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“What is your philosophy of leadership?” To many people this question can be daunting and difficult to
answer. In fact, I was often met with a blank, deer-in-the-headlights stare when asking this during
interviews for my first book, The Ordinary Leader. I found it surprising that so many people had not
taken the time to fully develop their thoughts about what it means to be a leader.
Before you fully consider what your philosophy of leadership is, it’s crucial to first question if you are
indeed a leader. Or, more importantly, do your staff view you as a leader? Although you may be a
manager because you have the title and some power, do people willingly follow you? Answering this
question will help you focus on what kind of leader you want to be.
Spend some time considering the signs and clues that you are indeed a leader. Do people follow you
because you inspire them or because they fear you? Do they work towards the mission and vision of
your organization because your passion and leadership influence them in a positive direction, or because
they are coerced? When your staff talk to others about their “boss” – you – do they speak positively?
Your answers to these questions will help you determine if you are a leader or not.
Now back to the first question. If you are a leader, what kind are you? What is your philosophy of
leadership? In my experience, there is a spectrum of leadership philosophies that usually fall somewhere
between relational and directive leadership. Relational leaders trust employees to make meaningful
contributions, while directive leaders outline the consequences of not meeting expectations. Relational
leadership is about enabling success, while directive leadership is about preventing failure.
Relational leaders build relationships with employees and promote collaborative decision-making,
information sharing, and teamwork. They assume the best in employees and use influence built on trust
and relationships to motivate. Directive leaders use positional power to actively structure the work of
employees and lay out expectations for compliance. They assume the worst in employees and use
threats and punishments to motivate.
The key element of relational leadership is trust. Leaders who are willingly followed have earned trust
and are therefore able to influence others without using coercion. When you care about your employees
and have their interests in mind – not just the organization’s – you increase the amount of influence
with them.
By now it should be clear that my philosophy of leadership is on the relational side of the spectrum. I say
“side of the spectrum” because there are leaders, even within my own organization, who are more
relational than me. Due to a variety of reasons including personality traits and experience, some people
will be more relational than others. But I make no apologies that I believe all leaders should embrace a
philosophy that emphasizes the importance of relationships. When we get to know our employees on a
human level – when we care about our employees – we build trust. And with trust, employees will move
mountains with you rather than for you.
In my consulting work, one of the most common issues I find within medium to large organizations is
inconsistency in how different managers “do” leadership. Instead of having a crystal clear vision and
approach for how the organization views and lives out leadership, there is often a patchwork of
philosophies and approaches. This typically results in confusion and, at worst, disengaged and
disgruntled employees.
Time and again, I have seen organizations place limits on their success and growth by allowing leaders to
implement different management styles and approaches. When one manager is relational and caring
while another is directive and indifferent, you can rest assured that, over time, their teams will not
perform at their peak. A unified philosophy of leadership is crucial to long-term organizational success.
When we are intentional about articulating our leadership philosophy at an individual and organizational
level, we are more accountable to living it out. When we are faced with difficult leadership decisions,
having a crystal clear leadership philosophy makes it easier to determine how we are going to make that
decision.
For more FREE RESOURCES on this topic and others, visit our free resources page.
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Content of this blog may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Randy Grieser.
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Career Guide
Career development
Leadership Philosophy Examples to Help You Write Your Own
The Indeed Editorial Team comprises a diverse and talented team of writers, researchers and subject
matter experts equipped with Indeed's data and insights to deliver useful tips to help guide your career
journey.
Great leaders use a variety of tools to maximize their impact as leaders. Developing a leadership
philosophy can be a helpful practice for establishing a leadership framework. Leadership philosophies
often vary depending on the leader's goals and overall approach to leadership.
In this article, we explain what a leadership philosophy is, clarify why they are important, provide a list
of examples and share tips for writing your own.
Jenn, an Indeed Career Coach, explains the top leadership styles in management and how to identify the
one that's right for you and your team.
Related: 10 Common Leadership Styles
A leadership philosophy is a structured approach to leading others. Leaders often write philosophies as a
guiding statement for reference while leading a team. Generally, leadership philosophies include the
following components:
Theory
Attitude
Guiding principles
Behavior
The structure of a leadership philosophy can vary greatly depending on the goals and needs of the
leader. Some statements are as short as a sentence while others are a page or more in length. As they
are highly personalized documents, any length or structure is fine for a leadership philosophy.
