10 Leadership Principles That You Should Be Doing To Be a Great Leader

10 Leadership Principles That You Should Be Doing, And how To Be a Great Leader.

Introduction

Good Leadership is a very important role in businesses and even in the organization. Leaders play a vital role that helps the group to move forward and achieve the primary goals and objectives of the business.

Therefore, we will be giving you some tips, 10 Leadership Principles That You Should Be Doing To Be a Great Leader.

 

Hence, if the leader is not functioning very well or in times has a bad leadership habit. This can lead to the subordinates being hesitant to follow his/her instructions.

And will disrupt the systemic flow that the employees should be doing to achieve their tasks resulting in delayed results and even sometimes they fail in their tasks.

 

But why is that? Why do sometimes the subordinates are being difficult towards their leaders? is it because of the attitude of the subordinates? or is there something wrong with the “leadership” of the leader itself?

In this article, we will discuss the best leadership principles, skills, and attitudes. That leader should have to be a great leader.

 

And we will try to understand other aspects that can affect leadership and things leaders should do to maintain the team being in order.

So that they are in sync with the organization’s goals and vision. That being said, Without further ado, let’s get down to it.

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What is a Leadership?

 

According to a well-known author and inspirational speaker. 

 

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, you are a leader. – Simon Sinek

 

As Simon Sinek has mentioned, We think that Leaders do not just lead their team. But also inspire their followers to dream more about how to improve their lives, learn more about other things that can help them to be a better employee, or learn things to improve their capabilities, do more that can help their organization and continue to innovate their products and services, and their process.

 

And also according to Simon Sinek, leaders can be defined only if you have followers and it is not about your Title or Position.

Being a leader is when people volunteer to follow you without you forcing them to do so. Which comes to our mind, How will you able to make your followers? Is there a specific way to do it?

 

Followers adapt according to their leader’s leadership principles. Hence, if you show a negative attitude, your followers will adopt that negativity and they will eventually question your capability as their Leader. If that is the case, then you are probably thinking, what are the traits that leaders should have?

 

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Leadership Principles

 

Leadership principles are the set of actions and guiding beliefs that a leader should do and implement to move their followers toward their goals and objective. It is a process and framework of actions that you must do as a leader to inspire others to work effectively with their team toward their common goal to be successful. That being said, we will show you some Leadership Principles that can help you to be an effective Leader. 

 

Being a leader sometimes is tempting for others, resulting in them abusing their power as a leader. Just like how Philip Zimbardo explained in his “Standford Prison Experiment” in the late 1970s which was called the “Lucifer Effect”. Resulting in good people becomes controlled and addicted to power over everybody else.

 

 

Want to learn and understand more about Lucifer Effect?

 

That is why we wanted to share with you the Leadership Principles that great leaders are doing, to inspire you to be a great leader rather than a leader who is just using the power of their position to rule everyone who is under their leadership.

 

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Establish good communication with your team

 

Communication is the medium for leaders to disperse necessary information to their followers, reach out to the pain points of their team, and inform the top management about it to find a better solution to fix the said pain points. 

 

You are the Bridge between the top management and your followers. But it doesn’t mean that you have to explicitly tell everyone everything, remember that there are things that top management and Leaders are the only ones to know such as financial status and business status, etc.

 

Effective Leaders is capable to communicate and engage with your team and everyone else, and as a Leader, you should understand your follower’s situation and teach them how to handle their failures, and inspire them to keep on moving forward until they produce results.

 

Don’t take things personally, be professional

 

Leaders are professional, they should manage their frustrations. You must maintain professionalism in your team. Because your team adopts your attitude.

If you show unprofessional most likely your followers will become unprofessional with their work. You have to be an example that your followers should become. 

 

Being professional also means that whenever you made a mistake, you should admit and accept it. Admitting mistake shows that you are just a human being that sometimes oversees things results from you to making mistakes.

And aside from that, you are teaching your team to be honest and humble. Hence, if they too made some mistakes they will not hide them from you.

 

And most of all, never use your authority to bully someone under your leadership. 

 

Be innovative, Listen and take note of new ideas

 

Innovation is a process to improve, that being said, Leaders should be innovative with their work. Accepting your team’s ideas teaches them to innovate and think outside the box. Therefore, you must be open to suggestions and recommendations from your team. 

 

Being a Leader, you should help your team embrace change and help them to learn to be adaptive to any situation that lands in front of them. 

 

Innovation is always about products, make innovative even our ways of teaching and leadership skills that we possess. We need to understand that leaders should not be complacent and stagnant towards change.

 

A good leader embraces change and continuous improvement for themselves and their team as well.

Make your goals clear and realistic

 

This is another problem that most leaders forget to do, is to be clear on what their goals are. Most leaders nowadays aim for unrealistic goals which resulting in their people failing instantly.

Because the goal is unclear and unrealistic. I remember during one of my Leadership Workshop in my previous company.

 

Our trainer said:

Leaders should set the beat that their followers will follow, and it’s your objective to maintain that beat as your team moves forward towards your goals.

 

Now imagine if your goal is not clear and unrealistic. Your team will not be on the same page and eventually will just wander on their way. And they will lose their confidence because the goal is not close to reality.

 

For example, in an opera performance, the conductor is the leader of the opera as he waves his baton accordingly will tell the opera which tone or specific melody should be played. The conductor’s objective is to organize the music and keep everything calm to the ears of the audience. 

 

The conductor maintains the beat and the rhythm of the music. To further elaborate on this example, check out the video of Ohio State University Marching Band in tribute to Michael Jackson in 2013.

