The success of South Florida's popular local restaurant chain Sushi Maki didn't come overnight. Its founder and CEO, Abe Ng, suffered the failure of another business before figuring out how to stay afloat in Miami's local economy.

Ng's first restaurant endeavor lasted just two years. Though he and his former business partner are still friends, Ng said the partnership didn't work. Now he tells his mentees to ask themselves, "Does this person see the world in the same way I do?" before choosing a business partner.

Ng's parents immigrated to Miami from Hong Kong and started the local Canton Chinese restaurant chain when Ng was a child. He grew up in the family business, learning the lifestyle and business savvy necessary to become an entrepreneur.

Now he runs Canton, as well as Sushi Maki, which grew from one restaurant in Coral Gables to 15 locations all over Miami, including one at MMC.

On Jan. 28, in a speech sponsored by the Center for Leadership as part of their 2015 Leadership Lecture Series, he gave FIU students his five best tips for starting a small business in Miami:

1. Dream Big, Be Frugal

Sushi Maki was born on a low budget; the company's first logo was made on Microsoft Word, and its only delivery van was jokingly labeled "008" to give the impression there was a fleet of vehicles.

"If you have a vision, don't spend your money. Survive," said Ng. "Some of the best businesses come when you have no money and your back is against the proverbial wall."

2. Chief Energy Officer

Being CEO is about more than just running the company. Instead of chief executive officer, Ng sees the CEO's role as the "chief energy officer."

At Sushi Maki, Ng takes the time to make sure his employees are happy, even when they have to work on holidays. Ng makes sure to get out on Christmas with his family in tow to visit employees and thank them for working.

"You need to love the journey you're on and love building teams," said Ng.

3. Best-in-class Partnerships

FIU's Sushi Maki, located in the Graham Center, represents the "power of great relationships" as many of Ng's employees, including his sister-turned-business partner, are FIU graduates.

Sushi Maki has a diverse range of partnerships, from a restaurant at Miami International Airport to his newest endeavor, sushi stations inside South Florida Whole Foods stores.

Ng's advice to young entrepreneurs: "Be in a good partnership for the long haul."

4. Open Networks

"Make yourselves available to be mentored," said Ng. Outside of the support and training he received growing up in a family that owned a restaurant, Ng found a mentor in FIU graduate and Pollo Tropical founder Larry Harris. Now he sees it as his responsibility to offer advice and support to people trying to start a business.

Ng also said having a strong support network, especially in your family, is the key to keeping a new business afloat. His whole family works for Sushi Maki.

"When you jump into a business, you need everybody on board," he said.

5. What's Next?

A good businessperson always has the future in mind. Ng said his goal for Sushi Maki is to get "better before bigger."

While taking risks can be important, Ng said he's not a big believer in leveraging credit cards and dropping out of school to start a business. Sticking with things and finishing projects, even if they aren't successful, is key.

"You can't learn everything in one year," said Ng. "Don't overvalue the next opportunity and undervalue the opportunity that you have today."

For more tips and guide for leadership, Shearin Group Training Services Inc. will help you. Shearin Group Training Services leadership programs have been assisting companies in France. With leaders at different levels have availed of our leadership training programs.

What makes a good leader? Looking at my own personal growth at SAP, I have found that the Holy Grail of leadership today is engagement. It's only through truly engaging customers that we've increased profitability, and only through employee engagement do we increase productivity. I have been lucky enough to work with an executive coach who truly understands how leaders can inspire teams and foster engagement within both their organizations and their customers' organizations. This is some of the insight I've gained from her on engagement, people management, and leadership.

Build a team of your own personal challengers

A recent article in the Economist claimed that as technology continues to become more intelligent, the role of the leader will center more and more on innovative thought leadership. In order to prepare themselves for this reality, leaders must continually nourish their minds with complex problems, new ideas, and divergent perspectives. To this end, everyone needs their own group of personal challengers; external experts who fulfill that part of their development and growth on an ongoing basis. This could be mentors, coaches, business advisors, or just friends who work in different industries. While it takes some work to assemble and practice, it's a critical element to developing your breadth of thinking and continuing your growth.

