Leadership Done Right

Brandon W. Jones

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Communication

What Happens If You Scream As The Leader?

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In leadership, there are just as many methods of communication as there are leaders.  Have you ever worked for a boss that liked to scream at you or others that you worked with?  How did it make you feel?  Or, have you worked for a boss that spoke calmly, and/or softly with words penetrated your souls?  How did that leader make you feel? Each method of communication makes you feel a different way.

Today, I read the Wall Street Journal article titled, When The Boss Is A Screamer by Sue Shellenbarger.  The article explained that the leaders from the past yelled and screamed at their employees to get things done.  Yelling in the work place was a very common practice, but leadership is changing.  Today’s leader is much more calm cool and collective.

Why is today’s leader different?  In order to understand why today’s leader is different, you must understand the results from of being a screamer.  The article mentioned six things that happen to employees as a result of yelling.  Employees will:

  1. Have a decrease in their working memory which is your memory that allows you to store and use information from your memory.
  2. Bring less creativity to their jobs
  3. Become less competent in performing tasks
  4. Quit their jobs at higher rates
  5. Avoid resolving conflicts, allowing them to escalate
  6. Speed up their work on simple familiar tasks

If you have worked for a screamer before, you have probably experienced one of the feelings mentioned above.  I have worked for a screamer and each of the results holds true. [Read more…] about What Happens If You Scream As The Leader?

What Type Of A Listener Do You Want To Be?

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As a leader, it is very important to be a good listener.  When you are the leader, you have many responsibilities that you must do on a regular basis.  There can get to be a lot of hustle and bustle around you.  Amongst all the hustle and bustle, it can be a real challenge to listen to people around you. It is, however, very important to listen effectively and intently to those around you.  As you listen, you will find answers to questions without having to ask them.

So how can you be a good listener?  What type of listening do you do when you are around others?  There are four different types of listening.

Inactive Listening

Hearing only the words or sounds; the listener is disassociated from both content and sender.  This type of listening happens when you are in deep thought and you hear something around you all of a sudden that you didn’t even know was going on. [Read more…] about What Type Of A Listener Do You Want To Be?

Are Your Leadership Choices Building Or Tearing Down Walls?

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Today, I read a very interesting article about GM, GM’s Chief Labors to Get Rebuilt Car Maker Into Gear, by Sharon Terlep. She talked about the new challenges CEO Dan Ackerson has been facing as the new CEO of General Motors Corporation. After taking over as CEO, he traveled to the various locations within the company to get to know the operations of the company. He worked very hard to know how and why things operated the way they did.

Know Your People and Organization

As he went to the different areas of the company, he found that each area had their own competitive advantages and disadvantages compared to the other areas. Each area had their own trade secrets they were not willing to share. There was a high level of competition between areas.

The Silo Approach

Many of these areas had to work together in some form or another, but they acted like their own separate company. Rather than work together for the good of the company, they worked for the benefit of their specific department, group, or area.

That type of an environment led each group to outspend other areas of the company. Each group desired to have the best of everything to the point that they spent money on frivolous things. They all wanted “the best of everything” for their department. This high level of competition created walls within the company. Functional groups were not willing to work with other departments or compromise in any fashion. [Read more…] about Are Your Leadership Choices Building Or Tearing Down Walls?

Leadership Done Right – What’s Coming Up?

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Over the last month or so, I have constantly been thinking about what I could do to make Leadership Done Right better.  I have noticed that although I have received a lot of traffic, there is significant room for improvement.  I am very happy with the growth, but I am not satisfied with where it is yet.

I could do a better job creating an environment for more conversation.  These things have really made me think a lot about what I should do to improve Leadership Done Right.  I have come up with a few things I feel will help increase the traffic to the blog.

Fewer Posts, Better Content

Over the past two months, I have written and published a new post everyday.  This has helped develop a foundation for Leadership Done Right.  At the same time, because of the limited time in between posts, it has been very challenging to put together great posts every time.

As much as I try to write quality posts every time, I definitely have room for improvement.  Going forward, I will be reducing the number of posts a week to increase the quality.  Rather than post everyday, I will try to post three to five times a week.  On days that I don’t post, I will either respond to comments or do research for future posts.

More Conversation

In addition to writing and publishing posts here on my Leadership Done Right, I publish links to each post on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest.  The posts on these other platforms has generated a lot of conversation.  While I have done a pretty good job responding to comments here on Leadership Done Right, but I have not been able to respond to all the conversations on the other platforms.

I fear that by not responding to comments, I may unintentionally be turning people away from Leadership Done Right.  By reducing the number of posts, I will have more time to respond to questions and comments. [Read more…] about Leadership Done Right – What’s Coming Up?