Leadership Principles – The Overview

I’ve led and been led in many situations. The military as a tank platoon leader (one of the funnest jobs you can have as a 22 year old man – four tanks, fifteen soldiers and a job description that reads “blow stuff up and run stuff over.”); as a director of a large call center organization; as a consultant team leader; as an executive in premier organizations. I’ve also been fortunate enough to learn from and work with many leaders and followers in all those organizations (both good ones and bad ones).

Sure there are plenty of leadership books out there (available at fine book stores everywhere!). The thing is, I haven’t come across any that are down to earth and practical in the advice they give. To that end, I see a problem and therefore I own it (one of the principles on the list). I’d like to offer the following basic principles as a perspective on some of the things it takes to be a genuine leader.

Knowing and leading yourself:

• You see it, you own it
• “He’s under the tank, sir”
• “I’m going home. You’re doing my job so you don’t need me and should take the cost savings.”
• “He knows more than I do”
• The Human Crapshield

Knowing and leading your people:

• His name is Angel
• He drinks 7Up
• “But he’s never done that job.” “I know.”
• They know what I know
• Kick up, kiss down
• The thank you note

Yes. Many of the above points are cryptic. Some are self evident. I’ll expound upon each of these principles in separate posts.

– Learn more about how to create your own set of leadership principles in my book One Piece of Paper.  Buy your copy here.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC