Leadership Done Right

Brandon W. Jones

Leadership Done Right Blog

Take A Leadership Break

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Two out of three people don’t take lunch breaks.  They eat lunch at their desk each day instead of getting away for lunch.  Eating at your desk increases your stress level because you don’t have a chance to get your mind off work.  Even just a little break for lunch is enough to get the mental break you need to alleviate stress.  As a leader, do you take a lunch break?  If you do, do you get away from your office during your lunch break?

Take a Leadership Break

So how does this translate into leadership?  As a leader, it is very important to give yourself a leadership break every once and a while.  There are three benefits that come with breaks.

Clear Air

When you get out of the office, you get a chance to breathe in fresh air.  As you take in the fresh air, you will feel a relief in stress. People generally eat at their desk because they feel stressed and a strong desire to get things done.  They hope to be more efficient by working while they eat.  This actually has the opposite effect.  Taking a break for lunch and getting a breath of fresh air increases your ability to think more clearly. Those who think more clearly can accomplish more throughout the day. [Read more…] about Take A Leadership Break

The First Rule Of Leadership

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Whenever we go on road trips my daughter likes to watch movies on the computer while we drive to pass the time. Today, she watched A Bug’s Life. While she was watching it, there was a line that stuck out to me.

The First Rule Of Leadership

There was a point when Flik made a mistake and spilled all the food into the water. Hopper got really mad and went straight to Princess Atta. He began asking Princess Atta what had happened and why the error occurred. Princess Atta claimed she didn’t know what had happened and that it wasn’t her fault. To that Hopper replied, “The first rule of leadership – It’s always your fault!” This is very true!

There are three things a leader should do to be able to take the blame.

Leaders should know what’s going on.

As the leader, you should know what your projects your employees are working on.  You should know what their responsibilities are and how well they are keeping up on their projects.  You should also know their workload and understand when they are getting overloaded.  It can be a challenge, but as the leader you should be in constant communication with your employees to stay on top of things. [Read more…] about The First Rule Of Leadership

The Power Of Social Media In Leadership

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Social media can have a big impact on you as a leader and those you lead. That impact can be positive or it can be negative depending on how you use it.

The Impact of Social Media on Leadership

In this post, I will share two stories on how social media impacted the lives of employees and leaders in the workplace.

Story #1

Today, I heard a story that is very applicable to leadership and blogging.  The story was about a person that decided to video himself harassing a restaurant employee as he went through the drive through.  He decided to do it to make a point about his personal feelings.   It had absolutely nothing to do with the service he received at the restaurant. [Read more…] about The Power Of Social Media In Leadership

Focus On The Present

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As leaders, it is very easy to get caught up thinking about the future. When is the next opportunity going to come? When are people going to recognize your product so it can be a hit? When are you going to find that breakthrough you are looking for? When are you going to get that next promotion? How can you make your vision into a reality? As you think about everything you are looking forward to, it can be hard to think about the present.

Focus On The Present

I heard a quote from Gordon B. Hinckley that identified how important it is to live in the present.

I don’t worry too much about the future, and I don’t worry very much about the past.  The past is gone, and you can’t change, you can’t correct it.  The future, you can anticipate, but you can’t necessarily do very much about it.  It is the present you have to deal with.  Reach out for every good opportunity to do what you ought to do.

~ Gordon B. Hinckley

Learn From the Past

I like that the quote says that, “the past is gone, and you can’t change, you can’t correct it.” Too many people live in the past and can’t seem to let go of their glory days. The past is gone and it is time to move forward. [Read more…] about Focus On The Present

Leaders, Are You Meeting The Needs Of Your Target Audience?

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I did some work with another leader that involved reevaluating processes and making changes. One question asked over and over again was, “Who is our target audience and what are their needs?” Prior to making any changes, we had to identify the target audience and their needs. Meeting their needs was very important because we didn’t want to make changes just to find out we weren’t hitting our goals.

Meet the Needs of Your Target Audience

For leadership to be done right, you must identify and meet the needs of your target audience. Ultimately, if you don’t do this, you will fail as a leader. So how do you identify and meet the needs of your target audience?

Identify The Target Audience

You must first identify your target audience. Ask who are the end users will be. As a leader your target audience may be your superiors, the shareholders, your employees, other departments, outside entities, regulators, or someone else. As you work on projects, you should regularly ask who you are working for and what they want as the end result. In addition to the obvious target audience, there may be other people that will see your work as an indirect target audience.

[Read more…] about Leaders, Are You Meeting The Needs Of Your Target Audience?

Leadership Career Ladder – How To Ace Video Chat Job Interviews

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This is a guest post by Ran Neil. He is a social media consultant at The Carling Partnership. The Carling Partnership is a leading search and selection company in the drink industry. Follow them on Twitter for more helpful information.

Leadership Career Ladder - How to Ace The Video Chat Job Interviews

Ace Video Chat Job Interviews

Video chat job interviews are on the rise. In a popular survey involving more than 500 human resources managers, 63 percent reported using video chat job interviews regularly to interview candidates. In addition, a significant percentage of HR managers also envisage the trend to grow in the coming years. If you are moving up the leadership career ladder, chances are you will face a virtual job interview at some stage. There are a number of steps you can embrace to improve your chances of success.

