Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose. - Bill Gates

Complacency is a big risk for successful organizations. John Kotter, consultant and Harvard Business School professor, recently wrote about that risk. "More often than not," he asserts, "great accomplishments cause individuals and organizations to become comfortable with their way of doing things." Businesses turn static. Workers turn their focus inward. Even the most dynamic of organizations can turn complacent, thinking what they are doing is right, and there is no need to change.

Kotter writes that his research over more than 30 years has shown that "despite being better prepared to take bold action, companies with a high level of achievement tend to feel content with the status quo." They ignore the rapidly changing world around them. And that is a recipe for disaster.

"As a leader, you must do everything in your power to identify complacency and root it out," writes Kotter. He suggests you ask these questions to determine whether complacency has set in among your employees:

* Are team conversations inwardly focused, and not about new markets, emerging technologies or potential competitors?

* Are past failures discussed only to stall new initiatives, rather than as learning experiences?

* Do important meetings end with no decisions about what needs to happen immediately?

* Do workers regularly blame others for problems, as opposed to taking responsibility?

* Are selective facts used to dismiss data that suggests there is a major challenge or opportunity knocking at the door?

If the answer to most of these questions is "yes," then complacency has taken root, Kotter says. "Before it continues to spread, you must take action to instill a sense of urgency in your employees." You need to determine where the organization is headed. Then, as you communicate that opportunity to your workers, he suggests you keep these tips in mind:

* Appeal to the head and the heart. Make a rational case for the new direction, but do it in a compelling way to win over hearts and minds.

* Bring the outside in. If inward focus is the problem, attention to outward reality is the answer. Share outside perspectives. Shed light on troubling data. Listen to customer-facing employees. Each of these tools can be persuasive in helping people see that the outside world is changing.

* Lead by example. Behave with true urgency. If you're expecting your employees to change, you must change first.

* Find opportunity in crises. Always look for the upside possibilities. Destabilizing experiences, if navigated carefully, can be powerful drivers of change.

* Deal with the naysayers. There will always be skeptics. But then there are people who, for whatever reason, simply do not want change. These people, especially if powerful, can be dangerous. The key is to confront them head-on.

As author Arnold Glasow observed, "A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit." When you compliment members of your team, you become known for being generous, and the members of your team become your spokespeople. You'll find that talented people will be asking to work with you. The more credit you give away, the more will come back to you.

Writing for smartblogs.com, executive coach Joel Garfinkle offers these suggestions for creating a credit-sharing culture in your organization:

Take advantage of meetings to give credit to others - Instead of looking for opportunities to make yourself look good, try to highlight the contributions of others and giving them the spotlight.

Downplay your own contributions and acknowledge the work of the team - As the team leader, you can promote yourself indirectly by praising your team. Everything they accomplish is a reflection on you. Even if you're not the leader, acknowledge your colleagues' ideas and efforts.

Encourage your employees to share credit with one another - Emphasize the need for everyone on the team to acknowledge others' contributions. As you continue to model credit-sharing behavior, they will catch on and begin sharing credit. This leads to a supportive work environment that can produce outstanding results and success.

Speak up on behalf of your colleagues - When you praise others, they will be grateful to you for making the effort to recognize their work. This will motivate them to accomplish even more.

Copy your boss when you recognize team members - If you're sending an e-mail to a team member to tell them what a great job they did on a project or how much you appreciate their positive attitude, be sure to copy your boss so your team member will gain visibility higher in the company as well.

It's never too late to improve oneself, says Mike Michalowicz, blogging for OpenForum.com, noting that the ripple effect of improvements reaches much further when the changes are made by a leader. He suggests leaders adopt these seven important self-improvement practices.

1. Lead by example. The best way to achieve loyalty is to give loyalty. People will work hard for you if you work hard for them. The key is reciprocity, Michalowicz says. Leaders get what they put out. Telling your employees what is expected is not enough. Assuming they will understand and follow through is not enough. You must lead by example.

2. Find a mentor unlike you. Abraham Lincoln was known for surrounding himself and his cabinet with people who had different opinions from his. Some of them didn't even approve of him. Yet most people consider him one of the most important, influential and effective leaders in U.S. history.

Coincidence? No. Find a mentor who is different from you, someone who will expose you to different opinions and thoughts, and who will give you an entirely new perspective. This kind of a mentor will challenge you to back up your decisions with good reasons. In the end, he or she will make you a better leader by providing you with honest, innovative feedback.

3. Be a hands-on volunteer. Find a cause and commit to it, not with money, but with action. Get your hands dirty and help others. You learn that we are all the same. You already "know it," but you need to volunteer to experience it, says Michalowicz. Finances do not make the man or woman, the heart does.  

4. Ask bigger questions. Questions are the driving force behind business. How we answer them determines the success or failure of our business. If you're only asking logistical, essentially small questions, you'll get small answers. These answers merely keep business afloat. If you want to move your business toward greatness, ask the big questions. "How do I change this industry forever?" The bigger the questions and the bigger the answers, the larger the margin for success. Ask really big questions.

5. Fire bad clients. Think of the old 80/20 rule. 80% of your time is being chewed up by 20% of your clients. In that 20%, there are almost always a few clients who monopolize your time, yet they don't make you a penny. This isn't sustainable. Many intelligent businessman hold onto bad-apple clients, writes Michalowicz, adding "Just as you would throw out rotten apples, it's time to fire those rotten clients." It's not easy, but it's important.

