Leadership Values
Menanteau Serfontein – 11 March 2021
The intention for including an article about leadership on this Website is not to present a comprehensive overview about leadership. The purpose of this article is to outline some of the core values (not skills) that successful leaders should ideally live by.
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” —Lao Tzu (Ancient Chinese Philosopher)
“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.” —Max DePree
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” —John Maxwell
“He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.” —Aristotle
“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” —Jim Rohn
Based on my own experience and observation, I have compiled the following examples of core leadership values that I believe are essential for a leader to be truly successful over the long term (the green wording indicates instances where there are links to Articles previously posted on the Website):
- Personal Integrity and Honesty. I strongly believe that someone who does not meet the highest standards in this area, should not be allowed to lead, irrespective of how excellent the person might be in all the other areas of leadership
- A realization that uncompromising Integrity and Honesty must be a non-negotiable core value in the team/organization that you lead and actively ensuring that this becomes part of the culture at all levels
- A realization of the imperative to build alignment, inclusiveness and teamwork around a shared vision as well as shared goals and values. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” —Proverbs 29:18
- Commitment to Duty, Trustworthiness, Reliability, Dependability and Faithfulness
- Respect, Honour and Dignity
- Treat followers (subordinates) in the same way that you would like to be treated
- Courage, Commitment, Willpower, Determination, Perseverance, and Follow-through. Thomas Jefferson said “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
- Take your share of the responsibility when things go wrong; don’t put the blame on others
- Self-control and Self-restraint
- Humility
- Don’t expect from others what you yourself are not prepared to do
- Earn respect; don’t command it
- Fair, reasonable, equitable, consistent and predictable
- Give recognition and appreciation for big as well as little things. Often saying “Thank you” and “Well done” contributes immensely towards motivation, a sense of belonging and loyalty
- Give your team the credit for achievements – don’t steal the limelight and don’t talk about “I” did this and “I” did that
- Provide appropriate rewards commensurate with the performance of individuals and teams
- Apply the principle of meritocracy, objectivity and fairness in appointments, promotions and remuneration – instead of favouritism, friendships, nepotism, connections and other arbitrary factors
- Inspire and empower people to grow, to develop, to believe in themselves and to become the best they can be (in the workplace and elsewhere)
- A deep realization that the “bar” set for leaders is always much higher than it is for the people whom you are leading
- A deep commitment to setting the example and sticking to the rules that you expect others to follow
- Being a servant-leader
Brian Tracy says “Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.”
Many people believe that you are either a born leader or you’re not. The good news is that every one of us has the ability to become a good leader. The well-known leadership expert Warren Bennis said “The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born – that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.”
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