Personal Leadership Philosophy
Leadership evolves. Philosophies developed a priori and applied to a given organizational context are apt to fail. By definition, a leadership philosophy, let alone a personal one, emerges in response to variables making up a specific organizational behavior. Accordingly, in order to develop a personal leadership philosophy one should, above anything else, cater for organizational needs both at corporate and individual levels.
Personally, I aspire for a leadership philosophy based on strict definition of raison d'être. By identifying core purpose for which an organization exists, I would be able to develop a sustainable leadership philosophy. Indeed, companies, successful and failing ones, appear to lose track of initial purpose as short-range profit becomes more pressing. This path of losing sense of purpose is discussed widely in leadership literature and is shown to attract (or not) clients based on a clear sense of purpose. If anything, clients of a business "buy in" what a business leader believes in ("How great leaders inspire action").
The proposed personal leadership philosophy should, of course, cater for needs of internal stakeholders, i.e. employees. By removing barriers to communication across different organizational levels, one is better able to promote collaboration at workplace.
Values
The proposed philosophy should, intuitively, be based on a set of applicable values. These values should be developed bottom-up and not conversely. Indeed, a healthy corporate culture is said to be so only if both external (i.e. clients) and internal (i.e. employee) stakeholders subscribe convincingly to adopted and applicable values. For proposed personal leadership philosophy, one would adopt values of diversity, collaboration, empathy and stewardship. By diversity is not meant cultural or ethnic diversity only but also differences at professional, education and age levels. By collaboration is meant a broader sense of worker cooperation beyond day-to-day business functions. Specifically, collaboration in proposed personal leadership philosophy refers to flexibility in performing different roles. The empathy value refers to a healthier superordinate-subordinate relationship based on mutual understanding and respect, particularly during periods of crisis. The stewardship value caters for ecological needs and adapts different business operations and processes for more sustainable practice.
Goal Setting
The proper identification of goals in a business setting is, probably, one most consuming effort. To better identify and set business goals, one needs consult main stakeholders. Needless to emphasize, consulting stakeholders has come to be an increasingly required procedure in current business ecosystem if only because bottom-up management – and, for that matter, leadership – has come to be adopted as most effective practice. Further, properly set goals are shown to enhance motivation and minimize unethical behavior (Schweitzer, Ordóñez and Douma). The proposed personal leadership philosophy is, accordingly, based on active engagement of workers for more effective performance. This can be achieved by strategizing for objectives at senior levels and enabling middle and lower levels of management and execution to set goals each according to needs of respective business unit. Further, set goals should be reviewed periodically in order to ensure strategic as well as short and medium range goals are aligned to not only cutting edge practices but also to business needs in and outside organizational context in question.
Decision Making
In order to make informed decisions, proper support systems should be in place. Given current business practice, information systems are assuming more significance in supporting decisions made at different corporate levels. Yet, information systems are not embedded in vacuum. If anything, users of different professional and cultural values use systems in place. The human factor is usually underestimated in deploying and adopting information systems. This position of "dehumanizing" information systems has, however, been challenged by a growing body of literature. Notably, differences in decision making processes among American, Japanese and Chinese managers are shown to be informed by cultural values and different needs for achievement, affiliation, power and information (Martinsons and Davison). Therefore, in order to support decision in an increasingly IT-enabled business context, all possible differences in usability patterns should be considered for. In congruence to current proposed personal leadership philosophy based on values of diversity, collaboration and empathy, catering for differences in decision making process at all corporate levels becomes a mandate.
Servant Leadership
The concept of servant leadership remains an evolving one (Russell and Stone). Therefore, in order to develop a personal philosophy of servant leadership, one needs to establish a solid concept servant leadership. For current purposes, a servant leader is one who inspires bottom-up by example. Put differently, by promoting an organizational context in which collaboration, particularly between upper management and lower levels, is a constant, managers at different corporate levels are apt to adopt example of senior management. Further, by making upper management more reachable (but revered), a company's C-Suite would be able to engage managers – and, for that matter, staff – as collective interest is perceived by subordinates as an important priority for senior management.
