The Leadership Philosophy of Dr. Donald J. Welch
President, Merit Network, Inc.
My leadership philosophy is focused on having the best people in a position to provide the most value to the organization. I strive to develop people to reach their full potential, give them a clear set of goals and inspire them to achieve them.
When I think of developing people, it is important to believe that everybody wants to do well. People want to feel that they are honestly doing well. They need truthful feedback. They know their own shortfalls better than you do, and if they think you are just giving false praise, it will actually be a de-motivator. You have to truly tolerate failure. I have never learned much from success and your people must fail to grow. The trick is to not let them fail in fatal ways. On a more day-to-day scale, this means not nit-picking their ideas. You may be able to improve their ideas based on your experience and perspective, but if you regularly do, they will not be inspired to think differently and they won’t grow. You must constantly challenge them in ways that have the potential for success, but success cannot be assured. Finally, people must constantly keep learning and you must help them to do so as well as demand it. You must understand the individual and provide the environment they need to grow professionally.
As a strategic leader, your responsibility is to articulate a clear vision and strategy to achieve that vision. Obviously, the vision has to be the right one and the strategy must be an effective way of getting there. I think this is actually the easy part. Having the discipline in yourself and your organization to follow the strategy is the hard part. Resources and support are the key and in most organizations there will not be enough to do all we want or feel we must. Keeping focus on the long-term result as you deal with all the daily challenges is hard. Making sure your organization stays focused on the vision and strategy is even harder.
If you have good people and they know what they need to do, all that is left if to inspire them. Inspiration can come in many forms, and different leaders can inspire people in many different ways. The one constant is to respect them as individuals. My style is to encourage them in a truthful way. Most organizations are not Lake Woebegone with every child above average. People need to know that you know how they are good and how the can improve. They need to know how they are doing and are completely capable of accepting setbacks on the road to success.
Talented people with a common goal will always succeed. Building the best team you can and making sure they are working together is the key to success. As a leader, you can fall short in almost every other area (except integrity) and succeed with good staff, motivated to succeed and a common understanding of success.
