MY PERSONAL LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY
“To Lead with STRENGTH”

My ultimate purpose in writing this is to share to everyone my personal leadership philosophy – what I believe to be important as we go on with the service. I believe that in imparting this set of guidance, you will come to understand who I am, what rules I live and work by, what you can expect from me and what I expect from you, and how I will evaluate your performance. In view hereof, I hope you will learn to trust my actions and know where I am heading. As I round up my values in life, I found out that the foundation of all my feats as I go up the ladder of my career is my STRENGTH. It always gives me the direction; it serves as my compass. The STRENGTH that I’m referring to here is neither physical nor psychological, but rather the energy to organize myself to effectively and efficiently perform my tasks, and the power to unite all of us so that we are able to attain the Army’s Vision of becoming “a professional, capable and responsive Army that is a source of National Pride.” And being your leader, it is my primary duty to impart this STRENGTH so that each of us here will have a moral compass to guide us through the maze of intellectual, philosophical and emotional issues that encompass our lives and the Army. STRENGTH outlines my character and translates to: Selfless service, Trust, Respect, Empowerment, Nobleness, God, Teamwork, and Humility. Selfless Service: When I speak about selfless service, it refers to my commitment to duty and putting the welfare of the nation, the Army and my subordinates before my own. While I encourage everyone to develop a healthy ego or self-esteem and a healthy sense of ambition, I am strongly against selfish careerism as it effects demoralization among subordinates. The welfare of our nation and the Army organization comes before the individual. On the other hand, while devoting our lives to the service, never ever forget to take care of your family. As what R.P. Fauquier III emphasized in his article entitled Personal Leadership Philosophy: Guidance and Example, “Balance between work and home. Take care of your family, as they will be with you always. Balance between your physical, emotional, and intellectual needs. Don’t neglect one at the expense of the others.” This is what is called work-life balance. With this, let us get comfortable with being uncomfortable. After all, we are here to serve the people and to secure the land. Trust runs next in my list. It is founded on honesty and integrity. Therefore, it suggests commitment. When I say, “take charge!” that means I have the full confidence in you and that I expect you to accomplish your task in accordance to our set standards and to the best of your ability – that you will perform your duties and functions even without supervision. For us to develop trust amongst each other, I encourage everyone not to lie, cheat, steal, nor tolerate those who do. Through open honest communication, these values would guide us on our actions and decisions. I take my work seriously; however, I believe that we should have fun while doing our work. Do what is right, legally and morally. As we build trust, respect for each other follows. Respect is key; trust is vital, so to speak. For me, respect means to give due consideration to others; to treat people as they should be treated. One important act that I consider as a good start point to earn respect is to respect the time of others. We all have our own roles to play, tasks to perform; hence, time consciousness is essential. When I set deadlines, this does not mean that I have not considered your own time. Most often than not, I will abide by the “one-third, two-thirds rule” and I expect you to do the same to your subordinates. Furthermore, maintain self-respect for it is an honor and it is something that has to be kept to sustain your self-esteem. When a person loses his self-respect, he has also lost his reason for living. He becomes nothing. The next consideration and perhaps the best method for me to develop each of you is empowerment. It is hard to delegate authority, but I know it is essential to encourage leadership growth within our organization. I encourage exchange of ideas; ergo, I also want you to see the potential in everything. Don’t be afraid to take risks if you deem it necessary to accomplish our mission, but be reminded always of our core values and of our overall intent of serving the people and securing the land. I wholeheartedly believe in empowerment as this is a powerful tool to provide every individual with a sense of pride in performance. Be bold to make decisions but always calculate the risks. I value people that take initiative to get things done. I prefer to have people who take action, even if they make mistakes. It is fine to make mistakes; it is but part of learning. Another means that gives me strength