Character Based Leadership is a course designed through my program in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business. This class was started in order to teach honors students like myself, the importance of public speaking and presentation in the professional setting. Mr. Bill Bagley, a HR recruiter at Barnes Dennig, taught the class. He has a very well established connection with the Lindner College of Business, and in addition to teaching this class, often acts as an adviser for mock interviews.
From this class, we mainly focused on styles of leadership, presentation and professionalism. We reviewed material such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, portions of Stephen F. Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and learned presentation pointers from Professor Bagley’s personal experience as a recruiter. One such pointer was referred to as “The Claw”, a common hand gesture that allowed people in the audience to smoothly change their view from the presenter to the board or projected power point as the presenter motioned there. It was these kinds of techniques that allowed myself and classmates to become better professionals and obtain better leadership skills.
Final Paper
The first value of the strategic partner model is in the area of personal credibility. Personal credibility is a skill that relates to self-image, interpersonal skills, awareness and presentation manner and style; all of these areas relate to how one presents themselves and how people view yourself. In today’s world, credibility is everything. James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces, knows the lessons of personal credibility first hand. After publishing A Million Little Pieces, he described it as a personal memoir and received mellifluous reviews. It was until later that people discovered his description, and the book, were lies. After the scandal his publicity and support vanished almost instantly, and he was left with nothing more than an ephemeral fame story.
Self-image is the first important concept of personal credibility. Having good opinions of oneself will bring out inner confidence and strength as a leader and partner. It is important, however, to balance between effectively confidence and arrogance. With confidence, one can take criticisms and turn them into areas of improvement. As Brian Koslow, author of 365 Ways to Become a Millionaire, said, “The more you are willing to accept responsibility for your actions, the more credibility you will have”. Interpersonal skills expand on the way someone carries themselves and their confidence. By having proper etiquette, good conversation and listening skills, one will be described as a professional. Being aware of situations and matters around the business and political world is also important in order to have personal credibility. Rather than appearing outdated or sheltered to others, staying current will allow one to converse in small talk, reference other events, and appear worldly and educated. And finally, having good presentation style and manner will add to one’s personal integrity. Presentation style is not only being a good public speaker, but it also requires being able to sell ideas, vision, services and oneself to another professional.
Presentation is not only a factor of personal credibility, but also one of the six key values of the strategic partner model. In the business community and in anyone’s future business career, they will be expected to give presentations. There are multiple areas and situations when giving a presentation will be required: client presentations, leading meetings, final project overview presentations, student presentations and public speeches or addresses.
As mentioned before, presenting is about selling ideas, vision, services and oneself in the situations listed above, but a few things are necessary in order to make such a presentation unique and impacting to the viewers. First off, never overlook written grammar and vocabulary. There was a reason English lessons were repeated each year in grade school, high school and college; grammar and vocabulary sets many people above others during the job search or presentations. If a potential employer sees a misspelled or improperly used word, it could be detrimental to a person’s chances of getting a job. Vocabulary is also important. By learning one word per day for the next 2 years, a professional could be in the top 5% of educated Americans.
Another aspect of presentation skills is the way one interviews and presents projects or slideshows. In all situations, it is important to be formal and well-rehearsed on the material. Never walk into an interview without having previously researched the company or into a presentation without knowing the material that is being presented. Public speaking and presenting is not a natural talent; it takes year to gain and hone these skills. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “All the great speakers were bad speakers at first”. In just this past year, the movie The King’s Speech debuted and received many excellent reviews and acclamations. This movie tells the lugubrious tale of King George VI of Britain, who until the help of a speech therapist was unable to speak fluently and without a stutter. It is the perfect example of how work and determination will allow someone to earn public speaking and presentation skills.
To effectively learn and practice interviewing and presenting, one must have good time management to plan practicing while managing other activities that lead to later success. Time management is not about managing time, but about managing yourself around time. Everyone has 24 hours in each day, but it’s about how you spend those 24 hours that matters.
Within those 24 hours, there are many things that will take up time: working, traveling, eating, spending time with family, day-dreaming, the list goes on and on. Some days, one might spend more time in a certain area than another, but it is always important to stay balanced between all of one’s activities. If one loses track and focus too much in one area, it could come back to haunt them, as they could lose their job or family. Carl H. Lindner, Jr. was the quintessential example of a man who knew where to spend his time. He was able to successfully lead his Cincinnati empire while still being able to tremendously give back to the community and build his family’s relations.