 

 

Be a leader with a purpose

 

What does a leader with a purpose? You were probably been asked or heard this phrase before “We are a company’s objective?” and most answers are “Growth” or “Income”.

Those are results, the question is “Why do you do it?”. It is much deeper than growth and income. You should have a Purpose. Purpose of why are you doing this or doing that. 

 

A leader should demonstrate and explain to their team the purpose of what they represent. The value that makes your organization exist. Look at the most successful leaders out there.

Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech “I have a dream”. His speech touched people’s minds and hearts because of his purpose, his dreams about equality on humanity, to end the racism that occurs in the USA. That is Purpose. 

 

Imagine during that time there is no Internet to make something go viral. But people came and participated in his movement because they understand the purpose of his speech.

 

Another example is Amazon, their company believed that they can show how much they value their customers by providing excellent customer service, delivering their orders on time, and the quality of products that they sell. That is purpose.

 Listen more and talk less

 

The power of listening is very important for Leaders because it shows how you value your team’s opinion, and as a Leader, you will be able to adjust your leadership style according to their preference if you listen more.

 

By listening you can hear out their problems that might be causing them to struggle in their tasks, and maybe you give them some advice based on your experiences to help them figure out what they can do to solve their problems.

 

Leaders should be relatable, and approachable. Hence, if you don’t practice listening. Your team will just treat you as a person with a position and you will not be able to earn their respect.

 

You have to let them feel that they are safe and that they can trust you. Trust is very important being a leader if they can’t trust you as their leader. They will not be able to follow you completely. And listening is a good step to earn their trust and loyalty towards you.

 

Inspire new potential leaders

 

Great leaders leave their legacy which inspires other people to be like them and continue the ideas that they made. You need to make them inspired to be the new leaders someday.

 

By training them to be like you as a leader, your legacy and values will continue as they will develop new leaders as well when they become a leader. Succession and continuity are very vital, especially in corporate values. Because corporate values drive the passion and feeling to serve with a purpose. 

 

And most of all, by training the next potential leader. They will feel motivated as they treat this as their accomplishment. You will be able to help them build their character and positive attitude in life.

 

Prioritize people over “numbers”, be a selfless leader

 

We all know the saying “Numbers do not lie“, numbers which means are results, regardless if it is sales or quota, etc. but what is the sense of getting those “Numbers” if you do not have a solid and intact team in achieving those goals, because you do not have a good connection with your people. 

 

How can they consider you to be a great leader if you just focus on results and not helping other people to achieve good results as well?

Great leaders are selfless and prioritize other people first before themselves. We’ve seen that before, Like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jesus Christ, Dalai Lama, and many more.

 

These great leaders showed us the true meaning of being a leader and that is through selflessness. Nowadays, a lot of companies prioritize results over people.

Which resulting their team being unhappy, depressed in their lives which led them to just quit their job. We do not want that. We should be helping our team to be happy with their lives, not the other way around.

 

I, Myself experienced being on a team with leaders who don’t know selflessness, And it is very hard not just for me but for the other people in our team as well. Under leadership that prioritizes numbers is very unfulfilling. A leader that just focuses on metrics.

 

Metrics suppose to measure progress, in other words, the tree is getting bigger, and is getting us closer to our objective – Simon Sinek

 

Metrics should result in motivation that we are almost there in achieving our goals, not the other way around.

I’ve seen it first hand, seeing metrics that just focus on results even though the top management knows there is already a problem in the system and their strategies. 

 

Which in many years of operation didn’t work for them, however, they use that metric and reflect it as my failure, even if it is theirs. That being said resulted in me feeling that my job was unfulfilling, draining for me.

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Be the best example of the team

As the leader, you must set yourself to be the example of the team. Meaning you must follow the organization’s rules rather than breaking them, imagine that how will your team follow you if you yourself can’t even follow the rules.

Aside from following the rules, in regards to respect, you as their leader should be the first person to show respect to all employees regardless if the person is a maintenance man you must treat them the same as you treat other employees.

“If you want to be respected, respect others first”.

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You were an employee before you became the leader

Last on our list of Leadership Principles. This is one of the most common problems of leaders nowadays. Most leaders tend to forget that they came from a normal employee way back then before they got the chance to be in their positions as leaders.

Some leaders became bossy and literally forgot where they came which makes them became overbearing. If you are a true leader with principles, money, and position will not get into your head.

Humility will always be in your heart, as you yourself know and understand the feelings of your employees who cannot even speak their minds about their troubles and struggles.

Remember, employees are humans too, they have their own battles. Instead patronizing them, be the leader who inspires and motivates them to be better when it comes to career and life.

Conclusions

 

Being a Great Leader is never an easy task. But it doesn’t mean it is not achievable. It is a matter of principles and ethics that you should be following. Many leaders are inhumane and selfish. 

 

And we hope that by reading this article you will not be like them. And be a different kind of leader. We wanted you to be: 

 

A great leader inspires and motivates their team. 

 

An Effect leader that prioritizes other people’s situations rather themselves. 

 

A True leader who is selfless and will not be tempted to be affected by the “Lucifer Effect”.

 

A Leader who promotes teamwork in achieving the goals.

 

A leader who admits a mistake and takes accountability for their words and actions.

 

A Leader who will change the toxic culture of the organization not to be manipulated by it.

 

A leader who promotes a healthy and toxic-free environment for their team.

 

We hope that you too can be a great leader someday. We are hoping that we inspired you to be one.

And in case you are a leader right now, we are hoping that you are doing the principles mentioned or just even close to it, so that your team will be happy working under your leadership. 

 

Want to more about leadership? Check out Amazon E-books about leadership to help improve your leadership skills. 

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