Leaders can benefit from reviewing leadership philosophy examples to see what elements they would
like to include in their own philosophy and which elements they can do without. Additionally, reviewing
examples of leaders in their industry or leaders who inspire them can help leaders adjust their
philosophies to better emulate those they admire.
Leadership philosophies hinge on the type of leadership the writer uses. Democratic leadership, for
example, yields a different framework and philosophy for the practitioner than autocratic leadership.
Use these leadership philosophy examples, organized by leadership type, to help define your own
leadership philosophy:
Democratic leadership depends on the whole team to make decisions. While the leader may depart
from the team's input occasionally, they almost always ask for and consider the thoughts and opinions
of everyone involved.
I believe everyone should participate in the process. I intend to share responsibility with my team. I will
respect my team, listen to their ideas and inspire them when needed. I will behave with empathy,
thoughtfulness and kindness.
Autocratic leadership situates all the decision and implementation power on the leader. The team is
there to execute the leader's practices and processes, and the leader does not consult them during the
decision-making process.
Laissez-faire leadership gives equal power to the team and the leader. In fact, the leader will often give
little guidance to their team and will instead allow them to work how and when the team feels they
need to. Instead, the leader focuses on high-level matters rather than managing the day-to-day
operations of their team.
I believe my team knows what's best. I intend to trust them to make excellent decisions and meet their
own needs. I will give guidance if it's asked for, but otherwise, I will focus my attention on high-level
projects. I will behave with honesty and trust.
Strategic leadership divides the leader's focus between high-level operations and team oversight.
Strategic leaders maintain individual responsibility for executive operations, but they still offer guidance
and structure for their team.
I believe everyone on the team has a specific duty. I intend to maximize the work product of everyone
on the team. I will provide guidance while also managing high-level company needs. I will behave with
integrity, honesty and decisiveness.
I believe constant change is the only pathway forward. I intend to motivate my team through goal-
setting and overcoming challenges. I will provide guidance and inspiration to improve the team's
performance constantly. I will behave with charisma, drive and passion.
I believe my team will respond to incentives. I intend to motivate my team with a set reward and then
let them work on their own. I will offer guidance if the team needs it, but I trust them to complete the
work as they see fit. I will behave with trust and honesty.
Use these tips to help craft your own personal leadership philosophy:
Make sure you know how you intend to lead your team. Consistency is key as a leader, so know if you
want team input or intend to work independently so that your team knows what to expect from you.
See what the leaders you look up to identify as values in their leadership philosophies. Consider using a
few of their goals, methods or processes in your leadership philosophy.
Establish your goals as a leader before writing your leadership philosophy so that all of your action items
will tie directly to your success.
Consider your leadership successes in the past as well as leadership practices you respect from other
leaders. Use that information to help form your own leadership practice.
Ask questions
Ask yourself questions about what you believe in and what to expect from your team to help establish
your leadership framework.
Ask your team for input. Consider an anonymous survey asking what they like about your leadership
style and what you could improve to help you shape a successful philosophy.
Make it actionable
Make sure your philosophy will help guide your daily actions and decision-making. Keep the language
clear and actionable.
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A leadership philosophy contains value-based ideas of how a leader should be and act and the sources
of their power. Any leadership philosophy is a way of thinking and behaving. It is a set of values and
beliefs. A philosophy is a series of reference points or a foundation upon which processes, decisions,
actions, plans, etc. can be built, developed and applied. Ultimately, a leadership philosophy connects
leadership with humanity, morality and ethics, and crucially, trust.
Leadership philosophies help us to understand how a leader comes to power and stays in power. They
are not 'designed' to be applied like a model or a style, but they do enable much greater insight into the
wider causes of, and effects upon, leadership from the widest possible human viewpoint. This section
explores a range of leadership philosophies, such as Servant Leadership, Authentic Leadership, Ethical
Leadership and Values-Based Leadership.
Ultimately, leadership is a matter of personal conviction and believing strongly in a cause or aim,
whatever it is. It’s almost a state of mind. You don’t have to be ‘born’ a leader to lead, you just need to
adjust your mind-set or be suitably driven by a particular cause.