Ethical Behavior
If anything, business ethics is one most ubiquitous concept but is, paradoxically, not properly enabled in practical practice. To promote a culture of ethical behavior in an organizational context, clear cut code of ethics should be developed (bottom-up). This should ensure an overarching business ethics contract, so to speak, is in place for enforcement and reference. Then, enforced (by consensus) across different business functions, (un)ethical behavior should be monitored (after worker's consent) in order to reward or punish achievers or non compliers respectively.
Trust & Team Building
Time consuming and prone to conflict generation, trust and team building efforts require measures far beyond regulatory policies. As noted, collaboration can be developed in a business context by enabling a corporate culture of collaboration. This can be achieved by managing human capital relationships at different corporate levels. The regular role swap, job design and business organization are among variables an inspiring leader should consider for in building trust and teams. The growing reliance of virtuality is, moreover, an organizational novelty which a leader should consider for. Given how miscommunication can occur in a web-based context, particularly if collaborating workgroups are at extremes of cultural and professional differences, ensuring clear (as much as possible) communication as per set policies and practices is required.
Empowerment
Empowerment assumes different meanings in a corporate context. However, empowerment based on gender is probably one most common (lacking) aspect in different organizations. By enabling women to assume roles of leadership (by eliminating historical gaps in promotion and pay), a personal leadership philosophy is apt to be as inclusive as possible of all workforce, a practice congruent to proposed value of diversity in a broader sense. There are, of course, different forms of empowerment for underprivileged and underrepresented workers, particularly at upper management levels, including most notably empowerment of ethnic minorities such as African Americans and Hispanics.
Conflict Management
Needless to emphasize, conflict is a constant in any business context. The issue at stake is, accordingly, not whether conflict exists or not but how conflict can be managed. Current research establishes connections between personality and conflict management style. The attributes of extroversion, conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness are shown, for example, to correlate positively with an integrating style, whereas attributes of agreeableness and neuroticism are shown to correlate positively with avoiding style (Antonioni). Generally, five main conflict management styles exist: integrating, obliging, dominating, avoiding, and compromising. For current, proposed personal leadership philosophy, a combination of all conflict management style should be used across different business units and corporate lifecycle. For example, staff is more inclined to be more confrontational during periods of crises. By adopting a more compromising style, direct conflict can be avoided and impact of "turf wars" mitigated.
Change Management
Compromise, empathy and collaboration are best practices during periods of major change. Understandably, change is resisted by everyone. To mitigate negative expected and potential effects of change, change should, first of all, be communicated properly. The decisions to merge, expand, layoff or even going out of business should be made not in an abrupt manner but as gradually as possible long before actual implementation. This should ensure conflict would not erupt and cause far reaching damage.
Time Management
Compared to more conventional forms of office work, current work practices are becoming increasingly demanding. For one, fixed working hours are giving way to more extended working hours as job roles expand and change. This requires proper time management by performing routine and non-routine functions in more innovative ways. For example, a combination of onsite and web-based working hour approach can be adopted to save time consumed in commuting, over lunch breaks and, not least, to strike a better balance between work and life.
Works Cited
Antonioni, David. "Relationship between The Big Five Personality Factors and Conflict Management Styles." International Journal of Conflict Management 9.4 (1998): 336 – 355. Emerald Insight. Web. 30 April 2016.
"How great leaders inspire actions." Online video clip. TED. TED, September 2009. Web. 29 April 2016.
Martinsons, Maris G. and Robert M. Davison. "Strategic decision making and support systems: Comparing American, Japanese and Chinese management." Decision Support Systems 43.1 (2007): 284–300. ScienceDirect. Web. 30 April 2016.
Russell, Robert F., and A. Gregory Stone. "A review of servant leadership attributes: developing a practical model." Leadership & Organization Development Journal 23.3 (2002): 145 – 157. Emerald Insight. Web. 30 April 2016.
Schweitzer, Maurice E., Lisa Ordóñez, and Bambi Douma. "Goal Setting as a Motivator of Unethical Behavior." Academy Management Journal 47.3 (2004): 422-432. Web. 30 April 2016.
