Some Basic Leadership Principles To Think About

By Takis Athanassiou

Why Principles Are Needed for Leadership?

Leadership is a discipline and as a discipline requires dedication and commitment! It is not easy to practice something that it is called "Good Leadership", or do something that automatically would make you an "excellent leader". Leadership is not a "make believe story". Is your life!

In order to live well, though, to have a successful (personal and professional) living, you need some anchors. Anchors, that would propel you towards your objectives and sustain your personal "gains" (if any!). These anchors are the principles you have adopt, preach and propagate during your everyday talking, doing, sharing. Especially so, when you are or want to be a person of influence (a leader some people would say!) for your self, you family and friends, your co-workers, your associates, your business partners and your society (for everyone as a matter of fact).

Basic Leadership Principles

If, as a leader (or a willingly to cultivate the discipline of leadership, person), you need some principles, which would be these? Which of the basic human principles, are most suitable to serve someone, who aspires to influence other people by his/hers example, practice, words, ideas, etc. There are many principles and differ from person to person. But there are some that have a pivotal place in the cluster of leadership principles.

These can be summarized to the following principles:

• Be always accountable for yourself and the others involved in the same situation with you,
• Remember, leadership is always about the others, not your self,
• Keep your word and safeguard trust in every situation,
• Formulate strategies for achieving gains, mainly, for the larger number of the participants,
• Move towards your goals, having win-win strategies in your mind,
• Develop a mentality of serving others rather your self,
• Develop a vision and propagate it clearly,
• Seek to persuade rather to coerce,
• Exhibit honesty, consistency and integrity towards everyone and in every situation,
• Treat everyone with respect, regardless the situation you both have been met,
• Avoid thing you cannot undone or to correct with great difficulty. Contemplate before the action, then act!,
• Think and act as a person first, and then act as a business person, leader, or anything else,
• Act & make business decisions based on personal integrity and interdependence first; wins for everyone second; quality of the outputs third; schedule and time to be observed fourth; and budget or money to be invested or gained fifth.
• Align your efforts with what the values of your family, group, team, followers, are!,
• Recognize and value your influence on the development, well fair and career success of others; acknowledge others' influence on your personal and professional success,
• Calculate carefully and balance the requirements of the family, clients, teams, company, organization and of your self; keep and safeguard a balance ratio of work and life!,
• Seek to understand others before being understood (as Stephen R. Covey have taught us),
• Aspire more to be a better person, and not a better leader,
• Invest more in your personal development and in the development of your associates, rather to material objects.

Do your think you can hold these principles in your life? Do you think they can help you to be a better person and a leader?

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