Philosophy is
very much like a pair of glasses; when you put them on, everything you see
takes on the color of your glasses. However, unlike glasses you cannot take off
your philosophy and keep it aside, it is deeply ingrained within you, it’s a
part of you.
Besides
having a strong business foundation, necessary educational qualifications and
technical expertise, a leader must be ethical, acutely self aware and know his
own leadership philosophy. A leader's charisma or traits can only take the
organization so far because if s/he is not able to build a strong culture and
pipeline of potential successors, the long term success of the organization
will be jeopardized.
Leadership
philosophy truly is the driving force or at the core of organizational success
or failure. The image below shows how. Leadership philosophy drives the
leader's beliefs and assumptions, which in turn drive leader decisions,
actions, and behaviors. Organization culture is a result of leader's actions
& behaviors, while organizational strategy creation is a key responsibility
of the leader. Both of these dimensions ultimately determine organizational
success or failure in the long term (and many times in the short term as well).
My leadership philosophy is "inspiring the best in each one." In practice it translates into enabling each team member to be their best, to do their best, and bring their best to the table. It is based on the belief that everyone is capable of accomplishing great things; that, at the core everyone wants to do a good job, wants to be valued. This idea of inspiring the best in everyone begins with me. As a leader I model the way for my team to bring out their best. I believe that this will lead to empowered teams where everyone believes in others' as well as their own best self and strives to better themselves. It will create and sustain a strong culture of learning and growth because team members will not be compared to each other, but to who they were yesterday.
We live in a
world that evolves constantly and requires us to evolve or adapt and respond
quickly without having enough time to make elaborate plans. If an organization
has to function efficiently and effectively in this kind of an ever changing
environment and sustain its success, it needs a workforce that is capable of
evolving, adapting and responding quickly without having to wait for their
leader to "tell them" what to do. They need to believe in themselves,
in the accuracy and righteousness of their own decisions and this does not
happen overnight. It can only be possible through a culture of learning and
growth and giving team members the opportunity to learn by making mistakes.
This does not mean that there will be no boundaries or absolutely no
consequences, because a leader cannot afford to be a blind idealist. It is
absolutely necessary to have a healthy sense of realism as a leader and if
something is not working, the courage to make tough choices. Therefore I do
believe in establishing clear rewards and also what will not be
acceptable.
As my team
members strive to achieve sustained organizational growth and success, in the
spirit of "inspiring the best in each one" I believe in providing
them with the tools, information, opportunities, and the 'holding environment' for
their growth, it is up to each member to realize their own potential in the
process.
Antara - this is a very thoughtful post. I especially like the infographic! One question I have is whether the leader's beliefs and assumptions must be shared, or whether the leader can have individual beliefs and assumptions that deviate from those shared across the organization. I suspect that a leader is more effective when their personal beliefs and assumptions align with the shared beliefs and assumptions.
ReplyDeleteKelly, Edgar Schein in his writing on culture and leadership, provides great insight into how leader's beliefs become the shared beliefs of the organization over time and eventually create organizational culture, so much so that even after that leader is gone, the culture continues to be. This is an organic process, as very few leaders start off with the intention of embedding culture. But whether conscious or unknowingly, leader's beliefs get embedded into the followers & the organization at large and they have more to do with how the behaves rather than what he says. Actions speak louder than words. You might find Schein's book Organizational Culture & Leadership an interesting read.
Delete"Inspire the best in each one." The best may be different for each person. What this implies is pivotal for a leader to understand. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in what makes us as "best leaders" but what about inspiring each person to be THEIR best? This post was extremely inspiring to read and I appreciate your book recommendation as well.
ReplyDelete