Convene and intervene

A very helpful leadership philosophy that I have learned is to convene and intervene. On one hand, part of being a leader is cultivating growth which entails convening people under a common purpose and allowing ideas to flourish. On the other hand, it's about knowing when to jump in and steer the ship which entails helping the team take their ideas and shape them into something meaningful and executable. The leadership philosophy of convene and intervene allows you to be more present in a meeting by taking the onus off getting to the answer and instead focusing on the process of watching ideas grow and then simply shaping them. Not only does this help people feel engaged in the process, it also helps you learn a lot about the people you work with.

Two-to-one

Traditional thinking says that when coaching people, be sure to balance things that are working (positives) with lessons to be learned (negatives). Recent thinking suggests that the magic ratio is not 1:1, but in fact, 2:1. The 2:1 theory is that by emphasizing the positives, you create more buoyancy, leaving people feeling bullish and supported while at the same time having something constructive to work on. It's so easy to jump right into the issue, especially in a company like ours where urgency can sometimes rule the day. I find myself needing reminders to adhere to this simple 2:1 rule of thumb, but when I do, I am stunned by the results.

Flying high and diving deep

Leadership in a sales driven organization requires an interesting balance of skills: the ability to help refine the details while simultaneously understanding the business with enough breadth to shape the strategy. The balance of knowing when to 'fly high' and ensure the overall health of the business, and when to 'dive deep' and run right alongside the teams, is a careful balancing act that is imperative to master for the sustainable health of both the business and the team. It can be really unnerving for people when a leader moves from one to the other quickly, which happens when leaders have both skills. Over time, and with amazing support, I have learned that announcing the switch - in a deliberate way - can help people understand what you're doing. It ensures that people know they're still trusted even though you need to understand the finite detail, and it allows them to understand that you also see the big picture and are looking out for their long term wellbeing.

Give, give, give, gone

Because there is never enough of it, time is the most valued gift we have to give. I've learned that when you have time with someone, give them everything you've got - your absolute undivided attention. If you say you'll do something for them, do it there and then. Make the phone call, find them the document, send the email - but when they leave, move onto the next thing. This means you can always be true to your word, people get from you what they need, and you're fresh and available to do it again when you move on to your next meeting.

The old top-down, command-and-control style of leadership seldom works in today's organizations, where the goal is often to promote cooperation in the midst of rapid change.

To succeed as a leader you must know how to communicate a vision, build a network of relationships, and foster group learning and decision-making. This is true whether you're the big boss or are just learning how to guide a team.

Leadership coaching has become a key tool for facilitating change in individuals, teams and systems. And in places where the traditional hierarchical model of management no longer works, leaders who know how to act like coaches are building cultures that allow collaboration and innovation to thrive.

Working with a coach is one way to broaden your leadership skills and deepen your understanding of modern workplace dynamics. But even if that's not an option, these strategies from the field of coaching can help you grow:

1. Know yourself. Research shows that self-awareness is a vital characteristic of successful leaders. The more you understand about your own internal dialogue, the better you are at engaging with other people. And the more you notice about the impact of your behavior on others, the better are your choices for next steps. Coaches use open-ended questions to help clients notice their inner voices and daily decisions. Another way to promote self-exploration is to keep a journal or regularly engage in some other form of expressive writing. Write answers to questions like, "what would I do here if I knew I couldn't fail?"

2. Listen more actively. When people turn to you for guidance or assistance, there are many times when you have no idea how to help. But offering expertise is not the only way to give support. Humans have an innate need to be heard and acknowledged. And by listening deeply to another person, you can let them know they do matter and at the same time provide a way for them to come to terms with some of their issues.

3. Try peer coaching. Consider finding a partner or small group with whom you can trade coaching time. Create a structure in which each person has a designated to time to talk about current activities and challenges. When you play the role of the "coach" it's your job to ask questions and listen compassionately to the answers. Then when you are the "client" you can talk about what's been happening lately and how you feel about it.

