Ryan's Leadership Philosophy

Dr. Paul Pryma, Glenbrook North Principal

The acronym below explains my leadership philosophy, which has been developed through personal experience and through material learned during the management/leadership course. Each letter stands for an important leadership skill or tactic that is vital to being an effective leader.

Lead, and do it by example - Do not be afraid to step up. Whether you are the delegated leader, or a subordinate, do not be afraid to speak your mind and offer input. I always like to share ideas or opinions I have because it cannot hurt to present your input. I also like to make jokes or offer fun ideas because it lifts the team’s spirit and allows you to enjoy your job. In addition, act as a good example for the rest of your team. People will look up to leaders and often follow their lead, so I like to act in a way that I want others to act. This will not only allow yourself to improve, but it will guide others in the right direction. Always acting positively and thinking win-win is a great way to influence others because positive attitudes create a friendly and motivated environment. I learned this skill through our leadership impact project. Working with our principal, Paul Pryma, provided me with an insight on leading with such positivity, and the impacts that doing so can have.

Effective communication - There are two parts to this leadership tool. If you create incredible ideas but are unable to convince people, your ideas mean nothing. Great leaders must express their ideas in an understanding and relatable way. Personally, I believe in person to person communication with pictures and examples. I always clarify with my correspondent to assure that he/she understands. The other part of this tool includes reaching out to coworkers. From setting up meeting dates, to asking someone a favor, it is vital to have communication methods for everyone. My leadership philosophy uses methods such as group texts and facebook groups because my generation prefers these methods.

Accountability - To reach a company or team’s maximum potential, team members and players should be held accountable. There are numerous ways to do this. An example includes setting realistic quotas, following up with each team member and checking on team members. There are many ways to do this depending on your philosophy. For Burger Day, we use a spreadsheet and each team member has about 20 companies to contact. Each meeting we check in on each team member to evaluate their fundraising efforts. When members are under-performing, I present ideas to improve. When the team is really struggling, I will offer alternative solutions. For instance, our team was not obtaining as many sponsors as necessary from our original spreadsheet list. Therefore, we updated the spreadsheet with current Northbrook and Glenview baseball sponsors to improve our fundraising.

Delegate - People are often intimidated by leaders and therefore find it difficult to work with them. Sometimes this is caused by leaders controlling and acting authoractically. I believe leaders should delegate tasks and include everyone in projects. This not only creates a sense of community within the environment, but it also eases the process with everyone doing jobs. When delegating jobs, it is important to ask for individual input for making final delegation decisions. If an individual is not comfortable performing a certain task for whatever reason, then you cannot delegate that job to him/her. Delegating tasks can only be accurately accomplished by combining leadership tactics, such as motivating and checking in.

Extra work - Although it is vital to delegate tasks to reach a group or team’s maximum potential, leaders must be willing to step up. If things are not going as planned, I believe a leader will step up and put in the extra effort. For instance, for Burger Day this year, our team is currently failing to reach our fundraising goal. In addition to continuing to motivating and supporting our team, I am putting in the extra effort to obtain extra sponsors. As president of the event, I know that this is a necessary task to make our event successful.

Run with it - Improvisation is an important tool to leading. Things will often go wrong and leaders must step up to handle the problem effectively. My philosophy is to address the problem, evaluate different ideas and perspectives, and implement the final decision. My skills with improvising as a leader grew while reading “7 Habits of highly effective teens” in our class. Learning to be proactive is a very important skill. When problems occur, you must think before speaking and acting, as opposed to letting your emotions take control. This is a skill that takes practice, but I am glad I learned it as a 17 year old before entering the workforce. In addition, the 7 habits book taught me to keep the end goal in mind. I realized this is an important task even when improvising. Make sure your response to a problem or unexpected change will advance you and your team towards the end goal.