If you have strong ethics and a clear vision, then you will probably already by aware of your philosophy.
After all, it is this that enables you to grow.
It’s essential to use all of the concepts in unison and to have everyone and everything all heading in the
same direction, achieving the same goal. Understand your way of thinking and look at your behaviour.
Does it fit with your values? Does it encourage others to maintain their enthusiasm and productivity?
Look at your values and beliefs and how they benefit your aims and means.
But remember, it doesn't define your style or model of leading, it merely sets the foundations upon
which to develop it.
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Louis Carter
Use our tools, guides, and processes to develop, assess, and become even more successful in living your
leadership philosophy. We have helped over 42,000 accomplished leaders become more effective
through our leadership philosophy process.
A strong leadership philosophy is key to successfully running a team, organization, or business. When
your leadership style is rooted in a strong set of values and principles, you’ll remain committed to your
goals, and you’ll be more likely to motivate and inspire your employees on a regular basis.
Odds are good you already understand this. That doesn’t mean you confidently know how to develop
your leadership philosophy statement. Thoroughly understanding how to cultivate a philosophy that
provides a foundation for consistent success is often naturally challenging.
It has to be. By studying examples of leadership philosophy, you’ll more clearly understand what you
must do to develop your own. First, however, it’s important to accurately know what a leadership
philosophy consists of.
I am the CEO and founder of Best Practice Institute, partner to Newsweek for the Top Most Loved
Workplaces, trained organizational psychologist, and voted a top 10 organizational culture expert
globally by peers and clients.
We have built leadership philosophies, top cultures, and leaders in companies ranging from the
Pentagon, United Nations, and US Department of Justice to Fortune 500 companies such as Pfizer,
Volvo, Walmart, Bank of America, CVS Healthcare, BlackRock, Corning, and many more.
Join other 42.000 accomplished leaders who have become more effective and successful as a result of
our programs.
Building your leadership philosophy is essential to stay current, brandable, and effective in your current
or next job. If you want to succeed to the next level, you need to see how others perceive you around
the corners and adjust your philosophy continuously to become even more effective. This process
cements your circle of advocates, direct reports, clients, and bosses because your stakeholders will be in
charge of making you an even more successful leader or provider of services – instead of seeing you as
an adversary.
Our process is guaranteed to be successful because it defines your philosophy and uses the power of
stakeholder input to ensure you get support in your leadership position or job.
You will succeed as long as you do the process, follow up with stakeholders, and commit to living the
leadership philosophy. Ultimately, you are as successful as your actions around your new leadership
philosophy.
The $29, Do-It-Yourself guide includes:
The Feedback worksheet gathers and measures feedback from various stakeholders.
The Leadership Philosophy tracker to ensure you successfully implement and improve your leadership
philosophy and stakeholders’ perceptions.
Studying personal leadership philosophy examples is a valuable activity. The philosophy you eventually
cultivate for yourself shouldn’t necessarily be a perfect mirror image of the examples you consider. You
need to remember that a leadership philosophy needs to be personal and unique. This is because it
needs to be authentic. If you try to lead based on someone else’s philosophy, you’ll be less effective.
A leadership philosophy is essentially a belief system that guides your decision-making. It consists of
your core principles, perspectives, and values. When you define what they are, and use them to shape a
leadership philosophy statement, your behaviors and decisions will remain consistent.
You can simplify this idea for yourself by thinking about a leader as if they were a parent. Strong parents
don’t want to be inconsistent in the way they raise their children. They understand they’ll be more
effective if their approach to raising children always reflects their genuine beliefs and values.
The same concept applies to strong leadership. Those you lead will have more respect for you if they can
clearly see you make decisions based on core principles that don’t change simply because circumstances
have changed.
It’s easy to become the type of leader who distrusts other people. This is particularly true in business.
Regardless of your industry, achieving the status of a leader and helping your company grow requires
embracing your competitive nature to some degree.
Unfortunately, some leaders become so competitive that they start to feel they can’t trust others. They
become suspicious of everyone else’s motives. They may even consider their own employees to be
potential threats. Thus, they may lead ineffectively, behaving too defensively to make the right decisions
in all situations.
