No matter what some may tell you, it is unimportant how you became a leader. The essential point is how you use your power to motivate and inspire, to scold and fire, to teach and support others.

You may have been to some leadership seminar and learned the “key principles of leadership.” They told you that by following their 7-step program (or 4-step plan, or whatever it was) that you will be a revered leader.

I want to try something different, though. Rather than offer steps, I want to offer questions. I want you to ask yourself the following three questions, and then I want you to answer them honestly and understand how the answers can make you a more effective and motivational leader.

Question 1: Would you rather be loved or feared?

You may already be familiar with the Machiavellian dilemma of The Prince: is it better to be loved or feared as a leader? This question explores both your preference and abilities. Do you rule with an iron fist or joke around with your colleagues over drinks? Many people work with friends or want to maintain a very cordial working relationship with employees. It is in our DNA to seek approval. But are you capable of confrontation when necessary? Consider this: your good friend (and you are his superior) is underperforming at work and you notice. What do you do? What do you think you should do? Explore the normative and positive aspects of your answer and decide what actions and words would make you the best leader at your company.

Question 2: Do you seek advice or work in isolation?

When you are facing a challenge, you may close your office door and work until you solve the problem. Alternatively, you may write a set of e-mails and schedule some meetings to explore the problems with others. Do you seek the advice of others and hope for their buy-in or do you rely entirely on yourself? In my experience, leaders who openly share their challenges and ask for advice resolve their problems faster and more creatively than their counterparts who do it by themselves. However, there are a few leaders I know who are best at relying solely on themselves. They consider the situation objectively and without any input they devise brilliant solutions. Know how you work best and perhaps consider an alternative method to problem-solving. Ask for advice! It rarely hurts, especially if your team feels that it has your ear and you get buy-in.

Question 3: Do you inspire people to trust your leadership?

There are some leaders who keep their teams focused by frequent and harsh criticism, yelling and threats. Very few of these leaders (though there are some) build a good team with a solid focus that produces good results in the long run. Recently I visited an Atlanta-based online retail company (not a failing one) and arrived early. I go there once every few months and each time people greet me like I am their favorite uncle. It feels strangely good to be there. What do they do differently? – I asked myself. As I made my way to the waiting area I could hear the CEO chatting with the customer service team.

Technically, he did not have to be there (there is a customer service manager after all), yet he was sharing how great the team was doing and the few challenges they needed to work out. He did not go into too much detail, just excitedly elaborated on a few broad themes. He mentioned key priorities for the company over the next few months. He asked anyone who had a problem that they felt needed his attention to come directly to him. I felt like he could send out a memo the next week saying that they were moving the company to Oceania and everyone would follow excitedly. That is how much they trust their leader. Sure, this type of open environment does not work at all companies, but it works for this one. The CEO found a way to inspire and motivate people as the right kind of catalyst for the right kind of team.

As you answer these questions for yourself, I again encourage you to reflect on the consequences of those answers and how they benefit – or not – your business.

What kind of leader are you?

Here are some great ways to gain clarity on your purpose and leadership direction.

1. Rest 

It’s easier said than done, but rest is necessary to function efficiently through your long workdays. Whether sitting down for a proper meal, sleeping in, going to the beach for a weekend or just taking a night off to be with friends, guilt-free downtime is an absolute necessity to offset high intensity days.

2. Discuss challenges with a partner or colleague

Do you ever find yourself in the middle of a sentence, trying to explain a business challenge to others and suddenly realize you have the answer? Sharing with others forces us to synthesize information and clarifies problems (I also recommend the whiteboard). In some cases the person listening may not even need to be informed of the topic, but having to explain it to them requires you to think differently.

3. Find one thing to get back your inertia

Sometimes what we lose is inertia, and we just need to swing ourselves back in motion. Pick just one thing that will contribute to your business – not the most important or best thing. Just pick one easy thing. After completing the task, acknowledge how easy it was to make a small change that will positively benefit your business in the long run.

