Here are a few critical things leaders must never do:
1. Don’t wimp out. Be brave! Never let them see you sweat. You will sweat of course. You’ll sweat the future, the details, the prospects, us, the competition, your own circumstances, because you’re responsible. Just don’t give in to fear. Be strong and courageous. We don’t want to follow a wimpy leader. You must display an aura of humble confidence and self assurance. Be optimistic without being delusional. Be calm about challenges and cool under pressure. Even if you are concerned, know that our every eye is watching you to see how we should respond. If you want us to be calm and collected, you do it first.
2. Never whine or complain. Keep a positive attitude about everything. Don’t succumb to the any negative voices around you. Always keep your chin up and speak encouraging words. Don’t give in to trash talking. We might whine a little but you must keep a higher standard.
3. Never lie or compromise on the truth. If you lie, tell “half truths” or “stretch the truth” even a little bit, we cannot trust you. And if we cannot trust you, we will not follow you or do what you want done. We are so accustomed to being lied to we almost expect it. If you lie or compromise on the truth, you’re just like any 2 bit criminal. So much for leadership.
4. Never choose your own good over the good of the group. Do this and it will quickly tell us how selfish you are. Why would we respect or follow a self centered leader who cares only about himself and not any of us? We’ve seen your type before and we just pretend to follow you. When times get tough, we will throw you under the bus like you’ve done to us.
5. Never underestimate the power of good or evil in people. Everyone of us have tremendous power for both good or evil. No bad person is without some good. Likewise, no person is so good that they can’t be taken over to the “dark side”. Knowing this, you must see each of us as having a conflict within ourselves. Your job is to encourage the good to flourish and do nothing to permit the bad to show itself. This means you must always call us to think and do good things. You must reward our good behavior and punish bad actions. As much as we push the boundaries, we’re counting on you to hold us accountable. The buck stops with you.
6. Never play favorites. This is divisive. We know you have favorites but it feels so unfair when you unjustly favor them. If they earn a reward by merit, then that is understandable. Just don’t favor one of us because you like us better. That creates some pretty ugly office politics which distracts us from our goal. Be fair and we’ll respect you more.
Stay away from this list of don’ts and be more like superman!
Bob Ramsey 