Leadership Done Right

Brandon W. Jones

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Have Courage To Be The Leader

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You gain strength, experience and confidence by every experience where you really stop to look fear in the face… You must do the thing you cannot do.

~Eleanor Roosevelt

It seems like most, if not all, people have something that they really fear.  Fears can be very real at times.  They can cause people to freeze up and tremble.  Other times, fear and keep people from moving forward on their goals.  As a leader, it can be easy to let fear get a hold of you.  There are many things that you may fear as a leader.  Some of those fears may include:

1.  Fear of rejection
2.  Fear of inadequacy
3.  Fear of the unknown
4.  Fear of underperformance
5.  Fear of lack of control [Read more…] about Have Courage To Be The Leader

Overcoming The Leadership Blogging Challenges

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Recently, I received a comment on one of my blog posts asking for some insight on how I started out as a blogger. The question went as follows:

Brandon, I liked the article. However, I’d like to know how you overcame the blogging challenges to be a consistent blogger. Hearing your personal experience relative to the topic is like a breath of fresh air and sets your blogs apart from the rest. What problems did you face when starting out this webpage/blog? Did you have to do a little self “reprogramming” to be consistent? Were there any tools you used that helped? Thanks.

He brought up some very important questions that each blogger must ask him/herself when they start out blogging. If you want to be an avid blogger and gain a following, you must know how to answer the questions he asked. When you first start out blogging, there are many challenges you will encounter. If you want to be a blogger, you must set your goals before you even start so you know the direction you plan to go.

How do you overcome blogging challenges to become a consistent blogger?

I have been blogging for the past two years off and on. I started out blogging when I was in the MBA program at the University of Nevada – Reno. At that time, I had to blog for a class I took from Bret L. Simmons. The blogs we wrote were responses to case studies and articles we read.

I posted blog posts as often as we were required to in the class. By the end of the class I had gotten a few followers for my blog. I then felt obligated to continue blogging. I wasn’t very consistent at that time though. I would blog for a few weeks and then miss a few or sometimes even a month.  I was very sporatic.  [Read more…] about Overcoming The Leadership Blogging Challenges

How To Lose The Trust Of Those You Lead

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Honesty gives you strength.  When you are honest you have complete knowledge that everything you said was the truth.  You can have a clear mind and feel confident that nothing you said or did will come back to haunt you.

When you are honest in every way, you are able to enjoy peace of mind and maintain self-respect.  You build strength of character, which allows you to be of service to others.  You are trustworthy in the eyes of those around you. ~Unknown Author

On the other hand, if you are dishonest in your words or actions, you will hurt yourself or those around you.  You will lose the trust of your closest associates, and that trust will be hard if not impossible to regain.

Some forms of dishonesty include lying, cheating, and stealing.  Three major consequences that come as a result of dishonesty are:

1.  Loss of Self-worth

When you are dishonest, you will feel a loss in your sense of self-worth.  When you are dishonest, you are telling yourself and the world that you are not good enough to do things the honest way.  With each choice you make, you know what is honest and what is not.  When you make dishonest choices, you are hurting yourself as well as others.  Because you know yourself, you know the truth about everything you say and do.  With each time you say something that is not true, you begin to lose your feelings of self-worth. [Read more…] about How To Lose The Trust Of Those You Lead

How Not To Lead By Example

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When you are the leader, it is important that you lead by example. The way you lead by example permeates your team, coworkers, management, customers, and everyone you come in contact. When you set a good example, it has a positive impact. If, however, you set a bad example, it has a very negative impact.

How Not To Lead By Example

Several years ago I had an experience where I had a leader that wasn’t a leader at all. When I worked under him he was responsible for training, leading by example, and giving a vision. As part of that responsibility, he was supposed to give us direction on what to do and how to do it. How Not To Lead By Example

This was very important because we were all very new and he was the one with the most experience. His training and guidance was especially important because in the environment we worked in, we had very strict and specific rules and regulations that we had to follow. If we didn’t follow the rules with exactness, it would lead to major problems down the road. His guidance was very important.

Shirking Responsibilities

My leader regularly fell short on his responsibilities to the whole team. He didn’t lead by example and wouldn’t do his job because he was lazy and didn’t want to put forth the effort. When he would try to do his job, he would go on a power trip and become a dictator.

Negativity

He would put people down as he told them to do exactly what he said. When he got on his power trips, he would constantly say we needed to follow his “example” of how to get the job done.  He would get an arrogant attitude as if he had been setting the perfect example all along.

Lack of Motivation

As I worked under him, there were many times where I found that I had to prod him to do his job and fulfill his responsibilities.  I understand that no one is perfect and everyone has their shortfalls, but as a leader he didn’t even put forth an effort to lead by example.  In no way was he an example that we could follow.

Summary

As you can see from the example above, the way you lead by example has a great impact on others. My leader’s poor example had a big impact on me and everyone around me. If he were to lead by example in a good way, it would have had a much different impact on everyone.

Have you ever gone through a situation like this?  How did you handle the situation?  How do you set the example for your people to follow?  Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Handle Leadership Adversity With Ease

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As a leader, you will always face adversity. You will see it from your employees, coworkers, and even from people outside your organization. The real question is, “how will you handle it?” Will you run and hide, find a way around it, or face it head on? As the leader, you must be confident when you encounter adversity because everyone is watching. If you falter or show insecurity, people will lose trust and confidence in you as the leader.

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Prepare for Adversity

So how do you prepare for adversity to handle it with ease? When I was in junior high and high school, I was always taught to plan how you will respond in a given situation before it ever occurs. If you plan out the scenario and determine how you will act, the decision will be a lot easier in the moment of adversity. [Read more…] about Handle Leadership Adversity With Ease

This Week’s Top 5 Leadership Posts

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Each week I write a post about the top five leadership posts I find because each blogger has their own niche.  In the leadership world there are many very successful bloggers that blog on a daily or weekly basis.  They have developed a prominence in their particular area of expertise.

I write my own blog about leadership, in addition to following blogs from others about leadership.  Since I review leadership blogs on a weekly basis, I decided to highlight five leadership blog posts that discuss relevant leadership topics. Each of the bloggers is an independent blogger that doesn’t represent a company or other organization.

The Difference Between Management And Leadership by Bret L. Simmons

In the new chapter to the paperback edition of his book, Good Boss, Bad Boss, Bob Sutton asserts that there is a difference between management and leadership, but focusing on it is dangerous (p, 263). He concurs as I do with Warren Bennis that “managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing.” Bob thinks this distinction is accurate; however, focusing on it is dangerous.

Brandon’s Thoughts
This is a great blog that explains some of the differences between managers and leaders.  Leaders need to look at the big picture of the organization and identify the direction they want the organization to go, while at the same time maintaining humility and the ability to do the important core roles and responsibilities of the company in their day to day roles.  Leaders must also pursue education through all facets of their career no matter what their current responsibilities are. [Read more…] about This Week’s Top 5 Leadership Posts