The Leadership Philosophy

“How many people have actually read the ‘Belief’ Statement?” I said as I pointed to the large Belief Statement banner which stood upon the stage next to me.

A single hand out of almost two hundred attendees was raised. That hand, funny enough, belonged to meeting planner who had hired me.

“Are you serious?” was my incredulous response.

The one item out of the seven listed on the Belief Statement banner that I was drawing attention to made reference to each staff member being responsible for their own ongoing, continuous self-improvement and learning. I personally think that the responsibility for self-improvement should be on the individual and not the employer, no matter what.

So over the course of the hour that I addressed this group, I continually referenced the importance of self-improvement and a dedication to continuous learning.

I believe that taking fifteen minutes a day, a single coffee-break, to learn something today that may improve you personally or professionally, will show results exponentially down the road. Reading a chapter in a book that can improve your job performance, your willingness to stretch yourself, to learn a new skill or to enhance your skill set will, down the road, affect your paycheck.

The more you learn, the more valuable you become, the more likely you will be rewarded for your value.

Your employer is likely to see little reason to invest more resources or more money in you if you have not demonstrated a return on investment by investing in yourself first. And the truth is that if your employer is not able to see the results of your self-improvement strategy, it is likely that another employer will see it and offer you more to come to work there instead.

You don’t have to be in a management position to continually upgrade yourself. Just because someone has the title “manager” doesn’t mean they are a leader. Sometimes, and contrary to what many employers believe, people who could lead a revolt against management have much more leadership ability than the managers they themselves work for.

Attitude Adjustment: Leadership is an attitude. Management is a title. You can possess one without the other. The two do not necessarily go hand in hand. The person who continuously self-improves puts him or herself in a much better position to influence others than does the manager who stops learning one he or she gets the title. Just because you’re not the boss doesn’t mean you’re not a leader. And just because you’re not a leader doesn’t mean you can’t be the boss. I mean, c’mon, we’ve all worked for bosses that had little leadership ability. The leader is the person who has demonstrated that he or she could always improve and makes a plan to make sure they are ahead of the pack. If you’re ahead of everyone else and they seem to be following you, then you must be the leader right? Open a book and start learning how to get in front.