Principles for Inspired Leadership

How to bring out the best in people

An organization whose people operate at a high level of consciousness, acceptance (and acceptance of others). responsibility, assertiveness (and respect for the assertiveness of others),  purposefulness, and personal integrity would be an organization of extraordinarily empowered human beings. An organization can reach this level when the following principles or conditions are met:

  1. People feel safe: secure that hey will not be ridiculed, demeaned, humiliated, or punished for openness and honesty or for admitting "I made a mistake" or for saying " I don't know, but I'll find out."
  2. People feel accepted: treated with courtesy, listened to, invited to express thoughts and feelings, dealt with as individuals whose dignity is important.
  3. People feel challenged: given assignments that excite, inspire, and test and stretch their abilities.
  4. People feel recognized: acknowledge for individual talents and achievements and rewarded monetarily and non-monetarily for extraordinary contributions.
  5. People receive constructive feedback: they hear how to improve performance in non-demeaning ways that stress positives rather than negatives and that build on the their strengths.
  6. People see that innovation is expected from them: their opinions are solicited, their brainstorming is invited, and they see that the development of new and usable ideas is desired of them and welcomed.
  7. People are given easy access to information: not only are they given the information (and resources) they need to do their jon properly, they are given information about the wider context in which they work -- the goals and progress of the company -- so that they can understand how their activities related to the organization's overall mission.
  8. People are given authority appropriately to what they are accounted for: they are encouraged to take initiative, make decisions, exercise judgement.
  9. People are given clear-cut and non-contradictory rules and guidelines: they are provided with a structure their intelligence cab grasp and count on and they know what is expected of them.
  10. People are encouraged to solve as many of their own problems as possible: they are expected to resolve issues close to the action rather than pass responsibility for solutions to higher-ups, and they are empowered to do so.
  11. People see that their rewards for successes are far greater than any penalties for failures: in too many companies, where the penalties for mistakes are much greater than rewards for success, people are afraid to take risks or express themselves.
  12. People are encouraged and rewarded for learning: they are encouraged to participate in internal and external courses and programs that will expand their knowledge and skills.
  13. People experience congruence between organization's mission statement and professed philosophy, on the one hand, and the behavior of leaders and managers, on the other: they see integrity exemplified and they feel motivated to match what they see.
  14. People experience being treated fairly and justly: they feel the workplace is rational universe they can trust.
  15. People are able to believe in and take pride in the value of what they produce: they perceive the results of their efforts as genuinely useful, they perceive their work as worth doing.

<aside> 💡 Source: The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem by Nathaniel Branden.

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Primary Functions of a Leader