Leadership Done Right

Brandon W. Jones

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How To Make Technology A Smart Investment

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Have you gotten the latest iPad, tablet, or smartphone? Have you upgraded to the newest operating system yet? What technology do you use at your company? Technology is a very valuable tool when used properly and at the right time. On the flip side, however, when technology is not used at the right time it can be destructive for any company or organization. The key is making technology a smart investment.

Making Technology a Smart Investment

All new investments start and end with leadership. As leaders, you must invest wisely in technology so your company is successful and maintains stability. I would like to suggest three factors to consider when investing in technology so that you make technology a smart investment.

1. How does it effect productivity?

First and foremost, leaders must look at the productivity of a particular piece of technology. How much will the technology increase productivity? Will it eliminate the need for other resources? If the technology will increase the productivity of the group than it may be worth the investment. As part of productivity, sometimes it is important to invest in technology just to s

2. Is it costly to implement?

If the increase in productivity is significant, then you must look at the cost of implementation. Will the cost prohibit the implementation? Are there going to be recurring costs associated with the technology? Are there high upfront costs with limited to no maintenance costs in the future? How long will you have to use the technology to recover your return on investment?

Technology can be a very significant investment, so you must carefully review all associated costs. Adopting a new technology cannot be something done in haste because it could cost you for many years. You must be very careful when investing in technology because if you make a wrong choice, it could put your company out of business.

3. Is the implementation timely?

When determining the timeline for the implementation of a new technology, you must look at the market and where other companies are going. If many other companies are investing in a particular type of technology, you may need to invest in it just to stay on pace with the competition. At the same time, if you are the very first company to invest there is a great risk. If the technology becomes big you will be able to capitalize on the fresh new market, but if it does not go big you may end up spending a lot of money on a failed product.

Each of these factors has a major bearing on the success of a new technology within a company, organization, or business. If you don’t think about productivity, cost, and timeliness of the implementation you could make a major mistake. You could end up getting into a situation that leads to failure.

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Characteristics of a Strategic Leader

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This is a guest post by John Kelly. He is a professional and experienced academic as well as article writer currently joined with Buy Essay Online. His core responsibility is to provide assistance and guidance to the students in preparing their academic task.

What Is Strategic Leadership Style?

Strategic leadership actually means employing strategy in the employee management. Generally the core strategy employed is to inspire and stimulate employees to take decisions and measures to ameliorate their prolific input into the organization. Strategy requires critical thinking as well as planning skills, whereas leadership motivates others to take the right measures. This is a model of management that trains and motivates workers to best prepare the organization to get success.

Characteristics of a Strategic Leader

Progressive Thinking

Strategic leaders are always looking forward and examining the current situation in terms of preparation for what may come for the entire business. One of the biggest parts of this style of leadership is awareness; however, it must be followed up with well planned action. These leaders are flexible and adjustable and also focus the business growth and expansion. In fact these leaders fulfill their responsibilities to get things done by training their workers to reflect on and act more efficiently to accomplish the best outcome for the business. [Read more…] about Characteristics of a Strategic Leader

Leadership Strategies to Enhance Employee Productivity

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This is a guest post by Dora Houston. Dora is currently working as an essay-writing specialist at bestdissertation.com, which is an online platform for getting best dissertations and other writing assistance. I am also providing aid to students on career possibilities and other academic success related topics. Besides, I enjoy writing about current trends and innovations in education, technology, motivation and traveling.

The questions that linger in my mind are, “Are all managers’ leaders?” and “Are all leaders Managers?” Managers deal with the planning, organizing, directing, hiring and coordination of activities in an organization. A leader on the other hand is one with a vision which is communicated to followers and will positively influence. The use of targets so as to achieve a specific goal or goals is it a motivating factor. Mostly managers will use targets but a leader will positively energize and motivate the followers so that they can meet the specific goal. When motivation is pegged to targets its intimidating which means then those employees will deliver for the fear of repercussion. On the other hand, a leader will increase productivity by motivating followers with a vision that relates to their own success making followers want to freely work towards the vision.

