Senior Sage Leaders Reflect on Their Own Leadership

Personal leadership style. While most senior sages generally don’t talk much about their personal style, some are willing to share:

The greatest strength is my personal style of building relationships and connecting with family, friends, and the community. My life here has been full because I know I have had a major impact on this community in the areas of elder care and health of the aging. I can see the results of my work, so I believe I am a respected part of the community. This is almost mystical and has to do with seeing people as brothers and sisters on a journey. A person’s way of life is their politics, religion, and a way of being. My beliefs are based in my actions, and how I portray myself in my life’s work.

During most of my active career I believed that if something was worth doing and doing Well, I had to do it. Not anymore. Letting go and letting others took me decades to learn, and I am now able to do this easily. Part of the turn-around had to do with the fact that I am introverted by nature. I enjoy quiet and being alone or with a few close friends more than almost anything else. Whatever extroversion I exhibited during my career was all learned behavior, and while I can still do it reasonably well it does not come from the heart. It is inauthentic. In most instances you don’t become a good leader if you have these traits.

For over 40 years I was a manager of the organizations in which I had been part. My style has been to mentor and lead through collaboration. My approach is to identify the things that need to be done in a given project and then figure out how best to assemble them to achieve success. This, by the way, is how architects go about their work.

I live quietly and when I act, I act quietly. I like being in the background, working behind the scenes, rather than being up front. I am not a joiner and don’t belong to a lot of organizations. So I do things without other people knowing. People don’t have to know the good things one does. The Good Lord knows, and that’s all that is important.