building my Leadership Philosophy (part 1)
Hi folks! Sorry for the long break in posts (I'm especially sorry to all my dear Russian and SEO spambots), but I was enjoying my recent return to the US and catching up on family time. Also, I don't really have a job, so there isn't much to talk about, hacking-organizational-leadership-wise. So what do you do when you have little to do? Work on yourself, of course!
Every good leader needs a philosophy. A set of defined principles or fundamental guidelines. Something that he/she can layout to subordinates, peers, and superiors that frames his/her leadership methodologies. This is who I am, and this is what I stand for. Given my recent easy workload, I've been refining my own leadership philosophy. I'm going to go over my first principle in today's blog post. Later posts will cover additional principles, as well as possible revisions to prior posts.
Principle #1: Constantly Strive for Excellence
It seems so cliche, so over-exposed, that it's practically pointless to even say. OF COURSE YOU STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE! Who the hell doesn't? It's about as mandatory a principle as they come. What kind of leader would come into their first day at work and announce to the whole company "listen up! things around here are going to change! The days of hard work, laser-focused on achieving greatness are over. From now on, mediocrity is our #1 priority!" A sure-fire recipe for success, no doubt. How many lame "motivational" posters can you find floating around Facebook that encourage striving for greatness?
one of the better motivational posters I've seen
so I fully admit that I am neither original, let alone creative. Who cares? Good leadership doesn't require originality or creativity. The playbook has been written and re-written thousands of times. Fortune 500 CEOs and 4-star generals aren't doing anything that Roman emperors or viking jarls didn't already figure out. All the greats, from Alexander to Marcus Aurelius to Teddy Roosevelt, constantly strove for excellence. They had a fire that burned inside them, fueling their actions every day. I want what they had: I want to feed that fire inside me and spread it to those around me. I chose Constantly Striving for Excellence as the 1st principle in my leadership philosophy because, by God, even if I fail and fall short in so many other ways, at least I shot for the moon.