Leadership Philosophy

Joe Stuart’s Leadership Philosophy

People first, mission always!
Management By Walking Around (MBWA).
Surround yourself with the best people possible, learn from them.
Provide an environment for every person to excel.
Treat every person with dignity and respect.
Encourage and affirm others successes, focus on team wins.
Develop and take care of people at every level.
Capitalize on people's passions and talents to achieve organizational goals.
Surround yourself with great people and delegate responsibility and authority.
Be forthright, honest and direct with every person and in every circumstance.
Never stop learning, expertise is critical.
Encourage feedback, learn from mistakes and forgive.
If you don’t know, ask.
Ask often, what is the best use of my time right now?
Identify the critical problems that need early solutions.
Execute centralized planning and de-centralize execution.
Incorporate measures and metrics everywhere (that they make sense).
Dream big and act boldly.
Set and maintain the highest personal standards.
Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork.
Show what success looks like.
Treat everybody the way you want to be treated. Be courteous, professional and respectful of others' ideas and feelings.
Remember to take care of yourself. We need you!
We can do (almost) anything, but we cannot do everything.
Things worth doing are worth doing right ... the first time. So think things through and plan first.
Ethical behavior is not negotiable!

And I have to add the text from a truly great American, President Theodore Roosevelt. This is an excerpt from a speech he delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910. The original handwritten speech was 35 pages long and is well worth a study if you love America. President Roosevelt titled the speech "Citizenship In A Republic". I have displayed this particular quotation in many of my classrooms and given parchment copies to many students who I taught to teach; as many are ready to criticize teachers, yet they themselves dare not step into the world of teaching. And a Post Script to President Roosevelt's words, he uses the pronoun "man" but considering the time he delivered this speech, and the way our world has evolved, I think this is applicable to both men and women today.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.