Leadership Done Right

Brandon W. Jones

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Leadership Qualities

4 Questions To Ask When Setting Expectations

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Several years ago, I worked for a consulting engineering firm.  My boss was the president of the company.  When I worked for him, I had the privilege of going on field rides with him to review some of our project locations.  During our discussions while driving, he taught me a very valuable lesson about the importance of setting  expectations.  He explained that as the leader of the company, his main priority was to keep the customers happy.  To do that, he explained that you must be good at setting expectations.  You cannot be afraid to ask follow-up questions to identify the customers’ needs and wants.  He taught me that when setting expectations, it was far more important to ask questions during the design process to make the right product.  If you don’t ask questions, you run the risk of completely missing the target.  Through this approach, we identified and set the customers’ expectations to create products they really wanted.

Learn the importance of setting expectations

As a leader, it is very important to understand the value of setting expectations.  The following four questions should be asked when you begin setting expectations for yourself and for others.

How are you setting expectations for those you lead?

If you are anything like me, you probably have high expectations for yourself and those you lead.  When setting expectations, it is important clear on your desired outcome.  Just as with goals, your expectations should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.   [Read more…] about 4 Questions To Ask When Setting Expectations

Be The Organized Leader

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Have you ever seen an office like the one below? How did it make you feel? Are you living in a situation where you are disorganized? It is very important to be an organized leader.  I have visited offices like the one above, but fortunately I have never let my own get quite so bad. When I walked out of offices like that, I felt like I needed to get some fresh air so I could breathe clearly again. When you are not an organized leader, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and lose focus. Sooner or later that leads to less productivity.

The Organized Leader

Recently, I began to feel like I was no longer an organized leader.  My office was becoming unorganized. I had too many stacks of papers on my desk and emails in my inbox. I felt like I was drowning. On Friday of that week, I decided to organize my desk and my emails. I set up folders for each project and got them arranged so I knew exactly where everything was. From there I went through my emails and identified which ones needed responses and which ones I could file. Once everything was filed, I made a list of all my priorities and their time line for completion. Being an organized leader helped me feel like I could breathe more clearly again.

Benefits From Being The Organized Leader

If you are unorganized, you will be challenged in many ways. As an organized leader you will find major benefits from your organization. The following three benefits will come as you become the organized leader.

[Read more…] about Be The Organized Leader

Your Leadership Agenda

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In leadership, every leader has his/her own leadership agenda.  Some start out with the desire to make massive changes in a short time.  Others have the leadership agenda to ease into their new role and not rock the boat.  Knowing and understanding your leadership agenda is very important because it helps you to have a strategy when you approach your leadership.

Your leadership agenda

Survivor and Leadership Agenda

Last night, my wife and I watched the reality show Survivor.  Survivor is a game where around 24 (sometimes more) people that are complete strangers are put into a remote area where they have to survive for 38 days.  During that time, they all live together in a small group or tribe as they call it.

Almost every day they play some type of game where the tribes or individuals compete against each other for either a reward or immunity.  At the immunity competitions, the tribe that loses goes to tribal council where one person gets sent home by their tribe members.

At the end of it all, there are usually two or three people that remain.  Their peers then vote for who they want to be the winner of a $1 million prize.  As we watched tonight, it was very interesting to see how everyone had their own leadership agenda.

They each decided where they wanted and didn’t want the tribe to go.  Some people wanted to be liked, while others wanted immunity at the next tribal council.  At the same time, there were others that just wanted to coast under the radar, so they could make to the end.  They all had their own leadership and personal agenda for how they would make it to the end. [Read more…] about Your Leadership Agenda

Looking Beyond the Mark

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As a leader, are you looking beyond the mark?  As leaders, we always try to be the best we can be.  We strive to get more with less.  As we focus on becoming better and doing more, it can be really easy to look for that which is bigger, faster, more efficient, etc.  When constantly looking forward to plan the future, it can be really easy to stop seeing and acting in the present.  If we look forward too much, it becomes very easy to look beyond the mark.

Are you looking beyond the mark?

I define looking beyond the mark as the times when you get distracted by the unimportant.  Those things can include your future that is out of your control, the accomplishments of others that don’t directly affect you, or any other aspect of life that distracts you from that which is most important to you.  Looking beyond the mark can lead to trouble.

It is good to set goals and work to achieve them on a regular basis, but it is important to not look too far into the future that you are beyond the mark.  I have seen many people get so far ahead of themselves that they stop preparing for that which they are currently working on.  They are focused on tomorrow, next week, next year, but not on the present.  They fail to be the best they can be in the moment.

Are you looking beyond the mark?

Looking beyond the mark can lead to serious trouble.  There are no shortcuts to become great.  You must work hard, be dedicated, and always do your very best.  Too often people focus on things that are beyond the mark and lose sight of the steps they must take to reach their goal. [Read more…] about Looking Beyond the Mark

Why Complacency And Leadership Don’t Mix

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Several years ago, I had a great leader, G. Lawrence “Larry” Spackman, that taught me a valuable lesson about complacency.  He was very successful in everything he did and attributed his success to his strong drive and unrelenting desire to never back down when obtaining his goals.

When I was around Larry, he always stressed the importance of working hard and doing your very best.  In addition to teaching correct principles, he lived what he taught.  Because he was so driven, he despised complacency.  He taught that complacency would keep you from reaching your dreams and goals.  Larry taught me to avoid complacency at all cost.  His example confirmed the validity of what he told me.

Complacency and Leadership

As a leader, don’t let yourself become satisfied with average performance.  Never give less than your best effort because if you do, you will give way to complacency.  Complacency is very destructive and has many negative side effects.  There are three major side effects that come with a complacent attitude. [Read more…] about Why Complacency And Leadership Don’t Mix

Getting To The Root Of The Problem

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Most leaders face challenges or problems on a regular basis.  Some of the problems are very extensive while others are simple.  As a leader, how do you handle problems?  How do you determine a solution when you have a reoccurring problem?  It is easy to look at something that isn’t going right and brush it under the rug or fix the symptoms without looking any deeper.  Each problem, however, has a root cause and the key is to get to the root of the problem.

Identify the root of the problem

To solve those problems, leaders use a variety of methods or techniques.  Some techniques correct the symptoms of the problem, while the more valuable and effective techniques get to the root of the problem.  Of the different problem solving techniques, I have seen three general approaches that are commonly used. [Read more…] about Getting To The Root Of The Problem