What’s Your Personal Leadership Philosophy & Why Do You Even Need One?

If personal leadership philosophy sounds like wonky nonsense, hang on, I promise you it’s not.

In fact, it’s the exact opposite — it’s the foundation upon which you will build your leadership approach.

So, yeah, it’s kinda important!

Essentially, your personal leadership philosophy is your core beliefs about how you should lead and the type of leader you want to be.

The reason it’s important is so that you are firmly rooted, and you know exactly what to do when you are tested, when times are tough, and when you have difficult decisions to make.

As a leader, you’ll often find yourself in complicated and uncertain situations with decision-making dilemmas because different stakeholders have different needs and values. If you don’t have a foundational leadership philosophy, it’s easy to be swayed by one group or another or tempted to take the path of least resistance.

Yet, often, that’s not the right thing to do, and it’s not the right thing for your team. However, if you have a guiding philosophy, you can go back to it again and again and use it as the lens through which you make all your decisions.