For today’s leaders there are five fundamental questions that they should be able to answer for themselves and others as the key to their leadership style, focus and energy.
- What Do You Stand For?
- Why Should They Follow You?
- What Will be Different?
- Who’s On Your Side?
- Who Listens When You Speak?
What Do You Stand For? – This is the question that goes to the heart of leadership. The deeply held values, drivers, motives and beliefs that distinguish the leader and his or her cause.
Perhaps the most famous speech of all time is Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream”. Just telling everyone he had a dream would have achieved nothing. The underlying values were the belief in freedom, equality and the end of discrimination Kanat Wano.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.”
Within that short extract is the essence of the dream. As a great orator, Martin Luther King said much more that day in 1962 but his underlying values and beliefs and the purpose of his campaign are there.
Not everyone is seeking to influence a whole nation and its culture. Most organisational leaders are focussed on their team, department, function or division. The asking and answering of the question “What Do You Stand For?” has tremendous importance for the leader himself or herself and the people who are expected to follow.
Without clarity on the real values it is more difficult for people to understand, engage and feel connected. Campaign slogans like “Yes We Can” are brilliant in their simplicity but really understanding what is in your head and heart is more important.
For you as a leader in the organisation it is a good opportunity to reflect on what the true values are behind your efforts and behaviour. Asking why those things are important to you, why you are willing to work to make those things happen and what you will not stand for are very enlightening for many leaders. Writing down the answers and checking for evidence that you are actually operating in line with your values is key
Integrity is often cited as an example of a leadership quality. Integrity means “oneness” and comes from the same root as integer. Behaving in a way that matches your espoused values is exactly what integrity is. At election time we hear plenty of politicians promising things – after elections we find out whether these were real values that they were prepared to fight for or just empty words.
Imagine yourself as the politician at the next election campaign in a televised interview – could you point to examples of where you have behaved in line with your values, made sacrifices to uphold what you believe in and worked to maintain what you stand for? This is the mark of true leadership integrity, the definition of what you stand for.