Defining Leadership: The PECO Way

Author John Maxwell once said, “The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.”

Like many organizations, Phillips Edison has always promoted the value of leadership and worked toward developing great leaders through programs such as PECO University, (our internal training and development program), PECO NOW (Networking Opportunities for Women), tuition reimbursement, and a variety of other initiatives.  Geared toward nurturing and supporting the team in their development, these programs were great opportunities for our associates, but something was missing.  We had not given them a roadmap for success.

We had not explained what a leader at Phillips Edison looks like.  We didn’t clearly define our expectations.  And if they don’t know where they need to be, all the training in the world won’t help them get there. So last year, our PECO U, HR and marketing teams worked together with associates at all levels of the company to do just that.  Their mission was to define and clearly communicate to the company what core traits we want leaders to have.  The final product was shared with the entire company at our Annual Meeting earlier this month.

We believe that PECO Leaders embody the company culture and live by our core values. We expect them to exude passion, empower our teams and achieve results. But we also believe there is not a one size fits all leadership approach. While all of our styles are unique, we embrace these common leadership traits:  Authenticity, Acumen, Action and Agility.  The abbreviated definitions of these traits are as follows:

AUTHENTICITY

• Is comfortable in his/her own skin
• Takes pride and an active hand in helping associates succeed
• Shows genuine interest in the work and non-work lives of the people around him/her

ACUMEN

• Identifies how to get things done internally and externally
• Applies Functional Expertise
• Creates high performing teams

ACTION

• Makes informed decisions and moves forward
• Delegates effectively
• Rallies the team to achieve results

AGILITY

• Pivots
• Pushes the boundaries
• Commits to Continuous Improvement

These leadership traits and their definitions are now the roadmap to anyone who wants to become a more impactful leader at Phillips Edison.  They will be an integral part of our talent acquisition process when we consider bringing new leaders into the organization and they will also be vital to our internal talent and succession planning as we identify and work hard to promote from within.

We have the training and now we have the vision.  Together, they provide our team with the tools and resources they need to grow into our leaders of the future.  As Maxwell said, “The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development.”  We expect this program to impact our team and our business in a big way.