make. If you’re going to feel bad or upset about a decision, don’t make it. Although some people may not have the same morals as you, you need to do what you feel is right.

Do not assume that your team are mind-readers. Communicate your expectations precisely when it comes to methods, time frame and strategy. Remember that communication goes both ways. If they don’t understand the instructions you give, they don’t need to hesitate about coming to you for help.

Decisiveness is essential to being a great leader. You’re going to be responsible for making many of them. Listen to what different members of your team suggest when you encounter a problem and choose the solution that will benefit everyone.

Conducting yourself in an ethical manner is critical, regardless of whom you are dealing with. Good ethics will help you in any area. Customers will keep returning when they know you care about them. Set an example that your employees will follow by being ethical.

When you are leading, focus on those involved and work will be completed almost effortlessly. Find out how to inspire and encourage those who are working for you. Avoid micromanaging your team. Trust that you have delegated responsibilities appropriately and offer assistance in helping your employees reach their goals.

Make it a point to look for hidden talent in your teammates. By finding and developing hidden talents in others, you will make your team stronger. This can be very beneficial to things running on all cylinders.

Now you have learned the way to better use leadership skills. Now, you are aware of how to do this right. Let this information be your guide. Being a leader is something that everyone needs to work on, so get moving.

Solid Advice About Leadership That Can Help Anyone

Having great leadership skills is important no matter how big or small your group is. Use the same skills for effective leadership no matter the size of your team. Use the above advice to become a leader your group will be proud of.

Keeping things simple should be your goal while leading others. Focus on the important things first. After these things are done, then you’ll be able to set up more priorities. Try to simplify things as much as possible. Set aside time to think about how to undertake the projects, as well.

Never expect that others you are leading are mind readers. Let them know exactly how work should be done and when it needs to be completed. Also, maintain an open-door policy. This way, staff members will be comfortable coming to you for any clarifications they may need.

Be concise and succinct when giving direction to your employees. You must be able to communicate to them how you want things done and what expectations you have. You want your staff to feel comfortable seeking your advice and asking for clarification if they feel something is unclear.

Recognizing talents in others is a sign of a good leader. Figure out just who will benefit your company the most. This applies to hiring and contracting people to do small jobs for you.

Make ethical choices. Every sound business must be ethical. Customers are faithful to companies that are known to truly care about them. By getting together a set of responsibilities that show how moral your business is, your rules will start to be followed by people.

Focus on the individuals in your team, and you will lead them to success. Learn to encourage and inspire employees who work with you. Instead of focusing on completing every small task, focus on energizing your team into performing better.

Great leaders encourage creativity. Taking risks and being creative can provide you with great success. Keep exploring possibilities and stay curious. Believe in new ideas, no matter if it does not seem to fit right at this moment. This allows you to incorporate others’ ideas into the overall plan.

Try your best to be an approachable leader. Intimidation is a tactic too many leaders use today. That is false, and people will fear you and not respect you either. Make sure your team knows you are there to work with them.

Make sure people are motivated to perform well. Incentives are a great way to boost morale and productivity. If you have an employee that continues to go above and beyond, recognize them. Effective leaders aren’t cheap when it comes to this.

Those who report to you are likely to judge you based on your decisions. Who you give projects to, as well as the people you hire or fire makes people think differently of you. If you aren’t fair or responsible, your business will suffer.

Honesty is a crucial leadership characteristic. Work every day to build trust with your employees. When you work on your leadership skills, try to set a standard of trustworthiness and honesty. When people believe that they can rely on your word, they will also respect you more as their leader.

Believe in synergy. Understand what you want to achieve in life. Have your business goals clearly defined, too. You should strive for alignment and perhaps overlap when it comes to personal and business objectives. This allows you to concentrate on both sets of goals together. If that’s impossible, over time you may lose your drive for the business.

Leading a group effectively requires a certain set of skills. Effective leadership skills are a must to properly run a business, and this goes for lower-level leaders as well as top CEOs. Apply the ideas from this article in order to find better leadership ability and the respect that it commands.

Excellent Advice About Leadership That You Will Want To Read

A leader is respected by people when he or she cares for them and wants to help them become successful. A good leader will also empower employees. Learning how to delegate is imperative; this article is filled with tips to help improve your leadership skills.

Most importantly, a good leader encourages simplicity. Focus on the most important goals as a leader. It is only after focusing on these goals that you can adjust their priorities. Simplify everything as far as possible. Also you have to allow for time to think for others as well as you.

