Leadership Done Right

Brandon W. Jones

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Four Lessons From A CEO

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I love learning lessons from a CEO.  I am a younger leader, but have been a leader in different capacities for many years.  Through my time in leadership, I have always been fascinated by CEOs because they have reached the top leadership position in their organization.  There are many lessons from a CEO that you can learn as you review their behavior and responses to different actions.

A few years ago I read a case study about Gary Loveman and his transition as the CEO of Harrah’s.  The case study explained that he went from being a college professor to the CEO of a large organization without a long history of leadership.  When he joined Harrah’s, he started out as the COO and then became the CEO after five years.  This case study helped me learn lessons from a CEO.

Lessons From A CEO

Four Lessons From A CEO

Gary Loveman changed the system at Harrah’s.  He changed the system because of the person he was and the approach he took to leadership. There were four lessons from a CEO that we can learn from his success.
1. He gained credibility with the employees/management team.
2. He worked to understand the existing system
3. He had high expectations.
4. He led by example.

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How To Set SMART Goals

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I feel to invite everyone to rise to the great potential within you.  I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity, I hope you will not nag yourselves with thoughts of failure.  I hope you will not try to set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve.  I hope you will simply do what you can do in the best way you know.  If you do so, you will witness miracles come to pass.  ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

I really like the above quote.  For goals to be worthwhile, they must be SMART goals.  Each year I set SMART goals for myself and my employees.  The SMART goals range from personal and team development goals to process improvement goals.  When I set those goals, I make sure that they are not easy to accomplish.  At the same time, they are not goals that are far beyond reach and/or unrealistic.

So, what are SMART Goals?

The word “SMART” in SMART goals is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.  For a goal to be a SMART goal, it must meet the following criteria.

Are you setting SMART goals

Specific Goals

It is very important to set very specific goals.  It is easy to set a lofty, “up in the air” goal that cannot be  understood.  A goal that is not specific and “up in the air” is ambiguous and leads to confusion.  An example of this type of goal would be to say, “We want to make the organization better this year.”  How will you make the organization better?  What changes will you make?  How can you know if you reached your goal if you don’t know what your goal is?

Specific goals explain exactly what you want to do and how you are going to do it.  In line with the goal mentioned above, what will you do to make the organization better?  Will you increase profit by 20%?  If so, how will you increase the profit by 20%?  A specific goals would sound more like, “This year we will increase the profit by 20% by eliminating down time between shifts.”  From there you would set specific subgoals that would break down how you would eliminate the down time.  Each goal would be very specific. [Read more…] about How To Set SMART Goals

This Week’s Top Five Leadership Posts – 10/3/2012

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Over the past few months I have not posted about my top five weekly leadership posts. I have missed writing these posts because I really enjoyed writing them and I think that my readers enjoyed them as well. This week the posts I selected covered a wide range of topics ranging from the importance of humor in the workplace to succession planning for the success of your organization. Each of the posts discusses a different aspect of leadership that must be considered as you lead.

Become The Best Leader By Being Funny And Being Humiliated by Bhavin Gandhi

Over the years, I have learned a lot about leadership and management. And when I was analyzing my knowledge, I realized that there are only two very important characteristics of a good leader, which separates him/her from the crowd. In this blog, I will focus on these two characteristics, which can make you the best leader.

Be funny: By being funny, I don’t mean that you need to be a superstar at the break room discussions. What I mean is……..you need to have a humorous side of you to laugh on your mistakes. More…

Rare Wisdom from Citrix CEO Mark Templeton about Hiearchy and Respect by Bob Sutton

I confess that as an avid reader of The New York Times, I have been disappointed in recent years because they devote too much space to interviews with CEOs and other bosses. Notably, it seems to me that they run the same column twice every Sunday: Adam Bryant’s “The Corner Office” and another interview column called “The Boss.” I do love many of these interviews anyway, as The Times gets interesting people and their editing makes things better. And I am a big fan of Adam Bryant’s book, The Corner Office, as it did a great job of transcending the column. What bugs me, however, is that The Times devotes so much of the paper to interviews now, I suspect, because it is simply cheaper than producing hard-hitting investigative journalism. They do an occasional amazing in-depth story, but there is too much fluff and not enough tough for my tastes.

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What Would You Do As A New CEO?

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Over the last few months, I’ve followed Yahoo’s CEO situation. In January, Yahoo hired Scott Thompson. While he was the CEO, he made major spending cuts and laid of many people as an attempt to bring the company back from financial woes. His approach demotivated the company and created tension between him and the employees. It didn’t take long for his approach to get noticed by the board of directors. In May, Scott was terminated as the CEO as a result of his leadership style and some integrity issues that were brought to light.

What Would You Do As A New CEO?

Following Scott Thompson’s firing, Ross Levinsohn took over as the interim CEO. Ross Levinsohn continued some of the initiatives that Scott Thompson started. Since he was only the interim CEO, he was replaced by Marissa Mayer in the end of July. [Read more…] about What Would You Do As A New CEO?

Maintaining Integrity As A Leader

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No family can have peace, no home can be free from storms of adversity, unless that family and that home are built on foundations of morality, fidelity, and mutual respect.  There cannot be peace where there is not trust; there cannot be freedom where there is not loyalty.  The warm sunlight of love will not rise out of a swamp or immorality.

~ Gordon B. Hinckley

This quote is one of my favorite quotes.  Many, if not all, of the values I hold dear were taught to me by my parents in the home.  My parents were great examples to me.  My parents taught me the importance of having mutual respect and trust for each other.  That trust and respect permeated their relationship and helped them remain strong through the challenges of life and marriage.  My parents have now been married for 36 years.

Maintaining Integrity As A Leader

Integrity

They also taught me that I must have integrity and be honest in all I do.  In addition to teaching through their words, they also taught through their actions.  They were great examples of honesty and integrity in all they did. [Read more…] about Maintaining Integrity As A Leader

Five Of My Favorite Leadership Bloggers

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I follow many other leadership blogs on a regular basis and have my favorite leadership bloggers. As I read the posts, I learn a lot about how to be a better leader.  The posts help me learn leadership techniques I can use to improve my skills and abilities.  They also show me techniques that have worked, as well as, those that haven’t.

So you are probably asking yourself, “What bloggers do you follow regularly?”  Because I follow too many bloggers to share on one post, I will just start with five in this post.  I am not going to name them in any particular order.

Bret L. Simmons (PhD) – Positive Organizational Behavior

Bret’s About me page says, “I am passionate about leadership and management.  My purpose is “to change your mind about the value of partnering with others to build healthy, responsible organizations where everyone can thrive.” I try to keep everything I do — training, speaking, teaching, research — consistent with my purpose.”

Bret does a great job showing how leadership principles taught in the classroom apply to real life. He regularly explains how leaders can and should do a better job to make their organizations more effective.  He also spends a lot of time focusing on everyday interactions that have a significant impact on the level of customer satisfaction.  As he addresses them, he points out the good things that have happened as well as the bad things.  From there, he analyzes what they did right and what they did wrong. [Read more…] about Five Of My Favorite Leadership Bloggers