Leadership guiding principles are the foundation to build your career. Without these principles, you will have a difficult time succeeding. This article will guide you through those principles and explain them in detail.
There are eight guiding principles for leaders.
- Responsibility
- Honesty
- Continuous improvement
- Learn to fail the right way
- Lead by example
- Develop your people
- Listen
- Never give up
What Is A Leadership Guiding Principle?
A leadership guiding principle is the foundation of your belief system for the workplace. In addition, it is the foundation of all other activities performed at work. If you develop these guiding principles, you will build a thriving organization that can meet any challenge you face.
Leadership Guiding Principle Details
Responsibility
When you are a leader, you are the responsible person. It doesn’t matter what your subordinates do; whether it is right or wrong, you will get the credit or the blame. Don’t fight this but rather embrace it. Never blame others- remember the saying ” the buck stops here.” You are the Leader.
Honesty
Be straightforward and always show your subordinates and superiors respect by being honest with them. If you don’t follow this principle, it will end your career. Usually, there is no return from putting yourself in a dishonest situation.
Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement is a term that is kicked around a lot today with the implementation of Lean processes. However, if you want to be a successful leader, the bottom line is you must always be looking for ways to improve.
Improvement can be self-improvement, job task improvement, method improvement. Don’t just accept things as they are if there is a more innovative, better way. Be openminded.
Learn To Fail The Right Way
Everyone fails. There may be small failures and sometimes significant failures. A great leader will learn from failures and go back at them without hesitation. Getting back on the horse is the right way to handle a failure. Failure does not equal quitting!
Lead By Example
Every organization has rules to follow. If you set yourself apart from your subordinates and don’t follow the same rules, you will lose your people’s respect. For example, two things happen if no personal calls are allowed for your workers, yet you take personal calls. First, you can bet they will know it. Second, your employees will start to do it as well. This simple action leads to conflict, and you will lose your employee’s respect.
Develop Your People
It takes a great deal of planning and working with each individual but developing your people is one of the most critical Leadership guiding principles. A better-developed workforce will make it so much easier to achieve all of your goals, and you will better prepare your team for any obstacles you come across.
Listen
Sometimes employees need to be heard. They may wish to express frustration or possibly have a great idea. It would help if you always listened to what your employees had to say. The employee will appreciate you for listening and taking them seriously.
Never Give Up
I touched on this earlier, but you always have to forge ahead. You can only reach significant accomplishments for you and your organization if you keep going. It is not always easy, and you need to develop the reputation as someone who gives it their all and will never stop trying to accomplish the goals.
Conclusion
If you follow the eight principles outlined in this article, you will set yourself apart from 99 percent of all other leaders. These principles can help you guide your organization to great success and lead you to personal and financial success. The principles outlined here will also serve you well in your personal life.
For more about Leadership, see the other articles on my website.