Weaknesses

10 Easy Steps To Become a Better Leader Today

By Brandon W. Jones on June 9, 2017 0

If your goal is to become a better leader today, you have come to the right post! This post focuses on 10 easy steps you can start taking right now to become a better leader.

1. Know/Learn Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Many good leaders know some of their strengths and weaknesses, but the best leaders have an intimate knowledge of them. They know exactly what skills, habits, and attributes they possess that allow them to get the most bang for their buck. When you know your own strengths and weaknesses, you can leverage your strengths and hire others to handle tasks related to your weaknesses.

So how can you come to know your strengths and weaknesses? There are many things you can do to identify your strengths and weaknesses. You can write a list of what you do well and what is challenging for you. You can also take a self assessment that looks at your strengths and your weaknesses. My favorite self-assessment tool is found in the book called Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath.

2. Surround Yourself With Great People

Great leaders surround themselves with great people. They get great people to do many things for them. For example, some include:

Subject matter experts to oversee groups or projects they either don’t have time to address or are outside their area of expertise
Other team members on your work team
Business/financial consultants to help them make good personal and business financial decisions
Mentors/coaches that can help them learn and grow as a leader
Good friends that will tell them what they need to hear to grow at the time they need to hear it

This list is just a small sample of the great people with which leaders surround themselves. The key is putting people in your life that will have a positive impact on you and help you to be your best self. If you are wanting to grow as a leader, it is very important to find and put people around you that will help you reach those goals.

3. Increase Your Knowledge

To increase your knowledge there are many things you can do. You can read books about leadership, specific leaders that have gone through challenges and overcome them, self development, or books that explain leaders failures so you can learn from their mistakes. There are many different aspects of leadership that you can learn from books.

In addition to books, there are many other steps you can take to learn more about leadership. You can enroll in classes that focus on improving leadership, organizational behavior, and/or interpersonal interactions. There’s also classes that focus on your specific business or your chosen profession.

Additionally, you can take these classes online, at your local university or community college, or through adult education classes offered in your community.

In addition to books and classes you can also learn about leadership through Podcasts, blog posts, YouTube channels, leadership forums, and many other outlets. What’s most important is that you seek learning to become a better leader. The best leaders are always doing everything they can to learn. [Read more…] about 10 Easy Steps To Become a Better Leader Today

3 Steps To Improve Your Leadership Assets

By Brandon W. Jones on December 15, 2014 0

In leadership, each leader has their own set of leadership assets or strengths and liabilities or weaknesses. As a leader, you have probably mastered the art of focusing and enhancing your leadership assets. You have probably figured out how to have a quiet confidence when you present yourself to others. This is a skill that comes natural to some and must be learned by others. If you are struggling to find your leadership assets, here are a few things you can do to enhance your leadership assets.

1. Focus on the positive.

It can be very easy to get caught up in thinking you are too old, too young, too inexperienced, too experienced, etc. Each of these qualities can be looked at as weaknesses while at the same time they can be made into leadership assets.

For example, rather than thinking you are too inexperienced for a position, you can take the approach that you are not set in your ways like others with more experience. Another example is that instead of thinking of yourself as being too old or experienced, you can take the approach that you have many experiences that will benefit your team so they don’t make the same mistakes again. One key to leveraging your leadership assets is to think of what you bring to the table and look at the positives that come with it.

2. Strengthen your weaknesses.

I have heard multiple outlooks on how much you should focus on your strengths versus your weaknesses. Some people say that you shouldn’t spend any time on strengthening your weaknesses because you should focus solely on magnifying your strengths. The people with this approach believe that if you focus on your weaknesses, you limit your ability to magnify your strengths which just helps you to be more average. On the flip side, there are people that think you should spend all your time on your weaknesses so you are good at everything.

5 Steps to Be Prepared For Your Moment

By Brandon W. Jones on October 7, 2014 0

When you have a desire to be a leader, it is important to be prepared for your moment to come. Every great leader had to go through many experiences before they were the great leader.

