Leadership Philosophy in Business
All businesses, no matter how large or small in scale, have a leader that guides the business, whether that be to success or failure. This leader whether it be one person or a group of people, have a leadership philosophy ingrained within them that guides their decision making, and thought processing. With this, what is leadership philosophy exactly, and how can one work to develop a leadership philosophy that betters themselves, and their business?
We at Hatch Crown define Leadership Philosophy as “the set of key beliefs, principles, and values an individual or group holds true within themselves that they utilize as the framework for their comprehension of how to effectively guide others.” Leadership Philosophy can be used directly, or indirectly within an organization depending on the circumstances. An individual or group uses their leadership philosophy directly during interactions with their peers, or subordinates. An individual or group uses their leadership philosophy indirectly when pondering an organizational decision, or overviewing company performance analytics. Leadership philosophy beliefs, principles, and values are built from within an individual or group through multiple means including personal experiences, education, and fellow peer interactions. Due to the inherent personal cultivation of leadership philosophy within an individual, and their perceived perspective of their experiences, this results in individuals in business to have a variety of leadership philosophies that, depending on the industry they reside within, may have a positive or negative impact on an organization. This impact encompasses all areas of an organization including the work environment, and output of an organization. Depending on the industry, organization, and group of subordinates surrounding oneself, a variety of leadership philosophies could be effectively used to guide others and empower them to perform the best they possibly can.
In general, all leadership philosophies can hold value, and work to get results out of others depending on the environment they are used within. We believe however, the best leadership philosophies integrate the key principles of humanistic understanding, feedback integration, and solution-based problem solving. The principle of humanistic understanding comes from the comprehension that employees within an organization are inherently human and should be treated with respect. Included with this is the understanding that humans are not perfect, they make mistakes, and positive encouragement and interactions provide better outcomes out of people. Feedback integration is the principle that information from sources outside oneself, including peers, subordinates, and other stakeholders, can hold value, and should be taken into consideration. Solution-based problem solving is the leadership principle that highlights the importance of focusing on the problem at hand, and how to solve that said problem. With this, the focus is not placed upon the nature of fault found within the problem, but rather how a solution can be cultivated to solve the problem for the near and far term.
To develop one’s own leadership philosophy, we suggest first working to understand the three key principles of humanistic understanding, feedback integration, and solution-based problem solving. By doing so, one can work to obtain a strong leadership philosophy foundation that contains universal principles of leadership. From there one can work to build onto their own leadership philosophy with one’s own beliefs, principles, and values. Leadership philosophies are best cultivated around a wide range of ideals, and concepts that work to allow an individual to come to a well-rounded conclusion on how to guide others. As previously mentioned, inherently all leadership philosophies can have the ability to produce an effective outcome. It is up to an individual to reflect upon one’s own lived experiences, comprehension of leadership, and professional environment to cultivate their own leadership philosophy. Through doing extensive research on other organization’s leadership philosophy styles, reflecting on personal experiences of leadership, and building an analytical understanding of one’s ideals of what makes a great leader, one can work to develop their own leadership philosophy for the betterment of themselves and the organization they work within. Through one’s own leadership philosophy comprehension, one can work to make strategic adjustments in their approaches to situations presented to oneself, and interactions with others, to grant the best possible outcome in any given circumstance.
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Citation Information
Author: Hatch Crown
Date: 2/1/2023
Publisher: Hatch Crown LLC