6. Be yourself. Trying to please each and every person never works. Instead, be your real self. Michalowicz notes that if you are authentic, "you will resonate with the right people. The people who inherently like your true personality will fully connect with you. The connections you form with these people will be lasting and they will benefit your business and your life." He advises leaders to be "100% genuine. It's magnetic."

7. Don't be a workaholic. The pride you hold as a leader should be in being productive and efficient, not in being a workaholic. Be proud to work from 9 to 5, Michalowicz says, adding that "long hours are not a symbol of a good work ethic, efficiency is." Resolve to be a productivity-aholic, and spend the rest of your time being a good person.

Your business depends on you and your leadership qualities. If you want your business to grow and move forward, you must guide it.

Change is hard for most people, even those who claim they like it. But for businesses to grow and move forward, changes are essential.

Julie Rains, a business writer for Wisebread.com, says it's important for managers to understand why employees may resist change. She offers a few widespread beliefs about change that may contribute to resistance, and then she offers "fixes" for managers.

1. Employee concern: Productivity will plummet and stress will skyrocket. Changes may bring complexity to an employee's familiar job. Employees may think the extra time and effort needed to learn new ways will detract from productivity, output and peace of mind.

How to address: Establish a new performance metric when changes occur. If possible, move away from activity-based measures to assessments of creative output and profitable results. Give employees time to assimilate new ways of doing their jobs and plenty of space to solve problems that require intense concentration.

2. Employee concern: Employees may believe that championing new work processes or pursuing new customer segments means acknowledging that previous procedures caused errors.

How to address: Reassure them that the proposed changes reflect technological advances, emergence of new segments or other recent developments that have impacted the business. "Emphasize the need for continual renewal as a strategy for ongoing success," writes Rains.

3. Employee concern: Failures are not occasions for learning. Employees may accept that changes may not bring immediate results. What they fear is an inability to understand which factors influence success.

How to address: Teach employees how to learn from their mistakes. Encourage them to articulate assumptions and predict likely outcomes of proposed changes. Then show them how to evaluate results in light of the accuracy of these assumptions. By giving employees the skills to learn from potentially risky moves, they should feel more confident about their ability to correct missteps and move forward.

4. Employee concern: Difficult problems may arise from change. Changes may result in unfamiliar and unintended consequences.

How to address: Identify known negatives that will likely surface as byproducts of changes. Investigate, identify, and implement best practices for dealing with these situations. Acknowledge that unpredictable things may happen, ask the employees to alert you to these instances, and assure them that you will handle problems quickly.

5. Employee concern: Changes may alter status among colleagues and employees. Employees who enjoy their titles, position descriptions and place in the existing hierarchy are reluctant to go through changes that may jeopardize these relationships for shaky ones with another group. They especially want to avoid scenarios that put them in conflict with long-time associates, explains Rains.

How to address: Tell them the truth. Current jobs and existing relationships are becoming irrelevant as the competitive landscape changes or key customers merge and go out of business. The new organization will challenge their alliances but also position them and the business more favorably in the long term.

You've just been hired or promoted to lead a company, division, function or team. However, your quick analysis of the players in the group suggests you've got some major problems. What do you do? Here are the top ways to turn around an under-performing team, says Eric Jackson, writing for Forbes.com:

1. Get rid of non-performers immediately. You will save yourself a lot of time and generate goodwill with other team members if you get rid of the worst performers right away. You'll notice a lightness and energy in the air immediately afterwards.

2. Fill vacant roles with capable people with amazing attitudes, skills for that particular area, and zealous attention to detail and follow-through. Top talent loves other top talent. They don't like being on a team with people who slow them down.

3. Set the vision for the group and establish milestones to achieving the vision. As group leader, you need to set the goals for the group. Paint a picture of what you want to accomplish over the next few weeks/months/years. The vision also needs milestones. People want to know how they're doing in relation to their goals.

4. Follow-up and remind the team how they're doing against the milestones. A lot of team leaders forget to update their members on how the team is progressing.

5. Hold fewer team-wide meetings but smaller ones with the right people. You'll have a happier team with fewer meetings with only the most necessary people invited.

6. Agree on meeting rules. Start and end meetings on time. Agree that it's unacceptable for team members to be late for meetings. Everyone needs to follow the same rules.

7. Schedule regular face time with each of your team members at least monthly and ideally bi-weekly. The best bosses who have the best teams know the importance of "checking in" and keeping a finger on the pulse with every team member. When it doesn't happen, the team starts to drift apart.

8. Do annual performance reviews and discuss the team members' developmental needs. This is a big differentiator between the high- and low-performing teams. Jackson says he's studied many industries and companies, and timely performance reviews is a major predictor of team success.

9. Hold people accountable. If someone is not pulling his or her weight, address it. Team members who are pulling their weight will resent you more than they resent the loafer if you don't.

10. Measure the team's progress at least annually. Get in the habit of benchmarking the team's performance relative to others on an annual basis. By reviewing the strengths and weaknesses from their own ratings and seeing them in black-and-white, you'll find it easier to gain consensus on the areas that need improvement.

As the team leader, you have to take responsibility for when things go well and when they don't. If you fulfill these 10 requirements, you'll have the team humming in no time, predicts Jackson.