Never make the assumption that your employees know what you are thinking. Be concise with what you want done and how you want it done. Therefore, if folks need clarification about what you want done, they will be comfortable asking for it.

Your team should understand your vision. Try using the company’s mission to guide you and you should also put the company’s values into what you’re doing every day. Make sure every employee realizes how important they are in helping the company reach its goals. It is a great way to offer direction and build a healthy professional relationship.

An important leadership characteristic is honesty. If your team doesn’t trust you, they won’t work well for you either. As your leadership skills improve, you should always try to set an example by being trustworthy and honest. When others know you are able to be trusted, they will give you their respect.

A great way to increase your leadership skill is by being decisive. As the leader, you are likely to have to make many decisions. Listen to what different members of your team suggest when you encounter a problem and choose the solution that will benefit everyone.

You should regularly make people aware of potential issues. While covering up problems in business used to be typical, nowadays a leader will be open about them. Why? Communication has become key in today’s world. The story can get out regardless of whether you wish it would or not. Why not control the message that comes out, instead of reacting? This is the attitude shared by effective leaders.

Make sure you’re always looking to simplify things as well. Focus on the most important goals as a leader. It is only after focusing on these goals that you can adjust their priorities. Make the work simple when possible. Also, you should give yourself and others time to think things through.

Do not act in any manner that seems deceitful. Never fail to live up to your promises. If you claim to provide the best service in your particular business category, make sure all your employees understand how to provide the best service.

Set high standards aimed at meeting your goals but make sure your goals are attainable. Setting goals too high sets you up for failure. Giving your team unreachable goals does not make you a good leader.

Never let winning become an obsession. Statistics are easy to get lost in today, all thanks to technology. This is a great way to know your goals, and to see how the progress is going. But, if you concentrate on building a broader culture of achievement, you will have no problem meeting goals and benchmarks.

Focus on the individuals in your team, and you will lead them to success. Work on being inspiring and encourage those around you. Instead of focusing on completing every small task, focus on energizing your team into performing better.

Focus on team building and creating an atmosphere of cooperation. Always be open to your team members regarding questions and concerns. The people working for you should have an easy time doing their work without having to rely on you too often.

Nobody wants to be a bad leader. Figure out what needs to be avoided, and learn how to understand what goes into leading other people. Desiring to do what is right and learning all you can will help you to make a difference. Make the best choices.

Become A Leader By Following These Tips.

Have you ever been overlooked for a position of leadership? It is important that you pay great heed to advice in order not to be passed over when opportunities to lead arise. This article will help you find out what is missing from your life when it comes to leadership.

If you’re trying to increase your leadership skills, a good place to start is with honesty. When you are a leader, your goal should always be to try to lead your team in the right direction. Your followers will see your honesty and will appreciate it. Your honesty will influence your followers to be honest as well.

Don’t be a know it all. You might have good ideas, but you must also consider those around you. They can offer suggestions on ways to improve your idea, execute it, or point out problems that they may see in your plan.

Your team’s vision should be communicated. You need to find a way to incorporate your values and your mission into your daily tasks. It is important that you communicate the bigger picture while you help your team see how their roles play a part in the big ideas. You want to make sure all members of your team are pulling in the same direction.

Great business leaders never compromise their morals to be more competitive. If you feel like something isn’t right, or that your competition is being underhanded, choose another path. You need not follow their lead just to stay relevant. You’ll feel better if you use a more ethical method to compete.

Being a good leader means that you shouldn’t do deceitful things that can’t be trusted. Never fail to live up to your promises. If your claim is to be the best in your industry, be sure that your employees know how to deliver the best service.

Own up to your failures. Even great leaders err from time to time. The great leaders are the ones who can own their mistakes and work to fix them. It proves you have flaws, like all humans. This might not seem like a leader, but humanity can inspire major loyalty.

Honesty is important for a leader. Effective leadership requires trust. Always remain trustworthy and honest. When others figure out that you can be trusted and they can rely on what you’re doing, they will start to show you respect.

Don’t set unrealistic goals. Doing so can set your team on the road to failure. That will in fact prove you aren’t a good leader.

Your employees will form opinions about you because of your decisions. Employees are watching you who give the most select projects to and how often. They’re also watching the type of people who you hire or even fire. If you show favoritism instead of rewarding individual merits, you can devalue productivity and lower employee morale.

