Ideas: The Foundation of Leadership

Ideas form the basis of leadership! Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, describes an ‘idea‘ as being:

“the result of thinking.”

Thinking and leadership go hand-in-hand, primarily because:

“Great leaders lead by ideas” – Rudolph W. Giuliani

Great leaders lead through ideas, not through positional power and authority. Good examples of great leaders who use ideas, rather than authority to lead are: Jesus Christ, Mahatma Ghandi and more recently Nelson Mandela. A leader’s ideas guide their actions, a leader’s ideas aligns their team and a leader’s ideas inspire their organisation towards a common goal. Dave Pollard is also convinced in the power of ideas in his post he states that:

“Ideas have enormous power, since they form the frame of our understanding of the world, inform our beliefs and drive our behaviours. Great ideas are so profound and frame-shaking that they quickly topple many of the things we believe, and transform our worldviews, our values and hence our actions. We need more great ideas, and a deeper understanding of how and when they transform our understanding, our culture, what we do and who we are.” – Dave Pollard

Ideas are an extreemly powerful force, ideas engage people’s minds and help them see new possibilities and new opportunities. Strong and evocative ideas energize people and incite action. As leaders, our ideas are important. Leaders need clear ideas and philosophies about how to win in the marketplace, how their organisation should operate and how to develop their people.

A Leadership Philosophy = A Network of Ideas

A leadership philosophy is an inter-connected network of ideas that constitute an internal model of leadership. A personal philosphy is about knowing what you believe and why you believe it, involving a personal learning process, deliberate and continious. In this sense ideas form the basis of a personal leader philosophy.

This process of developing a personal leadership philosophy is, the process of systematically reflecting on oneself and the world around oneself to build and develop a set of beliefs, principles and values with which to guide ones actions.

Leaders are always on the lookout for new ideas, always learning and constantly embracing higher more empowering ideas. These ideas they incorporate into their leadership philosophy on an ongoing basis.

Your Leadership Philosophy Should be Unique

Leadership books, training and workshops teach similar leadership “methods” and “principles”. This is creating a generation of leaders who all think alike. Clones of the latest leadership ideas and trends! Leaders end up on “automatic pilot” never stopping to examine what they have been taught contrasting this with their life experiences. Great leaders spend time in introspection gaining an understanding of their strengths and weakness, they are also are students of life. They know what they want and why they want it, having invested time in reflecting on their approach to leadership. In this sense these leaders are self-made, rather than a product of their genetic make-up or their social environments.

Questions to ponder:

• How do you go about building your leadership philosophy?
• What ideas make up your UNIQUE leadership philosophy?

“The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but seeing with new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Ideas, Thinking, Leadership Philosophy

Related posts:

1. Developing a Leadership Philosophy
2. Leadership: The Art of Translating Ideas into Action
3. The importance of philosophy to great leadership
4. The 10 Most Enduring Ideas
5. Character…. the foundation of leadership

Tagged as: Philosophy, Reflection, Thinking