What are my leadership values, and how do I see leadership?

Based on close to 30 years of experience in professional leadership roles, reading countless leadership books, working with several leadership coaches, and participating in at least a dozen leadership development programs you would think I know a couple of things. Right?

In my advisory and coaching work, I have wanted more than my intuitive sense, but a clear and succinct model for leadership. I have been looking for a vivid picture of how I lead and how I coach others to lead. I have struggled with that distillation process. Recently I developed and am excited about the following tool, the acronym CRAFT:

  • C for Curiosity, to lead by being curious and asking questions; avoiding the need to have the answers and be the expert; be the inspiration to others, encouraging their thinking and efforts.
  • R for Resilience, forgive the tortured sports analogy but focus less on winning a game or even a season at all costs; and more on building a team that will be in the playoffs every season for the next 10 years. Work less on being perfect on any one day and more on getting better every day.
  • A for Accountability, the definition of leading includes taking responsibility. We need to hold ourselves accountable as well as holding those on our team accountable.  Its it the application of 100% (no less and no more) responsibility for what we can control. That does not mean blame and criticism but does require reinforcing personal responsibility.
  • F is for Fun; Without fun why do we show up every day? Without fun how do we build resilience? It does not mean fun all day, every day; but it does mean enjoyment of our work, passion about our purpose and consistent opportunities to simply find our joy every day.
  • T is for Teaching, what can be more important, and more satisfying, as a leader than teaching and coaching. We need to inspire ourselves and our team. We need to make it OK to take on challenges and make mistakes, as long as we learn. We need to make it safe to admit when we do not know something. It is about guiding our teammates toward constant learning.

So now I have a shiny new vehicle to test drive. I plan to use it to keep myself on mission and with others to give them a clearer picture of how I practice leadership. I have a structure to help me develop my “CRAFT”. See what I did there…