4. Help someone else

You’re probably not the only one who’s stuck or could use a little help. Find someone who needs to talk things through or even be assigned some mindless task that helps them get their inertia back. You’ll be contributing, taking a look at something you otherwise wouldn’t have that may trigger ideas and getting back your inertia.

5. Go for a walk

Little clears your head like fresh air and moving your body. It doesn’t have to be long – 20 minutes will do it. Just take a walk, preferably outside, though if you have to lap the floor of your office building, that’s fine, too. Just move around and clear your head. Busy with phone calls? Take one of those on a walk with you!

Keep these easy solutions in mind for when you feel you’re losing focus (and perhaps motivation) despite knowing how much there is to do.

I compiled the top actions to which they credit their success, so that I can share them with you. You’ll notice that they are all actions because moving forward is the most important element of running a successful operation.

1. Take smart risks

Don’t be reckless, but you must make bold moves sometimes. Caution is important, but beware of too much circumspection. Any growing business will require risks on its path forward – make sure you choose the risks with the most potential for reward to cost ratio.

2. Hire wisely and accept that you won’t be able to do everything yourself

One of the biggest challenges leaders face is letting go of certain tasks they should no longer be doing. But tying your time up with things that others could do will only hold you back. Learn to delegate, choose the right people for the right positions and make it your personal challenge to train them well at the tasks you pass along.

3. Spend money on healthy business growth

Penny pinching seems to be a wide-spread attitude as well as a reality in the years since The Great Recession. It’s an admirable change in many ways, and I encourage you to be cautious financially and eliminate unnecessary costs. However, don’t be afraid of spending money on development. It takes money to make money – trite but true.

4. Learn from mistakes and don’t let them devastate you 

Mistakes are a part of life and business, and you will inevitably make them. What matters is less the mistake and more that you learn from it. In addition, you have to learn to move on from your mistakes. Dwelling on the mistake will not make you a better businessman – dwelling on the lesson will.

5. Make ambitious goals

Some days you may want to conquer the market in your field, while other days you may feel burdened just maintaining the status quo. Set ambitious goals, share them with your team and use them to motivate yourself and to hold yourself accountable. You started a business to grow it – not to maintain it. Ambition does not mean outrageous. Make them possible, but make them ambitious.

6. Don’t box yourself (or others) into one role

When people find something they are good at (especially if others notice it and praise them for it) they tend to keep returning to the same activity. This is great for becoming a specialist in one specific area, but being an entrepreneur and business leader means doing much more than specializing. By the same token, let people try new things and experiment with new roles – you never know what hidden talents you’ll uncover.

7. Challenge your business model and operational plan routinely 

Can you name a single business that was successful throughout the centuries without changing the way it operated? I can’t. Look at your business plan and the way you operate – find one thing that exposes you to a lot of risk and find one thing that may leave you behind if you don’t change it now. Brainstorm ways to improve these areas and see if any of the improvements are viable. Consider potential mistakes that could take a huge toll or technological advances of which you have not yet taken advantage.

8. Don’t be greedy

When business leaders taste the sweetness of success, they want more and more and more. This natural ambition is a fantastic catalyst for growth, so don’t lose it! But you must ask yourself if the actions you are taking now may only benefit you in the short term while proving detrimental in the long term. Don’t let the desire for instant gratification and visible success cloud your judgement.

What are some points you would add to these tips to help your fellow entrepreneurs run an even more successful business?

1. Start now

I hear business contacts and friends say things like this all the time:

“I want to start my own business.”

“I have a great idea, I should start a company.”

“I could do this job so much better than my boss, and I don’t like working for others anyway.”

Well, your time is now. People delay taking risks, and they find a dozen reasons to do so. But the main reason is this: they are uncomfortable with uncertainty. They are scared of the unknown. They sometimes are too cautious or lack self-confidence. If you truly have a great idea, bet on yourself. I won’t tell you that you won’t regret it, but I can almost guarantee that not taking a smart risk will be worse. If you want to start your own business, take the first step this week: come up with the company name, register your LLC or take any other concrete step.

