WHY LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION FIRST? BECAUSE IT IS VITAL AND CRITICAL TO YOUR SUCCESS AND LEGACY AS AN EXTRAORDINARY LEADER. LEADING FROM FOUNDATION FIRST EARNS YOU THE TRUST, LOYALTY & FOLLOWERSHIP OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE WORKERS TO CREATE & INNOVATE WITH YOU WHILE GAINING THE ELUSIVE “COLLABORATIVE ADVANTAGE” & “SUSTAINABILITY“ WE ALL DESIRE!
I need to ask you a few questions first. If you set out to be an extraordinary, distinctive leader with the trust, loyalty and followership of your knowledge workers . . . what went wrong? Did you try to gain these essential benefits with just a set of competencies/skills, or did you start with a Leadership Foundation First? How do you earn the trust, loyalty and followership of your employees from just your competencies? What vital core principles are in your Leadership Foundation? Write down your honest answers to these questions first and then continue reading . . .
Business is at heart . . a profoundly human endeavor . . . which means that an essential requirement for any business person or leader — in any market — in any economy — is an acute sensitivity to what makes us all tick!
I aspire, along with you, to offer the world something that is decidely different in leadership . . . meaningfully different . . . different in a manner that is both fundamental and comprehensive at the same time.
In industry after industry . . . business professionals have become so very “practiced” and almost too proficient in a particular way of doing leadership that they have forgotten the point of it all in business . . . which is to create meaningful and compelling products/services for people! We are really in the people business first!
I wrote Leadership Foundation First because I believe that what most of us are looking for today in leadership is something much more meaningful . . . and a “better experience“! So, this LDA Website/Blog is an exploration of what it means for a leader to commit to giving us this “meaningful experience“. It’s our exploration of what it means for a leader and their business to decide to be different on purpose, with the intent to be meaningful . . . and to understand and appreciate “What Matters Most” to your “internal customer” . . . your knowledge workers and stakeholders. What “meaningful experience” are you giving to them that is relevant to them?
Writing my first blog post, I needed to ask myself what is the first question that I should address? The WHO question is of primary importance to me since the WHO, are my readers, my LFF Leadership Community. Without my community, without YOU, my WHY is of no value. And second, my WHAT becomes equally important, but we will get to that later. First, we must focus on your WHO. I will ask you to critically think about each of these questions and to reflect upon them and write down your answers and thoughts.
WHO will benefit from this blog post and its relevant leadership information? Who will not be interested? Who will be a naysayer? The more WHO questions that I can think of, the more I am going to write relevant posts that interest my LFF leadership community. My WHO audience is interested in improving their leadership differently. They have great competencies and skills, but fail to get the kind of trust, loyalty and followership that gets employees (your internal customers) to “choose” to create and innovate WITH You. What’s more . . . the elusive “Collaborative Advantage” and “Sustainability” are nowwhere to be found or created?????
You are here reading this post because you are leaders who want to do better and achieve more. You want to add value and make a positive, constructive difference for your organization. You are not satisfied with the “status quo” of leadership and want to reinvent your leadership and evolve that “commodity” leadership into something so much more relevant and results-oriented. You want both PEOPLE and PROFITS to work. And, you want to CREATE, INNOVATE and gain the elusive “COLLABORATIVE ADVANTAGE” AND “SUSTAINABILITY” . . . the outcomes we all desire!
So reflect on why the first question is focused on WHO? . . . . PEOPLE . . . and bear with me while I get to my point. Your external customers are those people who purchase your products and services and are considered the lifeblood of your company. Without these customers, there would be no WHY, WHAT or HOW. But, you have both Internal Customers and External Customers and both are equally important to your success and profits. You may think you know your WHY, your purpose, but has it gotten you the results you truly want and need? Your WHY is important to you personally, but it is not what gets you to results! Your WHO is the driving force for WHY you exist and GETS YOU RESULTS!
