Starting with a Blank Slate? Values Will Help.
Sometimes starting with a blank slate and reasessing your values is a key step in being the leader you want to be.
The first Essential in Creating a Complelling Leadership Philosophy is starting with a blank slate.
You may be wondering, “what is a Leadership Philosophy?” The way I look at it, a philosophy of leadership is what you believe about how you should lead. It’s about how you want to show up as a leader. It’s a guidepost for you to use to ask, “am I being the leader I aspire to be?”
When we’re starting to build a Leadership Philosophy, we often start with the things we know, the slogans or quotations from leaders that inspire us. I encourage you instead to start from a blank slate.
What does that mean? It means you should examine any slogans or common saying you use to inspire others and understand what they mean to you. Then, put them in your own words. That will be more inspiring to those around you than a quote from a famous basketball or football coach.
“It’s a common saying, and you are not a common leader. You are uniquely you, and your Leadership Philosophy should reflect what makes you a leader to follow.”
So, challenge yourself to create your own compelling Leadership Philosophy, in your own words. One way to do that is to reflect on your personal values and what is important to you.
Reflecting on values is a great way to bring your own words into your Leadership Philosophy. It’s the second essential for creating a compelling Leadership Philosophy. We know that values help guide our actions in our daily life. If we’re not clear on our values, we may find decisions to be difficult.
As leaders, those values act as a base to how we lead. To be clear about how we act as a leader, you need to be clear about what values drive you, how you define them and how they can help you make decisions that are critical to your organization and the people around you.
I’ve taken the opportunity to re-evaluate my own values during the last 15 months. The Covid -19 pandemic has surely led many to think about what really matters to them. For me, I know that having meaningful work that makes a difference is important to me. I’ve traveled the country and to parts of the world to do just that. Helping leaders find their voice is super-fulfilling.
But I also have a value of freedom and “spirit in place” which is about adventuring with my loved ones to destinations unknown. Traveling extensively for work is less exciting today because it takes me away from my own home, my husband, Dennis and my fellow adventurers!
So, as I contemplate how to do the work that makes a difference, I’ve also examined my leadership philosophy and how I can use that as my guide for how I lead going forward.
I started with the blank slate and examined my values. You can read more about these first two Essentials of Creating a Compelling Leadership Philosophy, along with leaders’ examples in my eBook coming this summer.