Leadership

How to Conquer Insecurity and Become a Great Leader

By Brandon W. Jones on October 1, 2014 0

This is a guest post by Sara Brown. She is a keen writer with having a profession as a teacher. She has a fabulous skill set for writing in various different niches like education, travel, lifestyle, career and tech. She is currently working as an academic consultant for Dissertation Writing Service favoring students to find ease and peace of mind with better results.

When you say the word ‘Leader,’ what comes to mind? Most people visualize a strong, assertive, confident and successful person. Do you think a leader can be insecure? Quite surprisingly, it happens more often than you can imagine. Before moving on, let’s take a look at what does the word ‘insecure’ mean? According to Webster’s dictionary: “Not confident about yourself or your ability to do things well: nervous and uncomfortable.”

The above definition doesn’t paint the picture of a leader, does it? Insecurity seems to be an antithesis to leadership but, nonetheless, many leaders are afflicted by it. So, if you are in a leadership position, you should know some of the signs of an insecure person so that you can try to avoid it.

Some of the resounding thoughts in an insecure leader’s mind are: I can’t do it, because if I put myself on the line, people may see my weaknesses. I should appear to be distant so that people can’t see the real extent of my abilities. [Read more…] about How to Conquer Insecurity and Become a Great Leader

Leadership Styles: What Style Do You Follow?

By Brandon W. Jones on July 18, 2014 0

This is a guest post by Alice Morey. She is a professor majoring in finance field. She teaches finance and economics courses at University of East London, UK. She also writes, blogs and is a regular contributor to youth and leadership programs. In addition to her teaching and writing, she is a seasonal writer at “Courseworkhome” to assist students in their academic coursework.

Leadership can be reflected as a method whereby one influences the others. In the course of business, leaders show multiple leadership styles depending on the situation they are experiencing.

Leadership Styles

It is argued that leaders have both authority (the right to influence) and power (the ability to work). One without the other is never suitable.

Authority develops from an individual’s position in an organizational structure, authority limits and the operation of the law. While, power can arise from the following sources;

Rational-legal: the manager may exercise his/her power because of the title “senior manager” and individuals below him are supposed to carry out his instructions.
Charismatic: where the person has great charm and force or personality.
Reward power: where the promise of pay increases or promotions are used.
Knowledge: where withholding and releasing knowledge selectively utilizes power.
Coercion: through physical power, this is seldom to be seen in modern organizations.

What Titanic Disasters Teach About Leadership?

By Brandon W. Jones on July 15, 2014 2

This is a guest post by Ali Jafra. Throughout his professional career Ali has been associated with globally recognized consulting firms, including PriceWaterHouse Coopers & Mercer consulting where he has undertaken a number of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) assignments, which has given him a diverse and unique perspective on Change Management. He has successfully managed relationships for blue chip companies, such as, Pepsi International, Microsoft, General Motors, Standard Chartered Bank, Polycom, Du Pont & Al Ghurair Group.

He has also worked as a Lead Project Manager for United Nations (UNDP) project to build capacity of Ministry of Economic Affairs Team in Pakistan to strengthen their online presence and virtual coordination for technology cooperation among developing countries.

In his passion to facilitate dissemination of knowledge with ease, he has moderated more than 100 Live Webinars on MILE’s platform by successfully engaging speakers from Top Academic Schools in the world and Global Consulting firms, such as Harvard, Columbia, Oxford, INSEAD, London Business School, Wharton, Babson, Yale, Standford, Carnegie, IESE, Cranfield, Oliver Wyman, Strategy&, United Nations Chief of E-government and many more.

Ali is a Certified Practitioner of Personality & Preference Inventory program (PAPI) which is a Psychometric tool developed by Cubiks an entity of PA Consulting U.K.

Ali holds a BSc. Degree from Elon University, North Carolina, USA.

Sinking of the Titanic in a cold night on April 14, 1912 will go down as one of the greatest tragedies in the history of mankind. The incident instantly became the epitaph for the lives of more than a thousand people who died. The ship was definitely doomed and slowly but surely sinking into its boundless water grave. Have you ever thought what caused the most advanced and largest ship of its time to sink.

Anyone who has seen the movie or read stories about the disaster would know that the Titanic did not sink because of the iceberg, but it was actually the failed leadership that sent the unsinkable ship to the depths of water. The ship now rests in the bottom of the ocean, but the calamity can certainly teach everyone a lesson about how to become a good leader.

A Leader Has to Take the Responsibility:

You cannot become a leader by acquiring a senior position in an organization, job title or by becoming a figurehead. A leader should be motivating, involved, engaging, training others, removing obstacles and always ready to explore new opportunities.

Captain James Smith was heading to an easy life as it was his retirement trip. One wonders why he ignored 7 warnings about icebergs both from his crew and other ships. A leader should be held responsible for everything an organization does and its success and failure. [Read more…] about What Titanic Disasters Teach About Leadership?

