Experience

Attention To Detail – Don’t Become The Prey!

By Brandon W. Jones on August 3, 2012 4

As a leader, it is essential that you are honest and have integrity. You must do all you can to be upfront and honest in your conduct, especially when dealing with your customers. Part of being honest means that when you make great claims, you must have the details and documentation to back them up.

Pay Attention To Detail

Whether or not your claims are true, if you don’t have details and documentation, people will be skeptical and may not believe you. You can’t just make great claims with nothing to back them up. Attention to detail and documentation are extremely important.

My Experience

Recently, I had a very interesting and potentially scary experience. Over the past several months my wife and I have been trying to refinance our home in Carson City, NV. We went to several different lenders and one after another denied us for one reason or another. All cases, however, were tied to the fact that we have excellent credit and a perfect payment history.

Loan Modification

About a month ago we received a phone call from a loan modification company, Direct Mortgage Counseling, directmortgagecounseling.org. They said that they could modify our loan and give us a new great loan (30 year fixed, 2% interest, reduced principal). We were somewhat skeptical because the loan modification seemed too good to be true. We did some research and found that they had the proper business licenses to do this type of work. That gave us enough confidence that we gave them a few of our documents, so they could give us additional information.

Once they received our few documents, they put together the loan modification paperwork. From there, they requested quite a bit more information (basically every financial document we had) so they could finalize our loan modification. Since I have experience writing legally binding contracts, I made sure I read through their contract completely before I signed it. I was especially careful because I was skeptical of them from the start.

What Were They Thinking?

By Brandon W. Jones on January 10, 2012 1

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.

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?

What is in a Title?

By Brandon W. Jones on July 24, 2011 3

Every job has a specific title whether it is an entry level position or the CEO. So what does each title mean? Does the title give an accurate measure of the value of an employee? Titles are sometimes very good, but at the same time they can be very deceiving.

Career Progression

I recently spoke to a friend of mine that we’ll call Brad. He has a specific title within his company. At his company, each employee that starts out in his position has to work their way from step 1 to step 3 where they are then considered for management. Brad has been in his step 2 position for the same length of time and has the same responsibilities as step 3 employees. He also has the same amount of experience on high profile projects as the step 3 employees.
[Read more…] about What is in a Title?

Keeping Perspective As Leaders

By Brandon W. Jones on February 9, 2011 3

As a leader, it is very important that you are keeping perspective. When we stop keeping perspective, we are bound to fail. The following are three ways to keep everything in perspective.

Learn from the past

It is essential that we look to those who have gone before us and review both their successes and failures. We must also take time to review what we have done in our own lives and the outcomes. [Read more…] about Keeping Perspective As Leaders

How To Get Your Employees To Be On Time

By Brandon W. Jones on January 30, 2011 4

Have you ever arrived on time to a meeting and had to wait to start the meeting until several of your employees showed up late? Or as you start a meeting, have you seen your employees or others casually stroll in late? Either of these behaviors can be very disruptive and even disrespectful. It is very important to be on time because when you show up late, it says that either you don’t respect your time, or come from a background where punctuality is not respected.

Teach Punctuality

So how do you teach punctuality? I had an experience several years ago that taught me a valuable lesson on the importance of punctuality. I was a leader of a group of about six people at the time. Within the group, I constantly struggled to figure out how to get people to be on time.

An Example

I came into the environment where several of the people would show up late to the meetings without notifying me. When I say late, it wasn’t just five minutes, they would show up anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes late. Since they were in the habit of showing up late, they would expect me to wait around to start the meeting until they showed up.

The Problem

This was a major problem since a few others and I would always show up at the scheduled time for the meeting. As this behavior progressed, I felt the need to discuss punctuality on a regular basis. For several meetings in a row, I explained the importance of being on time. I regularly started the meetings at the scheduled time even if not everyone was there. [Read more…] about How To Get Your Employees To Be On Time

Poor Leadership, Part 2 of 2

By Brandon W. Jones on January 11, 2011 0

I asked a few questions at the close of Poor Leadership, Part 1 of 2, so in this post I will answer the questions and tell you how I would respond.

As a leader, how would you have handled this situation?

I always try to be very upfront and honest in all that I do. With that being said, the approach I would take would be very different than that of John. When I have people come to me for help, whether it is an employee, coworker, or customer, the first question I ask is, “What is your timeline for this request?” From there, I work with them so we are on the same timeline.

Although this request is somewhat different than a standard request, I would take a very similar approach. I would set out a specific timeline with the employee detailing how and when I would get the information on the requirements for the promotion and then help them obtain the promotion. I would then schedule out blocks of time to work on obtaining information on the qualifications for the promotion.

If the promotion information was easy to obtain, I would then try to figure out what paperwork needed to be completed for the promotion. I would be sure to regularly update the employee on the progress I was making on the timeline. That would be especially important if there were roadblocks in meeting the specific deadlines.