Bring together the kind of team that is productive by using your leadership skills. Be available to talk to your employees about problems and answer questions honestly and to the best of your ability. The people working for you should have an easy time doing their work without having to rely on you too often.

Don’t act like you know it all when you want to improve your skills. You probably have some solid ideas you think highly of, but remember that others around you also have ideas to contribute. They will have all sorts of suggestions on how to make your plan a great one.

Successful leaders know how to listen to workers’ feedback on work issues. Make yourself available for communication with all of your employees because you never know where a great idea may come from. You can ask for an opinion on an idea you have as well. Confronting issues and working toward resolving them engenders trust among your employees.

Now is the time to focus on making sure you are working towards being a good leader. This is a very important aspect of life. After reading the above information, now is the time to start. Achieving your leadership goals is a main pursuit, and use what you’ve already learned to accomplish them.

Everything You Need To Know To Improve Your Leadership Skills

If you want success, you must be an effective leader. Leadership can motivate others and help you reach new heights. If you wish to learn some things that can boost your leadership skills, you’ll find this article to be helpful.

Good leaders focus on the future. You should be able to anticipate what will happen next and be ready for it. While you will never know everything about what the future holds, you will surely get better at making predictions. Always think about where you hope to be a year from now, and then take steps in that direction.

You must be able to make decisions as a leader. Leaders are responsible for many decisions. If the team has a couple different opinions regarding problem solutions, decide on a solution that will benefit everyone instead of a couple people.

Communicate your team’s vision. Let your company’s mission statement guide you by incorporating it into your routine. Make sure your team gets an idea of what the bigger picture is about so they can feel good about their accomplishments. You want to make sure all members of your team are pulling in the same direction.

Great business leaders never compromise their morals to be more competitive. If your competitors are doing something shady, do something else instead. There is nothing that says you must compromise your morals to stay relevant. Find new ways to complete, and maintain your self respect.

Whatever decisions you make will affect how your subordinates view you. Their opinions of you is affected by who gets assigned vital projects, and by who you fire, hire and promote. Choosing favorites and forgetting to reward individual accomplishments can reduce morale and undermine productivity.

Hire a variety of folks for your company. Having people from all walks of life on your side should give you a renewed perspective. Do not hire employees who are similar to you. That will stunt innovation. Also, your weaknesses and those of your employees could cause your company to fail.

Be strong and decisive as a leader. Since you are in charge, many decisions may be totally up to you. If there are several options, you must be able to come up with a solution that benefits the whole team.

You should work on being synergistic. Know your personal goals well. Understand just what your goals in business are. They should align well and may even overlap to some degree. You should want to work on them simultaneously. If you don’t, the lack of passion will be evident.

As a leader, you can’t be effective unless you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Being too confident in your lesser abilities sets you up for failure. Make sure you’re bringing up your weak areas.

Mean everything you say. As a leader, responsibility for what you say and do always falls on your shoulders. You are acting as the heart of your company; everything you do will reflect on the business. If you’ve done or said the wrong things, you must make them right. Don’t expect it to be overlooked or allow others to do it for you.

Ensure your team feels that you are approachable. Some people think that intimidating people is the most effective way to let them know you are in control. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you utilize that strategy, you are likely to find that it is an uphill battle to get those who report to you to respect you. Let your employees know that you support them, since you have the responsibility to see that they perform well.

Great leaders are something that the business world has to have. If you are striving to become a leader, use the information from this article wisely. Follow the advice here and you will be well on the way to strengthening your leadership skills.

Becoming A Better Leader At The Workplace

In order to achieve success in business, you need to develop excellent leadership skills. Being a good leader can help you move up the business ladder, create your own business, and motivate your team. Want to know how to better your skills? Read the text below.

Avoid thinking people can read your thoughts. Use precision in your communications and let people ask follow-up questions about assignments. This way your staff will not hesitate to ask questions if they do not understand any of your expectations.

Be open and honest as soon as there are any issues. Although in the past it was common practice to hide business problems, in today’s workforce the best leaders talk about business problems with their team. What’s the reason for that? It’s because people can easily communicate nowadays. The truth will come out, one way or another. You should control whatever the message is instead of always being forced to react. Being a true leader means you are on top of that message.

Make a mission and vision for your team. You need to find a way to incorporate your values and your mission into your daily tasks. Communicate the big picture and show your team their roles. It is smart and helps to build relationships and give people direction.

