Leadership Qualities

Your Health – One Of The Most Neglected Areas In Leadership

By Brandon W. Jones on November 24, 2014 8

What are some of the most neglected areas in leadership? I am sure you have things that come to mind with that question, but I have an answer that may not be what you think. Your health!

I don’t have any concrete statistics to back this up, but I would suggest that personal health is strongly neglected in leadership. On a personal level, I have seen leaders forget to care for their own health and well-being. As the leader, you must take care of yourself before you can help others. So what do you do to take care of yourself? There are five areas to consider.

Mental Health

Medline Plus explains that, “Mental health is how we think, feel and act as we cope with life. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices. Like physical health, mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.” Be sure that you have a strong support group to maintain your mental health and also take time for yourself. [Read more…] about Your Health – One Of The Most Neglected Areas In Leadership

Build Leadership Credibility

By Brandon W. Jones on November 20, 2014 2

When you are a leader it is really important that you have leadership credibility. When you have leadership credibility, those you lead will follow you to the ends of the earth because they trust you, your decisions and your ability to lead.

This credibility is very hard to gain. Leaders constantly face the challenge of gaining leadership credibility from their followers. Additionally, their followers try to test their leader’s leadership credibility. Followers want to know if their leaders are really qualified to be their leader. They also want to be sure that the leader knows what they are talking about.

Gain Leadership Credibility

Leadership credibility is not something that can be gained over night. It is developed by consistent ethical and moral behavior. There are four characteristics that leaders should develop to build leadership credibility with their followers. [Read more…] about Build Leadership Credibility

Become The Ethical Leader

By Brandon W. Jones on November 19, 2014 6

When it comes to ethics, everyone has their own definition of what is ethical and what is not. For many people, what it means to be ethical is very clearly defined in their mind. However, there are many people that have no clear definition of what it means to be an ethical leader.

Confusion About The Ethical Leader

The characteristics of an ethical leader that seem completely clear to one person, can make no sense to others. What is completely ethical to one leader may be completely wrong to another leader. What is your ethical evaluation criteria? How do you determine if your behavior is ethical or not?

Professional Codes of Ethics

In many professional fields there are codes of ethics. The codes of ethics creates a standard for everyone to follow. It sets expectations for people to follow. In addition, within some of those professional fields there are specific laid out consequences for those who do not follow the codes of ethics. [Read more…] about Become The Ethical Leader

Do You Want To Pick Up Something New?

By Brandon W. Jones on November 17, 2014 0

Oftentimes people don’t want to pick up something new because it takes them out of their comfort zone. Once they understand why it is important to pick up something new and how to do it, they still might resist. They fear thingsthat they have not done before even when it appears and is easier than current practices. Once a person learns how to do something, they want to continue doing it that way and not change because it is comfortable.

Change Brings Fear

Change causes real fear for some people. It gives people ulcers, causes great anxiety, wakes people in the middle of the night, causes sleep apnea, and even causes people to get sick. There is actually a condition call metathesiophobia that is the fear of change. To people that take change with ease, this sounds crazy. However, it is a real condition that exists. People don’t like uncertainty in their life. They like to be in control of their life. This intense fear makes people want to do the same thing all the time with limited variation. [Read more…] about Do You Want To Pick Up Something New?

Why Are Soft Skills Necessary?

By Brandon W. Jones on November 16, 2014 0

Some people think the only thing that matters is whether or not an individual can come up with the correct solution to a problem. In the current global economy the solution is very important, but not as important as how well the solution can be sold. Soft skills are very important and in the remainder of this article I will explain why.

Why are soft skills important?

The following are three reasons why soft skills are important:

The outsourcing in the global economy.
Opening lines of communication.
Creating a comparative advantage.

The outsourcing in the global economy

In the current global economy everything that can be outsourced is outsourced. The labor markets in foreign countries are relatively inexpensive compared to those in the United States. Due to the cost savings created from outsourcing, jobs within the United States have been lost. In the current state, employees must have the soft skills to retain their jobs. The soft skills give the individual workers the advantage over the foreign workers. The soft skills bring the product or service to life and help to develop loyalty. [Read more…] about Why Are Soft Skills Necessary?

Focus on Details with 4 Techniques

By Brandon W. Jones on November 15, 2014 0

There are many important important details at every position whether you are the leader or the person on the production line. When you are the leader, however, the details make all the difference in the world. Learning to focus on the details is very important. When you look closely at the details, you can prevent future failures or problems from occurring.

What are the Details?

So, what do you do every day? If you are anything like me, you probably wake up, go to work, go home, and go to bed.

Okay, so you probably do a lot more than that. A typical day for me starts something like this. I wake up every morning at 5:45 AM when my alarm goes off. Sometimes I hit the snooze button a couple of times before I actually get up, but I am usually out of bed by 6:00 AM. From there, I roll out of bed and jump in the shower. Once I am done showering, I get dressed, fix my hair, and put my contacts in.

I then eat my breakfast which consists of one serving (approx. 3/4 C.) of my favorite breakfast cereal, Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds, and about one cup of milk. As I eat breakfast I go through the emails on my phone and watch the news. I usually finish my breakfast at about 6:30 AM. From there I brush my teeth. Once I am done brushing my teeth, I go outside, get the newspaper, and get in my truck to head to work. The day continues from there…

Pay Attention to the Details

I don’t think you really care much about what I do each day, but what I want to illustrate the difference in the level of detail. The first explanation was very brief and gave you very little information about what I do each day. The second explanation, on the other hand, let you know exactly what I do each morning down to how much cereal I eat and what type. [Read more…] about Focus on Details with 4 Techniques