Do you remember who your childhood heroes were? What did you like about them? What qualities did they have that made you look up to them? What did the heroes do to gain your trust or support? In today’s world everyone wants to have a hero and be a hero.
When I think of my heroes I think of people like my parents, grandparents, Steve Young, Jerry Rice,
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: bad decisions, childhood heroes, good character, personal role, ronald reagan, steve young
Over the last little while I have watched a lot of what has been going on in the republican primary elections. Each candidate has their own set of strengths and weaknesses. With this election, as is common with every other election, each candidate focuses on reasons why he/she is the best candidate for the position. One thing most candidates agree on is that America has always been known as a country where people come because they want to be successful. With that in mind, why are Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum saying that Mitt Romney is less qualified to be President of the United States because he was successful?
Great leadership is carried out when the leader brings out the best in people. All other things equal, the leader helps the entire group, company, or organization to be successful.
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Want a free iPad? Want a free laptop? You deserve the good things in life! You are entitled to the best because if anyone deserves it, you do. In the past few years, I have heard more and more people arguing that they are entitled to things. People claim entitlement for everything you can think of ranging from government support to jobs to the best entertainment. There is a major trend of people feeling they deserve free things like iPods, iPhones, computers, laptops, TVs, etc. There are so many people that feel they deserve the good things in life without putting forth the hard work and effort required to obtain them.
What’s worse is that people feel that, just because they breathe air, the world owes them the very best. Entitlement is the idea of getting Read More…
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Today I received an email requesting information on how to get your foot in the door. Every leader out there started by getting their foot in the door. In today’s economic climate, this is a very valid question. Today’s economy is as bad as it has ever been in my lifetime and there are so many people that are fighting to get a job. That being said, there are many opportunities for employment out there for those willing to work hard. I regularly see jobs posted on job boards looking for qualified candidates. One major challenge to getting the job is getting your foot in the door. How can you get your foot in the door when there is so much competition? How can you stand out amongst all the other very qualified people also applying?
Whether you are in college, underemployed, unemployed, or just looking for a new position, there is a lot you can do to stand out. Understanding how difficult it is to stand out in this climate, I have four suggestions to stand out.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: best effort, best foot, economic climate, industry employers, unemployed work, valid question
Several years ago, I learned a very valuable leadership lesson from my mom. We were having a discussion about different people. At the time, I was very frustrated because some one I knew had done something that didn’t make sense to me. I had thought through the whole situation before I came to that conclusion and their actions just didn’t make sense. My mom heard my frustrations and said, “Brandon, some people just don’t think the same way you think.” She then went on to explain that each person has a completely different upbringing and background so they think differently. That, in some ways, was a turning point in my life. She helped me to understand the importance of trying to see things through other people’s eyes.
In leadership it is very important to see things from the other person’s point of view. Whether you are talking to your employees, people in other departments, or your management team, you must know Read More…
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: background story, frustrations, stresses, understanding others, upbringing, work experience
As my blog post the other day stated, I have been out of the blogosphere for the last little while because of a job transfer. It is very interesting how everything came about.
Have you ever had an experience that you felt happened because it was meant to happen that way? That is exactly what happened with my recent job transfer. Leading up to my new position I had gone through a number of set backs. I had applied for three other supervisor positions in my company but was not the successful candidate. At that point I was beginning to get discouraged. After earning my MBA, I was hoping to progress to the next level.
In August 2011, I noticed that another new supervisor position had been posted. After applying for three other positions in a short time and not being the successful candidate, I wasn’t sure I wanted to apply again right away. Read More…
As the Iowa caucus came to a close the results were so close that only eight votes separated the top two candidates. It was the closest presidential GOP contest in U.S. history and Mitt Romney came out as the winner. The close finish made me ask questions about what factors led to the resulting eight vote difference. Because it is politics, there were many factors that led to a close finish, but I am going to look at just a few that relate to leadership.
To understand the leadership implications, we must first look at the background. In 2008, Mitt Romney was the runner-up in the Iowa republican caucus. Since then, he has maintained a high level of support with relatively minimal effort. Because of this support, he did a limited amount of campaigning until the last three weeks prior to the caucus. On the other hand, Rick Santorum spent a lot of time and effort doing door-to-door campaigning. Santorum had a lot of people on the ground representing him. Read More…
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: iowa caucus, iowa republican, leadership lessons, mitt romney, republican caucus, rick santorum
Over the last little while I have been completely out of the blogosphere. In October, I received a job promotion with my current employer and moved from Northern Nevada to Southern California. I was promoted from a design engineer to a supervisor over engineering.
The whole process of moving and getting situated in a new location has been very time consuming. It has taken a lot of time to figure out my new routine and how to effectively use my time to get everything done that I did in the past. Overall, it has been a great learning experience. It has challenged both my family and myself but through it we have learned a lot and grown closer together as a family.
During this transition period, I have not kept up on my blog. I am now situated and plan to resume blogging regularly. I am already in the process of writing another post that be up shortly. Thank you to all you who follow me regularly.
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Within the business world each person has to continuously make choices related to ethics. It is an everyday part of life. In many fields ranging from the practice of law to engineering services there are codes of ethics to which people must adhere. In order to receive the professional license in a given field, individuals must sign the code stating they are willing to abide by its ethical standards. As part of the codes, they state how people should and should not behave on matters of ethics. They also state in many cases that a failure to adhere to the code will result in the revocation of the license.
As important as ethics are, there is no business code of ethics that must be signed in order to enter management. In order to be a manager, one does not have to sign a paper stating they will follow specific standards for the rest of their career. There is not a code of ethics for managers that must be signed prior to entering the management arena. Although most corporations have their own set of company policies and procedures, there is not a set standard through the business world.
In the past few years, there have been several scandals that have come to light where CEOs or other high ranking officials in the business world have been caught doing things that most people consider to be unethical.
Should leaders be held to an ethical code of conduct that they would have to sign? What should be on the code of ethics? What should the penalties be for not following the code of ethics?
Please give me your feedback in my comments section below. I will be using your feedback for future posts.
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Every job has a specific title whether it is an entry level position or the CEO. So what does each title mean? Does the title give an accurate measure of the value of an employee? Titles are sometimes very good, but at the same time they can be very deceiving.
I recently spoke to a friend of mine that we’ll call Brad. He has a specific title within his company. At his company, each employee that starts out in his position has to work their way from step 1 to step 3 where they are then considered for management. Brad has been in his step 2 position for the same length of time and has the same responsibilities as step 3 employees. He also has the same amount of experience on high profile projects as the step 3 employees.
Read More…
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Welcome to my blog! You are here to learn how to become a great leader. Great leaders change themselves first and then change their environment and those they lead.
Brandon W. Jones 