Leadership Done Right

Brandon W. Jones

Leadership Done Right Blog

The Power of Blogging in Leadership!

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To be a good leader, you must have conviction in what you want to do and the stance you take on different issues. In many cases, beginning leaders don’t have strong convictions because they are new to leadership.  Those convictions develop over time through trial and error, or as they study examples from other leaders.

Blogging In Leadership

Writing down your thoughts can also be very beneficial in the development of your convictions. A blog is a perfect platform for this. The following video helps explain the power of blogging in leadership when developing your convictions.

Clarity of Thought

As you blog, you will develop your own thoughts on how to handle different situations. Blogging will force you to take a stance on the topics you write about. As Seth Godin and Tom Peters stated, blogging will refine your thoughts and help you in many ways.  [Read more…] about The Power of Blogging in Leadership!

Going Above And Beyond For Customer Service

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As leaders, it is essential that you emphasize the importance of good customer service. As you emphasize it, you must also lead by example. You must show your employees what it means to give good customer service.

My Experience

Recently, I had an interesting experience with customer service. My wife and I got the oil changed in our truck at Walmart. Afterwards, I noticed a few small oil spots on the driveway from time to time. I didn’t, however, see a significant amount of oil loss each time I checked the oil. Once the truck hit 3,000 miles we took it in to get the oil changed.

We went to a local oil and lube shop and were told they wouldn’t change the oil because the pan was stripped. They didn’t want to take any liability for changing the oil on the truck with a stripped oil pan. That was very frustrating because we needed the truck to get around, but couldn’t get the oil changed without fixing the oil pan. We also didn’t want to drive the truck too much without getting the oil changed because we didn’t want to go way over on miles. [Read more…] about Going Above And Beyond For Customer Service

What Would You Do As The Boss?

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I read an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday titled, “Where’s the Boss? Trapped in a Meeting” by Rachel Emma Silverman. The article talked about a study that was done on CEOs. London School of Economics and Harvard Business School did a study of over 500 CEOs from various companies around the world.

What Would You Do As The Boss?

The studies were done to see how they used their time. The results were tracked by the CEOs’ personal assistants for anything the CEO did for more than 15 minutes during the day. Some of the results were very interesting. The average tracked CEO worked 55 hours a week and spent 18 hours in meetings.

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The Proof Is In The Pudding

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“The proof is in the pudding!” What does that saying mean to you? To me it means that your actions speak LOUDER than your words. As leaders, there are so many things you do on a daily basis with people watching you. You must always be aware of that fact. You set the example that everyone else will follow.

The Proof Is In The Pudding

Proof From Example

Since you set the example, you must do all you can to set the right example. Several years ago I had a leader that was a nice person, but he set a very poor example. I had a weekly meeting with him and my coworkers. At each meeting he told everyone how important it was to provide good customer service.

Poor Example

He would also stress the importance of following all the other company rules. Once the meeting was over he would be the first to break those rules. He would show up late, fail to greet the customers quickly when they came in, or make some other mistake. It didn’t take long for everyone to lose trust in him as the leader.

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Build Up Those You Lead With Praise

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If you praise your employees, they will feel more valued. When I speak of praise, I refer to heart felt, sincere praise. As a leader, you should praise your employees when they do a good job. The praise can come in the form of a small compliment, a thank you card, recognition in front of others, or some other way. All employees have their ups and downs, but when you recognize the successes of your employees by praising them, it will make a difference in their performance.

When you give praise, there are three things to consider.

1. Is the praise deserved?

Each person has to determine for himself/herself if someone is deserving of praise. Once you have decided you want to give praise, you must be very sincere. Anytime an employee makes improvement, they should be praised. They should be recognized for their progression. You can recognize them through praising them for their good efforts. [Read more…] about Build Up Those You Lead With Praise

How A Cost Benefit Analysis Will Save You Time

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If my life is anything like yours, you have many opportunities that come your way everyday. People will come into your office and/or send you emails requesting your help on everything you can imagine. Can you participate in this group? Can you help me with this project? Can you review this report? Can you take care of this responsibility? There are many other questions that come regularly. So how can you wade through all the requests and still complete your core responsibilities? I have just the solution for you.

