Seven Leadership Principles That Will Get Results

Leadership principles give us ideas on how we can lead ourselves and our team to encourage high levels of performance and greater chances for learning and growth.

Here are just seven principles that will help you achieve more as a leader with your team. See if they could work for you:

Principle 1: Kindle Passion

People will work for money, but they’ll die for a cause. Strong leaders engage people’s hearts. They build ever-deeper passion and commitment.

Passion is the driving force that enables people to attain far more than they ever imagined. Without passion there is no drive to succeed. It is the fuel of the will, and everything you do as a leader must express your passion. Passion is contagious and is easily shared. Passion will bridge moments of weakness, and will drive you past your failures while reaching for your goals. Passion radiates from you and is easily detected by others.

Principle 2: Maintain Good Communication

Communication can make the difference between a highly engaged team and a highly disengaged team.

A leader’s ability to clearly articulate expectations, consistently communicate culture, and regularly exchange meaningful feedback with their team members will determine how well they are able to motivate employees.

And remember, listening is the most important part of this. Leaders who engage in active listening are able to build real connections with employees and develop an understanding of what they need to succeed.

Principle 3: Fosters Accountability

You can’t expect employees to take accountability for results if they aren’t being given the clarity they need to take ownership and do great work. When leaders provide this clarity through frequent feedback, they are demonstrating their own accountability for expectation-setting and inspiring their employees to hold themselves accountable for meeting expectations.

Rather than punishing employees for not achieving expected results, focus on ensuring there is clarity in job expectations, clearly communicate the organization’s goals and the role employees play in achieving those goals, and don’t just react when teams fall short of expectations—make sure you are giving employees recognition when they do achieve the expected results.

Principle 4: Cultivate an Improvement Mindset

Leaders should never stop growing. No matter how well a leader thinks they are leading, they should always strive to do better. They should also learn to view mistakes as opportunities for growth and encourage employees to do the same. 

When leaders treat mistakes as learning opportunities, they are demonstrating their capacity for growth and helping their employees develop an improvement mindset that keeps them always moving forward.

Cultivating an improvement mindset not only helps leaders hone their leadership skills, but also inspires their team members to continuously develop their skills when they model this principle. Leaders can also help their teams continually improve by providing regular constructive feedback and coaching and mentoring employees.

Principle 5: Encourage Collaboration

When you have an inclusive team of highly engaged employees, it can achieve great things through collaborative efforts, but it’s important for leaders to create a harmonious work environment where team members work well together for this to happen.

Leaders who encourage collaboration and give their teams the tools they need to work together successfully are helping their employees learn the true meaning of teamwork. This means ensuring there’s no place for toxic behaviors within the organization. 

Encouraging employees to work together keeps engagement and trust high and can lead to work environments where high performance is the norm. It can also keep employees from working in silos.

Principle 6: Set the Example

Your actions as a leader speak much louder than your all company meetings, corporate communications, or motivational speeches at team meetings. This is why it is a fundamental principle that leaders walk the talk of vision, values, and purpose if they are to maintain the trust, respect, and credibility of those they are attempting to lead.

Leaders are continually raising the bar and driving their teams to deliver high quality products, services and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.

Principle 7: Adaptability

Great leaders help their teams thrive, even during difficult times, and even during times of change. As constant change is the only thing any of us can be sure of in the business world, adaptability plays a significant role in determining how successful an organization will be in the future.

Agility in adapting helps us not only survive, but flourish in times of change. Leaders are better able to do this and help their teams do this when they bring employees into the process because it provides them with a variety of viewpoints and approaches to adapting.

When leaders embrace change and demonstrate an ability to adapt quickly, but also in an intentional way that doesn’t lose sight of long-term goals, it can help employees feel a much needed sense of stability in potentially challenging times and can help them adapt more easily.

The best way I know how to consistently exceed expectations for your customers, employees, or investors is to do the things I’ve talked about. Lead, stay focused on what you and your organization do best, set high standards, empower others, give others a reason to believe deeply in what you and they are doing, never compromise your standards, and give more than expected.