What are your principles?
All leaders should be able to answer this question easily. Yet, many struggle to address it. I have been in many organizations where, if you asked the question, “What does this business stand for?” you would get blank stares. Values are the building blocks of any organization. Without a shared set of beliefs and principles, a company is like a ship without a rudder, adrift in a sea of individual interpretations and situational experiences. A ship without a rudder will drift anywhere.
John Mellencamp has a great line in a song that goes, “You have to stand for something, or you will fall for anything.” Business, like life in general, is full of temptation. Especially when faced with tough competition or mounting financial pressures, it’s easy to stray and opt for what’s easy or convenient in the moment. We have all heard the saying, “If you want to learn who someone truly is, then give them money and power.” If you don’t know what you stand for, it is more difficult to make tough decisions.
A leader’s job is to first provide direction and create an environment that fosters success. You are constantly on stage, and your people are watching your every move. They look to you to decipher what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior. You must instill and codify core beliefs and principles throughout the organization to ensure everyone understands the boundaries within which they should operate. This process includes deciding who to promote, reward, and publicly acknowledge. Every organization needs an ethical compass to stay on the right path. There are no good moral shortcuts to success.
Sadly, many of us are disenchanted by the level of private and public leadership we see these days. Machiavellian tactics continue to persist. We are exposed to daily examples of individual leaders prioritizing their own personal aggrandizement or wealth aspirations over the well-being of the company, its stakeholders, the country, and the global community. In this environment, it is easy to become cynical and tempted to succumb to similar behavior ourselves. But if you stand for something more important and live by those beliefs, it can help you avoid these bad habits.
Your principles and values make up the core of who you are. It is easy to lose sight of this fact and get tempted by opportunity. There are certain things in life you can’t take back or make amends for once they have happened. Regardless of the size of the company or the scale of the role, every leader makes choices daily that reflect their values and impact the lives of others.
Leaders are defined more by what they say “no” to than by what they say “yes” to. If you fall into the “ends justify the means” trap, it will come back to haunt you. Actions always have consequences. Therefore, I often tell my clients that it is essential to know two things: what guides you and what grounds you. Without a solid foundation, a leader, like a building, will crack under the weight of its own pressure.
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- The Difficult Word (thoughtfulbeliever.wordpress.com)
- Is your leadership inclusive and empowering? If you’re the leader, you’re the wrong one to ask. (donnaroman.wordpress.com)
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