It’s also important to stay away from waste. Benjamin Franklin sums this concept up nicely with, “Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today”. The time spent on Facebook, mindlessly searching the internet, will not have a benefit towards a future career or academics. In most cases, distractions can actually hinder development in these areas. Once one cuts time or the distraction completely, they can spend more effort focusing on achieving their personal or professional goals. Whether one’s dream is to travel to all seven continents, or to become a company’s youngest CEO, they cannot and will not be accomplished while sitting in front of a computer or television screen. Once the goal is set and the distraction is eliminated, one can move forward to undertaking those short and long term objectives. By homing in on one’s work and responsibilities, one can become a dependable leader in the work place who is respected by all.
As it was mentioned before, it is important to be educated in vocabulary and grammar, but it is also critical to be well-versed in one’s own company and of those one works with. As a fourth value in becoming a strategic partner, business knowledge, creativity & consultative skills will take an employee from being second rate to outstanding.
In life, people often miss out on opportunities because they are not looking. Business knowledge, creativity and consultative skills is a value that will develop business practices, bring success to the company, and aid in realizing the potential someone has as a worker.
In this value, there are three points; the first one being: business knowledge. This past summer, I interned at the Kroger Company in their Logistics department. Having good business acumen in the details of Kroger are important in logistics, but it is also necessary to learn and digest how Kroger’s' suppliers operate. Each one has their own process of delivering goods and system that counts inventory. If anyone of my coworkers or bosses did not pay attention to the other suppliers, Kroger would cease to exist.
The second point is creativity. In the current onerous economy, companies are all about cutting costs and becoming more efficient. As an employer, one must work to save money and help drive productivity by thinking outside of the box. While doing so, one can develop this critical value and become an asset to the company. If an employee is inane, they run the risk of one day being fired.
The final point is consultative skills. As I mentioned before, companies do not just work with themselves. If they are a grocery store they work with suppliers, or if they are a CPA firm they work with their clients. Companies are always collaborating and bringing in new ideas and as a young worker yearning to advance, consulting with these ideas and other people will bring more responsibilities and success.
The fifth value of the strategic partner value composition, and arguably the most important, is marketplace eminence. As it was mentioned on the previous page, companies are always collaborating to produce cost effective and innovative ideas. As companies work and network with each other, so should its employees with other companies, boards and leaders.
Marketplace eminence refers to the reputation and distinction one has as a worker, a friend and a leader within the business community. There are multiple ways to engender a beneficial eminence: attending events such as a reception, visit or teach college classes, or by serving on a board. As Jeff Bezos, founder, president and CEO of Amazon, explains, “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well”. If one takes on the responsibility of volunteering and networking with others, it will lead to building a personal brand. Many times, people are negatively affected and their reputation damaged by the actions of their company or others. In a Cincinnati example, Arthur Andersen was large CPA firm that after their fraud scandal, affected many people from Cincinnati from finding another job. This is why it’s important to remember that one’s marketplace eminence is an important factor in their success.
Marketplace eminence does not only refer to what one does in the community, but also with how one performs on the job. The economy brings enough reason for companies to cut costs, but they also strive to increase their revenues. Each year, an employee should ask themself what they bring to the company. Is it that their pay effectively rewards them for their tasks and accomplishments? How have they given to the company to increase revenue or cut costs? Asking these questions will remind themselves and others the importance their job is to the overall welfare of the company. If they take the actions necessary to increase revenue by their part, others will recognize them as a leader who puts the company’s profit before their own.
And finally, the last value in the strategic partner value composition is leading others. Today’s prototypical leadership ideal is servant leadership. This means managers work to develop the careers and successes of their peers in order to bring success to the company.
There are many ways to develop the value of leading others. It starts off by being a friend to other people and allowing oneself to become a mentor. When one takes this initiative and mentality, people will start to see one’s department or company in a different light: one will move towards becoming a role model and the company a top employer of choice. It is a simple thought, “Good people will want to work for other good people”. But it will benefit a company in the long run as they begin to hire more talent based on the principle of employees wanting to work for good talent, and someday become the good talent.
While one may be the best role model and leader, it will go to waste if they are not an effective communicator and recruiter. In the recruitment process, one must be able to show the leadership a company has in order for the potential employee to see it also. If they cannot see the opportunity for growth, the mentoring program, the motivation within departments, and the collaboration and connection within the company, they will not be interested in working there. In Cincinnati, Procter and Gamble does an excellent job of recruiting others. The time they devote to mentoring new hirers and providing resources to their workers has given them a reputation of great worker loyalty and demand for others to get a job there.
