The Importance of a Personal Leadership Credo By

The Importance of a Personal Leadership Credo By Sree Varanasi

Step One: The Words—Journal Entry • The article that we read for this week which was regarding why every leader should have a personal credo made some great points not just about why they should have one, but also what your credo should represent. It should be a personal reflection regarding yourself and how you plan to use this credo in the way you lead, in order to build your character as well as inspiring your followers as well. The five words I am thinking about using for my personal credo are as follows: Nonjudgmental, Innovate, Analyze, Learn, Educate. The reason I chose these words is because I plan to be a leader in the IT field, and going by the advice the article gave, your personal credo should be a representation of your values and goals for your particular domain, and I believe the words I chose pertain greatly to the IT field which requires innovation and keeping an open mind and educating as well as learning. I think this is a good start and will build upon this as I go further on this credo project. • 2 -25 -16 Journal Entry 1

Initial Rough Draft of Map Describing my Credo: As displayed, my artistic abilities are not that great, although I did my best to polish up and make a more presentable version of this map, as displayed on the following page

Final Version of my Credo Map – “Polished Version” (Although my Artistic Abilities are not that great)

My Story and How My Credo Has Developed With Life Experiences The First Core Value I Chose to Represent my Personal Credo: INNOVATE From a young age I always thought outside the box, and I believe this has shaped the way I approach things in my life. As stated by Kahai “Technology is changing the fundamental human processes that serve as basic foundations for leadership. Leaders need to understand that when we use technology, the mental processes that are triggered are not the same due to the absence of non-verbal cues and lack of social presence. ”(Kahai 2010) This perfectly represents the idea of thinking outside the box and incorporating new technology and methods which I plan on incorporating into my leadership style in the future. I have always believed that staying open minded is the way forward, especially in today’s increasingly digitized world. This is especially important in a digital environment because you will be exposed to people and ideas which may not be familiar, and only by staying open minded will you be able to successfully thrive in “Web 2. 0 world” as Kahai states (Kahai 2010).

Innovate (continued) “Contingency models exemplify the view that an individual may be an effective leader depending on the situation” (Lojeski 21). I believe this quote describes my ideology when it comes to staying relevant in today’s digital world. I would describe the way I plan on employing the core value of Innovation follows this model of Leadership, because I grew up in the digital age, which made tools that would not have previously been available to previous generations available to me. This has allowed me to be exposed to new ideas which I believe shaped my thought process today. It has allowed me to be open minded and exposed to a new spectrum of Creativity which I may not have had access to, had I been born in an earlier generation. In this respect, I believe the Contingency Model perfectly describes why I believe my Leadership Ideals are what they are, and how this will shape how I plan to incorporate Innovation into the way I lead in the future.

My Second Core Value: Educate Ruben(2006) states “Beyond a focus on the organization and leader, attention to the needs and perspectives of potential followers is also vital in vision setting. In this respect, establishment of a vision consists of developing a shared sense of destiny” and a “shared sense of purpose. ” Successful leaders do this by expressing common values and goals that excite and motivate followers. ” This perfectly fits into how I would incorporate this value into my Leadership style. I believe that my past experiences, specifically through my experience tutoring and being a peer leader have developed this sense of duty to educate. This of course has to be done tactfully in order to avoid coming off as “preachy” rather than helpful. I believe it is important to employ this value, as although you should expect those you lead to be competent, I believe you should also be in a position to educate them on things they may not be familiar with. In this way, I believe that you are not only helping them to improve, you help yourself improve as well. I believe this is extremely important as a leader, especially when as described in the quote above, when you have a certain vision you are trying to set, it may not be intuitive to those you are leading, and only through my core value of Educating can this successfully be incorporated.

