Values
At the beginning of the GLM program, students are presented with SLC's main five values:
|
Strong leaders have strong personal values that they lead by and impress on their team. Creating values and communicating them are essential to establishing a desired culture. Having a strong set of core values help to build respect and trust in a team. Value guides decisions, and will lead to successful decisions through consistently following your values. Clearly communicating your values will help to influence people so they can understand the 'why' of your actions. Ultimately, being a successful leader comes down to how successfully you can influence.
My Values
1. Trust
Looking at various experiences, conversations, and articles I confidently put trust as my top value. Without trust in a team there is no safe space for sharing ideas or confidence to delegate tasks. Taking a look at the Step Ladder Theory to the right, the first two steps as a leader with a new group are establishing a safe environment for the team and building trust. I noticed once trust was established in our cohort of 16 students the environment was more comfortable and true personalities surfaced. Below the step ladder theory is a case study myself and three other's conducted about Crankworx. While interviewing the CEO, Georg Spazier, we gained insight into how he leads a global organization and faces challenges. Georg operates Crankworx on high level of trust. Flip through our slideshow to get an idea of how Georg values trust to understand why it's a big deal for me. |
|
2. Self Awareness
This is the secret to being an excellent global leader. My understanding of self awareness as a leader is recognizing how your behavior is perceived by others, impacts others, and reflecting to constantly improve yourself. As a global leader, you will constantly be interacting with various cultures and people from all sorts of backgrounds. Self awareness is essential during these interactions to make sure you're conforming to different cultural professional mannerisms, practices, and workstyles. Understanding how a different culture operates at work and adapting your style to match the team will improve efficiency, show authenticity, and build trust.
My self awareness greatly improved during my experiences in the classroom and immersing myself in different cultures. Analyzing how people interact and reflecting on how my mannerisms may be perceived convinced me to change my behaviors based on where I am at. Self awareness goes hand in hand with being adaptable which is very important when working in new environments.
This is the secret to being an excellent global leader. My understanding of self awareness as a leader is recognizing how your behavior is perceived by others, impacts others, and reflecting to constantly improve yourself. As a global leader, you will constantly be interacting with various cultures and people from all sorts of backgrounds. Self awareness is essential during these interactions to make sure you're conforming to different cultural professional mannerisms, practices, and workstyles. Understanding how a different culture operates at work and adapting your style to match the team will improve efficiency, show authenticity, and build trust.
My self awareness greatly improved during my experiences in the classroom and immersing myself in different cultures. Analyzing how people interact and reflecting on how my mannerisms may be perceived convinced me to change my behaviors based on where I am at. Self awareness goes hand in hand with being adaptable which is very important when working in new environments.
3. Authenticity
Authenticity is a big part of my leadership style. I earn trust and build my relationships based off of being authentic and bringing my full self to the workplace. I have found that being authentic makes others more engaged, more enthusiastic, and more likely to reciprocate authenticity.
Staying true to myself plays into maintaining strong ethics. Ethics are an important factor within companies and individuals. As a leader, your ethics are what will drive your decision making. I have learned from Dr. Bunds to write down the important things in my life, in order of importance. Then when faced with tough ethical decisions, using that list as a guide for who and what will be affected, I can make the best decision based on my personal ethics. My final assignment for PRT 359 highlights the importance maintaining good ethics throughout my career. Being a leader, clearly communicating the ethics you find important will help people understand why you make the decisions that you make. One way I plan to avoid unethical choices from my team is to set realistic goals that they do not need to cheat in order to achieve them.
Authenticity is a big part of my leadership style. I earn trust and build my relationships based off of being authentic and bringing my full self to the workplace. I have found that being authentic makes others more engaged, more enthusiastic, and more likely to reciprocate authenticity.
Staying true to myself plays into maintaining strong ethics. Ethics are an important factor within companies and individuals. As a leader, your ethics are what will drive your decision making. I have learned from Dr. Bunds to write down the important things in my life, in order of importance. Then when faced with tough ethical decisions, using that list as a guide for who and what will be affected, I can make the best decision based on my personal ethics. My final assignment for PRT 359 highlights the importance maintaining good ethics throughout my career. Being a leader, clearly communicating the ethics you find important will help people understand why you make the decisions that you make. One way I plan to avoid unethical choices from my team is to set realistic goals that they do not need to cheat in order to achieve them.
4. Communication
My final most important value to make the cut for being a strong global leader is communication. I have learned by working with groups for projects, case studies, and even discussions that communication is important and essential to achieve anything. A few examples of why I believe communication is important include creating a clear and common goal, delegating work, having team/individual check-ins, and being an active listener. My experiences this semester have helped me become a better communicator by improving my listening to people. Being thrown in new environments and surrounded by different people, listening is essential because it helps me to understand what I need to do in order to be the best team member possible.
My final most important value to make the cut for being a strong global leader is communication. I have learned by working with groups for projects, case studies, and even discussions that communication is important and essential to achieve anything. A few examples of why I believe communication is important include creating a clear and common goal, delegating work, having team/individual check-ins, and being an active listener. My experiences this semester have helped me become a better communicator by improving my listening to people. Being thrown in new environments and surrounded by different people, listening is essential because it helps me to understand what I need to do in order to be the best team member possible.
My Leadership Philosophy
To the right is my complete leadership philosophy which includes my styles, strengths, habits, values, and best practices.
Team decision making is important for making sure the best conclusion has been made. As a leader I have a democratic style, I make sure to include everyone in the brainstorming and decision making but at the end of the day have the final call. I want the team to come to a conclusion and influence the majority that the decision is the best option. Going off of my authenticity, I enjoy being friendly, empowering, and motivating but I understand that as a leader there comes a time to draw the line and assert authority when necessary. Another large aspect of my philosophy is continual learning and improvement. By creating an environment of highly qualified individuals, everyone is constantly learning from each other. One aspect that I have improved on recently is saying no. I am a heavy includer and people pleaser, but sometimes I need to put myself first and say no to others. I am also very calm and comfortable under pressure or when conflict arises. I believe that you are always responsible for how you act no matter how you feel, and by demonstrating a confident character people are more likely to follow you. |
|
If you're not getting better, you're getting worse...
Pat Riley