Other leaders adopt a different approach. They make the decision to “love” everyone they encounter on
a regular basis. This love is not the type of love they would feel for a romantic partner, but it is similar to
the love one feels for relatives and close family members. It requires a surrender to feel empathy for the
other person, and do their level best to come to resolutions by regulation emotions.
Consider this example of leadership philosophy as you develop your own ideas about how to be an
effective leader. Treating your team members (and even your direct competition) with care and respect
can be very helpful in a number of ways – and is more of a relational leadership style.
For instance, perhaps an employee who was once enthusiastic about their role has become clearly
disengaged in recent months. A leader whose philosophy is rooted in defensiveness and
competitiveness might assume this employee has turned against them for some reason. As a result, the
relationship will suffer, and the worker may seek employment elsewhere.
On the other hand, someone who leads with love in a more relational leadership style would take the
time to ask themselves what factors may have contributed to this employee’s lack of engagement. They
can then more effectively determine what steps they must take to correct the issue. This yields very
practical benefits. Engaged employees are more productive, and more likely to remain loyal to an
organization.
Image of Positive Future Vision Leadership Philosophy - Louis Carter.
Do you believe everyone has the potential to succeed in certain major capacities? Or do you think some
people are simply more naturally talented than others, and only a few exceptional individuals can truly
thrive in their careers and lives? If you begin with this positive view of the unlimited potential of every
individual then you likely are exercising a positive future vision leadership philosophy.
Determining how you feel about this can help you determine your overall leadership philosophy. For
instance, a leader who naturally assumes some people will always lack the potential to truly succeed will
often overlook strengths in both their employees and themselves. However, a leader who is optimistic
about everyone’s potential will constantly be on the lookout for qualities and traits they wish to
cultivate in themselves and their team members.
Leading with an optimistic and positive vision of the future improves your chances of leading a
successful team. Focusing on everyone’s innate potential gives you more opportunities to leverage the
unique talents of your employees.
This belief is summarized in a famous quote from Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can, or you think
you can’t, you’re right.” Thinking you and everyone around you can succeed may be an ideal leadership
philosophy principle worth keeping in mind.
Your own personal leadership philosophy needs to be relatively consistent. It won’t help you make the
“right” and most consistent decisions if it’s always changing. One way to ensure that you can remain
strong in your leadership and vision, while also being agile enough to hear and incorporate the ideas of
others is to be a co-creator leader.
Being a co-creator leader means you set the vision of what you are trying to accomplish and create
consistent exercises for your people to make the vision come to reality by coming to THEIR own
conclusions on how to get their with YOUR guidance. Starting by doing the exercise on your own is a
great way to show your commitment to your vision and the exercise itself. Be sure to be as direct as
possible about what the exercise is.
For example, if you want specific and simple financial projections that implements your vision around
“customer-first” then the exercise should specify, “Create a simple, financial project that is simple and
elegant for customers.” Then provide an example. Any adjustments to what you are provided should be
given in the form of feed-forward – or advice, so they can be successful in your exercise.
Be sure to facilitated the exercise within a short period of time – don’t wait a week. If you can, do it in
real time, and provide real-time feedback as to how they can do it better and meet your expectations. If
it is spot on, then you have achieved one of the dreams of a co-creator – an amazing team who are
smarter than you are!
It is crucial to remember that the way in which you approach your day-to-day operations likely will
change over the years.
This has become quite clear in the digital transformation age. The rise of new technologies has disrupted
numerous industries at a faster pace than ever before. Leaders across these industries have had to
adapt in order to stay competitive and effective.
Not all have been successful in doing so. Those who have managed to change with their industries tend
to be the types of leaders who assume everyone including themselves has the capacity to continue
learning new skills over the years. They also tend to be leaders who perceive constant learning as its
own virtue.
Being a Co-creator as a leadership philosophy has major value in fields where disruption is common. You
can’t expect the way you and your team members operate to remain the same throughout your entire
career. Change is inevitable. If your leadership philosophy is rooted in the belief that constant learning is
both important and possible, you may adapt to these changes with relative ease.
The Feedback worksheet gathers and measures feedback from various stakeholders.
The Leadership Philosophy tracker to ensure you successfully implement and improve your leadership
philosophy and stakeholders’ perceptions.