Who are your customers and what are their wants and needs . . . What Matters Most to them? We all learned this in Marketing and Branding and if you got this right what a miraculous product/service your created and what great profits! All because you listened, asked the right questions, responded to customer wants and needs and what matters most to your customers. You cared greatly for the design of your product and ease of use. Think of great innovators who put Principles Before Profits versus those leaders who put Profits Before Principles . . . Was the outcome of their product/service, competitive advantage and sustainability different in both cases? Which scenario helped leaders to do their best and get the right positive, constructive benefits and results?
STARTING WITH THE WHO QUESTION FIRST, GETS YOU TO THE BEST RESULTS THE FASTEST.
As leaders, we do everything possible to satisfy the needs and “What Matters Most” with our external WHO customers, but do we do this with our “Internal Customers”(Our Most Valuable Assets, Our Knowledge Workers) and Stakeholders? . . . notice I said Stakeholders and NOT shareholders. Your “Internal Customers” are more important than your shareholders and even your External Customers because without your Internal Customers, there is no organization, no company, no external customers, no profits . . . and dream on if you think that “Collaborative Advantage” or “Sustainability” is anywhere in sight or within your reach! Your Employees, your Knowledge Workers are your most Valuable Assets, not to be treated as a liability on your financials, but the Engine that Drives your Organization to Successes and gets there first for the best results if you have the right Leadership Foundation & Leadership Brand!
NOW FOR THE WHAT.
WHAT’S NOT WORKING? You have tried all kinds of training programs and spent thousands and some of you millions on gurus and consultants and read many leadership books, but none of these has brought you the Trust, Loyalty and Followership of your Knowledge Workers to “Choose” to “Innovate” and “Create” with You. For many leaders, you do not have a competititve advantage, let along the elusive “Collaborative Advantage” and “Sustainability”.
WHAT IS MISSING? Are any of you looking for a positive, constructive Leadership Foundation? I hope that I have disturbed your thinking. I hope that you are curious and want to learn more about this Leadership Foundation and Leadership Brand work. I promise that I will keep writing, if you promise to keep reading. I am looking for those leaders who have or want a Growth Mindset and want to be continuous life-long leadership learners. But not just any learner . . . you are an LFF Learner & Champion!. . .I am looking for the mavericks and the difference makers.
The WHAT that is missing is your FOUNDATION . . . You have developed your competencies and skills on quicksand my leadership friends. You have not created a Leadership Foundation based on vital integrated Principles from which to build and grow solid, positive, constructive leadership and an organization that has the advantage and the sustainability. You have probably never even thought about designing your own Leadership Brand. Yes, your own Leadership Brand . . . Just like your company’s product/service, YOU, too, are a Brand, like it or not. This is the truth and this is your Leadership reality. YOU are a Leadership Brand and in order to succeed as a Brand, you must follow the same principles of Great Brands! And, I bet some of you are thinking, but I am no artist and I can’t design . . . well, I’ll bet you are wrong . . . and I bet you can design and with my guidance you will design your own relevant, impactful and successful Leadership Brand!
I know that these questions are disturbing your thinking . . . and I hope that they haunt you . . . and that disturbance and haunting, my leadership friends, is a very good thing! I also know that you are curious to learn more about Leadership Foundation First and the Leadership Brand work . . . and that is even better . . . you are on the Right Path and you are on the right Leadership Journey! You just need the Best Guide, Compass and Blueprint for Fast Results!
That’s where I come in . . . my name is f. Alexandra Brennan, Chief Design Alchemist of Leadership Design Alchemists, LLC and the author of the book: THE POWER OF LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION FIRST – 4 MUST HAVE PRINCIPLES FOR COLLABORATIVE ADVANTAGE. I am so very pleased to meet you here on my BLOG and would be greatly honored if you choose to check out my LDA Website to learn more about how you can become an LFF Leader for the benefits and results you desire and need. Click on the Link below NOW! DO IT TODAY! For your Leadership Journey and to Live Your Leadership Legacy from Foundation First! I would be so priviledged and excited to be your Transformative Teacher & Guide on your personal Leadership Journey and provide you the Best LFF Compass & Blueprint! Let the LFF Journey Begin!!