This past week I was asked to give a talk at my alma mater, Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida. I was speaking with a select group of their senior management team from across the entire organization and they sent me a list of questions they wanted me to answer and discuss. One of the questions was, “What are the three values you rely on that underpin your leadership?” I’ve never been asked a question quite like that and was pleasantly surprised after I gave it some thought. Here are my top three…
Honesty
To me this is the absolute foundation of leadership, if you don’t tell the truth you can’t build trust and without trust, there is no loyalty, commitment or belief in the “leader.” The rule here is simple, tell the truth all the time, period.
Love
I believe if you treat your team, your customers, even your competitors with love and respect you are following the path of a servant leader who understands that their job is to help and support others to be successful leaders.
Excellence
As one of my personal leadership values, I see the pursuit of excellence as the driver to creating an exceptional organization that has a positive impact on the lives of its employees, customers, community and the world. Using “excellence” as a benchmark pushes each individual to be uncompromising in the quality of their work and always striving to deliver their very best.
Those are my top three, what are yours?