Principles of Leadership

Field Marshall Montgomery once said, “If I had to boil down the whole matter of leadership into one sentence, it would be this: It is captaincy which counts or leadership in the higher sense together with the power of decision and understanding of human nature; in fact a leader must under and then decide and act”.

First of all, one has to know the meaning of leader. A leader is a person whom fate, luck or sometimes intrigue have put him at the head of a particular branch of affairs. The main purpose here is to seek what it is which makes a man capable of exercising his position at the head of the affairs for the good of his fellows? Leader ship can be good or bad. They are brave and strong people whom one would not follow on any account because one doesn’t know what they stand for and where they are going. Evil leadership always carries with itself the seeds of its own destruction; examples of this are Hitler and Mussolini. Both evil and good leadership need to have courage and will to exercise their leadership and command themselves to others. Leadership can be properly exercised if the people in authority are aware of the following principles:

• Knowing one’s job.
• Know one’s own self.
• Knowing one’s followers and work for their welfare.
• Set a personal example.
• Pull the people out of troubled waters.
• Keep one’s people well informed.
• Train people as a team.