Eyesight: A Practical Management Guide for New Leaders

By Don Jones

Leadership is fundamentally a tool for making a difference in the affairs of someone or something. Progress is the result. However, you are not afforded the opportunity to change anything externally without unlocking what’s embedded and preprogrammed within you. With that said, you have been exposed to many experiences in your life and career. We can’t un-experience what we have experienced just like we can’t unknow someone we’ve known. We often mimic someone else's behavior allowing ourselves to believe that we have grown as a leader .While on your journey to becoming an authentic leader, discover why you are where you are in the field of work you are currently doing. My question to you, is it because you needed a job or is it because you have a degree in that field of work? You must have insight, purpose and meaning for what you do, if this is not accomplished, chances are you will lose energy and passion for what you are doing, and when that happens, the end results are never in your favor. The insight that is shared within this book, will help you discover the true reverence within you. What is reverence, reverence is seeing yourself beyond the outer shell or appearance that you portray to others. To put it simply, becoming reverent is essentially becoming a human being. I trust that you will go very far in your career life by understanding the principles outlined within this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664147423

Don Jones

Don Jones is a PowerShell MVP, speaker, and trainer. He developed the Microsoft PowerShell courseware and has taught PowerShell to more than 20,000 IT pros. Don writes the PowerShell column for TechNet Magazine and blogs about PowerShell at PowerShell.com. Ask Don your PowerShell questions at http://bit.ly/AskDon.

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Copyright © 2021 by Don Jones.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 12/10/2020

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Introduction – Why I started writing Eyesight

Chapter 1     30,60,90, Day Action Plan

Chapter 2     Inner Sight

Chapter 3     Build trust and the rest will follow

Chapter 4     It’s not personal; it’s leadership (a seemingly logical attribute)

Chapter 5     Managing Self

Chapter 6     What is the inverted pyramid, and how can you leverage it?

Chapter 7     The Value of Personality Trait Awareness

Chapter 8     The team connection strategy that will take relationships to great heights

Chapter 9     Throw out complacency in favor of progress

Chapter 10   Develop your personal brand

Chapter 11   Understand the vault

Chapter 12   People before strategy might be the gamer changer

Chapter 13   How to develop your gravitas with ease

Chapter 14   Check your business health and diagnose for growth

Chapter 15   Why the link between people and business matters

Chapter 16   Things that may surprise you about leadership (Potential pitfalls)

Chapter 17   Don’t confuse vision and strategy with results

Chapter 18   Diversity welcomes value creation

Chapter 19   Increase your appetite for discomfort

Chapter 20   Your most precious gift is time; how are you spending yours?

Chapter 21   The feedback loop - how to give and take constructive criticism?

Conclusion – Application and the next steps

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INTRODUCTION

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Why I started writing Eyesight

I STARTED WRITING Eyesight a few years ago after having been in leadership for close to 30 years. I’ve seen so many changes, innovation, and advancements over the tears, and I’m always excited to see what’s next. The one constant for me is that change is the only constant aspect of leadership. The better you learn to navigate change as a leader, the better you will cope with your role. Not only that, there are greater rewards for those leaders who can deal with high levels of complexity.

There were some trends that I was noticing that were impacting the influence that leaders were having, so I wanted to create a guide and a resource kit for new leaders that will avoid them making the same mistakes that others may have made on their journey.

I realized that now more than ever, we need the value and inspiration of leaders to guide us during the most turbulent time we have ever faced as a society. During my time in leadership working with large budgets, companies, and my own enterprise, I know that people don’t realize the importance of leadership until we reach a life-threatening situation, and everyone is going in different directions.

They then start to see that your leader was always guiding the way, but you didn’t realize it because everything was going well. And that got me thinking, what separates average leaders from those with the highest level of influence?

What separates those leaders who are titans in their industry from those who don’t seem to be moving the needle on their projects?

It’s one tiny point that makes a difference.

It’s the vision that leaders possess to guide their team and companies through the most challenging times. It’s that they are always looking 12 steps ahead of everyone else. Where others are enjoying the success, they plan their next goal and keep surging forward, refusing to be complacent. It’s so easy to get complacent in what you are doing as a leader and then lose your team’s respect and trust. So in this book, I want to help you after seeing so much misguided information available right now. I was hoping you could look at my process, my guidelines, and find ways to improve upon it, knowing that the fundamentals will always ring true. People are at the heart of leadership. If you don’t have any willing followers, you are not a leader. Yet leadership is influence, and this book is all about how you cultivate that influence. If you’ve been struggling as a new leader, I’ve incorporated dozens of stories that will help you learn how to cope as a new leader. I’ve highlighted the mindsets needed, the resources the most successful leaders use, and how to build resilience and grit to lead during uncertainty.

What can you expect in the next chapters of this book?

First and foremost, this is a practical guide that will give you various points to put plans into action.

It will show you how you can thoroughly review what you’ve done previously and pivot to a different career point in leadership or even move up the corporate ladder, but as always, it will start a plan.

This plan is the foundation for what you, as a leader, will cultivate in your business. Yet more than the plan, it’s something I like to call the inner sight, which is using your insight and experience to predict your future success.

It’s that vision within yourself that can push you forward and eventually help you reach your goals. Maybe you’re currently in an individual producer role, but you have your sight on leadership, but you’re not entirely sure how to get there. If so, there is an approach to follow to get to the next level in this book.

Perhaps you’re a new leader, and you don’t get much support from your team or your executives. You’re at a loss at how to improve. Rest assured, this guide will support you on your journey. Think of it as a companion as you walk the path of leadership.

What pushes you to keep going when the chips are down? This will ultimately be the subject of one of the chapters in this book.

I’ll finally close the loop on the inner work needed to bring clarity to your leadership style; we’ll dig deep into delegating as a leader, understanding your strengths, and looking at the inverted pyramid concept in the context of your life and role.

I’ve deliberately created quick and easy reading chapters that help you quickly digest the message and go and apply. However, I recommend reading this book from chapter 1 to 21 consecutively since it was designed to be a step by step approach. I hope to give a broad range of topics to mull over from your unique personality and how these personality traits can be updated for better leadership in your business. In itself, it will widen your network, helping you connect and build relationships.

Finally, we will look at how you have to keep pushing forward and growing. Otherwise, there will be a sense of complacency.

That can be the most dangerous place, so I recommend stretching yourself and keeping building that personal brand that will become an asset for you. Yet as you work through each of the 21 chapters, don’t be intimidated by the level of insight you’ll find, take your time and work through each chapter as well as the action steps. Towards the end, I’ll also look at providing a summary of the applications you can make and giving you exact steps to take on your journey through Eyesight.

I’ve wanted to give you a taste of what’s to come and share what’s inside this book, which will also be a pathway around the journey you can look forward to.

How do you get the best out of this book?

For starters, it will help a lot if you keep answering the questions I pose to you in every chapter. I’ll also share some action steps you can improve after each chapter, and I promise that taking the time to do these exercises will be beneficial in the long run.

All that’s left to say is that I wish you an exciting, exhilarating, and exceptional journey and process ahead as you look within and view the world of leadership through fresh eyes, and your vision becomes 20/20 again. That’s the nature of adjusting your Eyesight and focusing on the future of your leadership success. So, let’s get started.

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CHAPTER 1

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30,60,90, Day Action Plan

A S A NEWLY promoted leader, you are often asked what you will do in your first 90 days. Senior leaders often hear variant degrees of what that looks like.

Team leaders and or department supervisors will most likely say I will fix everything that is broken, or I’m going to get rid of anyone who is not performing or doing their job. Even if they don’t verbalize it, they are thinking those words. Perhaps you’ve even