to carry on with my job is nobleness through personal courage. It is my honor to face fear, danger or adversity (physical or moral) if it is the reason to live up to all the Army Core Values. After all, I have chosen this noble profession of perpetual constraints. It would be a great pride and honor to die serving the people and securing the gains of our democracy – no ifs and buts. By choosing this profession, it is incumbent upon us to value our organization’s pride and honor and to remain loyal to our sworn duties of “serving the people, securing the land”. Furthermore, God is the center of my universe. In everything I do, I always put God at the center of my universe. I’m neither a religious fanatic nor a devoted Catholic, but I always see to it that in every decision I make, I always seek Divine Guidance. And when all else fail, I always seek Divine Intervention. Yes, God provides when you ask but when you ask, ask not what God should do on your behalf. Instead, ask Him for Guidance in all your undertakings. Similarly, this letter also means generosity. Take the time to be a Good Samaritan not only to your fellow soldiers but also to the people whom we owe our services to. Be generous to share your knowledge and skills not only to your seniors but most especially to your subordinates. Through generosity we can bring and manage change in our system, in our organization, and in our country as a whole. As I cherish the aforementioned values, I also would like to put emphasis on Teamwork. For me, teamwork is cooperation, coordination, collaboration, and communication. Let us actively unite all our efforts, practice to coordinate all our actions, work together for a common objective, and share our thoughts and feelings so that, together, we are able to accomplish our tasks with high colors. We may agree to agree, or agree to disagree on certain issues; the thing there is that, we are all united. Let us all be each other’s advocates and be ready to exchange ideas because, as your leader, my goal for our unit is not to be better than other units, but to be better than what we used to be. Let us utilize each other’s strengths to counter individual weakness. And most importantly, let us work hard, play hard, but always remember, have fun while doing it, too. While I inspire you to have the courage and determination in facing our adversaries and challenges, I also want to remind you on the value of humility. This is the most important value that needs to be inculcated in our hearts and minds because I believe, when there is humility, there is harmony. Conflict within an organization starts when one does not know how to humble himself and worse, when one does not know how to accept mistakes. I am not saying that you have no right to argue on matters that you think may not be right. I am, in fact, encouraging you to speak out, but in a pleasant and subtle way so as not to embarrass anybody among us. As I have mentioned earlier, it is okay if you commit mistake, but be sure to accept it and learn from it. Similarly, although we should take pride and honor from our unit’s past and present triumphs, let it be the word of mouth of others; let us remain humble of our accomplishments. Let others say we are the best, and if asked about it, be humble when you say, “Yes, we are!” On my final note, allow me to emphasize that with STRENGTH as our standard, we can be prepared to accomplish any goal, anytime, anywhere. Through STRENGTH, we can have trust and confidence and we can build a stable foundation upon which our long-term relations can be built and from where our organizational effectiveness is maintained. And through STRENGTH, our journey as leaders and followers, will be more fruitful and will be more fun.

List of References

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FAUQUIER, R.P. III, Personal Leadership Philosophy: Guidance and Example, retrieved from http://www.ebiz.netopia.com/learntolead1/ on 05 July 2012.

KLINGER, KARIN R., “Leadership Philosophy”, retrieved from karinrklinger.tripod.com/id8.html on 05 July 2012.

KNOX, DAVE, 2008 “What I Believe In: My Personal Leadership Philosophy”, retrieved from http://www.hardknoxlife.com/.../what-i-believe-in-my-personal-leadership on 05 July 2012.

“Leadership Philosophy… Our Cornerstone”, Leadership Philosophy (n.d.), retrieved from http://www.academyleadership.com/leadershipphilosophy.asp on 05 July 2012.

LEBOEUF, MAUREEN K. COL. US ARMY, “Developing a Leadership Philosophy”, retrieved from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/milreview/laboeuf.htm on 05 July 2012.

“Leadership Traits”, 2011. Personal Leadership Philosophy: Guidance and Example, retrieved from http://ebiz.netopia.com/learntolead/guidance1 on 05 July 2012.

“The Leader’s Character”, 2011. Personal Leadership Philosophy: Guidance and Exam, retrieved from http://ebiz.netopia.com/learntolead/guidance1 on 05 July 2012.