A Leadership Philosophy

Philosophy can be defined this way:
a theory or attitude held by a person or organization that acts as a guiding principle for behavior.

 I was involved in a meeting yesterday with a staff person and another volunteer for a community organization I'm involved with as a board member and we were talking about the roles and responsibilities of the board and how best to assist them in performing for the highest good of the organization. I'm relatively new to this particular group but my experience as a volunteer board member and as a leader of volunteers goes back for some years, so I bring that perspective and history with me to this situation.

As we talked I verbalized a thought and realized later that it was part of my leadership philosophy. The thought I had was about how I had internally resisted the direction of the board chair when he volunteered me for a role that we had not discussed beforehand. I could think back to many other times when I had either watched or acted as a leader and done the same thing with equally predictable results: failure!

This lead me to realize that one of my leadership philosophies would be that desired change must come through communication and agreement, not by direction and demand. It really had irritated me that I wasn't consulted before it was announced at a board meeting that I would take on this responsibility and it felt like I had been set up to fail. And I reacted as so many people have before me and will for time immemorial: I said nothing and for the most part have done nothing about it.

Knowing what I do I realize that this reaction may be normal but not the most productive for the organization. I am aware now that this "top down" style of leadership does not motivate me or create a feeling of inclusiveness and "buy in". I can use this lesson and apply it to areas where I am asked to lead. I can remember  how valuable it is for everyone to feel heard and understood. Even those people on a team that you think might be the most evolved need to be treated like equal partners.

What is your leadership philosophy? How did you come to learn it and live it?

Win/Win Instead of Whine/Whine

From corporate life to community life we've seen a change in recent decades from top down leadership to a more grass-roots and consensus building approach to leadership and I think this is a good thing. We are all more interconnected than ever so why not build a consensus on some areas of common ground before moving forward? In my experience those organizations that foster a sense of belonging and work to hear the voice of each individual are the ones that experience the most long-term success.

I'm going to go out on a political limb here and say that I'm not generally seeing our elected representatives behave in such a way and we, as voters, are not holding them responsible. And we aren't holding ourselves responsible either, but more on that in a  minute!

Whether an elected official is in the minority or majority wouldn't it be refreshing to hear them say that they honor the views of those that disagree with them? That they will work to find common ground so that a solution for an issue can be found? How about a willingness to admit they were wrong? Exhibiting a "mountain top view" of what the whole country needs and not a select group of constituents in their district or state? Finding real solutions instead of just getting reelected?

As leaders we've come to know that win/win is the ultimate goal and that sometimes means giving up part of what we want in order to find a workable solution and create goodwill for the next time around. But all I'm hearing from politicians is whine/whine because they are stuck in you win/I lose, I win/you lose or lose/lose. Not very attractive or productive.

But it's too easy for us to complain and allow ourselves to get stuck in the endless feedback loop of talk radio and other opinion sellers. What if we held ourselves accountable and realized that we're just as big a part of the whining? When will we acknowledge that we can't expect government to shrink and still do all the things we've come to expect from it? And what are we willing to give up for the larger good? Why do we ask for lower taxes and then wonder why there's a pothole in the road? Do we offer solutions or just sound bites? Do we assist our elected officials in their jobs even if they aren't the "right" party for us? Do we educate ourselves on the issues so that we aren't swayed by inflamed emails to vote a certain way?

There are a lot of ways I'm looking at myself right now and asking if I'm the best citizen I can be. I can't expect those that represent me to do a better job until I'm prepared to work for win/win instead of whine/whine.

Always Do Your Best: Leadership Agreement #4

As with anything transformational or life-defining (think Ten Commandments) these agreements may seem simple at first but turn out to be much more challenging to actually LIVE! Being impeccable with your word, not taking anything personally and never making assumptions is certainly something to aspire to. Some days easier to embody than others. Now we come to agreement number four, which should be the easiest:

Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

But what does your "best" look like and do you really know when you are performing at your highest level? This agreement requires a high level of self awareness and the necessity to "check in" with yourself often to ask "am I giving my best effort right now?". I think it also speaks to the necessary balance we all seek. Because we are not just one role we have to look at how each of our obligations is affecting others and discern if we are creating anything at our highest level or are we just making everything mediocre?

It might be worthwhile to sit and consider what our best looks like. What does it feel like when we are giving our best as a parent, colleague, leader, boss, teammate, spouse, student? We should try to develop an understanding of what a level of excellence is for us personally so that we aren't constantly comparing our effort to those around us. It might mean being more conscious of what we agree to do knowing that one more thing could be detrimental to the other commitments we've made. Or maybe that extra thing you are considering will bring you some skills that will move you towards excellence in those other areas. Weigh carefully.