After a much too long hiatus, we are back with the next installment of posts focused on a deep dive into our Core Values. Next up: Live in Leadership.
When I was a junior in high school, I had an English teacher who was new to the school. Mrs. Jones was an older lady in her 50s or 60s and was one of the meekest, mildest teachers I had met in my school career. We were a group of privileged, too cool for school, middle-class brats, and, I regret to say, we made Mrs. Jones' life hell, and I was one of the ringleaders.
After a few months of enduring this torture, Mrs. Jones asked me to stay after class to chat. She told me she thought I was a natural leader and that I had the power to use that quality for good or bad. She asked me to sign a contract stating that I would be a positive influence in the class. I can't say that I changed overnight, but it got me thinking: What is a leader? Was I really a leader? If so, what did that mean?
Since that chat with Mrs. Jones, I have considered the idea of leadership in general, and the idea that I am a leader, in all aspects of life, but maybe most significantly in the role of architect and business owner. It’s important, and maybe critical, to take an intentional look at leadership in the context of modern small-business management, the field of architecture, and in life in general.
Entrepreneur = Leader
It may be impossible to be an entrepreneur and not be a leader. Even if the only person you are leading is yourself, embracing the qualities of good leadership is critical to success.
Architect = Leader
Whether we like it or not, architects are usually thrown into the deep end of the leadership pool simply by the nature of the work. A client hires an architect to design a building. The architect then puts together a team of professionals to do the work, and the architect is the person leading the charge, herding the turtles to get the project done, communicating with the client, and representing the client's interests to the contractor during construction.
Human = Leader
Just like the choice that Mrs. Jones presented me with in high school, each and every human being that walks the face of planet Earth has a choice to lead others toward good or toward bad. This doesn't mean that to choose leading for good you have to be out in front of the ranks of activists waving the banner and screaming the slogans. Being an everyday leader might just mean picking up a piece of trash on the sidewalk and asking others to do the same.
So if leaders are everywhere, what makes a good leader?
If you are a sucker for new age, life hack, industry disrupter, business strategy, self-help books like I am, then you know that it is easy to drown in a rabbit hole filled with books, podcasts, and blog posts on the topic of Leadership.
I know I have found myself neck-deep in this genre many times in my adult life. I usually am able to extract myself before drowning and even occasionally come away with a few nuggets of wisdom.
A Hot Take on Leadership
Perhaps the most well-known guru on the subject of self-help in general and leadership specifically is our old friend Tony Robbins. If you can get past the late-night infomercial shtick, Tony has put together a pretty solid list of what he calls the "10 Aspects of Effective Leadership." They are…
Tony Robbins
Confidence – Openness, emotional agility, and resourcefulness are important. Tony says, use nonverbal clues to APPEAR confident even when you don't FEEL confident (not sure this jives with #3).
Focus – Tony says, "where focus goes, energy flows." Limit distractions and focus on long-term strategy while staying nimble in the short term.
Honesty – Treat others how you expect to be treated. This creates strong emotional connections with others. Practice direct feedback.
Positivity – Turn setbacks into successes, and obstacles into opportunities.
Decisiveness – A leader who can't make a decision will never have a place to lead to.
Ability to Inspire – Discovering what your natural leadership traits are is an excellent way to inspire others to also find their own leadership strengths.
Effective Communication – Words transform emotions and lead to breakthroughs. Constructive communication often means closing your mouth and opening your ears. Practice deep listening.
Accountability – Handle mistakes with positivity and a growth mindset. Great leaders take most of their share of the blame and less of the credit.
Empathy – Cultivating empathy is the precursor to almost every other soft skill required for leadership. From self-awareness to critical thinking.
Humility – Embrace your own weakness without losing confidence.
The leadership qualities espoused by Mr. Robbins are by no means perfect or comprehensive, and I could fill hundreds more pages with other gurus' hot takes on leadership. The point is, whether we like it or not, we all are leaders. Given that fact, we must be self-aware and intentional about how we are leading.
At Strongwork Architecture, We Live in Leadership
At Strongwork Architecture, we recognize that in every aspect of our work, we have the opportunity to lead.
We are leading when we crunch the numbers and determine our allocation of hours for specific projects and tasks, and leading when things change, those numbers become obsolete, and we have to pivot.
We are leading when we remind ourselves that we could use spray foam for the interior insulation, but the negative environmental impact of that product would outweigh any minor increase in the R-value of the assembly.
We are leading when we recommend to a client that they install corner guards on exposed drywall corners in order to reduce a little long term maintenance.
We do our best to lead up and down the chain of command.
We lead within our own team when we show up with an open mind to a collaborative design session and normalize feedback to promote collective improvement.
We believe that every action we take, no matter how big or small, is an opportunity to lead.
We Live in Leadership.