My Leadership Philosophy
Empower Passions | Invite Failures | Expand Potentials | Grow Leaders
In my experience building customer success, professional services, and marketing teams, I have developed a specific leadership philosophy that focuses on development and empowerment. My duty as a leader is not just to build a team that successfully executes on its goals, but encourages every member of the team to cultivate their skills, take risks, and grow into leaders in their own right.
Passion is your most valuable asset
Skills can be taught, but passion can't. Discovering what your team members are passionate about and helping them understand how to focus those passions and apply them to their work is what the best leaders do to maximize the potential of every individual and help them grow.
That’s the only way to build a team that isn’t just showing up for a title or a paycheck, but invested in their work and fulfilled as a contributor and co-owner of the team’s vision.
Failure is not only welcome but expected
If your team is operating from a place of fear, you’ll never realize the team’s full potential. As a leader, you must build a culture that embraces failure, that allows team members to expand their horizons and capabilities by getting out of their comfort zones and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.
Instead of punishing failures, great leaders incorporate taking risks into the very heart of the strategies they develop. Your team should feel comfortable sharing and learning from each other’s failures. That’s where growth happens.
Always empower your people first
Empower others is fundamental to good leadership, fostering a sense of self and meaning for others before ones self is a core tenant of servant leadership.
Making the space for others to try, grow, learn, lead and expand the possible is paramount to growing leaders and lets face it what's more fulfilling than building great leaders.
I Try to watch this great presentation at least twice a year by Simon Sinek: Why Leaders Eat Last (be sure to check it out).
Leadership is a behavior not a position
The biggest mistake a leader can make is taking a leadership position for granted. Being a leader isn’t being a boss, it means earning your role again and again, by making each member of your team feel supported and valued, recognizing accomplishments and giving credit, and continuously developing your people.
Above all, it means leading by example. Share your passions and your failures and explain what you’re learning from them. Grant people co-ownership of the team vision and mission.
What The Teams Are Saying
Stephan was more than my manager; he is a friend and mentor and helped me grow as both a marketer and a person. His knowledge of and passion for customer-first marketing are evident in everything he does, but he extends that same enthusiasm toward every member of his team, making time for big ideas, building an environment where people can take risks (and have fun!), and working with his people so they can grow and develop. He helps people become leaders that are capable of taking on greater responsibilities and never operate from a place of fear. Stephan is that rare unicorn of a leader who is equally capable of listening to and inspiring people at every level, by collaborating with them on a shared vision and sense of purpose that makes the work feel both important and exciting. Working with him has been one of the great experiences of my professional life, which is why I look forward to doing it again in the future in some capacity.