Educate (continued) “Teaching and Coaching under Organizational Competency” as described by Ruben (2006), “leaders are teachers, and they accomplish their goals through the people they teach. ” This is a sub-dimension of the competency Ruben describes as Organizational Competency. I believe this fits perfectly into the context of my core value of educating. Again, I believe that my past experiences have shaped this idea and it is a major reason why I plan on incorporating this value into my leadership strategy in the future. When I previously was working as a Quality Control Analyst on a project working for the State of Michigan, my manager assigned me as Team Leader based on the fact that she always saw me helping my co-workers on problems they had, teaching them how to complete certain tasks more efficiently and with improved quality of work as well. A major aspect of the work we were doing involved defect reporting with respect to a web application we were developing for our project, and I took it upon myself to teach my co-workers how they could essentially cut the time of the process of reporting these defects in half, allowing for more productivity in other tasks we had to complete as well. This resulted in our team receiving praise from the Project Managers, and I was promoted to team leader as well. I believe that my experience of educating since working as a tutor in high school embedded this value in me. I plan to incorporate this to a much deeper level when I am in a Leadership position, which I believe will be beneficial for my future goal, which is to run my own Software Consulting Company. As described in the quote above, leaders are meant to be teachers and their goals are accomplished with the help of those they lead. A leader is nothing without their followers, and by imparting knowledge to those they lead they not only make their followers better, but become better themselves through this process.

Third Core Value: Continued Personal Growth According to Lojeski “ What sets [leaders in the digital age] apart is their meta-cognitive abilities; their willingness to look be yond themselves and what worked in the past, to forge new ways forward” (Lojeski 14). Essentially, what this quote means to me is that leaders in todays digital age must continually grow and keep up with new technologies/leadership strategies to stay relevant. Without doing this, they will be left behind, and those leaders which employ more modern and up to date methods will pull ahead of them, making them obsolete. In the context of what my field, the IT field, in order to stay relevant, it is necessary to constantly staying up to date with the newest technologies, and beyond that, being able to have a vision for what is going to dominate in the future as well. This means learning new software languages, obtaining up to date certifications, and several other ways you can learn about the newest technologies available. Again, my past experiences have allowed me to see the advantages of always being aware of the most up-to-date technologies and how to incorporate this into my work. I believe this core value to be extremely important in today’s workforce as since new technological advances are made constantly, it is important to stay vigilant in your Personal Growth, and by doing so it allows you to stay relevant in this digital age.

Continued Personal Growth(Continued) “Future leaders will have to rely more on technology. Effective leaders will need to figure out both the opportunities and perils of electronic communication and take steps to maximize the benefits and minimize the downsides in a Web 2. 0 world” (Kahai 2010). This quote describes the fact that leaders in today’s digital workforce will have to rely on new technologies, and as described previously, I have always been aware that staying up-todate and constantly educating myself that this can be done. This is especially important from a leadership point of view because leaders must lead by example, and if you do not display personal growth, it does not set a good example for those you are planning to lead. By continuing to work on yourself and displaying personal growth, you motivate those you lead to do the same, and I believe this is extremely important.

Benefits of Personal Credo for Leadership I believe that the process of developing a Personal Credo has been extremely beneficial to learning to become an efficient leader. It enabled us to do a thorough introspection on our life experiences and examine our positive qualities which allow us to determine exactly what kind of leader we wish to be. By doing this, it has put a specific framework into mind of how exactly we are going to go about employing our qualities and ideals into our Leadership style. It not only forced us to look into ourselves, but to also think about how we are going to use our personal qualities to become more effective leaders. By introspecting, we are able to determine what qualities we display will help us, and what we need to work on personally as well. 7 Essential Qualities of All Great Leaders This video is one that I found on Youtube which incorporates a lot of my core values, and how they are essential in becoming a great leader (Link: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=e. G 1 6 Em. A 2 Fe 0)

Benefits of Credo Development Process – Final Thoughts This process overall was great in that it really incorporated the topics we have learned throughout the course in a practical sense. It allowed for us to represent our personal ideals and core values and how these would be used to further our professional careers, and eventual Leadership strategies. It really turned what was initially theoretical ideas and displayed how these ideas could be used to mold our future Leadership strategies. Overall it was a great way to look into ourselves and make the most of our potential positive leadership qualities.

Works Cited • Kahai, S. (2010, May 11). Yes, Leadership Changes in a Web 2. 0 World. Retrieved April 3, 2016, from http: //www. leadingvirtually. com/yesleadership-changes-in-a-web-20 -world/ • Lojeski, K. (2010). Leading the Virtual Workforce. John Wiley & Sons Inc. : Hoboken, NJ. • Ruben, B. (2006). What Leaders Need to Know and Do: A Leadership Competencies Scorecard. National Association of College and University Business Officers: Washington DC. • Youtube Video: 7 Essential Qualities of all Great Leaders. URL: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=e. G 16 Em. A 2 Fe 0