Leadership Done Right

Brandon W. Jones

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Leadership Qualities

Extensive Job Specific Knowledge or Previous Leadership Experience?

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Lately, I have thought a lot about hiring new leaders.  What is more important:  someone with extensive job specific knowledge or someone with previous leadership experience?  When hiring a new person, the ideal situation would be to hire someone with both extensive job specific knowledge and previous leadership experience.  However, this is not always possible.  What do you do then?

Extensive Job Specific Knowledge or Previous Leadership Experience?

Well first let’s look at what characteristics the two types bring to the table.

Extensive Job Specific Knowledge

The person with extensive job specific knowledge knows the ins and outs of the existing working environment.  They know what has worked well in the past and what hasn’t.  They also know how to deal with people specific to the working environment.  All these aspects create a foundation from which they can lead.

Because this type of person only has job specific knowledge without the leadership experience, they also have some downsides.  They may struggle in making quick decisions regarding personnel.  They also may have limited knowledge of how to respond when faced with challenges.  Their inexperience as a leader can appear as a lack of confidence in their personal abilities which could show through to their employees. [Read more…] about Extensive Job Specific Knowledge or Previous Leadership Experience?

Review Your Beliefs

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As a leader, it is important to review your beliefs. You will be questioned on what you believe and why. Prior to getting asked these questions make a point to define the answers for yourself, so you are prepared when the questions come. Your responses will define you as a leader. If your answers are firm and strong, your followers will have confidence in you. As you show your confidence in your beliefs, your followers will also feel confident in your responses towards work related issues.

Review Your Beliefs

To define your beliefs, review your beliefs in relation to specific areas. This defining process may require deep reflection on who you are and what you stand for. Your employees will question your beliefs related to the following topics.

Religion

Although religion is sometimes a touchy issue in the workplace, it will inevitably come up from time to time. You must know where you stand and what you believe.

Family

In the workforce it seems like there is a constant struggle between how much time you should spend working and how much time you should spend with your family. There is a healthy balance that must be reached by every person. Too much work and not enough family time leads to the disintegration of the family.

Money

What do you believe about money? How should people spend their money? What expenditures are worthwhile and what are not? Are you risk averse? How much risk is reasonable? Who should be trusted to handle the money?

Education

You must determine how you feel about education. If you feel education is important, should the company support employees that want to further their education? What type of educational support should the company give the employees? You must also decide how far you want to go with your education and where you want to focus.

Personal Accountability

As a leader you are going to hear many reasons why people don’t get their jobs done. You must determine when the job was not completed due to factors outside the person’s control and when the person just didn’t follow through. You also have to understand the things for which you are and are not accountable. As you do your very best on the things within your control, you will feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

As you review your beliefs, you will grow as a leader. Once you determine your beliefs, the challenge will be aligning your life with them, so you consistently convey the same message. How do you review your beliefs? How have your beliefs helped you as a leader? Have people ever challenged your beliefs? How did you respond in that situation? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Management’s Job Is To Make Life Easy

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When change comes up, some people think management is supposed to make life easy. They think that, “if management truly cares about me, they will make my workload easy and they will stop making me change.” They also have the attitude that if management doesn’t make life easy, they aren’t good management AND they don’t really care about their employees.

Management’s Job Is To Make Life EasyPeople that have this belief often get really upset when change happens. They feel that management has it out for them because they are bad management. This leads to feelings of anger, discontent, and frustration. As a result, they begin sharing their sentiments with others. They can become a poison to a group or company as they spread these same feelings to others.

When you are around people that have those feelings, it is important understand what is going on in their minds. There are two misunderstandings going through the mind of the person making the statement. Those misunderstandings relate to the following two questions:

What does it mean for management to truly care?

Management that truly cares wants you to be your very best. They want you to become a great person. Great management knows that for you to become a great person you need to go through trials, adversity, and change. [Read more…] about Management’s Job Is To Make Life Easy

Fight The Wrong Battles

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When change comes around, there are many people that do all they can to fight it. They decide that all change is bad and if they make the next change, their life will be more difficult. These people fight change so much that they get worn down, their stress level increases, and life becomes much more difficult. Additionally, people get tired of being around the change fighter because they know that any change they think of will be hard to implement.

Fight The Wrong Battles

When you fight the wrong battles you will experience fatigue and you could run into the following three challenges:

Loss of Emotional Energy

Everything you do either adds to your emotional reservoir or takes away from it. When you fight a winning battle, your confidence grows and you begin to feel energized. On the other hand, when you fight the wrong battles, you lose emotional energy. If you are consistently fighting the wrong battles, you will drain your reservoir more than you refill it. With time it will get depleted. [Read more…] about Fight The Wrong Battles

Overcoming Fears in the Business World

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In the business world, there are many challenges that we face on a regular basis. One of the biggest difficulties is overcoming fears. They present themselves in many forms all the time. In the video below, I explain how overcoming fears can be made easy.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to success in the business world is fear. Most people face fear in one form or another all the time. Sometimes it is the fear of losing your current job, not getting the next promotion, speaking in front of others, or something else altogether. Fear is the opposite of faith and can be difficult to overcome.

So how can you overcome your fear? How you face your fears determines whether or not you are successful. Fear can be a strong positive motivator when used properly, however, it can also lead to your destruction. You can overcome you fears and be successful by doing the following three things:

Overcoming Fears in the Business World

Know Your Self-Worth

When you realize your own self-worth, the sky becomes the limit to what you can do. Marianne Williamson made a powerful statement about self-worth. She said:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ~Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles,” 1992

As the quote points out, each individual has great self-worth. When you know and understand your own self-worth, your self-confidence grows. [Read more…] about Overcoming Fears in the Business World

Be Evasive When Change Comes

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Have you ever wanted to hide under a rock when you knew a change was coming? Or have you ever avoided people that were driving change because you didn’t want the change to happen? Or, have you ever participated in a conversation where you intentionally didn’t bring up a subject because you knew it would lead to talk of change? If you have ever done any of these things, you have tried to be evasive to change. If you try to be evasive when change comes you are prolonging the inevitable.

Who tries to be evasive to change?

Almost everyone has been or will try to be evasive to change. Whether you are a leader, a follower, or someone in between, you have probably tried to be evasive to change even if you try to do all you can to accept change and embrace it.

Be Evasive When Change ComesChange happens whether you like it or not. It is very easy, however, to be evasive to change. When you are evasive to change, you probably think that it will prolong the change. In actuality, however, it just makes the change more difficult. When you are evasive you are in denial over the change. [Read more…] about Be Evasive When Change Comes