One of our purposes is to write about every single value we have as a company, as a team and as a player in the online environment but most importantly the values we want to share with our customers and partners. They are all important and they are all our primary focus day-by-day so that we are able to deliver our brand promise. Moreover, a company’s set of values is part of its DNA, it’s either there or not and you can’t fake it. Customers will see you beyond your appearance and will know who you are right away – so whenever you choose a value – choose that you can actually believe in, it can eventually define you so you can deliver it. Make that value part of your day-to-day responsibilities, create opportunities to manifest it and foster it into your team’s mindset.
We want to emphasize this first, as leadership is one of the most complex subjects we will ever talk about – the word is so famous due to its multiple meanings and facets, but also due to the multitude of typologies that any leader can have and because of the face of so many powerful leaders this world has. This is why we won’t approach leadership in general, but try to talk about why we value leadership as an organisation, as a team, as an individual and as a strong asset that is enabling us day-by-day to provide support and create value for our customers.
The best way to talk about leadership is to lead the way
No matter if we talk about Optimized IT set of values, goals, or strategies, we talk about the way we can lead our customers and partners to find the perfect solution for their business to prosper. This is why the word lead is a keyword for us. Leading the right way lies in understanding the best way for someone to improve, to grow and to evolve.
It all starts with listening and understanding what are our customers’ worries, fears, obstacles that lead to problems. It continues with being able to properly analyze and identify solutions that not only offer a temporary answer to the problem but a long-term development opportunity. We are focused on building growth and thus generating it. We lead with the end result in mind and keep a flexible attitude along the way.
Moreover, leading is not only about paving the way for someone towards optimum solutions. It’s also about building a relationship with your customers and partners, about maintaining the cycle that promotes openness and collaboration. It’s about developing step by step one of the most important elements: TRUST. The trust that someone can count on you to guide them towards the results that they expect and still be available when they need you again.
Lead and more leaders will follow
Leadership is an attitude, but not a personal attribute. It must sound naive to say so, but we believe that anyone can become a leader. Not automatically and not without effort and hard work, but anyone can develop the attitude to do it. Some do it naturally, but this doesn’t mean being a leader is being charismatic, or dominating audiences and people. Knowing how to lead someone towards a successful outcome means learning a process, doing it several times, hitting the walls, falling on the ground and getting up again. It means making some mistakes, learning from others, overpassing one’s own pride and preconceptions. Sometimes it means even breaking some rules, understanding and accepting that people are different and work in different ways and there is no single way to success but so many options and we have to try each one of them to get there. Being diverse, learning how to make others feels included and respected.
These are all examples of how the journey towards becoming a leader looks like. It’s not simple, but it’s not impossible. And the more we practice this attitude, the more people will follow us. Acting as an example is the best way to inspire others and to teach them how to achieve their goals. Some will follow, some will not – but keeping a leading attitude will definitely determine a significant impact in all the aspects of our lives, especially the professional one.
Easy to manage, tricky to influence
John Maxwell said: “Leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less.” Following his statement, it would be also good to add that leadership is not management. He said it in a very powerful way, but he said it. And we want to emphasize it too.
Because even if management is crucial and we do it in so many ways from “the get to know each other” process up to the overall project management part, this is still not leadership. And understanding this difference, will help you understand who are those who can help you manage your business and who are those who can do both: help you with the management part and lead you towards achieving your business goals.
Sometimes you only need one role, but most of the time you will need both. They can be in two different persons or they can be in the same one, but most importantly, it can be you. This is a real leader’s impact: he will pave the way for success while supporting, guiding and building other true leaders. This is the sole purpose of true leadership.
At Optimized IT, we believe in the power of leadership and we adopt it as one of our strongest values and one of our brand promises: to find the perfect solutions for our customers! We believe we can achieve this by leading their way towards performing at their best.
