Leadership Done Right Blog

Label Yourself And See What Happens

By Brandon W. Jones on May 20, 2013 2

How do you label yourself? Are you too fat or too skinny? Are you the workaholic or the one that skates by with little effort? When you label yourself, it has a powerful effect on how you see yourself and the decisions you make.

How do you label yourself?

In the article, How Do You Label Yourself on drphil.com, Dr. Phil said, “Believe it or not, labels are incredibly powerful influences in your life. You may not be consciously aware of even a fraction of the names assigned to you, whether they come from the outside world or from within.”

In leadership, many people will label you. Some will label you as “the great leader.” And others will label you as a bad leader. There are also many other labels people will give you; too confident, smart, arrogant, etc. [Read more…] about Label Yourself And See What Happens

Get Buy-in From Your Employees

By Brandon W. Jones on May 17, 2013 4

Your employees are your biggest asset and they always will be because without them nothing happens. They greet your customers, ship your products, complete projects, and do all the other work that gets done. Because they are so valuable, you need their buy-in when making organizational change happen.

Three Questions To Ask For Buy-in

If your employees aren’t on board, they will eventually leave. So how do you get their buy-in? I have three suggestions to get them involved.

1. Ask for the employees’ point of view.

Find out what your employees think about the current situation. Ask whether or not they are satisfied with status quo. Let them explain how they work within the current framework and get their feedback. As you learn their thoughts, you will gain valuable insight into how they think.

The more you get their feedback, the more they will realize that you value their thoughts and opinions. They will gain trust in your actions and words once they realize you value them. Getting their feedback will also help you be better prepared to introduce changes in a way that won’t rub them wrong. Getting their feedback will also help gain their buy-in when the decisions are made in the future. [Read more…] about Get Buy-in From Your Employees

Set Habits For Success

By Brandon W. Jones on May 15, 2013 2

Most leaders desire success. Success comes from a process. That process is the sum of your habits. Therefore, set habits for success. Habits for success will change your way of living. You can introduce habits for success into every aspect of life. Michael Hyatt said in his post 7 Ways Successful Creatives Think Differently than Unsuccessful Ones, “Develop a winning mindset and cultivate the habits of successful thinking. This is what separates the best creatives from all others.”

Over the past several years, many habits for success were built into my life by circumstance. Recently, however, I intentionally created habits for success. I started getting up at 5:15 AM everyday to study in the morning. I started reading books other than textbooks regularly to activate my mind. In addition, I started going to bed by 10:30 PM every night. Each of these habits for success has improved my mental clarity and increased my knowledge. [Read more…] about Set Habits For Success

The Value Of Constructive Feedback

By Brandon W. Jones on May 10, 2013 3

In leadership, constructive feedback is extremely valuable. Constructive feedback helps you know your strengths and weaknesses. It also identifies areas for personal improvement so you can be more effective in your leadership. Requesting constructive feedback from others also helps you to be more humble.

Request Constructive Feedback

I had a friend named Judy that rubbed people the wrong way. She did it regularly and didn’t even realize it. She thought, however, that she was great with people. She spoke condescendingly to others. Judy never asked for feedback from others on her behavior. She was completely oblivious to how others perceived her.

After a time, Judy’s behavior frustrated others and she found out the hard way. Jill, one of the employees that Judy worked with, quit her job to go back to school. As Jill was leaving, she had an exit interview with HR. She was asked what she liked and disliked about the department. Jill had nothing but negative things to say about Judy. [Read more…] about The Value Of Constructive Feedback

Four Steps To Get People To Work Hard

By Brandon W. Jones on May 9, 2013 4

At some point or another, every leader has probably had the challenge of getting people to work hard. This can be very challenging because each person has their own agenda. As leaders, the goal is to get everyone to work hard as a team. The following four steps can be used to get everyone to work hard and be on the same page before a project begins.

Keep Calm And Work Hard

Build Trust

It is very difficult to get anyone to do anything for you if they don’t trust you. Before you can get anyone to work hard, you must build trust with them. One of the quickest ways to build trust is to help them know that you sincerely care about them and their success. You must show and have a genuine desire to help them succeed. If you don’t have this desire on your own, know that if they succeed, it will make you look good as the leader. Work hard to overcome your pride and selfish desires to develop trust with those you lead. If you don’t overcome pride, it will lead to problems accomplishing the established goals.

[Read more…] about Four Steps To Get People To Work Hard

Learn To Be Fearless

By Brandon W. Jones on May 8, 2013 0

As a leader, learning to be fearless is invaluable. The fearless leader is not afraid of what others think. He doesn’t get paralyzed by fear. The fearless leader thinks outside the box. He fears nothing and changes when necessary for improvement. The fearless leader doesn’t use or think about words like “challenge” or “problem,” but instead talks of “opportunities” and “blessings.”

