What is a Leader?
Welcome to the start of our journey! This is a place for leaders and future leaders to decipher who they want to be. I’ve been in leadership jobs for over ten years now which has given me a chance to meet many people with unique personalities. While I have learned a lot from my leaders, I learned even more from the people I have led. By no means do I have the answers to every issue you may face in your workplace. I have created Leader’s Legacy to not only share my knowledge but to also gain more from fellow leaders.
My main goal is to help everyone gain the skills to be able to identify a toxic work culture. That is the first step in making a better work environment. You will discover the more I post that I am not your typical results-focused leader. My priority as a leader is to grow not only my team but also myself. It is good to celebrate when goals are achieved, but when they are not it should be an opportunity for growth.
Passive Leadership
What comes to your mind when you think of what a leader is? Perhaps you imagine a family member, a president, or a teacher you have had. The thing is, there are many types of leaders. There are also very few types that are considered “the wrong way”. I believe there are traits that all types should have though to be considered a leader. My idea of a leader is being a voice for those who need it. Being able to define what is right and wrong is essential in work culture. There are multiple businesses that have unjust policies, shifts, and wages. Unfortunately, it is a habit for many of todays leaders to use their catch phrases, “This is how it has been since before I worked here.” or “I will see what I can do. Hang in there. Things will get better.” A leader that ignores issues affecting their team is not fit to be in that role.
One of my thoughts on being a leader uses the phrase, “One step forward, two steps back.” While this tends to be used in a negative manner by someone who feels like just when they were getting a break, here comes another setback. I see this a tad differently. I need to be one step ahead so I can lead change in my team. Getting my hands dirty and showing how processes are done to create results. While at the same time, I must be two steps back so I can be ready to catch and support my team when needed.
You may wonder why I want to focus on work culture. I have been doing research since I have returned to college to see how work culture affects people. I’ve compared multiple statistics throughout multiple countries to see differences in work weeks. For example, countries that have under 40 hour work weeks have lower suicide rates, higher life span, more productivity, and more. I will not give too many details here because I plan on digging into that on other post. Statistics like these interest me as I strongly want to push for shorter work weeks, 4 day school weeks, and lower retirement ages. I’m tired of seeing people be miserable trying to make a living by working overtime every week. Families are being separated far too long with kids being at school and both parents at work. Many people only enjoy a few years of retirement as our current system has retirement age and life expectancy age getting closer together every year. However, things can never improve if we continue to be afraid of taking a stand and creating change. I will continue my research in hopes to find a solution that can help everyone.
What to expect going forward!
I have returned to college to further my knowledge of leadership. I am working towards having my Bachelors degree in both Organizational Management and Sociology. My Masters degree will be in strategic management. With this extra knowledge I will feel more confident in trying to implement my ideas to fix work culture in America. I plan to provide content each week going over topics such as:
Defining toxic work culture
Types of leadership
How to coordinate change
How to know when a team meeting should just be an email instead
How to properly provide constructive criticism
Is micromanaging ever needed, and if so when
And more!
If you have an issue that you are facing at work or perhaps you are trying to understand someone better. Please feel free to share that with me. I am willing to research and provide feedback to anyone in need. As I have stated already, I do not have all the right answers. If I give an opinion I will make sure everyone knows that there are no sources for that other than my own personal experience. I do prefer to provide answers that I have dug deep to find, and be able to provide details on where and how I found this information.
It would bring me joy for you to subscribe if you have not already. The more people who we can reach, the bigger impact we can make. For those with the free subscription you will still get to see a good portion of my content. I will have post every week that is free for everyone to see. There will also be post that only the paid subscriptions will have access to, but this will be due to the amount of research that goes into these post.
Only paid subscribers will be able to comment on these post. I would like the comment section to be civil and informative. As more people start to engage with each other, it is imperative that we stay professional and show respect to our peers. This place is for learning and sharing knowledge, so there should be no judgement towards one another. I find that it is best to see things from that persons point of view first, then engage in conversation so you do not approach a topic in a poor way.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this. I am very excited to launch Leader’s Legacy and can’t wait to see what is to come!
“Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position.” - Brian Tracy