EP101: Crafting Your Leadership Statement
WHO YOU ARE
Your leadership in two sentences can pack an impactful punch.
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(The notes below are only a brief summary of what is discussed in the podcast. Be sure to listen to get all of the goodness! If you would like a full transcription of the episode, please send an email request to: angie@angie-robinson.com. We’d be happy to provide that!)
Over the duration of 2023, I had the honor of working with a senior leadership team at this amazing organization, helping them with a new leadership impact program that they had developed. I was able to facilitate throughout the year during this program, including the implementation of Insights®.
During the last session of the program, we were bringing everything we talked about learned together, including the awareness work that we did. It culminated into crafting of a leadership statement.
What Is a Leadership Statement?
A leadership statement is a general, clear, concise and comprehensive declaration that articulates and outlines your leadership philosophy, your guiding principles, your values, and your approach to leadership. It is similar to a mission statement.
It often includes personal beliefs about leadership and your vision for the team or the organization. A leadership statement can be forward-looking - expressing aspirations and goals for the future. When you understand and live into your own leadership philosophy, others will take notice and be more likely to feel confident in supporting your vision. This statement really goes beyond listing job responsibilities or tasks, and it focuses on the broader impact that you as a leader make on the people and the organization that you lead.
It acts as a guide for how you intend to show up and lead. And it's a reminder to look back on if you find yourself just going through the motions and maybe in need of a reminder of why you're doing what you're doing. It's really your roadmap to understanding how you define yourself as a leader, fostering that authenticity and alignment with what you were doing.
Why Have a Leadership Statement?
It ensures alignment between your own personal values and the values of the organization or the team that you lead. It can serve as a source of inspiration as well.
During those challenging times - it can help to reinforce that sense of purpose.
It can help you in your communication. It enables you to clearly convey your own expectations, your priorities and your overall vision.
Similar to values, having a leadership statement be a guide for decision-making. Some of the things that we have to make decisions about can be really, really complex. Having a clear philosophy can be very grounding and act as a compass in making those decisions.
It does fosters authenticity. When there is authenticity and alignment, it does foster trust.
It can be a foundation for accountability - both for self-accountability and for others to hold you accountable.
Your leadership statement is in service of the organizational values, mission and philosophy - and that of the leadership group as a whole. It really speaks to who you are and who you are becoming as a leader to support your own authenticity and growth.
It Starts with Awareness
With this leadership group I mentioned - we did a lot of self-awareness work before crafting their leadership statement. Here are the areas of awareness each person dug into:
Personality style (we used my preferred tool of Insights®).
Top strengths
Top areas of opportunity
Value to the team
Management style
Motivators
Blockers
Leadership attributes (what resonates and what doesn’t)
At the end of this session, they had all this information about them. We then went through the exercise of crafting the leadership statement.
The Leadership Statement
A leadership statement only should be one or two sentences. It should be very clear and concise. It considers things like what you want to achieve or what your goals are as a leader, the values you have and the ‘why’ of your leadership, why and what drives you and how you want to connect to and inspire the people that you lead.
Here are some examples:
“I will create a casual working environment in which employees feel free to have fun, which will strengthen the team bonds and create a better culture for the company all while encouraging efficiency in the performance of duties.”
“As a leader, I am committed to making our company a place of inclusion and equality. I will create a positive and supportive environment where employees can thrive and reach their fullest potential.”
And here is my current leadership statement:
“I will create a safe space full of possibility and where people can experience the ups and downs without judgment. I am committed to honoring people's uniqueness, perspectives and stories while helping them realize and live into their whole person potential.
Do you see how having this statement, this philosophy can be a guide and a grounding sentiment?
You can choose to share your statement or not - but I do find that sharing it with your team, those you lead and even your peers can be very powerful.
At a minimum - you want to check yourself, your behaviors, your decisions and your approach against it frequently. It will likely continue to evolve and change as you continue to evolve and change.
What Do You Think?
How would you craft your leadership statement?
Links
Episode 17: Understanding Yourself Through Insights®
Episode 18: Understanding Others Through Insights®
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