Happy Bloggiversary! A Leadership Principles Blast from the Past

Happy Bloggiversary! A year. Wow. This blog has been around for a year now (and I’m sure some of you will go check the original post dates and say “it started in OCT 07” but I backdated some of the original posts…). It’s been a wonderful learning experience and I’ve met a ton of wonderful people (YOU!) along the way.

In honor of the bloggiversary, I’m thrilled to bring you the first series of posts I wrote here on a set of leadership principles you can use in your day to day job. If you’ve already read them (the original set, not the set we covered starting this past October), read them again – they never get old.

I’d also like to ask your help. If you’ve enjoyed this blog over the past year, I’m thrilled. In return for the tips, smiles, and perspectives we’ve provided you, I’d like to ask a simple favor. Our biggest challenge is attracting new readers (they tend to retain extremely well once they get here). I’d ask that each of you let a few of your friends or colleagues know about us and invite them to join our ranks of readers (almost 400 subscribers now). I’m not asking a lot – I’m simply asking you to spread the word. I thank you in advance for your help on this. We’ve typed over 100 posts for your enjoyment – we’re asking you to type a few emails to return the favor (I’m good at the guilt thing – I was raised in an Italian Catholic household).

Now to the good stuff. Straight from the archives, here are the original leadership principles we published here.

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:

Knowing and leading your people:

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

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC