All the Water in the World

All the water in the world
No matter how it tried
Could never sink the smallest ship
Unless it got inside
All the evil of the world
And every kind of sin
Could never damn a human soul
Unless we let it in...

Principles of Leadership

Principles of Leadership

At the United States Naval Academy’s Forrestal Lecture Series, Secretary of the Navy Gordon England identified important principles of leadership based on his personal experiences as a business executive and as the 72nd Secretary of the Navy.

Those fifteen principles are as follows:

• Provide an environment for every person to excel
• Treat every person with dignity and respect — nobody is more important than anyone else
• Be forthright, honest and direct with every person and in every circumstance
• Improve effectiveness to gain efficiency
• Cherish your time and the time of others — it is not renewable
• Identify the critical problems that need solution for the organization to succeed
• Describe complex issues and problems simply so every person can understand
• Never stop learning — depth and breadth of knowledge are equally important
• Encourage constructive criticism
• Surround yourself with great people and delegate to them full authority and responsibility
• Make ethical standards more important than legal requirements
• Strive for team-based wins, not individual
• Emphasize capability — not organization
• Incorporate measures and metrics everywhere
• Concentrate on core functions and outsource all other
  

“England Expects That Every Man Will Do His DUTY” Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805

Webpage: http://bfgf.org/Initiative/Leadership/UpcomingEvents/PrinciplesOfLeadership.htm