Are We Using Our Leadership Gifts?

Every day at HORNE is an opportunity to advance the firm along its journey to build the Wise Firm. We have 13 building blocks that define the Wise Firm and arguably nine of them are not technical or task focused. Those building blocks We & Service (the foundation of the Wise Firm), Collaboration, External Focus, Sense of Belonging, Relationships, Hard Decisions, Honor Values, Empowered People, and Positive Energy — speak to our team members and the leadership they deserve.

I call the leadership skills required to build the Wise Firm “gifts.” They are the inspirational and motivational ability to develop and empower our team members.

In today’s rapid transformation there is a need to retain talented people and it’s up to all of us to do our part. All leaders have gifts and we just need to put them into practice. Every day when we go to work, we should think of the team member(s) we are trying to help grow and evaluate what we can do to impact their professional growth. For example, commit yourself to have a conference call at least once a month with that team member. This is an effective way to gain insight as to how you can help them and offer valuable advice.

Practicing and executing one leadership gift every day can make a big impact. By inspiring team members, we increase our ability to develop and retain team members.

Think about these traits as you apply your leadership gifts:

Inspirational - One that can instill passion, purpose and belief in a common vision. 

Motivational - One that carefully listens, plans and focuses in order to reach a goal. 

Develop People - One that creates the conditions that increase learning for others. 

Empowerment - One that instills confidence and self-determination in others. 

Consider this: tasks will come and go, contracts will be won and executed, projects will begin and end, but the best legacy you can leave is having developed other leaders who will continue to push us forward to our future view.

About the Authors

Eunice Garcia is a government services manager specializing in project management, quality assurance and quality control compliance, and reporting in accordance with state and federal regulations. She is a talented people developer who helps others see where we are going and how we are going to get there—together. 

John Hadjis is government services senior manager focused on the HUD Community Development Block Grant program. He is passionate about helping our most vulnerable citizens recover from a disaster and identifying, developing, and retaining the star team members who will help build the Wise Firm.