37 Principles for Exceptional Leadership
This article presents a list of Leadership Principles. These principles are simple yet extremely powerful. If followed, a leader will never go astray or make major mistakes.
There are no details or explanations about each principle. Only the list of principles. All the science, experience and reasons for these principles are contained in all my other articles. So this article can be viewed as a valuable and powerful summary of the material, tools and information given in the other articles in this library.
Leadership Principle 1
Purpose is the greatest power within each person, possibly the most powerful driving force in the universe. A strong enough purpose can accomplish anything. Purpose is the driving force behind all great discoveries, all progress and movements in every civilization, and all societal and technological advancements.
Leadership Principle 2
Any organization is formed as a result of and to pursue a specific purpose. The organization’s purpose and mission is the driving force and guiding star of the organization. That purpose must be clearly, completely and exactly expressed.
Leadership Principle 3
The purpose of a leader-manager - the reason the leader is leading and the manager is managing - is to produce, create, or achieve a defined, intended, and desirable goal or end result, which in turn must be defined by and in support of the organization’s purpose.
Leadership Principle 4
The leader-manager of a group is driven by the purpose of that group, and not by his or her own personal purposes that run counter to or in another direction from the purposes of that group.
Leadership Principle 5
Whether a manager or leader is successful and effective or not is determined solely by the end results of that manager’s decisions and actions, and whether or not the manager or leader achieved the desired, intended goal.
Leadership Principle 6
The goals and intentions of the group must be defined and stated exactly in terms of an actual, desired end result that can be seen and measured. Measuring end results means being able to answer the questions “how much” or “how many” something resulted or were produced or sold or earned.
Leadership Principle 7
The purpose and mission must be clearly and completely defined, free and clear of any ambiguities, biases, disagreements, or conflicting intentions. Then this purpose is to be communicated throughout the group, known and agreed upon by every member in the group. Such communication greatly increases the power of the group and greatly increases the group’s ability to achieve its desired goals and end results.
Leadership Principle 8
The most valuable assets and resources of any organization are its people. Computers, buildings, even money are simply tools that people use to forward an organization’s purpose. It is people who earn the money, build and use the equipment and networks, and create the wealth of the organization.
Leadership Principle 9
The exceptional leader has or adopts four unshakable attitudes and beliefs about each of the people in his group:
He or she has a strong, total, unconditional belief and confidence in his people and their innate power and amazing capabilities, and communicates this belief to his people.
He or she insists on and demands the very best and beyond from his people, but only in a very positive, constructive, encouraging, understanding, and patient manner and attitude. He expects them to produce their best at all times.
He or she communicates in a manner that truly inspires his people.
He or she ignites, channels, and directs their purpose power toward a unified goal.
Leadership Principle 10
Most people have great abilities, talents, potential, and capacity for great ideas and to accomplish amazing things. Underneath any negative qualities and baggage, most people have terrific qualities, abilities, and imagination.
Leadership Principle 11
All people are not alike in their skills, abilities, intelligences, purposes, intentions, and willingness.
Leadership Principle 12
A percentage of the population is not qualified for your organization. This must be known, recognized, and accepted by the successful leader-manager.
Leadership Principle 13
Every person working within the group must work toward the group’s purpose and mission, agree with the group’s purpose and mission, and have the skills and abilities to do his or her job well.
Leadership Principle 14
Eighty to ninety percent of people are good, constructive, caring people who want to do a good job, want to cooperate, and want their groups to succeed. Such people respond well to the truth, to being told the true and exact situations the group is facing, and to requests and invitations to help and contribute, and for ideas, observations, and solutions.
Leadership Principle 15
Anyone who is detrimental to the goals and purposes of your group should be terminated immediately and, if necessary, replaced by someone who is willing and able to follow the group’s mission and purpose. Any person unwilling or unable to perform his or her job well, or who is not in alignment and agreement with the group’s purpose and mission, is to be identified and, if necessary, replaced by someone who is willing and able to do that job. No staff member who is unable or unwilling to do their job well is to be allowed to remain in that group, or the group suffers.
Leadership Principle 16
There are three categories of people from a business standpoint. Hire and retain only Category 1 people.
Good, constructive, caring, and willing people who want to do a good job, who have the skills, abilities, willingness and intelligence to do so, who want to cooperate and work well with others, and who communicate well.
Good, caring people who simply are not competent or skilled or intelligent enough to perform a job well. These people have good hearts and are not malicious or negative, but they simply lack the native ability to do a good job. This is not a question of education or knowledge. A Category 1 person could have no education or training and initially appear to be incapable of doing a job well, but with training and education, such a person would become a good employee. The difference between a Category 1 and 2 person is that a Category 2 person does not have the innate capability or intelligence to do a good job no matter how much training and education they receive. They are good, caring people, but lack the necessary qualities for certain jobs.
Negative people. This category of negative includes bad attitudes, laziness, causing conflict and disruption routinely and often, destructive personalities, psychos. Ten to twenty percent of all people are in this category.
Leadership Principle 17
It’s better to have no one on a job than the wrong person on that job. It’s better to leave a job vacant than have a “body” there who is not the right person for that job.
