Leadership Commandments

1. Your example is everything. Remember what your job is: be sure that everyone else is happy in theirs.

2. Always put others first. When put yourself first, your leadership is corrupt. True leadership is service to others. Anything else is wasted effort and will result in failure. There is no substitute for genuine caring.

3. Be a source of profound good. When people realize that you are fair, dependable, and working for their advancement, they will accept you. As you prove this to them day after day, they will begin to follow you.

4. Encourage dissent and clashing ideas. Remember you are not alone unless you make it so. By encouraging others to be themselves you, too, can be yourself. In a situation that values individuals, clashes occur naturally and without rancor. Working towards a common goal doesn’t always start from a common place. Working together means working through disagreements and conflict. But as we move forward together trust builds and people who trust each other achieve far greater results.

5. Be forever forgiving. Forgive everyone for everything and pray that they forgive you. It isn’t perfection that we seek, it is the ability to grow. Growth without mistakes is not to be trusted. It is in mistakes and defeats where we really learn. Forgiveness is the ultimate tool in achieving true growth.

6. Respect is something you earn. There is no no single more important element of real leadership in this world than to ensure that you genuinely respect everyone. This is especially true of people who do not agree with you or who you do not like. Respect builds respect. There is no other way.

7. Character matters. This is something that you cannot fake. People can sense hypocrisy and lies a mile away. Appearances are not everything. What really is everything is that your character displays itself in everything you think and you say and do, and there is nothing you can do about this except to be sure that you are always the best and kindest person you can be. Cutting corners in this is always a mistake.

8. Be interested in the details. Everything is a detail. To be interested in details means everyone around you will be interested in details. Success is built by attention to details. This does not mean that you do everything, or that you micromanage everything, and drive everyone crazy with manic assiduousness. It just means that you are really interested in all the details of your business.

9. Make decisions early and often. Waiting for decisions to be made is the coin of discontent. People think you don’t agree when you delay. They begin to build arguments and justifications while they wait. This only makes your decision less welcome when it does come, whichever way you decide to go. So decide quickly and often. Don’t use your power to control, use it to excite and release.

10. Be courageous in doing the right thing, The easy thing and right are almost never the same thing. So resolve to always do the right thing no matter how hard it is. In fact, if things are easy, question them, look at them suspiciously, and be on guard, because the easy way is nothing but trouble. The path of least resistance leads to the land of nothing done.