15 Principles of Leadership that will Put You In TOP
This article was originally published in Knowlab
Here is the 15 principles from the worthy leadership that will put you on top.
1. Be Clear
• Everyone should know what success looks like.
• What’s the north star metric (revenue, users, etc.)?
• How does each role contribute to it?
• Target in hand, people can get to work.
2. Be Ethical
• Good companies need guiding principles.
• Leaders must define them, articulate them and uphold them.
• If you act contrary to principle, you undermine them.
• Give your employees a compass.
3. Be Forgiving
• Honest mistakes happen.
• Once is a lesson; twice is laziness or inattention.
• Dishonest behavior should be treated harshly.
4. Be Rational
• Explain your decisions, especially when people disagree
• Irrational leaders undermine trust.
• If you can’t articulate your decisions, people won’t trust them
5. Be Open
• Assume your team always a better idea than you.
• People will feel heard and want to contribute more.
• This will naturally improve the quality of ideas around you.
• And you’ll notice more of them.
6. Be Transparent
• Remote-first work means people are often alone.
• The imagination can run wild when we don’t have facts.
• This can breed fear and alienation.
• Transparency unites.
7. Be Trusting
• Life is richer when you give people the benefit of the doubt.
• We superimpose narratives on benign circumstances all the time.
• Practice separating facts from narrative.
8. Be Flawed
• When you make a mistake, own it in front of everyone.
• This builds trust and fosters honesty.
• Blame-first cultures are poisonous and lame.
9. Be Brave
• Some people were born with infallible self-confidence.
• The rest of us just show up and do the best we can.
• Fake it until you make it. Then fake it some more…
10. Be Curious
• Follow your energy.
• It’s hard to be great at something you’re not crazy about.
• Do more of what gets you in flow state.
• Delegate the other stuff to people better suited for it.
11. Be Real
• We do better work when connected to others.
• If people can’t get to know you, they have no reason to care
• Be human and find common ground.
12. Reward Outcomes
• It’s easy to be busy getting nothing done.
• The best people find a way.
• The rest react or wait to be told what to do.
• Focus on results to inspire action.
13. Call B.S., Discretely
• It’s tempting to accept answers at face value.
• If you sense something’s amiss, follow up privately.
• Weeks or months can be lost by taking things for granted.
14. Praise Publicly, Criticize Privately
• Great work should be recognized.
• Save critical feedback for 1:1s.
• No one likes being called out publicly.
• It demotivates and breeds resentment.
15. Remove Obstacles
- What’s holding your team back?
• Tech backlog? Hire a freelancer.
• Manual tasks? Find a way to automate.
• Weak reporting? Get better analytics.