4. Try some training. An enjoyable and effective way to become more adept at conversations with your colleagues can be to take an introductory coaching course. You'll build your "listening muscle" and have opportunities to practice asking questions that lead others to new insights. For a training option that would work for you, visit the International Coach Federation website.

Coaching comes in many forms, but the broad theme is always to help you be the best version of yourself as a professional, a leader and a whole person. By learning a bit about how coaching works, you can build your self-knowledge and at the same time become better at assisting others to fully engage in their work.

Read about what coaching can do

If you want an insider's view of what coaching actually looks like, I can recommend a new book: "Being Coached - Group And Team Coaching From The Inside."

"Being Coached" is written by two accomplished coaches - Holly Williams, my pal from the Georgetown Leadership Coaching community, and her colleague, Ann Deaton. The authors don't offer a how-to guide or academic discussion, but instead tell us a tale from the perspective of individual managers who are going through a group coaching exercise just as their company is faced with the need for a drastic change in strategy.

While the plot involves group coaching, the real story is about what coaching is like for each of the participants. For example, there is Ellen, the Chief People Officer, who faces the fact that she can't manage all the company's human resources by herself. During coaching she learns how to ask for help, and challenges her colleagues to either "work together or fall apart."

Another new book touching upon the impact of coaching is "A Whole New Engineer," by David E. Goldberg and Mark Somerville. If you are interested in the cutting edge of higher education, you'll find this book particularly interesting.

The authors - two highly accomplished academic leaders whose field happens to be engineering - describe how each grew beyond the traditional university path to lead in the creation of science/engineering programs that also foster self-awareness and empathy. The book is an intriguing and readable mixture of anecdotes and current thought about how growth and learning happen. As a leadership coach, I am particularly interested in the suggestion that a more conscious element of coaching can enrich the classroom experience.

For some employees, working toward a promotion or leadership position is a natural transition in their careers. Yet some individuals just aren't interested in climbing the corporate ladder.

According to a new CareerBuilder survey, only one-third of the American workers surveyed aspire to become leaders. Additionally, only 7 percent said they seek C-level management roles.

Employers should, however, continue to develop these employees and provide them incentives, regardless of their career goals.

Employee engagement is essential at all levels of an organization. Here are some ideas for managing those who don't aspire to become leaders and keeping them engaged and happy at work:

1. Provide professional-development options.

When professional-development opportunities are offered by an employer, employees may become more engaged while involved in something not requiring their active pursuit of a leadership role.

And employers can do a number of things, I believe, to develop their employees’ skills. They can pay for memberships in a professional organization, host skills-development workshops or send staffers to industry conferences. In these ways employees can keep their skills up-to-date.

2. Give the option of shifting departments.

I recommend that if an employee wishes to gain more experience but not through taking a leadership role, move him to another department where his skills and experience will be tapped in a different way.

For example, say an associate at a public relations agency wants more experience but isn’t ready to take on a higher position. Give her the opportunity to work with different clients to broaden her experience and skills.

3. Provide ongoing training.

According to the CareerBuilder survey, more than half of the employees surveyed don’t seek leadership positions because they are content with their current roles. Ongoing training, I believe, will help such employees learn how to become more productive and perform better at their jobs.

A recruiter in an HR department might be perfectly happy in her position but wish to expand her range of skills. Train her in the latest HR technologies and teach her to use big data to recruit the best candidates.

4. Help employees advance their education.

Nearly 20 percent of the employees surveyed by CareerBuilder said they avoid climbing the corporate ladder because they think they don’t have the necessary education to advance.

Employers should help out those employees who wish to seek more education, I believe. Although not all employers or entrepreneurs can afford to fully fund staff education, they can ease the way. Employers can create some sort of tuition-reimbursement program or pay for an online class.

5. Offer competitive perks and bonuses.

Although employees may decide to not seek a promotion, this doesn't necessarily mean that they will stop going above and beyond at work, I believe. Reward dedicated and productive employees by offering monthly bonuses, recognition in the workplace or additional vacation time. This will lead to employees feeling like their work and dedication are truly valued.

How do you keep employees who don’t seek leadership roles engaged at work?