Student Leadership

By Brandon W. Jones on July 14, 2014 1

This is a guest post by Austin Hong. He was raised in Los Angeles, California before attending Boston College, where he studies Finance. Currently he is working for a legal management consulting firm in the Beacon Hill area of Boston, MA.

According to Warren Bennis, widely considered the pioneer of Leadership Studies, “The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.” This notion and thought that there exists a “leadership gene” is the cause of widespread stunted confidence and leadership potential of an already self-conscience, often, confused demographic of students and young adults.

Many students are afraid of taking the risk to become a leader, because they are afraid that they don’t have the right personality or skill set to be an effective leader. After serving on student governments at both the secondary and university levels of education, on an executive board that served and represented 15 non-profit student chapters, in a Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps company, and a number of other organizations and roles ranging from sports teams to businesses, I have learned a few things about what it means to be a student leader. I personally believe that becoming an experienced student leader sets up the foundation to becoming a more diversified and qualified leader in the workplace, amongst peers, or in any other scenario, where one might be required to lead others. Student leadership is possible!

1. Leaders are not born

If you haven’t already picked up on the fact that I am a firm believer in the statement that leaders are not born with the inherent knack for leading others, then I am here to make clear that I am. With this in mind, it is critical, especially as students and young adults, to have a student leadership mentor or model, because it is from him or her that we learn to become leaders ourselves. This chain can act in one of two ways.

The first and more common way is looking up to a leader and sharing common values with him or her, so much so that you begin to emulate their style.

The second is by serving under a leader only to learn that you disagree with their style of leadership in major or minor ways, causing you to alter your perception of a proper leader and not repeating his or her faults. A person will not shape his entire values and thoughts on leadership based on one individual, one leader, rather it is the culmination of every mentor, model, and significant figure that he or she has ever encountered that will shape him or her. [Read more…] about Student Leadership

Leadership And The Social Media Technology: A Perfect Combination

By Brandon W. Jones on July 3, 2014 2

This is a guest post by Sara Jones. She has been actively taking her part in the teaching and educational reforms. Moreover, with her affiliation with UK Education Council, she has been providing assignment help by the platform of Done Assignment to graduate and post graduate level students.

It is known by most of the organisations that the leadership context has dramatically changed during the last two decades, putting terrific pressure on conventional managerial and organisational models. Now, the leaders are confronted with highly volatile and unforeseen situations that challenge long-term strategies. Today’s organisations are caught in a new interconnected world of complex global networks that pursue innovative approaches of co-evolution, with their diverse stakeholders. For these organisations, there are also some disruptive factors in terms of intensifying political issues, economic and environmental challenges that require incessant business model innovation.

Turn Challenges into Opportunities

In order to confront with and turn these challenging issues into opportunities, it has been realised by the leaders that they have to establish an extremely creative, active, and supple organisations. Organisations, to effectively accomplish real-time strategic responsiveness, also have to force responsibilities “down and out” to the periphery, to people who are nearer to the market dynamics. Responsibility is interconnected with accountability. Thus, almost every employee in this volatile world must become an authorised leader who can act effectively within the network relationships, which have become a trend for the process of value creation. A horizontal” leadership style is its basic need that furthers global discussion, contribution, and cooperation among stakeholders. In fact, the conventional management model based on linear processes and vertical command and control is ill suited to deal with these challenging issues. [Read more…] about Leadership And The Social Media Technology: A Perfect Combination

A Tribute To One Of My Heroes

By Brandon W. Jones on July 16, 2013 4

In life, there are some leaders that have such a great impact on you that it changes who you are. Their influence goes beyond a single moment and lasts days, weeks, or years into the future. People that have this impact are very special. When you find someone that has that effect on you, it would be wise to pay close attention to the lessons they teach you and to savor the time you spend with with them.

I had a person like that in my life for 31 years of my life. That was my grandma, Doris Jones. If you are a regular follower of my website, you may have noticed that I haven’t posted much for the past month. The reason was that my grandma took a dive for the worst with her health and passed away on June 12, 2013. It has been a challenging time for my family and me, but also a time filled with family, love, and the sharing of great memories. My grandma was a great lady and one of my biggest heroes. As a tribute to her, the rest of this post is her obituary.

A Tribute To My Hero

Doris Gwendolyn Logan Jones was born May 5, 1926, to Dr. William and Florence Logan in Billings and died of natural causes on June 12, 2013, surrounded by her loving family. She is survived by her loving husband, Edward Jones; her five children Mark (Cathy) of Anchorage, Alaska, Kent (Kimberly), Stan (Christine), Cliff (Diane), all of Billings and Konni Davis (Tim) of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Also surviving are her brothers, Kenneth Logan (Ruth) of Warner Robbins, Ga., John Logan (Gwen) of Dearborn, Mich.; 23 grandchildren and 42 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents and sister, Betty Hartman. [Read more…] about A Tribute To One Of My Heroes

Leadership

Leadership Styles

A Leader Has to Take the Responsibility:

1. Leaders are not born

Turn Challenges into Opportunities

A Tribute To My Hero

Get to Know Leadership Done Right!

Personal Development

Practical Leadership