productivity

Where there is a leader, there are followers meaning that followers tend to observe what their leader does and emulate. Managers tend to use their title to get things done but a leader needs to be at the forefront and be hands on. This reminds me of a day I was in queuing in the banking hall to get my debit card renewed and there is a power glitch in the specific building. This resulted to some tension within the bank because it caused some delay which we could not understand. At that point, the bank manager came to where customers were queuing and started explaining the issue as well as trying to solve problems that may not necessarily require the use of the system. That’s my point; a leader must show the followers how to deal with issues and other challenges that come up time and time again. The follower feels the need to take up responsibility as the leader is doing. If the manager lacked leadership skills he would have been at the employees asking why this and that is not being done which forces employees to accomplish the task under duress which will result to less productivity. [Read more…] about Leadership Strategies to Enhance Employee Productivity

Why All Leaders Should Read The 4-Hour Workweek

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I recently finished reading the book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Expanded and Updated) by Timothy Ferriss. This book is amazing and has a lot of great tips for leaders.

Reading the title you may ask, “How can you be a great leader if you only work 4 hours a week?” Well, the principles you will learn from this book will help you to be a more focused and purposeful leader. Tim Ferriss teaches you things you can do to eliminate the fluff from your life so that you don’t spend time doing things that others could or should be doing and you will learn how to actively determine what is worth your time and what is not.

The 4-Hour Workweek

When I read this book there were many great lessons and pointers that will help me to be a better leader and be more successful in the future. Of all the great things I learned, there were five main points that will benefit leaders. Those points are:

1.  Define what you want out of life rather than your career.

As a leader, it is really easy to get caught up in seeking the next step of progress as you try to climb the corporate ladder. You can become so focused on the next promotion or advancement that you lose sight of why you are doing what you are doing. You should instead focus on what you want out of life, i.e. your personal, family, and educational goals, trips you would like to take, places you would like to see and things you would like to do.

When you focus on what you want out of life rather than a career, it is much easier to change your job or occupation to fit your life goals.  This approach allows you to be more successful as a leader because it causes you to think more deeply about what you spend your time doing.  If you are a leader and your heart isn’t in it, you probably won’t be the best leader you could be.  You will probably only be a half-hearted leader at best if your heart is in a different place. [Read more…] about Why All Leaders Should Read The 4-Hour Workweek

Be The Organized Leader

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Have you ever seen an office like the one below? How did it make you feel? Are you living in a situation where you are disorganized? It is very important to be an organized leader.  I have visited offices like the one above, but fortunately I have never let my own get quite so bad. When I walked out of offices like that, I felt like I needed to get some fresh air so I could breathe clearly again. When you are not an organized leader, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and lose focus. Sooner or later that leads to less productivity.

The Organized Leader

Recently, I began to feel like I was no longer an organized leader.  My office was becoming unorganized. I had too many stacks of papers on my desk and emails in my inbox. I felt like I was drowning. On Friday of that week, I decided to organize my desk and my emails. I set up folders for each project and got them arranged so I knew exactly where everything was. From there I went through my emails and identified which ones needed responses and which ones I could file. Once everything was filed, I made a list of all my priorities and their time line for completion. Being an organized leader helped me feel like I could breathe more clearly again.

Benefits From Being The Organized Leader

If you are unorganized, you will be challenged in many ways. As an organized leader you will find major benefits from your organization. The following three benefits will come as you become the organized leader.

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Get Rid of the Performance Review

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The main point in the article was that performance reviews are a waste of time and don’t promote progress within an organization. I agree with some of his points but disagree with others.

Get Rid of the Performance Review

Downfalls of the Performance Review

It is true that a performance review is completely ineffective when the boss doesn’t give the employee any specific targets/goals for performance. When the boss just does a performance review on abstract principles and not on concrete metrics, it is an ineffective performance review.

On the other hand, when an employee has a very specific job description with very specific tasks, such as a factory worker, a performance review can be very effective. When the employee has a set of responsibilities that are clearly outlined, it is very easy to do a performance evaluation. Either the employee completed their work or they didn’t and there isn’t much room for interpretation. For an evaluation system to be very effective, the metrics need to be very specific for both the evaluator and the person being evaluated.

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