1. Leaders come in different flavors.

There are different types of leaders and you will probably encounter more than one type in your lifetime. Formal leaders are those we elect into positions or offices such as the senators, congressmen, and presidents of the local clubs. Informal leaders or those we look up to by virtue of their wisdom and experience such as in the case of the elders of a tribe, or our grandparents; or by virtue of their expertise and contribution on a given field such as Albert Einstein in the field of Theoretical Physics and Leonardo da Vinci in the field of the Arts. Both formal and informal leaders practice a combination of leadership styles.
• Lewin’s three basic leadership styles – authoritative, participative, and delegative
• Likert’s four leadership styles – exploitive authoritative, benevolent authoritative, consultative, and participative
• Goleman’s six emotional leadership styles - visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding.

2. Leadership is a process of becoming.

Although certain people seem to be born with innate leadership qualities, without the right environment and exposure, they may fail to develop their full potential. So like learning how to ride a bicycle, you can also learn how to become a leader and hone your leadership abilities. Knowledge on leadership theories and skills may be formally gained by enrolling in leadership seminars, workshops, and conferences. Daily interactions with people provide the opportunity to observe and practice leadership theories. Together, formal and informal learning will help you gain leadership attitudes, gain leadership insights, and thus furthering the cycle of learning.

3. Leadership starts with you.

The best way to develop leadership qualities is to apply it to your own life. As an adage goes “action speaks louder than words.” Leaders are always in the limelight. Repeated actions become habits. Habits in turn form a person’s character. Steven Covey’s book entitled 7 Habits of Highly Effective People provides good insights on how you can achieve personal leadership.

4. Leadership is shared.

Leadership is not the sole responsibility of one person, but rather a shared responsibility among members of an emerging team. A leader belongs to a group. Each member has responsibilities to fulfill. Formal leadership positions are merely added responsibilities aside from their responsibilities as members of the team. Effective leadership requires members to do their share of work. Starting as a mere group of individuals, members and leaders work towards the formation of an effective team. In this light, social interaction plays a major role in leadership. To learn how to work together requires a great deal of trust between and among leaders and members of an emerging team. Trust is built upon actions and not merely on words. When mutual respect exists, trust is fostered and confidence is built.

5. Leadership styles depend on the situation.

Aside from culture, beliefs, value system, and form of government, the current situation of a nation also affects the leadership styles used by its formal leaders. Most of the time, leaders employ a combination of leadership styles depending on the situation. In emergency situations such as periods of war and calamity, decision-making is a matter of life and death. Thus, a nation’s leader cannot afford to consult with all departments to arrive at crucial decisions. When the staffs are highly motivated and competent, a combination of high delegative and moderate participative styles of leadership is most appropriate. But if the staffs have low competence and low commitment, a combination of high coaching, high supporting, and high directing behavior from organizational leaders is required.

There are no such minimum qualification and experience requirements for taking up mystery shopping jobs. An experience in the customer service or hospitality business enhances your possibilities to get mystery shopping assignments.

All the business establishments that have a customer service factor employ the services of the mystery shoppers. Specifically the mystery shoppers are employed by retail chains, restaurants, fast food outlets, department stores, health clubs, beauty parlors, salons, hotels and resorts, amusement parks, movie theaters, clubs, casinos, gymnasiums, new apartments, home builders, banks, gas stations, auto dealers, service centers, day care centers, crèches etc.

The payment for your mystery shopping assignments depends upon the kind of shop assignments you do. Generally, most of the shop assignments offer you reimbursement of your food or retail purchase and a token shop fee.

In the mystery shopping business there are no fixed paychecks and the amount of money you can make from this business depends on how well you organize yourself and how you make optimum utilization of your time. The major factor that affects you earnings in the mystery shopping business is the kind of assignments you take.

Depending on these factors, the amateurs and part timers can easily make anything in the range of $250- $500 per month and the serious people who take this business as a fulltime profession and those who make optimum utilization of their resources can easily make up to $1500 per month. There are examples of people who earn as high as $3500 per month from this business.

