Growing up I learned a song in Sunday school based on one of Jesus’ parables (Matthew 7:24-29). It is about two builders and where they chose to build.
The story (and song) goes that the wise man built his house upon the rock. The other builder built his house upon the sand. When the rains and winds came, as they always do, one house stayed strong, and the other did not.
The story speaks to building on a firm and steady foundation. The parallel for us as leaders is to build our leadership habits, values and beliefs on solid unshakable principles.
It is easy to read a book or article and be excited about a new technique, approach or method. Most of these are sound and valuable. But ultimately they will only hold the greatest value for you when they are integrated into the foundation of your leadership house – and the techniques, methods and approaches are understood based on their underlying and unassailable principles.
Hopefully you can read of these principles in my writing in the past, and I delineated many as “Remarkable Principles” in my book Remarkable Leadership. I plan to do a better job of highlighting these principles for you in the future. But for now, ask yourself these questions, as your leadership activity of the day.
- What is my leadership philosophy?
- What principles do I lead by?
- What are my most important leadership values?
Great post Kevin:
I always tell my career success coaching clients that their valeus are guides to decision making in ambiguous situations. Values are your foundation. And, as you point out, if you don’t have a strong foundation, what you build won’t stand the test of time.
All the best,
Bud Bilanich
The Common Sense Guy