One of my goals of 2009 is to develop a leadership philosophy. Over my career, I’ve always looked for others to provide leadership. Everyone has their own style, and if it wasn’t the style I was seeking, then I often felt uninspired.

I went through leadership training in November of 2008. It was called the Culture of Performance at HID. The biggest takeaway from this training, aside from the obvious networking within my company, was that I needed to develop my own leadership philosophy and work on instilling that in others. Of course, if it conflicts with someone else’s philosophy, then we’d have to figure out a way to gel.

Nevertheless, this gave me an opportunity to think about how I wanted to lead, and look at my own philosophy for inspiration. This post is the beginning of my leadership philosophy – I will maintain this in my Pages above.

1. Be on time – it’s important to be respectful of other people’s time. I expect people to respect my time as well
2. Listen actively – Whether I agree or disagree with what you say, I will listen to you and acknowledge your viewpoint. If it’s a matter of opinion, I will hold your opinion in high esteem and not judge you based on it. Everyone is different. We grew up in different environments, and I will listen to what you have to say
3. Everyone is a teacher – respect everyone I meet because each person has something to teach me. Closing the door on a person is closing the door on an opportunity
4. Don’t spread yourself thin – Focus on one thing and do it really well. If I’m so busy that this can’t happen, then work extra hours temporarily and find a way to manage this so it doesn’t continue. Always be VERY GOOD at what I do. Don’t do things mediocre
5. Push the limits – just when I think I can’t do more, I usually can. Push to do more. Constantly be amazed with challenging the realm of personal possibility
6. Smell the roses – this is my most difficult thing. When a job is completed, celebrate. Don’t forget what I’ve done to get here.
7. Say Thank You – to everyone who helped me do a good job, I will say thank you.
8. Be assertive – to everyone who prevented me from being my best, be assertive and constructive in letting them know what I need next time.
9. Learn from the past, but always look forward – I must understand how I got here, but I understand in order to know where I’m going

To be continued in my pages above…