In recognition of Edgewood Chemical Biological Center's October Leadership Month, a special blog series featuring ECBC employee responses on what it takes to be an effective leader will be featured on the blog throughout the month of October. The twelfth part in this blog series features Amanda Dubbs, Public Affairs Specialist at ECBC.
"Courage — not complacency — is our need today. Leadership not salesmanship." -John F. Kennedy
I chose the quote above because I feel a true leader “walks the walk and talks the talk.” A leader whole-heartily believes in what he or she says and does. A leader’s actions set the pace in any organization. Leaders do not command excellence, they build excellence. Taking a term from the Army, excellence is “being all you can be” within the bounds of doing what is right. I feel a good leader is also a leader of good character, and character develops over time. A person with strong character shows drive, energy, determination, self-discipline, willpower and nerve. The person sees what they want and they go after it. They attract followers.
I also believe that in order to be an effective leader, your followers must have trust in you; they need to be sold on your vision. I desire for my leaders to be both ethical and honest. A strong vision of the future is important for an organization and an organization’s vitality depends on the workforce’s ability to trust their leaders. One of the ways to build trust is to display a good sense of character composed of beliefs, values, skills and traits.
There is an important quote that I like, spoken by Colin Powell. It coincides with Edgewood Chemical Biological Center’s Mission to support the Warfighter. “The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”
Amanda is the Public Affairs Specialist at Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. Previously, Amanda worked as a biologist with the Environmental BioMonitoring Laboratory.
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