Monday Motivation Leadership Series 9/30/2002

Gibson's six rules of leadership

Rule Number one: Do what you say you will do.

The world is full of leaders who say one thing, and do another. Do what you say you will do, every time, in every instance. Remember the example of George Bush Sr., who said "Read my lips, no new taxes," and then went ahead and raised them anyway. After he did that, vomiting into the lap of the Japanese Prime Minister only sealed his fate.

Rule Number two: Begin and end meetings on time.

Let's say you're a leader, and you have 30 people come to a weekly meeting. If you start that meeting 15 minutes late, and end 15 minutes late, you've just wasted 15 man-hours of work. Sure, maybe you've got time to burn -- but some of those people may actually be doing something. Meetings are a necessary evil, but they really shouldn't be too evil.

Rule Number three: Be worthy of your team.

If you hire great people, they deserve a great leader to motivate them. If you're not good enough, have the decency to either make yourself better, or get out of the way for someone who can. Be as great a person as you are capable of. Be worthy of the team of individuals who follow you.

You will never be able to do everything -- and you shouldn't try to be all things to all people -- but you should be the best person you are capable of becoming.

Rule Number four: Set grand goals, and then shoot for them.

People expect their leaders to set goals -- mainly because they don't set goals themselves. Set a target to hit, and then shoot for the target.

Rule Number five: Give credit where credit is due.

Some leaders take all the credit when things go well -- and place all the blame on their associates. Truly effective leaders give praise where it's due -- and although they may share the blame, they do it in an effective, positive way, concentrating on training and loss prevention.

Rule Number six: Lead.

Seems stupid to say it, but it's a common mistake. I like the line that's attributed to Chester Nimitz: "When you're in command, command." Too many would-be leaders never get down to the business of leading. Start out toward your destination, and expect people to follow you. If they respect you, they'll follow.

If they don't follow, you either haven't explained the destination clearly enough, or they don't consider you worthy of being a leader.

 Copyright, 2002, by Daryl R. Gibson and WeekdayWisdom.com. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial use of this document as long as it retains this copyright and all lines and images remain intact. This does not allow the compilation and marketing of this material, whether for commercial or non-commercial use. Join us at http://www.WeekdayWisdom.com.

Learn the habits the multi-millionaires know! I like Brian Tracy's programs because he distills the best information from multiple sources, and he does it in a no-nonsense, business-oriented way. In this best-selling Nightingale-Conant program, Brian teaches the methods he and other millionaires have used to get where they are now! Click to read more about this program AUDITION THIS PROGRAM FOR 30 DAYS, FREE! As Always, this program carries Nightingale-Conant's famous no-questions-asked, 30-day moneyback guarantee. I've used this gurantee, but truth be told, I don't use it often -- the information in these programs is much too valuable to me.