2. Have a plan and a contingency plan

Acting on your business idea does not mean that you should act on it without careful consideration of the risks involved, preferably before you get too far along. Find business partners, identify your widget or service exactly, have brainstorming sessions with friends or family members and outline a preliminary business plan. Be prepared for roadblocks and, if you have the time and energy, create a contingency plan. What’s your exit plan if this goes up in smoke? A contingency plan can help if your initial plans face a significant challenge and you are unsure where to turn.

3. Set your timeframe

I see many people get scared in the early stages of a business plan and retreat to jobs at which they feel safe and comfortable, though perhaps less happy. Others are so determined to actualize their ideas that they are unable to objectively evaluate when it is time to stop trying and call the endeavor a good, but failed, learning experience.

Set a time frame – for example, twelve months – for how long you will try your business idea. Make sure to identify specific times (preferably specific dates rather than “every 3 months”) when you will evaluate the time investment and if you’re where you need to be in your business plan. If you give yourself one year, that is not set in stone. If things start picking up in the 11th month, you should probably keep working on the venture for a while and reevaluate the timeline.

4. Create a solid foundation before you focus on growth

Entrepreneurs are ambitious! They also want to show themselves and the world that their business is successful in just a few months. Set your pride aside (also known as checking your ego at the door) and focus on creating a solid foundation on which long-term growth is possible. The wider and better quality the foundation, the more it will be able to hold as you grow vertically.

Are you ready to start your business? Outline three concrete steps that will get you started and try to complete those steps (or set them in motion) in the next seven days.

Do you already own or run a business? Please share your own thoughts and advice.

This is not a trick question.

In the U.S., we know that hard work pays off. The more we work, the more successful we will become, or so we believe. Our culture encourages us to work more and rest less. As a business leader, you are used to working even harder than many of the people around you; heavy lays the crown and so forth. You go a hundred miles an hour at work, you give direction, you motivate and inspire others around you. When people ask you how you are, the answer generally includes “busy.” It rarely seems appropriate that you take a break.

But you must. Some of the most successful CEOs in the world are those who work normal hours and take time for pleasure and leisure.

Take time for yourself to stare into space. Read a newspaper or magazine. Take your wife or husband to dinner and a movie. Go for a walk. If you can, drive somewhere for a weekend getaway.

There is one rule, though. You should refrain from checking your Blackberry or iPhone for e-mails or take a business call “just for a minute.” If you must check these devices, try to set a specific time when you will do so, and impose a time limit on how long you can engage with your device. Try to take the break seriously, and you will reap the benefits.

Not only will your relationship benefit (who likes to be left at a dinner table for a business call?), but so will your efficiency level and creativity. You may not realize it, but a lot of the work you do is incredibly imaginative work. I am not talking about ad designs or billboard development. Management, business strategy development and finance all require a lot of creativity – especially when it comes to finding solutions to complex challenges.

Grant yourself a break and you will gain it back in no time through increased efficiency, focus and creativity.

Though any break is better than no break at all, I would prefer that you make relaxation a routine activity. Put it on your calendar and make it non-negotiable to the extent that you can. Most of us tend to compromise personal time before compromising any other activity. This is understandable, but know that your long-term health requires you to live a successful and balanced life.

How do you add balance to your work life?

Let this post serve as a reference for each of the 13 Fraud Prevention Tips I’ve offered, and please feel free to add your own.

