5 Leadership Principles

I was led to an article last week by Benjamin Lichtenwalner on the website CIO.com. The title said "5 Examples of Leadership Success in Troubled Times." As I began reading the article, I began to see that not only were these examples of leadership but they were also examples of leadership principles. Through each example I began to see a defining principle come into focus.

You can read the post here and see if you came to the same conclusions I did.

I saw these 5 principles for leadership and began to figure out how I could implement them in my role at Teen Challenge of the Midlands. I would encourage you to do the same in your leadership positions. Here's how it translates for me.

Respect / Listen / Focus / Transparency / Value

Respect
1. I believe that laying the groundwork for success at Teen Challenge begins with respecting everyone and realizing that some of the guys are just in different stops on their journey. Let people know upfront that respect is something given automatically. Everyone will respect each other and have consequences in place if that doesn’t happen.

Listen
2. It looks like the biggest principle here begins with the leader and that is to listen. I like having the policy of listening first, thinking, and then responding. Having a policy of “Listen First” I think is extremely important especially when dealing with issues around Teen Challenge, whether organizational or student related.

Focus
3. Focus is always important in the life of a leader. With Teen Challenge, the organization, it’s important to focus on the long-term and realize that what’s going on short-term isn’t how the organization is going to end up. With Teen Challenge student related issues, it’s important to realize that just because a student messes up doesn’t mean he can’t make it or overcome whatever the issue is.

Transparency
4. Transparency is one of the most overlooked areas of leadership. In order to get people to jump on board with your vision, you have to let them see everything and decide for themselves if they are going to give some or all of their life to it. This is being real with people. Authentic.

Value
5. You have to see the value in everyone. Many times I can remember seeing someone and not putting a lot of value in their use to the organization I was involved with only to find out they surpassed my expectations of value to the company. Everyone has value.

Let me know what you think!

Adam
10thStreetCoffee Director

This post was originally published on the LeadersHeart Network. Find out more about LeadersHeart here.