All leaders encounter challenges. This is true in all industries. The way in which you think about these
challenges will play a major role in your potential for continued success.
Leaders who believe challenges represent stressful problems often become pessimistic. Every time a
new challenge arises, they lose energy. Over time, this leads to frustration. Sadly, if you’re stressed and
frustrated as a leader, you’ll struggle to motivate your team.
Other leaders feel almost enthusiastic about challenges. They don’t focus on the problems. Instead, they
focus on challenges as new opportunities to develop unique solutions. They also understand that being
forced to develop new solutions helps them and their team members cultivate new skills that will be
applicable later.
Image of Solutions-Oriented Leadership Philosophy icon - Louis Carter.
For example, when the United States committed to sending humans to the moon, the scientists who
tackled the project set up a major challenge as a major opportunity. Yes, they struggled, but the
solutions they developed over the course of the Apollo program helped them achieve other major goals
later on.
You may not be responsible for sending a person to the moon. However, your work will involve
challenges. Consider inspiring yourself and your team members to overcome them (and grow) by
focusing on solutions instead of problems.
This final example of leadership philosophy may seem to be less valuable than the others listed here.
Don’t make the mistake of dismissing it! This personal leadership philosophy example can in fact be
much more helpful than you might initially assume.
Again, challenges are unavoidable. When they arise, it’s not uncommon for team members to lose
enthusiasm for their work. It’s easy to be excited and optimistic when everything is going right. During
times of struggle, it’s equally easy to start losing faith in one’s own abilities.
You need to guard against this. Your team will be much less effective if pessimism and cynicism are
allowed to fester. That’s why it’s important to cultivate a working environment in which people feel
joyful and at ease. In other words, you need to cultivate a working environment in which laughter plays
an important role.
Hunter “Patch” Adams is the perfect example of a humor-based leader. He uses humor and compassion
to lead medical departments, and also create his own non-profit Gesundheit Institute to provide
palliative care to patients with terminal illness.
As he told me in a personal interview, “There’s no place where loving, compassion, fun, creativity,
understanding, generosity are not needed in the world. It can benefit every single environment, from
churches and prisons, to hospitals and legislative halls, to city streets and elevators. There’s no place
where I haven’t done it that it hasn’t obviously added something.”
That’s not to say you shouldn’t take challenges seriously. On the contrary, your team can only thrive if
you approach problems with the understanding that they need to be addressed. And, when these
challenges present themselves, you need to find ways to prevent unnecessary stress from creeping in.
Leading with a sense of humor and levity will help. When your team members see that you don’t allow
problems to worry you, they’ll also be less worried.
You should feel empowered now to take ideas from each of these leadership philosophies and be an
alchemist of your own! Take these base metals and merge them into one leadership philosophy YOU can
define. Brainstorm the name of your leadership philosophy – what would you call it?
Based on your personal experiences why did you come to the conclusion of your new leadership
philosophy?
Leadership philosophies are intensely personal and specific to your conditions and circumstances. Your
leadership philosophy must authentically reflect your actual values and the situations of different
employees.
However, by considering examples when writing your own leadership philosophy statement, you’ll have
a much better understanding of what questions you should ask yourself to develop a philosophy that’s
true to your beliefs.
Join other 42.000 accomplished leaders who have become more effective and successful as a result of
our programs.
5 Most Valuable Leadership Philosophy Examples to Understand 2
The Feedback worksheet gathers and measures feedback from various stakeholders.
The Leadership Philosophy tracker to ensure you successfully implement and improve your leadership
philosophy and stakeholders’ perceptions.
Louis Carter
Founder and CEO of Best Practice Institute, partner to Newsweek on America’s Most Loved Workplaces,
and the author of more than 10 books on best practices in leadership and management, including
Change Champion’s Field Guide, In Great Company, and Best Practices in Talent Management. Thought
leaders and executives voted him as one of Global Gurus Top 10 Organizational Culture thinkers
worldwide, and his feedback and benchmarking software has won HR Tech’s top product of the year
award. Louis has been featured in Forbes, Investors Business Daily, Newsweek, MSNBC, Fast Company,
and interviewed widely. For more information on Carter’s story see, “Meet the Fixer” and GoSolo.
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