Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about all the things that we want to accomplish here at OfficerReports.com this year. Although I know that our customers will love the new features and software that we have in the works, I also know that ultimately our success will depend on great leadership. Having great leaders is an essential requirement for any organization to excel at achieving its goals.
Several years ago I had the opportunity to take a great class on leadership. The class looked at leadership from a perspective that was unlike most business classes on leadership. The text for the class was “The Philosophic Consultant” by Dr. Peter Koestenbaum. Dr. Koestenbaum is a professor of philosophy at San Jose State University who has developed a concept called the Leadership Diamond®. The Leadership Diamond focuses on balancing both bottom-line business results and the innate needs and values of an organization’s employees. By using the Leadership Diamond leaders are able to address business challenges with a new understanding of the relationship between the business and the employees. The Leadership Diamond has 4 corners, or orientations, which are the building blocks of Dr. Koestenbaum’s philosophy. These four orientations are Ethics, Vision, Courage, and Reality.
Ethics
In the context of the diamond, the Ethics orientation represents the importance of people, as well as holding on to one’s integrity. According to Dr. Koestenbaum, life is about serving people, no exceptions. The ethics of leadership requires great leaders to manage the relationships with their team while also caring about them and being sensitive to their needs. Great leaders should look at their organizations as one interconnected and interactive whole.
- Ethics also means valuing your team and seeking to help them develop.
- Being an ethical leader means committing to genuine and truthful communication with your team.
Courage
Courage as it applies to the Leadership Diamond, refers to a leader’s ability to be autonomous, a self-starter, and unshakable in facing business obstacles. The Courage orientation focuses heavily on recognizing the opportunities presented during anxious times. This orientation also focuses on accepting the fear of being free and the responsibility associated with that freedom.
- A courageous leader will, if necessary, stand alone.
- Courage means learning and growing from anxious moments.
Reality
The third orientation is Reality. Reality requires that great leaders commit to gathering all the information possible and only acting once they have that information. The key message of the Reality orientation is avoidance of the temptation to make decisions based on sentimentality or wishful thinking.
- A realistic leader always attempts to be objective and well-informed.
- Great leaders seek to understand themselves and their organization’s public image, even though that image may not be accurate.
- Reality means that great leaders accept and understand that there are forces around them that they cannot control.
Vision
The fourth and last corner of the diamond is Vision. Vision means focusing on “Big Picture” thinking. To be a big picture thinker, great leaders have to be more than just intelligent. Great leaders must also be creative in the way that they find solutions and in the way they plan strategies.
- A visionary leader builds a culture where imaginative creation of strategies to solve problems is a key part of the organization.
- A great leader will gauge their organization’s success by the degree to which employees participate in addressing strategic issues.
The Diamond and Great Leaders
By focusing on the Leadership Diamond’s orientations, great leaders will have a foundation for developing a culture of accountability and responsiveness. Many times within a profit driven corporate culture we ignore our inner calling to be true, genuine, and authentic. When in fact, great leaders must understand that being genuine to yourself and your employees will often lead to making your team more successful and profitable. I believe that great leaders remember that the bottom line is not either profits OR people, it is profits AND people.
Are you interested in getting a better understanding of your leadership style? If so, Dr. Koestenbaum offers a leadership self-assessment that is intended to help you understand your Leadership profile.
So what are your thoughts on the Leadership Diamond? Is there a place for philosophy when running a business? Please leave a comment and let us know what you think.
By Courtney Sparkman
