All Things Leadership

Lead With Integrity

By Brandon W. Jones on May 2, 2013 4

When you are a leader, it is very important to lead with integrity. If you lead with integrity people will trust you. If you don’t lead with integrity, people will distrust you. To lead with integrity, you must be honest, true to your word, and trustworthy.

A little while back I was on a quest to learn about how to lead with integrity. I picked up a book called Leading with Integrity: Character Based Leadership by Alan Kolp and Peter Rea. The authors mentioned many great points on how to lead with integrity.

The authors make three points that you may not think of when you think of leading with integrity. They were globalization and technology, servant leadership and competence, and teaching character. Each of these sections is very relevant to understanding what it means to lead with integrity.

Globalization and Technology

In today’s world the use of technology and globalization is growing faster than ever before. Innovation continues to increase technology is most countries throughout the world. Companies are outsourcing more work to countries with less expensive labor. They are also building offshore warehouses to produce their goods. With the technology, they use telecommunication systems to conference call from one location to another across the globe. As the book points out, the number of overseas phone calls has dramatically increased over the last decade.

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Speak Up Leaders

By Brandon W. Jones on April 3, 2013 4

There are many companies and organizations in the world that follow the Peter Principle by promoting from within. They promote from within to create a strong sense of unity and loyalty amongst the employees. With this philosophy, there is one problem that is very prevalent. The people being promoted are learning their organizations inside and out, but they are not acquiring all the skills necessary to be a great leader. One skill being underdeveloped is the ability to speak in public to grab the attention of the audience. I call this the ability to “Speak Up” as a leader. Public speaking is a learned skill that many people are not learning as they progress through their career.

How can you speak up?

The goal of any leader is to speak up so they have confidence while giving their presentation to get their message across. As people speak up, there are three main barriers that inhibit leaders from conveying the message. The three barriers are verbal, vocal, and visual communication.

Verbal

To speak up as a leader, it is important to use effective verbal communication. Verbal barriers are the barriers created from the words coming out of the speaker’s mouth. The verbal barriers come out when people stutter, have lots of “ums” or “ahs”, or have other issues causing them to stumble over their words. When speakers are “winging it,” there is a greater tendency for them to have these problems. It has been said that what you communicate is 7% verbal. [Read more…] about Speak Up Leaders

Leadership Done Right Is Back On Track!

By Brandon W. Jones on January 1, 2013 0

Over the past four weeks, I took a little break from blogging on Leadership Done Right so I could catch up on some projects and review the direction of my life. I focused on some of my families needs with the holidays. I also got caught up on some things I was previously too busy to do.

Leadership Done Right Challenges

Overall, the last quarter of the year was very busy because of the rigorous pace of life at work. There wasn’t any earth shattering thing that happened and no major problems or life changes occurred, I just had to get caught up on some things that required that I take a small break.

That being said, I’M BACK!! For 2013, I plan to blog regularly just as I did in the past. My goal is to write new fresh posts that cause you to change your way of thinking. As in the past, I intend to identify leadership lessons that can be learned from the current news events, discuss the pros and cons of popular leadership trends in the blogosphere, and explain leadership techniques and qualities that will improve your leadership ability.

As you read each blog post, please share your thoughts. Also, please let me know if you have suggestions on topics that I should discuss. Thank you very much for your support and input as you read the posts!

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The Proof Is In The Pudding

By Brandon W. Jones on February 14, 2012 0

“The proof is in the pudding!” What does that saying mean to you? To me it means that your actions speak LOUDER than your words. As leaders, there are so many things you do on a daily basis with people watching you. You must always be aware of that fact. You set the example that everyone else will follow.

Proof From Example

Since you set the example, you must do all you can to set the right example. Several years ago I had a leader that was a nice person, but he set a very poor example. I had a weekly meeting with him and my coworkers. At each meeting he told everyone how important it was to provide good customer service.

Poor Example

He would also stress the importance of following all the other company rules. Once the meeting was over he would be the first to break those rules. He would show up late, fail to greet the customers quickly when they came in, or make some other mistake. It didn’t take long for everyone to lose trust in him as the leader.

How A Cost Benefit Analysis Will Save You Time

By Brandon W. Jones on January 30, 2012 0

If my life is anything like yours, you have many opportunities that come your way everyday. People will come into your office and/or send you emails requesting your help on everything you can imagine. Can you participate in this group? Can you help me with this project? Can you review this report? Can you take care of this responsibility? There are many other questions that come regularly. So how can you wade through all the requests and still complete your core responsibilities? I have just the solution for you.

Even though many of the requests are for very important things that need to be done, you don’t personally have to fulfill all of them. You can delegate. When you delegate these requests or responsibilities to others, it is important to sift through them so you know what things you absolutely have to do yourself compared to what you can have others do for you. That is where the cost-benefit analysis is very useful. [Read more…] about How A Cost Benefit Analysis Will Save You Time

Doesn’t Everyone Want to Be Successful?

By Brandon W. Jones on January 21, 2012 0

Over the last little while I have watched a lot of what has been going on in the republican primary elections. Each candidate has their own set of strengths and weaknesses. With this election, as is common with every other election, each candidate focuses on reasons why he/she is the best candidate for the position.

One thing most candidates agree on is that America has always been known as a country where people come because they want to be successful. With that in mind, why are Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum saying that Mitt Romney is less qualified to be President of the United States because he was successful?

Successful Leadership

Great leadership is carried out when the leader brings out the best in people. All other things equal, the leader helps the entire group, company, or organization to be successful.