Brandon W. Jones

All leaders need to have a certain amount of support to be successful.  Without the support of friends, family, and coworkers, it is much harder to succeed.  Their support helps to buoy you up when life gets you down.  The support they give comes as they give encouragement and support through the hard times, as well as, the good times.

Through the entire MBA program I had complete support from my wife.  There were many times that I had to spend long hours at school and only saw her as I got home and got ready for bed.  She was always there to help me through the hard times by giving me encouragement and support.

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Recently, I’ve had a much harder time posting blogs and keeping up-to-date on social media.  For those of you that wondered what happened, I just finished the Master’s in Business Administration program at the University of Nevada – Reno.  The last month of class and finals was very intense and required all my efforts.  Now that I am completely done, I should have more time to blog.

One leadership topic that comes up all the time is the importance of setting and accomplishing goals.  Goals are very important because they give us direction in life.  They set us on a path that leads to future accomplishments.  As a part of setting goals, one aspect rarely discussed is what to do upon completion of the particular goal.  After you accomplish a major goal, you may experience a let-down period.  After working hard for a long time, you may wonder what to do with yourself.  Once you complete a goal, there are three things you can do to move forward. 

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Right now I am in the early stages of parenthood.  My wife and I have a young girl.  As a parent, we have found that an effective tool in getting our little girl to behave is to give her short and quick “timeouts”.  When she begins to misbehave or act out, we will put her into a timeout.  The timeout is never for very long, but it is just enough to get her back on track.

Timeouts are very helpful for leaders.  They give leaders a chance to regroup and figure out how they want to move forward.  Timeouts are also very helpful when leaders get very busy, over-occupied, Read More…

Lately, I have thought a lot about hiring new leaders.  What is more important:  someone with extensive job specific knowledge or someone with previous leadership experience?  When hiring a new person, the ideal situation would be to hire someone with both extensive job specific knowledge and previous leadership experience.  However, this is not always possible.  What do you do then?

Well first let’s look at what characteristics the two types bring to the table. 

Extensive Job Specific Knowledge The person with extensive job specific knowledge knows the ins and outs of the existing working environment.  They know what has worked well in the past and what hasn’t.  They also know how to deal with people specific to the working environment.  All these aspects create a foundation from which they can lead. 

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The three points that had the greatest impact on me from the book Leading with Integrity were globalization and technology, servant leadership and competence, and teaching character.  Each of these sections is very relevant.

Globalization and Technology  In today’s world the use of technology and globalization is growing faster and faster each day.  Technology is becoming more globalized with the continued innovation that is taking place in many countries throughout the world. Companies are gradually becoming more globalized by outsourcing work to other countries where they find the cheapest labor. Companies are building warehouses at offshore locations and then setting up telecommunication systems to be able to conference call from one location to another.  As the book points out, the number of overseas phone calls is drastically increasing.

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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 review should be a time of reflection on the past year, not a gripe session. The annual 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.

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As a leader you will be questioned on what you believe in, and why.  Prior to having these questions you should define the answers for yourself, so you are prepared when the questions are asked.  The responses you give will define you as a leader.  If your answers are firm and strong, your followers will have confidence in you.  As you show your confidence in your beliefs, your followers will also feel confident in your responses towards work related issues. 
 
To define your beliefs, you should focus on specific areas. This defining process may require deep reflection on who you are and what you stand for.  The following areas are areas that your employees will question.
 
Religion Although religion is sometimes a touchy issue in the workplace, it will inevitably come up from time to time.  You must know where you stand and what you believe in.
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Have you ever wondered what the difference is between leadership and management?  There is a big difference.  “Managers figure out what they want done and get people to do it.  Managers try to get people to do what they did yesterday, but a little faster and a little cheaper with a few less defects.”  That is not leadership.

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Leaders do so much more for organizations.  Leaders create a vision that takes the organization in a new direction.  Their vision leads change, improvement, and ultimately success.

What do you think it takes to be a great leader?

Over the last few weeks I have not been able to blog as frequently.  I am in my final semester of the MBA program at University of Nevada – Reno.  During the last two weeks I had midterms.  Life was very hectic as I studied a lot to prepare for the tests.  As I studied I learned a lot from the class material, but what was even more valuable was that my tests forced me to stretch myself.  As I pushed myself, I realized I was able to do more than I thought.

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