Personal Leadership Philosophies

Personal Leadership Philosophies

Jennifer Brenner

Walden University

NURS6053C: Interprofessional Organizational and Systems Leadership

July 5, 2019

Personal Leadership Philosophies

One of the most critical things that an individual can do in order to build an acceptable leadership character is to create a framework for his/her personal leadership philosophy. Philosophy is meant to form a foundation for guiding one’s decisions and sorting out all the competing inputs to get along with other people. Developing a personal leadership attitude empowers one to declare his/her truth and stick to it. An effective leader should possess a personal leadership philosophy that incorporates his/her core values and strengths, which makes other people depend on him/her whenever they have problems that require an urgent response.

My core values are integrity and open-mindedness. Integrity is associated with emotional intelligence, which implies that one is capable of identifying and managing his/her own emotions, in addition to the emotions of others. A person can undergo various training programs on leadership, but lack of emotional intelligence makes it hard to become an effective leader (Waldo, Clark & Wharton, 2018). Being open-minded has helped me to incorporate other people’s thoughts in my decisions, and to admit when I am wrong. Besides, I only make a decision based on what I know, rather than basing my decisions on hearsay. I have utilized my core values to select my friends, to create relationships, and to solve a societal problem.

Developing my personal vision is vital for demonstrating my commitment to what I believe in. It gives me the courage to continue whatever goal or task I set my mind on accomplishing so I don’t get discouraged, lose focus, or be less motivated. My personal vision statement is:

“Assisting people to overcome their self-inflicted impediments by being a master of my own course and attaining all my goals within the postulated time.”

If I am capable of attaining my own goals through my personal vision, then I can be able to counsel others to follow a particular course or similar path to attain their goals. The leader’s vision should be acceptable to the team members, as it incorporates ideas that enhance commitment while they strive to meet their personal needs (Aga, Noorderhaven & Vallejo, 2016). People are attracted to leaders who understand their personal strengths and are willing to assist others as well.

In an effort to understand my leadership traits, I undertook CliftonStrengths Assessment, whose results revealed five fundamental themes that explain my talents. As a relator, I feel deeply satisfied when I talk to people, understand their problems, and demonstrate to them how to attain their goals. I always perceive issues from a positive perspective in order to demonstrate to others that everything is possible. An effective leader needs to lead by examples since his/her followers replicate bad behaviors, which could be costly to the organization. Working hard on my projects and motivating others to do so has made me become an achiever. I have been a team leader in various institutions because people believe in my capability and resilience in my work. I feel satisfied when I witness people succeeding in their careers because of my assistance.

I cherish the ideas that I am good at wooing others to listen to my advice because I have built trust on them. To woo others is moral courage, where individuals are willing to encounter social disapproval as they undertake what they believe is their duty (Press, 2018). Being strategic has helped in coming up with different ways of solving people’s problems, in addition to showing them how to distribute responsibilities. A strategic leader does not fall short of options to exploit whenever he/she is confronted with an issue that requires his/her opinion.

My personal leadership philosophy has also helped in recognizing areas that I need to strengthen in order to meet my goals, as well as assist others in meeting theirs. For instance, I have realized that I am not good in responding to feedback and the lack of creativity has made me struggle to offer lasting solutions to some of the issues that I have encountered as a leader. Sometimes, employees may make unreasonable demands or allow emotions to express their anger towards their leaders (Zhang, 2016). In such cases, it may become difficult to offer feedback on time. Thus, I would like to change the way I deal with both positive and negative feedback from the team that I lead.

Consequently, my plan to strengthen my feedback response should be based on how I prioritize things, and what I intend to do with the information once I receive it. I should strive to become a responsible leader, who, according to Voegtlin (2016), should engage actively with stakeholders through effective communication and encouraging participative decision-making. Zhang (2016) suggests that feedback should be dealt with immediately to avoid the negative influence and employee turnover. My plan to enhance creative thinking will involve reading books and articles written by famous people who have succeeded in their careers, in addition to asking advice from senior leaders from the same industry. Having an interest in the latest technology and being curious about what other people are doing can help in enhancing personal creativity.

References

Aga, D. A., Noorderhaven, N., & Vallejo, B. (2016). Transformational leadership and project success: The mediating role of team-building. International Journal of Project Management, 34(5), 806-818.

Hargett, C. W., Doty, J. P., Hauck, J. N., Webb, A. M., Cook, S. H., Tsipis, N. E., ... & Taylor, D. C. (2017). Developing a model for effective leadership in healthcare: a concept mapping approach. Journal of healthcare leadership, 9, 69.

Press, E. (2018). Moral courage: A sociological perspective. Society, 55(2), 181-192.

Voegtlin, C. (2016). What does it mean to be responsible? Addressing the missing responsibility dimension in ethical leadership research. Leadership, 12(5), 581-608.

Waldo, R. D., Clark, M., & Wharton, R. B. (2018, June). The Measure of Emotional Intelligence in Leaders. In Global Conference on Business and Economics (GLOBE 2018).

Zhang, Y. (2016). A review of employee turnover influence factor and countermeasure. Journal of Human Resource and Sustainability Studies, 4(02), 85.