Annette Williams writes:
I have always encouraged the trainees to take advantage of leadership, management and teamwork skills. These skills are all learnable skills that anyone can master by practicing them until they become a habit.
In our discussions about leadership it became evident that we all have our own role models who we strive to emulate. We follow leaders who appeal to us. These leaders bring out the best in us without them even trying. We find ourselves motivated by their vision and the course they set for themselves. It is easy to relate this to our school days where we did our best work effortlessly, in the classes of the teachers we liked and maybe without realising it, continued doing so in our careers.
So, what do we look for in leaders and what makes us follow these leaders? Observing leaders over many years I’ve come to realise that it’s easy to follow people we like. People with values and principles we can relate to and with a vision of a possible future that holds potential and promise for us.
During business and strategic planning sessions, organisations adopt values during the formulation of a value statement, which they publicly voice in their company motto, yet they find it difficult to bring it alive in their environments. I discovered that the values that are being proposed by individuals in an organisation are aligned to a business model but not necessarily to their own core values intrinsic to the people who are now expected to align themselves to these values
So what exactly are these values and how do we come to embrace them?
Values are principles and beliefs that we deem to be of personal importance. These values influence our behaviour or attitude towards something or someone and even our way of life. In my opinion, every person has a set of core values that has taken shape through life experiences, influenced by parents, family, peers, teachers, clerics and the society we live in. The values we embrace as leaders and management influence the attitude and behaviour of the people who work with us.
To this view, it is interesting to note the difference between an engineer and an accountant. The engineer will drive technology and precision whereas the accountant will be profit driven. These values will then be reflected in the culture of their organisations.
Why not take 5 minutes to find out what your core values are by visiting http://davisdean.co.uk/dd/register.php
Cambridge Network members can claim 25% off Davis&Dean's next training course Leadership in High Performing Teams: Workplace Simulation on 11-12 May. For more information get in touch with Annette.