Leadership Done Right

Brandon W. Jones

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Continue Learning And Be A Teachable Leader

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A Study On Learning

Recently, I read an article from the 1990’s era Harvard Business review titled Teaching Smart People How to Learn by Chris Argyris that focused on learning in a corporate environment. In the article, Chris explained that the smartest or most educated people within an organization are the hardest ones to teach within the corporate environment. He also explained that those same people, when put in the academic environment, are very teachable and are very good at learning.

Chris identified that, within the organizations, the leaders generally have the highest level of education. He found that many leaders, when asked to look within themselves for areas of improvement, were very reluctant. They, in turn, found faults and reasons for failure in others. Often, they stopped learning and began playing the blame game.

Understand the importance of continual learning

What Does The Study Mean Today?

Even though Chris Argyris wrote this article several years ago, there is still a lot that we can learn from it today. There are two reasons why educated leaders become less teachable in the corporate environment compared to the academic environment. [Read more…] about Continue Learning And Be A Teachable Leader

This Week’s Top 5 Leadership Posts – 5/9/2012

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This week’s top five leadership posts will help motivate you to be a better leader.  The leadership posts have a lot of good content that you can use to improve your leadership abilities.  The topics of this week’s posts are learning from mistakes, living out your dreams, obstacles that get in the way of change, the importance of thanking your team, and accomplishing your goals.  I hope you enjoy!

The Top 5 Mistakes Leaders Make by Beth Armknecht Miller

Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of leaders many who have displayed specific leadership shortfalls, that when improved, have had a positive impact on the effectiveness and profitability of the organization. Both new and experienced manager/leaders can make these top five mistakes; which one is your Achilles heel? And what is your plan to improve?

  1. Focusing on the urgent and not the important
  2. Lack of consistent communication
  3. Ineffective feedback
  4. Failing to define clear goals
  5. Misunderstanding motivation

Brandon’s Thoughts
I really like the points that Beth made.  It is very important to not fall prey to any of these pitfalls.  As a leader, it is so important to regularly evaluate your performance and identify what works well and what does not.  As you do that, you will avoid the mistakes other people had to painstakingly go through. [Read more…] about This Week’s Top 5 Leadership Posts – 5/9/2012

The Glue That Binds Strong Teams

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One of the best leaders I had while growing up was my youth-group leader. He was a very kind and loving person and taught me about the glue that binds strong teams.  His position as a leader was not for pay or any other form of monetary gain.  It was a non-profit volunteer position.  One of his greatest qualities was his ability to build strong teams and relationships with those he led.

Strong Teams and Relationships

The way he built strong teams and relationships was that he cared for my peers and me as if we were his own children.  He spent time talking to my peers and me about whatever we wanted to talk about.  He never had his own agenda and never tried to force us to do anything.

On weeknights when we had activities, he would just be “one of the guys” in the sense that as our leader he would never judge us.  He would just be our friend.  Another aspect from being “one of the guys” and our loving leader, was that he was always very concerned about our well-being.

If one of the guys in the group had a rough day or week, he would see their distress and take all the guys out for ice cream.  While getting ice cream, he would take a moment to ask how things were going.  He would show the distressed individual an added measure of love and understanding. [Read more…] about The Glue That Binds Strong Teams

Strategies of Effective New Product Team Leaders

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There are many important factors that must be followed by product team leaders for the team to be successful. One important factor is that the system be set up so leaders and team members work together. In addition, for the team to be successful it is essential that the team members be allowed to make decisions for their specific responsibilities.

Strategies of Effective New Product Team Leaders

Product Team Leaders

I have been involved in many different team projects in school as well as in the work force and there is a significant difference in the outcome of the project depending on the role of the leader. There are two types of leaders that I have seem and worked with: the leaders that stand back and tell others what to do while not getting involved themselves and the leaders that jump in and get just as involved as the team members.

The leaders that get involved know exactly what the team members are going through and they are a strong support to the team. The uninvolved leaders are less able to gain the respect and love of the team members. The team members also begin to have the feeling of us versus them with management.

Successful Teams

The other important factor to having a successful team that I want to highlight is that team members must be allowed to make decisions over their responsibilities. In a system where team members always have to request permission to make a decision, the team members don’t feel as much confidence in themselves or their work. They also are not as diligent in coming to the best conclusion they can because they feel their leader will either override their decision or take the decision and modify it. Either approach is detrimental to the overall production of the company.

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