Leadership Principle 18
A leader-manager must be able to make the hard personnel decisions, spotting and terminating negative, unwilling, and unable personnel, and replacing them - only if necessary - with competent, willing people. A successful leader is able to identify the productive and unproductive people in his organization and take action as needed. The successful leader does not care if he is liked or disliked. He or she does not try to please everyone. He or she works only toward the goals and purposes of the group.
Leadership Principle 19
The single and most important skill and ability the leader- manager must have is communication. Communication alone unlocks the door to ultimate success and a stress-free environment.
Leadership Principle 20
Everyone in the organization should be communicated with frequently and given full, complete, accurate, and uncolored information and reports of existing conditions and situation. All such information is to be free of spin, alteration, or omissions “for the protection of our people.” People are empowered, strengthened, and more willing to contribute if the organization communicates in this manner. Such communication greatly increases the power of the group and greatly increases its power to achieve its desired goals and end results.
Leadership Principle 21
Every job in an organization must have a specific, defined end result that the person holding the job is supposed to produce. This end result must forward the progress of the organization toward achievement of its goals and purposes. Every action the person holding the job takes is to lead toward that job’s end result.
Leadership Principle 22
The end result of all the leader-manager’s work is a productive, efficient, high-morale, low-stress organization, department, or section that is united and motivated and working as a coordinated team dedicated to accomplishing its goals.
Leadership Principle 23
The successful manager and leader evaluates his personnel solely on their job performance as measured by actual statistics. Each job has statistics associated with that job so as to provide an objective measure of job performance. Leaders and managers do not manage by bias, prejudice, gossip, personalities, or personal likes and dislikes. They evaluate each person under them objectively, using measurable statistics.
Leadership Principle 24
Every job and position in the organization is created and defined to be in support of the organization’s purpose, and exists solely to forward the purpose and the group’s progress toward its goals and purposes. Every job must have a purpose that aligns with and supports the overall organization purpose and end result (product or service sold and delivered to clients and customers).
Leadership Principle 25
Creating and defining all the jobs in an organization starts with defining the final, finished end product the organization sells and delivers to its clients and customers. Defining the exact end product the organization sells to the public is the very first action to take after the purpose has been defined. Once this end product has been fully and exactly defined, then work backward to determine each and every step it takes to produce that end product. Then add in all necessary support functions (marketing, sales, finance, accounting, IT, HR, customer service), and the end result will be an organization with the optimum number of jobs.
Leadership Principle 26
Category 2 or 3 staff (lazy, incompetent, negative, destructive, or unproductive) will drive away good staff.
Leadership Principle 27
The successful leader-manager needs and relies on data and information, but the data and information must be factual, accurate, timely, relevant, and complete. Information must satisfy all five conditions for it to be of value to the leader-manager.
Leadership Principle 28
Success is achieved by creating satisfied, loyal, repeat customers or clients, who refer others, by producing and delivering to them a high-quality product and service that satisfies a need or desire or demand, and providing those customers and clients with superb, five-star service and communication.
Leadership Principle 29
The ultimate test and measure of the end results produced by an organization is this: Are your clients happy with your product and service, will they buy more, and will they recommend your product or service to their friends, family, and coworkers?
Leadership Principle 30
Quality is a high, unsurpassed level of value and excellence. Quality must be a fundamental part of the organization’s culture, purpose, policy, essence, thinking, and work ethic. There should be high, unsurpassed quality and only high, unsurpassed quality in every department and job at every executive, management, and worker level and in every end result, product, and service generated by the organization.
Leadership Principle 31
Quality control is the testing and examination of any end result, product, or service generated by any job or department in an organization to ensure that those end results, products, and services are at the very highest standards of quality and excellence. Quality control goes beyond examining and testing only manufactured products.
Leadership Principle 32
Every organization needs a separate quality control person or department, the purpose of which is to examine and test for quality in every job, in every section and department, and in the end products sold to customers and clients. The quality control department then takes any corrective actions needed to correct substandard quality and ensure high quality throughout the entire organization.
Leadership Principle 33
The quality checklists are a guaranteed formula and system for success in any organization. The leader-manager who works to have each and every point in the checklists actually applied and followed as standard operating procedure in his organization will have great success and attain the goals of the organization.
Leadership Principle 34
The entire organization, each and every department, and each and every job should be defined by its end results. Metrics that measure those end results are then defined for each end result.
Leadership Principle 35
Manage by actual, observable result and metrics and only by actual, observable results and metrics. Metrics measure exactly how many or how much end results were produced by each job, each department, and the entire organization. Metrics provide an objective, observable measure of results that is not subject to opinion, false information, bias, rumor, or personal considerations.
Leadership Principle 36
All any leader-manager has to do is (1) choose the right people, (2) ignite and direct their purpose power, (3) communicate to them the organizations’s goals, purposes, situations, and problems, (4) invite their cooperation, contributions, and ideas, (4) coordinate and direct his people to do their jobs well, (5) get all points of the appropriate Quality Checklists carried out and followed as standard operating procedure, and (6) follow all fundamental principles of leadership and management. In this way, a powerful, unstoppable juggernaut will be created that is super-successful.
Leadership Principle 37
The failure of any organization is caused solely by a lack of knowledge or application of fundamental and successful principles and actions, or lack of diligence and vigilance by leadership and management. An organization’s failure is solely a failure of leadership and management.