Principles of Leadership

To help you be, know, and do; (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973) follow these eleven principles of leadership (later parts in this series expand on these and provide tools for implementing them):

1. Know yourself and seek self-improvement – In order to know yourself, you have to understand your be, know, and do, attributes. Seeking self-improvement means continually strengthening your attributes. This can be accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others.
2. Be technically proficient – As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with your members’ tasks.
3. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions – Search for ways to guide your organization to new heights. And when things go wrong, they always do sooner or later — do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.
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 your employees. They must not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see. Be the change you want to see in this world – Mahatma Gandhi
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 members informed – Know how to communicate with not only them, but also seniors and other key people.
8. Develop a sense of responsibility in your members - Help to develop good character traits that will help them carry out their organizational responsibilities.
9. Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished – Communication is the key to this responsibility.
10. Train as a team – Although many so called leaders call their organization, department, section, etc. a team; they are not really teams…they are just a group of people doing their jobs.
11. Use the full capabilities of your organization – By developing a team spirit, you will be able to employ your organization, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities.

Source: Donald Clark’s Concepts of Leadership

Possible Related Articles:

• Concepts of Leadership (Part 2)
• Concepts of Leadership (Part 5)
• Concepts of Leadership (Part 4)

This entry was posted by Zeta Omega Admin on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 1:43 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.