Leadership Principles

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Leadership Principles
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Overview

• What are the key principles of leadership?
• What is the importance of knowing yourself and
  your role?
• What is the importance of setting the example?
• What is the importance of caring for your people?

3
Overview

• How can you communicate, educate, equip, and
  motivate?
• What is the importance of accepting your
  responsibility?
• What is the importance of developing teamwork?

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Quick Write

• Read an American Biography or Americans in Action
  article from an earlier lesson in the textbook.
• Then write a list of words that indicate that
  persons leadership qualities.
• How did the persons actions reflect his or her
  leadership qualities?

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Key Principles of Leadership

• Ideas about leadership have changed
• Many businesses used to have a top-down
  management structure
• But by the mid-1980s, boundaries between the top
  and the bottom had become less distinct
• Leadership became a shared responsibility

Graphic courtesy of Clipart.com
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Key Principles of Leadership

• Part of your job as a future leader is to
  understand leadership theories and styles
• By demonstrating strong values, building trust,
  focusing on results, and motivating, you will
  influence your team members
• In so doing, you will help them adapt to the
  challenge of service in an ever-changing world

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Key Principles of Leadership

• To help its men and women understand the
  behaviors expected of its leaders, the Air Force
  has adopted a set of leadership principles
• A leadership principle is a rule or guide that
  has been tested and proven over the years by
  successful leaders

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Leadership Principles

• Know yourself and your role
• Set the example
• Care for your people
• Communicate, educate, equip, and motivate
• Accept your responsibility
• Develop teamwork

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Knowing Yourself and Your Role

• To be a successful leader, you must recognize
  your strengths or abilities, as well as your
  limitations
• You must then build on your strengths and try to
  overcome your weaknesses
• As a leader, you must understand your own role

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Knowing Yourself and Your Role

• You must also understand how your team
  contributes to the overall mission of the
  organization
• Finally, you must make sure that each team member
  understands how his or her role relates to the
  mission

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Setting the Example

• Setting an example means giving people a strong
  model to imitate
• As a leader, you must set the standard for your
  team by your actions as well as your words
• If you are arrogant or domineering, you will
  command little respect

Photo courtesy of Ilene Perlman
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Setting the Example

• Self-control is also essentiala leader who
  cannot control himself or herself cannot control
  others
• Lack of self-discipline in a leader destroys the
  teams unity and its ability to perform

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Caring for Your People

• Caring for people means putting others needs
  before your own
• To take care of people, you must know them well
  and be sensitive to their needs
• If people are worried about their personal lives
  or other issues, they cannot focus fully on the
  task
• Then the mission suffers

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Caring for Your People

• If your people believe you care for them, you
  will earn their confidence, respect, and loyalty
• Caring for your people involves establishing
  clear lines of communication between you and them

Photo courtesy of Ilene Perlman
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Caring for Your People

• The bottom line about caring for your people is
  this
• People who feel cared for are people who become
  self-motivated
• Self-motivated people can accomplish the
  impossible

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Communicate

• Communication and information should flow
  continuously throughout the organization
• Successful leaders listen to their people
• Providing feedback is also essential
• As a leader, its your job to keep all
  communication channels open

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Educate

• People need training to do their jobs well
• Professional military education, technical
  training, and on-the-job training are the formal
  means by which Air Force personnel receive
  training
• Informal training, practice, and personal
  experience at the unit level reinforce formal
  training

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Equip

• Part of your responsibility as a leader is to
  make sure your team has the equipment it needs to
  do its job
• The leaders responsibilities include identifying
  needs, securing funds, and obtaining the
  necessary supplies, tools, and equipment to
  accomplish the mission

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Motivate

• A leaders greatest challenge is to motivate team
  members to achieve the high standards set for
  them
• The ability to generate enthusiasm about the
  mission may be the single most important factor
  in leadership

Photo courtesy of Ilene Perlman
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Motivate

• To motivate people, a leader must understand
  their needs and align these needs with the units
  requirements
• Recognition is one of the most powerful
  motivational forces
• One of your goals as a leader should be to
  provide an environment that fosters and rewards
  self-motivation

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Accepting Your Responsibility

• Gen Curtis LeMay once said If I had to come up
  with one word to define leadership, I would say
  responsibility.
• As a leader, you are responsible for ensuring
  that your team accomplishes its mission
• If you fail, you are accountable for the
  consequences

Photo courtesy of US Air Force
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Accepting Your Responsibility

• If you are not willing to accept responsibility
  for failure, you will lose your credibility and
  respect
• Accountability requires discipline
• Just as a leader should reward a job well done,
  he or she must discipline those who fail to meet
  their responsibilities or standards

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Developing Teamwork

• The leaders job is to mold a collection of
  individuals into a cohesive team
• Cohesion is the ability of a team to stick
  together when it works toward its objective
• As the leader, you should know how the various
  roles of individual team members fit together

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Developing Teamwork

• You should create and maintain an atmosphere of
  teamwork and cooperation to meet mission demands
• Cooperation is the ability of team members to
  work together to accomplish the team goal
• Teamwork comes when people are willing to put the
  teams mission before all else

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Review

• A leadership principle is a rule or guide that
  has been tested and proven over the years by
  successful leaders
• Leadership Principles
• Know yourself and your role
• Set the example
• Care for your people
• Communicate, educate, equip, and motivate
• Accept your responsibility
• Develop teamwork

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Review

• As a leader, you must understand your own role
• Setting an example means giving people a strong
  model to imitate
• Caring for people means putting others needs
  before your own
• Successful leaders listen to their people

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Review

• People need training to do their jobs well
• Part of your responsibility as a leader is to
  make sure your team has the equipment it needs to
  do its job
• A leaders greatest challenge is to motivate team
  members to achieve the high standards set for them

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Review

• As a leader, you are responsible for ensuring
  that your team accomplishes its mission
• If you fail, you are accountable for the
  consequences
• The leaders job is to mold a collection of
  individuals into a cohesive team

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Summary

• What are the key principles of leadership?
• What is the importance of knowing yourself and
  your role?
• What is the importance of setting the example?
• What is the importance of caring for your people?

30
Summary

• How can you communicate, educate, equip, and
  motivate?
• What is the importance of accepting your
  responsibility?
• What is the importance of developing teamwork?

31
Next

• Doneleadership principles
• Nextleadership style and mission demands

Photo courtesy of US Air Force