John's Leadership Philosophy

Leadership is something more complicated than it seems, and it comes in different forms. It's not just telling other people to do what you want; leadership is more of a complex trait that requires multiple parts to work at once. There are many leadership styles and philosophy, but my philosophy is that there is always room for improvement. Maybe it's from the way I was taught growing up, but I think there's always something to tweak for a better result in the future. This means that some things must be constant, but at the same time things must be innovated as well.

1. Lead yourself before you can lead others

http://compumatrice.com/leaders-inspire/

One of the things that leaders must evaluate is themselves. They need to know if they are capable of leading other people. Sean Covey, the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens said, "We must fix ourselves before we can fix others." If the leader is going to be the one that brings changes, they should change themselves first. There is a sad story about an Anglican bishop who wanted to change the world. However, he realized that the task was difficult because no one wanted to listen to him, even his family. All his life he wanted to change this, but he just couldn't find the way. On his deathbed, he finally realized that if he changed himself, others could have followed him and potentially the world could have changed. No leader ever wants to be that bishop, regretting what he did not do to live his dream.

2. Have a vision in mind

http://www.divyanshiassociates.com/
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Tony Robbins, a motivational speaker, once said, "Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." That is something that leaders should do. A leader must know what he or she is doing; they can't just improvise as they go. Leaders and teams with goals in mind know what they are striving for, and they can reflect on the their performance so they can improve in the future. Without a strong goal and a vision in mind, the team as a whole has no direction to go to. A stuck team that is confused can get frustrated as well, which can potentially jeopardize the team. In the leadership impact project, the Burger Day Group had a vision; we had a set goal in mind and we were working to achieve it. With this goal in our minds, we were able to accomplish our goal.

3. Be Communicative

http://effectivecommunicationadvice.
com/keys-for-effective-communication

Good leaders must have strong communication skills. They must be able to talk to the team so everyone is on board. Leaders should not be hesitant with what they are going to say. The team must know what is on the leader's mind. Otherwise, if the leader won't share, then the team won't know what to do. The followers must also know what their role is so they can be an effective team as an unit. Employees who are comfortable in the environment tend to be more productive. Another skill the leaders should have is that they must also be good listeners. They can't be a brick wall and block everything when fellow employees or fellow leaders are talking to them. Likewise, they can't be a tube and let the noise enter in one ear and leave the other. They should instead be like a sponge; soak in what they are listening to and think of how they can improve, which could be feedbacks or suggestions. In class, the class conducted interviews to applicants, and this forced everyone to use their communication skills effectively, including the use of body language and listening carefully.

4. Be proactive

http://perryloop.com/2014/
07/11/you-want-more/

Everyone knows nothing is perfect; there is always something that can be improved. Leaders should be aware of this, and should constantly improve. With this in mind, they should still be happy with what they have. If a leader is constantly unhappy with the current production, the team morale is going to plummet. In order to keep the morale high, leaders should congratulate and reflect on the current success, but should always strive for more. This parallels my overall philosophy. This also comes from the lesson of being proactive. Leaders should not be reactive and wait for things to happen; they need to go out and make decisions. Leaders who are more proactive and more aggressive gets better results.

5. Be passionate

http://www.christophgrizzard.eu/
christoph-grizzard-reviews-
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Good leaders love what they do, and they use this passion to motivate the team. He alone cannot be a productive team, and, likewise, a group cannot be a productive team if they are not motivated. A leader with a driving passion brings energy to the team, and this energy can increase productivity or performance.  This goes with the positive/negative motivation lesson that we learned in class. I think positive motivation, like energetic leaders and rewards, are more effective than negative motivation, like threats. A team full of highly motivated, energized workers in a happy mood makes the team full of creativity and potential.

Throughout the year, I learned many things about leadership that can be used in the near future. Like I said before, there are many philosophies in leadership. They come in different forms and different point of views. However, no matter how different they may be from each other, leadership separates the leaders from the led.