If you are the leader of a group, you have to show the members that you appreciate them. It doesn’t take long to write something that says thank you or good job, and that may mean quite a bit to those that work hard all day long. It’s free to do, and means so much to others.

Reward great work with incentives. Sure, you pay them to do their jobs, but a little extra motivation doesn’t hurt anything. If a team member works particularly hard on a project, reward them with a gift or cash bonus. Top leaders don’t penny pinch on this.

Own up to your failures. Even the best leaders will make mistakes. Great leaders recognize their mistakes, learn from them and use this experience to help others avoid these mistakes. People will be more likely to trust you if they see that you are flawed and human. Although those traits are unlikely to seem like those of a leader, showing that you are human helps engender loyalty.

You don’t want to ever think that your team members are able to know what you’re thinking. Make sure they understand exactly what’s expected of them. This way, staff members will be comfortable coming to you for any clarifications they may need.

Take ownership in whatever you say. Good leadership is about taking responsibility for the things you do or say. You are an important piece of the business, and anything you do or say will reflect on it. If things have gone awry because of your actions, then you need to make good immediately. There is nobody to fix the issues but you.

Leadership Skills

The business world requires effective leaders. No doubt, the information you’ve just read will help you to develop your leadership skills. Follow the advice here so that you can start enhancing your own leadership skills.

All leaders that are good need to focus on days to come. You have to have the ability to look ahead and then make plans accordingly. While you will never know everything about what the future holds, you will surely get better at making predictions. Visualize where’d like to be in the future.

Get Helpful Tips About Leadership That Are Simple To Understand

Becoming a better leader involves learning your strengths and weaknesses. Everyone can have leadership qualities, and you can show yours by putting yourself out there. This article will help you to achieve this.

Your employees are not mind readers. Explain exactly how you need a task done, when it must be done, and how you would like it done. Make yourself available for questions. If they’re confused, they can just approach you and get clarification.

Being decisive is a necessary leadership skill. Since you are in charge, many decisions may be totally up to you. Showing you’re a good leader means making decisions that will benefit a group as a whole. Making decisions that bring advantages to only a few will be noticed quickly and even resented.

Keep it simple, leader! It is important to focus on the important things. Once that’s been accomplished, you’ll be able to set priorities. You have to make the work as simple as possible. Allow time just to brainstorm, for yourself and for your team.

Tenacity is a critical leadership quality. When it all goes wrong, you are going to be the one everyone turns to in order to see how to act. You should focus on accomplishing the goal whatever obstacles stand in the way. If you stay motivated, so will the rest of your team.

If you want to be a great leader, you ought never to dismiss your own morals to be competitive. If your competition is doing tasks that make you feel uneasy, try finding alternatives to compete. Do your own thing. You can keep your ethics while still staying competitive.

Preparation is key before speaking to a team. Try to anticipate likely questions. Think of answers for the questions. If you are full of answers, the team will respect your expertise. It also will save you significant amounts of time.

Your staff are not psychics. Tell people exactly what needs to be done for a job to be finished, when it should get done, and how it should be done. Also, you need to put a policy that’s open door into place. This way, staff members will be comfortable coming to you for any clarifications they may need.

Own up to your mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, even leaders. Great leaders recognize their mistakes, learn from them and use this experience to help others avoid these mistakes. You can make mistakes, but as a leader, you must have the power to correct them. While admitting failure may not seem grand, it is humble and respectable.

Own every word that you say. To be a leader, you must be accountable for all of the words you speak and actions that you take. You’re the leader of the company and that means whatever you do is going to symbolize the business. Take responsibility for your mistakes and learn from them. You are the team leader, so everything is ultimately your responsibility.

Avoid getting obsessed over winning. With so much technology at our fingertips, it is tempting to see things in terms of goals and charts. Managers in organizations do this in order to set up team goals, and as a way to accurately measure success. If you step back for a second and start focusing on making a culture of people being successful at work, winning will happen on its own.

All good leaders look towards the future and focus on it. You have to have the ability to look ahead and then make plans accordingly. You will not always be sure of what is going to happen, but over time this will become one of your skills. Make sure that you have future goals in mind that you want to aim for, whether it is six or twelve months down the line.

Leadership Skills

If you want to build your career, you must start with your leadership skills. Sooner or later, everyone has the opportunity to display leadership skills, and you want to be ready. Absorb this information and put it to use.