Our Leadership Philosophy

Our Approach to Leadership

There are a range of work styles and leadership styles that can be successful. The following is a reflection of our approach, grounded in the following core organizing principle: all team members are intellectually and emotionally engaged, operating in a culture where they are valued as both the muscle and heart behind how the organization achieves its mission.

1. Do purposeful work. Be connected to your work in a way that motivates you. 
2. Be unambiguous about your priorities. Exercise discipline and focus to achieve them. Make sure your team is on board, aligned, and have shared mental models.
3. Recognize the expertise your team members bring. Understand and lean into the personal commitment and motivations of each of them. Tap into this collective power and wisdom during planning and decision making. 
4. Give employees clear guidance and autonomy. Provide your teams with the information, means and guidance to self-organize and self-manage. Trust them to  know how best to: accomplish their work, what needs to be done, manage their own work and manage associated responsibilities and timelines. Support their innovation and independence.
5. Communicate. Do it more. Provide your teams with full information so they can participate fully in planning, management and decision making. Ensure they have a context for systems thinking and understand the up- and downstream effects of their work.
6. Practice 360* accountability. 
7. Be authentic and professional. Model the way that your colleagues can bring their full, authentic, vulnerable selves to work. 
8. Diversity on your team is a competitive advantage. Honor and leverage diverse perspectives on your team so they can be an institutional strength that expands your organizations’ creativity, insights, responsiveness, inclusivity and flexibility. Create an environment where diversity is celebrated. 
9. Be a good steward. Take responsibility for the resources (people, time, money, space, equipment, good will) and infrastructure needed for your team to achieve your goals. Understand the bandwidth available and work within what is sustainable over the long term.
10. Keep it in perspective. Before you react, reflect on if this is a mountain or a molehill. Don’t forget the human element as you respond, the most serious and critical work will be enhanced when we can approach it together with humility, levity, and, even sometimes, a sense of humor.
11. Stay curious. Be a learning organization. Certainty is the enemy of growth and evolution. Be humble and open about your learning curves, and supportive as others travel along their learning curves. Create a culture of appreciative inquiry.

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