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This Week’s Top 5 Leadership Blog Posts

By Brandon W. Jones on May 2, 2012 0

As leaders, there is a lot you can learn from the examples of others. The top 5 leadership blog posts address several aspects of leadership that will help you to be a better leader. The topics covered are: 1) Focus on your strengths. 2) Understand the timeliness of your message. 3) Be somewhat transparent when it comes to succession or you will lose you qualified resources. 4) Know the politics within your organization and have an in. 5) Expect the best from your subordinates to stretch them.

Great Work is Hard Work by Wally Bock

The best description of a restaurant business model I’ve ever heard came from Mario Batali:

“We buy food. We fix it up. And we sell it at a profit.”

Most businesses are just that simple. And in the most successful companies, there are people who are excited about and concentrating on the core business, whatever their company equivalent is to buying food and fixing it up.

[…] Like great companies, great business teams are excited about the work they do. Foster excitement in the work. Revel in it.

Brandon’s Thoughts
In leadership you need to focus on your core strengths. It can be easy to focus on the new trend or fad and get away from your core competencies, but as you do that, you can slowly alienate your core customers. It is very important to stay relevant by changing to keep up with your competition, but you must keep your core values. [Read more…] about This Week’s Top 5 Leadership Blog Posts

This Week’s Leadership Fav Five!

By Brandon W. Jones on April 26, 2012 0

A great way to improve your leadership skills and abilities is to study and then practice leadership. In the last few months, I have worked really hard to study and learn better leadership skills through reading leadership books and blogs. From there, I have done all I could to practice what I learned. This approach has helped me to improve my leadership abilities.

This week, the following blog posts were some of my favorites.

Four Strategies To Make Your Vision A Reality By Todd Nielsen

Vision, strategy, and goals are important …but they are not enough. One of the greatest challenges in business—and frankly, one of the greatest challenges in life—is doing the things necessary to make one’s vision a reality.

To ensure the realization of your vision, you need to set up structures and processes that act as guardrails to keep you from falling off the path.
1. Get Organized
2. Tracking And Measurement
3. Accountability
4. Rewards More…

Brandon’s Thought’s
This is a great post. It goes hand-in-hand with a post that I did the other day about vision. In leadership it is so important to have a vision! Todd’s steps to make your vision a reality are great. If you skip any one of the first three steps you will not reach your goals of obtaining your vision. [Read more…] about This Week’s Leadership Fav Five!

Leadership Succession – Who Will Take Over After Warren Buffett?

By Brandon W. Jones on April 23, 2012 0

Recently, Warren Buffett announced that he has prostate cancer. “The disease was detected early, and the 81-year-old Mr. Buffett is otherwise in excellent health. His prognosis is good.” This diagnosis brought up many questions regarding what will happen to Berkshire Hathaway after Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett has been at the helm since 1963.

In the Wall Street Journal article, And Buffett’s Successor Is…, Jason Zweig explained, “But the news brought renewed attention to the question of who ultimately will succeed him. […] He has said the members of Berkshire’s board have chosen a successor whom they know and admire, as well as two backups.”

He went on to explain, “Yet he hasn’t disclosed the successor’s identity—even to the chosen person. Nor would he reveal anything during my brief conversation with him this past week. Publicly naming his successor wouldn’t just make it hard for Berkshire to change its mind later if circumstances warrant; it would demoralize the two backup choices and make them more prone to poaching by competitors.”

Warren Buffett’s momentary health scare brought to light the importance of having a leadership succession plan. Do you have a succession plan for your organization? Do you know who will replace you or the other leaders within your organization once you are gone?

The Why Of Leadership Succession Planning

As leaders, it is very important to set up a leadership succession plan for your organization because it allows you to get the right people in place prior to unforeseen personnel changes. When people retire, quit, get promoted, or move to another position, a succession plan allows you to have someone ready to take their place. The leadership succession plan allows you to groom someone to step in when someone leaves by preparing them for the responsibilities of the future position. [Read more…] about Leadership Succession – Who Will Take Over After Warren Buffett?

Was It A Good Leadership Decision For Yahoo’s New CEO To Have Layoffs?

By Brandon W. Jones on April 18, 2012 3

Scott Thompson, the new Yahoo CEO, held a conference call yesterday to report the first quarter earnings. He became the CEO in January, so it was his first time reviewing quarterly earnings with the shareholders. Since Scott Thompson took over, Yahoo’s stock value has lost 7% of its value. Yahoo, however, was struggling even before Scott became the CEO. Since he took over, Yahoo has not improved and continues to fall behind their competition. He is now being labeled as a struggling CEO.

Yahoo has many companies that are branches of their core business. Under Scott Thompson’s leadership, Yahoo will be shutting down or “transitioning” about 50 Web properties. In addition, Scott’s significant measures to reduce costs included his announcement earlier this month that Yahoo plans to layoff 2,000 employees. Yahoo also plans to have additional layoffs at some point in the near future. At the same time, when Scott Thompson became CEO, he was given the possibility of making $26 million this year if he performs well.

Weekly Top 5 Leadership Posts

By Brandon W. Jones on April 12, 2012 8

Each week there are new leadership challenges that every leader faces. They face challenges to succeed and produce desired results for their clients and superiors. Because the demands are so strong, I am always looking at ways to do things better and more effectively. The weekly top 5 leadership posts below give pointers on how to help you, as the leader, succeed in addition to your followers.

How To Choose Not To Be Offended by Jeremy Statton

Has anyone ever offended you?

Reasons to find offense surround us. Bosses. Employees. Presidential candidates. Religions. Kentucky Wildcat fans.

Offense seems to be an obligation. A natural response to someone else. When we see things that we do not like, we feel we have no choice but to become upset. And express it adamantly.

We view our response as outside of our hands. We are only reacting to others.

Brandon’s Thoughts
When you choose to be offended you must understand that it is a choice within your control. No one can force you to be offended. As leaders, you should grow tough skin and be willing to take criticism. If you get offended every time you receive criticism, you are not cut out for leadership. Leaders must take criticism as an opportunity to learn from past experiences. [Read more…] about Weekly Top 5 Leadership Posts

This Week’s Fav Five Leadership Posts

By Brandon W. Jones on April 5, 2012 6

Each week I have a hard time finding the fav five posts because their are so many good leadership blogs. I feel I am only just beginning to see the number of good blogs out there. Here are the top five leadership blog posts I found this week.

Lessons From a Failure in Leadership by Gwyn Teatro

Burton Winters was a typical fourteen-year-old living with his parents in Makkovik, Labrador. Winter weather makes snow mobile driving a necessity there and, like most of the boys in his community, Burton was an experienced driver. One afternoon in February, he set out on his machine to visit his grandmother.

He didn’t make it home.

Somehow, in the dark and harsh weather, Burton missed a crucial turning and lost his bearings. Instead of going towards home, he and his machine headed out many miles onto the sea ice. Eventually, the machine became stuck and Burton continued on foot for another nineteen kilometres, all in the wrong direction. More…

Brandon’s Thoughts
In order to get the full understanding of the post, you need to read it because Gwyn tells a story and then explains the leadership lessons that came from what occurred. The post brings home the importance of making correct decisions as a leader. In line with what Gwyn said, I agree that leaders need to be willing to make the tough decisions in the face of adversity. They need to know and remember why they chose to be a leader. For leadership to be done right you must stand on your principles even when it isn’t easy. [Read more…] about This Week’s Fav Five Leadership Posts

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