Last week, I received an email that contained a list of the “eight universal laws of leadership” that could be found in the book The Stuff of Heroes by Dr. William Cohen. The list of eight gets down to the nitty-gritty of what a leader should know if they want to be top tier leaders. The list pulls no punches: Maintain absolute integrity, Know Your Stuff, Declare Your Expectations, Show Uncommon Commitment, Expect Positive Results, Take Care Of Your People, Put Duty Before Self, and Get Out In Front.
Does some of it sound familiar? It should over the past months and years I have talked about one or another from the list of eight. As I read the email, I realized that I had started something and never really finished it when it came to talking about leadership in the modern workplace.
When the first Collateralized Debt Obligations started to tank, around the summer of 2007, the working world has gone into an “every man for himself” mode. Meaning, that the writing was on the wall and people did what they could to stay relevant. Even then it was not enough. While people became shining stars in their organization, others coasted along, riding in the wake of what was happening. If you know of one of those wake riders rest assured their time will come. If you are wake rider, consider yourself on notice. See what happens is that eventually those that remain after a round of layoffs or cutbacks better start delivering and if you weren’t delivery before the layoffs and are still not delivering, as this is when things start to get very interesting.
This is the time when real leaders must shine. No matter what level you currently hold in your organization, you want to lead then you better lead. No one is going to give you permission to lead and if you are looking for permission to lead then you are doing something wrong. You do not need any kind of special permission to do what you need to do. So go out there and do it.
With that being said, over the next several blog posts I will tackle the rest of the list. I will primarily focus on those universal laws of leadership that I have not dealt with in my previous blog postings.
Here are some Technorati Tags:
• Dave Guerra • Leadership • Leading • Lead, Follow, or Get out of the way • Eight Laws of Leadership • Permission to Lead • Go ahead and be a leader • Give to the American Red Cross • Hire A Hero
