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Creating Your Compass: How To Write Your Personal Leadership Philosophy

Need to re-think your management approach? An inspiring new book teaches you how to determine-and communicate-who you are and what you expect from your team.

King of Prussia, PA (June 2003)-A few questions for managers: Are you taking full advantage of your employees' strengths? Are you able to not only motivate them, but to inspire passion for meeting their goals? Do your employees understand and buy into your vision for your company? Do you even have a clearly articulated vision? If your answer is yes, congratulations: you're a great leader. If not, don't despair. You simply need to create (and live by) a personal leadership philosophy-and there's a new book on the market that will help you do it right.

The Leader's Compass: Set Your Course For Leadership Success (Academy Leadership Publishing, June 2003, ISBN 09727323-0-6, $10.00)-by Ed Ruggero and Dennis F. Haley-is the story of how one manager developed his personal statement on what he expects from his team and from himself. Though it's a work of fiction, it shows the reader how (and why) to create his or her own "compass." Ultimately, this personal leadership philosophy lets people know what you expect, what you value, how you'll act, and how you'll measure performance.

Summary Of The Leader's Compass.

Guy Cedrick, a top performer with marketing and design firm The Eaton Group, has just been thrust into a leadership position. Assigned to manage the company's newest division, he is suddenly faced with overwhelming challenges. He is expected to motivate and challenge a group of new employees-and his superior design skills are no help at all in this new role. He is in over his head, he can't control his employees, and a critical new project hangs in the balance.

At home one weekend, he borrows some gardening tools from his neighbor Stanley Sabato, a retired Navy commander. Admiring Stanley's neat garage, Guy makes a connection between the orderly rows of tools and the editors, animators and designers he's been charged with managing. He shares his workplace struggles with Stanley, and the two men embark upon a conversation that continues over the next several months . . . and the remainder of the book.

As Guy learns about the nature of leadership from his wise older neighbor, he begins to slowly bring order to his chaotic work world. He starts to understand the animosity of a difficult employee, convenes an "all-nighter" to rescue the floundering marketing project, forges strong connections with his team members, and even resolves a communication issue in his marriage. The book culminates in Guy's written leadership philosophy-and instructs readers on how to write one of their very own. 

What Should Your Leadership Philosophy Include?

• Personal values such as honesty, commitment, respect for others
• Description of how you will carry out your responsibilities
• What your priorities are
• What you expect of your people and how you will evaluate them
• What your people can expect of you

How Should You Develop It?

• Define what you think an effective leader should be. The best way to do this is to make a list of the qualities of the best and worst leaders you have known. Define each leader individually. The purpose of the exercise is for you to define good leadership through your personal experiences.
  
  
• Compare and contrast the "best" and "worst" lists. Explain the similarities and differences. Write a short paragraph describing both a good leader and a bad leader. This will be the basis for your own analysis.
  
  
• Using your descriptions, analyze your leadership style and personality. Which characteristics do you have? How important are they to you? To others? Pick the top three to five stated or implicit values. Get them down in writing as if you were explaining them to your child. State the ethical rules you infer from these values.
  
  
• Now that you have the values and ethical rules, translate these into leadership principles that you will model and that you want to see in others. Again, clearly articulate them.
  
  
• Finally, add in your particular likes and dislikes, your "hot buttons" or "pet peeves."
  
  
• Throughout the process, follow the advice of General Ulysses S. Grant, who said "Write as if sending a telegram to a fool that will be prepaid by a miser." In other words, be complete, but not verbose.
  
  

At this point, you should have the first draft of your philosophy. Review it and then set it aside for at least a week. After the week is up, review it again, make corrections and set it aside for another week. Keep doing this until you are satisfied with the philosophy.

Now, What Should You Do With It?

Distribute it, discuss it, and live it to the letter. Publish and disseminate it to your people. Have them read it. Make sure they fully understand every word. Don't do this once and forget about it. Continue to emphasize your philosophy and what it means to your people in their day-to-day work lives. Finally, make sure you live by your own philosophy.

Followers expect leaders to show them the standard and train them to reach it. They expect leaders to lead by example. Additionally, they expect leaders to keep them informed and to care for them. Leaders may have to ask others to make extraordinary sacrifices to achieve goals. If leaders have trained their people to standard, inspired their willingness, and consistently looked after their interests, they will be prepared to accomplish any goal, anytime, anywhere. Publishing a leadership philosophy helps create an environment for these things to happen.