My Leadership Philosophy

My personal definition of leadership is the ability to inspire and motivate others to act towards a common purpose, through one’s personal words and actions. I have been very lucky to have many great leaders that have cared for me and my professional development throughout my life and career. Since graduating boot camp, and at every unit since, I have been exposed to both good and bad methods of leadership. Some people seem to rely strictly on their positional power to accomplish tasks and give orders from a place of authority. Others use a combination of authority and other personal strengths such as inspiration, motivation and humor. The best leaders I’ve had in my career all cared a great deal about my personal and professional lives.
Even the best of leaders have areas where they can improve on their leadership style. Through personal awareness of these areas, combined with a personal commitment to make a concerted effort at improvement, we can continuously progress our abilities and effectiveness. After some close analyzation of the results from my leadership practices inventory I have realized that I have some important changes to make in order to develop into the best leader possible.

3. Asking for direct feedback from coworkers can be an effective means of learning what people need from us and in what areas we’re lacking. In order to best maximize the performance of those that we work with, it is important to find out how our actions influence them and if there are ways that we can better align those actions to best support and encourage others.

4. Actively listening to others’ points of view is a great way to create buy-in and ownership from others. When we feel that we have a direct impact on the work that we’re doing and that our opinions are valued, we are far more likely to fully commit to the shared vision. The opposite is also true. When our viewpoints are ignored, it is likely that we’ll disengage from the project because we’re not feeling
I regularly evaluate myself and others against the idea of whether or not the team is required to participate and whether I could gain the same buy-in or followership in completing a task if cooperation was voluntary. Do people have to follow you or do they want to follow you? If you can effectively motivate and lead people to a common purpose, when they have the option to walk away without consequence, that is a true test of your leadership abilities. If you could not maintain the same level of group involvement and contribution under both circumstances, than you’re probably relying too heavily on your positional authority and not enough on your personal leadership skills and abilities. This might indicate a possible issue with laziness or lack of training or ability. I believe that there is such a thing as natural born leaders that are innately gifted with the knack of leading others but most have to work extremely hard at it. Whether you’re born a leader or not, everyone can benefit from training and from consciously working to improve their effectiveness. Leadership skills can also diminish over time, as well. It requires constant effort to maintain proficiency, especially if you go long periods without leading anyone. Leadership improvement is a continuous process and the best leaders take an active role in developing it within themselves and