16 principles of success in leadership

16 PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESS IN LEADERSHIP 

It is believed that leadership is influencing the behavior of others. It is also believed that in an organization, firm, group, team, which ever way it comes leadership is involve and the affairs of the team rise and fall on the leadership (either in failure or success). It is important for every leader to know the principles behind making a good and a successful leadership, to help navigate in the right path, in the journey of leadership. These are possible, practiced and proven principles of success in leadership:

1. ERADICATE FEAR
Fear is one of the things that drive away some opportunity of becoming a successful person or leader. It was said by an author that the only antidote to fear is boldness. Leadership is the ability of an individual to move out of his fears and face the reality of life and his team.

"We cannot conquer fear as a leader if we don't master it."

Success is not achieved by someone who have the spirit of fear. To be successful in leadership you must inculcate the spirit of being bold in the face of challenges.

2. DEFINE YOUR SUCCESS
If you will agree with me that the aim of all these principles is to be successful? But you cannot be successful without defining your success.

"A defined success is an achieved success"

Do not be in any way doubtful to achieve your success while leading. The way you defined your success is the way you will achieve it. Defining your success is defining your purpose in life, defining ways to reach your potentials and also defining the seeds that benefit others as a leader in the race of leadership.

3. MASTERMIND ALLIANCE
Alliance is the only way to keep your followers in good shape to become successful.Understanding unity is one of the principles that must be guided and taken to become a successful leader.

"The act of coordinating is unifying"

This principle will bring about connectivity among your follower, then success comes in. The only way a leader can be successful in a team is to put the team in unity and coordinating the affairs in order.  There is no follower that will follow a leader who is not organized, leaders should exhibit the trait of alliance despite the situation they find their self.

4. APPLY FAITH
Faith as we know is the substance of things hope for and evidence of things not seen. I think with this you will understand what we mean by this principle.
There is no successful individual that did not apply faith in his journey to become successful. While growing up I noticed what differentiates two individual aiming at becoming successful, it is not planning or objectives but it is their ability to apply faith into their plans and objectives of becoming successful. So many leaders want to be successful but they lack the ability to apply faith in their set objectives and plans.

"Always apply faith towards your success because it is the evidence of your success."

Principle 4 is very cogent, there is always a time when leaders will need to hope for the best and that time is evidence when success comes.

5. GOING EXTRA MILE
This principle for success in leadership is simply preaching out that nobody is an island of knowledge.
As a leader, if you want to be successful you must diligently seek, inquire, study, investigate, examine, and do lot of researches so as to help you in solving challenges or problems that comes your way.

"It was said by an author that life is all about making research it is the number of researches you make that will determine your experience."

Successful leaders are those who took their time to go extra mile to seek for knowledge, also they are those that ask questions, for them to be more equip as a leader. Becoming successful involves providing answers to various unanswered questions, before we can provide answers to questions we must be equipped. "You cannot give out what you do not have."

6. PERSONAL INITIATIVE
Successful leaders are those with personal positive initiative to revolutionize the mind, situation and environment of others.

Your initiatives are your ideas, how do you make use of them?
This principle is the ability of a leader to create new idea on how things should be done Or put in place for the betterment of the group, team or his or followers. Most unsuccessful leaders failed at this principle why because they depend on others ideas to be successful, they never understand that everybody is created with a unique idea and creativity.

Yes! The life of a leader involves ups and downs but it take great leaders to work with their personal initiative to make their life as a leader stable.

7. POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE
In a simple term, this can be rephrased to be positive intellectual attitude or positive mind attitude.
A positive minded individuals are those that will not really struggle to be successful but things fall in for good for them, but negative minded individuals tends not to achieve anything, when they intend to achieve something they tend to struggle very hard to come out of their negative mindset to become successful. If the heart or mind is not positive in achieving success, then success tend to make a move out of the mind.

What are the kinds of attitude you have towards your goals as a leader?
Your positive mental attitude will determine and go a long way in coming out successful as a leader. Be positive minded towards attaining your goals or the group goals.

"Your positivity in attaining your goals will determine the level at which you will achieve your goals."

