Leadership - A Philosophy

This week we were gifted the opportunity to consider our philosophies on leadership. 

In 2021, we are all leaders; of our families, of our communities, of our businesses, our countries, of our movements. Every one of us, every day, is asked to step up in some way to lead.

There is no doubt that an effective leader needs to lead in their own style. There are plenty of textbook definitions on the virtues of great leaders, all developed and extracted from behaviours of people who grew to positions of leadership. Certainly none are perfect. Certainly most are great.

Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Sir Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Peter Diamandis - all great leaders and all have a unique leadership style. Instead of textbook definitions, we need to find the uniqueness in each of us and lead from that centre. Identifying leaders you admire and why you admire them is part of this process.

Jobs is admired because of his focus and his total belief in what he was doing. The same can be said of Elon Musk. Both men pursued their crystal clear vision until those visions came to fruition. They backed themselves 100%. In both their cases relentlessly. Is this right? There's no right answer to that. Look at what Jobs achieved. Look at what Musk is doing. Neither leader asked for more than what they were prepared to do themselves.

Tony Hsieh put culture and values above all else at Zappos. In fact culture and values are the business. The culture and the customer service. It served him and Zappos well.

Jacinda Ardern leads with empathy and kindness and has ditched GDP in favour of the happiness and wellbeing of New Zealanders. Happiness, equality and compassion are major contributors to her leadership style. And there's more leaders joining that movement. 

When a leader leads from their unique centre, and defines their massively transformative purpose from that position, they will attract the tribe they need in order to see their vision fulfilled.