How to Be Prepared

In order to be prepared for your moment to come, you must take the right preparatory steps. You can’t just show up and expect to be ready without going through the necessary preparation. The following five steps indicate things you can do to be prepared for your moment.

1. Identify your Strengths and Weaknesses

Before you know how to improve, you must know where you need improvement. You can know where to improve by identifying your strengths and weaknesses. There are several books and even tests that specifically address how to find your strengths. Some of the top rated strength finder books are: [Read more…] about 5 Steps to Be Prepared For Your Moment

The Winning Strategy To Make The Right Choice

By Brandon W. Jones on February 10, 2014 0

This is a guest post by Melisa Marsett. She is a young, though talented writer. Melisa mainly works on such topics as leadership, psychology, and business. Her works can also be found at http://cleverpaperwritingservices.com/. It is easy to get more information about this author at Google+

How many decisions do we make during the day? Ten? Twenty? One hundred? We make decisions every minute. No matter how usual and standard our actions seem to be, all of them are the products of our choice. The only difference is that most of our solutions are spontaneous and random. Nonrandom connected with intellectual efforts are taken not that often.

In business, just as in life, we constantly have to make decisions, and in most cases this necessity is quite unexpected. What helps us in these situations? How to make the right choice? How to find the right way? A wise man says that when you do not know which decision to take, flip a nickel and see what you get. If you are satisfied with the result, then so be it. If you feel doubts, choose another option.

We have to admit that ready-made recipes for all occasions do not exist, and each person has the freedom to choose. But it is unlikely that you will put mineral oil into the engine of an expensive car. It is doubtful that you put on your favorite track suit to go to a business dinner or social events. There are certain principles and rules based on knowledge, which are shared by most people. At the same time, everyone has the freedom of choice – what kind of oil to use or what to wear. Thus, your real choice is based on the actual situation, capabilities, preferences and, of course, common sense.

And how do we make difficult decisions? Do we take into account all possible options? Do we listen to our inner voice? Do we consider rational factors, or rely on intuition? [Read more…] about The Winning Strategy To Make The Right Choice

Practice Makes Perfect, Or Does It?

By Brandon W. Jones on November 5, 2012 0

When I was in high school I had a great wrestling coach that coached a lot of champions. He was an excellent coach because he knew how to bring the best out of people. My coach had a long history of doing well as a coach. The teams he coached placed in the top four in the state nearly every year. When I started wrestling my freshman year, I was brand new to wrestling. I didn’t have any experience as a wrestler and about half the other wrestlers didn’t have experience either. We were completely new and fresh to wrestling.

Because we were all new to wrestling, my coach had to start out by teaching us the basics. Once he taught us what to do, he made us practice it over and over again. We did repetition after repetition until we were completely warn out. With each repetition we did, our coach watched us very closely. When he saw us do something wrong, he would tell us to do it over again and do it the right way. As he corrected us each time, he taught us a valuable lesson. There is an old saying that, “Practice makes perfect,” but that is false. If you practice the wrong thing over and over again, you will still do it wrong. When you practice something over and over again, you make it into a habit. You cement it into how you do things and it becomes second nature for you to do it again. [Read more…] about Practice Makes Perfect, Or Does It?

Make the Performance Review a Positive Experience

By Brandon W. Jones on March 23, 2011 0

Each year most employers give their employees an annual performance review. One complaint I have with many leaders is that they save up all they negative feedback for the annual review. This is very inappropriate. The annual performance review should be a time of reflection on the past year, not a gripe session. The annual performance review is a time for leaders to do three things.

Give Constructive Criticism

It is important for leaders to point out strengths of their employees prior to giving any criticism. Once the strengths have been discussed, leaders can identify areas of weakness within their employees. Once the weakness has been discussed, the leader should give the employees suggestions on how to improve and overcome their weakness. If the leader does not give suggestions for improvement, the employee will feel less valued. [Read more…] about Make the Performance Review a Positive Experience