The Hero

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.

In the book, Heroic Leadership, Bill Cohen writes “Heroic leadership requires leading with absolute integrity - while raising your performance to a personal best... it also involves building a team spirit of sacrifice for the common good.”

Heroic (or effective) leadership takes “considerable thought, intention and action” - grounded in the following eight principles:

1) Maintain Absolute Integrity - Leadership involves building trust. Keep your word; do the harder right instead of the easier wrong; be principled.

2) Know Your Stuff - People follow leaders who are good at what they do. Learn from every experience - your successes and mistakes. It’s what you know, and how you use it, that builds trust and effectiveness.

3) Declare Your Vision - You need to decide on where you are going - and then declare it, and promote it in everything you do. And as you move forward, get feedback and adjust your strategy when needed.

4) Show Unwaivering Commitment - Brigadier General Edward Markham said, “A leader must take a bulldog approach to accomplish the mission.” When a leader does this, others do the same.

5) Expect Positive Results - Winners expect to win. Visualize success. Vincent Lombardi said, “We never lose, but sometimes the clock runs out on us.” Research demonstrates those who “think positive” achieve more, and get better results, than those who don’t.

6) Take Care of Your People - “Take care of your men and they will take care of you,” says Brigadier General Philip Bolte. As the leader, you’ve got to give the needs of those you lead greater weight than your own personal needs.

7) Put Duty before Self - Sometimes the mission must come first, sometimes the people, but both must always come before self. If you don’t put duty and your people before self, you can not create a highly successful team environment.

8) Get Out in Front - You have to put yourself where the action is. General Harry Aderholt said, “Effective leadership is no secret. You’ve got to know your people, live with them, and always be seen out in front - leading the way.”