My Leadership Philosophy

A leadership philosophy is nothing if it is not tied to personal experience. Whatever I have experienced, whatever relationships I’ve had, and wherever I’ve found myself (in the world) have all influenced my idea of leadership. As a child I was constantly moving across the world. I’ve lived in India, Mauritius, Canada, and America. These unique environments taught me one key thing: places change, principles don’t.

By experiencing different cultures and by experiencing intercultural conflicts I realized that everything is really the same, just tied in a different package. Religions worship gods, cultures build societies, and people foster relationships. They may look different and have different names, but the underlying purpose stays the same. If you’re able to master one – you’ve mastered them all. And that realization has kept me well rounded and versatile no matter where I go. All that said, I do have a major flaw.  A flaw that cost me relationships. A flaw that made me a incompetent leader. A lack of patience, specifically with people. This lack has warped my leadership style into something that I can hardly verbalize, but I’ll give it a try.

I used to volunteer at a non profit clinic, Shepherd’s Hope. They’d sign me in, give me a role and for the next 4-5 hours I’d fulfill my role. That was it. I loved the simplicity behind it and I’ve adopted that same system for my own activities. I really like the idea of clarity and I believe clarity is what creates productivity. When you’re given a role, you know exactly what to do. As a front desk you wouldn’t talk to physicians. As a scribe you wouldn’t check in patients. As a nurse you wouldn’t handle finances. People know what they don’t need to do. That keeps them focused on what they need to do. It’s like an old-school clock and each person is one gear that has one role, but that one role is so crucial that it keeps the system running. And the best thing about this system is direct feedback. I can give feedback to others by seeing their competence in fulfilling their role. They can give me feedback by assessing the necessity of that role. There’s always this constant feedback loop from role to leader to leader to role.

Even though I’ve put a lot of effort into visualizing this type of leadership, I’ve never thought about why. And when I ask myself “why” I usually get no response. It’s hard for me to think about why I am the way I am – but it may be just because of the simplicity behind it. I’ve seen this style used effectively in very large businesses (Apple, Sony etc..). If it works for them and also for smaller organizations (like Shepherd’s Hope) that must prove its effectiveness. I guess in this case the idea resonates with my core values of clarity and simplicity. When you have one role – there’s less confusion and that, thereby, increases productivity. However, I do sometimes have very high expectations. Especially for myself. That usually leads me to feel like I’m underperforming and negatively affects the team as a whole. Thankfully the entire thing is a learning process.

My idea of success is very simple. If we reach the goal we set we are successful. If we surpass the goal we set then we’re very successful. I feel like my contribution towards this success would usually come from the high level thinking parts whether its ideas, tactics, or strategies (which is also proven by the working genius assessment). Thankfully with assessments like this one, LEAD scholars have helped me become more aware of what being a leadership means. Also the class discussions have helped me network with people similar to me, learning about how they think and what they do has given me the clarity needed to make changes within my own habits.

My entire goal by adopting this style is to foster a feeling of common purpose and a subtle feeling of collaboration between individuals of a team. Being a delegative leader means that by assigning the right roles the system you create will continue to live and breathe. That’s exactly what I can achieve and by doing so give each and every individual that feeling of common purpose and they know that without them the system wouldn’t exist. Just like a clock with a missing isn’t a clock but a broken machine.