In one’s professional career, there are six values of improvement to becoming a strategic partner: personal credibility, oral presentation manner & style, time management, business knowledge, creativity & consultative skills, marketplace eminence, and leading others. Development in each area is the key to finding a career destination of becoming a successful, well-rounded partner that will grow themselves, the business and others.
From this class, we mainly focused on styles of leadership, presentation and professionalism. We reviewed material such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, portions of Stephen F. Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and learned presentation pointers from Professor Bagley’s personal experience as a recruiter. One such pointer was referred to as “The Claw”, a common hand gesture that allowed people in the audience to smoothly change their view from the presenter to the board or projected power point as the presenter motioned there. It was these kinds of techniques that allowed myself and classmates to become better professionals and obtain better leadership skills.
Final Paper
The first value of the strategic partner model is in the area of personal credibility. Personal credibility is a skill that relates to self-image, interpersonal skills, awareness and presentation manner and style; all of these areas relate to how one presents themselves and how people view yourself. In today’s world, credibility is everything. James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces, knows the lessons of personal credibility first hand. After publishing A Million Little Pieces, he described it as a personal memoir and received mellifluous reviews. It was until later that people discovered his description, and the book, were lies. After the scandal his publicity and support vanished almost instantly, and he was left with nothing more than an ephemeral fame story.
Self-image is the first important concept of personal credibility. Having good opinions of oneself will bring out inner confidence and strength as a leader and partner. It is important, however, to balance between effectively confidence and arrogance. With confidence, one can take criticisms and turn them into areas of improvement. As Brian Koslow, author of 365 Ways to Become a Millionaire, said, “The more you are willing to accept responsibility for your actions, the more credibility you will have”. Interpersonal skills expand on the way someone carries themselves and their confidence. By having proper etiquette, good conversation and listening skills, one will be described as a professional. Being aware of situations and matters around the business and political world is also important in order to have personal credibility. Rather than appearing outdated or sheltered to others, staying current will allow one to converse in small talk, reference other events, and appear worldly and educated. And finally, having good presentation style and manner will add to one’s personal integrity. Presentation style is not only being a good public speaker, but it also requires being able to sell ideas, vision, services and oneself to another professional.
Presentation is not only a factor of personal credibility, but also one of the six key values of the strategic partner model. In the business community and in anyone’s future business career, they will be expected to give presentations. There are multiple areas and situations when giving a presentation will be required: client presentations, leading meetings, final project overview presentations, student presentations and public speeches or addresses.
As mentioned before, presenting is about selling ideas, vision, services and oneself in the situations listed above, but a few things are necessary in order to make such a presentation unique and impacting to the viewers. First off, never overlook written grammar and vocabulary. There was a reason English lessons were repeated each year in grade school, high school and college; grammar and vocabulary sets many people above others during the job search or presentations. If a potential employer sees a misspelled or improperly used word, it could be detrimental to a person’s chances of getting a job. Vocabulary is also important. By learning one word per day for the next 2 years, a professional could be in the top 5% of educated Americans.
Another aspect of presentation skills is the way one interviews and presents projects or slideshows. In all situations, it is important to be formal and well-rehearsed on the material. Never walk into an interview without having previously researched the company or into a presentation without knowing the material that is being presented. Public speaking and presenting is not a natural talent; it takes year to gain and hone these skills. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “All the great speakers were bad speakers at first”. In just this past year, the movie The King’s Speech debuted and received many excellent reviews and acclamations. This movie tells the lugubrious tale of King George VI of Britain, who until the help of a speech therapist was unable to speak fluently and without a stutter. It is the perfect example of how work and determination will allow someone to earn public speaking and presentation skills.
To effectively learn and practice interviewing and presenting, one must have good time management to plan practicing while managing other activities that lead to later success. Time management is not about managing time, but about managing yourself around time. Everyone has 24 hours in each day, but it’s about how you spend those 24 hours that matters.
Within those 24 hours, there are many things that will take up time: working, traveling, eating, spending time with family, day-dreaming, the list goes on and on. Some days, one might spend more time in a certain area than another, but it is always important to stay balanced between all of one’s activities. If one loses track and focus too much in one area, it could come back to haunt them, as they could lose their job or family. Carl H. Lindner, Jr. was the quintessential example of a man who knew where to spend his time. He was able to successfully lead his Cincinnati empire while still being able to tremendously give back to the community and build his family’s relations.
