A few days ago a friend of mine (who is now in the MPA program at BYU) sent me an email asking me to share some principles of leadership I have learned over my years at the White House and as a Marine Corps officer. Actually, I think leadership principles are universal, and I have tried (imperfectly) to apply them to my Church callings.
Following that email from my friend, Amy Fisler, I received another email from Kenny McNett, another friend, asking if he could send my response (which she shared with him) on to some others in our network. Together, these two extremely talented and dedicated young single adults were prime YSA leaders in organizing and managing the very successful All California YSA Conference a couple of years ago that brought together 12,000 YSAs across California in 10 locations for a weekend of spiritual and social enlightenment under the direction of Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy.
So, I wanted to honor their request with a serious response. Here are the eight key principles I have always valued that I shared with them.
- You are only as good as the people with whom you surround yourself. You can train them, motivate them, teach them, and work along side of them, but if they are not first class people you will not get first class results. I’d rather work with first class people with a second class idea, than second class people with a first class idea, because first class people will always upgrade their ideas until they, too, are first class.
- If they have no part of the process, they will have no stake in the outcome. If you develop the plan by yourself, you will implement it by yourself. By getting others to participate in creating to the plan, debating the plan, and contributing to the plan, it becomes their plan. Then, they will have a stake in making the plan work.
- Praise in public, punish in private. Both are needed.
- If you don’t set concrete, measurable, achievable goals, you will never achieve them. Time is all we have in this life: birth to death. So, we measure everything by time, and we put in the time on those things that are (1) important to us; and/or (2) immediate to us. Measurable goals, properly understood, accomplish both: they make the plan important to us, and give the plan immediacy for the time we will devote to it now.
- Never expect of those around you that which you are not willing to do yourself. You cannot leave at 6:00 pm and expect others to work until 10:00 pm. They may stay until then, but not work. Treats, music, pizza — whatever additional enjoyment you can bring to the workplace — will only supplement your presence and hard work beside them. Marine Corps doctrine teaches that you feed your men first, yourself last; if they walk, you walk; if they’re under fire, direct your fire to protect them; never leave your wounded or dead on the battlefield. Leaders don’t blame, they protect and build up their people.
- Trust — but verify. President Reagan’s dictum on agreements with the Soviets is good business. Trust those with whom you work, but enlarge that trust by verifying that they are accomplishing the tasks laid out for them. Don’t allow the project to fail because you thought that everyone was doing their job. Some will, and some won’t. Learn the difference, and manage accordingly. Give them that level of trust that you have verified that they can and will handle — and then push them for 10 percent more
- Never take “title” to someone else’s problem or assignment. When they come to you, ask them what their idea is to solve it: if it sounds good, praise them and send them on their way. If not, then work through it with them until the solution becomes theirs. You don’t have time to take on all the problems and assignments of those around you: empower them to succeed.
- When someone brings you a good idea, ask them to put a plan together to implement it. They will either be motivated enough to staff it themselves, or it isn’t important enough to them to do it. Help them, encourage them, follow up with them; but either way, give them the opportunity to lead. Then, give them credit.
In any enterprise – business, government, Church or commumity organization – it’s the people who are the critical factor. Leading is the only privilege of command. It’s not perks, not power, and not reward. It is the privilege of leading, and the reward of a job well done.