How A Cost Benefit Analysis Will Save You Time

Even though many of the requests are for very important things that need to be done, you don’t personally have to fulfill all of them. You can delegate. When you delegate these requests or responsibilities to others, it is important to sift through them so you know what things you absolutely have to do yourself compared to what you can have others do for you. That is where the cost-benefit analysis is very useful. [Read more…] about How A Cost Benefit Analysis Will Save You Time

Doesn’t Everyone Want to Be Successful?

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Over the last little while I have watched a lot of what has been going on in the republican primary elections. Each candidate has their own set of strengths and weaknesses. With this election, as is common with every other election, each candidate focuses on reasons why he/she is the best candidate for the position.Doesn’t Everyone Want to Be Successful?

One thing most candidates agree on is that America has always been known as a country where people come because they want to be successful. With that in mind, why are Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum saying that Mitt Romney is less qualified to be President of the United States because he was successful?

Successful Leadership

Great leadership is carried out when the leader brings out the best in people. All other things equal, the leader helps the entire group, company, or organization to be successful.

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Want Something For Free?

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Want a free iPad? Want a free laptop? You deserve the good things in life! You are entitled to the best because if anyone deserves it, you do. In the past few years, I have heard more and more people arguing that they are entitled to things.

Want Something For Free?

Entitlement

People claim entitlement for everything you can think of ranging from government support to jobs to the best entertainment. There is a major trend of people feeling they deserve free things like iPods, iPhones, computers, laptops, TVs, etc. There are so many people that feel they deserve the good things in life without putting forth the hard work and effort required to obtain them.

What’s worse is that people feel that, just because they breathe air, the world owes them the very best. Entitlement is the idea of getting something for nothing. There is an ever increasing thought that, “If everyone else has the latest and greatest, I should too. I, however, should get it for free because I am entitled to it”. [Read more…] about Want Something For Free?

What Were They Thinking?

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Several years ago, I learned a very valuable leadership lesson from my mom.  We were having a discussion about different people.  At the time, I was very frustrated because some one I knew had done something that didn’t make sense to me.  I had thought through the whole situation before I came to that conclusion and their actions just didn’t make sense.

What Were They Thinking?

My mom heard my frustrations and said, “Brandon, some people just don’t think the same way you think. You may find yourself asking the question, ‘What were they thinking?'” She then went on to explain that each person has a completely different upbringing and background so they think differently.  That, in some ways, was a turning point in my life.  She helped me to understand the importance of trying to see things through other people’s eyes.

Know Your Target Audience

In leadership it is very important to see things from the other person’s point of view. Whether you are talking to your employees, people in other departments, or your management team, you must know how to understand the other point of view.  I have some suggestions on how to try and think how others think. [Read more…] about What Were They Thinking?

Life’s Transitions – The Rest of the Story

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As my blog post the other day about life’s transitions stated, I have been out of the blogosphere for the last little while because of a job transfer. It is very interesting how everything came about.

Life's Transitions - The Rest of the Story

My Experience

Have you ever had an experience that you felt happened because it was meant to happen that way? That is exactly what happened with my recent job transfer. Leading up to my new position I had gone through a number of set backs. I had applied for three other supervisor positions in my company but was not the successful candidate. At that point I was beginning to get discouraged. After earning my MBA, I was hoping to progress to the next level.

In August 2011, I noticed that another new supervisor position had been posted. After applying for three other positions in a short time and not being the successful candidate, I wasn’t sure I wanted to apply again right away. The time I spent applying for the other positions was hard on my family and myself because from one week to the next we didn’t know if we were going to be moving or not. After thinking about the new supervisor job until the last day it was open, I finally decided I would apply because I felt a strong feeling telling me to apply. [Read more…] about Life’s Transitions – The Rest of the Story