It’s also important to stay away from waste. Benjamin Franklin sums this concept up nicely with, “Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today”. The time spent on Facebook, mindlessly searching the internet, will not have a benefit towards a future career or academics. In most cases, distractions can actually hinder development in these areas. Once one cuts time or the distraction completely, they can spend more effort focusing on achieving their personal or professional goals. Whether one’s dream is to travel to all seven continents, or to become a company’s youngest CEO, they cannot and will not be accomplished while sitting in front of a computer or television screen. Once the goal is set and the distraction is eliminated, one can move forward to undertaking those short and long term objectives. By homing in on one’s work and responsibilities, one can become a dependable leader in the work place who is respected by all.
As it was mentioned before, it is important to be educated in vocabulary and grammar, but it is also critical to be well-versed in one’s own company and of those one works with. As a fourth value in becoming a strategic partner, business knowledge, creativity & consultative skills will take an employee from being second rate to outstanding.
In life, people often miss out on opportunities because they are not looking. Business knowledge, creativity and consultative skills is a value that will develop business practices, bring success to the company, and aid in realizing the potential someone has as a worker.
In this value, there are three points; the first one being: business knowledge. This past summer, I interned at the Kroger Company in their Logistics department. Having good business acumen in the details of Kroger are important in logistics, but it is also necessary to learn and digest how Kroger’s' suppliers operate. Each one has their own process of delivering goods and system that counts inventory. If anyone of my coworkers or bosses did not pay attention to the other suppliers, Kroger would cease to exist.
The second point is creativity. In the current onerous economy, companies are all about cutting costs and becoming more efficient. As an employer, one must work to save money and help drive productivity by thinking outside of the box. While doing so, one can develop this critical value and become an asset to the company. If an employee is inane, they run the risk of one day being fired.
The final point is consultative skills. As I mentioned before, companies do not just work with themselves. If they are a grocery store they work with suppliers, or if they are a CPA firm they work with their clients. Companies are always collaborating and bringing in new ideas and as a young worker yearning to advance, consulting with these ideas and other people will bring more responsibilities and success.
The fifth value of the strategic partner value composition, and arguably the most important, is marketplace eminence. As it was mentioned on the previous page, companies are always collaborating to produce cost effective and innovative ideas. As companies work and network with each other, so should its employees with other companies, boards and leaders.
Marketplace eminence refers to the reputation and distinction one has as a worker, a friend and a leader within the business community. There are multiple ways to engender a beneficial eminence: attending events such as a reception, visit or teach college classes, or by serving on a board. As Jeff Bezos, founder, president and CEO of Amazon, explains, “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well”. If one takes on the responsibility of volunteering and networking with others, it will lead to building a personal brand. Many times, people are negatively affected and their reputation damaged by the actions of their company or others. In a Cincinnati example, Arthur Andersen was large CPA firm that after their fraud scandal, affected many people from Cincinnati from finding another job. This is why it’s important to remember that one’s marketplace eminence is an important factor in their success.
Marketplace eminence does not only refer to what one does in the community, but also with how one performs on the job. The economy brings enough reason for companies to cut costs, but they also strive to increase their revenues. Each year, an employee should ask themself what they bring to the company. Is it that their pay effectively rewards them for their tasks and accomplishments? How have they given to the company to increase revenue or cut costs? Asking these questions will remind themselves and others the importance their job is to the overall welfare of the company. If they take the actions necessary to increase revenue by their part, others will recognize them as a leader who puts the company’s profit before their own.
And finally, the last value in the strategic partner value composition is leading others. Today’s prototypical leadership ideal is servant leadership. This means managers work to develop the careers and successes of their peers in order to bring success to the company.
There are many ways to develop the value of leading others. It starts off by being a friend to other people and allowing oneself to become a mentor. When one takes this initiative and mentality, people will start to see one’s department or company in a different light: one will move towards becoming a role model and the company a top employer of choice. It is a simple thought, “Good people will want to work for other good people”. But it will benefit a company in the long run as they begin to hire more talent based on the principle of employees wanting to work for good talent, and someday become the good talent.
While one may be the best role model and leader, it will go to waste if they are not an effective communicator and recruiter. In the recruitment process, one must be able to show the leadership a company has in order for the potential employee to see it also. If they cannot see the opportunity for growth, the mentoring program, the motivation within departments, and the collaboration and connection within the company, they will not be interested in working there. In Cincinnati, Procter and Gamble does an excellent job of recruiting others. The time they devote to mentoring new hirers and providing resources to their workers has given them a reputation of great worker loyalty and demand for others to get a job there.
In one’s professional career, there are six values of improvement to becoming a strategic partner: personal credibility, oral presentation manner & style, time management, business knowledge, creativity & consultative skills, marketplace eminence, and leading others. Development in each area is the key to finding a career destination of becoming a successful, well-rounded partner that will grow themselves, the business and others.