Leadership Values

I compiled this list of leadership values over the course of my career.  None of it is profound and all of it I have taken from others who have influenced my life.  I share this list with my team each time I join a new organization.  It helps frame the perspective from which I will operate and it lets the team know what will be expected of them.  I hope you find this of value in your work.

1.   Leadership is lonely.  Sometimes you will make people angry.

2.   If you believe in people, you believe in safety & diversity.

3.   Lead by example.  People see what you do more clearly than they hear what you say.

4.   Don’t mold yourself to the latest fads and buzzwords.  Mold yourself to your beliefs, your values and your convictions.

5.   Every decision has systemic implications beyond your field of vision.  Understand that, and know there will be unexpected tradeoffs.

6.   Take the time to explain your decisions to the people who work for you.  Explaining does not mean justifying.  You need to build perspective so people can take ownership.

7.   Give people the tools and the assistance necessary to do their jobs.  Let each situation dictate your involvement and what is necessary to accomplish the team’s mission.

8.   Let people make decisions and mistakes.  Help them learn from their mistakes.

9.   If you make a mistake, learn from it and move on.  Don’t dwell in the past, don’t hold grudges, and don’t make the same mistake twice.

10.  Sharing a problem is not a sign of weakness or failure, but a sign of mutual confidence.

11.  Don’t blame your problems on others.  Take ownership and search for creative solutions.  Over time, people will recognize the character of a leader and a winner.

12.  Bad news gets worse with time.  Don’t wait until it is too late to make a difference.

13.  Good news should be shared, achievements praised and proper credit given to those who deserve it.

14.  Your success as a leader will be measured by the legacy of the people you leave behind.

15.  Fight for your people.  Earn their loyalty and their respect.

16.  Loyalty means when an issue is open for debate, giving your honest opinion, whether the leader agrees or not.  Disagreement at this stage is stimulating.  However, once a decision is made, loyalty means executing the decision as if it were your own.

17.  If you don’t understand, ask.  If you still don’t understand, ask again.  If you still don’t understand, ask again.  There may be a problem with the speaker rather than with the listener.  Don’t ever let the phrase “I didn’t understand” be the reason for failure.

18.  Share.  Your success is dependent on the success of the whole.  Isolationism doesn’t work.

19.  Winning is not the most important thing.  What is important is doing everything within your power to ensure success.  In the end, you must be able to look yourself in the mirror with honor, pride and integrity.

20.  Although winning isn’t everything, not everybody feels that way.  Understand the world looks at the win/loss column.  Results count.

21.  Your career is to be enjoyed, not endured.  Have fun at work.  Don’t always run at maximum speed.  Take time off when you’ve earned it.  Spend time with your family.  Weekends and holidays were made to be taken.  Don’t use them as a dumping ground for your inefficiencies.

Balancing the Essential Elements

Leonardo DaVinci's Vitruvian Man illustrates the ideal proportions of Man and their relationship to the workings of the universe.  The five points of Man- head, hands and feet are also reflected in the pentagram or five-pointed star, which Pythagoras described as "mathematical perfection".  At the root of both of these depictions is balance and proportion.

Life is a delicate balance.  Nature demands it.  The slightest imbalance in a person's body chemistry or in the ecosystem of a meadow or a pond can have catastrophic, even fatal consequences.  Yet occasionally our lives go out of balance.  Sometimes with intent, other times we lose our way without knowing it...until it is too late.

Like the Vitruvian Man and the pentagram, there are five critical elements of balance in our lives:

1. Spiritual
2. Physical
3. Intellectual
4. Emotional
5. Economic

Spiritual:  Christian, Jew or Muslim; Hindu, Buddhist or Taoist, it is important that we establish a spiritual base in our lives.  Spirituality creates the moral boundaries of our existence.  It is what separates right from wrong in society.  It is the foundation for law and the antidote to lawlessness.  Spirituality exists only in human kind.  It is the element which contains our animal instincts and which separates humans from the rest of the living world.

Physical:  Our physical state of well-being is what allows us to function every day.  People who lead a healthy lifestyle, who moderate what they eat and drink and who exercise regularly have more energy, greater mental alertness and they live longer lives than those who do not.  Loosing our physical health can detract significantly from our ability to effectively manage the other four elements.

Intellectual:  It isn't just about being smart, but perhaps more importantly it is about how we use the intelligence we have been given.  Intelligence comes in many forms.  Harvard University Professor Howard Gardner http://www.howardgardner.com/index.html has dedicated his life's work to multiple intelligence theory.  Simply put, each of us has an innate ability to understand particular elements, or combinations of elements in the world around us better than others.  We all know people who are brilliant in math or who excel in music, but those same people can get lost walking around the block.  Others are able to accurately assess a person's character in a brief meeting or seem to have a deeper connection to the spiritual world, but they don't know a screw from a nail.   We must work to enhance our intellectual capacity and put to use the intellect we have.  If we don't, it really doesn't matter how smart we are.

Emotional:  Just as we must take care of our physical health, we must also dedicate part of our lives to maintaining our emotional health and increasing our emotional intelligence.  This includes placing emphasis on creating positive relationships with others and improving our own internal state of mind.  Healthy relationships with our families, our co-workers and friends are essential.  We must also spend time nurturing our self esteem and defining our aspirations.

Economic:  This is perhaps the element where most of us are at risk of spinning our lives out of balance.  How many people toss some or all of the other four elements out the window in pursuit of wealth?  Financial stability is important, but it can't stand alone in our lives.  I contend that the greater the balance in our lives, the greater will be the potential for economic reward.

Balancing these five essential elements in our lives isn't easy.  Sometimes life demands that we focus on one element more than another, usually to make up for a period of deficiency.  But on average, in the course of every day, each of these five elements requires attention.  Think of your life as a wheel and these five elements of balance as spokes on that wheel.  If one of the spokes is shorter than the others, or is missing altogether, the ride will be bumpy.  But if all the spokes are there and they are all the same length, imagine the difference in how smoothly your wheel will roll.

Roll on!

The Power of Balance - Getting Started

This is my first blog post.

Over the course of the last few months, I have found myself evolving from using my computer almost exclusively for e-mail and surfing the web to having a Facebook page, Tweeting and now trying my hand at writing a blog. Perhaps one day, this dinosaur will even walk upright and make fire! Stay tuned...

Balance has always been a part of my life, although like most people, my definition of balance sometimes has to be brought back into alignment by those most important to me; namely - my family.

Through this blog, I hope to share with you many of the things I have learned about the Power of Balance. I will build on my personal experiences, good and bad, and I will share insights from others. I also hope to learn from you and your experience. How do you put balance in your life? How do you achieve success through the Power of Balance? And, what happens when imbalance creeps in and your life begins to tilt too far one way or the other?

So, climb aboard and enjoy the ride. I look forward to our adventure together.