The Fearless Culture

Several years ago, I was a missionary for my church. During that time, I spent 12 hours a day teaching people about Jesus Christ. I spent time walking up and down the streets and going door-to-door to find people to teach. People regularly ignored me and/or reject me because of the message I shared. Sometimes people even yelled and were very rude.

In that environment, I was very fear or discouraged at first because of the rejection. I didn’t like being rejected. The leaders that I worked under, however, created a fearless culture. Each week he taught us the importance of being fearless. His goal was to change our mindset so we only thought about being fearless.

[Read more…] about Learn To Be Fearless

The Power Of Faith In Leadership

By Brandon W. Jones on May 7, 2013 2

In leadership, the principle of faith is understated and underemphasized. Faith allows you to accomplish great things. You can make miracles happen in your leadership with just a small amount of faith. Dan Black, at Dan Black on Leadership, said regarding faith that, “The start of any good vision is rooted with faith.”

There are many leaders that start out with a dream. They imagine or picture something in their minds that they want. Some of them even have a strong desire to obtain it. Is that desire or want enough? No, they need the power of faith to realize their dream. That desire alone is not enough to accomplish anything. Without faith, many leaders fail to realize their dreams. They start working towards their dreams, but they fail to follow through enough to achieve their dream. They let it stay dormant within themselves and don’t do anything about it. There are, however, leaders that become great by making their dreams a reality.

There is no obstacle to too great , no challenge too difficult, if we have faith. ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

The Power of Faith Realized

So what is the difference between the leader that has a desire and does nothing about it and the leader that makes their dreams a reality? The difference is faith. The dictionary defines faith as, “Faith is to hope for things which are not seen, but are true. Faith is a principle of action and of power. All true faith must be based upon correct knowledge or it cannot produce the desired results.” The leaders that are successful obtain their success because they have a great amount of faith. They have faith in themselves. They also have faith in their coworkers, employees, and leaders. Most importantly, many great leaders have faith in God. [Read more…] about The Power Of Faith In Leadership

Have A Plan For Success

By Brandon W. Jones on May 3, 2013 2

How are you going to be successful? What steps are you going to take to reach success? Every leader’s goal is to be successful at what they do. In reaching goals, leaders may face obstacles along the way, but they will make the best out of every situation so they are constantly progressing. The leader knows that as they go through each experience they will either move forward or backward depending on how they approach the situation.

In order to constantly move forward, it is very important to put together a plan. The Wall Street Journal article, A Written Plan Can Help Your Portfolio, by Thomas Coyle explained the importance of having a plan when investing your money. The article focused having an investment-policy statement. The investment policy statement defines your investment goals before you begin investing. It also defines the time frame of your goals and the level of risk you are willing to endure. The investment-policy statement is used by both the agent and the investor so they know how to move forward planning the investments. This plan is very important because as things come up, the investor and the agent can use the statement as a guide. It helps remove the emotions that come with investing (Emotions dictate – portfolio loses value = immediate sell, portfolio gains value = immediate buy). One very important aspect of the policy statement is that it helps people look at things long term.

In the past, investment-policy statements were not used as much as they are now. Since the market became volatile, investors and agents have been using the statements much more than in the past. They are using them because the statements give focus for both parties. The article stated, “‘Twenty years ago, if you asked a roomful of advisers how many of them worked with investment-policy statements, only a few hands would go up. Ask the same question now, and all but a few hands go up,’ says Linda Lubitz.” [Read more…] about Have A Plan For Success

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.

[Read more…] about Lead With Integrity

Hard Work: Become A Top Leader

By Brandon W. Jones on May 1, 2013 8

There are many strategies for becoming a top leader. Each has one thing in common: Hard Work. When you want to be a great leader, what is required? Hard work. When you want to attain the vision, how can it be accomplished? Hard work. If you want to grow your company, what is the obstacle in your way? Hard work. You get the picture. There is an old saying that, “There is no substitute for hard work.” Everything in life that is worth obtaining requires hard work.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. ~ Sir Winston Churchill, May 13, 1940. Speeches That Changed The World: The Stories And Transcripts Of The Moments That Made History

I really like the quote by Sir Winston Churchill because he understood the value of hard work. If you are a leader that wants to succeed, you probably understand and value hard work. You know that the completion of your work requires hard work, dedication, and a willingness to put forth all your effort to accomplish your goals. [Read more…] about Hard Work: Become A Top Leader