Guiding leadership principles

“Real-world leadership is most often prosaic, mundane, unspectacular.”
Do Lead, Les McKeown pg17

Consistency of purpose

  • Be crystal clear in visuals, communication and expectations

  • Curiosity leads to great, unexpected outcomes

  • Waiting until you're fully ready makes for little progress

Values

Make space for shining

  • Create cultures where others feel they can be authentic and psychologically safe

  • Create spaces for others to engage, experiment, participate and collaborate

  • Understand others’ strengths and learn how to utilize them to their benefit

  • Create genuine interactions by asking about people

  • Shine a spotlight on others work, recognize growth and don’t forget to celebrate successes

Be patient with people, not progress

  • Be present

  • Pause once in a while to determine what the important things are

  • Harness a receptive state of mind in order to understand others and their challenges

  • Take time to centre thoughts and recall priorities (take a break if necessary)

  • If I have the ability to remove blockers to help achieve a goal, I should

  • Ask “what can I do for you” or “how can I help”

Don’t leave room for interpretation

  • Give honest feedback

  • Set clear and unambiguous expectations

  • Set expectations, define goals and hold people accountable

  • Don’t avoid difficult, painful, sensitive or negative discussion

  • Be annoying about it, don’t let it go because it’s uncomfortable to talk about

Lessons learned

  • Don’t work for companies that aren’t transparent about salary