My Leadership Philosophy

Leadership Philosophy Graeme Jones, BMCS, USCGR
Senior Enlisted Leadership Course: Session 64

Introduction

Leadership is the practice of inspiring others to act in furtherance of a cause. My philosophy was formed early in my career as I crossed courses with both skilled and unskilled practitioners. I have had many opportunities to refine my practice by reflecting on actions I have taken that have not had the desired effect or were not sustainable. The foundations of my leadership philosophy rests on three pillars: Trust; discipline and accountability.
I should note that I am partial to referring to leadership as a practice, as opposed to a learned skill or natural born ability. Implicit in this term is the acknowledgment

This came as a bit of a gut punch, as I have worked hard to implement time and task management practices to ensure that I don’t neglect commitments that I’ve made and that I can be relied on to do what I said I was going to do, by the time I said it would be done. You may be thinking as you read this sentence, this is all a bit ironic as I have not consistently demonstrated mastery of time and task management skills while I have been here at SELC. Nevertheless, these things are important to me and I will redouble my efforts to deliver on them. There are likely a few factors that led to this comment—and while its hard to tell for certain where it came from—I’ll assume that it came from the Coast

As I have reflected on this paper—it has become evident that it is fully undergirded by my personal values—which probably doesn’t come as a surprise. I work hard to create an environment where everyone is crystal clear on my expectations and there the no barriers in getting clarification if they aren’t clear. I ask people to make commitments and, where I have flexibility, negotiate with them to agree on reasonable deliverables and timelines. More important, is that I deliver as I have promised. For me this is about trust and accountability. It’s also important that people get the easy thing right—that their uniforms are clean and pressed, boots blackened, they show up on time. These are indicators for me that they their heads are in the game and that they are paying attention. It also gives me confidence to ease the line and provide extra room to maneuver freely. Finally, I want credit to go to those doing the work. It’s relatively easy for me to avoid claiming credit for their successes, as I tend to seek the shadows. However, I need to be more aware of my reluctance to praise the work of