8. SELF DISCIPLINE
This is where the spirit and principle of self-leading comes in. The heart of true and successful leadership is successful self-leading. If you cannot lead yourself successfully then there's no place for you in leadership. For self-leading to be successful then it must have passed through vigorous self discipline.

This principle cannot be boiled out of the cogent principles of success in leadership.
As a leader the way you put yourself to be so is the way your follower will put you. Discipline goes a long way in leading, for your follower to respect you!

If you don’t have self-discipline within, then success is just by the way not towards you, because as a leader you need to consciously have ability to control excesses (i.e going beyond limit) in your lifestyle.

9. TEAM WORK
As we all know “team” is a group of people who are involved in the same activity towards achieving a goal.
As a leader you must be able and capable of uniting your followers to be in one accord in a way that you and your follower will not have a divided mind on issues.

Together each of us achieve more should be the team spirit you will pass on to your followers, so that when you are not around and the team spirit is within them then they will be able to achieve more as a team.
As a leader your success in leading group of individuals depends on how you work with your followers to have “team spirit”.

10. CREATE VISION

"Where there is no vision, the people perish" so an author says.

When you hear the word perish in any situation that does not call for success. An organization whose leaders have no vision is doomed to work under the burden of mere tradition.
The vision you have as a leader set you out from other leaders.
As a leader you must create vision i.e. you must create new insight on how your success as a leader needs to be attained.

11. AVOID DISTRACTION
So many leaders miss their success because they are in the burden of self and external distraction and they also fail to understand this principle.

"Success is not achieved under distraction but under a focus and hand working."

This principle is preaching to us all that we should do away and say NO! to divert attention in attaining our success.

12. ACCURATE THINKING
Thinking to solve challenges and problems positively and with time makes success in leadership. Have you for once seat as a leader and ask yourself how can I enhance my thinking faculty to be accurate and timely?

What you need to do is to always see positive things in every situation and also study wide, don’t only concentrate on your field alone.
As an effective leader who wants to be successful your thinking must be timely and accurate because most followers depend whole on the knowledge of the leader.

13. SET EXAMPLES
Always be an example to your follower, do not be that type of leader that will seat and point hands for his followers while giving out assignment to his follower.
Always show an example on how assignment need to be done before appointing assignment.

This principle cannot be boiled out of the characteristics of a leader, Being an example is one of the key trait a leader should possess to actualize success.
Leaders! Your success with your team depends on your; character example, attention to situations example, physical example and so on. The examples you give out goes a long way in producing other effective leaders.

14. BUDGETING TIME AND MONEY
Who says a leader should not budget his or her time and money, then the person should also not do the same, let not forget that there is a saying which says “time is money”.
Therefore as a leader if you are able to budget your time well then your “time” will bring the outcome to be money, when the “money” comes also budget it to give you a return to be “success”.

This little explanation is a chain that must be guided in budgeting, which is
TIME ------------- MONEY -------------- SUCCESS

A budgeted time gives money while budgeted money gives success. This principle must be guided.

15. MAINTAIN SOUND HEALTH
If you have follow all those principles mentioned and you are successful without this principle then you can’t enjoy the success.
It is expected of a leader to enjoy his or her success In good health because health is wealth. Leaders! Your health is very important, never underestimate the important of your health to other principles.

"Success without good health is nothing"

16. HAVE GOD IN YOUR LIFE
This principle as the last principle we must adhere to as a Christian.
it is very cogent for leader to follow  this principle because it makes things easy to do, when you have the overall leader in the universe in your life.

Let me take you to the scripture (bible) in the book of JOHN 13:35 which says “by this shall all men know that ye are my *disciples* if you have love for one another.”
There’s a saying that loving humanity is loving God, these are the principles you must obey under this principle, as a leader your follower and subordinate are the human around you which you must love.

Looking at the scripture closely you will notice a word *disciples*. In a simple term disciple means a person who learn from another or an active follower.
As a leader if you are not a follower of God then your success in leading is not ascertain.
But ask yourself do I know who this God is?
He is the author and finisher of your life. This principle is for us to know who God is in our life, to lead us through this journey of leadership irrespective of the leader you are, you must be a disciple of under God

Life have it principles which must be guided, only those who follow those principles will be successful.