1. If Someone Commits Fraud, Have Them Thrown in Jail

2. Leverage the Value of an Informal Fraud Policy

3. Fraud Prevention Tip: Keep Your Security Room Locked

4. Always Have Someone Double Check the Payroll

5. Change the Standard by Which You Check Your Transactions

6. Don’t Rehire People Who Steal From You – Seriously

7. Focus on Checks and Balances that are Rechecked and Rebalanced

8. Take All Shortages Seriously

9. Always Poke Around Your Books

10. Regularly Monitor and Review Monetary Trends

11. Match Your Purchase Orders Against Your Invoices Before Putting the Invoices in Your System

12. Think About the Financial Impact of Rare Events on Your Business

13. Trust Your Instincts

Someone asked me why I did so many posts on Fraud Prevention that they ran right out of March – Fraud Prevention Month – and all the way to the end of April. As I mentioned in my very first post about fraud this year, preventing fraud is a year-round process. You need to be vigilant all the time, building a system that is internally monitored – and that monitors the monitors.

Please let me know what your fraud stories are, what tips you’d add to my list and how you prevent fraud.

That’s not a reason to go firing people without evidence, but if you think that something fishy is afoot, trust your instincts and investigate further. It’s your business – or at least it’s in your charge – and you don’t have to feel guilty about questioning processes, transactions or people.

I recall a manufacturing company in Columbia, SC that was making a dress line for an outlet mall chain. The president of the company had a nasty gambling habit and owed the mob several hundred thousand dollars from Atlantic City gambling debts (I was brought in because he took his eye off the ball). To pay his debt, he was operating some special sales on nights and weekends when the plant was closed. He would simply pull a truck right up to the warehouse, load merchandise onto it and sell it to the mob at a discount; they would apply that against his debt.

All of a sudden our shrinkage went way up, and I had to figure out what happened – but I couldn’t. To date he had been a good president, and he ran a tight ship. I couldn’t figure out what it was that was ravaging the shrinkage numbers, but something wasn’t sitting right with me, and even though it seemed dramatic, I had to trust my instincts. Thus, I hired a private detective to spy on the warehouse just in case there was something I was missing. I expected to find some miscellaneous and uncoordinated left that I was just otherwise missing, but what I learned was the magnitude of the operation going on behind my back.

As in all fraud cases, I’m glad I trusted my instincts and hired a private investigator. And that’s the advice I want to leave you with regarding fraud: trust your instincts.

Have you ever trusted your instincts only to find exactly what you feared? Have you not trusted your instincts to your detriment?

Just a For Instance

An off-book transaction most often happens because something rare occurs at your business. Let’s say, for instance and hopefully not, that there’s an extraordinary event like a fire or a theft, and you go to the insurance company claiming $25,000 in damages and loss.

All goes well (at least in this regard), and the check is sent.

The check could have been sent to any number of people’s desks, but as this is a particularly unusual event that involves insurance, the check is sent to the CFO’s desk. Now, the CFO takes the check and deposits it – not into the company’s normal account – but into an account at a different bank under your company’s name. There’s now $25,000 sitting in a bank account in your company’s name, but only the CFO knows its there to control and spend.

How can he get away with this?

These extraordinary non-recurring items are things that an auditor would never know missed the books. Nobody knows to look for what isn’t missing.

And this doesn’t just happen with insurance checks. Off-book fraud happens with rebates, SPIFs (Sale Performance Incentive Plans), or other money that is rare enough that accountants and auditors don’t know to check the books for it.

The Rebate Way

Consider the idea of a pre-purchased rebate. One large printing company I turned around used to buy a lot of paper. In fact, it bought millions of dollars in paper annually (millions is an understatement). So a new paper manufacturer comes along and says that if this printing company signs a contract with them that begins with a $100,000 paper purchase, the manufacturer will give a one million dollar signing bonus.

The details of this contract are only known by one person who also knows that the million dollars should be looked for in the books later. Since he’s the only one who knows and he accepts the check, he’s able to do exactly what the CFO mentioned above could do: deposit and control it. Auditors don’t know to look for it, so they never find it.

I caught this case because I felt compelled to review a contract that represented such a large percentage of expenditures, and I wanted to know more about the deal, but for every huge case that is inevitably caught there are ten other $10,000 deals that get missed.

If I’m around a company long enough for things happening on an annual cycle to recur then I’m more likely to catch these things, but if I’m not then it’s up to people at the top to alert the auditors (and more than one of them, mind you) to be on the lookout for rare, one time or merely annual occurrences that could be slipping the books.