Come Across Willing and Positive

If the opportunity presents itself, always accept the challenge. The prospect of attending a virtual interview for the first time may seem daunting at first, but it is important that you come across positive and willing, even if you are uncertain about the situation. As you will read on, there are techniques that will help.

Choose The Environment

When the interviewer suggests the best time, think carefully about the location. It is imperative that the background behind you suits the occasion, that background noise is minimal and of course that access to the Internet is available. A meeting or boardroom is the most suitable location if you have access to one. Otherwise, you can take the interview at home, just stage the background and conditions to meet these simple requirements. [Read more…] about Leadership Career Ladder – How To Ace Video Chat Job Interviews

Perform A Leadership Evaluation

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In the last few years, there have been many leaders ranging from supervisors to CEOs that have let their standards slip.  They slowly became deceitful and dishonest.  The lies and deception gradually grew to the point where it led to their downfall.  Some of them fell so deeply that in addition to losing their jobs, they got arrested and lost their freedoms.

Perform A Leadership Evaluation

Often these leaders fell because they did not have any system in place to evaluate their actions. The were not performing a leadership evaluation or doing anything else to keep themselves in check.

Leadership Evaluation

Leadership is done right when leaders constantly seek improvement and perform a periodic leadership evaluation. The leadership evaluation help you to grow and learn so you can improve by making appropriate changes in your behavior.

To perform an effective leadership evaluation, you need to look at your actions past, present and in the future. Additionally, the leadership evaluation should be set up in a way that it addresses the tough questions.

Evaluate your past

The following questions will help you evaluate your past:

  • How long have you been the leader?
  • What did you do to become the leader?
  • What past decisions helped you become a leader?
  • Are you still making those decisions?
  • What did they do to teach you?
  • What type of a group do you lead?
  • How did you become the leader?
  • Where did you come from to get to where you are now?

As you understand your past and the path that led to you being the leader you will gain perspective on your past and strengthens your vision for the future.

[Read more…] about Perform A Leadership Evaluation

Now!! Get Your Projects Done On Time!

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“Today is the deadline!  You promised me that project would be done on time!  Why is this project late?”  “What are you going to do to get this job done now!?”  If you have heard these statements and questions as a leader, you are not alone.

Get Your Projects Done on Time

Leaders everywhere are trying to produce quality results on time and within budget.  In leadership, it is very important to get your desired results.  So how do you get your employees to produce the desired results?  It starts with two things.

First, you must properly explain the desired outcome at the start of the project.

In order to get the desired results, leaders must clearly explain their expectations.  They must also identify the scope of the project and give clear objectives.  In addition, the leader must let each person know what their specific responsibilities are and how their part fits into the entire project.  Once you, as the leader, show them the big picture, they will have a greater sense of purpose as they do their part.  In line with setting clear expectations, you must lay out the timeline, so everyone knows their due dates.  As a final step, you must hold each person responsible to do their part.  When they don’t do their part, you must follow through with the consequences. [Read more…] about Now!! Get Your Projects Done On Time!

Having A New Perspective On Leadership

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A little while back I had the privilege of attending the seminar Leadercast put on by Chick-Fil-A and Giant Impact.  There were many good speakers throughout the day that inspired me to be a better leader.  As with any type of seminar, there were a few of the speakers that really seemed to hit home for me.  One of those speakers was Andy Stanley.  He is a sought-after leadership communicator, author, pastor, and the founder of North Point Ministries, Inc.  One quote that is highlighted in his biography is, “The goal of leadership is not to eradicate uncertainty, but rather to navigate it.”

Andy spoke about changing your perspective to have a new perspective on leadership.  By changing your perspective, you will change your life.  I had a lot of thoughts come to me as I listened.  Below is a compilation of what I heard him say and the thoughts I had as I listened.

As a leader, you are not there because you are the smartest, best equipped, or most talented.  Leaders should not feel like they are better than others.  Leaders, in fact, are in their positions for a number of different reasons.  Some are there because they have been around the longest, they had the idea first, or because they had the right connections. [Read more…] about Having A New Perspective On Leadership

How To Use Leadership Resources Effectively

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From my experience, one leadership challenge many face is learning and understanding their own limitations.  As a first-time leader, you may have the desire to make big changes and do everything you feel a leader should do.  Shortly after you start trying to make every change you envision, you will realize that you can’t do everything all at once. It is because you don’t know how to use your leadership resources effectively.

Leadership Resources

There are many leadership resources available to each leader. Their leadership resources, however, are in the form of human,  natural, or capital resources. To use those resources effectively, you must do the following two things.

Prioritization

Because you can’t do everything right now, you must understand what needs to be done now and what can be done later. You must prioritize effectively. One thing that really helps me to prioritize is writing a to-do list.  The list shows “what” I need to.  From there I use the quadrant system taught by Stephen R. Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to create my priority list.  I separate out what is important and what is not, versus what is urgent and what is not. [Read more…] about How To Use Leadership Resources Effectively