When people decide to respect you as a leader, they observe what you do so they can know who you really are.

People then use this observation to tell if you are an honourable and trusted leader, or a self-serving person who misuses authority.

A good leader has an honourable character that selflessly serves his/her organisation. In your employees’ eyes, your leadership is everything. Your activities affect the organisation’s objectives and their well-being.

A great leader must have awareness in three key areas:

  1. Be – what he/she is (beliefs and values),
  2. Know – what he/she knows (job, tasks, human nature),
  3. Do – what he/she does (implement, motivate, and provide direction).

What makes a person want to follow a leader? People want to be guided by people they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future.

The Three Most Important Keys of Leadership:

Studies have shown that trust and confidence in top leadership is the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction in an organisation.

Effective communication by leadership in three critical areas is the key to winning organisational trust and confidence, and involves:

  1. Helping employees understand the company’s overall business strategy.
  2. Helping employees understand how they contribute to achieving key business objectives.
  3. Sharing information with employees on both how the company is doing and how an employee’s own division or department is doing – relative to strategic business objectives.

So basically, you must be trustworthy and you have to be able to communicate a vision of where you are going.

10 Principles of Leadership:

  1. Know yourself and seek self-improvement. In order to know yourself, you have to understand your “be”, “know”, and “do” attributes. This is possible by continually strengthening your attributes by reading and self-study.
  2. Be technically proficient. As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with your employees’ jobs.
  3. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions. Search for ways to guide your organisation to new heights. And when things go wrong, do not blame others.
  4. Make sound and timely decisions. Use good problem solving, decision-making, and planning tools.
  5. Set the example. Be a good role model for you employees. They will believe what they see – not what they hear.
  6. Know your people and look out for their well-being. Know human nature and the importance of sincerely caring for your workers.
  7. Keep your people informed. Know how to communicate with your people, seniors, and other key people within the organisation.
  8. Develop a sense of accountability, ownership and responsibility in your people. These traits will help them carry out their professional responsibilities.
  9. Ensure tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished. Communication is the key to this responsibility.
  10. Train your people as a team. By developing team spirit, you will be able to employ your organisation, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities.

The Process of Great Leadership:

  1. Challenge the process – first, find a process you believe needs to be improved the most.
  2. Inspire a shared vision – next, share your vision in words that can be understood by your followers.
  3. Enable others to act – give them the tools, authority and methods to solve problems themselves.
  4. Model the way – when the process gets tough, get your hands dirty. A boss tells others what to do; a leader shows it can be done.

And remember these….

  • The six most important words: “I admit I made a mistake.”
  • The five most important words: “You did a good job.”
  • The four most important words: “What is your opinion?”
  • The three most important words: “If you please.”
  • The two most important words: “Thank you,”
  • The one most important word: “We”
  • The least important word: “I”

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