The way I often catch off-book transactions is by noting what I’m told by staff must absolutely be done or absolutely not be done; I always investigate what must or must not happen to see if something unsavory is going on. A good bit of the time, it is.

A Smooth Insurance Scam

For instance, I had a controller who would intentionally overpay insurance premiums. He was writing, periodically, a check for $10,000 or even $20,000 more than he needed to be. When the auditors came in, they would see regular checks to the insurance company and not think a thing of it. At best, they would spot check that this company was owed money, and the short answer was always yes.

The insurance company would later send a refund check to the company and the controller overpaying those checks would deposit the refunds into a dummy account at a different bank under the business’s name. Guess who was the only person who knew about this account and spent from it. Yep, that very same controller.

People will take advantage of what they know will be out of site out of mind, so I encourage you to watch the unusual with your own eyes and always follow it from start to finish.

What kinds of unusual transactions occur in your business? Did you check up on them?

I recall a case in Jacksonville, Florida. The purchasing agent and the controller were working together on a little scheme. They worked for a company that was buying 100 railroad cars a month, each holding 20,000 gallons of oil. That’s 2 million gallons of oil annually, which is a pretty huge volume.

What the controller and purchasing agent figured out how to do was effectively double-invoice for one of these railroad cars filled with oil. They’d effectively divert a purchased car to one of their competitors willing to pay for a discounted car of oil. The company that ordered the car initially paid for the car in full when they received their invoice, and when this pair invoiced the competitor at a discounted rate, the competitor would split the cost of the invoice with them.

The people getting most ripped off in this case were not ones that the controller and purchasing agent worked for, but the companies they were unjustly invoicing.

This would have been caught much sooner had any of those companies been matching its delivery tickets and purchase orders before processing its invoices in its accounts payable system. Once an invoice is in the system it’s on auto-pilot, which is why you have to be sure that you’re checking all incoming shipments against purchase orders to make sure you’re paying for the right things.

That’s a good practice anyway, and most of the time you’re at worst just catching honest mistakes made by your vendors. Sometimes, though, you’ll find something like this and be really glad that you have a fraud control policy that entails checking purchase orders against incoming shipments and against invoices before putting them into your systems.

What’s your process for checking these things? Have you ever uncovered mistakes or worse?

Understanding your company’s KPIs – or Key Performance Indicators – is a great place to start when seeking the trends that matter to you. However, thinking generally about other numbers in your business, and regularly monitoring them, is a very important exercise.

The beauty of this tip is that you can determine how to run the necessary report you need and then have someone in the accounting department run and provide these reports daily, weekly or monthly, depending on the relevance, scope and immediacy of them. Chart the differences over the period of time in question, and you’ll notice a variety of fascinating things.

Let me tell you why at a high-end, couture dress manufacturer in New York, they should have been watching their scrap and the cost per dress of manufacturing.

In the world of couture, the profit per piece is generally quite high, especially at this particular dress manufacturer. What started to happen, though, as we later discovered, was that the production manager was taking the overrun of these $5,000 dresses and selling them to discount operations. As this started to work well, he would buy more materials and then write them off as scrap; to make them into dresses and sell them to discount retailers, though, he still had to run the plant which obviously costs money, too.

Had the CEO been receiving regular reports on the, for instance, scrap rate, then he would have noticed something out of whack much earlier and asked the plant manager to reevaluate his processes. Similarly, tracking manufacturing costs could have uncovered this fraudulent activity. As labor and material costs rose while revenue remained steady the CEO should have thought more carefully about the impact on his profit and why it was happening.

If you are making a widget day in and out and you know that the material is x and the labor is y, you need to watch the trends to make sure that the numbers are staying consistent (or inconsistent in your favor).

This applies to all relevant numbers in your business. Regularly monitor and review monetary trends.

Which trends do you monitor? How frequently?