The remuneration for the mystery shopping assignments varies from company to company and for different category of assignments. However the typical retail assignments could fetch you any thing in the range of $5-$15 per assignment, the shop fee for fast food assignments range from $4 -$15, dinner shop assignments have a price tag of $10-$50. The service establishments have a better remuneration, they could fetch you $20-$100 per assignment, and the audio / video shop can make you richer by $50-$200 for each shop assignment.

There are a number of names and addresses of mystery shopping companies mentioned in this e-book. More than 150 mystery-shopping companies post their job listings online. With the passage of time, you would be able to establish a good rapport with the schedulers and the good mystery shopping companies to get regular assignments.

It is not at all necessary for paying and registering at the sites or companies that offer mystery-shopping assignments. There are number of companies and assignments that are available to people without payment of any upfront fee. It is always better to establish direct contacts with the companies and the schedulers and there is possibility that the site you are paying might be a fraud. You should be very careful and make proper enquiries before making any payment if you decide to do so.

It is perfectly ethical and right if you register and work with more than one mystery shopping company. In this business, you are not an employee of a particular company and you work as an independent contractor, therefore, there is no moral or legal obligation for you to stick to a particular company.

There are number of mystery shopping opportunities that are available for online mail order businesses. You can comfortably take up those assignments. Even in certain cases, it would be a help to the company to evaluate the employee behavior towards the physically challenged persons and to evaluate factors like wheelchair access.

The requirement of taking up licenses for mystery shopping jobs is not mandatory in most of the states, however, some states for example the state of Nevada has a requirement for mystery shoppers to obtain the license. If your state has such a requirement, you should obtain a valid license to better your prospects in the business and avoid unnecessary legal hassles.

To find out that which company shops for a particular chain is a difficult task for the beginners because most of the companies do not display their client’s list to the shoppers. Only in some cases, the companies or the schedulers divulge the names of the establishments in their offers.

Since there are many frauds operating it is not advisable to provide your vital information to the company on the website unless you are satisfied about the credentials of the company and the website security.

You should verify the credentials of the mystery shopping company from “The Better Business Bureau”. You can do so by logging on the ‘Better Business Bureau’ website and checking if there any complaints against the company.

When you are addicted to anything it is hard to break the addiction — you get a buzz from the addiction, but you know that you have to break out from it because otherwise the addiction could get you into trouble. Cash advance addictions can only lead to one thing and that is a horrible mountain of debt that could destroy you.

To get out of your cash advance addiction you must first of all realize that these companies are taking away more of your money each time you borrow from them in part because their interest rates can be rather harsh to the customer. If you can stick to a budget, then you are showing yourself that you can look after your money and you do not need to keep going to the cash advance companies every time you think you are in a small financial hole.

It is easy to get addicted but it is hard to break the addiction, which is why you must look for a more sustainable financial solution for the future.

Normally, those who have backgrounds in criminology can pursue this career. Many private investigators used to come from any branch of the military. Their background is more or less related to what private investigators do.

Some private investigation companies are even selective when it comes to hiring private investigators. Most of them preferred someone that has a military background. This is because private investigation requires individuals to be disciplined and to have both physical and psychological capacity to do the job.

Background in the law enforcement will prove vital once you are facing extreme situations. If you do not have the guts for it, then private investigation is not the career for you.

Are women capable of having a career in private investigation?

In the past, private investigation is a man’s world. This can be attributed to the fact that the nature of the job can sometimes be dangerous. Women were thought to be incapable of what men can do in private investigation.

Today, there are a lot of women private investigators already. These women have proven their worth in this business. It can be noted that there are even some things that women are capable of doing that men are not.

In addition, there are qualities that are present in women that seem to be lacking in men. These qualities are what make them successful. In the end, it all boils down to whoever can solve the case given them, may it be a man or woman.

To be a private investigator does not mean you have to have extensive education about a certain course. You can have a career in private investigation even if you are a man or a woman.